In a first four images of a supernova viewed
- Astronomers observed four versions of a supernova thanks to the gravity of a cluster of galaxies, which magnified and bent the exploding star’s light to create multiple images, scientists said today.
Although multiple likenesses have been created by light-deflecting galaxies and active black holes before, so many versions of one supernova have never been produced by the optical effect.
The researchers, who published their discovery in the journal Science, said the effect was first described by Albert Einstein in his theory of relativity.
The star that the scientist observed exploded some nine billion light years from Earth, and the mass of the cluster of galaxies in front of the star was so great it deformed space and time, while deflecting light, to produce the four images.
“I was so excited when I spotted the four images around the galaxy. It was a complete surprise,” said Patrick Kelly, of the University of California, Berkeley, who made the discovery during routine observations.
Astronomers have been searching for a similar cosmic setup for 20 years.
Albert Einstein was the first scientist to predicted the phenomenon which creates the multiple images, the authors said.
“It’s perfectly set up, you couldn’t have designed a better experiment,” said Brad Tucker from the Australian National University (ANU).
“You can test some of the biggest questions about Einstein’s theory of relativity all at once — it kills three birds with one stone,” he said.
Anja von der Linden of the Dark Cosmology Centre at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, said that “what we see here is a strange and rare sight.”
The deflected supernova light appears in the four images configured like a cross around an elliptical galaxy within the cluster of galaxies, the researcher said.
This formation is called an Einstein cross, named after the scientists who first described the phenomenon.
The scientists said the discovery will also help them determine the strength of gravity, and the amount of dark matter and dark energy in the universe.
30 most influential people on internet: Time
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been named among the 30 most influential people on the internet by Time magazine in a list which also features US President Barack Obama.
The list, which analysed social-media followings, site traffic and overall ability to drive news, also includes British author of the Harry Potter series J K Rowling and singers Taylor Swift and Beyonce.
Time said the Indian Prime Minister has roughly 38 million followers on social networking sites Twitter and Facebook, putting him ahead of any other leaders in the world except Obama.
“And unlike many of his contemporaries, Modi recognises that social media can be invaluable when trying to reach India’s 200 million-plus online population directly,” the Time magazine said.
Modi, an ardent user of social media to communicate with people, announced in an unconventional way, Obama’s strategic visit to India in January this year. He took to Twitter to make the announcement, “bypassing traditional media outlets,” the magazine said.
Time said given the power of the social media, anyone with a web connection can start a global conversation.
“Yes, it helps to be famous in real life. But the rise of social networks has levelled the playing field, allowing unknowns to command audiences rivalling those of real-world leaders, even if by accident,” it said.
On Obama’s virtual influence, Time said the US President is the most-liked world leader on Facebook and the most-followed on Twitter.
“But more impressively, Obama is able to meme himself to push an agenda,” Time said citing a video he featured in for American internet news media company Buzzfeed. In it Obama used a selfie stick among other props to remind millennials to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
Within days, the video had been viewed more than 50 million times.
The list also includes reality star Kim Kardashian, singer Justin Beiber, actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Chinese actress Yao Chen, singer Shakira, photographer behind the hugely popular blog Humans of New York Brandon Stanton and TV personality Jimmy Fallon.
UN official among India's top analytics
- A woman data scientist, a member of the UN's Big Data innovation initiative, analytics thought leaders and a analytics head of a leading online shopping portal are among the top 10 Indian experts who made the biggest impact on the analytics industry in 2014, a new report says.
The annual ranking of the 10 most influential analytics leaders in India by the Analytics India Magazine honours individuals in analytics/Big Data industry who are deemed by their peers and an expert panel to be the most influential individuals in India.
It features Pulak Ghosh, a member of the Data Privacy Advisory Group of Global Pulse-the UN Secretary-General's Big Data innovation initiative, who happens to be the only academician to be named.
Ghosh belongs to the Quantitative Management Information Systems (QMIS) area at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
Mamatha Upadhyaya, director, Data Science and Analytics, Capgemini, is the only woman in the top 10.
Known to be passionate about data science, she is also a founding member of Datakind Bangalore - an organisation that works to build the data-for-good movement in India.
She is also a Cherie Blair Foundation Mentor Alumnus, empowering women worldwide.
Their prowess is estimated in terms of impact, leadership, entrepreneurship and analytics evangelism, a statement said.
