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Jupiter Becomes the Planet with Most Moons

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Astronomers recently discovered 12 new moons around Jupiter, increasing the total number of moons it has to 92 – the largest number any planet on our solar system has (Saturn has 83 moons).

About 

  • The moons were discovered using telescopes in Hawaii and Chile in 2021 and 2022 and have been added to a list kept by the International Astronomical Union‘s Minor Planet Centre (size of these moons ranges from 1-3 kms).
  • Upcoming missions to Jupiter include – (a) ESA’s spacecraft to Jupiter to study the planet and some of its biggest, icy moons (in 2023), (b) NASA’s Europa Clipper to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa which could harbour an ocean beneath its frozen crust (in 2024). NASA earlier launched Mission Lucy to explore the Jupiter Trojan Asteroids.
  • Apart from Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus has 27 confirmed moons, Neptune 14, Mars 2 and Earth has 1 moon while Venus and Mercury have no moons.


SpaceX Starship

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The chief of SpaceX recently said that SpaceX may attempt a Starship rocket system launch in March.

About SpaceX Starship:

  • Starship is a super-heavy-lift rocket and spacecraft built to carry immense cargo and numerous astronauts into deep space.
  • Starship will be the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, with the ability to carry up to 150 metric tonnes to Earth orbit reusable and up to 250 metric tonnes expendable.
  • Starship is the collective name for a two-component system consisting of the Starship spacecraft (which carries the crew and cargo) and the Super Heavy rocket.
  • The rocket is made of stainless steel and runs on liquid methane. 
  • It is 164 feet (50 meters) tall and has a diameter of nine meters.
  • Starship is intended to evolve into a fully reusable launch and landing system.
  • The Starship launch system is powered by the Raptor engine, a reusable methalox staged-combustion engine.
  • It is built by SpaceX, which is an American spacecraft manufacturer.


Wolf 1069 b

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Astronomers have recently discovered Wolf 1069 b, an Earth-mass exoplanet that could potentially be habitable.

About Wolf 1069 b:

  • It is a potentially habitable exoplanet 31 light-years away from Earth. 
  • It orbits a red dwarf star, Wolf 1069.
  • Wolf 1069 b lies within its star’s habitable zone.
  • Wolf 1069 b receives approximately 65% of the solar radiance that Earth receives.
  • Wolf 1069 b is potentially a rocky world, at about 26 the mass of Earth and 1.08 the size.
  • Its surface is cool, which makes it appear orange.
  • Wolf 1069 b is tidally locked to its parent star, meaning one side is always in daylight, and the opposite side is always in darkness.
  • It orbits the star within 15.6 days at a distance equivalent to one-15th of the separation between the Earth and the sun.

What is a dwarf star?

  • A dwarf star is any star of average or low luminosity, mass, and size.
  • The colour of dwarf stars can range from blue to red, the corresponding temperature varying from high (above 10,000 K) to low (a few thousand K).


North Star

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Recently, the Vice President of India said Parliament is the “North Star” of democracy

About North Star:

  • The North Star is also known as Pole Star.
  • It is a very bright star — around 2,500 times more luminous than the Sun.
  • It is part of the constellation Ursa Minor and is around 323 light years away from the Earth.
  • The North star is less than 1° away from the north celestial pole, almost in direct line with the Earth’s rotational axis.
  • It appears to sit motionless in the northern sky, with all the other stars appearing to rotate around it.
  • Its position and brightness have allowed humans to use it for navigation since late antiquity.
  • The elevation of the star above the horizon gives the approximate latitude of the observer.
  • Upon crossing the equator to the south, however, the North Star is lost over the horizon and hence stops being a useful navigational aid.

What is Ursa Minor?

  • It is one of the 48 constellations identified by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the second century.
  • It is also called the Little Bear.


Hubble Space Telescope

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Recently, astronomers used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to directly measure the mass of a single, isolated white dwarf star.

 

Why in news?

  • The Hubble Space Telescope measured the mass of a white dwarf designated LAWD 37, which burned out over 1 billion years ago.
  • In the work, scientists used a phenomenon called gravitational lensing.

 What is Gravitational lensing?

