SCIENCE & TECH

RRR
Part 1- Space, Astro & ET
Our Universe
Dwarf Planet Eris
• It was discovered in 2005
• It is named after the ancient Greek goddess of
discord
• It is a member of a group of objects that orbit
in a disc-like zone beyond the orbit of
Neptune called the Kuiper Belt
• It appears to have a rocky interior below a
shell of ice
• Similar in size to Pluto, it has distinct
characteristics that differentiate it from its
cosmic cousin
• Recent research has focused on understanding
Eris' internal structure and composition
without direct exploration, using observations
of its moon Dysnomia.
Hubble Constant
• It is the unit of measurement used to describe the
expansion of the universe
• Since the Big Bang event about 13.82 billion years ago,
the Universe has been expanding
• For an astronomical object (e.g. a star or a galaxy) at a
known distance from the Earth, the Hubble constant can
be used to predict how fast it should be moving away
from us
• Hubble’s constant was first proposed by Edwin Hubble,
an American astronomer who studied galaxies
• To calculate the value of the Hubble constant, 2
details are required:
1. the distance between the observer and astronomical
objects.
2. the velocity at which these objects are moving
away from the observer as a result of the expansion
of the universe.
ESO 300-16
• Irregular galaxy
• Recently captured by Hubble Space Telescope
• The galaxy is located in the constellation of Eridanus,
contains a bubble of blue gas at its core and has a backdrop of
many distant galaxies
Hubble Space Telescope,1990
• It is named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble
• Built by - NASA and the European space agency
• Hubble is a telescope that orbits Earth
• Expanding the frontiers of the visible Universe, the Hubble Space Telescope looks deep into
space with cameras that can see across the entire optical spectrum from infrared to ultraviolet
• It is one of NASA's Great Observatories Programs. The other missions in the program
include
1. the visible-light Spitzer Space Telescope
2. Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO)
3. the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO))
Radio Galaxy
• Radio Galaxies, also known as radio-luminous
galaxies or radio-loud galaxies, are a particular
type of active galaxy that emits more light at radio
wavelengths than at visible wavelengths
• These happen through the interaction between
charged particles and strong magnetic fields
related to supermassive black holes at the
galaxies’ centre
• Radio galaxies are driven by non-thermal
emissions
• They are much bigger than most of the other
galaxies in the universe
• The first radio galaxy to be discovered, and still
the brightest, is called Cygnus A.
Blazer
• It is a type of galaxy that is powered by a
humongous black hole and is among one
of the brightest and most powerful objects
in the universe
• They are known for emitting highly
energetic particles and radiation,
including gamma rays, X-rays, and radio
waves
MCG-01-24-014
• Hubble Space Telescope recently captured
an image of the spiral galaxy, MCG-01-24-
014
• Spiral galaxies are twisted collections of
stars and gas that often have beautiful
shapes and are made up of hot, young stars
• Most of the galaxies that scientists have
discovered so far are spiral galaxies, as
opposed to the other two main categories of
galaxy shapes—elliptical and irregular.
Approximately 60% of all galaxies are
thought to be spiral galaxies.
Jellyfish Galaxy (JO206)
• Recently, NASA released an image
showcasing the jellyfish galaxy JO206
which was captured by the Hubble
telescope
• It trails across the universe about 700
million light-years away from our planet
• It is in the constellation Aquarius.
RADIATIONS
XRISM Mission
• X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM)
is a joint mission of the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency (JAXA) and the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA), involving contributions
from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Canadian
Space Agency as well
• Mission aims to observe X-rays coming from deep
space and to identify their wavelengths with
unprecedented precision
• It detects X-rays with energies ranging from 400 to
12,000 electron volts. This range will provide
astrophysicists with new information about some of the
universe's hottest regions, largest structures, and objects
with the strongest gravity
• The mission has two instruments, Resolve and Xtend.
X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat)
• XPoSat is the first dedicated satellite from ISRO
to carry out research and measure X-ray emission
from celestial sources like black holes and
neutron stars
• It is the second satellite in the world to study X-
ray polarization, first being NASA’s Imaging X-
ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), launched in
2021
• ISRO successfully launched the X-ray
Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) by Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle (PSLV) -C58
• PSLV-C58 was the 60th flight of ISRO’s Polar
Satellite launch Vehicle.
Polarization and X-ray Polarimetry
• Normal light (unpolarized light) consists of
electric field and magnetic field vectors which
vibrate perpendicularly to each other.
• Light waves that travel in a single plane are
known as polarized light waves
• The process of transforming unpolarized light Polarization
into polarized light is known as polarization and
can be achieved through Scattering, reflection,
refraction or use of Polaroid/ polarizing filter
• Studying/measuring the polarization of X-rays is
X-Ray polarimetry
• X-rays are high-energy electromagnetic waves.
Cygnus X-1
• India’s space telescope AstroSat has for
the first-time measured X-ray polarization
from the Cygnus X-1 black hole
• Cygnus X-1 is one of the first confirmed
black hole systems in our galaxy.
STARS
Betelgeuse
• It is a bright red supergiant
• It likely underwent an enormous surface
mass ejection (SME) where it ejected 400
billion times more mass than a typical
event on other stars
• It is at a distance of 724 lightyears from
the Earth is nearly 50 percent brighter
than usual
• Red Giant: is a dying star in the final
stages of stellar evolution.
INFUSE Mission
• Integral Field Ultraviolet Spectroscope
Experiment (INFUSE)
• Recently, NASA launched a sounding rocket as
part of it’s INFUSE mission to study the
Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant, to
understand how the stellar explosive deaths
forms new star systems in the universe
• Objective of the INFUSE Mission: Understanding the life cycle of stars and the
formation of new star systems in the universe through the analysis of the Cygnus
Loop's properties and characteristics
• Cygnus Loop, or Veil Nebula, is the remains of a massive star that underwent a
supernova explosion visible from Earth due to its significant brightness.
Kilonova Explosion
• A kilonova is a bright blast of
electromagnetic radiation that happens
when two neutron stars or a neutron star
and a stellar-mass black hole collide and
merge
• A neutron star is formed when a star
having a mass more than 1.44 times that
of the Sun (as per Chandrasekhar limit)
blows off its gaseous envelope in a
supernova explosion. They are among the
densest objects in the cosmos.
AT 2023prq
• Nova
• Astronomers have recently performed
photometric and spectroscopic observations of a
recently discovered nova, known as AT 2023prq
• Nova is any of a class of exploding stars whose
luminosity temporarily increases from several
thousand to as much as 100,000 times its normal
level. A nova reaches maximum luminosity
within hours after its outburst and may shine
intensely for several days or occasionally for a
few weeks, after which it slowly returns to its
former level of luminosity. Stars that become
novas are nearly always too faint before the
eruption to be seen with the unaided eye.
30 Doradus B
• NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory
recently captured a stunning image of 30
Doradus B, a supernova remnant that is
part of a vibrant region of space where stars
have been forming for millions of years
• NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is a
telescope specially designed to detect X-ray
emission from very hot regions of the
Universe, such as exploded stars, clusters
of galaxies, and matter around black holes.
It was launched by NASA on July 23,
1999. Because X-rays are absorbed by
Earth’s atmosphere, Chandra must orbit
above it, up to an altitude of 139,000 km
(86,500 mi) in space.
Cassiopeia A
• It is the youngest remnant of the
massive star that exploded some 340
years ago in our galaxy known to
mankind
• It belongs to the prototypical type of
supernova remnant and has been
extensively studied by a number of
ground-based and space-based
observatories
• The remnant spans about 10 light-years
and is located 11,000 light-years away in
the constellation Cassiopeia.
Fomalhaut
• Formalhaut is the brightest star in southern
constellation of Piscis Austrinus
• It is almost twice the mass and size of sun and
radiates over 16 times the sun’s energy
• A single belt of debris around Fomalhaut was
discovered in 1983
• Recently, James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
spots new belts of asteroid near star Fomalhaut
JWST
• JWST is NASA’s s infrared flagship observatory,
is an international collaboration between NASA,
European Space Agency, and Canadian Space
Agency
• It is placed in Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2 (L2)
• JWST is being considered as successor of
Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
HE 1005-1439
• Recently, scientists atIIA, Bangalore under DST, Govt. of
India, have discovered a unique star named HE 1005-
1439 classified as a carbon-enhanced metal-poor
(CEMP) star
• The researchers used high-resolution spectroscopic data
acquired using High Dispersion Spectrograph (HDS)
attached to SUBARU telescope (Japan) to analyze the
star's surface chemical composition
• Carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars are
characterized by diverse heavy elements abundance
patterns and are primarily classified into four groups,
based on which groups of heavy elements are more
abundant. These are mostly dwarf stars, sub-giant stars,
or giant stars, and stars that belong to these evolutionary
stages cannot produce elements heavier than iron.
Pulsars
• Pulsars are rotating neutron stars observed to have
pulses of radiation at very regular intervals that
typically range from milliseconds to seconds
• Pulsars have very strong magnetic fields, which
funnel jets of particles out along the two magnetic
poles. Often, the magnetic field is not aligned with
the spin axis, so those beams of particles and light are
swept around as the star rotates
• Pulsar masses range between 1.18 and 1.97 times that
of the Sun, but most pulsars have a mass 1.35 times
that of the Sun.

