Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 12 February 2017
:: National ::
India made progress towards Ballistic Missile Shield
An indigenously developed interceptor missile successfully destroyed an incoming ballistic missile in a direct hit, demonstrating the capability of India’s Ballistic Missile Shield (BMD), which is under development.
India successfully conducted a test wherein an incoming ballistic missile target was intercepted by an exo-atmospheric interceptor missile off the Bay of Bengal.
As part of the test, a target missile mimicking an enemy ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 km was launched from an Indian Navy ship stationed in the Bay of Bengal and the missile travelled towards the coast, reaching a very high altitude.
The BMD is being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as a two layered system to tackle incoming targets at endo and exo atmospheres.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the scientific community on social media. “I want to congratulate our scientists for successful testing of missile that can destroy other missiles in the air itself,” he said.
India has crossed an important milestone and has entered an exclusive club of four nations with developing capabilities to secure its skies and cities against hostile threats.
The immunity of pregnant women can be affected by the gender of the baby
The immunity of pregnant women can be affected by the gender of the baby, say scientists. They found that women carrying female foetuses showed a heightened inflammatory response.
Researchers followed 80 pregnant women through the course of their pregnancy to find out if they exhibited different levels of immune markers called cytokines based on the gender of the foetus.
Analyses were conducted on the level of cytokines in the blood and levels produced by a sample of immune cells that were exposed to bacteria in the lab.
Inflammation is a critical part of the immune response involved in wound healing and responses to viruses, bacteria and chronic illnesses. However, excessive inflammation is stressful to the body.
The heightened inflammation observed among women carrying female foetuses could play a role in why mothers-to-be tend to experience exacerbated symptoms of some medical conditions, including asthma, when carrying a female foetus.
People came to help stranded whales at New Zealand
(Register and Login to read Full News)
:: International ::
US President says new executive immigration might come
Donald Trump has said he is considering signing a “brand-new” executive order on immigration, following the court ruling blocking his travel ban.
The U.S. President said he was confident he would win the court battle over the hugely controversial executive order suspending the country’s refugee programme and barring citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries.
He said the White House was also considering “a lot of other options, including just filing a brand new order”. Asked if he meant a new executive order, he said: “It very well could be. We need speed for reasons of security, so it very well could be.”
There was confusion about whether the administration intended to take the fight to the Supreme Court, following his setback in a San Francisco federal court.
Despite the President claiming he would “win that [legal] battle” over the travel ban, a White House official told Reuters the President had decided not to go to the Supreme Court.
Minutes later the Washington Post quoted White House chief of staff Reince Priebus as saying the administration was “reviewing all of our options in the court system” — including the Supreme Court.
Separately, an unidentified judge on the ninth circuit requested that the court consider reconsidering the travel ban case “en banc” — or by a full panel of 11 judges.
The court’s 25 judges will vote on the issue after both sides file briefs, which are due on 16 February.
:: Science and Technology ::
Comet hunters have a chance to spot comet 45P
Comet hunters have a chance to spot comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova in the next few days using binoculars or a telescope, NASA said.
“It’s the first of a trio of comets that will, between now and the end of 2018, pass close enough to Earth for backyard observers to try to spot and for scientists to study using ground-based instruments,” the U.S. space agency said.
It’s named Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková after the astronomers who discovered it in 1948: Minoru Honda, Antonín Mrkos, and Ludmila Pajdušáková.
45P is a short-period comet, with an orbit that takes it around the Sun and out by Jupiter about every 5-1/4 years. This weekend’s encounter will be the comet’s closest with Earth, passing by at a distance of about 12.4 million kilometres, through the end of this century.
The comet will pass by our planet again in 2032 but will be much farther away — at a distance of nearly about 48 million kilometres.
Scientists have taken advantage of 45P’s approach, making observations using powerful ground-based telescopes such as NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility to investigate the gases, dust and ice particles that are released from the comet nucleus and show up in the coma and tail.
By looking for water, methane and other compounds, astronomers get clues about how the comet is put together and where it originated in the cloud of material that surrounded the young sun as the solar system formed.
NASA said ground-based observations also are planned for comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak, which will pass closest to Earth on April 1, and for comet 46P/Wirtanen, passing closest to Earth on December 16, 2018.
By studying this trio of comets, astronomers can learn more about the differences between comets — information they use to fill in the comet family tree.