  • It was first predicted in 1915 by Albert Einsteinwhich involves the bending of light by objects of great mass.
  • A gravitational lens can occur when a huge amount of matter, like a cluster of galaxies, creates a gravitational field that distorts and magnifies the light from distant galaxies that are behind it but in the same line of sight. 
  • The effect allows researchers to study the details of early galaxies too far away to be seen otherwise with even the most powerful space telescopes. 

Key facts about the Hubble telescope

  • It is named in honour of the trailblazing astronomer Edwin Hubble which was launched by the
  • It is a large, space-based observatory, which has revolutionized astronomy since its launch and deployment by the space shuttle Discovery in 1990.
  • Hubble’s domain extends from the ultraviolet through the visible (which our eyes see) and into the near infrared.
  • It is one of NASA’s Great Observatories Programs. The other missions in the program include the visible-light Spitzer Space Telescope, Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO), and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO).


Medium-density amorphous ice

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Recently, scientists have fashioned a previously unknown form of ice – one that might exist on our solar system’s icy moons.

 

About Medium-density amorphous ice:

  • The researchers employed a process called ball milling to vigorously shake ordinary ice together with steel balls in a container cooled to minus-328 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-200 degrees Celsius).
  • This yielded what they called “medium-density amorphous ice,” or MDA, which looked like a fine white powder.

What is amorphous ice?

  • Amorphous ice consists of water molecules arranged in a disordered state, with no large-scale regularity to their orientations or positions.
  • This kind of ice is most often found in space.
  • Scientists have identified 20 different forms of crystalline ice and three forms of amorphous ice – one low density (discovered in the 1930s), one high density (discovered in the 1980s), and the new one in between. 


Muons

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As per a new study, researchers are examining the fortress wall of Xi’an, an ancient city in China, by using tiny outer space particles called muons that can penetrate hundreds of metres of stone surfaces.

 

Why in news?

  • To analyse 14 kilometres long rampart, researchers deployed a technique called muon tomography or muography, which uses muons to generate three-dimensional images of such large structures.

What are Muons?

  • Muons are subatomic particles raining from space.
  • The muon was discovered as a constituent of cosmic-ray particle “showers” in 1936 by the American physicists Carl D. Andersonand Seth Neddermeyer.
  • They are created when the particles in Earth’s atmosphere collide with cosmic rays — clusters of high-energy particles that move through space at just below the speed of light.
  • It has two forms, the negatively charged muon and its positively charged antiparticle.
  • These particles resemble electrons but are 207 times as massive. Therefore, they are sometimes called “fat electrons”.
  • Muons are so heavy, they can travel through hundreds of metres of rock or other matter before getting absorbed or decaying into electrons and neutrinos
  • They are highly unstable and exist for just 2.2 microseconds.

What is muon tomography?

  • Although muon tomography was first used in the 1960s, it has only recently gained widespread use among researchers, particularly in archaeology.
  • It is conceptually similar to X-ray but capable of scanning much larger and wider structures, owing to the penetration power of muons.
  • All that is required is to place a muon detector underneath, within, or near the object of interest.
  • The detector then tracks the number of muons going through the object from different directions, to form a three-dimensional image.
  • The image is then compared with a muon image of the “free sky.” This indicates how many muons have been blocked. The final picture is essentially a shadow of the object, in the light of cosmic muons.”


Old coronavirus variants found in Deer

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According to new research, Delta became the dominant variant in humans, Alpha and Gamma continued to circulate in white-tailed deer.

About the study:

  • The findings, which are based on samples collected through December 2021, provide more evidence that deer could be a reservoir of the virus and a potential source of future variants, which could spill back into human populations.
  • The scale of the risk that infected deer pose to humans remains unclear.
  • Genetic sequencing revealed that three different variants of concern — Alpha, Gamma and Delta — were all present in deer during the 2021 season


Juno Probe

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Recently, NASA’s Juno spacecraft experienced a glitch that caused it to lose over 200 images taken during a Jupiter flyby.

About the Juno Probe:

  • JUNO is an acronym for Jupiter Near-polar Orbiter
  • It was launched in 2011, the Juno spacecraft initially embarked on a 5-year journey to the largest planet in our solar system.
  • Towards the end of its primary mission, the spacecraft’s objectives evolved, and it transitioned into a full Jupiter system explorer with flybys of Jovian moons.
  • Goal: Understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter, look for a solid planetary core, map the magnetic field, measure water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere, and observe auroras.

