Indigenous radio telescope SARAS has helped scientists conclude the properties of the earliest radio luminous galaxies formed 200 million years after the Big Bang, a period called the Cosmic Dawn. Published in Nature Astronomy by an international group of scientists, the findings of SARAS give an insight into the characteristics of the earliest radio loud galaxies that are usually powered by supermassive black holes. The team of scientists estimated the energy output, luminosity, and masses of the first generation of galaxies that are bright in radio wavelengths. The Shaped Antenna meas
Indonesia is building a lithium refinery and an anode material production facility to complement its nickel-based battery materials industry, an official said, as it aims to set itself up as a hub for making electric vehicles (EVs). Investors are currently building a lithium hydroxide plant with 60,000 tonnes capacity in the heart of the nickel industry in Morowali, Septian Hario Seto, a Deputy Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs, told an industry conference on Tuesday. An anode material plant with 80,000 tonnes capacity is set to start construction in January, he
The researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur have developed lanthanides-based perovskite nanocomposite catalytic materials for artificial photosynthesis to produce high-purity hydrogen. In the patented method, the researchers used natural sunlight to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen using a highly recyclable catalyst based on low-cost, simple transition metal. The team has now developed a series of catalysts that can efficiently produce hydrogen under ambient conditions. The end application of this research lies in the industries, automobile and energy sectors. In
The Union Minister for Telecom and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, has said that 200 Indian cities will be 5G enabled by April next year. The minister added that India is one of the only five countries in the world where end-to-end telecom technology stack is available. Airtel and Jio have already started their 5G mobile services in the country. Reliance’s Jio is offering unlimited data on an invite-only offer, while Airtel 5G is available for all Airtel subscribers, while being capped by data limits. So far, the 5G coverage is light and limited to metros and a few tier-1 cities. Speaking at a
Faridabad will have a ₹200 crore waste-to-methanol plant by December 2023. The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) is likely to sign an agreement soon with its door-to-door waste collection concessionaire Ecogreen to ensure the waste is not sent to landfill and is directly sent to the plant instead. The MCG has identified eight acres of land in Sihi, Faridabad, for the plant, which will be used to convert 500 tonnes of waste into 50 kilo-litres of methanol daily. Methanol is commonly used as a fuel, antifreeze and as solvent. The Government of Haryana will supply water and power t
Bengaluru-based Indian space technology start-up, Pixxel will launch its third hyperspectral satellite, Anand, onboard ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from Sriharikota spaceport on Saturday. The hyperspectral microsatellite – with weight less than 15 kg and wavelengths more than 150 – can capture Earth’s images in greater detail than other non-hyperspectral satellites with wavelengths not more than 10. These images can be used to detect pest infestation, map forest fires, identify soil stress and oil slicks, to name a few. In April, Pixxel became the first Indian co
US Space agency NASA’s Orion capsule reached the moon on Monday on its way to a record-breaking lunar orbit. It is the first time a capsule has visited the moon since NASA’s Apollo programme 50 years ago, and represents a huge milestone in the $4.1bn test flight that began last Wednesday. The close approach of 130 km (81 miles) occurred on Monday, as the crew capsule and its three wired-up dummies were on the far side of the moon. Due to a half-hour communication blackout, flight controllers did not know if the critical engine firing went well until the capsule emerged from behind the
India’s first privately developed rocket, Vikram-S, will be launched from the Indian Space Research Organisation’s launch pad at Sriharikota on Tuesday, November 15, said Hyderabad-based space start-up Skyroot Aerospace. The rocket is part of the maiden mission of Skyroot Aerospace, Prarambh (the beginning), which will carry payloads of two Indian and one foreign customers. The Chennai-based aerospace start-up, Spacekidz will fly ‘Fun-Sat’, a 2.5 kg payload developed by students from India, the US, Singapore and Indonesia on the sub-orbital flight on board Vikram-S. With this mi
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is prepared for the first runway landing experiment (RLV-LEX) of Reusable Launch Vehicle - Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) from aeronautical test range in Chitradurga, Karnataka. The ISRO Chairman S Somanath said that the weather is being monitored. The ISRO officials informed that the RLV wing body will be carried to an altitude of 3-5 km by a helicopter and dropped at about 4-5 km ahead of the runway with a horizontal velocity. After the release, the RLV will glide, steer towards the runway, and land with a landing gear in the defence airfie
In an attempt to revolutionise treatments for people with blood disorders, scientists in the United Kingdom have transfused lab-grown blood into people. While the bulk of blood transfusions will always depend on human donors, the eventual goal of the world’s first clinical trial of lab-grown blood is to manufacture vital, ultra-rare blood groups that are hard to find, said the UK researchers. The research project combines teams in Bristol, Cambridge, London, and at NHS Blood and Transplant. It focuses on the red blood cells (RBCs) that carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the