science Flashcards
pratyush
India’s fastest supercomputer at Pune with a capacity of 4 petaflops
Mihir
a high-performance computer system at Noida with a capacity of 2.8 petaflops.
It is India’s first multi-petaflop supercomputer and is the fourth fastest supercomputer in the world which
is dedicated to weather and climate research after Japan, U.S.A, and the United Kingdom
Other top five supercomputers of India are
SahasraT (Cray XC40), Aaditya (IBM/Lenovo system), TIFR Colour Boson (Cray XC-30), IIT Delhi HPC and Param Yuva 2
Cartosat-2 series
It an earth observation satellite whose high-resolution scene-specific spot images will be useful
for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps and change detection to bring out geographical Land Information Systems and Geographical Information System applications.
Parker Solar Probe by NASA
It will study how energy and heat move through
the solar corona and to explore what accelerates
the solar wind as well as solar energetic particles.
NASA’s Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS)
SPARCS is a space telescope to study the
habitability and high-energy environment around
M-dwarf stars. The telescope will study the Ultra-Violet light emitted by dwarf stars.
M-dwarf stars
Dwarf stars are generally cooler and they may be
surrounded by many habitable zones.
NASA’s Global-scale Observations of the
Limb and Disk (GOLD) and Ionospheric Connection
Explorer (ICON) mission:
ICON will be in low-Earth orbit at 560 km above
Earth and GOLD will be at 35398 km above the earth surface in a geostationary orbit. They will study the Ionosphere region or the boundary area between Earth and space where electrically-charged electrons and ions by the Sun’s radiation are present. The missions will help in understanding how the upper atmosphere changes in response to hurricanes and geomagnetic
storms.
Chandrasekhar limit
maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star and a mass greater than the limit will turn the star into a neutron star or black hole at the end of its life.
Dwarf Stars
A dwarf star form at the end of star’s evolutionary phase. It has a mass of up to about 20 sols (Our Sun), and luminosity of up to about 20,000 sols.
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
study exoplanets in orbit around the brightest
stars in the sky
NASA’s InSight Mars lander
will study the interior of Mars and listen for Marsquakes.
NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex
launched earlier in 2016 is scheduled to arrive at the near-Earth asteroid Bennu in August 2018.
ICESat-2 and GRACE satellites
to observe Earth’s ice sheets, sea level, and underground water reserves.
Blue Moon
When two full moons appear in the same calendar month, the second is termed a “blue moon”.
Super Moon
when the full moon is at the closest point of its orbit to the Earth, which is also called the perigee. The moon
appears 30% brighter and 14% bigger than the apogee full moon
Blood Moon
The moon turns into red color during the height of the eclipse as some light does reach it even though the moon is in the shadow of the Earth. Fine particles in the atmosphere scatter (Rayleigh scattering) the blue component of solar spectrum, & what reaches us is the longer wavelength red light.
Lunar Eclipse
A lunar eclipse happens whenever the moon passes through Earth’s shadow, also known as its umbra. A lunar eclipse can occur only on the night of a full moon.
Free Space Optical Communication (FSOC)
X Development LLC, a subsidiary of Alphabet will supply and deploy 2000 cutting-edge Free Space Optical Communication (FSOC) links for Andhra Pradesh (AP) fiber-grid. It is an optical communication technology in which data is transmitted by propagation of light in free space allowing optical connectivity. Working of FSO is similar to OFC (optical fiber cable) networks but the only difference is that the optical beams are sent through free air or vacuum instead of glass fiber.
• It is a Line of Sight (LOS) technology. It consists of an optical transceiver at both ends to provide full duplex
(bidirectional) capability.
•It is capable of sending up to 1.25 Gbps of data, voice, and video communications simultaneously through
the air. It has low error rate.
NASA’s SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy)
It is an aircraft (Boeing 747SP jetliner) modified to carry a 100-inch diameter telescope. It is a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Centre, DLR.
• It is the world’s largest airborne astronomical observatory and is in fourth year of operation now.