Key facts about the Jupiter

  • Jupiter, a gas giant planet covered in thick red, brown, yellow and white clouds, boasts a diameter of about 89,000 miles.
  • Interior models based on Juno data indicated Jupiter has a large “diluted” core representing about 5 to 15 % of the planet’s mass comprised of rocky and icy material unexpectedly mixed with light elements like hydrogen and helium.
  • It has three moons Ganymede, Europa 


Macrosomia

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Recently, a mother in Brazil gave birth to a two-foot-tall baby weighing 16lb (7.3kg).

About Macrosomia:

  • The term used to describe giant babies is macrosomia (Greek for the large body). Any baby that weighs more than 4kg, regardless of its gestational age, is said to have macrosomia.

 What are the factors that cause Macrosomia?

  • The mother’s body weight: Obese mothers are more likely to have children with Macrosomia.
  • Mothers with gestational diabetes:High blood sugar that arises during pregnancy, this increases to between 15 per cent and 45 per cent of births.
  • Being older when pregnant also increases the odds of having a baby with macrosomia.
  • Overdue pregnancies: Those that run past the typical 40 weeks – also increase the risk of a baby being macrosomic, particularly at 42 weeks or more.
  • Previous pregnancies increase the risk of macrosomia because, with each successive pregnancy, birth weight increases.  

Impacts of Macrosomic baby

  • Shoulder dystocia– which may cause permanent harm to shoulders of a baby. While the baby is stuck, it cannot breathe and the umbilical cord may be squeezed.
  • Mothers are also at increased risk of vaginal tears during delivery, which then increases the risk of postpartum haemorrhage (bleeding)


Caesium-137

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Recently, a Caesium-137 capsule lost in transit was discovered in Western Australia using specialised detection equipment that detected radiation.

What is Caesium?

  • Caesium is a soft, flexible, silvery-white metal.
  • It becomes liquid near room temperature, but easily bonds with chlorides to create a crystalline powder.

Key facts about the Caesium-137

  • It is the most common radioactive form of caesium.
  • It is produced by nuclear fission which is also one of the byproducts of nuclear fission processes in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons testing.
  • This radioactive metal has a half-life of 30.05 years – meaning in three decades it will have half of its original activity.
  • Caesium-137 can cause serious illness when touched, leading to burns and acute radiation sickness.
  • External exposure can increase the risk of cancer because of the presence of high-energy beta-gamma radiation. Prolonged exposure can even cause death.
  • Internal exposure to it through ingestion or inhalation allows the radioactive material to be distributed in the soft tissues, especially muscle tissue, which increases cancer risk.


FAIRY Robots

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Tampere University researchers recently developed a Dandelion seed-inspired flying robot that could potentially replace pollinators.

About FAIRY Robots:

  • The FAIRY robot, which is based on the Light Responsive Materials Assembly, is a tiny lightweight robot that floats in the wind.
  • Surprisingly, the robot can be controlled by a light source like a laser beam or an LED.
  • Researchers could use light to change the shape of the robot, allowing it to adapt to the direction of the wind.
  • A soft actuator made of light-responsive liquid crystalline elastomer powers the polymer assembly robot inspired by dandelion seeds.
  • As a result, the researchers were able to stimulate the actuator’s bristles to open or close by using visible light


Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies – iCET

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National Security Advisor of India and his American counterpart to launch the US-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET).

  • The US-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) is a platform to accelerate strategic convergence and policy alignment.
  • iCET aims to elevate and expand the strategic technology partnership and defence industrial cooperation between the 2 countries.
  • This initiative was unveiled by President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 2022 Quad Leaders’ Summit in Tokyo.
  • The iCET will be spearheaded by the National Security Council of both the United States and India.
  • The iCET is expected to remove barriers in technology transfers and co-production in the areas of critical and emerging technologies

The next iCET meeting will take place in New Delhi in late 2023.

  • They also signed a new Implementation Arrangement for a Research Agency Partnership between the National Science Foundation and Indian science agencies.
  • It helps to expand collaboration in a wide range of areas and to build a robust innovation ecosystem between the 2 countries.