PSR J1032−5804:
• Using the Australian Square Kilometer Array
Pathfinder (ASKAP), astronomers have recently
discovered a new pulsar, which has received the
designation PSR J1032−5804.
Wolf-Rayet Stars
• These are massive stars that are near the
end of their stellar evolution
• They are typically more than 25 times
the mass the Sun and lose this mass at a
very high rate
• They are a rare sight and are among the
most luminous, most massive, and most
briefly-detectable stars known to
scientists.
Magnetar
• Magnetars are neutron stars having an ultrahigh
magnetic field that are much stronger than the terrestrial
magnetic field. Simply put, the magnetic field of a
magnetar is over one quadrillion time stronger than the
magnetic field of Earth
• What powers the emission of high-energy
electromagnetic radiation in them is the decay of
magnetic fields in these objects
• Besides, magnetars display strong temporal variability,
typically including a slow rotation, a rapid spin-down,
bright but short bursts going on upto months-long
outbursts
• One such magnetar was called SGR J1830-0645, was
discovered in October 2020 by NASA's Swift spacecraft.
It is relatively young (about 24,000 years) and isolated
neutron star.)
X-ray Bursts
• It occurs in low-mass X-ray binary systems where a neutron
star and low-mass main sequence star are in orbit around one
another
• Due to their close proximity and the extreme gravity of the
neutron star, the companion star overflows its roche-lobe and
hydrogen is drawn into an accretion disk around the neutron
star
• This hydrogen is eventually deposited on the surface of the neutron star and immediately
is converted into helium due to the extreme temperatures and pressures that exist there. A
thin surface layer of helium is built up, and once a critical mass of helium is reached, it
ignites explosively, heating the entire surface of the neutron star to several tens of millions
of degrees releasing a sudden burst of X-rays
• Recently, India’s first multi-wavelength space-based observatory AstroSat has detected
bright sub-second X-ray bursts from a new and unique neutron star with ultrahigh
magnetic field (magnetar).
Gamma-Ray Burst
• Gamma-ray bursts are short-lived explosions
of gamma rays, the most energetic form of
light
• Lasting from a few milliseconds to several
hours, they shine hundreds of times brighter
than a typical supernova and about a million
trillion times as bright as the Sun
• Observed in distant galaxies, they are the
brightest electromagnetic events known to
exist in the universe
• According to recent researchers, gamma-ray
burst (GRB) triggered by a supernova
explosion in a galaxy situated nearly two
billion light-years from earth, induced a
notable disruption in the ionosphere of Earth.
Amaterasu
• Powerful Cosmic Ray
• It is one of the highest-energy cosmic
rays ever detected. It has been named
Amaterasu after the Japanese sun
goddess
• It comes only second to the Oh-My-God
particle, another ultra-high-energy cosmic
ray that came in at 320 EeV, detected in
1991
• Amaterasu appears to have emerged from
the Local Void, an empty area of space
bordering the Milky Way galaxy.
ASTEROIDS
OSIRIS-Rex Mission
• OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation,
Resource Identification, Security- Regolith
Explorer), launched in 2016, is the NASA’s first
mission to collect a sample from near-Earth asteroid
Bennu
• Bennu is a B-type asteroid, i.e., it contains significant
amounts of carbon and various other minerals. Hence, it
reflects about 4% of the light that hits it (Earth reflects
about 30% and Venus reflects about 65 %)
• Bennu was formed in first 10 million years of solar
system’s creations. It has not gone through a lot of
composition altering change through billions of years,
which means that below its surface lie chemicals and
rocks from the birth of the solar system
• Recently, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid samples
capsule from asteroid Bennu lands on Earth.
OSIRIS-APEX
• It is a mission to study the physical
changes to asteroid Apophis that
will result from its rare close
encounter with Earth in April 2029
• In an extension of its celestial
duties, the spacecraft that delivered
asteroid samples from Bennu,
OSIRIS-REx, has embarked on a Apophis
new mission, and NASA has • discovered in 2004
renamed it as OSIRIS-APEX • It is a stony "S-type" asteroid made of silicate (or rocky)
• The mission aims to observe the material and a mixture of metallic nickel and iron
• It is a remnant from the early formation of our solar
physical changes induced by
system about 4.6 billion years ago
Earth's gravitational pull during • It originated in the main asteroid belt between Mars and
Apophis' flyby. Jupiter.
Psyche
• NASA has launched a spacecraft called ‘Psyche’
on a six-year mission to study a unique metal-
rich asteroid also named ‘Psyche.’
• This asteroid orbits the Sun between Mars and
Jupiter
• The primary goal of the Psyche mission is to
explore the iron core, a previously unexplored
aspect of planet formation For the first time, the
mission will examine a celestial body primarily
composed of metal rather than rock and ice.
Additionally, it aims to gain insights into the
internal structure of terrestrial planets, including
Earth, by directly studying the interior of a
differentiated body, which would otherwise
remain hidden.
Asteroid Dinkinesh
• NASA’s Lucy spacecraft, on a mission
to observe Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids
• Recently made an unexpected discovery
• It found that the main belt asteroid
Dinkinesh, which it was set to fly by, is
actually a binary system of two asteroids
bound together
• An asteroid is a rocky, metallic, or icy
minor planet that orbits within the inner
Solar System.
Yarkovsky Effect
• The Yarkovsky effect is a
phenomenon in space where the
way an asteroid absorbs and re-
emits solar radiation can alter its
trajectory over time
• This effect can lead to small but
significant changes in an asteroid’s
path, potentially influencing its orbit
and posing collision risks with
Earth.
2023 FW13
• Astronomers have recently discovered
a ‘quasi-moon’ called ‘2023 FW13’
that orbits the Earth but is actually
gravitationally bound by the Sun
• It is an asteroid which has been
designated as a quasi-satellite or a
quasi-moon. It is among the few
known quasi-moons or satellites that
we know of in our solar system. It
was identified by experts utilizing the
Pan-STARRS telescope situated atop
Hawaii’s Haleakala volcano. It has Quasi-Moons
been in Earth's vicinity since 100 BC • They are also known as 'quasi-satellites' because they
and will keep circling our planet for at appear to orbit our planet in the same way that our natural
least another 1,500 years, until AD satellite, the Moon. It is a space rock that circles the
Earth, but is gravitationally bound by the sun
3700
EXOPLANTES
HD 63433d
• Astronomers recently unveiled the
discovery of an Earth-like planet,
younger and closer than any previously
identified, named HD 63433d
• It is an Earth-like exoplanet that orbits a
sun-like star called HD 63433 (also
known as TOI 1726)
• It is the smallest confirmed exoplanet,
younger than 500 million years old
• It’s also the closest Earth-sized planet discovered so far, and it’s about 400 million
years old
• It’s the third planet found in orbit around its star. This planet is eight times closer to its
star than Mercury is to the Sun.
TOI4603 or HD 245134
• NASA’s The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite initially
declared TOI4603 as a possible candidate to host a
secondary body of unknown nature
• ISRO said that the discovery of this massive exoplanet was
made using the indigenously made PRL Advanced Radial-
velocity Abusky Search spectrograph (PARAS) at the 1.2
m telescope of PRL at its Gurushikhar Observatory in Mt.
Abu by measuring the mass of the planet precisely
• Massive giant exoplanets are those having mass greater
than four times that of Jupiter
• An exoplanet is any planet beyond the solar system and the
one discovered by scientists from India, Germany,
Switzerland and the U.S. is with a density of ~14 g/cm3
• Exoplanet Research Group of the Physical Research
Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad
K2-18 B Exoplanet
• NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope
discovered the presence of carbon dioxide
and methane on an Exoplanet
• K2-18 b exoplanet is 120 light years from
Earth
• Planets that orbit stars, other than our sun,
are called Exoplanets
• James Webb Telescope is a space
telescope specifically designed to conduct
infrared astronomy
• Its high-resolution and high-sensitivity
instruments allow it to view objects too
old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Space
Telescope.
Wasp-107b
• Discovered by NASA's James Webb
Telescope recently
• It is a newly discovered exoplanet
situated 200 light-years away in the Virgo
constellation
• The mass of WASP-107b is 30.5 Earths,
and it takes only six days to orbit its
home star, which is slightly cooler and
less massive than our sun.
COMETS
Comet Nishimura
• The comet was discovered in mid-August by
amateur astronaut Hideo Nishimura, who
used 30-second exposures with a standard
digital camera to see it
• Since then, the comet, officially called
C/2023 P1 Nishimura, has increased in
brightness as it went forward on its path in the
inner solar system
• The comet is angularly near the Sun, so even
if it is visible, it will only be able to spot it
early before sunrise or late before sunset
• The comet is currently located in the
constellation Leo
• It completes an orbit around the Sun once
every 435 years.
Comet P12/Pons-Brooks
• Astronomers from the Indian Institute of
Astrophysics (IIA) have photographed
the enigmatic Comet P12/Pons-Brooks
by using the Himalayan Chandra
Telescope (HCT) from the Indian
Astronomical Observatory in Hanle,
Ladakh
• This comet, first discovered in the year
1812, completes an orbit around the Sun
every 71 years.
Geminid Meteor Shower
• Meteor shower happens when Earth passes
through the path of a comet. When this
happens, the bits of comet debris create streaks
of light in night sky as they burn up in Earth's
atmosphere
• Geminid meteors are created by tiny bits of
rocky debris shed from a small asteroid named
3200 Phaethon, which was discovered in 1983
• Phaethon is small, only about 3 miles across,
and it loops around the Sun every 1.4 years in
an orbit that approaches the Sun closer than
any other known asteroid
• Recently, Parker Solar Probe reveals
mysterious origin of Geminid meteor shower
on Earth.
Ureilite
• ‘Ureilites’ are a rare class of primitive meteorites that
constitute just a tiny fraction of meteorites on Earth
• It is named after the locality where the first specimen
was discovered, the Novo Urei village in Russia
• They consist of silicate rock, mostly olivine and
pyroxene, interspersed with less than 10% of carbon
(diamond or graphite), metal sulphides and a few fine-
grained silicates
• Ureilites are considered primitive meteorites because
their composition closely resembles the material from Dhala Crater
which the solar system formed • It is the oldest and the largest
• In a recent discovery, a collaborative team of scientists impact crater in India
from Allahabad University and the University of Bern, • Madhya Pradesh
• It is a massive 11 km in
Switzerland, revealed that the Dhala crater resulted from diameter, making it the largest
the collision of an exceptionally rare and ancient in Asia
meteorite, known as Ureilite
Erg Chech 002
• These are the rocks containing distinctive
greenish crystals that turned out to be
from outer space, left over from the dawn
of the Solar System
• They were all pieces of a meteorite
known as Erg Chech 002, which is the
oldest volcanic rock ever found
• It is known as an “ungrouped
achondrite,” which means their parent
bodies and family relationships are
unknown
• Erg Chech is a sandy region of the Sahara
in western Algeria and northern Mali. It
consists largely of shifting dunes.
BLACK HOLE
Sagittarius C (Sgr C)
• It is the star-forming region
known to be situated
approximately 300 light-years
from the Milky Way's central
supermassive black hole,
Sagittarius A*
• Recently, the James Webb Space
Telescope (JWST) captured a
stunning image of the dense
centre of the Milky Way galaxy
with clarity never seen before.
Einstein Probe (EP)
• China recently sent a new astronomical
satellite called the Einstein Probe into
space to observe mysterious transient
phenomena in the universe that flicker
like fireworks
• The primary scientific goal of the EP is
to explore the transient and variable X-
ray sky, capturing powerful bursts of
high-energy light emanating from objects
such as merging neutron stars and black
holes.
SN Zwicky
• Supernova
• Rare extremely warped image of exploding star captured by astronomers
• The supernova has been named SN Zwicky and it was sported by the Zwicky
Transient Facility (ZTF) at the Palomar Observatory in California
• Its image was warped due to an effect called gravitational lensing. This happens
when the gravity of a dense object distorts and brightens the light of an object
behind it
Black Holes
• It is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out. The gravity is so
strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space
• Most black holes form from the remnants of a large star that dies in a supernova explosion
• In 2019, scientists got the first optical image of a black hole, at the centre of a galaxy named Messier
87, through Event Horizon Telescope
• No black hole is close enough to the solar system for Earth to fall into it
• Black Holes cannot be directly observed because they themselves do not emit or radiate light, or any
other electromagnetic waves. But the area just outside the boundary of the black hole (Event
Horizon), emits all kinds of radiation, including even visible light. This area has vast amounts of gas,
clouds and plasma swirling violently
• 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for discovering that black hole formation (Sagittarius
A*) at the center of our galaxy
• Recently, Scientists observed a class of black holes (quasars) demonstrating time dilation in the early
universe.
Quasars
• They are tremendously active
supermassive black holes millions to
billions of times more massive than
our sun, usually residing at centres of
galaxies
• There are no quasars near Milky
Way.
Time Dilation
• It refers to the fact that time passes at
different rates for different observers,
depending on their relative motion or
positions in a gravitational field
• Time dilation is a consequence of
Einstein’s Theory of relativity
• This occurs because objects with a
lot of mass create a strong
gravitational field. Stronger the
gravity, the more spacetime curves,
and the slower time itself proceeds.
Markarian 421
• It is a supermassive black hole firing a jet of high-
energy particles aimed directly at Earth
• It is about 400 million light-years away from the earth
• It is located in the constellation Ursa Major
• Recently, NASA’s IXPE Mission unveils twisted
mysteries of the Supermassive Black Hole Markarian
421
• Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is an
international collaboration between NASA and the
Italian Space Agency. It studies the most extreme and
mysterious objects in the universe – supernova
remnants, supermassive black holes, and dozens of
other high-energy objects. It is the first satellite
dedicated to measuring polarized X-rays from objects,
such as neutron stars and supermassive black holes, to
reveal previously hidden details of the universe.
Taam Ja
• Scientists have uncovered a massive sinkhole
off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in
Mexico
• It’s World’s 2nd Deepest Blue Hole in Mexico
• The Mexico blue hole has been named ‘Taam
Ja’, which means ‘deep water’ in Mayan
• Blue hole is actually a massive underwater
sinkhole, which is hundreds of metres long and
spans across areas that are bigger than cities and
stands at a height of several skyscrapers
• Dragon Hole or Longdong is the deepest blue
hole on earth and situated in the South China
Sea. It’s more than 980 ft deep.
X-Ray Polarization
• X-ray polarimetry is a unique observational technique to
identify where radiation comes from near black holes
• It helps in studying the origin of cosmic rays in the
universe, the nature of black holes, and the interaction
of matter with the highest physically possible magnetic
fields
• Recently, Indian researchers detect X-ray polarization
for the first time from a black hole outside the Milky
Way. Radiations are emitted from the vicinity of a black • The Magellanic Clouds = are two
hole located in the Large Magellanic Cloud-X-3 (LMC irregular dwarf satellite galaxies
X3) and located 200,000 light years away from the Earth
orbiting our Milky Way galaxy in
• Researchers studied LMC X-3 using the Imaging X-ray
the southern celestial hemisphere +
Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) [NASA], the Neutron Star
Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) Mission The two galaxies are large
[NASA], and Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array magellanic clouds and small
(NuSTAR) [NASA]. magellanic clouds.
Einstein Cross
• Astronomers discovered a rare
example of an Einstein Cross
• Einstein Cross is a specific case of
Gravitational Lensing. This
phenomenon occurs when massive
objects distort and magnify light from
objects behind them (such as a galaxy
or a quasar), acting as cosmic
telescopes and making distant galaxies
appear brighter.
SUN
Solar Flare
• Solar flares are giant explosions on the
sun that send energy, light, and high-
speed particles into space
• These flares are often associated with
solar magnetic storms known as
coronal mass ejections (CMEs)
• It happens when energy stored in
‘twisted’ magnetic fields (usually
above sunspots) is suddenly released
• Solar Flares are classified according
to their strength. The smallest are A-
class, followed by B, C, M, and X, the
largest. Each letter represents a 10-fold
increase in energy output.
Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)
• CME is a giant cloud of solar plasma
drenched with magnetic field lines that is
blown away from Sun often during strong,
long-duration solar flares and filament
eruptions
• CME contains particle radiation (mostly
protons and electrons) and powerful
magnetic fields. They cause disruption of
space weather and satellite failures, and
power outages etc
• Recenty, Scientists from Aryabhatta Aryabhatta Research Institute of
Observational Sciences (ARIES)
Research Institute of Observational
• Nainital, Uttarakhand
Sciences (ARIES), Nainital found that core • It is an autonomous institute under
of CME that occurred in 2017 had Department of Science and Technology.
maintained a constant temperature.
Picoflare Jets
• Picoflare jets are small-scale phenomena on the sun
that release a significant amount of energy in a short
period, typically lasting only a few dozen seconds
• These jets, named as pico, as they carried
approximately one-trillionth as much energy as the
largest flares that the sun is believed to be able to
produce
• The phenomenon responsible for creating these jets in
the sun's coronal holes is likely magnetic reconnection.
Magnetic reconnection involves the breaking and
reconnecting of magnetic field lines, which releases a
substantial amount of stored energy
• The Solar Orbiter has recently captured extreme
ultraviolet images of the Sun, revealing a multitude of
small-scale jets known as "picoflare" jets within a
coronal hole.
Solar Winds
• The solar wind is created by the outward expansion of
plasma (a collection of charged particles) from the Sun's
corona (outermost atmosphere)
• As the Sun rotates (once every 27 days), it winds up its
magnetic field lines above its polar regions into a large
rotating spiral, creating a constant stream of "wind."
• As the solar wind moves away from the Sun, it forms a
vast region around it called the "heliosphere." This bubble
extends well beyond the orbits of most planets in our solar
system
• Please Note: Solar wind and solar flares are not the same
phenomena. A solar flare is just an enhancement of
electromagnetic radiation in the UV to γ-ray range (mostly
UV and x-rays). The solar wind is the constant flow of
thermal particles from the sun's upper atmosphere.

