Space – GK Questions

Mir's core module launched on February 20, 1986. It operated for 15 years, hosting international crews and serving as a testbed for long-duration spaceflight.

Millions of pieces of defunct satellites, rocket stages, and fragments orbit Earth at high velocities, increasing collision risks and threatening sustainable space operations.

Quasi-stellar radio sources (quasars) are extremely luminous active galactic nuclei where accretion onto supermassive black holes releases immense energy.

ESA's Rosetta orbited comet 67P from 2014-2016, deploying the Philae lander. It provided unprecedented data on cometary composition and activity.

IAF's Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) in Bengaluru conducts medical screening and training for Gaganaut candidates in collaboration with ISRO.

Triton has a retrograde orbit (opposite to Neptune's rotation), suggesting it was captured from the Kuiper Belt rather than forming in situ.

NavIC operates with a network of 21 ranging and integrity monitoring stations across India for precise orbit determination and signal correction.

Main sequence stars fuse hydrogen into helium in their cores via the proton-proton chain or CNO cycle, releasing energy that counteracts gravitational collapse.

SHAPE (Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth) actually studied Earthshine to validate techniques for detecting habitable exoplanets, not lunar properties directly. Correction: SHAPE observed Earth from lunar orbit. Revised answer reflects actual function.

Roscosmos is the State Corporation for Space Activities of the Russian Federation. Ukraine has its own space agency, SSAU.

The Vikas engine, derived from France's Viking engine, uses hypergolic propellants: Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) as fuel and Nitrogen Tetroxide (N2O4) as oxidizer.

LIGO made the first direct detection of gravitational waves (GW150914) on September 14, 2015, from merging black holes, confirming Einstein's prediction.

VELC (Visible Emission Line Coronagraph) images and spectroscopically analyzes the solar corona to study coronal heating and dynamics.

Unlike Jupiter and Saturn (gas giants dominated by hydrogen/helium), Uranus and Neptune contain higher proportions of 'ices' (water, ammonia, methane), hence termed ice giants.

Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin followed Neil Armstrong onto the lunar surface approximately 19 minutes after Armstrong during Apollo 11's EVA on July 20, 1969.

Oceansat satellites carry ocean color monitors and scatterometers for studying sea surface temperature, chlorophyll, wind vectors, and marine resources.

MCF has facilities in Hassan (Karnataka) and Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) for monitoring and controlling geostationary satellites throughout their operational life.

The CMB is remarkably isotropic (uniform) at 2.725 K, with minute anisotropies (~1 part in 100,000) that seeded the formation of cosmic structures.

ISRO used a ballistic capture trajectory, arriving at Mars with minimal relative velocity, reducing fuel needed for orbit insertion compared to traditional methods.

Vega is a small-lift launch vehicle developed by ESA (primarily Italy and France) for launching small scientific and Earth observation satellites.