Here are today’s most important updates from the realm of Science and Space.
The body mass index (BMI) of a child at the age of six is the best predictor of whether they will be obese in adulthood, a new study has claimed. Academics from the Netherlands said the first five years were critical in preventing weight gain in later years. The first five years of a child's life provide a fantastic opportunity to intervene and prevent them experiencing overweight and obesity in the years to come. The researchers highlighted that if a child with a higher BMI reached a healthy weight by the age of six, they were no longer at risk. The research also mentioned that ultra-processed foods such as packaged snacks and fizzy drinks, coupled with a sedentary lifestyle and excessive screen time, contributed to unhealthy weight in individuals.
India will launch an earth observation satellite on Sunday (May 18, 2025) from the spaceport at Sriharikota, boosting its surveillance capabilities from space in all weather conditions. Equipped with a C-band synthetic aperture radar, EOS-09 will be capable of capturing high-resolution images of the Earth's surface under all weather conditions, day or night. This all-weather, round-the-clock imaging is vital for applications, ranging from agriculture and forestry monitoring to disaster management, urban planning, and national security. EOS-09 (RISAT-1B) is a follow-on to the RISAT-1 satellite with similar configuration. It complements and supplements data from the Resourcesat, Cartosat and RISAT-2B Series satellites.
A new study now reveals new details about the crust on Venus, which include some surprises about the geology of Earth’s hotter twin. The study proposes a crust metamorphism process based on rock density and melting cycles underway on the planet. This contrasts expectations that the outermost layer of Venus’ crust would grow thicker and thicker over time given its apparent lack of forces that would drive the crust back into the planet’s interior. Venus has a crust that is all one piece, with no evidence of subduction caused by plate tectonics like on Earth.This finding is an important step toward understanding geological processes and the evolution of the planet.
An analysis of 28 American cities has revealed that all 28 of them are sinking every year and the reason is over extraction of groundwater from the surface. The urban areas are sinking by 2 to 10 millimetres per year, according to new research from Virginia Tech that used the latest satellite imagery to assess the major changes unfolding under the feet. The latent nature of this risk means that infrastructure can be silently compromised over time with damage only becoming evident when it is severe or potentially catastrophic. This risk is often exacerbated in rapidly expanding urban centers, as per the research. The study revealed that the sinking was primarily due to the compounding effect of shifts in weather patterns with urban population and socioeconomic growth.
