- Indian Astronomers discover one of the farthest star galaxies in the universe
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The discovery was made by a team of astronomers led by Dr Kanak Saha from the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) Pune.
Main points
- The galaxy, called AUDFs01, is 9.3 billion light-years away from Earth.
- The galaxy, one of the earliest, is located in the Extreme Deep field.
- Even though the observation was made in 2016, it took the scientists almost two years to analyse the data and ascertain that the emission was indeed from a galaxy.
- The scientists were able to discover the galaxy by detecting extreme UV radiation emanating from the galaxy.
- The discovery was made by the Indian space observatory AstroSat.
- It is remarkable that such faint UV radiation has been detected because usually, such low energy photons usually get absorbed on the way or by the earth’s atmosphere.
- Even the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) of NASA could not detect this probably due to noise.
- India’s AstroSat/UVIT was able to achieve this unique feat because the background noise in the UVIT detector is much less than in the HST.
- The discovery has been reported in the leading international journal “Nature Astronomy” published from Britain.
AstroSat:
- AstroSat is India’s first space observatory.
- It is the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission aimed at studying celestial sources in X-ray, optical and UV spectral bands simultaneously.
- It enables the simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of various astronomical objects with a single satellite.
- AstroSat with a lift-off mass of 1515 kg was launched in 2015 into a 650 km orbit inclined at an angle of 6 degrees to the equator by PSLV-C30 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
- The minimum useful life of the AstroSat mission is expected to be 5 years.
- The satellite is managed by the spacecraft control centre at Mission Operations Complex (MOX) of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bengaluru.
Objectives of the AstroSat mission:
- To understand high energy processes in binary star systems containing neutron stars and black holes.
- Estimate magnetic fields of neutron stars.
- Study star birth regions and high energy processes in star systems lying beyond our galaxy.
- Detect new briefly bright X-ray sources in the sky. Perform a limited deep field survey of the Universe in the Ultraviolet region.
- Australia-India-Japan Ministers’ meeting
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Australia-India-Japan Ministers’ meeting on Supply Chains Resilience held.
Main points
- The Ministers reaffirmed their determination to take a lead in delivering a free, fair, inclusive, non-discriminatory, transparent, predictable and stable trade and investment environment and in keeping their markets open.
- In light of the COVID-19 crisis and the recent global-scale changes in the economic and technological landscape, the Ministers underscored the necessity and potential to enhance the resiliency of supply chains in the Indo-Pacific region.
- Recognizing the pressing need for regional cooperation on supply chain resilience in the Indo- Pacific, the Ministers shared their intention to work toward the launch of a new initiative to achieve the objective through cooperation.
- Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM)
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Union Power Minister launches the Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM) in electricity as a first step towards greening the Indian short term power market.
Background info:
- In August 2020, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) had approved Green term ahead market (GTAM) contracts on the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) platform.
- Though the renewable penetration in the country is increasing, the participation of renewable energy in the existing DAM and TAM segment has remained negligible (less than 1%), as there has been no segregation between conventional power and green power by the system and the realization going to the generator was at par with conventional power. o DAM: Day ahead market where transactions in electricity are allowed for a day in advance.
- TAM: Term ahead market where electricity is traded the same day to up to 11 days in advance.
- Also, renewable developers would prefer to tie their generation in advance for longer periods with the consumers to ensure cash flows and project viability.
GTAM:
- Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM) is an alternative new model introduced for selling off the power by the renewable developers in the open market without getting into long term PPAs.
- Also, reportedly, in the absence of a suitable trading platform before, it was observed that the Renewable Energy (RE)-rich States are either backing down RE or selling their surplus RE as conventional power which is leading to losses for both DISCOMS and RE generators.
- Thus, these RE generators and DISCOMS would now be able to access the new niche platform – GTAM – to sell their excess power.
- GTAM will allow the buyers and sellers to trade green power along with the fulfillment of RPO obligations.
- It is a much needed market-based support for renewable energy to achieve the ambitious target of 175 GW of renewables by 2022 as it will provide a new opportunity to RE merchant capacity to sell power and additionally, it would also help spawn new RE merchant plants.
- GTAM is the first exclusive product for the renewable energy sector in the world.
Features of GTAM:
- Transactions through GTAM will be bilateral in nature with clear identification of corresponding buyers and sellers, there will not be any difficulty in accounting for RPO (renewable purchase obligation).
- GTAM contracts will be segregated into Solar RPO & Non-Solar RPO as RPO targets are also segregated.
- Further, within the two segments, GTAM contracts will have Green Intraday, Day Ahead Contingency, Daily and Weekly Contracts. o Green Intraday Contract & Day Ahead Contingency Contract – Bidding will take place on a 15-minute time-block wise MW basis. Daily & Weekly Contracts Price discovery will take place on a continuous basis i.e. price time priority basis. Subsequently, looking at the market conditions open auction can be introduced for daily & weekly contracts.
- Energy scheduled through GTAM contract shall be considered as deemed RPO compliance of the buyer.
- WORLD COCONUT DAY
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World Coconut Day was observed on September 2, 2020. The theme of World Coconut Day this year is – ‘Invest in Coconut to save the world’.
Main points
- The main objective of celebrating this day is to create awareness across the globe about the importance of the coconut and its benefits.
- The day is especially marked in countries under Asian and Pacific regions by the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community (APCC) as they house most of the world’s coconut growing production centres.
- The first celebration of World Coconut Day was in the year 2009. The occasion is to commemorate the foundation day of APCC, which operates under the flagship authority of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP).
- In India, Kerala tops the production in coconut, but Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are also picking up in this sector.
- The National Coconut Board is also overseeing the production and development of value-added varieties from coconut like soft drinks, chips and jams.
5.INDIA-BANGLADESH INLAND WATERWAYS
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The trial run on new river route from Daudkandi in Bangladesh to Sonamura in Tripura started as the MV Premier sailed from Daudkandi with 50 metric tonne of cement cargo.
Main points :
- It is scheduled to arrive in Sonamura in Tripura after covering a distance of 93 kilometers through river Gumti.
- The route will connect Tripura with Bangladesh using the inland waterways for the first time.
- This is yet another recent connectivity initiative with Bangladesh, which will greatly enhance connectivity between Bangladesh and the North Eastern states of India boosting bilateral trade with Bangladesh.
- The opening of the new route follows the signing of the 2nd addendum to the Protocol for Inland Water Trade & Transit (PIWTT) in May 2020 which opened two new routes.
- The PIWTT was signed between India and Bangladesh in 1972 to connect the two countries through inland waterways.
- GW190521
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Billions of years ago, a collision between two black holes sent gravitational waves rippling through the universe.
- In 2019, signals from these waves were detected at the gravitational wave observatory LIGO (United States) and the detector Virgo (Italy). The discovery and the analysis are described in two research papers published recently.
Main points
- GW190521 is a gravitational wave signal resulting from the merger of two black holes near a third supermassive black hole. The event was observed by the LIGO and Virgo detectors on 21 May 2019.
- The signal detected at LIGO and Virgo, as described by the LIGO Collaboration, resembled “about four short wiggles” and lasted less than one-tenth of a second.
Important Info :
- Gravitational waves are invisible ripples that form when a star explodes in a supernova; when two big stars orbit each other; and when two black holes merge.
- Travelling at the speed of light, gravitational waves squeeze and stretch anything in their path.
- Gravitational waves were proposed by Albert Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity over a century ago. It was only in 2015, however, that the first gravitational wave was actually detected — by LIGO. Since then, there have been a number of subsequent detections of gravitational waves.
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