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GS Paper: GS3-17.Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, Robotics, Nano-technology, Bio-technology and issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights.

  • Polar-Areas Stellar-Imaging in Polarisation High-Accuracy Experiment (PASIPHAE)

    The development of a vital instrument PASIPHAE, which will be used in upcoming sky surveys to study stars, is being led by an Indian astronomer.

    What is PASIPHAE?

    • PASIPHAE stands for Polar-Areas Stellar-Imaging in Polarisation High-Accuracy Experiment.
    • It is an international collaborative sky surveying project. Scientists aim to study the polarisation in the light coming from millions of stars.
    • The name is inspired by Pasiphae, the daughter of Greek Sun God Helios.
    • The survey will use two high-tech optical polarimeters to observe the northern and southern skies, simultaneously.
    • It will focus on capturing starlight polarisation of very faint stars that are so far away that polarisation signals from there have not been systematically studied.
    • By combining the data, astronomers will perform a maiden magnetic field tomography mapping of the interstellar medium of very large areas of the sky using a novel polarimeter instrument known as WALOP.

    Why is PASIPHAE important?

    • Since its birth about 14 billion years ago, the universe has been constantly expanding, as evidenced by the presence of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation which fills the universe.
    • Immediately after its birth, the universe went through a short inflationary phase during which it expanded at a very high rate before it slowed down and reached the current rate.
    • However, so far, there have only been theories and indirect evidence of expansion associated with the early universe.
    • A definitive consequence of the inflationary phase is that a tiny fraction of the CMB radiation should have its imprints in the form of a specific kind of polarisation (known scientifically as a B-mode signal).
    • All previous attempts to detect this signal met with failure mainly due to the difficulty posed by our galaxy, the Milky Way, which emits copious amounts of polarized radiation.
    • Besides, it contains a lot of dust clouds that are present in the form of clusters. When starlight passes through these dust clouds, they get scattered and polarized.

    What will PASIPHAE do?

    • The PASIPHAE survey will measure starlight polarisation over large areas of the sky.
    • This data along with distances to the stars will help create a 3-Dimensional model of the distribution of the dust and magnetic field structure of the galaxy.
    • Such data can help remove the galactic polarized foreground light and enable astronomers to look for the elusive B-mode signal.

    What is WALOP?

    • Wide Area Linear Optical Polarimeter (WALOP) is an instrument when mounted on two small optical telescopes, that will be used to detect polarized light signals emerging from the stars along high galactic latitudes.
    • The images will simultaneously have the finest of details of a star along with its panoramic background.
    • WALOP will operate on the principle that at any given time, the data from a portion of the sky under observation will be split into four different channels.
    • Depending on the manner in which light passes through the four channels, the polarisation value from the star is obtained.
    • That is, each star will have four corresponding images which when stitched together will help calculate the desired polarisation value of a star.

  • Species in news: Bharitalasuchus Tapani

    In the mid 20th century, researchers from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, carried out extensive studies on rocks of the Yerrapalli Formation in what is now Telangana, uncovering several fossils of Bharitalasuchus Tapani.

    Bharitalasuchus Tapani

    • This reptile belongs to a genus and species previously unknown to science. It is named Bharitalasuchus tapani considering Telugu etymology.
    • In the Telugu language, Bhari means huge, Tala means head, and Suchus is the name of the Egyptian crocodile-headed deity.
    • The species is named after paleontologist Tapan Roy Chowdhury in honour of his contribution to Indian vertebrate paleontology and especially his extensive work on the Yerrapalli Formation tetrapod fauna.

    Details of the reptile

    • The reptile belonged to a family of extinct reptiles named Erythrosuchidae.
    • A precise identification had not been possible earlier because the family was not known from other examples in India.
    • It was neglected because the fossil specimen was not as complete as those of other erythrosuchids from other countries.
    • The team notes that tapani were robust animals with big heads and large teeth, and these probably predated other smaller reptiles.
    • They were approximately the size of an adult male lion and might have been the largest predators in their ecosystems.

  • EnVision Mission to Venus

    Following NASA’s footsteps, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that it has selected EnVision as its next orbiter that will visit Venus sometime in the 2030s.