In addition, there are experts in business analytics and business intelligence software solutions, innovators and thought leaders such as Sudipta K Sen, vice chairman and board member at SAS Institute (India) , Pankaj Rai, director, Global Analytics at Dell, Atul Jalan, CEO, Manthan, Amit Khanna, partner, KPMG India and Sameer Dhanrajani, business leader, Cognizant Analytics.
Srikanth Velamakanni, co-founder and CEO, Fractal Analytics, Ganapathy V, director, Enterprise Analytics Practice Lead, PHILIPS, and Ravi Vijayaraghavan , vice president and head - analytics, Flipkart.com are the other names featured.
UN lauds India's improved disaster risk management
- UNITED NATIONS: Lauding India's improved disaster risk management and accuracy of its meteorological department, the UN has said timely warnings on cyclones have helped "dramatically" reduce mortality during natural calamities.
The global assessment report on disaster risk reduction released by the United Nations said that the accuracy of forecasts made by the Indian Meteorological Department has greatly improved over the years.
It cited the 2013 cyclone Phailin that hit Odisha, saying "in a significant improvement" from previous years, warnings were disseminated four days before the cyclone made landfall.
"The cyclone made landfall in a pre-electoral period, meaning that both the national and state governments deployed all available resources to ensure that the disaster was well managed and its impacts minimised," the report said.
Comparing the casualty figure of 9,843 in the 1999 super-cyclone that had hit Odisha, the report said no more than 47 people died during Phailin.
"This dramatic reduction in disaster mortality has been attributed to improvements in disaster risk management effected by the Odisha State Government," it said.
The report further said that the case of Odisha is indicative of a trend in which improving development conditions and strengthened disaster management lead to dramatically reduced mortality, at least in those events for which warning is possible.
The report said that success stories from countries like Bangladesh, Chile, India, the Philippines in their disaster preparedness "show that timely and effective warning and communication coupled with risk information and a prepared population significantly reduces mortality."
According to the report, an annual global investment of six billion dollars in disaster risk management strategies would generate total benefits in terms of risk reduction of 360 billion dollars.
"For many countries, that small additional investment could make a crucial difference in achieving the national and international goals of ending poverty, improving health and education and ensuring sustainable and equitable growth," the report says.
While countries are devoting resources to disaster management, the report stresses that more needs to be done to foster a culture of prevention and incorporate disaster risk reduction into the post-2015 development agenda.
The report also noted that the cost of disasters worldwide has reached an average of USD 250 billion to USD 300 billion every year, urging countries to increase their commitments to strengthen their population's resilience.
The report, produced by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, stresses that the economic losses caused by disasters are also hindering countries' paths to achieve sustainable development, making risk reduction central to social, economic and environmental progress.
"If we do not address risk reduction, future losses from disaster will increase and this will impact countries' capacity to invest money in other areas such as health and education. If we do not take the necessary measures now, it will be difficult to achieve development, let alone sustainable development," said UN secretary general's special representative on disaster risk reduction Margareta Wahlstrom.
"The report is a wake-up call for countries to increase their commitment to invest in smart solutions to strengthen resilience to disasters," Wahlstrom said, adding that they will have an opportunity to do so at the third conference on disaster risk reduction taking place in less than two weeks in Sendai, Japan.
At the conference, countries will adopt a framework to success the hyogo framework for action.
Born in 2005 out of the world conference on disaster reduction, the framework is a 10-year plan, the first to detail the work that is required from all different sectors and actors to reduce disaster losses.
The report added that in many countries, climate change is magnifying risks and increasing the cost of disasters.
Mars once had sea larger than the Earth’s Arctic Ocean
- Ancient Mars was likely to have possessed a primitive ocean that held more water than the Earth’s Arctic Ocean, the US space agency NASA said.
“Perhaps about 4.3 billion years ago, Mars would have had enough water to cover the entire surface in a liquid layer about 450 feet (137 metres) deep,” Xinhuareported on Thursday, citing a NASA statement.
“More likely, the water would have formed an ocean occupying almost half of Mars’ northern hemisphere, in some regions reaching depths greater than a mile (1.6 kilometres),” it added.
In all, the red planet’s early ocean would have contained 20 million cubic kilometres of water, but since then, 87 per cent of that water has been lost to space.
The new findings, published in the US journal Science, were based on six-year observations of two slightly different forms of water in Mars’ atmosphere using the most powerful telescopes on Earth including the W. M. Keck Observatory on Hawaii.
By comparing the ratio of “heavy” water containing deuterium, a heavier form of hydrogen, with regular water, scientists believed that Mars must have lost a volume of water 6.5 times larger than the amount trapped in the present polar caps.
