Science News Roundup: SpaceX launches South Korea's second spy satellite amid race with North; UK Nobel Prize-winning physicist Peter Higgs dies aged 94 and more

Following is a summary of current science news briefs. Explainer-Total solar eclipse 2024: When is it and what to expect? The moon will blot out the sun for millions of people in North America along a path crossing from Mexico into the United States and then Canada in a total solar eclipse occurring on Monday, April 8.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Explainer-Total solar eclipse 2024: When is it and what to expect?

The moon will blot out the sun for millions of people in North America along a path crossing from Mexico into the United States and then Canada in a total solar eclipse occurring on Monday, April 8. Here is an explanation of the solar eclipse, where it will be visible and what to expect.

UK Nobel Prize-winning physicist Peter Higgs dies aged 94

Physicist Peter Higgs, whose theory of an undetected particle in the universe changed science and was vindicated by a Nobel prize-winning discovery half a century later, has died aged 94, the University of Edinburgh said on Tuesday. The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 at the CERN research centre near Geneva was widely hailed as the biggest advance in knowledge about the cosmos for over 30 years, and pointed physics towards ideas that were once science fiction.

Total solar eclipse: North Americans celebrate with cheers, music and matrimony

Throngs of skywatchers across North America gazed upward at a blackened sun in the midday dusk on Monday, celebrating with cheers, music and matrimony the first total solar eclipse to darken the continent in seven years. From a Mexican beach resort close to where the eclipse made landfall to the banks of the Ohio River and farther north beyond the roaring cascades of Niagara Falls at the U.S.-Canadian border, spellbound crowds reacted to the sight of "totality" with jaw-dropping expressions of awe and joy.

SpaceX launches South Korea's second spy satellite amid race with North

South Korea's defence ministry said on Monday the country's second homegrown spy satellite had entered orbit after its launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch, which comes after Seoul's first spy satellite was put into orbit from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base in December, was livestreamed on social media platforms X and YouTube.

Russia aborts launch of Angara-A5 space rocket from Vostochny Cosmodrome

A technical malfunction forced Russia on Tuesday to abort the test launch of the Angara-A5 rocket from its Vostochny Cosmodrome minutes before it was scheduled to lift off. The decision was made due a malfunction of the pressurising system of the oxidiser tank, the RIA news agency cited Russian Space chief Yuri Borisov as saying.

(With inputs from agencies.)