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Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Cyclone Gaja claims two lives in Sivaganga

News

  • Cyclone Gaja has claimed two lives and uprooted about 50 trees in Sivaganga district while leaving minimum damage in coastal Ramanathapuram.

Beyond News

  • After making landfall during the early hours near Nagapattinam, the cyclone brought incessant rains, accompanied by gusty winds in Sivaganga district and widespread rainfall in Ramanathapuram district.
  • Following gusty winds, 40 to 50 trees were uprooted in different parts of the district, the fallen trees were removed and traffic was restored in the affected areas.
  • Ramanathapuram district, which was put on high alert, received average rainfall of 29.5 mm after few spells of rains.
  • Total of 2,123 people were evacuated from vulnerable places and accommodated in 18 relief centres as part of the precautionary measures.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

‘Super-Earth’ found orbiting Sun’s nearest single star

News

  • Astronomers have discovered a frozen planet with a mass over three times that of the Earth, orbiting the closest solitary star to the Sun.

Findings

  • The potentially rocky planet, known as Barnard’s star b, is a ‘super-Earth’ and orbits around its host star once every 233 days.
  • The findings, show the planet lies at a distant region from the star known as the ‘snow line’ This is well beyond the habitable zone in which liquid water, and possibly life, could exist.
  • The planet’s surface temperature is estimated to be around -170°C.
  • However, if the planet has a substantial atmosphere the temperature could be higher and conditions potentially more hospitable.
  • At nearly six light-years away Barnard’s star is the next closest star to the Sun after the Alpha Centauri triple system. It is a type of faint, low-mass star called a red dwarf. Red dwarfs are considered to be the best places to look for exoplanet candidates, which are planets outside our solar system.
  • Barnard’s star b is the second closest known exoplanet to our Sun. The closest lies just over four light-years from Earth. That exoplanet, Proxima b, orbits around the red dwarf Proxima Centauri.
  • The researchers used the radial velocity method during the observations that led to the discovery of Barnard’s star b. This technique detects wobbles in a star which are likely to be caused by the gravitational pull of an orbiting planet. These wobbles affect the light coming from the star.

Ice age crater discovered beneath Greenland glacier

News:

Buried beneath a kilometre of snow and ice in northern Greenland, scientists have uncovered an asteroid impact crater, bigger than the area of Paris.

Beyond news:

  • This is the first time that a crater of any size has been found under one of Earth’s continental ice sheets, said researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. The researchers worked for the past three years to verify their discovery, initially made in the 2015.
  • The crater measures more than 31 km in diameter, placing it among the 25 largest impact craters on Earth, according to the study published in the journal Science Advances. It was formed when a kilometre-wide iron meteorite smashed into northern Greenland.
  • “The crater is exceptionally well-preserved, and that is surprising, because glacier ice is an incredibly efficient erosive agent that would have quickly removed traces of the impact,” said Professor Kurt H. Kjaer from the Natural History Museum of Denmark.
  • “So far, it has not been possible to date the crater directly, but its condition strongly suggests that it formed after ice began to cover Greenland, so younger than 3 million years old and possibly as recently as 12,000 years ago — toward the end of the last ice age,” he said.
  • The crater was first discovered in July 2015 as the researchers inspected a new map of the topography beneath Greenland’s ice-sheet.
  • They noticed an enormous, but previously undetected circular depression under Hiawatha Glacier. “We immediately knew this was something special but at the same time it became clear that it would be difficult to confirm the origin of the depression,” said Mr. Kjaer.
  • The 20-tonne iron meteorite sits in the courtyard at the Geological Museum in Copenhagen.

Kilogramme redefined: Formula replaces mass of a platinum-iridium lump

News

  • At a meeting in Versailles, France, countries voted to approve wide-ranging changes that underpin vital human activities like global trade and scientific innovation.