An early ocean on Mars containing the lost water would have covered 19 per cent of the planet’s surface, they said. By comparison, the Atlantic Ocean occupies 17 per cent of the Earth’s surface.
Based on the surface of Mars today, a likely location for this water would be in the Northern Plains, which has long been considered a good candidate because of the low-lying ground.
“With Mars losing that much water, the planet was very likely wet for a longer period of time than was previously thought, suggesting the planet might have been habitable for longer,” said author of the study Michael Mumma, a senior scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Indian Ocean diplomacy
- New Delhi: Giving a major fillip to India’s neighourhood outreach in the Indian Ocean region, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a five-day visit to the three key island nations of Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka from March 10.
However, the Maldives leg of the visit is not on, in view of the recent political turmoil in that country after the arrest of opposition leader and former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed.
In Seychelles, the first stop of his tour, Modi will hold bilateral discussions with President James Alexis Michel to strengthen maritime ties and enhance bilateral development cooperation.
Three agreements are set to be inked between Seychelles and India during the visit. Modi will be the second Indian prime minister to visit Seychelles after Indira Gandhi’s visit in 1981.
India’s bilateral cooperation with Seychelles is mainly in the field of health, education, defence and maritime security.
India recently gave a patrol ship to Seychelles, a 115-island country located 1,500 km east of Southeast Africa. The patrol ship was for the Seychelles Coast Guard to better patrol its extensive Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Both are likely to ink an agreement to strengthen the energy sector of the Seychelles, an Indian Ocean archipelago of 90,000 people.
Modi next visits Mauritius on March 11-12 where he will hold intensive meetings with Prime Minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth to further strengthen India’s special and unique relations with that country. Modi will also be the chief guest at the Mauritian National Day celebrations. A formal invite for the event had been handed over to him personally by Vice-Prime Minister Showkutally Soodun in January.
Besides meeting with the Mauritian prime minister, Modi will also call on President Kailash Purryag, and meet leader of the opposition, Paul Berenger.
Modi is likely to address the Mauritian Parliament on March 12. Besides meeting other political personalities of the island, Modi will pay a visit to the Ganga Talao and Appravasi Ghat, both of which are associated with the arrival of the Indian indentured labour to Mauritius. He will also visit the Mahatma Gandhi Institute.
During the visit, several MoUs are set to be inked, including an agreement to facilitate sea and air transport.
Modi’s final stop will be Sri Lanka, on March 13-14, during which he will hold meetings with President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Modi will address a Special Sitting of the Sri Lankan Parliament and also lay a wreath at the Indian Peace Keeping Force ( IPKF) Memorial and visit the Mahabodhi Society. President Maithripala Sirisena will host a state banquet in honour of the visiting Indian prime minister, the Sri Lankan foreign ministry said.
Modi is also expected to travel to Anuradhapura, Talaimannar and Jaffna. In Anuradhapura, he will visit the sacred Sri Maha Bodhi. While in Jaffna, he will unveil a plaque at the site of the proposed India- funded Jaffna Cultural Centre and also hand over to beneficiaries, houses built with Indian assistance. In Talaimannar, he will flag off the first train signifying recommencement of the Talaimannar/Medawachchiya sector of the train service to Colombo, following the rehabilitation work carried out with Indian credit assistance, said the foreign ministry.
Modi’s visit is the first official visit to Sri Lanka by an Indian prime minister in 27 years after the 1987 visit by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. He will accorded a ceremonial welcome including a Guard of Honour and Gun Salute.
President Sirisena undertook his first state visit to India from Feb 15 to 18, after taking over the presidency.
The exchange of high level visits is a manifestation of the keen desire of the two countries to build upon and nurture an age-old friendship to a level of extraordinary level of excellence, said the Sri Lankan foreign ministry.
“This will provide opportunities to build on the close contacts at the highest political level and enhance mutual cooperation and understanding on major issues of common interest,” said an Indian ministry of external affairs statement.
“The visit of the prime minister to our friendly maritime neighbours is reflective of India’s desire to further strengthen our ties in the Indian Ocean region,” added the statement.
India’s Indian Ocean diplomacy comes as China is pushing ahead with its maritime silk road project, which entails port-building activities at several places in the Indian Ocean.
India, Lanka discuss FTA implementation
- Colombo: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit here, India and Sri Lanka have discussed the implementation of a free trade pact and stepping up economic cooperation while addressing issues of trade imbalance.
