1) Cryogenic engine tested successfully
- In a major milestone, an indigenous cryogenic engine, that will help India put satellites of upto four tonnes in geostationary orbit, was tested successfully at ISRO`s propulsion complex at Mahendragiri in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.
- The powerful version of the cryogenic engine was ground tested at the Liquid Propulsion systems center (LPSC). The test was conducted for 635 seconds and it was successful, Vikram Sarabhai Space Center sources in Thiruvananthapuram said.
- A team headed by Director D Karthikesan led the testing. ISRO sources said its chairman A S Kirankumar visited Mahendragiri for this purpose. The successful testing is an important milestone in developing lift launch vehicles GSLV MK-3 for the next generation.
2) Unique 3D map of the universe created
- Astrophysicists have created a 3D map of the universe that spans nearly two billion light years and is the most complete picture of our cosmic neighbourhood so far. The spherical map of galaxy super clusters will lead to a greater understanding of how matter is distributed in the universe and provide key insights into the mysterious dark matter, the researchers noted.
- The galaxy distribution is not uniform and has no pattern. The lighter blue and white areas on the map represent greater concentrations of galaxies. The red area is the supercluster called the "shapley concentration", the largest collection of galaxies in the nearby universe. Unexplored areas appear in medium blue.
- Scientists have observed that galaxies move differently because the universe`s expansion is not even. These differences are called peculiar velocities. Our own Milky Way galaxy and its neighbour Andromeda are moving with a speed of two million km per hour.
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3) Three super-Earths orbiting nearby star discovered
- Scientists in Washington have discovered three planets, each with a mass 7 to 8 times that of Earth, orbiting a nearby star that is only 54 light-years away. Researchers said that the three planets orbit their star at a distance closer than Mercury, orbits the Sun, completing their orbits in just five, 15, and 24 days. The Automated Planet Finder (APF) Telescope at Lick Observatory in California and W M Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaii traced out the planets` orbits over many years using the Doppler technique that has successfully found hundreds of mostly larger planets orbiting nearby stars.