General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - January 2016

Jan 2016

Mar 24, 2022

There are 5,000 Worlds Outside Our Solar System, Some Like Earth

When humans began looking into the sky, the first thought that popped the scientific curiosity was 'are we alone in the universe?' In time, we discovered planets around the Sun, separated by billions of kilometers, forming our solar system. NASA went a step beyond that cosmic boundary and confirmed there are more than 5,000 worlds waiting to be explored in deep space.
With the discovery of 65 new planets, NASA confirmed the presence of over 5000 such planetary bodies around stars beyond our solar system, marking a new milestone in space exploration. The NASA exoplanet archive got 65 new candidates to be studied that could harbour compositions that might support the presence of water, microbes, gases on the surface or even life.

Mar 23, 2022

Newly Proposed Experiment Could Confirm that Information is Fifth State of Matter

Dr. Melvin Vopson, a physicist with the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Portsmouth, has already published research suggesting that information has physical mass and that all elementary particles store information about themselves. Now, the researcher designed an experiment, which if proved correct, means he will have discovered that information is the fifth form of matter, alongside solid, liquid, gas and plasma.

Mar 22, 2022

New Form of Ice Discovered: Ice VIIt

Physicists have observed the transition from a previously known cubic phase, ice VII, to the newly-discovered intermediate, and tetragonal, phase, ice VIIt, before settling into another known phase, ice X.
Water ice is like many other materials in that it can form different solid materials based on variable temperature and pressure conditions, like carbon forming diamond or graphite.
However, water is exceptional in this aspect as there are at least 20 solid forms of ice known to scientists.
The water sample was first squeezed between the tips of two opposite-facing diamonds — freezing into several jumbled ice crystals.
The ice was then subjected to a laser-heating technique that temporarily melted it before it quickly re-formed into a powder-like collection of tiny crystals.
By incrementally raising the pressure, and periodically blasting it with the laser beam, the physicists observed the transition from cubic ice VII to a structure of tetragonal symmetry, ice VIIt.

Mar 21, 2022

New Russian cosmonaut Team Welcomed aboard International Space Station

Three Russian cosmonauts arrived safely at the International Space Station (ISS), docking their Soyuz capsule with the outpost for a mission that continues a 20-year shared Russian-U.S. presence in orbit despite tensions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The arrival of the latest cosmonaut team - warmly welcomed by four Americans, two Russians and a German crewmate already aboard - came a day after the European Space Agency (ESA) announced it had suspended a joint robotic rover mission to Mars with Russia due to the Ukraine conflict.
They will be replacing three current ISS crew members scheduled to fly back to Earth on March 30 - cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov and U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei.

Mar 20, 2022

Webb's Optics Works Successfully, NASA Says

Following the completion of mirror alignment steps, the Webb team expects that the telescope's optical performance will be able to meet or exceed its science goals.
On March 11, 2022, members of the Webb team completed the stage of alignment known as fine phasing.
At this key stage in the commissioning of Webb's Optical Telescope Element, every optical parameter that has been checked and tested is performing at, or above, expectations.
The team also found no critical issues and no measurable contamination or blockages to Webb's optical path.
The telescope is able to successfully gather light from distant objects and deliver it to its instruments without issue.

Mars Mission on Hold Indefinitely

The European Space Agency (ESA) unanimously voted to suspend a joint Mars mission with Russia. The mission was slated to blast off for the Red Planet later this year, but that launch is now on hold indefinitely.
The Council of the ESA said that due to the tragedy that is unfolding in Ukraine since the Russian invasion, the agency could no longer carry out "ongoing cooperation with Roscosmos on the ExoMars rover mission with a launch in 2022," referring to the Russian Space Agency and its role in the second part of the ExoMars program that involves sending a rover and a Russian surface platform to the Red Planet.

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