Discussions on economic issues were held between the Sri Lankan side and a visiting Indian trade delegation headed by Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher. Enhanced Indian investments in Sri Lanka would boost the island’s export capacity and promote links with product and supply chains in the Indian market, the Indian trade delegation told Sri Lankan counterparts.
Both sides discussed the implementation of the India-Sri Lankan 1998 Free Trade Agreement, trade, investments, economic cooperation and related issues and upgrading the economic engagement to include investment and services with the Sri Lankan side, the Indian High Commission here said. Issues pertaining to trade imbalance, non-tariff barriers were also taken up. Both sides continued the dialogue on moving towards investment-based trade, it said in a statement.
It was agreed that there was considerable potential to expand bilateral trade in a balanced manner through optimal utilisation of the opportunities available between the two economies. Kher’s visit comes ahead of Prime Minister Modi’s Sri Lanka trip next week.
The parleys also come after talks between Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi last month that saw the two countries sign a civil nuclear pact. During the discussion, the Indian side recalled Sri Lanka’s earlier offer of attracting Indian investments in the manufacture of automobile parts, pharmaceuticals, textiles and engineering products in Special Economic Zones.
The investments could be in the form of joint venture projects to encourage Sri Lankan private sector and state enterprises to work together with Indian enterprises. Cooperation in the energy sector, including in the field of non-conventional energy, was also discussed.
It was pointed out that Sri Lanka has huge potential in the wind energy sector which could be harnessed. The talks also focused on interconnectivity of grid between the two countries. The Joint Working Group on tourism is likely to meet in April 2015. Both sides noted the importance of connectivity between the two countries and acknowledged that current levels of connectivity though good needed to be further enhanced to boost tourism.
The meeting also concurred on the importance of early resumption of ferry service between Talaimannar and Rameshwaram and Colombo and Tuticorin, as well as early conclusion of the Revised Air Services Agreement, which had been initialed in September 2013, the High Commission said.
India, Bangladesh, China most at risk from river floods: Study
- OSLO: India, Bangladesh and China are most at risk from river floods, with an increasing number of people threatened because of climate change and economic growth in low-lying regions, a study said on Thursday.
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The US-based World Resources Institute think-tank and four Dutch research groups estimated that some 21 million people worldwide were affected by river flooding in a typical year.
"That number could increase to 54 million in 2030 due to climate change and socio-economic development," their report said.
People living in 15 emerging nations, led by India, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam and Pakistan, accounted for almost 80 percent of all those affected by floods in an average year, it said. In India alone, almost five million people were at risk.
The United States had 167,000 people exposed to floods in a average year, the most for any developed nation, putting it 18th on a ranking of more than 160 nations.
The UN panel of climate scientists said last year that global warming would lead to more risks of floods, heatwaves, storms, downpours, landslides, air pollution, water scarcity, sea level rise and storm surges.
Thursday's study estimated that $96 billion of annual global gross domestic product was exposed to river floods every year, led by India on $14 billion and Bangladesh on $5.4 billion. This amount could rise to $521 billion by 2030. it said.
"There will be a huge increase in risk, especially in South East Asia," Hessel Winsemius, an author of the study at Dutch independent research institute Deltares, told Reuters.
Such flooding can also impact multinational companies which spread their production capacity -- monsoon floods in Thailand in 2011 killed more than 800 people and closed many factories -- including some making parts for firms such as Intel and Apple.
Many cities on flood plains were expected to expand in coming years, putting more people and businesses at risk. Multinational companies should think more about flood risks, including back-up suppliers or insurance from vulnerable areas.
Developing nations are working to adapt.
Thailand, for instance, is experimenting with floating homes that can rise up above the waters on pontoons filled with styrofoam.
Current Affairs Quiz
- 1. Approximately 99% of milk sold in the UK is
(a) Heat treated milk
(b) Homogenized milk
(c) Kefir
(d) Kumiss2. The fat percentage is maintained in standardized milk
(a) 4.5
(b) 8.5
(c) 3.25
(d) 1.5
3. Sterlised milk is
(a) Heated to a temperature of 150C or above
(b) Heated to a temperature of 1000C or above
(c) Heated to a temperature of 2000C or below
(d) Heated to a temperature of 900C
4. Vechur cow is a native of
(a) Kottayam district
(b) Mamlapuram district
(c) Panipat district
(d) Mehsana district
5. Whole milk - connotes
(a) It derives about 100% of its coloues from fat
(b) It is fartified with vitamins
(c) Best used for adults
(d) Also called single toned milk.Answers:1. a2. a3. b4. a5. a
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