    Last week, NASA selected two missions to the planet Venus, Earth’s nearest neighbour. The missions called DAVINCI+ and VERITAS have been selected based on their potential for scientific value and the feasibility of their development plans.

    What is EnVision?

    • EnVision is an ESA-led mission with contributions from NASA. It is likely to be launched sometime in the 2030s.
    • The earliest launch opportunity for EnVision is 2031, followed by 2032 and 2033.
    • Once launched on an Ariane 6 rocket, the spacecraft will take about 15 months to reach Venus and will take 16 more months to achieve orbit circularization.
    • The spacecraft will carry a range of instruments to study the planet’s atmosphere and surface, monitor trace gases in the atmosphere and analyses its surface composition.

    What are other such missions?

    • EnVision will follow another ESA-led mission to Venus called ‘Venus Express’ (2005-2014) that focused on atmospheric research and pointed to volcanic hotspots on the planet’s surface.
    • Other than this, Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft has also been studying the planet’s atmosphere since 2015.

    Why are scientists interested in studying Venus?

    • At the core of the ESA’s mission is the question of how Earth and Venus evolved so differently from each other considering that they are roughly of the same size and composition.
    • Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system because of the heat that is trapped by its thick cloud cover.
    • Last year, a team of scientists reported that they had found phosphine gas (a chemical produced only through biological processes) in the atmosphere of Venus.
    • This triggered excitement in the scientific community that some life forms might be supported by the planet.
    • But the existence of life on the planet is nearly impossible given the high temperatures of Venus and its acidic atmosphere.

    Back2Basics: Venus Planet

    • For those on Earth, Venus is the second-brightest object in the sky after the moon.
    • It appears bright because of its thick cloud cover that reflects and scatters light.
    • But while Venus, which is the second closest planet to the Sun, is called the Earth’s twin because of their similar sizes, the two planets have significant differences between them.
    • For one, the planet’s thick atmosphere traps heat and is the reason that it is the hottest planet in the solar system, despite coming after Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun.
    • Surface temperatures on Venus can go up to 471 degrees Celsius, which is hot enough to melt lead.
    • Further, Venus moves forward on its orbit around the Sun but spins backwards around its axis slowly.
    • This means on Venus the Sun rises in the west and sets in the East.
    • One day on Venus is equivalent to 243 Earth days because of its backward spinning, opposite to that of the Earth’s and most other planets.
    • Venus also does not have a moon and no rings.

  • CHIME Telescope

    Scientists with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) Collaboration have assembled the largest collection of fast radio bursts (FRBs) in the telescope’s first FRB catalog.

    CHIME Telescope

    • CHIME is an interferometric radio telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in British Columbia, Canada.
    • It consists of four antennas consisting of 100 x 20-meter cylindrical parabolic reflectors with 1024 dual-polarization radio receivers suspended on support above them.
    • The telescope receives radio signals each day from half of the sky as the Earth rotates.
    • While most radio astronomy is done by swiveling a large dish to focus light from different parts of the sky, CHIME stares, motionless, at the sky, and focuses incoming signals using a correlator.
    • This is a powerful digital signal processor that can work through huge amounts of data, at a rate of about seven terrabytes per second, equivalent to a few percent of the world’s Internet traffic.

    What are FRBs?

    • FRBs are oddly bright flashes of light, registering in the radio band of the electromagnetic spectrum, which blaze for a few milliseconds before vanishing without a trace.
    • These brief and mysterious beacons have been spotted in various and distant parts of the universe, as well as in our own galaxy.
    • Their origins are unknown and their appearance is highly unpredictable.
    • But the advent of the CHIME project has nearly quadrupled the number of fast radio bursts discovered to date.
    • With more observations, astronomers hope soon to pin down the extreme origins of these curiously bright signals.

  • Bring genomic sequencing into the pandemic fight

    The article highlights the importance of genomic sequencing in dealing effectively with the pandemic and suggest the scaling up of genomic sequencing.