Solar Orbiter
• Solar Orbiter is a collaborative mission between the
European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA that aims to
investigate the Sun's magnetic fields, energetic particles,
and plasma in their pristine state before they are altered
during their journey
• The mission was launched 2020.
Equal Contrast Technique (ECT)
• Recently, scientists developed a new methodology,
called Equal Contrast Technique (ECT), to analyse
Sun images in white light, which can help prevent
temporal and latitudinal variations in observations
related to instrument and sky conditions
• It is known that there are large numbers of regions of
weak magnetic field on the sun, which vary with
time. These can be studied using magnetograms
and Ca-K line images of the sun, as there is a strong
correlation between the magnetic field and the Ca-K
line intensity of the region on the Sun
• This type of accurate analysis of the historical time
series of Ca-K images can be useful for reliable and
accurate investigation of variations on the sun and
the effect of this on the climatic condition of the
earth
Sun Halo
• The phenomenon of the Sun halo was
witnessed in North India
• It is a multi-colored ring that appears
like a rainbow circling the star in our
solar system
• It is also referred to as 22-degree halo
because the radius of the circle is
always approximately 22 degrees
• Halos are a sign of high, thin cirrus
clouds drifting 20,000 feet (6 km) or
more above our heads. These clouds
contain millions of tiny unique
hexagonal ice crystals.
Aditya L1 Mission
• Aditya L1 is the first space-based Indian mission to study the Sun launched by the Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL) (PSLV-C57 rocket)
• The objective of Aditya L1 mission is to study Sun’s Corona, Chromosphere and
Photosphere. In addition, it will study the particle flux emanating from Sun, and the variation
of magnetic field strength
• Initially, the PSLV will place the Aditya L-1 in a lower Earth orbit. The orbit and the
spacecraft velocity around the Earth will be increased using onboard propulsion
subsequently till it is slingshot towards the Sun
• The spacecraft shall be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-
Earth system, which is about 1.5 million km from the Earth. At the L1 point, the satellite
has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/eclipses
• The spacecraft carries seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and
the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) using electromagnetic and particle and
magnetic field detectors: Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VLEC) , Solar Ultraviolet
Imaging Telescope (SUIT), Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS), High
Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS), Aditya Solar wind Particle
Experiment (ASPEX), Plasma Analyser Packages for Aditya (PAPA) and Advanced Tri-
axial High Resolution Digital Magnetometers
• Utility: The data from Aditya mission will be immensely helpful in discriminating
between different models for the origin of solar storms and also for constraining how the
storms evolve and what path they take through the interplanetary space from the Sun to
the Earth
• Aditya-L1 is also ISRO’s second astronomy observatory-class mission after AstroSat
(2015).
Lagrange Points in the Sun-Earth System:
L1: L1 is considered the most significant of the
Lagrange points for solar observations + A satellite
placed in the halo orbit around the L1 has the major
advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without
any occultation/ eclipses + It is currently home to the
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Satellite
(SOHO).
L2: Positioned directly 'behind' Earth as viewed from
the Sun, L2 is excellent for observing the larger
Universe without Earth's shadow interference + The
James Webb Space Telescope orbits the Sun near L2.
L3: Positioned behind the Sun, opposite Earth, and
just beyond Earth's orbit, it offers potential
observations of the far side of the Sun.
L4 and L5: Objects at L4 and L5 maintain stable
positions, forming an equilateral triangle with the
two larger bodies + They are often used for space
observatories, such as those studying asteroids.
STEREO-A Spacecraft
• NASA
• Launched in 2006, STEREO traces
the flow of energy and matter from
Sun to Earth
• It passes between Sun and Earth,
marking the first Earth flyby of nearly
17-year old mission
• STEREO-A's flyby will allow
scientists to understand how coronal
mass ejection's (CME) magnetic field
evolves on its way to Earth
• It is composed of two nearly identical
observatories i.e. one ahead (STEREO-
A) of Earth in its orbit, the other
trailing behind (STEREO-B).
AURORAS
AURORAS
• Recently, Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO) above
Mount Saraswati captured a rare phenomenon as a
geomagnetic storm struck Earth's magnetic field, creating
unique auroras
• This was the first time that the aurora was captured on
camera in India by the Indian Astronomical Observatory
• The auroras are normally seen at higher altitudes in parts of
Alaska, Norway, and other countries
• The sun is ejecting charged particles from its corona,
creating solar wind. When that wind slams into Earth's
ionosphere, the aurora is born
• In the Northern Hemisphere, the phenomenon is called the
northern lights (aurora borealis), while in the Southern
Hemisphere, it's called the southern lights (aurora australis)
• Aruroras are seen when there is a clear sky, no clouds and
there is darkness.
Mount Saraswati
• Located in Uttarakhand, India

Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO)

• It is a high-altitude astronomy station located in Hanle, Ladakh, India and operated
by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics
• Situated in the Western Himalayas at an elevation of 4,500 meters, the IAO is one of
the world's highest located sites for optical, infrared and gamma-ray telescopes.

STEVE
• Another aurora-like occurrence on Earth is STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission
Velocity Enhancement)
• It is a glowing atmospheric phenomenon, but it looks slightly different from its
undulating auroral counterparts
• Like the northern and southern lights, STEVE is also visible from lower latitudes,
closer to the equator, than the auroras.
Stable Auroral Arc (SAR)
• Recently, the Indian Astronomical Observatory
(IAO) in Ladakh captured stunning images of a rare
red-colored aurora known as a Stable Auroral Arc
• It is a rare atmospheric phenomenon which was
observed during a strong G3-class geomagnetic
storm
• Unlike auroras, which occur when charged particles
from space hit the atmosphere causing it to glow,
SAR arcs form differently
• They are an indication of heat energy leaking into the
upper atmosphere from Earth's ring current system, a
donut-shaped circuit carrying millions of amps
around our planet
• This global event was registered in many parts of the
world.
THEMIS Mission
• NASA
• Launched in 2007, THEMIS studies
how mass and energy move through
the near-Earth space environment to
determine the physical processes
initiating auroras
• In 2010, two of its five spacecraft were
repurposed as ARTEMIS and moved to
a new location to study similar
processes closer to the Moon.
ORBITS
International Space Station (ISS)
• ISS is a large spacecraft around Earth. It serves as a
home where crews of astronauts and cosmonauts live
• It is a partnership between European countries
(represented by ESA), United States (NASA),
Japan (JAXA), Canada (CSA) and Russia
(Roscosmos)
• It orbits Earth at an average altitude of approximately
250 miles in every 90 minutes
• It has been continuously occupied since November
2000
• ISS weighs almost 400 tonnes and covers an area as
big as a football pitch
• It would have been impossible to build the Space
Station on Earth and then launch it into space in one
go. So, ISS was taken into space piece-by-piece and
gradually built-in orbit. This assembly required more
than 40 missions.
Bharatiya Antariksha Station
• As per ISRO’s chairman, India’s
proposed space station is envisaged to
weigh 20 tonnes and serve as a facility
where astronauts can stay for 15-20
days, and would be placed in an orbit
400 km above earth
• Prime Minister of India directed that
India should now aim for setting up
‘Bharatiya Antariksha Station’
(Indian Space Station) by 2035.
Long March 10 Rocket

• It is China’s new carrier rocket designed

for manned moon landing missions. The
rocket will be capable of ferrying a crew
module along with a lunar lander to
Earth-Moon transfer orbit

• Please Note: Tiangong (Chinese for "Heavenly Palace") is a modular space station
being constructed by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). It is the first
space station built by China. Tiangong is currently in low Earth orbit (LEO), and it is
expected to be operational until 2028. It is a three-module space station. The core
module Tianhe launched in April 2021, followed by the Wentian and Mengtian
experiment modules in 2022.
NVS01 Navigation Satellite
• Recently placed in Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit by
Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) from the
second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR,
Sriharikota
• It is the first in the series of second-generation navigation
satellites built by ISRO's UR Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru
• At present, India uses its Navigation with Indian Constellation
(NavIC) series of satellites for civilian and defence navigation
in the Indian mainland and even 1500 kms beyond India's
borders
• NVS series of satellites will sustain and augment the NavIC
with enhanced features
• This series incorporates L1 band signals additionally to widen
the services
• For the first time, an indigenous atomic clock will be flown in
NVS-01.
Navigation with Indian Constellation or NavIC
• Regional navigation satellite system
• Established by the ISRO
• Aims to meet the positioning, navigation and timing requirements of the nation
• NavIC was erstwhile known as Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)
• It is a constellation of seven satellites that work with a 24X7 network of ground
stations while orbiting above Earth (7 active out of total 8)
• Three satellites are placed in geostationary orbit and four in inclined geosynchronous
orbit
• The NavIC coverage area includes India and a region up to 1,500 km beyond the
nation’s boundary
• It offers two services - Standard Position Service for civilian users and Restricted
Service for strategic users
• The system is used in terrestrial, aerial, marine transportation, location-based services,
personal mobility, resource monitoring, surveying and geodesy, scientific research etc
• NavIC was recognised by the
International Maritime Organization
(IMO) as a part of the World-Wide
Radio Navigation System (WWRNS)
for operation in the Indian Ocean
Region in 2020
• Now as per Department of Space (DoS),
NavIC, the sevensatellite system that
makes up India’s version of the
American GPS (global positioning
system), will soon be integrated into
Aadhaar enrolment devices across the
country. Currently, the Aadhaar
enrolment kits that are used to collect
and verify personal details are linked to
GPS.
Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO)

• To attain geosynchronous (and also geostationary) Earth orbits, a spacecraft is first

