Latest news with #NISP
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Science
- Indian Express
Daily subject-wise quiz : Science and Technology MCQs on Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, impacts of solar flares and more (Week 113)
UPSC Essentials brings to you its initiative of subject-wise quizzes. These quizzes are designed to help you revise some of the most important topics from the static part of the syllabus. Attempt today's subject quiz on Science and Technology to check your progress. 🚨 Click Here to read the UPSC Essentials magazine for May 2025. Share your views and suggestions in the comment box or at With reference to the Quasars, consider the following statements: 1. They are the extremely active and bright cores of some distant galaxies. 2. Quasars are powered by a supermassive black hole. 3. All quasars are not active galactic nucleus (AGNs), but all AGNs are quasars. How many of the statements given above are correct? (a) Only one (b) Only two (c) All three (d) None Explanation — The European Southern Observatory has announced the discovery of an incredibly brilliant quasar, which is not only the brightest of its type but also the most luminous object ever observed in space. — Quasars are the extraordinarily active and brilliant nuclei of some distant galaxies, fuelled by supermassive black holes. Supermassive black holes evolve by consuming materials drawn in by their extremely intense gravity. Hence, statements 1 and 2 are correct. — A quasar is a very active and bright form of active galactic nucleus (AGN). While all quasars are AGNs, not all AGNs are quasars. Hence, statement 3 is not correct. — Quasars are a subclass of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), which are exceptionally bright galactic centres where gas and dust collide with a supermassive black hole to generate electromagnetic radiation across the whole electromagnetic spectrum. Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer. The impact of solar flares can be seen over: 1. Radio communications 2. Electric power grids 3. Navigation signals Select the correct answer using the codes given below: (a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 only (c) 2 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3 Explanation — A solar flare is a massive explosion on the Sun caused by the rapid release of energy trapped in 'twisted' magnetic fields (often found above sunspots). — In just a few minutes, they heat material to millions of degrees and emit a blast of radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to X-rays and gamma rays. — Solar flares are tremendous bursts of energy that can disrupt radio communications, power grids, navigation signals, and even endanger humans in space, satellites, and spacecraft. Therefore, option (d) is the correct answer. Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) and Visible Imager (VIS) are the payloads of: (a) Euclid space telescope (b) Chandrayaan 3 (c) Hubble Space Telescope (d) James Webb Space Telescope Explanation — Astronomers at the European Space Agency (ESA) have hit the jackpot after their telescope, Euclid, obtained high-resolution photos of 26 million galaxies, revealing a vast treasure trove for researching the dark cosmos. — The Euclid Mission is led by ESA, with assistance from scientists from NASA, Japan, and Canada. Euclid is a 1.2-metre telescope designed to map massive spatial structures in our universe, such as galaxies, in order to help reconstruct how the universe expanded and how galaxy formations evolved to look the way they do now. It carries two scientific payloads: a near-infrared spectrometer and photometer (NISP) and a visible imager. Therefore, option (a) is the correct answer. Malapert is a: (a) Deep craters near Mercury's poles (b) Impact crater on Mars (c) Shield volcano on Mars (d) A crater in the South Pole region of the Moon Explanation — Texas-based Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lander attempted to become the first privately-led mission to soft-land on the Moon. The lunar lander will attempt to land near Malapert (A crater in the South Pole region of the Moon), not far from ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 lander. Therefore, option (d) is the correct answer. Which of the following nuclear power plants has developed the country's first Indigenous Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR)? (a) Kalpakkam Atomic Power Plant (b) Kudankulam Atomic Power Plant (c) Rawatbhata Atomic Power Plant (d) Tarapur Atomic Power Plant Explanation — The crucial second stage of India's three-stage nuclear programme received a boost with the start of 'core loading' at the country's first indigenous Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu. — Core loading is the process of inserting nuclear fuel assemblies into the core of a nuclear reactor. — The completion of core loading will effectively signal the first step towards 'criticality' — the start of a self-sustaining nuclear fission reaction that will eventually lead to power generation by the 500 megawatt electric (MWe) FBR. — India will become the second country, after Russia, to have a commercial working FBR. China has a minor rapid breeder program, but programs in Japan, France, and the United States have been halted because of safety concerns. Therefore, option (a) is the correct answer. Consider the following areas related to Science and Technology: 1. Astrophysics 2. Nanoscience 3. Neuroscience In which of the above mentioned fields are 'The Kavli Prizes' awarded? (a) 1 only (b) 1 and 2 only (c) 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3 