Space, US - Current Affairs Questions and Answers

ANSWER: US Postal Service

Explanation:

• A stamp was also sent to Pluto on the New Horizon’s spacecraft; it travelled 5,250,843,896 km becoming the stamp to travel longest distance ever in history.
• Stamp earned the Guinness World Records title for the farthest distance travelled by the postage stamp.
• The spacecraft was launched from the US on 19th January 2006 and arrived at Pluto on 14th July 2015.
• Stamp was from a special series which showed the planets of the solar system and vessels that had explored them.
• The Pluto: Not Yet Explored stamp on board the New Horizons Spacecraft will journey beyond Pluto visiting a Kuiper Belt Object called 2014MU69 considered a building block of the solar system.

ANSWER: Kate Rubins

Explanation:
Astronaut Kate Rubins will carry out carefully controlled experiments with bacteria, virus and mouse cells repeatedly testing for in a space station’s closed loop environment.

• Rubins is a trained microbiologist who will be using samples to put together Oxford Nanopore’s MiniION sequencer- a pocket sized DNA sequencer through its paces.
• Tests are intended to prove if technology can be used to understand microbes in the space station to scan fellow astronauts for genetic changes to diagnose illness and future missions to test samples from Mars and other planets for DNA based life.
• Scientists will need to check if the machine can operate in microgravity.
• The MinION sequencer which is about half the size of a smartphone operates fundamentally different from current DNA sequencers.
• With most sequencers, scientists put on a sample which runs for 24 to 48 hours and stops.
• The station’s sequencers displays its analysis as it works.
• The MinION DNA sequencer is among the 4900 pounds of cargo scheduled to be launched to the station on 18th July 2014 abroad a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
• This is the first time the machine will be used in space.

ANSWER: Rosetta

Explanation:
Scientists have found further evidence supporting the theory that building blocks of life may have come to earth from outer space

• Instruments used abroad the European space probe Rosetta detected glycine and phosphorous in the dusty world around the comet
• Glycine is an amino acid which is one of the molecules needed to make proteins while phosphorous is needed for DNA and cells
• Presence in the coma enveloping comet 67P indicates that comets delivered key molecules for prebiotic chemistry through the solar system and in particular, to the early Earth
• Scientists also said adding a high concentration of these molecules to bodies of water could have produced the primordial soup giving birth to life on the planet more than 4 billion years ago.

ANSWER: Hindi

Explanation:
The U.S. Census Bureau based on American Community Survey data collected from 2009 to 2013, said that more than 60 million people in the U.S. speak a language other than English at home and that Hindi was the top Indian language spoken with nearly 6.5 lakh speakers. Top languages other than English spoken in the U.S. homes include Spanish, Chinese, French, Korean, German, Vietnamese, Arabic, Tagalog and Russian.

ANSWER: Paul Ryan

Explanation:
Republican Paul Ryan was on 30th October 2015 elected as the 5th speaker of the US house of Representatives. Only 9 House Republicans voted against him and he fetched votes of 236 members . Ryan succeeds John Boehner of Ohio. He was sworn in as Speaker of the House and the nine-term congressman from Wisconsin, becomes the third Catholic in a row in the position, after John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi. He started working on Capitol Hill as a legislative aide in 1992 and won his House seat in 1998 when he was 28.

ANSWER: 74-21

Explanation:
Putting aside privacy concerns, US senate on 28th October 2015 passed the cyber security bill considered a critical step forward for addressing cyber threats and ensuring tools are in place to prevent further cyber attacks. Senate passed the bill by 74-21 votes and bill now heads for reconciliation with earlier passed House cyber security bill. The bill’s proponents have said it will deter cyber attacks through increased awareness in the cyber realm.

ANSWER: International Religious Freedom Report 2014

Explanation:
This report includes 200 sub reports on various countries and details actions of non state actors who have committed human right abuses and stood in the way of religious freedom. The report found that Anti-Semitism persists in the world. In the year 2014, the report also found that governments in Africa, Asia and Middle East have failed to protect citizens against abuses by non state actors such as terrorist organisations which want to destroy religious diversity. Religious and civil society groups were found to have promoted greater respect for religious diversity.