1. 0.7 m GROWTH-India telescope at Indian Astronomical Observatory in Hanle (Ladakh) made its first observation. GROWTH-India is a part of multi-country collaborative initiative known as __________________________ (GROWTH), to observe transient events in Universe.
2. 4 new species of Indian horned frogs discovered from Himalayan regions of Northeast India, by team of researchers that comprised ______________________, famously known as the ‘Frogman of India’.
- Scientists have named them as Himalayan horned frog (Megophrys himalayana), Garo white-lipped horned frog (Megophrys oreocrypta); Yellow spotted white-lipped horned frog (Megophrys flavipunctata) and Giant Himalayan horned frog (Megophrys periosa.
3. GSAT-29 communication satellite successfully launched by Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle MarkIII (GSLV MkIII-D2) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR Sriharikota (__________________________).
- GSAT-29 satellite weighed 3423-kg.
- GSLV Mk III is a three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
4. ___________________ has built an ‘artificial sun’ that reaches 6 times temperature of Sun’s core of 15 million °C. Scientists from __________’s Institute of Plasma Physics announced that plasma in their Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) also called ‘artificial sun’, reached 100 million °C, temperature required to perform nuclear fusion on Earth.
5. IIT ________________ Researchers developed smartphone-based system to detect adulteration in milk. This could be done by using an indicator paper that changes colour according to acidity which further can be incorporated with algorithms on a smartphone to accurately detect colour change.
6. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) issued announcement of opportunity (AO) to international space scientists to propose their scientific payloads to be carried on its mission to _______________ planned for 2023.
7. Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C43) launched 31 satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh).
- It Included India’s Hyper-Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS) and ____________________________________ foreign satellites. HysIS is an earth observation satellite built around ISRO’s Mini Satellite2 (IMS-2) bus weighing about 380kg. The mission life of the satellite is five years. Primary goal of HysIS is to study the earth’s surface in both visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
- Foreign Satellites belonged to Australia (1), Canada (1), Columbia (1), Finland (1), Malaysia (1), Netherlands (1), Spain (1) and USA (23). Satellites from Australia, Columbia, Malaysia and Spain were flown aboard PSLV for the first time.
- In December 2018, ISRO has 2 more planned launches - GSAT 11 from French Guiana and GSAT 7A from Sriharikota. Next year, ISRO will have its long expected second mission to moon, Chandrayaan – II. GSAT-11 is being launched from French Guiana as its heaviest satellite of ISRO (5.86 ton) and cannot be carried by GSLV Mk – III which has the capacity to lift only up to four-ton class payloads.
8._____________________’s InSight spacecraft landed on Mars after 7 months of Launch, 458-million-kilometre journey, and a 6.5-minute intense parachute descent through MARS atmosphere. It marks 8th successful MARS Landing for _________.
9. Scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (____________________) have built and flown first-ever silent airplane with no moving propellers or jet turbines, called Ion Drive. It weighs about 5 pounds with five-meter wingspan. It was flown at distance of 60 meters, repeated 10 times. It is first-ever plane having no moving parts in propulsion system.
- It is powered by ionic wind or electrodynamic thrust, a silent but mighty flow of ions that is produced aboard plane. It can generate enough thrust to propel plane over sustained, steady flight.
10. World’s first medical imaging scanner “Explorer” that can capture a 3D picture of the whole human body at once in 20-30 seconds, has started functioning. It has been developed by University of California (_________________________).
11. World’s largest supercomputer Spiking Neural Network Architecture (SpiNNaker) machine designed to work in same way as human brain was switched on for first time, built at University of Manchester in _______________. It can model more biological neurons in real time than any other machine on planet. It is capable of completing more than 200 million million actions per second, with each of its chips having 100 million transistors.
- It is unique as it mimics the massively parallel communication architecture of brain, sending billions of small amounts of information simultaneously to thousands of different destinations. It has massive potential for neurological breakthroughs in science such as pharmaceutical testing.