    Why genomic sequencing is important

    • An effective COVID-19 pandemic response requires, inter alia, keeping track of emerging variants and then conducting further studies about their transmissibility, immune escape and potential to cause severe disease.
    • The success of the United States and the United Kingdom in containing the virus also goes to scaled-up genomic sequencing, tracking the emerging variants and using that evidence for timely actions.
    • The data from genomic sequencing has both policy and operational implications.
    • Our scientific knowledge and understanding about emerging strains is going to be the key to deploy public health interventions (vaccines included) to fight the pandemic.
    • The emerging variants — with early evidence of higher transmissibility, immune escape and breakthrough infections — demand continuous re-thinking and re-strategising of the pandemic response by every country.

    Insufficient genomic sequencing in India

    • Though the procedural steps such as setting up the Indian SARS-CoV2 Genomic Consortia, or INSACOG have been taken, the sequencing has remained at a very low level of a few thousand cases only.
    • The challenge of insufficient genomic sequencing is further compounded by slow pace of data sharing.

    Steps need to be taken

    • 1) Scale-up genomic sequencing: India needs to scale up genomic sequencing, across all States.
    •  More genomic sequencing is needed from large urban agglomerations.
    • A national-level analysis of collated genomic sequencing data should be done on a regular basis and findings shared publicly.
    • 2) Research on vaccine effectiveness: The Indian government needs to invest and support more scientific and operational research on vaccine effectiveness.
    • Rethink vaccine policy: There are early indications of immune escape and reduced vaccine effectiveness against the Delta variant (especially after one-shot).
    • These are the questions that experts need to deliberate and come up with the answers.

    Consider the question “What is genomic sequencing and how it could help in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic? Suggest the steps India need to take to use genomic sequencing in curbing the pandemic.”

    Conclusion

    As India prepares for the third wave, increasing genomic sequencing and use of scientific evidence for decision making are not a choice but an absolute essential.

  • Supersonic flying: benefits and concerns

    The United Airlines of USA has announced it was ordering 15 Overture planes with the ability to travel at Mach 1.7, faster than the speed of sound, from the Denver-based startup Boom.

    What is a Supersonic Plane?

    • Supersonic aircraft are planes that can fly faster than the speed of sound.
    • The technology for supersonic flights is actually over 70 years old, but only recently has been used for commercial flying.
    • Before 1976, when the first commercial supersonic flight took off, the planes were used entirely for military purposes.
    • Usually, supersonic planes can travel at the speed of around 900 kmph, twice the speed of normal aircraft.

    What about the Overture supersonic plane?

    • The Overture aircraft would travel at the speed of Mach 1.7 or 1,805 kmph with a range of 4,250 nautical miles. In a single flight, it could carry 65 to 88 passengers and reach an altitude of 60,000 ft.
    • The company has expressed confidence in getting an “experimental” jet ready by 2022, start rolling out aircraft by 2025 and eventually open them for passengers by 2029.
    • It claims to build on Concorde’s legacy through faster, more efficient and sustainable technology.

    Challenges with supersonic planes

    Flying passengers at a supersonic speed is accompanied by a whole set of challenges.

    • Firstly, the costs of making “sustainable” supersonic planes are extremely high.
    • The very nature of its flying — using excessive amounts of fuel and energy — is likely to have high environmental costs.
    • Despite the use of sustainable fuels, greenhouse gas emissions are not nullified.
    • Secondly, the very speed of the planes results in producing excessive amounts of noise pollution in the environment.
    • The “Sonic Boom” created by these planes feels like an explosion to the human ear.
    • This, thus, limits where and when the supersonic planes can fly. They can only reach their actual speed until they are far enough from people and completely over the ocean.
    • Lastly, it would not be economically feasible for everyone. Only the very rich can afford supersonic planes, as a ticket is likely to be way costlier than a first-class ticket of a regular plane.

  • How blind people can navigate better using Echolocation

    A technique used by animals such as dolphins, whales, and bats to navigate their surroundings can also be used by blind people to get around better and have greater independence and well-being, researchers at Durham University in the UK have shown.

    What is Echolocation?

    • Echolocation, also called biosonar, is a biological sonar used by several animal species.
    • Echolocating animals emit calls out to the environment and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects near them.
    • They use these echoes to locate and identify the objects.

