1) SHUKRAYAAN-1: also called the Venus Mission, it will be an orbiter mission.
- Its scientific payloads currently include a high-resolution synthetic aperture radar and a ground-penetrating radar.
- It will Investigate surface process and shallow subsurface stratigraphy. Until now, no prior observation of the sub-surface of Venus has been done.
- The mission is expected to study Venus’s geological and volcanic activity, emissions on the ground, wind speed, cloud cover, and other planetary characteristics from an elliptical orbit.
- Optimal launch windows from Earth to Venus occur once every 19 months.
2) Black Box/Flight Recorder: It is an instrument that records the performance and condition of an aircraft in flight. Governmental regulatory agencies require these devices on commercial aircraft to make possible the analysis of crashes or other unusual occurrences.
- A black box refers to two pieces of equipment together – the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR).
- The FDR records many variables, not only basic aircraft conditions such as airspeed, altitude, heading, vertical acceleration, and pitch but also hundreds of individual
- The CVR records verbal communication between crew members within the aircraft’s cockpit as well as voice transmissions by radio.
- In spite of the popular name black box, flight recorders are painted a highly visible vermilion color known as “international orange”.
3) Mayan Civilization: they are probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica.
- Originating in the Yucatán peninsula around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala.
- Maya developed astronomy, calendrical systems and hieroglyphic writing.
- Thy had elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial architecture, including temple-pyramids, palaces and observatories, all built without metal tools.
- They were also skilled farmers, weavers and potters. The Maya remain in contemporary Mesoamerican societies, and maintain a distinctive set of traditions and beliefs, combined with more recent practices such as the almost total adoption of Roman Catholicism.
- The Maya made paper from the inner bark of wild fig trees- the books are called codices.
4) Default bail: Also known as statutory bail, this is a right to bail that accrues when the police fail to complete investigation within a specified period in respect of a person in judicial custody.
- This is enshrined in Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) where it is not possible for the police to complete an investigation in 24 hours, the police produce the suspect in court and seek orders for either police or judicial custody.
5) LHS 475 b: It is an exoplanet located just 41 light-years away.
- The planet orbits very close to a red dwarf star and completes a full orbit in just two days.
- It’s roughly the same size as Earth.
- Exoplanets are planets that orbit other stars and are beyond our solar system. According to NASA, to date, more than 5,000 exoplanets have been discovered.