• Its 2.5 diameter telescope allows astronomers to access the visible, infrared and sub-millimeter spectrum. It has the ability to produce a higher resolution image, three times higher in quality than those captured by
other observatories.
It is going to study observations of celestial magnetic fields, star-forming regions, comets and Saturn’s giant moon Titan.
Through observations from SOFIA scientists also aim to:
• study comet 46P/Writanen as it passes close to the Earth, to search for clues in the comet’s dust that may
understand the evolution of the early solar system.
• understand how active black holes contribute to most luminous, distant galaxies.
• understand how magnetic fields affect the rate at which interstellar clouds condense to form new stars.
• understand how methane levels change with seasons on Mars.
Excitons
- When an electron which is seated at the edge of the crowded electron valence band gets excited and jumps over the energy gap into an empty conduction band, it leaves behind a hole in the valence band.
- The hole in the valence band acts as a positively charged particle and attracts the escaped electron.
- When the escaped electron with negative charge pairs with the hole, a composite bosonic particle – exciton is formed.
3200 Phaethon
It is an Apollo Asteroid and has characteristics close to a comet.
• Sometimes the orbits of an asteroid intersect with the orbit of Mars and Earth. The earth orbiting asteroids
are called Apollo Asteroids.
Geminid meteor shower
It fell on Earth on Dec 12. Usually, meteor shower happens due to the debris left behind by a Comet. However, it can happen due to an asteroid as well such as in the case of Geminid Shower.
• Geminid Meteor shower is the dust particle of constellation of Gemini. Earth passes through the path of its parent asteroid 3200 Phaethon every year.
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission
- It was established in 1960.
- It is the only competent organization for marine science within the UN system.
- The purpose of the Commission is to promote international cooperation and to coordinate programmes in research, services, and capacity-building, in order to learn more about the nature and resources of the ocean and coastal areas.
ITCOocean
ITCOocean is being set up under the commitment of Govt. of India in helping the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO) in their capacity building efforts in areas of Operational Oceanography.
Space Activities Bill, 2017
The new Bill encourages the participation of private sector agencies in space activities in India under the
guidance and authorisation of the government through the Department of Space.
The provisions of this Act shall apply to <u>every citizen of India and to all sectors engaged in any space activity in India or outside India</u>.
A non-transferable licence shall be provided to any person carrying out commercial space activity through an appropriate mechanism.
The government will maintain a register of all space objects (any object launched or intended to be launched around the earth).
It will provide professional and technical support for commercial space activity and regulate the procedures
for conduct and operation of space activity through a regulatory body.
If any person undertakes any commercial space activity without authorisation they shall be punished with
imprisonment up to 3 years or fined more than ₹1 crore or both.
Lagrange Point:
It is the point where the combined gravitational force of
two large bodies is equal to the centrifugal force that is felt by a third body which is relatively smaller.
There are about 5 such points in a two body system.
The point L1 has the major advantage of viewing the sun without any occultation/ eclipses.
Halo Orbit:
It is periodic, three-dimensional orbit near the L1, L2 and L3 lagrange point (unstable) in a three body system.
Aditya L1
The mission will carry seven payloads including the main payload the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VLEC).
Aditya L1 is to be the first satellite to study the magnetic field of the sun’s corona.
The Aditya L1 is expected to help study that why the photosphere, the deeper layer of the sun is at much lower temperature than the corona.
It will also study aspects that affect space weather, the origin of solar wind ions, their reaction to coronal mass ejections, the distribution of these in the heliosphere- the space around the sun that extends up to Pluto.
Gravitational Lenses
It is a phenomenon in which the gravity of a massive object (like a galaxy or a cluster of galaxies) bends and amplifies the light from an object that lies beyond it.
Embryo Transfer Technology (ETT)
It is a technique of assisted reproduction in which the embryo or zygote is collected from a donor animal with higher genetic merit and transferred to a recipient animal which serves as surrogate for rest of the pregnancy.