Explanation — The Kavli Prize is awarded in honour of Norwegian-American businessman and philanthropist Fred Kavli (1927-2013). — 'The Kavli Prizes are awarded in three areas: astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience — the largest, the smallest, and the most complex. I believe these prizes are in the most exciting fields for the twenty-first century and beyond,' Kavli said, while describing the prizes. Therefore, option (d) is the correct answer. With reference to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, consider the following statements: 1. It states certain pairs of physical properties—like position and momentum—cannot both be precisely known at the same time. 2. It is a fundamental concept in quantum mechanics. Which of the above statements is/are correct: (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2 Explanation — The Heisenberg uncertainty principle, part of the bedrock of quantum mechanics, tells us that certain pairs of properties — such as position and momentum — cannot both be known exactly at the same time. Therefore, option (c) is the correct answer. What is India's first dedicated polarimetry mission launched to study the dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources under extreme conditions? (a) XSPECT (b) XPoSat (c) POLIX (d) XPRIZE Explanation — According to ISRO, — 'XPoSat (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite) is India's first dedicated polarimetry mission to study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions. The spacecraft will carry two scientific payloads in a low earth orbit.' — The primary payload POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays): It will measure the polarimetry parameters (degree and angle of polarization) in medium X-ray energy range of 8-30 keV photons of astronomical origin. — The XSPECT (X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing) payload: It will give spectroscopic information in the energy range of 0.8-15 keV. Therefore, option (c) is the correct answer. Daily Subject-wise quiz — History, Culture, and Social Issues (Week 113) Daily subject-wise quiz — Polity and Governance (Week 113) Daily subject-wise quiz — Science and Technology (Week 112) Daily subject-wise quiz — Economy (Week 112) Daily subject-wise quiz — Environment and Geography (Week 112) Daily subject-wise quiz – International Relations (Week 112) Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter and stay updated with the news cues from the past week. Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – IndianExpress UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X.
MTV Lebanon
19-03-2025
- Science
- MTV Lebanon
Euclid Mission Data Release Marks Step Toward Grand Cosmic Atlas
The European Space Agency has released its first tranche of data from the Euclid space telescope's mission to map the universe's large-scale structure in order to better understand the mysterious cosmic components dark energy and dark matter. Scientists unveiled on Wednesday Euclid's observations of three patches of the sky populated by a panoply of galaxies. The data covered a survey of the sky equal to more than 300 times the size of the moon as viewed from Earth - a step toward the Euclid mission's goal of fashioning a grand atlas of the cosmos in exquisite detail, spanning more than a third of the sky. Euclid, launched from Florida in 2023 on a planned six-year mission, is an orbiting observatory gathering data on how the universe has expanded and how its structure has formed over time and amassing information about the nature of dark energy and dark matter and the role of gravity on large scales. The survey areas disclosed on Wednesday account for only about half a percent of the mission's eventual goal. The data represents just one week of observations including one scan of each of the three regions, but it covers 26 million galaxies up to 10.5 billion light-years away. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). The Big Bang event roughly 13.8 billion years ago initiated the universe, which has been expanding ever since. The universe's contents include ordinary matter as well as dark matter and dark energy. Ordinary matter - stars, planets, gas, dust and all the familiar stuff on Earth - represents perhaps 5% of the contents. Dark matter is invisible material that may make up about 27% of the cosmos. Dark energy, an enigmatic component thought to be responsible for the accelerated expansion of the universe, may account for 68%. The newly released Euclid images hint at the large-scale organization of galaxies in what is known as the cosmic web, essentially the backbone of the universe. In this web, there are concentrations of galaxies with voids of space in between, as if the galaxies were sitting on vast empty bubbles. The cosmic web's structure offers clues about dark matter and dark energy, according to the researchers. Astrophysicist Carole Mundell, the European Space Agency's director of science, called Euclid a "dark detective." "We now understand about 5% of the universe," Mundell said. "The other 95% is dark and is unknown." Euclid measures the various shapes and the distribution of galaxies with its high-resolution imaging visible instrument, or VIS, while its near-infrared instrument, or NISP, determines galaxy distances and masses. Euclid eventually is expected to obtain images of more than 1.5 billion galaxies. "It is exploring more distant objects in the universe with a greater amount of sky explored than any survey before for objects so far away," astrophysicist Chris Duffy of Lancaster University in England, one of the