Bacteria discovered that can produce Gold

A bacteria has been discovered by scientists which has the ability to withstand huge amount of toxicity and is the key to create 24 carat gold.

Researchers at the Michigan State University found bacteria "Cuprividus metallidurans" which can grow on massive concentrations of gold chloride or liquid gold, a toxic chemical found in nature.  They fed the bacteria huge amount of gold chloride, mimicking the process they believe which happens in nature.  In a week's time the bacteria transformed the toxins and produced a gold nugget.

India's heaviest Satellite GSAT-10 launched succesfully

GSAT-10 - India's heaviest satellite launched successfully

GSAT-10 is India's heaviest and advanced communication satellite was successfully launched from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana in South America on 29th September, 2012.

GSAT-10 would augment telecommunications, DTH broadcasting and Radio navigation services.  GSAT-10 is 3400 Kg. at lift off is the heaviest satellite till now built by ISRO.  

 The GSAT-10 was launched by Ariane-5 rocket.  The Rocket blasted off from the launch pad at 2:48 AM (IST) and first injected European satellite ASTRA 2F into orbit followed by GSAT-10.

 GSAT-10 is expected to be operational from November, 2012 onwards with a design life of 15 years.

NASA’s Mars Rover “Curiosity” lands on Mars

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover successfully lands on the Red Planet Mars

 After travelling more than 300 million miles, the NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Mission has achieved one of the most complex landings of the spacecraft on surface of the Mars on Monday, 6th August, 2012.  The Curiosity will start investigating whether the  conditions on the Mars are favorable for life or not..   

The NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity successfully carried out the highly challenging job of landing on the surface of the red planet Mars early on Monday, 6th August,2012.  The Curiosity rover has sent its first photograph back to earth two hours after landing on the red planet.  

 This challenging Curiosity landing process involved a sky crane and the world's largest supersonic parachute which allowed the spacecraft carrying Curiosity to target the landing area exactly.   The Curiosity landed on the Gale Crater which may have contained a lake once upon a time.   The rover will arrive at Mount Sharp in the center of the crater after 1 martian year equal to 98 weeks of earth .   The Curiosity will drive up the mountains examining the layers of sediment.    The $2.6 billion Curiosity had made its dramatic arrival on the Martian surface in a spectacle popularly known as Seven minutes of Terror.

The Mission Control at the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL) burst into cheers as the Curiosity touched down on the surface of Mars.  The team members hugged each other and some shed tears when Curiosity beamed back its first picture.

The spacecraft carrying Curiosity has been traveling away from Earth since 25th November, 2011 and has made a journey of approximately 567 million kilometers.  The Curiosity which will be controlled by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has all the sophisticated tools for exploring the red planet.  These tools include 17 cameras, a laser which can survey the composition from a distance and instruments which analyze samples from rocks and soil.  The main aim of sending Curiosity to Mars is to know whether Mars ever had an environment to support life.

About Curiosity Rover 

  The Curiosity is a six-wheel nuclear powered  rover and is a much better technical experiment than any of the spacecrafts that landed on the red planet.  Some of the important things about Curiosity are given below.

• Curiosity carries a laser that can drill holes in rocks up to about 25 feet and identify the chemicals inside. 
• Curiosity has a 7 foot long robotic arm which has a power drill at the end which can bore into rocks and soils.  It can transfer the ground up powder into its onboard work bench to check for organics.
• Curiosity has a 2 mega pixel color cameras which can beam panoramic views back to earth. 
• Curiosity also has a video camera which records the last few minutes of its descent to Mars. 
• Curiosity also has a weather station to take daily temperature and pressure readings and record seasonal changes. 
• Curiosity has 20 inch aluminum wheels.
• The highest speed of Curiosity is  one tenth ( 1/10) of a mile.  

Curiosity landed on Mars Surface at 06:33 BST.  ( 11:03 AM  IST).

 Here is the sequence of events that happened from entry into Mars atmosphere and landing.

5.45 AM  BST:   During the descent phase,  the space craft has to shed tungsten weights to shift its center  of gravity and fly through the Martian atmosphere.  It has to pop a huge parachute, fire the retro rockets and finally lower down the Curiosity on to the ground.  During these Seven minutes of terror, the spacecraft will be reducing its speed from 13,000 mils per hour to a standstill on the Martian surface.  

5.53 AM  BST:   The MARS Science Laboratory spacecraft is now within 10,000 Kms from Mars planet.  The probe accelerates as it arrives at the red planet and then slows down as it enters the Mars atmosphere.  The first move by the spacecraft is to pull the heat shield into a forward position.  

5.57 AM  BST:   The spacecraft is now inside the orbit of the Martian moon, Phobos.  During the entry, landing and descent phases 76 pyrotechnic charges will be fired on board the probe to release the tungsten weights and release the parachute.  The spacecraft has to sense its position and atmospheric conditions and use the onboard thrusters to steer its way to the landing site.

