General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - August 2016

Aug 2016

Apr 10, 2023

Cabinet approves LIGO-India, gravitational-wave detector to be built in Maharashtra

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a project to build an advanced gravitational-wave detector in Maharashtra at an estimated cost of Rs 2,600 crore. The facility's construction is expected to be completed by 2030.
By building it, "Indian S&T will leap-frog in a number of cutting-edge frontiers of great national relevance, in particular quantum-sensing and metrology," Tarun Souradeep, director of the Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru, and former spokesperson (science) of LIGO-India,
According to Union minister Jitendra Singh, it will come up in Hingoli district, where land has been acquired to the tune of 174 acres.
The observatory will be the third of its kind, made to the exact specifications of the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatories (LIGO), in Louisiana and Washington in the U.S. LIGO-India will work in tandem with them.
The project is a collaboration between a consortium of Indian research institutions and the U.S. observatories, plus several international partners.
LIGO-India will be built by the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Science and Technology, with a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. National Science Foundation and several national and international research institutions. The U.S. will provide key components for the lab worth around Rs 560 crore.

Apr 09, 2023

NASA's James Webb Telescope Spots Four Most Distant Galaxies ever Observed

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) found the four most distant galaxies ever seen, one of which formed only 320 million years after the Big Bang, when the cosmos was still in its infancy.
The galaxies date from 300 to 500 million years after the Big Bang, more than 13 billion years ago, when the universe was just two percent of its current age.
That means the galaxies are from what is called "the epoch of reionization," a period when the first stars are believed to have emerged. The epoch came directly after the cosmic dark ages brought about by the Big Bang.

Apr 05, 2023

Kenya to Launch its First Earth Observation Satellite

Kenya will launch its first-ever earth observation satellite on April 10, marking a significant milestone in the country's space exploration efforts.
Taifa-1 is scheduled to be launched on April 10 aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Taifa-1 has been fully designed and developed by a team of Kenyan engineers.

Apr 04, 2023

Elon Musk Replaces Twitter's Blue Bird Logo with 'Doge' Meme

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk took a major step and replaced the ages-old Twitter Blue Bird logo. Instead of the blue bird, one can now see the infamous 'Doge' meme, of the Dogecoin crypto currency as the icon/logo of the social media platform.
Elon Musk has been making a lot of changes at the social media giant since he took over the company last October. Recently, Twitter also announced that as of April 1, the company will end its old verified program, meaning that users will have to pay $8 per month for the coveted blue checkmarks.

NASA's 1st Moon Crew in 50 Years Includes 1 Woman, 3 Men

NASA named the four astronauts who will fly to the moon by the end of next year (2024), including one woman and three men.
The three Americans and one Canadian were introduced during a ceremony in Houston, home to the nation's astronauts as well as Mission Control.
They will not land or even go into lunar orbit, but rather fly around the moon and head straight back to Earth, a prelude to a lunar landing by two others a year later.
The mission's commander, Reid Wiseman, would be joined by Victor Glover, an African American naval aviator; Christina Koch, who holds the world record for the longest spaceflight by a woman; and Canada's Jeremy Hansen.
All are space veterans except Hansen.

Apr 03, 2023

NASA Appoints Indian-origin Amit Kshatriya to Head 'Moon to Mars' Programme

Amit Kshatriya, a decorated Indian-American software and robotics engineer was appointed as the first head of NASA's newly-established Moon to Mars Programme that will help the agency ensure a long-term lunar presence needed to prepare for humanity's next giant leap to the Red Planet.
Kshatriya will serve as NASA's first head of the office.
The new office aims to carry out the agency's human exploration activities on the Moon and Mars for the benefit of humanity.

Indian-Origin Scientist Creates World's First Energy-Saving Paint

A brand-new heat-repelling paint that is available in any colour and is expected to last for centuries was developed by an Indian-origin scientist. Moreover, it is the world's lightest paint.
Professor Debashis Chanda of the University of Central Florida's NanoScience Technology Centre used the inspiration of butterflies to develop the first environmentally sound, mass-produced, and multicoloured substitute for pigment-based colourants, which can aid in energy-saving initiatives and counteract global warming.

ISRO Conducts Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully conducted the autonomous test landing mission of the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) in Karnataka's Chitradurga.
Along with ISRO, Indian Air Force (IAF), Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC), Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), and Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE) contributed to this test.

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