Science News Roundup: New Mars rocket prototype; Black hole rips apart an unfortunate star

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Elon Musk unveils new Mars rocket prototype, expects missions in months

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has unveiled the latest iteration of his space company's newly assembled Starship, outlining a speedy development timeline for the centerpiece vehicle of SpaceX’s quest to launch humans to the moon and Mars. Musk showed a crowd of space enthusiasts and reporters at SpaceX’s rocket development site late on Saturday in the remote village of Boca Chica, Texas, animations of Starship landing on the moon and Mars and predicted that the rocket's first orbital flight could come in the next six months, followed by missions to space with humans aboard the next year.

Caught in the act: a black hole rips apart an unfortunate star

Scientists have captured a view of a colossal black hole violently ripping apart a doomed star, illustrating an extraordinary and chaotic cosmic event from beginning to end for the first time using NASA's planet-hunting telescope. The U.S. space agency's orbiting Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, better known as TESS, revealed the detailed timeline of a star 375 million light-years away warping and spiraling into the unrelenting gravitational pull of a supermassive black hole, researchers said on Thursday.

Also Read: Science News Roundup: Elon Musk unveils new Mars rocket prototype, expects missions in months

(With inputs from agencies.)