Space – GK Questions

Note: AstroSat is already operational (launched 2015). If referring to future missions, XPoSat (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite) was launched in Jan 2024. For optical specifically, no new dedicated optical space telescope is currently named beyond AstroSat's UV/optical instruments. Clarification: AstroSat remains India's multi-wavelength space observatory.

Eris, discovered in 2005, is slightly more massive than Pluto, prompting the IAU to redefine 'planet' and create the 'dwarf planet' category.

Neutron stars have densities of ~10^17 kg/m³. A cubic centimeter (teaspoon-sized) would weigh roughly a billion metric tons due to degenerate neutron matter.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission returned a capsule containing asteroid Bennu samples to Utah on September 24, 2023, for laboratory analysis.

NSIL, incorporated in 2019 under the Department of Space, handles commercialization of ISRO technologies and launch services, based in Bengaluru.

After 15 years in orbit, Mir was deliberately deorbited in March 2001, with debris falling into the South Pacific Ocean.

Sun-synchronous orbits maintain constant illumination angles, ideal for consistent imaging conditions required by remote sensing and earth observation satellites.

The Local Group contains three large spiral galaxies: Milky Way, Andromeda (M31), and Triangulum (M33), plus dozens of dwarf galaxies.

Vikram landed at approximately 69°S latitude near the lunar south pole, a region of significant scientific interest due to permanently shadowed craters potentially containing water ice.

SSLV is designed for small satellites (up to 500 kg to LEO), whereas PSLV can carry up to ~1,750 kg to Sun-Synchronous Orbit or ~1,400 kg to LEO. SSLV complements PSLV for smaller payloads.

Valles Marineris stretches over 4,000 km across Mars' equator, making it the largest canyon system in the solar system, dwarfing Earth's Grand Canyon.

BeiDou is China's global satellite navigation system, operational since 2020, providing positioning, navigation, and timing services worldwide.

GSAT-24 was built by ISRO and transferred to NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), which leased full capacity to Tata Play for direct-to-home broadcasting.

The Orion Nebula (M42) is a diffuse emission nebula and active star-forming region. Planetary nebulae are shells of gas ejected by dying low-mass stars.

The first crewed Gaganyaan mission plans to carry three Indian astronauts to a 400 km orbit for up to three days.

Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) became visible to the naked eye in July 2020, one of the brightest comets in decades, discovered by NASA's NEOWISE mission.

STS-31 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery deployed Hubble on April 24, 1990. Subsequent servicing missions corrected its optics and upgraded instruments.

Electric propulsion (ion thrusters) achieves much higher fuel efficiency (specific impulse) than chemical rockets, enabling longer missions with less propellant, though acceleration is very gradual.

Stars with initial masses above ~20-25 solar masses typically end their lives as core-collapse supernovae, leaving behind black holes. Lower-mass stars become neutron stars or white dwarfs.

While initial discoveries came from ground-based TRAPPIST telescopes, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope confirmed and characterized the seven-planet system in 2017.