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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - December 2018

Dec 2018

Dec 26, 2022

Star "Closest To Sun" Named After Atal Bihari Vajpayee

On the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, which was marked as 'Good Governance Day' across the country, the Aurangabad unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) named a star after the 'Bharat Ratna' recipient.
The distance of the star from Earth is 392.01 light years. It is the closest star to the Sun.
The star with the coordinates 14 05 25.3 -60 28 51.9 was registered in the International Space Registry on December 25, 2022. The star got the name Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji. Registration Number CX16408US," read the International Space Registry certificate.
Vajpayee served as the Prime Minister from May 16, 1996 to June 1, 1996 and again from March 19, 1998 to May 22, 2004.
He also served as India's External Affairs Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Moraji Desai from 1977 to 1979. He passed away at AIIMS hospital in Delhi on August 16, 2018.

Dec 25, 2022

Scientists Discover "Poor Old Heart" of the Milky Way Galaxy

Scientists discovered an ancient galactic core at the centre of the Milky Way, which they are calling as the heart of our galaxy. The cluster of 18,000 stars is from our galaxy's infancy. The researchers used cutting-edge technology, including the most accurate three-dimensional map of the Milky Way ever compiled and neural network that analysed around two million stars. Previous studies had pointed towards this, but it is the first time that scientists have so emphatically announced the discovery of remnants of the past.
The 18,000 stars are from a time when the Milky Way was just a compact collection of proto-galaxies coming together to form a bigger thing.

Dec 23, 2022

NASA Formally Retires Mars InSight Lander after 4-year Mission

NASA formally retired its Mars InSight lander, the first robotic probe specially designed to study the deep interior of a distant world, four years after it arrived on the surface of the red planet (Mars).
Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles determined the mission was over when two consecutive attempts to re-establish radio contact with the lander failed, a sign that InSight's solar-powered batteries had run out of energy.
InSight landed on Mars in late November 2018 with instruments designed to detect planetary seismic rumblings never before measured anywhere but Earth, and its original two-year mission was later extended to four.
From its perch in a vast and relatively flat plain called Elysium Planitia just north of the planet's equator, the lander has helped scientists gain new understanding of Mars' internal structure.
Researchers said InSight's data revealed the thickness of the planet's outer crust, the size and density of its inner core and the structure of the mantle that lies in between.

Dec 22, 2022

Golden Jubilee of Telescope Celebrated in TN's Tirupathur

The Vainu Bappu observatory celebrated the golden jubilee of its Vainu Bappu 40-inch optical telescope at Kavalur in Tirupathur district of Tamil Nadu. It was installed in 1972 and comes with a mirror with a diameter of 102 cm.
The telescope set up by Professor Vainu Bappu has played a significant role in astronomy with major discoveries like the presence of rings around the planet Uranus, a new satellite of Uranus, the presence of an atmosphere around Ganymede which is a satellite of Jupiter.
Several important kinds of research were conducted with the telescope, including the discovery and study of many 'Be Stars', Lithium depletion in giant stars, optical variability in Blazars, and the dynamics of the famous supernova SN 1987A.

Dec 20, 2022

Iran to Launch Two Home-grown Communication Satellites

Iran will launch two home-grown communication satellites by the end of the Iranian calendar year, i.e., by March 2023.
As per reports, in addition to the two communication satellites Nahid 1 and Nahid 2, others are to be launched later. The two satellites are both produced by the Iranian Space Research Centre, with Nahid 1 unveiled in late January 2017.
Nahid 2 is an improved version of the series, designed to be put into an orbit 500 km above the Earth. With a two-year lifespan, it has a three-axis control system and a propulsion system for orbital maneuvers.

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