  

6.03 AM  BST:   Mars size is around half of earth.  The target landing spot for Curiosity is the Gale Crater which is around 3.5 billion years old.   The Curiosity will spend most of its Martian year at this crater exploring Mount Sharp which is an enormous mount in the center of the crater which is 5 Kms above the ground.  The space craft is now 20 minutes for entry.

NASA's Curiosity Rover landing on MARS on 6th August,2012

Huge MARS Rover "Curiosity" set for nerve wracking landing on MARS on Monday 6th August,2012

After  eight and half months of journey crossing millions of miles between different planets,  the huge MARS Rover called "Curiosity" biggest and most complex rover ever sent to another world is now on its final approach for a hair-raising touchdown on Mars.

PSLV-C16 Launched Succesfully by ISRO

PSLV-C16 rocket carrying 3 spacecrafts which include India's latest remote sensing spacecraft "ResourceSat-2" was succesfully launched on 20th April,2011 from Satish Dhawan Space Center, SHAR, Sriharikota at 10:12 hrs. This is the 18th launch of PSLV and 17th succesful launch of PSLV.

PSLV-C16 has placed the three spacecrafts into an orbit of 822 Kms. above the surface of earth. Two are Indian spacecrafts and the third one is a Singapore spacecraft. The Indian spacecrafts are RESOURCESAT-2 (1206 Kg) and YOUTHSAT (92 kg) and the Singapore Spacecraft is X-SAT (106 Kg).

The Resourcesat-2 is indian remote sensing spacecraft which will help in applications which include natural resource monitoring, environmental assessment and also disaster management related activities. Resourcesat-2 would provide a three-tier imaging through AwiFS LISS-3 and LISS-4 cameras.

The Youthsat spacecraft contains three payloads, of which two payloads are Indian and the third one is Russian. Together these three payloads are useful to study and investigate the composition, energetics and dynamics of the Earth's upper atmosphere.

The X-SAT is mainly intended to demonstrate technologies related to satellite based remote sensing and onboard image processing.

You can see a video of the launch.

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Biggest moon in 20 years - Super Moon 19th March,2011

The moon is going to come very closer to earth on 19th March,2011 which is the closest distance in the last 20 years. There are people who believe that when the moon passes near to us, the earth jumps up to greet moon and thus we see all kinds of volcanoes, earth quakes, floods, tidal waves, tsunamis etc.

Similar big moon happened in the year 2005 and we have seen a natural disaster in the year 2005. There was Tsunami in Indonesia which triggered by earth quake 9.2 in Ritcher scale in 2005. 2,00,000 people lost their lives in that earth quake in Indonesia.

The people of Japan observed many UFOs shortly before being hit by earth quake and tsunami. There is a belief that UFOs appear at places where there would be some natural disaster going to happen.

The big moon of 19th March,2011 was 221,565 miles ( 3,56,575 kilometers) away from earth. This is the biggest and brightest moon in the past 20 years. many people believe that this would trigger natural disasters like earth quake and tsunami on earth. But NASA scientists say that this kind of claims are non sense. The full moon of 19th March,2011 appeared 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other days.

This is the photograph of the big moon taken by a person in Washington. This is an amazing view of moon of 19th March,2011 when the moon was at perigee, the closest point to earth in its orbit - using a camera-equipped telescope.

This is another big moon photo taken by a sky watcher in Manipal in India on 19th March,2011.

Japan's Earth quake on 11th March,2011 gives rise to doubts on Nuclear power

There was an earth quake and Tsunami in Japan on 11th March,2011. Due to this earth quake and Tsunami there was a great loss to the properties and lives of people of Japan.

There were explosions at the three nuclear reactors in Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex after the quake. This has put a question mark on the future of the nuclear power and the nuclear industry. People are fearing about what would happen if the radiation was leaked. It is not known what would be the impact of the explosions on the health, and environment. This explosion has created lot of fears among the people there. The nuclear plant showed dangerously low water levels, which exposed the nuclear fuel rods which may increase the threat of radiation to reach nearby public. It is known that at least 190 people were exposed to the radiation. Nearly 1,85,000 people were vacated from the place near the nuclear power plant.

But according to Mr. Ravi Krishnaswamy, Frost & Sullivan's Asia-Pacific Vice President of Energy and Power systems practice, Japan's nuclear power sector has a safety record for several decades.

The Japanese government also assures the public and international community that the health danger from release of radio active steam from the explosions is very very low and it seems the containment wall for the nuclear plant seems to be intact.

There is an increasing list of plans for nuclear power plants. As of 2010, we can see almost 56 nuclear reactors constructed worldwide and Asia-Pacific region accounts for more than half of these nuclear reactors.

Now there is a requirement for all the nuclear power plants which are currently in operation to undergo a review of safety processes whether they are located in earthquake-prone zone or not.