General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - January 2019

Jan 2019

May 31, 2021

China to Send 3 Male Astronauts for 3-month Stay in its New Space Station

China announced plans to send three male astronauts to its space station next month for a three-month stay, a day after the successful docking of a cargo spacecraft with it, hoping to achieve yet another milestone in its ambitious space programme.
The country launched cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-2, carrying supplies, equipment and propellant which had successfully docked with the space station core module Tianhe.
China, which launched its space station core module Tianhe in Apri, now plans to complete the verification of key technologies and the in-orbit construction of the space station through multiple launches within two years.

May 30, 2021

International Astronomical Union Approves Chinese Names to Identify Areas on Moon

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has approved eight Chinese names for features around the area on the Moon where China's spacecraft Chang'e-5 probe landed last year to collect samples from the lunar surface and return to Earth.
The Chang'e-5 space mission is China's maiden attempt to retrieve materials from an extra-terrestrial body. It was launched on November 24 last year 2020.
It was the first attempt to bring the lunar samples in over 40 years after the US sent astronauts to the Moon to collect samples.
The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved eight names for features on the Moon in the vicinity of the Chang'e-5 landing site: Mons Hua, Mons Heng, Pei Xiu, Shen Kuo, Liu Hui, Song Yingxing, Statio Tianchuan, and Xu Guanqui. For more information, please see the LAC-23 map in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.

OneWeb Successfully Launches 36 more Satellites

Bharti Group backed OneWeb, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications company, confirmed the successful launch of 36 satellites by Arianespace from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. This launch brings OneWeb a step closer to completing its 'Five to 50' ambition and the start of commercial service by the end of the year.
This latest successful launch brings OneWeb's total in-orbit constellation to 218 satellites.
These will form part of OneWeb's 648 LEO satellite fleet that will deliver high-speed, low-latency global connectivity.
There is now only one launch to go until the company has the satellites required to enable its connectivity solution to reach all regions north of 50 degrees latitude by June 2021.
The latest lift-off occurred on May 28. OneWeb's satellites separated from the rocket and were dispensed in nine batches over a period of 3 hours 52 minutes with signal acquisition on all 36 satellites confirmed.

May 29, 2021

DRDO Develops Near-isothermal Forging Technology for Aero-Engines

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) announced a modest step towards achieving the ultimate aeronautical challenge, one that even resource-rich China is struggling to achieve: Developing a jet engine with the thrust to power a fighter in combat.
This technological breakthrough, which involves developing complex titanium and nickel-based alloys that can withstand temperatures of more than 1,000 degrees Celsius, was achieved by the DRDO's premier metallurgical laboratory, the Hyderabad-based Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL).
With this development, India has joined the league of limited global engine developers to have the manufacturing capabilities of such critical aero-engine components.

May 25, 2021

Oldest Spiral Galaxy in the Universe

Astronomers have identified the oldest known spiral galaxy in the universe, which was formed around 12.4 billion years ago, after rediscovering a fuzzy, forgotten photo taken by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).
The new galaxy, named BRI 1335-0417, measures 15,000 light-years across making it a third as big as our spiral-shaped home galaxy, the Milky Way. The galaxy formed around 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang, making it the earliest example of a spiral galaxy. It beats the previous oldest spiral, detected in 2019, by around 1.1 billion years. The oldest known galaxy in existence remains GN-z11, which formed around 400 million years after the Big Bang.
Researchers discovered the ancient galaxy after finding a photo of it in the ALMA archive. To the untrained eye the image may look blurry, but it actually contains a surprising amount of detail for such a distant galaxy.

May 24, 2021

Record-breaking Light has more than a Quadrillion Electron Volts of Energy

Extremely energetic light from space is an unexplained wonder of astrophysics, and now scientists have spotted this light, called gamma ray, at higher energies than ever before.
The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory, LHAASO, spotted more than 530 gamma rays with energies above 0.1 quadrillion electron volts. The highest-energy gamma ray detected was about 1.4 quadrillion electron volts. For comparison, protons in the largest accelerator on Earth, the Large Hadron Collider, reach mere trillions of electron volts. Previously, the most energetic gamma ray known had just under a quadrillion electron volts.
In all, the scientists spotted 12 gamma ray hot spots, hinting that the Milky Way harbors powerful cosmic particle accelerators. In order for gamma rays to reach such energies, electromagnetic fields must first rev up charged particles, namely protons or electrons, to immense speeds. Those particles can then produce energetic gamma rays, for example, when protons interact with other matter in space.

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