A NASA spacecraft, Messenger in the last week of March 2012 discovered further evidence for the existence of water ice at Mercury`s poles. NASA’s previous work revealed patches near Mercury`s poles that strongly reflect radar, a characteristic of ice. Messenger is only the second spacecraft, after Mariner 10 in the 1970s, to have visited the Mercury, which is the innermost planet in Solar system.

The National Green Tribunal on 30 March 2012 suspended the environmental clearance granted to Posco`s mega steel project in Orissa in January 2011. The tribunal comprising Justice C V Ramulu and D. K. Agarwal held that the clearance given to Posco`s mega steel project in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa will remain suspended till the environment ministry reviews it afresh.

The Government of Niger, in the first week of March 2012, declared the whole area of the Termit Massif and Tin Toumma desert, to be a national nature and culture reserve. Significantly, the area is home to some critically endangered species. It is now the largest single protected area in Africa. It has an area of 100000 square kilometers.

The Department of Atomic Energy plans to set up three more nuclear fuel complexes to meet the requirements arising out of the proposed massive expansion plan to increase the capacity of nuclear power plants to 63,000 MW by 2032, from the current level of 4,780 MW. Presently, the Department has only one such complex at Hyderabad. It produces fuel bundles and other components for all the 20 reactors in operation in the country. The first of the three additional plants would come up at Kota in Rajasthan and would be used to supply fuel to the four 700 MW Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors being built at neighbouring Rawatbhata and Kakrapar in Gujarat. The sites for the other two are yet to be finalised.

To provide easily accessible and high-quality Science and Engineering education through information and communication tools, the Human Resource Development Ministry on 23 feb launched a series of virtual laboratories that will aid studies in nine disciplines. The 91 virtual laboratories will enable hundreds of experiments in nine disciplines of Science and Engineering.

February 2012

Researchers at the Harvard Smithsonian centre for Astrophysics discovered that the planet GJ1214b was largely covered in water. They used Hubble Space Telescope to discover the water on planet. GJ1214b was discovered in 2009 by the ground-based MEarth Project. GJ1214b was described as a super-Earth.

India`s indigenously developed micro-light pilot-less target aircraft(PTA) Lakshya-1 was successfully test flown from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur near Balasore on 8 February 2012. Lakshya , a sub-sonic, re-usable aerial target system is remote controlled from the ground and designed to impart training to both air borne and air defence pilots. The PTA has been developed by India’s Aeronautic Development Establishment (ADE), Bangalore to perform discreet aerial reconnaissance of battle field and target acquisition.

A new study claimed that the theory proposed by Charles Darwin on life`s origin was correct. Darwin proposed that the life originated on land in a pond and not in the oceans. The study held by the researchers at the Osnabruck university in Germany found that the first primitive cells might have originated in pools of condensed vapour. This was caused by underground hot water.The scientists discovered that the oceans did not contain the best balance of ingredients to support life.

DRDO on 10 February 2012 conducted a successful test launch of the interceptor missile. DRDO’s Air Defence Missile AAD-05 successfully hit the ballistic missile and destroyed it at a height of 15 kms off the Coast of Orissa near the Wheelers Island.

 Astronomers found the fourth habitable planet outside our solar system called GJ667C. The planet is 22 light years from Earth. The newly found planet is rocky in nature. It orbits its star every 28.15 days.