General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - January 2016

Jan 2016

Dec 22, 2021

Clouds of Venus May Be More Habitable than Previously Thought

Possible lifeforms in the Venusian clouds could be setting off a cascade of chemical reactions that is making the environment much more habitable.
Venus is often called Earth's sister planet because of its similar mass and size to Earth. Yet, owing, in part, to the greenhouse effect from its massive atmosphere dominated by carbon dioxide, Venusian surface temperature is higher than 700 K (427 degrees Celsius, 800 degrees Fahrenheit) — too hot for life of any kind.
The surface of Venus is therefore a complete contrast to Earth's temperate surface and rich surface biosphere.

Hayabusa-2 Sample Reveals New Information about Asteroid Ryugu

An analysis of the Hayabusa-2 sample of material returned to Earth from the carbon-rich, diamond-shaped, near-Earth asteroid Ryugu shows that the material is very dark, reflecting only 2% of light, porous and similar to clay, contains carbonates (a fraction of them enriched in iron) as well as compounds rich in nitrogen and hydrogen.
Ryugu, also known as 1999 JU3, is a near-Earth C-type asteroid. Its name refers to Ryūgū (Dragon Palace), a magical underwater palace in a Japanese folktale.
The asteroid was discovered in May 1999 by astronomers with the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research.
It measures approximately 900 m (0.56 miles) in diameter and orbits the Sun at a distance of 0.96-1.41 astronomical units (AU) once every 474 days.

Dec 21, 2021

Hubble Spots Young Cluster in Large Magellanic Cloud

NASA released an image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the open star cluster NGC 1755.
NGC 1755 is located approximately 160,000 light-years away in the southern constellation of Dorado.
This stellar cluster resides in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite of our Milky Way Galaxy.
NGC 1755 is about 120 light-years across and is approximately 80 million years old.

Juno Records 'Sounds' of Jupiter's Moon Ganymede

The magnetosphere of Ganymede, the Jupiter's largest moon, is a source of electric and magnetic radio emissions, which have been monitored by the Waves instrument onboard NASA's Juno spacecraft.
The 50-second audio track was generated from data collected during Juno's close flyby of Ganymede in June 2021.
At the time of Juno's closest approach to the moon — during the mission's 34th trip around Jupiter — the spacecraft was within 1,038 km (645 miles) of the moon's surface and traveling at a relative velocity of 67,000 kph (41,600 mph).
Juno's Waves instrument, which tunes in to electric and magnetic radio waves, collected the data on those emissions. Their frequency — which range from 10 to 50 kHz — was then shifted into the lower audio range.

Dec 20, 2021

ISRO Signs Six Agreements with Four Countries for Launching Foreign Satellites

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) signed six agreements with four countries for launching foreign satellites during 2021-2023. About 132 million Euros would be earned through the launching of these foreign satellites on a commercial basis. ISRO has launched a total of 342 satellites from 34 countries since 1999.
ISRO through its commercial arm, New Space India Limited (NSIL), has been launching satellites which belong to other countries from Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). Total 124 indigenous satellites have been put into Earth's orbit including 12 student satellites.

SpaceX Launches 52 Starlink Satellites

SpaceX successfully lifted off of 52 Starlink communication satellites into the Earth orbit.
Earlier the US space company launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Later, its first stage successfully landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship.

Dec 18, 2021

ESA's Trace Gas Orbiter Finds Water in Martian Canyon System

Planetary researchers using the Fine Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detector (FREND) instrument onboard European Space Agency's (ESA's) Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) have found evidence for very high content of hydrogen in the soil — the mean water equivalent hydrogen value as large as 40.3 wt% — in Candor Chaos, central part of Valles Marineris.
TGO can look down to one meter below this dusty layer and see what's really going on below Mars' surface, and locate water-rich 'oases' that couldn't be detected with previous instruments.

Dec 16, 2021

NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover Finds its 'Baseline' Rocks

NASA's Mars rover Perseverance identified what are probably the oldest rocks at its crater landing site.
They are volcanic in origin, perhaps the product of some ancient lava flow.
It's an important milestone for the mission because it means that when samples of these rocks are returned to Earth next decade, they can be dated.
This will tighten our understanding of the history of not only the touch-down location but of Mars generally and the wider Solar System beyond.

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