General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - December 2017

Dec 2017

Jan 21, 2021

NASA Mission Discovers 10 Billion-year-old Exoplanet 50% Larger than Our Own

NASA's TESS mission (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) has discovered a hot and rocky planet that is about 50 per cent larger than Earth and has three times the mass but surprisingly, the same density as Earth. Referred to as an exoplanet owing to its location outside our solar system, it has been named TOI-561b.
The discovery of this exoplanet was revealed in a study accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal. This study was made public during the 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, which was held virtually owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Interestingly, the exoplanet TOI-561b which has more mass but the same density as Earth takes only less than half of 24 hours to complete one orbit around its host star. Owing to its features, the exoplanet is also being referred to as a 'Super-Earth'.

Astronomers Discover Earliest Supermassive Black Hole and Quasar in the Universe

The most distant quasar known has been discovered. The quasar, observed just 670 million years after the Big Bang, is 1000 times more luminous than the Milky Way.
It is powered by the earliest known supermassive black hole, which weighs in at more than 1.6 billion times the mass of the Sun. Seen more than 13 billion years ago, this fully formed distant quasar is also the earliest yet discovered, providing astronomers with insight into the formation of massive galaxies in the early Universe.
The result was released at the January 2021 meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
Quasars, which are powered by the feeding frenzies of colossal supermassive black holes, are the most energetic objects in the Universe.

Jan 20, 2021

Italy's Eni Eyes Foray into Indian Clean Energy Space

Underpinning the growing focus of global super energy majors on India' green economy, Italy's Eni SpA is exploring the feasibility of participating in the world's largest clean energy programme.
Eni is eyeing gigawatt (GW)-scale investments in India and plans to reach 55GW installed capacity globally by 2050. The Rome-headquartered firm is studying the build quality of projects, players' profiles, and the market in India.
Oil giants are aiming to diversify and invest in India's clean energy programme as the conventional hydrocarbon space undergoes technological disruptions. With a focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment, marquee global oil and gas firms, such as French energy giant Total SA, and Malaysia's state-run oil and gas company Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas, have already invested in India. Thailand's PTT Group is looking to acquire a stake in ReNew Power from Goldman Sachs Group.

Jan 18, 2021

NASA's Boeing Moon Rocket Cuts Short 'Once-in-a-Generation' Ground Test

NASA's deep space exploration rocket built by Boeing briefly ignited all four engines of its behemoth core stage for the first time, cutting short a crucial test to advance a years-delayed U.S. government program to return humans to the moon in the next few years.
Mounted in a test facility at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, the Space Launch System's (SLS) 212-foot tall core stage roared to life at 4:27 p.m. local time (2227 GMT) for just over a minute — well short of the roughly four minutes engineers needed to stay on track for the rocket's first launch in November this year.
The engine test, the last leg of NASA's nearly year-long "Green Run" test campaign, was a vital step for the space agency and its top SLS contractor Boeing before a debut unmanned launch later this year under NASA's Artemis program, the Trump administration's push to return U.S. astronauts to the moon by 2024.

Branson's Virgin Rocket Takes Satellites to Orbit

Sir Richard Branson's rocket company Virgin Orbit has succeeded in putting its first satellites in space.
Ten payloads in total were lofted on the same rocket, which was launched from under the wing of one of the entrepreneur's old 747 jumbos.
Sir Richard is hoping to tap into what is a growing market for small, lower-cost satellites.
By using a jet plane as the launch platform, he can theoretically send up spacecraft from anywhere in the world.
In reality, of course, his Virgin Orbit system has to be licensed in the locality where it is used, which at the moment is solely California. But there are well-advanced plans to bring the 747 and its rockets to Cornwall in south-west England, for example.

Jan 17, 2021

Indigenously Built, First Pair of Weather Radars Installed over Himalayas

Union Minister for Earth Sciences Dr Harsh Vardhan commissioned two of the ten indigenously built Doppler weather radars which will closely monitor the weather changes over the Himalayas.
Services of X-band Doppler radars at Mukteshwar in Uttarakhand and Kufri in Himachal Pradesh were virtually inaugurated on the 146th foundation day of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Covering the central and western Himalayas, these dual polarised radars will gather atmospheric variations and pick signals of extreme weather events, IMD officials said. During the month ahead, the Met department has planned to install ten radars over the Himalayas.

Jan 16, 2021

CollabCAD Software Launched

The National Informatics centre and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) jointly launched the CollabCAD software.
The CollabCAD software provides engineering solution for students and Faculty of Engineering Graphics curriculum. It aims to provide a platform to students across the country to create and modify digital designs.
The aim is to provide a good platform to the students of Atal tinkering labs across the country. With the software the students of Atal tinkering labs will be able to create and modify 3D designs with free flow of creativity. It will enable students to create data across the network and access the same design data for storage and visualisation.
The software runs on zone Linux and OS platform. It is available in both standalone and client servant mode.

UK Industry Bids Farewell to EU's Galileo System

The UK's final big industrial contribution to the EU's Galileo sat-nav system has been delivered.
European Space Agency officials confirmed that Surrey Satellite Technology Limited of Guildford has shipped the last of the navigation payloads it was assembling.
These payloads are the "brains" of the spacecraft and generate the signals the Galileo network sends down to Earth.
Britain left the project on its departure from the EU.
"Third country" status means home companies can no longer be involved in the way they once were. Galileo is regarded by the Union as a security programme and only firms in its 27 member states can take on sensitive work - such as payload integration.

Share on

TCY Analytics (View Subscription Plans)

Subscribe to GK Updates

I want to receive

GK Tags

August GK, July GK, June GK, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, ENVIRONMENT, BUSINESS AND ECONOMY, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, SPORTS, NATIONAL AFFAIRS, DEFENCE, PERSONS IN NEWS, DAYS AND EVENTS, AWARDS AND HONOURS, GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND SCHEMES, GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION, ART AND CULTURE, BOOKS AND AUTHORS, TOURISM AND HOTEL INDUSTRY AWARENESS, ART AND CULTURE, LAW AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Start Discussion

On any topic

Take Tests

Compiled from GK updates

Login

Sign Up

Forgot Password

Download TCY App

Unlock All Services And Enjoy The Premium Benefits

US$ 10

US$ 13

US$ 15

US$ 17

US$ 19

US$ 20

US$ 21

US$ 22

US$ 23

US$ 24

US$ 25

US$ 26