Government has undertaken a Mass Embryo Transfer programme in Indigenous Breeds under the scheme,
National Mission on Bovine Productivity.
The programme is implemented with the objective of conservation and development of indigenous breeds
under Rashtriya Gokul Mission.
Indigenous Cow Breeds such as Sahiwal, Gir, Red Sindhi, Ongole, Deoni and Vechur will be the recipient
surrogates under the program.
Living Drug -
Genetically modified cells that are infused back into patients in Chimeric-Antigen Receptor CAR T-cell therapy, continue multiplying to fight disease for months or years. That’s why these immunotherapy treatments are called “living drugs.”
Yescarta therapy
It is a type of gene therapy that turns cells in the patient’s body into a “living drug” that targets and kills cancer cells.
It has been given Orphan Drug Designation.
Side Effects: It might cause Cytokine Release Syndrome (CRS), a response to the activation and proliferation of CAR T-cells, which leads to high fever and neurological problems.
Neutron stars
a celestial object of very small radius (typically 30 km) and very high density, composed predominantly of closely packed neutrons. Neutron stars are thought to form by the gravitational collapse of the remnant of a massive star after a supernova explosion, provided that the star is insufficiently massive to produce a black hole.
Cryo-electron microscopy
It is a method for imaging frozen-hydrated specimens at cryogenic temperatures by electron microscopy.
Specimens that are to be analysed would remain in their native state without the need for dyes or fixatives, which would allow the study of fine cellular structures, viruses and protein complexes at molecular resolution.
Contrary to earlier electron micro-scoping, cryo-electron
miscroscopy can view solutions (as water would not
evaporate under microscope’s vacuum).
This method helps in better imaging 3D structures of
biomolecules.
It helps researchers to freeze biomolecules mid-movement and visualise the processes they have never previously seen.
It has been used to image the elusive Zika virus and its medicine associated research.
X-ray Crystallography
X-rays scatter as they pass through a sample of crystallized protein. The resulting waves interfere with each other and create a diffraction pattern from which the position of atoms is deduced.
Cassini Mission
Cassini is an ambitious space missions launched through collaboration between NASA, ESA and the Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana.
Cassini began the first up-close study of Saturn and its system of rings and moons in 2004. It also became the
first spacecraft to orbit Saturn.
Cassini’s observations of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, have given scientists clues about the origin of life.
World’s most powerful LASER
European X-Ray Free Electron Laser (European XFEL) was recently unveiled in Hamburg, Germany.
Free-electron lasers
They create coherent light by constantly accelerating a beam of electrons. Free-electron lasers can produce radiation with a very short-wavelength, down to just a few tenths of a nanometre i.e. to the level of an atom.
LASER
Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
It is device that generates an intense beam of coherent monochromatic light (or other electromagnetic radiation).
It means unlike the conventional light, LASER has radiation of only one wavelength (Monochromatic) and they are always in same phase in space and time (Coherent).
European X-Ray Free Electron Laser (European XFEL)
XFEL is the world’s third major X-ray laser facility after projects in Japan (SACLA) and the US (LCLS) which are already operational.
The 3.4 km facility is housed in a series of underground tunnels which are kept at a temperature of just 2 degrees above absolute zero.
As an X-ray free-electron laser, the European XFEL generates X-ray laser beam from accelerated electrons. It does so using undulators (long sections of alternating magnetic fields kept at superconducting temperatures).
This laser beam of electrons in the end is like flashes of radiation with about 27000 pulses per second which is much higher than its predecessors.
OSIRIS-REx
Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) is NASA’s first unmanned asteroid sampling mission which was launched in September 2016.
Asteroid Bennu orbits around the Sun however its orbit is more tilted as compared to Earth’s and it crosses Earth’s orbit only twice a year. Therefore OSIRIS-REx will have to make adjustments in its path to intersect with Asteroid.
Asteroids –
Asteroids are small bodies of rocks which revolve around the sun. The Asteroid belt in our Solar System is found between the Mars and Jupiter.
