Space – Medium Level – GK Questions

Martian polar caps contain layered water ice overlain by seasonal CO₂ frost; north cap retains summer water ice, south cap retains perennial CO₂.

Period-luminosity relation allows Cepheids to serve as standard candles for measuring galactic/extragalactic distances, foundational to Hubble's law.

RRSC-South Asia at IIRS Dehradun supports regional countries with remote sensing training/data under UN-ESCAP framework.

Zarya (Functional Cargo Block) launched Nov 20, 1998, providing initial propulsion/power until Unity node arrived weeks later.

Lunar frozen orbits (inclination ~27°, 50°, 76°, 86°) counteract mascon perturbations, enabling long-term stable orbits for Chandrayaan and LRO.

BAO are frozen sound wave imprints in galaxy distribution (~150 Mpc scale), constraining dark energy and expansion rate across cosmic time.

Pragyan traversed ~100 m and operated for one lunar day (~14 Earth days) before entering sleep mode at lunar sunset; wake-up attempts failed.

NASA's Psyche mission launched Oct 2023 to explore the metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche, possibly a protoplanet's exposed core.

ISRO's ATV-D01 scramjet test flew on RH-560 Mk III sounding rocket in Aug 2016, demonstrating supersonic combustion air-breathing propulsion.

JAXA's Hayabusa2 collected samples from asteroid Ryugu (2018-2019) and returned them to Earth in Dec 2020, advancing understanding of solar system origins.

Jugnu, a 3 kg student satellite for agriculture/disaster monitoring, launched aboard PSLV-C18 in Oct 2011, pioneering academic space research in India.

Magnetars possess magnetic fields trillions of times stronger than Earth's, producing giant flares and soft gamma repeater bursts.

CARE, launched atop LVM3-X in Dec 2014, tested ablative heat shield and parachute systems for Gaganyaan crew module recovery.

Venus rotates east-to-west (retrograde) every 243 Earth days, while its orbital period is 225 days, making its sidereal day longer than its year.

Mariner 10 conducted three flybys of Mercury in 1974-75, mapping ~45% of its surface and discovering its magnetic field.

Aerobraking gradually lowers apoapsis by skimming upper atmosphere, saving fuel for orbit insertion (used by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mangalyaan).

T Tauri stars (<10 Myr) are variable, accreting protostars en route to main sequence, often surrounded by protoplanetary disks.

ISRO SSA Control Centre in Peenya, Bengaluru monitors space debris, tracks objects, and issues collision warnings to safeguard Indian assets.

Miranda's surface displays ovoid coronae, fault canyons, and varied terrains suggesting past tidal heating or catastrophic disruption/reassembly.

ISRO/SAC developed indigenous Rubidium atomic clocks for NavIC after import restrictions, achieving stability comparable to international standards.