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Editorials & Articles : 3 June 2024

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Editorials & Articles : 3 June 2024

Counting the postal ballot

Postal Ballot

  • Postal voting (absentee voting): Electors cast ballots by mail instead of at a polling station.
  • Useful for: Individuals unable to vote in person due to various reasons (e.g., away from home constituency, disability, essential services on election day).

Eligibility for Postal Voting

  • Service voters: Members of armed forces, paramilitary forces, and government employees on election duty away from home.
  • Absentee voters: Individuals away from home constituency for work, illness, or disability.
  • Electors on election duty: Government officials and polling staff at different stations.
  • Electors under preventive detention: Individuals detained under preventive custody orders during election period.
  • During Covid pandemic:
    • Extended to those infected or suspected to be infected with coronavirus.
    • Initially recommended for those above 65 years, but not implemented due to practicality.
    • Eligibility age adjusted back to 80 years in August 2023 and then raised to 85 years in March 2024.

Background: Counting the Postal Ballot

  • Till 2019 LS elections: Counting of postal ballots first, EVM counting 30 minutes later, and EVM counting couldn’t finish before postal ballots were fully counted.
  • Guidelines tweaked after 2019 LS election:
    • Increase in postal ballots due to ETPBS and mandatory VVPAT slip counting.
    • EVM counting now starts 30 minutes after postal ballot counting and continues regardless of postal ballot count stage.
    • Rule for mandatory re-counting revised: Only invalid postal ballots re-verified if margin less than number of rejected ballots.

Postal Ballot – Statistics

  • 2019 LS elections: 22.71 lakh postal ballots received (0.37% of total 60.76 crore valid votes).
  • Expected increase in postal ballots for current elections.

Concerns Raised by Opposition Parties on New Guidelines

  • Rule 54A of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961: Returning officers shall first deal with postal ballot papers.
  • Opposition’s view: EC’s 2019 directive undermines section 54A of 1961 Rules.
  • 2020 Bihar elections example:
    • Postal ballots counted at end of EVM vote counting.
    • Raised concerns due to 52,000 postal ballots with a winning margin of 12,700 votes.
    • Potential impact on transparency and fairness perceived, especially with narrow winning margins.
James Webb Space Telescope Spots Earliest-Known Galaxy

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

  • Basics:
    • Large, space-based observatory launched by NASA in December 2021.
    • Optimized for infrared wavelengths.
    • Complements and extends discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope.
    • Longer wavelength coverage and improved sensitivity compared to Hubble.
  • Objectives:
    • Look further back in time to find the first galaxies formed in the early Universe.
    • Study inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming.
    • Study Solar System planets (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) and their satellites.
    • Study comets, asteroids, and minor planets beyond Mars’s orbit.
  • Components:
    • Four scientific instruments:
      • Near-Infrared Camera
      • Near-Infrared Spectrograph
      • Mid-Infrared Instrument
      • Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph
    • Larger primary mirror (2.5 times larger than Hubble’s).
    • Infrared instruments to study earliest galaxies and compare them to today’s galaxies.
    • Data transmission via high-frequency radio transmitter and large radio antenna.
  • Launch Vehicle:
    • Ariane 5 rocket of European Space Agency (ESA).
  • Budget:
    • USD 10 Billion.
  • Orbit:
    • Orbits around the second Lagrange (L2) point, about 1.5 million km from Earth.
    • Takes about a month to reach this distance.
    • Lagrange points are positions in the solar system where gravitational pulls between the Sun and a planet are balanced (five such points).
  • Life of Telescope:
    • Designed mission lifetime: minimum 5-1/2 years, goal greater than 10 years.

James Webb Space Telescope Spots Earliest-Known Galaxy

  • Discovery:
    • JWST discovered the galaxy JADES-GS-z14-10.
    • Dates back to 290 million years after the Big Bang (13.8 billion years ago).
    • Most ancient galaxy yet observed.
  • Redshift Value:
    • Distance calculated by examining redshift value.
    • Redshift: Light waves stretched as they move through space due to universe expansion.
    • Moves light toward the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
    • JWST’s instrumentation designed to examine redshifted light from distant galaxies.
  • Significance:
    • Helps astronomers study the “Cosmic Dawn,” the period when the first galaxies were born.

Why is the JADES-GS-z14-10 Galaxy So Bright?

  • Hypotheses:
    • Initially attributed to supermassive black holes consuming material.
      • Ruled out as light is spread over a wider area than expected from black hole activity.
    • Could be due to more stars than expected in these galaxies.
    • Stars in these galaxies might be brighter than stars found today.
China’s Chang’e-6 mission to the far side of the Moon

Exploration of the Far Side of the Moon

  • Far side referred to as the dark side:
    • Often called the dark side because it cannot be seen from Earth, though it does receive sunlight.
    • The Moon is tidally locked with Earth, so only one side (near side) is visible from Earth.
  • Far side is very different from the near side:
    • Thicker crust, more craters, and fewer maria (plains where lava once flowed).
  • Potential to provide insights about the origin and evolution of the Moon:
    • Examining far side samples can help solve mysteries about the Moon’s origin and evolution.
    • Provides answers to why the far side is different from the near side.
  • Why scientists are keen on exploring the far side:
    • Unexplored Terrain: Offers new opportunities for discovery.
    • Geological Differences: Understand differences in geology between near and far sides.
    • Impact History: Better record of the solar system’s impact history due to more craters.
    • Space Weathering: Study how space weathering processes differ.
    • Radio Astronomy: Ideal for observations due to shielding from Earth’s radio noise.
    • Resources: Potentially contains minerals and water ice useful for future missions and colonization.

Chang’e-6 Mission

  • About:
    • 53-day-long mission.
    • Mission’s orbiter will circle the Moon while the lander descends into the South Pole-Aitken basin.
  • Sample collection:
    • Collects samples through scooping and drilling.
    • Lander launches an ascent vehicle to transfer samples to the orbiter’s service module.
    • Service module returns samples to Earth.

Significance of the Chang’e-6 Mission

  • Only country to achieve soft landing on the far side of the Moon:
    • China achieved the first soft-landing on the far side with the Chang’e-4 mission in 2019.
    • Chang’e-6 marks the second successful soft-landing on the far side by China.
    • No other country has achieved this.
  • Part of a growing rivalry with the US and other nations:
    • China aims to put a person on the moon before 2030.
    • Would make China the second nation after the US to achieve this.
  • Technological prowess:
    • Missions to the far side are more difficult due to communication challenges.
    • Requires a relay satellite to maintain communications.
    • Rugged terrain with fewer flat areas to land.