NASA’s Perseverance Rover

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NASA’s Perseverance rover recently completed the first “sample depot on another world” by dropping the tenth and final sample tube.

Why in News:

  • The tube will be part of a depot that will be considered for the return to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return Campaign.

About Perseverance rover:

  • It is robotic explorer to land on Mars as part of NASA’s ongoing Mars 2020 Mission.
  • Main Job:Seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for possible return to Earth.
  • The rover will collect samples of rock and soil, encase them in tubes, and leave them on the planet’s surface to be returned to Earth at a future date.
  • Launch: It was launched on July 30, 2020 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
  • Landing: Successfully landed on the surface of Mar’s Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021.

Features:

  • It is about 3 metres long, 2.7 metres wide, and 2.2 metres tall.
  • It is about the size of a car, but weighs only about 1,025 kilograms with all instruments on board.
  • Power source:Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG). Converts heat from the radioactive decay of plutonium into electricity.

Ingenuity  Helicopter:

  • It is a small, autonomous aircraft.
  • Main Job: Technology demonstration to test the first powered flight on Mars.
  • The helicopter rode to Mars attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover.
  • It became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet.


Turnersuchus hingleyae

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Palaeontologists have recently discovered fossils of the ancient ‘marine crocodile Turnersuchus hingleyae.

About Turnersuchus hingleyae

  • The fossils uncovered on the Jurassic Coast in the United Kingdom include part of the head, backbone, and limbs of Turnersuchus hingleyae.
  • Its age dates back to the early Jurassic, Pliensbachian period, which was about 185 million years ago.
  • Due to their relatively long, slender snouts, they would likely have looked similar to the currently living Gharial crocodiles.

Pliensbachian period

  • It occurred between 190.8 million and 182.7 million years ago during the Early Jurassic Period.
  • The stage’s name is derived from the village of Pliensbach, Germany.


Spider Star System

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Scientists at NASA have recently detected the first gamma-ray eclipses from a “spider” star system.

About Spider Star System:

  • It is a binary star system in which a superdense star (pulsar) spins quickly, eats another star.
  • The super-dense object that begins to pull a matter from the companion resembles the habits of spiders of the genus Latrodectus, in which the female eats the male after mating, hence the name came.
  • Initially, the dense pulsar strips material from the outer atmosphere of its companion, periodically shedding the gathered material in violent explosions.
  • In the later stage of their lifetimes, the energetic particles streaming out of the pulsar can strip the atmosphere of its companion.
  • In either case, the pulsar slowly erodes its companion over time.
  • Two Types:
    • Black widows: Binary pulsar systems, in which the mass of a companion star is less than 5 percent of the pulsar.
    • Redback: Binary pulsar systems in which mass of the companion star is from 10 to 50 percent of the pulsar.

What is a Binary star system?

  • A binary system is one in which two stars orbit around a common centre of mass, that is they are gravitationally bound to each other.

What are pulsars?

  • Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars, extremely dense starscomposed almost entirely of neutrons and having a diameter of only 20 km (12 miles) or less. 
  • They emit concentrated streams of radiation far across the cosmos.

What are neutron stars?

  • They are the remnants of giant stars that died in a fiery explosion known as a supernova.
  • After such an outburst, the cores of these former stars compact into an ultradense object with the mass of the sun packed into a ball the size of a city.


Quantum dot spin qubits.

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An international team of scientists recently made a breakthrough in retaining the quantum coherence of quantum dot spin qubits.

About Quantum coherence:

  • It deals with the idea that all objects have wave-like properties.
  • It states that, if an object’s wave-like nature is split in two, then the two waves may coherently interfere with each other in such a way as to form a single state that is a superposition of the two states.
  • This concept of superposition is famously represented by Schrödinger’s cat, which is both dead and alive at the same time when in its coherent state inside a closed box.
  • It lies at the heart of quantum computing, in which a qubit is in a superposition of the “0” and “1” states.

What is Quantum entanglement?

  • It means that aspects of one particle of an entangled pair depend on aspects of the other particle, no matter how far apart they are or what lies between them. 
  • Like coherence, quantum entanglement also plays an essential role in quantum technologies.

What is the principle of Superposition of waves?

  • It states that when two or more waves overlap in space, the resultant disturbance is equal to the algebraic sum of the individual disturbances.