    What has the new study found?

    • The same technique can help blind people locate still objects by producing clicking sounds from their mouth and hands.
    • The researchers organized a 10-week training programme, in which 12 blind and 14 sighted volunteers aged between 21 and 79 were taught click-based echolocation.
    • The volunteers were trained in distinguishing between the size of objects, orientation perception and virtual navigation.
    • At the end of the training, the participants had been able to improve their ability to navigate using clicking noises either from one’s mouth, walking cane taps or footsteps.

  • CIBER-2 Mission to count the stars in the Universe

    A NASA-funded rocket’s launch window will open at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, USA. The aim of this mission is to count the number of stars that exist in the Universe.

    Answer this PYQ from CSP 2020 in the comment box:

    Q.“The experiment will employ a trio of spacecraft flying in formation in the shape of an equilateral triangle that has sides one million kilometers long, with lasers shining between the craft.” The experiment in question refers to

    (a) Voyager-2

    (b) New horizons

    (c) Lisa Pathfinder

    (d) Evolved LISA

    What is CIBER-2?

    • In order to roughly estimate the number of stars in the Universe, scientists have estimated that on average each galaxy consists of about 100 million stars, but this figure is not exact.
    • The figure of 100 million could easily be an underestimation, probably by a factor of 10 or more.
    • To put this into perspective, an average of 100 million stars in each galaxy (there an estimated 2 trillion of them as per NASA), would give a total figure of one hundred quintillion stars or 1 with 21 zeroes after it.
    • NASA notes that if this figure is accurate, it would mean that for every grain of sand on Earth, there are more than ten stars.
    • But this calculation assumes that all stars are inside galaxies, which might not be true and this is what the CIBER-2 instrument will try to find out.

    How will CIBER-2 count stars?

    • NASA notes that the instrument will not actually count individual stars but it will instead detect the extragalactic background light
    • It is all of the light that has been emitted throughout the history of the Universe.
    • From all of this extragalactic background light, the CIBER-2 will focus on a portion of this called cosmic infrared background, which is emitted by some of the most common stars.
    • Essentially, this approach is aiming to look at how bright this light is to give scientists an estimate of how many of these stars are out there.
    • The ESA infrared space observatory Herschel also counted the number of galaxies in infrared and measured their luminosity previously.

  • DAVINCI+ and VERITAS missions for exploration of Venus

    NASA has selected two missions to the planet Venus, Earth’s nearest neighbor. The missions are called DAVINCI+ and VERITAS.

    DAVINCI+ and VERITAS

    (1) DAVINCI+

    • DAVINCI+ is short for ‘Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging’ and is the first US-led mission to the planet’s atmosphere since 1978.
    • It will try to understand Venus’ composition to see how the planet formed and evolved.
    • This mission also consists of a decent sphere that will pass through the planet’s thick atmosphere and make observations and take measurements of noble gases and other elements.
    • Significantly, this mission will also try to return the first high-resolution photographs of a geological feature that is unique to Venus.
    • This feature, which is called “tesserae” may be comparable to Earth’s continents.
    • The presence of tesseraes may suggest that Venus has tectonic plates like Earth.

    (2) VERITAS

    • The second mission called VERITAS is short for ‘Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy’.
    • It will map the planet’s surface to determine its geologic history and understand the reasons why it developed so differently from Earth.
    • VERITAS will orbit Venus with a radar that will help to create a 3D reconstruction of its topography which might be able to tell scientists if processes such as plate tectonics and volcanism are still active there.
    • This mission will also map the emissions from Venus’s surface that may help in determining the type of rocks that exist on Venus–a piece of information that is not exactly known yet.
    • It will also determine if active volcanoes are releasing water vapor into the atmosphere.

    Why study Venus?

    • The results from DAVINCI+ are expected to reshape the understanding of terrestrial planet formation in the solar system and beyond.
    • Taken together, both missions are expected to tell scientists more about the planet’s thick cloud cover and the volcanoes on its surface.
    • Further, scientists speculate about the existence of life on Venus in its distant past and the possibility that life may exist in the top layers of its clouds where temperatures are less extreme.

