NASA , Curiosity , Space exploration , Astronomy - GS questions based on daily current affairs

ANSWER: Find amount of pollution in remote corners of Earth

Explanation:

• NASA is launching an airborne mission that will map the contours of the Earth’s atmosphere to discover how much pollution exists in the most remote corners of the planet and assess how the environment has changed as a result.
• Pollutants emitted to the atmosphere are dispersed over the whole globe, but remote regions are cleaner, by factors of 1,000 or more, than areas near the continents, researchers said.
• The Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission is the first to survey the atmosphere over the oceans.
• ATom is particularly interested in methane, ozone and airborne particles called black carbon, which have strong effects on climate and which all have both human and natural origins.

ANSWER: 1, 3

Explanation:

• The New Frontiers program is a series of space exploration missions being conducted by NASA with the purpose of researching several of the Solar System's planets including Jupiter, Venus, and the dwarf planet Pluto.
• There are currently two New Frontiers missions in progress, New Horizons, which launched on January 19, 2006, and Juno, which launched on August 5, 2011; a third New Frontiers mission, OSIRIS-REx, has been selected for launch in September 2016.
• New Horizons is for Pluto and Juno is for Jupiter.

ANSWER: Both a and c

Explanation:
Astronauts Scott Kelly, Mikhail Komienko break American record for longest space flight. Both traveled 144 million miles through space and circled the world 5,440 times. They experienced 10,880 orbital sunrises and sunsets during the longest single spaceflight by an American. The next longest spaceflight is 125 days less. But when it comes to longest space flight, a Russian doctor holds the record with 438 days.

ANSWER: 1, 2, 3

Explanation:

• A team of scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Mars Society Australia and the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow, will mount an expedition to Ladakh this August to study the similarities of certain parts of the region’s topography and microbial life to Martian surroundings.
• Ladakh offers a “high UV (ultra-violet) exposed, dry ecosystem with Mars analogue topological features that tell us heaps about the origin and evolution of our planet’s topological features.
• Before Ladakh, there have been expeditions to the deserts such in Atacama, Chile; Mojave, California; Arkaroola, Australia as well as the Arctic and Antarctica, organised since 2006.
• For the first time India is part of Spaceward Bound programme, which educates future space explorers and funds expeditions to places with extreme climate conditions.
• They will be testing a rover that will collect samples and analyze some of the high altitude springs etc.
• The Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany has expertise in studying ancient climate and life.

ANSWER: Method to detect dwarf galaxies dominated by dark matter

Explanation:
A global team of scientists led by Indian- American Sukanya Chakrabarti devised s new method called galactoseismology for detecting dwarf galaxies dominated by dark matter. Method also explains ripples on the external disk of the galaxy. Chakrabarti, an assistant professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, NY has presented her findings whereby the discovered method employs the use of the waves in the galactic disk to map inner structures and mass of galaxies. This is similar to seismologists who use seismic waves to gather details about the inner part of the earth. Method will be used for hunting mysterious space phenomenon. Team uses the spectroscopic observations for calculation of the speed of three Cepheid variables in the Norma constellation. Cepheid variables are stars used as yardstick for calculating the galaxies’ distances. Study tracks Cepheid variables travelling at the speed of 450,000 MPH.

ANSWER: IDCS 1426

Explanation:
This massive, churning galaxy cluster 1000 times more massive than the Milky Way galaxy has been discovered by astronomers some 10 billion light years away. This cluster is unique is formed when the Universe was 3.8 billion years old. Scientists have found that super giant structures could form much later after billions of years of clumping matter. MIT, University of Missouri, University of Florida have found the cluster using NASA’s 3 great observatories- Hubble Space Telescope, Keck Observatory and Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Cluster called IDCS 1426 is the most massive cluster of galaxies yet discovered during the first 4 billion years following the Big Bang. IDCS 1426 appears to be undergoing a considerable amount of upheaval. Researchers observed a bright knot of X-rays off center in the cluster, indicating the core of the cluster might have shifted some 100 thousand years ago from its centre. Core may have been dislodged from a massive collision with another galaxy cluster causing the gas within the cluster around, much like a wine in a glass that has been immediately moved. Galaxy clusters are conglomerates of 100s to 1000s of galaxies bound together by gravity. They are the most massive structures within the universe. Some like the Virgo cluster nearly are bright and easy to spot in the sky.

ANSWER: Both a and b

Explanation:
A globular cluster holding million stars in a ball about 100 light years ago could be the place to look for intelligent life identified in the galaxy. Milky Way galaxy hosts about 150 globular clusters, most of them orbiting in the galactic outskirts. They formed about 10 billion years ago on average, researchers said. Some scientists have argued that this makes globular cluster stars less likely to host planets. In fact, only one planet has been found in a globular cluster to date. Interstellar communication becomes easy for stars within the cluster called global customer opportunity.

ANSWER: All

Explanation:
The discovery of exoplanets has intensified interest in the search for extraterrestrial life, particularly for those that orbit in the host star's habitable zone where it is possible for liquid water (and therefore life) to exist on the surface. NASA astronomers have discovered the nearest rocky planet outside the solar system which is larger than earth.

ANSWER: It needs to have “cleared the neighborhood” of its orbit

Explanation:
As planets form, they become the dominant gravitational body in their orbit in the Solar System. As they interact with other, smaller objects, they either consume them, or sling them away with their gravity. There are still many objects with similar size and mass to Pluto jostling around in its orbit. And until Pluto crashes into many of them and gains mass, it will remain a dwarf planet.

ANSWER: Both

Explanation:
Since 1922, the IAU General Assembly meets every three years, with the exception of the period between 1938 to 1948, due to World War II. After a Polish request in 1967, and by a controversial decision of the then President of the IAU, an Extraordinary IAU General Assembly was held in February 1973 in Warsaw, Poland, to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the birth of Nicolaus Copernicus