What is a qubit?

  • A qubit (or quantum bit) is the quantum mechanical analogue of a classical bit.
  • A classical binary bit can only represent a single binary value, such as 0 or 1.
  • A qubit, however, can represent a 0, a 1, or any proportion of 0 and 1 in superposition of both states.
  • In quantum computing the information is encoded in qubits.


Lumpy Skin Disease

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Why in News?

Recently, the Punjab State government has airlifted 25 lakh doses of goat pox vaccine to carry out a free vaccination campaign for early prevention of cattle from lumpy skin disease.

  • Lumpy Skin Disease(LSD) had affected the cattle on a large scale in July, 2022. About 1.75 lakh cattle were affected across the Punjab state and about 18,000 cattle died.

What is Lumpy Skin Disease?

  • Causes:
    • LSD is caused by infection with the Lumpy Skin Disease Virus (LSDV) in cattle or water buffalo.
      • The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that its mortality rate is less than 10%.
    • The first reported outbreak of LSD occurred in Zambia in 1929, and it was initially believed to be caused by poisoning or an allergic reaction to insect bites.
  • Transmission:
    • LSD is primarily spread between animals through the bite of vectors, such as mosquitoes and flies.
  • Symptoms:
    • The primary symptoms of LSD include fever, discharge from the eyes and nose, drooling, and blisters on the skin.
    • Also, affected animals may also lose their appetite and have difficulty in eating, leading to reduced milk production.
  • Prevention and Treatment:
    • Currently, India is administering the goat pox vaccine and sheep pox virus vaccines for LSD.
      • It’s a heterologous vaccine that offers cross-protection for cattle against the disease.
        • Goat pox, sheep pox and LSD belong to the same capripoxvirus genus.
    • Lumpi-ProVacInd is a live attenuated vaccine developed jointly by ICAR’s National Research Centre on Equines and the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, which is targeted to protect cattle against the LSD virus, and provides 100% protection.
      • It is expected to be commercially launched in a few months.
    • There are no specific antiviral drugs for treating LSD, and treatment primarily involves supportive care for the affected animals.
      • This may include treating skin lesions with wound care sprays,
      • using antibiotics to prevent secondary infections,
      • administering anti-inflammatory painkillers to increase appetite.



Grievance Appelate Committee

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Recently, The Grievance Appellate Committees (GACs) were set up by the central government to look into user complaints against large social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About Grievance Appellate Committee

  • The central government notified three Grievance Appellate Committees (GACs) under an amendment to IT Rules 2021.
  • Composition
    • Each of the three GACs will have a chairperson, two whole-time members from various government entities and retired senior executives from the industry.
    • Term: Three years from the date of assumption of office.
  • The GAC will be a virtual digital platform that will operate only online and the digitally entire process, from the filing of an appeal to the decision, will be conducted digitally.
  • Users will have the option to appeal against the decision of the grievance officer of the social media intermediaries and other online intermediaries before this new appellate body.
  • The Committee will endeavour to address the user’s appeal within 30 days.


National Technical Textiles Mission

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Recently, The Union Minister of Textiles cleared 15 R&D projects across key strategic areas such as Speciality fibre, Protective textiles, High-Performance Textiles , Medical Textiles etc under the National Technical Textiles Mission.

What are Technical Textiles?

  • Technical Textiles are textile products which are manufactured primarily for their functionality and use rather than aesthetic appeal.
  • Technical textiles are classified into 12 major groups based on their application areas namely; Agrotech, Geotech, Buildtech, Mobiltech, Hometech, Clothtech, Indutech, Meditech, Sportstech, Protech, Packtech, Oekotech.

Key features of the National Technical Textiles Mission India

  • The Ministry of Textiles has launched NTTM to increase the penetration level of technical textiles in India while leveraging the extraordinary growth rate of the sector.
  • The mission aims to position India as a global leader in Technical Textiles.
  • The mission will comprise the following four components:
    • Research, Innovation and Development
    • Promotion and Market Development
    • Export Promotion
    • Education, Training, Skill Development
  • Implementation:It has been approved with an implementation period of four years starting from FY 2020-21 till FY 2023-24. The total outlay of the mission is INR 1480 Cr.