scientists involved in the research, said of Euclid. Duffy's part of the Euclid research focuses upon transient objects - ones that appear only briefly - such as stellar explosions called supernovae seen in the observations. A first detailed catalog of more than 380,000 galaxies of various shapes and sizes, classified according to features such as spiral arms and central bars as well as traits that indicate a galactic merger, was released on Wednesday. This represents "the first chunk of what will be the largest-ever catalog of the detailed appearance of galaxies," said University of Toronto astrophysicist Mike Walmsley, one of the Euclid scientists. Light traveling toward Earth from faraway galaxies is bent and distorted by normal matter and dark matter in the foreground in an effect called gravitational lensing. It is one of the tools used by Euclid to study how dark matter is distributed. Researchers have been sifting through the Euclid data to identify strong gravitational lenses, and have identified about 500 such candidates. "The invisible dark matter in massive galaxies warps space, bending light rays like a magnifying glass. This magnifies and distorts the galaxies behind them into arcs and rings, and measuring the distortion lets us measure the invisible dark matter. But the galaxies must be very precisely aligned, so this strong lensing effect is very rare," Walmsley said. "Euclid is the best instrument ever built for finding these, because it can take an exceptionally sharp image of wide patches of sky – while telescopes like Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope are designed to look at much smaller patches," Walmsley added. The next Euclid data release, planned for October 2026, will cover an area 30 times larger than Wednesday's release.
The Independent
19-03-2025
- Science
- The Independent
European Space Agency releases new data that could help us understand the nature of the universe
The European Space Agency has released the first data from its Euclid space telescope, which hopes to understand the mystery of dark energy and dark matter. The first tranche of data shows three patches of the sky, each of which shows an array of galaxies. It shows a part of the sky that is more than 300 times the size of the Moon when it is seen from Earth. Eventually, Euclid hopes to map a full atlas of the universe, scanning more than a third of the sky. Euclid, launched from Florida in 2023 on a planned six-year mission, is an orbiting observatory gathering data on how the universe has expanded and how its structure has formed over time and amassing information about the nature of dark energy and dark matter and the role of gravity on large scales. The survey areas disclosed on Wednesday account for only about half a percent of the mission's eventual goal. The data represents just one week of observations including one scan of each of the three regions, but it covers 26 million galaxies up to 10.5 billion light-years away. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). The Big Bang event roughly 13.8 billion years ago initiated the universe, which has been expanding ever since. The universe's contents include ordinary matter as well as dark matter and dark energy. Ordinary matter - stars, planets, gas, dust and all the familiar stuff on Earth - represents perhaps 5% of the contents. Dark matter is invisible material that may make up about 27% of the cosmos. Dark energy, an enigmatic component thought to be responsible for the accelerated expansion of the universe, may account for 68%. The newly released Euclid images hint at the large-scale organization of galaxies in what is known as the cosmic web, essentially the backbone of the universe. In this web, there are concentrations of galaxies with voids of space in between, as if the galaxies were sitting on vast empty bubbles. The cosmic web's structure offers clues about dark matter and dark energy, according to the researchers. Astrophysicist Carole Mundell, the European Space Agency's director of science, called Euclid a "dark detective." "We now understand about 5% of the universe," Mundell said. "The other 95% is dark and is unknown." Euclid measures the various shapes and the distribution of galaxies with its high-resolution imaging visible instrument, or VIS, while its near-infrared instrument, or NISP, determines galaxy distances and masses. Euclid eventually is expected to obtain images of more than 1.5 billion galaxies. "It is exploring more distant objects in the universe with a greater amount of sky explored than any survey before for objects so far away," astrophysicist Chris Duffy of Lancaster University in England, one of the scientists involved in the research, said of Euclid. Duffy's part of the Euclid research focuses upon transient objects - ones that appear only briefly - such as stellar explosions called supernovae seen in the observations. A first detailed catalog of more than 380,000 galaxies of various shapes and sizes, classified according to features such as spiral arms and central bars as well as traits that indicate a galactic merger, was released on Wednesday. This represents "the first chunk of what will be the largest-ever catalog of the detailed appearance of galaxies," said University of Toronto astrophysicist Mike Walmsley, one of the Euclid scientists. Light traveling toward Earth from faraway galaxies is bent and distorted by normal matter and dark matter in the foreground in an effect called gravitational lensing. It is one of the tools used by Euclid to study how dark matter is distributed. Researchers have been sifting through the Euclid data to identify strong gravitational lenses, and have identified about 500 such candidates. "The invisible dark matter in massive galaxies warps space, bending light rays like a magnifying glass. This magnifies and distorts the galaxies behind them into arcs and rings, and measuring the distortion lets us measure the invisible dark matter. But the galaxies must be very precisely aligned, so this strong lensing effect is very rare," Walmsley said. "Euclid is the best instrument ever built for finding these, because it can take an exceptionally sharp image of wide patches of sky í¢€' while telescopes like Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope are designed to look at much smaller patches," Walmsley added. The next Euclid data release, planned for October 2026, will cover an area 30 times larger than Wednesday's release.