Beyond News

  • The international system of measurements has been overhauled with new definitions for the kilogramme and other key units. The most closely watched change was the revision to the kilo, the measurement of mass.
  • Until now, it has been defined as the mass of a platinum-iridium lump, the so-called Grand K, which is kept in a secured vault on the outskirts of Paris. It has been the world’s one true kilo, against which all others were measured, since 1889.
  • It is now being retired and replaced by a new definition based on a scientific formula. In their vote, countries also unanimously approved updates to three other key units– the kelvin for temperature, the ampere for electrical current and the mole for the amount of a substance.
  • But scientists are hailing the vote as a mini revolution in the field of weights and measures. And it will mean redundancy of the Grand K and its six official copies.
  • The new formula-based definition of the kilogramme will have multiple advantages over the precision-crafted metal lump that has set the standard for more than a century.
  • Unlike a physical object, the formula cannot pick up particles of dust, decay with time or be dropped and damaged. It also is expected to be more accurate when measuring very, very small or very, very large masses.
  • Even in retirement, the Grand K and its six official copies collectively known as “the heir and the spares” will still be kept in the high-security vault on the outskirts of Paris where they are stored. That’s because scientists want to keep on studying them, to see whether their masses gradually change over time.
  • The metal kilo is being replaced by a definition based on Planck’s constant, which is part of one of the most celebrated equations in physics but also devilishly difficult to explain.
  • Suffice to say that the updated definition will, in time, spare nations the need to occasionally send their kilos back to France for calibration against the Grand K. Scientists instead should be able to accurately calculate an exact kilo without having to measure one lump of metal against another.

Synchronised survey of vultures on the cards

News

  • The Vulture Conservation Working Group of South India (VCWG-SI) is gearing up to organise a synchronised survey of the critically endangered vulture population in south India.

Beyond News

  • An action plan for the first such survey was finalised at a recent workshop held at the Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka.
  • The survey would begin by the first week of February with the support of the State Forest Departments.
  • The group was constituted to coordinate the vulture conservation activities in south India with the support of the Forest Departments in the States concerned.
  • Vultures are capable of travelling more than 100 km a day and thus monitoring the population is a difficult task.
  • Counting birds on different dates may result in inaccurate numbers. So it was decided to organise a synchronised survey on a specific date across all south Indian States.
  • One of the remaining wild populations of vultures in India survives in the protected areas in and around the foothills of the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve (the Mysuru-Nilgiri-Wayanad-Sathyamangalam landscape).
  • The Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala, Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu, Bandipur Tiger Reserve and the Rajiv Gandhi National Park, Nagrhole, in Karnataka were the protected areas in this region with a remnant vulture population.

War on pollution: India fails, China wins

News

  • Beijing While New Delhi and other Indian cities choke amid worsening air conditions and half-hearted government measures, neighbouring China the world’s largest polluter is slowly winning its war against pollution.
  • Over a dozen Indian cities today are where their Chinese counterparts used to be some five years ago.

Beyond News

  • Until 2009, 16 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities were in China. This year, the first 14, including New Delhi, are in India, and only the last four minus Beijing are in China.
  • China is notorious for pollution and it’s not just an offshoot of four decades of furious industrialisation. The problem stretches back centuries when dynastic leaders ignored the environmental costs of development.
  • Green activists say although China has a long way to go to curb pollution, its efforts have begun to pay off.
  • Political will and ambitious targets set by the government in 2013 have delivered very impressive gains, but the level of determination going forward needs to be reaffirmed.
  • The World Health Organisation has acknowledged China’s efforts in curbing pollution and reckons that India can take a cue from it.

Drones gather dust as Forest Dept. struggles to tackle human-elephant conflict

News

  • Several parts of Coimbatore Forest Division witnessing human-elephant conflicts, costly drones purchased by the Forest Department for aerial surveillance are remaining unused.

Beyond News

  • Though the drones were purchased for surveillance of inaccessible areas and also for chasing wild elephants with the honeybee-like buzzing of rotors, they were were not stationed at Thadagam where the department is struggling to drive out wild elephants to forest.
  • Sources in the department said that the two drones purchased earlier this year are not able to hover for a long duration due to poor battery back up.
  • Though officials had claimed that the drones could fly up to 25 minutes at a stretch with a fully charged battery at the time of their launch, they hardly fly for 15 minutes. Also, none of the staff are trained to operate the drones professionally.
  • It was in August, the department test-flew two drones at Periya Thadagam. One drone weighs 3 kg and was priced at Rs. 5 lakh. The second one weighs 5 kg and was priced at Rs. 7 lakh. Though the drones came with advanced features including infra-red camera, they have not been used in any operations or surveillance at night.
  • Meanwhile, the department is continuing surveillance and patrol in and around Thadagam where wild elephants went on rampage in villages. Apart from manpower, four kumkis are also engaged in the operations.

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