General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - September 2017

Sep 2017

Apr 04, 2021

First Image of Black Hole Magnetic Field

For the first time, international scientists working on the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) have created an image showing the magnetic field around a black hole. The black hole is located in M87 galaxy.
In 2019, the astronomers working on the EHT captured the first image of the shadow of the same black hole. The shadow of the black hole is a dark region that surrounds the black hole. It is three times the diameter of the black hole. The shadow of the black hole is the point beyond which even light cannot escape.
Messier 87 or M87 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy. It has more than 15,000 globular clusters. It is larger in size as compared to the Milky Way that has only 150 globular clusters. The M87 is one of the brightest radio sources. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781. It is 53 million light years away from the earth.

Explorers Dive to Deepest Known Shipwreck

Explorers recently dove to the deepest known shipwreck in the world.
The team reached the USS Johnston, a U.S. Navy destroyer that sank on Oct. 25, 1944 after an intense battle with the Japanese during World War II. The ship, about 376 feet (115 meters) long and 39 feet (12 m) across at its widest, was sunk during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history.
The wreckage was first discovered in 2019 off the coast of Samar Island in the Philippines Sea. At the time, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) recorded parts of the wreck, but couldn't reach the deepest parts.
The shipwreck lies about 21,180 feet (6,456 m), or the equivalent of about 15 Empire State Buildings deep. Victor Vescovo, a former U.S. Navy commander who funded the new expedition, piloted his submersible, the DSV Limiting Factor, down to the wreck during two, eight-hour dives, the deepest any human or submersible has gone to explore a shipwreck.

Apr 03, 2021

NASA Delays First Flight of Mars Helicopter

NASA is targeting now April 11 for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter to make the historic first attempt at powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet.
The decision to push back the date of the launch from April 8 to April 11 was announced by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

India's Biggest Floating Solar Power Plant to Operate in Telangana

India's biggest floating solar power plant with a capacity of 100 megawatts is expected to become operational in Telangana next month.
The project has been set up by the energy conglomerate National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in the reservoir of its thermal power plant at Ramagundam, Peddapalli district.
The solar photo-voltaic project, spread over 450 acres, will have 4.5 lakh photovoltaic panels and it can be expanded in the future.
According to C.V. Anand, Executive Director, NTPC Southern Region, this will be the largest floating solar plant in the country in a single location as of now.

Apr 02, 2021

Microsoft to End Support for Cortana on Android and iOS Devices

Microsoft has announced to end support for its visual assistant Cortana on both Android and iOS devices.
Microsoft has also removed the Cortana app from both the App Store and Google's Play Store, beginning March 31.
The company first launched Cortana for iOS and Android in December 2015.
The app was designed to connect Windows 10 PCs and mobile phones but failed to gain momentum as Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri won the race.

Mar 31, 2021

Scientists Detect World's Coldest Cloud Hovering over Pacific Ocean

According to a new, a severe thunderstorm cloud that formed over the Pacific Ocean in 2018 reached the coldest temperatures ever recorded.
The very top of the storm cloud reached a bone-chilling minus 167.8 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 111 degrees Celsius), colder than any storm cloud measured before. Thunderstorms and tropical cyclones, a circular low-pressure storm, can reach very high altitudes — up to 11 miles (18 kilometers) from the ground — where the air is much cooler.
But this new temperature is on another level. The top of the storm cloud was about 86 F (30 C) colder than typical storm clouds, according to the statement. The beast of a storm loomed about 249 miles (400 km) south of Nauru in the Southwest Pacific on Dec. 29, 2018, and its clouds' temperature was picked up by an infrared sensor aboard the U.S.'s NOAA-20 satellite orbiting the planet.

Astronomers Find the 'Safest Place' to Live in the Milky Way

Astronomers have searched the entire Milky Way to identify the safest places to live. It turns out, we're in a pretty good spot.
But if the past year has made you feel ready to relocate to another planet, you might want to look toward the center of the galaxy, according to the new research.
The new findings were made by a group of Italian astronomers, who studied locations where powerful cosmic explosions may have killed off life. These explosions, such as supernovas and gamma-ray bursts, spew high-energy particles and radiation that can shred DNA and kill life. By this logic, regions that are more hospitable to life will be the ones without frequent explosions, the astronomers reasoned.

Mar 30, 2021

Facebook and Google Plan Undersea Cables to Connect Southeast Asia and America

Facebook and Google are planning two new undersea internet cables to connect South East Asia to North America.
The project with regional telecoms companies aims to supply faster internet to Singapore and Indonesia.
This comes after Facebook withdrew three projects to connect the US to Hong Kong with similar cables, following government concerns over spying.
The cables require regulatory approval from the national governments involved.
"Named Echo and Bifrost, those will be the first two cables to go through a new diverse route crossing the Java Sea, and they will increase overall subsea capacity in the trans-Pacific by about 70%.
The cables will be the first to directly connect North America to the main parts of Indonesia.
Echo is due to be completed by 2023, in partnership with Google and Indonesian telecoms company XL Axiata. Bifrost is planned to be completed a year later.

Scientists Built a Perfectly Self-replicating Synthetic Cell

Scientists have crafted a single-celled synthetic organism that divides and multiplies just like the real thing. The advancement could someday help researchers to build miniscule computers and tiny drug-producing factories, all out of synthesised cells.
Of course, that future likely won't be realised for many years to come.
"There's just so many ways in which this coming century of biology could potentially change our daily lives for the better," said senior author Elizabeth Strychalski, leader of the Cellular Engineering Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). For example, Strychalski and her colleagues plan to engineer living sensors that can take measurements from their surrounding environments, monitoring the acidity, temperature and oxygen levels nearby.
These sensor cells could also be manufactured to produce specific products — namely medicines — and could potentially be placed inside the human body itself.

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