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Euclid mission data release is step toward grand atlas of the cosmos
By Will Dunham (Reuters) - The European Space Agency has released its first tranche of data from the Euclid space telescope's mission to map the universe's large-scale structure in order to better understand the mysterious cosmic components dark energy and dark matter. Scientists unveiled on Wednesday Euclid's observations of three patches of the sky populated by a panoply of galaxies. The data covered a survey of the sky equal to more than 300 times the size of the moon as viewed from Earth - a step toward the Euclid mission's goal of fashioning a grand atlas of the cosmos in exquisite detail, spanning more than a third of the sky. Euclid, launched from Florida in 2023 on a planned six-year mission, is an orbiting observatory gathering data on how the universe has expanded and how its structure has formed over time and amassing information about the nature of dark energy and dark matter and the role of gravity on large scales. The survey areas disclosed on Wednesday account for only about half a percent of the mission's eventual goal. The data represents just one week of observations including one scan of each of the three regions, but it covers 26 million galaxies up to 10.5 billion light-years away. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). The Big Bang event roughly 13.8 billion years ago initiated the universe, which has been expanding ever since. The universe's contents include ordinary matter as well as dark matter and dark energy. Ordinary matter - stars, planets, gas, dust and all the familiar stuff on Earth - represents perhaps 5% of the contents. Dark matter is invisible material that may make up about 27% of the cosmos. Dark energy, an enigmatic component thought to be responsible for the accelerated expansion of the universe, may account for 68%. The newly released Euclid images hint at the large-scale organization of galaxies in what is known as the cosmic web, essentially the backbone of the universe. In this web, there are concentrations of galaxies with voids of space in between, as if the galaxies were sitting on vast empty bubbles. The cosmic web's structure offers clues about dark matter and dark energy, according to the researchers. Astrophysicist Carole Mundell, the European Space Agency's director of science, called Euclid a "dark detective." "We now understand about 5% of the universe," Mundell said. "The other 95% is dark and is unknown." Euclid measures the various shapes and the distribution of galaxies with its high-resolution imaging visible instrument, or VIS, while its near-infrared instrument, or NISP, determines galaxy distances and masses. Euclid eventually is expected to obtain images of more than 1.5 billion galaxies. "It is exploring more distant objects in the universe with a greater amount of sky explored than any survey before for objects so far away," astrophysicist Chris Duffy of Lancaster University in England, one of the scientists involved in the research, said of Euclid. Duffy's part of the Euclid research focuses upon transient objects - ones that appear only briefly - such as stellar explosions called supernovae seen in the observations. A first detailed catalog of more than 380,000 galaxies of various shapes and sizes, classified according to features such as spiral arms and central bars as well as traits that indicate a galactic merger, was released on Wednesday. This represents "the first chunk of what will be the largest-ever catalog of the detailed appearance of galaxies," said University of Toronto astrophysicist Mike Walmsley, one of the Euclid scientists. Light traveling toward Earth from faraway galaxies is bent and distorted by normal matter and dark matter in the foreground in an effect called gravitational lensing. It is one of the tools used by Euclid to study how dark matter is distributed. Researchers have been sifting through the Euclid data to identify strong gravitational lenses, and have identified about 500 such candidates. "The invisible dark matter in massive galaxies warps space, bending light rays like a magnifying glass. This magnifies and distorts the galaxies behind them into arcs and rings, and measuring the distortion lets us measure the invisible dark matter. But the galaxies must be very precisely aligned, so this strong lensing effect is very rare," Walmsley said. "Euclid is the best instrument ever built for finding these, because it can take an exceptionally sharp image of wide patches of sky – while telescopes like Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope are designed to look at much smaller patches," Walmsley added. The next Euclid data release, planned for October 2026, will cover an area 30 times larger than Wednesday's release.