launched into an elliptical GTO
• There on, the satellite will independently use its onboard propulsion systems to
perform orbit-raising manoeuvres and reach its intended orbit.
LAUNCH VEHICLES &
FUELS
 Pushpak or RLV LEX 02
• ISRO has successfully conducted the
Pushpak Reusable Landing Vehicle (RLV)
LEX 02 landing experiment
• Reusable Launch Vehicle is essentially a
space plane with a low lift to drag ratio
requiring an approach at high glide angles
that necessitates a landing at high
velocities of 350 kmph
• It utilises several indigenous systems.
Localised navigation systems based on
pseudolite systems, instrumentation, and
sensor systems, etc were developed by
ISRO.
PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM)
• Orbital Platform Experiments in PSLV (PS4-OP)
is a novel idea, which uses the spent PS4 stage
(fourth stage of PSLV) as a 3-axis stabilized
microgravity environment for short duration
scientific experiments
• This is intended to carry out in-orbit scientific
experiments for an extended duration of 4-6
months for small scientific payloads
• The advantage of the platform is that the stage has
standard interfaces & packages for power
generation, telemetry, tele-command,
stabilization, orbit keeping & orbit manoeuvring
• Earlier POEM experiments: POEM 1 and
POEM 2 were launched in June 2022 and April
2023 respectively.
CE-20 Cryogenic Engine
• It has been designed and developed by the Liquid
Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), a subsidiary of
ISRO
• It will power the Cryogenic Upper Stage of the LVM3
launch vehicle
• ISRO will use it for its ‘Mission Gaganyaan’ for sending
man to space in 2024
• It is the first Indian cryogenic engine to feature a gas-
generator cycle
• It is one of the most powerful upper-stage cryogenic
engines in the world
• The cryogenic stage is technically a very complex system
due to its use of propellants at extremely low
temperatures and the associated thermal and structural
problems. It uses liquid fuels (Oxygen liquifies at -183
deg C and Hydrogen at -253 deg C) that are cooled to
very low temperatures.
MOON
Super Blue Moon
• The ‘Super Blue Moon’ was observed recently.
According to NASA, the moon is called ‘super’
because it’s slightly closer to earth and ‘blue’ because
it was the second full moon in the month.
Super Moon
• The Moon revolves around the earth in an elliptical orbit,
with Earth closer to one side of the ellipse
• Each month, the Moon passes through the point closest
to Earth (perigee) and the point farthest from Earth
(apogee)
• At perigee, the moon appears full from the earth and thus
it is called a “supermoon.” And as the full moon is closer
to earth than usual, it appears especially large and bright
in the sky. At perigee, the Moon looks up to 14% bigger
than at apogee.
Blue Moon
• It is the term for the occurrence of the full
moon twice in a single month. The Moon's
cycle is 29.5 days i.e. little shorter than the
average length of a calendar month
• Eventually that gap results in a full moon
happening at the beginning of a month and
another at the end of the same month. This
happens every two to three years
• There are two types of blue moons: monthly
and seasonal. Seasonal blue moons occur
when there are four full moons in a single
season (spring, summer, fall and winter)
instead of the usual three
• Note: Moon does not actually look blue on
blue moon.
Moonquakes
• Small tremors have been observed on the moon, but
they are not because of the tectonic plate movements
• The moon experiences temperature differences from
minus 121 to minus 131. This range of temperature
differences results in seismic activities i.e.
moonquakes
• The moon surface has numerous craters of varying
sizes. Thus, moonquakes can also occur due to meteor
striking the lunar surface
• As the moon lacks the atmosphere, a small strike on
the ground can cause huge deformation or impact
causing tremors.
Tidal Energy
• Tidal Energy is a type of power generated by the
natural rise and fall of tides caused by the
gravitational interaction of the Earth, Sun, and
Moon
• The tidal cycle takes place once every twelve hours
as a result of the moon’s gravitational pull. The
difference in water depth between low and high
tides is known as potential energy. To harness the
full strength of the tidal energy potential, the high
tide must be at least five metres (16 feet) higher than
the low tide
• India is one of just roughly 20 locations on the earth
where the tides are this high. On Gujarat’s west
coast, the Gulf of Cambay and the Gulf of Kutch
have maximum and average tidal ranges of 11
metres and 8 metres, respectively.
Chandrayaan-3
• It aimed to demonstrated soft landing on lunar surface, make a rover travel on moon
surface and conduct in-situ scientific experiments
• Chandrayaan-3 has made history by becoming the first mission to soft-land on the lunar
south pole, a region that has never been explored before
• India now joins the United States, Russia, and China as one of the few countries to
successfully land on the Moon
• Indian Space Research Organisation launched the Chandrayaan-3 Mission by using the
Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (LVM3) on 14th July 2023 from
Sriharikota which placed the integrated module in an Elliptic Parking Orbit (EPO)
• Chandrayaan 3 inserted into orbit on 5th August and it soft landed on 23 August
• Chandrayaan-3 Mission consists of two modules - The propulsion module (PM) and the
Lander module (LM, that is, Chandrayaan 3 contained only lander (Vikram) and rover
(Pragyan) and NOT orbitor
• The total lifespan of the Mission (Lander and Rover) is lunar day (14 Earth days)
• Chandrayaan 3 although targeted near side but it also aimed to investigate "permanently
shadowed regions" near the South Pole for potential water-ice and resources.
Chandrayaan-3's Propulsion Module
• ISRO has successfully returned the
Chandrayaan-3's Propulsion Module from
lunar orbit to Earth's orbit. It is a milestone
in ISRO’s goal to bring back manned
missions in the future
• It marks the first instance of bringing an
object back from lunar orbit. It is also
ISRO's first demonstration of a gravity
assist flyby around another celestial body.
It is a technique of using a planet's or
celestial body's gravity to redirect and
accelerate a spacecraft toward Earth
• Payload SHAPE onboard the module will
continue to conduct a spectroscopic study
of Earth's atmosphere from Earth’s orbit.
Moon's Near Side & Far Side
• The near side refers to the portion of the
moon — about 60% — that is visible from
Earth
• This side of the Moon always faces the
Earth and it is the side that humans have
visited during various lunar missions
• The far side of the Moon is the side that is
not visible from Earth. The reason it is less
visible from Earth is due to a phenomenon
called “tidal locking”. The phrase “dark
side of the Moon” does not refer to “dark”
as in the absence of light, but rather “dark”
as in the unknown. In reality, both the near
and far sides receive (on average) almost
equal amounts of light directly from the Sun
Moon’s South Pole
• The lunar south pole is located at the
southern end of the Moon’s axis of rotation
• Its craters have been untouched by sunlight
for billions of years — offering an
undisturbed record of solar system’s
origins
• Its permanently shadowed craters are
estimated to hold enough water that could
potentially be used for future missions
• It has traces of hydrogen, ammonia,
methane, sodium, mercury, and silver —
making it an untapped source of essential
resources.
Propulsion Payloads
• Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet
Earth (SHAPE)
• The SHAPE payload will conduct novel
spectro-polarimetric studies of Earth
from lunar orbit. It will look for smaller
planets that could be habitable in the
reflected light
Lander Payloads
• Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound
Hypersensitive Ionosphere and
Atmosphere (RAMBHA): To measure the
plasma density fluctuations near the lunar
surface
• Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical
Experiment (ChaSTE): To carry out the
thermal traits of the moon's frigid polar
zones
• Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity
(ILSA): To measure seismic activity,
unveiling lunar crust-mantle configuration.
• LASER Retroreflector Array (LRA): To
understand the dynamics of the Moon
system
Rover Payloads
• Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS): To
determine the soil and rocks’ chemical
composition and mineral attributes
• LASER Induced Breakdown Spectroscope
(LIBS): To analyse elemental constitution,
enriching lunar geology insights
LVM3 Rocket System
• LVM3 is the new launch vehicle of ISRO with the
capability to place the modules into the GTO
(Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit) in a cost-effective
manner
• It is a three-stage launch vehicle with two solid strap
stages and one core liquid stage.
Recent Lunar Missions and planned missions
• Danuri Mission = South Korea + 2022
• Hakuto R Mission = Japan + 2022 + Japanese payload and UAE rover +
Crash landed.
• Luna 25 = Russia + Aimed at soft landing and sample gathering at southern
pole + failed recently.
• Artemis II = NASA (USA) + 2024 + Crewed mission to the moon
• Beresheet 2 = Israel + 2025 + lunar landing with 2 lander and orbitor.
Ejecta Halo
• When the Vikram lander of the
Chandrayaan-3 mission made a
soft landing on the moon it raised a
lot of dust
• This led to creation of a bright
patch, called as the ejecta halo (a
reflectance anomaly), around the
spacecraft
• The ejecta halo phenomenon has
been documented in the case of
almost all lunar landings.
Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX)
• Collaborative effort between India
(ISRO) & Japan (JAXA)
• Schedule to launch in 2025
• to study moon
• LUPEX will use a rover and lander to
study the possibility of establishing a
base on the Moon, the availability of
water ice, and surface exploration
technologies.
Lunar Gateway Station
• It is a primary component of NASA's Artemis program
• Artemis intends to establish a long-term base on the Moon
(Artemis base), and the Lunar Gateway will serve as a multi-
purpose outpost that orbits the Moon
• The Gateway is a multinational project involving four of the
International Space Station partner agencies: NASA, the
European Space Agency (ESA), Japan’s Aerospace Exploration
Agency (JAXA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA)
• Basically, the Gateway Station is similar to the International Space Station currently in low
Earth orbit, but the Gateway will orbit the Moon
• Incidentally, the Gateway will be the first space station ever to exist outside of low Earth
orbit, or LEO
• The UAE recently announced its participation in developing a module on NASA’s Lunar
Gateway Station alongside the USA, Japan, Canada, and the European Union.
VIPER Rover
• NASA
• first robotic lunar rover VIPER –
short for Volatiles Investigating Polar
Exploration Rover
• It is NASA's first mobile robotic
mission to the Moon
• It will directly analyse ice on the
surface and subsurface of the Moon at
varying depths and temperature
conditions within four main soil
environments.
Peregrine Lander or Peregrine Mission 1
• Peregrine Lander is expected to be
one of the first American
spacecraft to land on the Moon
since the Apollo program
• It is part of the National
Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA)’s
Commercial Lunar Payload
Services (CLPS) programme,
which aims to stimulate a broader
lunar economy.
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
• NASA
• Launched in 2009
• Primary Objective: To make a 3D map of
the Moon's surface from lunar polar orbit.
It has also been used to study the Moon's
geology, mineralogy, and environment. It
orbits the Moon in an eccentric polar
mapping orbit.
Lunar Codex
• Lunar Codex Program aims to preserve Human
Creativity on the Moon
• A collection of art gathered from artists will be stranded
on the lunar surface as a lasting record of human
creativity, even in times of war, pandemics, and
economic crises
• This programme is spearheaded by Samuel Peralta, a
semi-retired physicist and art collector from Canada
• Lunar Codex is stored on memory cards or laser etched
on NanoFiche, a 21st-century update on film-based
microfiche. These will ensure that the art forms reach the
lunar surface safely
• The first such capsule is known as the Orion collection,
which has already flown around the moon when it
launched on the Orion spacecraft as part of NASA’s
Artemis 1 mission last year.
Kaguya/SELENE Mission
• Japan
• 2009
• Japanese spacecraft Ouna was placed
in lunar orbit as part of
Kaguya/SELENE mission in 2009
• It is defunct now.
Hakuto-R Mission 1
• It was Japan’s first-ever lunar mission and the
first of its kind by a private company
• Spacecraft from a Japanese startup called ‘ispace’
was launched to the Moon
• SpaceX’s Falcon 9 carried HAKUTO-R M1
lander
• The M1 lander was expected at soft landing at
Atlas Crater, which is located on the south-eastern • Rashid = It is the UAE’s first moon
edge of the moon's Mare Frigoris ("Sea of Cold") rover + This was carried alongwith
• Only the space agencies of the United States, HAKUTO + The 22-pound (10
China and the Soviet Union have achieved soft kilograms) robot named Rashid,
landings on the lunar surface aimed to deploy from HAKUTO-R +
• Recently, Japan's Ispace said its attempt to make Rashid will study its environs in the
the first private moon landing had failed after lunar surface for about 14 Earth days
losing contact with its Hakuto-R Mission 1 (one lunar day)
Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM)
• Japan (Japanese Aerospace
Exploration Agency (JAXA))
• Japanese spacecraft SLIM landed on the
moon, making Japan the fifth country to
reach the lunar surface. The other four
countries are India, United States, Russia,
and China
• It successfully demonstrated pinpoint
technology for landing. This technology
enables landing within 100 m of a target.
Chang’e 6 Mission
• China
• planned lander designed to return samples
from the lunar south pole
• The mission aims to land on the Moon,
collect samples from the lunar surface, and
return them to Earth.
MERCURY
BepiColombo Mission
• BepiColombo is a joint European Space
Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency (JAXA) mission to
Mercury
• The mission was named after Giuseppe
"Bepi" Colombo, an Italian mathematician
and engineer who made significant
contributions to the understanding of
Mercury's orbit
• Launched on October 20, 2018, BepiColombo
is an ambitious and complex mission designed
to study Mercury's surface, composition,
magnetic field, and its interaction with the
solar environment.
Plasma Waves on Mercury
• Recently, astronomers has detected mysterious "singing"
plasma waves around Mercury
• This is the first time that 'whistling' sound waves were found
emitting from Mercury’s magnetic field
• Other planets where such musical waves were found have thick
atmospheres and radiation belts wherein solar particles become
trapped. Mercury lacks thick atmosphere that could contain
oxygen or a radiation belt where solar particles get trapped by
the planet's magnetic field
• Mercury, which was once believed to have a weak magnetic field, is now believed to
have a strong one, as indicated by these "whistling" sounds
• In regions laced with magnetic fields, such as the space environment, particles are
continually tossed to and fro by the motion of various electromagnetic waves known as
plasma waves.
JUPITER
JUNO Mission
• NASA
• Launched in 2011 for a 5-year journey
• Aim: probe beneath Jupiter’s dense
clouds and the origin and evolution of
Jupiter, solar system, and giant planets
in general across the cosmos
• In its extended mission, it continues its
investigation of Jupiter through
September 2025, or until the
spacecraft’s end of life.
Lucy Mission
• NASA
• It is a solar-powered mission
• It will be the first space mission to study Jupiter's
Trojan asteroids to gain new insights into the
solar system's formation 4.5 billion years ago
• Eurybates is one of a handful of asteroids that
Lucy will visit over the next 12 years. As
Eurybates eclipsed the star, a phenomenon
scientists call an “occultation,” a 40-mile- (64-
kilometer-) wide shadow the size of the asteroid
passed over the region
• An occultation is any event where one celestial object passes in front of another,
blocking the latter object from an observer’s view. The best-known example is a solar
eclipse, which occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, blocking the
Sun from our view.
Europa
• Europa is a Jupitor’s moon
• Recently, James Webb Space Telescope
observed carbon dioxide ice on Jupiter’s
moon Europa
• It indicates that carbon dioxide originates
from a source within the icy body’s
subsurface ocean
• The study concluded that Europa’s
subsurface ocean contains abundant carbon.
VENUS
Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)
• SOFIA is the world's largest
airborne astronomical
observatory (joint program of
NASA and German Aerospace
Center)
• It flies in the stratosphere, above
99% of Earth’s infrared-blocking
atmosphere to observe the
infrared universe
• Recently, Scientists have
detected atomic oxygen in the
atmosphere of Venus through
SOFIA airborne observatory.
Venus (aka Earth’s twin)
• It is the second planet from Sun and
Earth’s nearest planetary neighbour
• Unlike Earth, it rotates clockwise (east to
west) i.e backward
• It has no moons/rings and is the hottest
planet due to “runaway greenhouse
effect”.
SATURN
Enceladus
• Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn.
It is about a tenth of that of Saturn’s largest
moon, Titan
• It is rich in dissolved phosphorus, an essential
ingredient for life
• Recently scientists have discovered that
beneath its icy surface are oceans, or
subsurface oceans as they are called Phosphorous
• The spacecraft Cassini, which orbited Saturn
• Phosphorus is used for the creation of DNA
for nearly 13 years, discovered Enceladus's
subsurface liquid water and RNA, energy-carrying molecules, cell
• From the cracks of the moon's icy surface, membranes, bones and teeth in people and
plumes of ice grains and water vapour erupted animals, and even the sea’s microbiome of
into space plankton
• Recently, NASA's Cassini spacecraft discovers • Phosphorus in the form of phosphates is
‘phosphorous on Saturn's moon Enceladus also vital for all life on Earth
Saturn
• Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and
the 2nd largest planet in our solar system
• Saturn is made mostly of hydrogen and
helium
• It has rings – made of chunks of ice and
rock
• Mission related to Saturn: Pioneer 11,
Voyagers 1 and 2, Cassini etc
• As per reports, a team of space scientists
has discovered 62 new moons around
Saturn. With this discovery, Saturn
becomes the planet with the greatest
number of Moons (145), overtaking
Jupiter.
MARS
Perseverance Rover
• Perseverance rover mission is part of
NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a
longterm effort of robotic exploration of
Mars
• It aims to look for signs of past microbial
life, prepare for future human exploration
and collect samples of rock and regolith
(broken rock and soil) for possible return to
Earth
• Recently, it placed a titanium tube containing
a rock sample on the surface of Mars.
Igneous rock sample was collected from
Mars Jezero Crater called South Séítah.
Samples are being placed at a location called
“Three Forks,” first such sample depot on
another world.
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter
• Ingenuity is a small, autonomous
aircraft that flew to Mars aboard
NASA's Perseverance rover
• It is a solar powered aircraft which
consists of a wireless communication
system, navigation system, computers
and cameras
• It was built by the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) of NASA
• It is an experimental flight test to
determine whether life is possible on
Mars.
Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE)

