General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - January 2019

Jan 2019

Feb 24, 2021

Scientists Develop Lead-free Material to Convert Waste Heat to Electricity

Indian scientists have found a new lead-free material which can efficiently convert waste heat to power small home appliances and automobiles.
So far, most of the efficient thermoelectric materials developed by scientists use lead as a major constituent element, thereby restricting their use for mass-market applications.
Scientists from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru, have identified a lead-free material called 'Cadmium doped Silver Antimony Telluride' which can efficiently allow recovery of electricity from 'waste heat', marking a paradigm shift in the thermoelectric puzzle.

Feb 23, 2021

Astronomers Find the Fastest Spinning Black Hole to Date

Six decades after its discovery, the first black hole ever detected is still causing astronomers to scratch their heads. It turns out that the cosmic behemoth at the heart of the Cygnus X-1 system is 50% more massive than previously thought, making it the heaviest stellar-mass black hole ever observed directly.
Based on new observations, an international team of researchers estimates the black hole is 21 times the mass of our sun and spinning faster than any other known black hole. The recalculated weight is causing scientists to rethink how bright stars that turn into black holes evolve, and how fast they shed their skins before they die.

Feb 22, 2021

Chandrayaan-3 Launch Delayed Further to 2022

Chandrayaan-3, India's third mission to Moon, is likely to be launched in 2022, ISRO chief K. Sivan has said.
The COVID-19 lockdown has hit several projects of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) including Chandrayaan-3, which was scheduled to be launched in late 2020, and Gaganyaan, the country's first manned space mission.
Unlike its predecessor, Chandrayaan-3 will not have an orbiter.
Chandrayaan-3 is critical for ISRO as it will demonstrate India's capabilities to make landing for further interplanetary missions.

ISS Launch Honours ''Hidden Figures'' Mathematician Katherine Johnson

A space station supply ship named after the Black NASA mathematician featured in the movie Hidden Figures rocketed into orbit Sunday, the 59th anniversary of John Glenn's historic launch.
Northrop Grumman's Cygnus capsule dubbed the S.S. Katherine Johnson should reach the International Space Station on 22-2-2021following its launch from Virginia's eastern shore.
Johnson died almost exactly a year ago at age 101.
Mrs. Johnson was selected for her hand-written calculations that helped launch the first Americans into space, as well as her accomplishments in breaking glass ceiling after glass ceiling as a Black woman, Frank DeMauro, a Northrop Grumman vice president, said on the eve of lift off. A homework assignment for all of you is to go watch that movie after the Cygnus launch.

Feb 21, 2021

Nicaragua Creates Ministry of Extraterrestrial Space Affairs

Nicaragua has created a new National Ministry for Extraterrestrial Space Affairs, The Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, which is drawing amused reactions on social media in a nation that has been struggling since anti-government protests three years ago.
The agency was approved by 76 legislators in the country's congress, which is dominated by President Daniel Ortega's Sandinista Party. Fifteen opposition legislators abstained.

Feb 19, 2021

NASA's Perseverance Rover in 'Great Shape' after Mars Landing

The American space agency has successfully landed its Perseverance rover in a deep crater near the planet's equator called Jezero.
"The good news is the spacecraft, I think, is in great shape," said Matt Wallace, the mission's deputy project manager.
Engineers at Nasa's mission control in California erupted with joy when the confirmation of touchdown came through.
The six-wheeled vehicle will now spend at least the next two years drilling into the local rocks, looking for evidence of past life.
Jezero is thought to have held a giant lake billions of years ago. And where there's been water, there's the possibility there might also have been life.

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