Reuters
19-03-2025
- Science
- Reuters
Euclid mission data release is step toward grand atlas of the cosmos
Summary Euclid was launched in 2023 on a planned six-year mission Mission is exploring nature of dark energy and dark matter Data hints at the organization of galaxies in cosmic web March 19 (Reuters) - The European Space Agency has released its first tranche of data from the Euclid space telescope 's mission to map the universe 's large-scale structure in order to better understand the mysterious cosmic components dark energy and dark matter. Scientists unveiled on Wednesday Euclid's observations of three patches of the sky populated by a panoply of galaxies. The data covered a survey of the sky equal to more than 300 times the size of the moon as viewed from Earth - a step toward the Euclid mission's goal of fashioning a grand atlas of the cosmos in exquisite detail, spanning more than a third of the sky. Euclid, launched from Florida in 2023 on a planned six-year mission, is an orbiting observatory gathering data on how the universe has expanded and how its structure has formed over time and amassing information about the nature of dark energy and dark matter and the role of gravity on large scales. The survey areas disclosed on Wednesday account for only about half a percent of the mission's eventual goal. The data represents just one week of observations including one scan of each of the three regions, but it covers 26 million galaxies up to 10.5 billion light-years away. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). The Big Bang event roughly 13.8 billion years ago initiated the universe, which has been expanding ever since. The universe's contents include ordinary matter as well as dark matter and dark energy. Ordinary matter - stars, planets, gas, dust and all the familiar stuff on Earth - represents perhaps 5% of the contents. Dark matter is invisible material that may make up about 27% of the cosmos. Dark energy, an enigmatic component thought to be responsible for the accelerated expansion of the universe, may account for 68%. The newly released Euclid images hint at the large-scale organization of galaxies in what is known as the cosmic web, essentially the backbone of the universe. In this web, there are concentrations of galaxies with voids of space in between, as if the galaxies were sitting on vast empty bubbles. The cosmic web's structure offers clues about dark matter and dark energy, according to the researchers. Astrophysicist Carole Mundell, the European Space Agency's director of science, called Euclid a "dark detective." "We now understand about 5% of the universe," Mundell said. "The other 95% is dark and is unknown." Euclid measures the various shapes and the distribution of galaxies with its high-resolution imaging visible instrument, or VIS, while its near-infrared instrument, or NISP, determines galaxy distances and masses. Euclid eventually is expected to obtain images of more than 1.5 billion galaxies. "It is exploring more distant objects in the universe with a greater amount of sky explored than any survey before for objects so far away," astrophysicist Chris Duffy of Lancaster University in England, one of the scientists involved in the research, said of Euclid. Duffy's part of the Euclid research focuses upon transient objects - ones that appear only briefly - such as stellar explosions called supernovae seen in the observations. A first detailed catalog of more than 380,000 galaxies of various shapes and sizes, classified according to features such as spiral arms and central bars as well as traits that indicate a galactic merger, was released on Wednesday. This represents "the first chunk of what will be the largest-ever catalog of the detailed appearance of galaxies," said University of Toronto astrophysicist Mike Walmsley, one of the Euclid scientists. Light traveling toward Earth from faraway galaxies is bent and distorted by normal matter and dark matter in the foreground in an effect called gravitational lensing. It is one of the tools used by Euclid to study how dark matter is distributed. Researchers have been sifting through the Euclid data to identify strong gravitational lenses, and have identified about 500 such candidates. "The invisible dark matter in massive galaxies warps space, bending light rays like a magnifying glass. This magnifies and distorts the galaxies behind them into arcs and rings, and measuring the distortion lets us measure the invisible dark matter. But the galaxies must be very precisely aligned, so this strong lensing effect is very rare," Walmsley said. "Euclid is the best instrument ever built for finding these, because it can take an exceptionally sharp image of wide patches of sky – while telescopes like Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope are designed to look at much smaller patches," Walmsley added. The next Euclid data release, planned for October 2026, will cover an area 30 times larger than Wednesday's release.