• MOXIE, NASA’s oxygen-generating

instrument on Perseverance Mars Rover,
has successfully completed its Mars
mission
• MOXIE produces molecular oxygen
through an electrochemical process that
separates one oxygen atom from each
molecule of carbon dioxide pumped in
from Mars’ thin atmosphere.
Subsurface Water Ice Mapping (SWIM) Project
• NASA funded SWIM project (led by
University of Arizona) has released its
fourth set of maps, providing detailed
view of Mars' subsurface ice
• These maps are crucial for future
Mars missions as they identify most
likely locations to find Martian ice
• Mars has both water ice and carbon
dioxide ice (dry ice)
• SWIM project combines data from
several NASA missions, including
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, 2001
Mars Odyssey, and Mars Global
Surveyor.
ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO)
• TGO is the first in a series of joint missions
between the European Space Agency (ESA)
and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency
• Goal: To gain a better understanding of
methane and other atmospheric gases that are
present in small concentrations (less than 1%
of the atmosphere) in the Martian atmosphere
• The orbiter’s sensitivity to hydrogen has also
allowed it to search for water buried
underneath shallow layers of Martian soil
• It’s also meant to test technology for future
missions
• It was launched in March 2016 and began
operations after entering Mars orbit on Oct.
19, 2016.
ISRO – Missions
NISAR Mission
• NASA-ISRO-SAR
• SAR (Synthetic aperture radar) refers to a technique
for producing high-resolution images
• SAR refers to a technique for producing high-resolution
images
• NISAR has been built by space agencies of the US and
India under a partnership agreement signed in 2014
• NISAR is expected to be launched in January 2024 from
Satish Dhawan Space Centre into a near-polar orbit
• The satellite will operate for a minimum of three years
• NISAR is optimised for studying hazards and global
environmental change and can help manage natural
resources better and provide information to scientists to
better understand the effects and pace of climate change
• It will scan globe every 12 days over course of its three-year mission to give an
“unprecedented” view of the planet
• It will detect movements of the planet’s surface as small as 0.4 inches over areas about
half the size of a tennis court
• NASA provided one of the radars for the satellite, a high-rate communication
subsystem for science data, GPS receivers and a payload data subsystem. ISRO will
provide the spacecraft bus, the second type of radar (called the S-band radar), the
launch vehicle and associated launch services
• NISAR will be equipped with the largest reflector antenna ever launched by NASA and
its primary goals include tracking subtle changes in the Earth’s surface, spotting
warning signs of imminent volcanic eruptions, helping to monitor groundwater
supplies and tracking the rate at which ice sheets are melting
• ISRO has already delivered the S-band SAR payload to NASA for NISAR [NASA-
ISRO SAR] mission.
DS-SAR Satellite
• It is recently launched through PSLV-C56 vehicle from the
Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota
• It is developed under a partnership between DSTA
(representing the Government of Singapore) and ST
Engineering
• It will be used to support the satellite imagery
requirements of various agencies within the Government
of Singapore
• ST Engineering will use it for multi-modal and higher
responsiveness imagery and geospatial services for their
commercial customers
• It carries a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload developed by Israel Aerospace
Industries (IAI)
• This allows the DS-SAR to provide for all-weather day and night coverage and is
capable of imaging at 1m resolution at full polarimetry.
GSAT -20 (Renamed as GSAT-N2)
• GSAT-20 is a high- throughput Ka-band
Satellite which will be fully owned, operated
and funded by NSIL
• The satellite, weighing 4700 kg, has been
specifically designed to meet the demanding
service needs of remote and unconnected
regions
• It is much heavier than launch capacity of
ISRO’s most powerful rocket; LVM-3 (which
can launch spacecraft weighing up to 4000 kg
into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit). Hence,
India will use SpaceX Falcon-9 Rocket to launch
Communications Satellite GSAT-20 in 2024
• GSAT-20 will be the second “demand driven” satellite launch enabled by NSIL. Previously,
NSIL successfully undertook its 1st Demand-driven satellite mission, GSAT-24, with
TataPlay purchasing its capacity for Direct-To-Home broadcasting.
New Space India Limited (NSIL)
• NSIL (incorporated in March 2019) is
commercial arm of ISRO
• It is a Central Public Sector Enterprise
under the Department of Space
• Presently, NSIL owns and operates 11
communication satellites in orbit.
Gaganyaan Project
• It is ISRO’s first manned space mission which envisages demonstration of human spaceflight
capability by launching crew of 3 members to an orbit of 300-400 km for a 3 days mission
• It will bring them back safely to earth, by landing in Indian sea waters
• Mission includes three space flights: two unmanned ‘Abort missions’ to test for crew safety,
followed by the manned space journey
• First trial (uncrewed flight) for Gaganyaan is being planned by the end of 2023 or early 2024.
This will be followed by sending Vyom Mitra, a humanoid and then with the crew onboard
• It will take off on a Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM 3 rocket) previously known as GSLV Mk
III which is capable of launching four-tonne satellites in the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit
(GTO)
• Mission will make India 4th country to have human spaceflight capability after US, Russia
and China
• ISRO is developing indigenous technologies for Human rated launch vehicle, Habitable Crew
Module, Life Support System, Crew Escape System, Ground Station Network, Crew Training
and Recovery.
Vyommitra
• It is a female robot designed and developed
by the ISRO to fly aboard unmanned test
missions ahead of the Gaganyaan human
spaceflight mission
• It is referred to as a half-humanoid robot as
she doesn't have legs. However, she can bend
forward and sideways.
ISRO - Initiatives
Nabhmitra Device
• Developed by ISRO-Space
Applications Centre (Ahmedabad)
• It is a satellite-based communication
system developed for the safety of
fishermen
• It enables two-way messaging services
from and to the sea
• Apart from providing information about
shipping channels and maritime
boundaries, the device will also help to
identify fishing fields.
Distress Alert Transmitter (DAT)
• ISRO has developed an improvised Distress Alert
Transmitter (DAT) with advanced capabilities and features
for the fishermen at sea to send emergency messages from
fishing boats
• The first version of DAT has been operational since 2010
• The fishermen at sea send emergency messages from fishing
boats
• The messages are sent through a communication satellite and
received at a central control station (INMCC: Indian Mission
Control Centre) where the alert signals are decoded for the
identity and location of the fishing boat. The extracted
information is forwarded to Maritime Rescue Coordination
Centres (MRCCs) under Indian Coast Guard (ICG). Using
this information, the MRCC coordinates to undertake Search
and Rescue operations to save the fishermen in distress.
Finite Element Analysis of Structures (FEAST)
• Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre
(VSSC), ISRO developed FEAST, a
Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
software
• FEA is a computerized method for
predicting how a product reacts to
real-world forces
• FEAST will be used to perform FEA
of various types of structures
including rockets, aircraft, satellites,
buildings, etc
• So far, users have mostly depended
on expensive software versions from
foreign firms for this function.
Space Science and Technology Awareness Training (START)
• ISRO has announced a new introductorylevel online
training programme
• START is aimed at postgraduate and finalyear
undergraduate students of physical sciences and
technology
• Academic institutions can submit applications for the
programme through the Antriksh Jigyasa portal
• It will cover various domains of space science,
including astronomy and astrophysics, heliophysics
and sunearth interaction, instrumentation and
aeronomy. It will be delivered by scientists from
Indian academia and ISRO centres
• ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre(NRSC) has
announced 2 short courses — remote sensing data
acquisition and remote sensing data processing.
NASA - Missions
CALIPSO Mission
• Launched in 2006, CALIPSO is a satellite-based
observatory
• CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol LIDAR and Infrared
Pathfinder Satellite Observations) is a mission dedicated
to studying how clouds and aerosols impact the Earth’s
climate
• It is a joint project between NASA (National Aeronautics
and Space Administration) and CNES (Centre National
d'Études Spatiales), the French space agency
• Scientists are using data from CALIPSO to construct 3D models of the atmosphere that
improve our ability to predict future climate change
• CALIPSO has been part of a constellation of spacecraft called the "A-Train," including
Aqua, Aura, and PARASOL spacecraft, dedicated to studying the Earth’s weather and
environment.
TEMPO Satellite
• NASA
• Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution
(TEMPO) monitors major air pollutants across North
America. Its monitoring range extends from Canada’s
oil sands to the Yucatán Peninsula and across the
Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean
• It was designed for a 20-month operation.
• It is part of a virtual constellation with South Korea's Geostationary Environment
Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) and the European Space Agency’s upcoming satellite,
aiming for comprehensive air pollution monitoring over the Northern Hemisphere
• It will make important scientific observations, including that of ozone, nitrogen oxide,
sulphur dioxide and formaldehyde levels
• The present pollution-monitoring satellites are in low Earth orbit (LEO), but this new
monitoring instrument is hosted in geostationary orbit
PACE Mission
• Upcoming mission of NASA in 2024
• Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean
Ecosystem (PACE) mission, which would
enhance our understanding of Earth’s
atmosphere
• The mission will employ advanced
polarimeters to study the interplay of light,
aerosols, and clouds, contributing to a
deeper comprehension of their impact on
air quality and climate.
DRACO Program
• NASA and Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
are working on DRACO program
• DRACO program aims to create a
Nuclear Powered Space propulsion
system that could cut down the travel
time to Mars by half
• DRACO will use a less-enriched form of
uranium for its propulsion systems
• The launch of the test flight is currently
scheduled for 2027.
Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE)
• NASA is set to launch the Atmospheric Waves
Experiment (AWE) to study ‘airglow’ (colourful
bands of light in Earth’s atmosphere) to understand
space weather
• It is a first-of-its-kind NASA experimental attempt
aimed at studying the interactions between
terrestrial and space weather
• It is planned under NASA’s Heliophysics Explorers Programme. This mission will study
the links between how waves in the lower layers of the atmosphere impact the upper
atmosphere and, thus, space weather
• It will be launched and mounted on the exterior of the Earth-orbiting International Space
Station (ISS)
• It will also measure Atmospheric Gravity Waves (AGWs) at mesopause (an
atmospheric layer that begins some 87 km in altitude)
Atmospheric Gravity Waves (AGWs)
• AGWs form as buoyancy lifts air upward,
and gravity brings it back down. The
upward movement encourages cloud
formation, while the downward movement
promotes clear skies
• These waves result from various processes
like airflow over mountains, convection (e.g.,
thunderstorms), and frontal systems
• They serve to connect different parts of the
atmosphere, such as a surface storm causing
can causes changes in the ionosphere
Others - Missions
Euclid Mission
• ESA’s (European Space Agency)
• Euclid aims to investigate cosmic
mysteries of dark matter and dark
energy. It will make a 3D map of the
Universe by observing billions of
galaxies (Universe composed of: 68%
dark energy, ~27% dark matter, and
~5% normal matter)
• Euclid has a reflecting telescope that
feeds the two instruments: a visible-
wavelength camera (VIS) and Near-
Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer
(NISP)
• It will travel towards Sun-Earth
Lagrange point 2.
BlueWalker 3 (BW3) Satellite
• It is a prototype satellite which is a part of
a satellite constellation planned by its
owner AST SpaceMobile
• Launched to orbit in 2022
• The largest-ever commercial
communications array deployed in low-
Earth orbit
• Designed to communicate directly with
cellular devices via 3GPP standard
frequencies at 5G speeds
• As per recent research, Due to its operation
in wavelengths close to those observed by
radio telescopes, BlueWalker 3 has the
potential to interfere with radio astronomy
observations.
Project Kuiper
• It is Amazon’s project
• It aims to build a network of 3,236
satellites in low Earth orbit to
provide high-speed internet access
anywhere in the world
• Its mission is to bring fast,
affordable broadband to unserved
and underserved communities
around the world.
Project Taara
• Alphabet, parent company of Google,
under Project Taara is currently deploying
their light beam internet technology in
India, Africa, and other locations around
the world
• Project Taara utilises Free Space Optical
Communication (FSOC) technology
where free space acts as a communication
channel between transceivers that are in
line-of-sight.
Free Space Optical Communication (FSOC) Technology
• FSOC is an optical communication
technology that uses light to
wirelessly transmit data to
telecommunication and internet
applications
• FSOC links use beams of light to
deliver high-speed, high-capacity
connectivity over long distances but
without the cable