    Have humans visited Venus?

    • Because of the planet’s harsh environment, no humans have visited it and even the spacecraft that have been sent to the planet have not survived for a very long time.
    • Venus’ high surface temperatures overheat electronics in spacecraft in a short time, so it seems unlikely that a person could survive for long on the Venusian surface.
    • So far, spacecraft from several nations have visited the planet.
    • The first such spacecraft was the Soviet Union’s Venera series (the spacecraft, however, could not survive for long because of the planet’s harsh conditions).
    • It was followed by NASA’s Magellan Mission that studied Venus from 1990-1994. As of now, Japan’s Akatsuki mission is studying the planet from Orbit.

    Back2Basics: Venus

    • For those on Earth, Venus is the second-brightest object in the sky after the moon.
    • It appears bright because of its thick cloud cover that reflects and scatters light.
    • Surface temperatures on Venus can go up to 471 degrees Celsius, which is hot enough to melt lead, NASA notes. Surface temperatures on Venus can go up to 471 degrees Celsius, which is hot enough to melt lead, NASA notes.

    Some unknown facts

    • While Venus, which is the second closest planet to the Sun, is called the Earth’s twin because of their similar sizes, the two planets have significant differences between them.
    • For one, the planet’s thick atmosphere traps heat and is the reason that it is the hottest planet in the solar system, despite coming after Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun.
    • Further, Venus moves forward on its orbit around the Sun but spins backwards around its axis slowly.
    • This means on Venus the Sun rises in the west and sets in the East.
    • One day on Venus is equivalent to 243 Earth days because of its backward spinning, opposite to that of the Earth’s and most other planets.
    • Venus also does not have a moon and no rings.

  • OneWeb constellation for Internet from the Skies

    Following the successful launch of 36 satellites, OneWeb’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation reached 218 in-orbit satellites.

    What is OneWeb?

    • OneWeb is a global communications company that aims to deliver broadband satellite Internet around the world through its fleet of LEO satellites.
    • OneWeb satellites are built at a OneWeb and Airbus joint venture facility in Florida that can produce up to two satellites a day.
    • The launch roll-out of the satellites is facilitated by French company Arianespace using Russian-made Soyuz rockets.
    • The company has announced plans to enter the Indian market by 2022.

    About its constellation

    • The company has one more launch to complete before it obtains the capacity to enable its ‘Five to 50’ service of offering internet connectivity to all regions north of 50 degrees latitude.
    • The Five to 50 service is expected to be switched on by June 2021 with global services powered by 648 satellites available in 2022.

    What are LEO satellites?

    • LEO satellites have been orbiting the planet since the 1990s, providing companies and individuals with various communication services.
    • They are positioned around 500km-2000km from earth, compared to stationary orbit satellites which are approximately 36,000km away.
    • Latency, or the time needed for data to be sent and received, is contingent on proximity.
    • As LEO satellites orbit closer to the earth, they are able to provide stronger signals and faster speeds than traditional fixed-satellite systems.
    • Additionally, because signals travel faster through space than through fiber-optic cables, they also have the potential to rival if not exceed existing ground-based networks.
    • However, LEO satellites travel at a speed of 27,000 kph and complete a full circuit of the planet in 90-120 minutes.
    • As a result, individual satellites can only make direct contact with a land transmitter for a short period of time thus requiring massive LEO satellite fleets and consequently, a significant capital investment.

    Criticisms of LEO satellites

    • During the days of the Sputnik and Apollo missions, governments dominated and regulated space-based activities.
    • There are logistical challenges with launching thousands of satellites into space as well.
    • Satellites can sometimes be seen in the night skies which creates difficulties for astronomers as the satellites reflect sunlight to earth, leaving streaks across images.
    • Satellites traveling at a lower orbit can also interrupt the frequency of those orbiting above them, an accusation that has been leveled against Starlink satellites already.
    • Another worry is that there are already almost 1 million objects larger than 1cm in diameter in orbit, a byproduct of decades of space activities.
    • Those objects, colloquially referred to as ‘space junk,’ have the potential to damage spacecraft or collide with other satellites.