Washington, September 26: A line of massive boulders on the western shore of Tonga may be evidence of the world’s largest tsunami debris, which is up to 9 meters (30 feet) high and weighing up to 1.6 million kilograms (3.5 million pounds).

The seven house-sized coral boulders were likely flung ashore by a wave rivaling the 1883 Krakatau tsunami, which is estimated to have towered 35 meters (115 feet) high.

Currently, they are located 100 to 400 meters (300 to 1,300 feet) from the coast.

“These could be the largest boulders displaced by a tsunami, worldwide,” said Matthew Hornbach of the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics. “Krakatau’s tsunami was probably not a one-off event,” he added.

Washington, September 26 : For people who want their names to float around in space, NASA has created a website that would enable anyone to place their name on the agency’s Glory satellite.

The “Send Your Name Around the Earth” Web site enables everyone to take part in the science mission and place their names in orbit for years to come.

The Web site, where participants can submit their information, is located at: http://polls.nasa.gov/utilities/sendtospace/jsp/sendName.jsp

Washington, September 26 : NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed hundreds of small fractures exposed on the Martian surface that billions of years ago directed flows of water through underground Martian sandstone.

Researchers used images from the spacecraft’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, camera, to detect the fractures.

Images of layered rock deposits at equatorial Martian sites show the clusters of fractures to be a type called deformation bands, caused by stresses below the surface in granular or porous bedrock.

London, September 26: Scientists have warned that the combined force of climate change, pollution, disease, habitat loss and degradation, could wipeout amphibians by 2050.

According to a report in the Times, the team of scientists, from the Zoological Society of London, has also said that half of Europe’s amphibian species could be wiped out in the next 40 years.

After assessing the amphibians’ prospects, they predicted that more than 50 per cent of the 81 species native to Europe faced extinction by 2050.

Washington, Sept 26 : It’s not the size of the letters, but spacing between them, which makes it hard for us to read a book from a distance, according to New York University neuroscientists.

The same applies to objects, including letters, animals, and furniture, which can only be recognized only if they are separated by enough space, the "critical spacing." Objects closer than that spacing are "crowded" and cannot be identified.

The critical spacing is a key parameter in the brain''s cortical architecture underlying object recognition, said authors, NYU Professor of Psychology and Neural Science Denis Pelli and Katharine Tillman, an undergraduate researcher in NYU''s College of Arts and Science.

London, September 26 : A sophisticated X-ray camera made by scientists and engineers from the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is set to launch into space on October 22nd aboard the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft – India’s first mission to the Moon.

The camera - C1XS – was designed and built at STFC Space Science and Technology Department in the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

It is an X-Ray Spectrometer that will measure X-rays to map the surface composition of the Moon which will help scientists to understand its origin and evolution, as well as quantifying the mineral resources that exist there.

C1XS was developed in conjunction with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).