• FSOC boxes can simply be placed
kilometres apart on roofs or towers,
with the signal beamed directly
between the boxes to easily traverse
common obstacles like rivers, roads
and railways.
Proba-3 Mission
• India’s ISRO is set to launch the European
Space Agency’s (ESA) groundbreaking Proba-
3 mission in September 2024
• The mission will be facilitated by India’s
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL)
• The Proba-3 mission is led by the European
Space Agency (ESA), showcasing
international collaboration in space
exploration. Proba-3 is hailed as the world’s
first precision formation flying mission.
• It aims to establish a 144-metre-long solar
coronagraph through two small satellites,
demonstrating precise formation flying in
space.
Sagar Sampark
• Indigenous Differential Global Navigation Satellite System
(DGNSS) – “SAGAR SAMPARK” was inaugurated by the
Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW)
• DGNSS is a terrestrial-based enhancement system which corrects
errors and inaccuracies in Global Navigation Satellite System
(GNSS), allowing for more accurate positioning information
• DGNSS will help in fulfilment of international navigation
obligations of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO),
Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) and International Association of
Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA)
(IALA: Established in 1957, it is a non-profit, international technical
association)
• GNSS refers to a constellation of satellites providing signals from
space that transmit positioning and timing data to GNSS receivers to
have Global coverage
• Major GNSS are: GPS (USA),GLONASS (Russia), Galileo
(Europe), BeiDou (China), NAVIC(India).
Agnibaan SubOrbital Technological Demonstrator (SOrTeD)
• World's first 3D-printed rocket
• made by AgniKul Cosmos, a space tech start-up
based in Chennai
• Agnibaan SOrTeD is a customisable launch vehicle
that could be launched in one or two stages. It is
powered by AgniKul’s patented Agnilet engine.
Agnilet, is a 3D-printed, 6 kilonewton (kN) semi-
cryogenic engine that uses liquid oxygen and
kerosene as propellants
• AgniKul Cosmos' journey is supported by the Indian
Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Indian
National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre
(IN-SPACe).
 Emerging
Technology
Brain-Computer Interface (BCI)
• It is a system that determines functional
intent - the desire to change, move,
control, or interact with something in
our environment - directly from brain
activity
• In other words, BCIs allow to control
an application or a device using only
our mind Neurons
• Brain is made of up millions of cells called neurons, also
• Recently, US Food and Drug
known as nerve cells
Administration (FDA) approved Elon • These neurons work together in large networks to
Musk’s Neuralink chip for human coordinate and control processes in body
trials. It aims to build a next-generation • They use electrical and chemical signals to send
brain implant with at least 100 times information between different areas of the brain, as well
more brain connections than devices as between the brain, the spinal cord, and the entire body
• neurons work as nerve impulse is transmitted from one
currently approved by FDA. neuron to another through junctions called synapses.
Transformer in AI
• a deep neural network architecture
• The capital ‘T’ in ChatGPT stands for ‘transformer’
• deep neural networks (DNNs) took over ML by
storm, replacing the classic pipeline of handcrafted
features and simple classifiers. DNNs ingest a
complete document or image and generate a final
output, without the need to specify a particular way of
extracting features
• A transformer is a two part neural network. The first
part is an ‘encoder’ that ingests the input sentence in
the source language (English) and the second part is a
‘decoder’ that generates the translated sentence in the
target language (Hindi). The encoder converts each
word in the source sentence to an abstract numerical
form that captures the meaning of the word within the
context of the sentence, and stores it in a memory bank
• Attention in ML allows a model to learn how much importance should be given to
different inputs. In the translation example, attention allows the model to select or weigh
words from the memory bank when deciding which word to generate next. While
describing an image, attention allows models to look at the relevant parts of the image
when generating the next word
• In the last year, transformer models have become larger and train on more data than
before. When these colossuses train on written text, they are called large language
models (LLMs)
FMR-FIR Modality
• Finger Minutiae Record – Finger Image
Record (FMR-FIR) Modality
• FMR-FIR is an Artificial
Intelligence/Machine Learning based tool
that uses a combination of both finger
minutiae and finger image to check
liveness of a fingerprint and to detect use
of a cloned fingerprint
• Recently, UIDAI has rolled out FMR-FIR to prevent Aadhaarenabled Payment System
(AePS) frauds. AePS frauds have been undertaken using spoofed fingerprints during
Aadhaar authentication.
Large Language Models (LLM)
• Large Language Models (LLMs) are
advanced AI systems designed to
understand and generate human-like
language
• They use vast amounts of data to learn
patterns and relationships in language,
enabling them to answer questions, create
text, translate languages, and perform
various language tasks.
Mistral: Large Language Model (LLM)
• Recently, Mistral AI released a 7.3 billion parameter language model positioned to
compete against Meta’s LLM LLlama
• Mistral positioned itself as a potentially important player in setting up Europe as “a
serious contender” to build foundational AI models
• Mistral is a French tech startup and Artificial Intelligence (AI) company set up by
former Meta (META.O) and Google AI researchers
• Large Language Models (LLMs) are advanced AI systems designed to understand and
generate human-like language. They use vast data to learn patterns and relationships in
language, enabling them to answer questions, create text, translate languages, and
perform various language tasks
Krutrim
• Ola has recently launched the Krutrim,
which is a large language model (LLM)
trained specifically for Indian languages
• Krutrim can understand 22 Indian
languages and generate content in about 10
• Large Language Model (LLM) are deep
learning algorithms that can recognize,
summarize, translate, predict, and
generate content using very large
datasets. They are also referred to as neural
networks (NNs), which are computing
systems inspired by the human brain.
Some of the famous LLMs are Open AI’s
ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, etc.
Gemini AI Model
• Recently, Google announced the
launch of its latest, most powerful AI
model, Gemini
• It is now available to users across the
world through Bard
• It can understand, explain and
generate high-quality code in the
world’s most popular programming
languages, like Python, Java, C++ and
Go.
Multimodal Artificial Intelligence
• There has been a paradigm shift within AI towards Multimodal Systems, allowing
users to engage with AI through a combination of text, images, sounds, and videos
• Multimodal AI is artificial intelligence that combines multiple types, or modes, of data
to create more accurate determinations, draw insightful conclusions or make more
precise predictions about real-world problems
• Multimodal AI systems train with and use video, audio, speech, images, text and a
range of traditional numerical data sets
• OpenAI announced enhancements to its GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 models, allowing them
to analyze images and engage in speech synthesis, enabling more immersive
interactions with users. It is working on a project named "Gobi," which aims to create a
multimodal AI system from scratch, distinct from the GPT models
• Another major player in the field is Google’ new yet-to-be-released multimodal large
language model Gemini.
SeamlessM4T
• SeamlessM4T, which stands for
Massively Multilingual and
Multimodal Machine Translation, is
an advanced multilingual multimodal AI
translation and transcription model
• It was developed by Meta, the
technology company formerly known as
Facebook
• SeamlessM4T is capable of performing
various tasks including speech-to-text,
speech-to-speech, text-to-speech, and
text-to-text translations.
Generative AI
• Generative AI, or generative artificial
intelligence, is a form of AI in which
algorithms automatically produce content in
the form of text, images, audio, and video
• Unlike traditional AI systems that are
designed to recognize patterns and make
predictions, generative AI creates new
content
• Generative AI is powered by foundation
models (large AI models) that can multi-
task and are trained on massive amounts
of data
• It works by using a Machine Learning
(ML) model to learn the patterns and
relationships in a dataset of human-created
content. It then uses the learned patterns to
generate new content.
Deepfakes
• Deepfakes refers to a video/image that has been
edited using an algorithm to replace a person
in the original video/image with someone else,
in a way that makes the video look authentic
• Deepfakes use a form of artificial intelligence
called deep learning to make images of fake
events, events that haven't happened
• Deepfakes uses technologies of deep learning, AI
and photoshopping to create images of events.
The technologies namely, GANs (Generative
Adversarial Networks) (a class of Machine
Learning) are interplayed to create the videos
• Deepfakes also employ a deep-learning
computer network called a variational auto-
encoder, a type of artificial neural network that is
normally used for facial recognition.
IndiaAI Mission
• Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
• Aim: To ensure a structured implementation of the India AI mission through a public-
private partnership model aimed at nurturing India’s AI innovation ecosystem
• Implementing Agency: The India AI Mission will be implemented by ‘IndiaAI’
Independent Business Division (IBD) under Digital India Corporation (DIC)
• India AI Mission aims to develop AI compute infrastructure of 10,000 or more Graphics
Processing Units (GPUs) through public-private partnerships
• It has 7 pillars: IndiaAI Compute Capacity, IndiaAI Innovation Centre, IndiaAI Datasets
Platform, IndiaAI Application Development Initiative, IndiaAI FutureSkills, IndiaAI
Startup Financing and Safe & Trusted AI.
INDIA AI
• INDIA AI is a knowledge portal, research
organisation and ecosystem-building
initiative launched in 2020
• It stands to unite and promote
collaborations with various entities in
India’s AI ecosystem
• It is a joint venture by the Ministry of
Electronics and Information Technology
(MeitY), National e-Governance
Division (NeGD) and National
Association of Software and Service
Companies (NASSCOM).
Technology in News
Free Space Optical Communication (FSOC) Technology
• FSOC is an optical communication
technology that uses light to wirelessly
transmit data to telecommunication and
internet applications
• FSOC links use beams of light to deliver
high-speed, high-capacity connectivity
over long distances but without the cable
• FSOC boxes can simply be placed
kilometres apart on roofs or towers, with
the signal beamed directly between the
boxes to easily traverse common obstacles
like rivers, roads and railways.
Satellite Internet Technology
• Satellite Internet works similarly to satellite TV
• Space Internet isn’t dependent on optic fibers or phone lines
• A satellite internet connection uses communication satellites
to provide internet connectivity to the users. Earlier the
space internet services utilized Geostationary Orbit (or
GEO) Satellites but now increasingly in Low Earth orbit
(LEO) satellites are being deployed
• It begins with an internet service provider sending satellites
into space to orbit around the earth
• That ISP then relies on a signal routed through one of those
satellites in low- or high-Earth orbit and a receiver dish that
picks up that signal. The receiver is typically placed on your
home or business in a spot with as much unobstructed
access to the sky as possible. You'll connect a modem to that
dish to translate the incoming signal into a workable internet
connection.
Gigabit Satellite Internet Technology
• Gigabit satellite internet operates through a
network of satellites positioned in various
orbits around the Earth
• While some systems utilize low-Earth orbit
(LEO) satellites, others rely on medium Earth
orbit (MEO) or geostationary orbit (GEO)
satellites
• These satellites facilitate the transmission of
data signals between ground stations and end-
users, enabling high-speed internet connectivity
• Recently, Reliance Jio announced that it
successfully demonstrated India’s first satellite-
based gigabit internet service, which can
potentially be used to provide high-speed
internet services to inaccessible areas in the
country.
Direct-to-mobile (D2M) Technology
• Direct-to-mobile (D2M)
technology is a method of
transmitting content directly to
mobile devices using broadcast
signals
• D2M uses broadcast networks,
similar to those for TV and radio,
to send content directly to mobile
devices, bypassing traditional
cellular or internet data networks
• This technology is efficient for delivering the same content to many users simultaneously,
reducing the load on cellular networks and making it ideal for live events or popular broadcasts
• Mobile devices need to be equipped with specific hardware to receive and decode broadcast
signals, which may require new standards in smartphone manufacturing
• D2M can offer high-quality video and audio streaming, as it doesn’t depend on the variable
speed and stability of an internet connection.
Direct-to-Cell Satellites
• SpaceX, an American company, launched the first batch of Starlink satellites with “Direct-
to-Cell” capabilities
• Direct-to-Cell satellites have an advanced eNodeB modem onboard that acts like a
cellphone tower in space
• Current communication system is based on the land based tower for transferring signals
• It allows Starlink to deliver direct satellite broadband connectivity on smartphones
anywhere on Earth.
Rejupave Technology

