General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - December 2018

Dec 2018

May 14, 2020

South Africa's MeerKAT Solves Mystery of 'X-galaxies'

Many galaxies far more active than the Milky Way have enormous twin jets of radio waves extending far into intergalactic space. Normally these go in opposite directions, coming from a massive black hole at the centre of the galaxy. However, a few are more complicated and appear to have four jets forming an 'X' on the sky.
Exquisite new MeerKAT observations of one such galaxy, PKS 2014-55, strongly favor the latter explanation as they show material "turning the corner" as it flows back towards the host galaxy; the results have just been accepted for publication in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
This work was carried out by a team from the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), the (US) National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the University of Pretoria, and Rhodes University.

Astronomers Discover 'One in a Million' Super-Earth

Astronomers at the University of Canterbury (UC) have found a new "one in a million" Super-Earth planet towards the genre of the galaxy.
The planet-hunters' research has been published in The Astronomical Journal, which states that the size and orbit of this planet are comparable to that of Earth.
The newly discovered planet is among only a handful of extra-solar planets that have been detected with both sizes and orbits close to that of Earth.

May 13, 2020

China Launches Two Satellites to Test Space Based Communication Technology

On 12th May 2020, China launches two satellites Xingyun-2 01 and 02 into the orbit by Kuaizhou-1A (KZ-1A) carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwest China, to test the space-based Internet of Things (IoT) communication technology.
The Satellite was developed by Xingyun Satellite Co. to conduct tests on technologies including space-based IoT communications, inter-satellite laser communications and a low-cost commercial satellite platform.
Kuaizhou(KZ-1A) is a low-cost, solid-fuel carrier rocket featuring high orbit precision and a short preparation period.
The Rocket is developed by an affiliated company of Sanjiang Group under the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) used to launch low-orbit small satellites.

May 10, 2020

Brown Dwarf Shows Jupiter Like Cloud Bands

The team of astronomers has discovered that Luhman 16A, the closest brown known dwarf, has been showing the signs of cloud bands. They are similar to those seen on Saturn and Jupiter.
The technique of polarimetry has been used for the first time by the scientists in order to determine the properties of atmospheric clouds that are outside of the exoclouds or solar system.
Brown dwarfs are those objects that are lighter than the stars but heavier than the planets. They typically have the 13 to 80 times the mass of the Jupiter.

May 09, 2020

China Launches Its Most Powerful Rocket Yet

China launched Long March-5B, its largest carrier rocket, into orbit May 5, 2020.
The successful launch comes after two failed launches this year.
China has big plans for the moon and Mars; they'll be launching a Mars lander and rover in July and a lunar mission later this year.

Scientists Found a Seasonal Advancement in 220 Surge-Type Glaciers

Scientists from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), Dehradun have found a seasonal advancement in 220 surge-type glaciers in the Karakoram Range of Ladakh through a detailed assessment of some major surging glaciers of the Karakoram range using satellite images and thermal data.
The scientist carried out a detailed assessment of some major surging glaciers of the Karakoram range using multi-temporal and multi-sensor satellite images including Landsat 8 OLI, ASTER and Sentinel-2, Digital Elevation Models (DEM) and thermal data.

May 08, 2020

JNCASR Scientists Fabricate Energy-Efficient Photodetector for Security Application

Scientists from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology, have fabricated an economical and energy-efficient wafer-scale photodetector (thin slice-based) using gold – silicon interface, for security applications.It could help detect weak scattered light as an indication of unwanted activity.
Photodetectors are the heart of any optoelectronic circuit that can detect light and are employed for a wide variety of applications ranging from controlling automatic lighting in supermarkets to detecting radiation from outer galaxy as well as security-related applications.
However, the material cost and the intricate fabrication processes involved in realizing high-performance detectors make them unaffordable for day to day applications.

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