Science & Technology Current Affairs March 2016

ISR0 Geared Up for Launch of India’s First Solar Mission

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to launch the country’s first solar mission called Aditya Ll. Accordingly, Aditya-Ll satellite will be placed in an orbit about 15 lakh km from the Earth in Lagranian point.
• Aditya-Ll’s primary objective will be to studs the solar corona in different wavebands ISRO is also going to launch 8 Indian and 19 foreign satellites in 2016.
• The countries whose satellites it will he launching include Algeria, Canada. Germany, Indonesia and USA.
• The mission is a joint venture of ISRO and Indian Institute of Astrophysics j Bengaluru), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. (Mumbai) and Inter University Centre for Astronomy ami Astrophysics (Pune). Minister of State In PMO Jilendra Singh gave this Infonnation in the Lnk Sabhamn February 24, 2016.

ISRO to Set-up Satellite Centre in Vietnam

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), at the behest of government of India, is working towards the establishment of a Satellite Tracking & Data Reception Station and Data Processing Facility in Vietnam for ASEAN Member countries.
• The Union Minister of State I/C Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh gave this information as a reply to an unstarred question in Lok Sabha on February 24, 2016.
• The establishment of Satellite Centre in Vietnam is as part of Space Cooperation between India and Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). This facility is intended to acquire and process Indian Remote Sensing Satellite data.
• Under this initiative, all ASEAN member countries, including Vietnam will be allowed to access processed remote sensing data pertaining to their country. Ground facility is designed in such a way that it will not allow Indian data to be accessed and processed by the system.

ISRO Successfully Tested a Powerful Cryogenic Engine to Launch Heavy Satellites

• The high-performance India-made cryogenic engine meant for the hefty GSLV Mk-III rocket (LVM3) successfully underwent a 640-second firing at the ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC) at Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu, on February 19, 2016.
• According to the ISRO Chairman S. Kiran Kumar, it is a fully indigenous cryogenic engine development for GSLV MkHI and a major step towards GSLV Mk-III launch in December, 2016. The engine had already undergone two short duration tests.
• The test was conducted with Mixture Ratio Controller (MRC) in a closed loop mode for the flight duration of 640 seconds. This is the second cryo engine on which the hot tests are being conducted.
• ISRO had first successfully used an indigenously-built cryogenic engine for the GSLV Mk-II rocket on January 5, 2014. But, that engine, designated CE-7.5, is a less powerful version of the CE-20 meant for the bigger GSLV Mk-III.

Japan Launched Mission to Study Black Holes

• The Japanese space agency has successfully launched Astro-H satellite, a new satellite mission in the hunt for black holes. It was launched aboard the H-ILA rocket, which lifted off from the Tahegashima Space Center on February 17, 2016.
• The satellite has four telescopes that will enable the space agency to peer into far off galaxy clusters, providing data on how they formed. It is a joint collaboration between Jaxa, Nasa, and other groups, including the European Space Agency.
• The satellite named ‘Hitomi’ will enter Earth’s orbit at an estimated altitude 360 miles far above the International Space Station’s orbit of around 250 miles. The satellite was launched aboard the H-IIA rocket with three smaller satellites, Horyu-4 and ChubuSat 2 and 3.
• In the satellite’s expected three-year mission, Astro-H will capture data on black holes and other ‘high energy’ bodies, including supernovas, by detecting the radiation they churn out into the cosmos.

First Detection of a Super-Earth Exoplanet’s Atmosphere

• Using observations made with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and new analysis techniques, the exoplanet 55 Cancri e is revealed to have a dry atmosphere without any indications of water vapour.
• The results published in the Astrophysical Journal in the month of February, 2016, indicate that the atmosphere consists mainly of hydrogen and helium but no water vapour. The planet has managed to cling on to a significant amount of hydrogen and helium from the nebula from which it originally formed.
• The international team, led by scientists from University College London (UCL), took observations of the nearby exoplanet 55 Cancri e, a super-Earth with a mass of eight Earth-masses. It is located in the planetary system of 55 Cancri, a star about 40 light-years from Earth.

Scientists Discover Gravitational Waves for First Time

• The scientists announced on February 11, 2016 about the first direct detection of gravitational waves i.e., ripples in the fabric of space-time. The waves came from two black holes circling each other, closer and closer, until they finally collided.
• The recently upgraded Large Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) captured the signal on September 14, 2015. This detection gives humanity the ability to see the universe in a totally new way whose existence was first proposed by Albert Einstein, in 1916.
• LIGO is particularly sensitive to gravitational waves that come from violent cosmic events, such as two massive ‘objects colliding or a star exploding. Gravitational waves have the potential to show scientists totally new features of cosmic objects.

NASA Released 360° Video of the Martian Surface

• NASA’s car-sized rover Curiosity, which has been exploring the parts of the red planet Mars since 2012, has sent a 360° video of the surface of Mars on February 8, 2016. NASA has already spotted a structure that looks just like the world famous Angkor Wat Temple in Cambodia.
• The video has been made by the space agency’s Jet Propulsion laboratory by stitching various images sent by the rover which have been taken on December 18, 2015. The Images were taken on the 1197th sol i.e., a Martian day of its mission.
• The rover has 17 cameras in total, which are used for navigation, hazard avoidance and scientific analysis. This time it shows downwind face of the Namib Dune, some 23 feet away front the camera and rising up about 16 feet.

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