• Road Construction technology

• It is developed by India’s oldest and
premier road research organisation,
CSIR-Central Road Research
Institute (CSIR-CRRI)
• It is beneficial in constructing high-
altitude bituminous roads at low and
sub-zero temperature conditions
• Recently, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has utilised road construction
technology i.e. Rejupave technology to build high-altitude bituminous road
sections at the Sela tunnel and LGG-Damteng-Yangste (LDY) road near the India-
China border in Arunachal Pradesh.
RISC-V Technology
• It is an open-source technology that is
pronounced "risk five"
• It is an open-source instruction set
architecture (ISA) used for the
development of custom processors
targeting a variety of end applications
• It is considered the fifth generation of
processors built on the concept of the
reduced instruction set computer (RISC)
• It was begun as a project at UC Berkeley to
create an open-source computer system
based on RISC principles
• It was initially designed for academic use.
The standard has evolved and is now
managed by RISC-V International.
Open Radio Access Network (RAN) Security
• Open-RAN is not a technology, but rather an ongoing shift in mobile network architecture
that allows networks to be built using subcomponents from a variety of vendors
• O-RAN has an open, multi-vendor architecture for deploying mobile networks, as opposed to
the single-vendor proprietary architecture
• O-RAN uses software to make hardware manufactured by different companies work together
• The key concept of Open RAN is “opening” the protocols and interfaces between the various
subcomponents (radios, hardware and software) in the RAN
• Radio Access Network (RAN) is the part of a telecommunications system that connects
individual devices to other parts of a network through radio connections. A RAN resides
between user equipment, such as a mobile phone, a computer or any remotely controlled
machine, and provides the connection with its core network.
Thank You