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[DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS, 01 MARCH 2023]

 C V RAMAN

 
 
1.Context
In 1986, under then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the Government of India esignated February 28 as National Science Day to commemorate the announcement of the discovery of the “Raman Effect”. This year’s edition is being celebrated under the theme of “Global Science for Global Wellbeing”, in light of India’s G20 presidency.
Image Source: Alamy
2.Background
The Raman Effect was the discovery which won physicist Sir CV Raman his Nobel Prize in 1930. Conducting a deceptively simple experiment, Raman discovered that when a stream of light passes through a liquid, a fraction of the light scattered by the liquid is of a different colour. This discovery was immediately recognised as groundbreaking in the scientific community, being the subject of over 700 papers in the first seven years after its announcement
3.About C.V. Raman
  • Raman was born to a family of Sanskrit scholars in Trichy (present-day Tiruchirapalli) in the Madras Presidency in 1888
  • At the age of only 16, He received a BA degree from Presidency College in Madras, and was placed first in his class
  • While studying for his MA degree, at the age of 18, he got published in the Philosophical Magazine: this was the first research paper ever published by Presidency College
  • Due to his ill health, he was unable to travel abroad for further education. Thus, in 1907, he got married and settled down in Calcutta as an assistant accountant general
  • While still a full-time civil servant, Raman began after-hours research at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS)
  • Raman raised the profile of IACS, doing some award-winning research as well as conducting public demonstrations with charisma
  • At the age of 29, he finally resigned from his civil services job and took up a professorship in Presidency College, Calcutta
  • By 1921, CV Raman had gained a solid reputation as a top scientific mind both in India and in the West
  • That year, he made his first journey to England. It was on the return journey that Raman would make an observation that would change his life and science forever
  • While passing through the Mediterranean Sea, Raman was most fascinated by the sea’s deep blue colour
  • He soon found out that the colour of the sea was the result of the scattering of sunlight by the water molecules
  • Fascinated by the phenomenon of light-scattering, Raman and his collaborators in Calcutta began to conduct extensive scientific experiments on the matter  experiments that would eventually lead to his eponymous discovery.
4.The Raman Effect
  • Raman Effect refers to the phenomenon in which when a stream of light passes through a liquid, a fraction of the light scattered by the liquid is of a different colour
  • This happens due to the change in the wavelength of light that occurs when a light beam is deflected by molecules.
  • In general, when light interacts with an object, it can either be reflected, refracted or transmitted
  • One of the things that scientists look at when light is scattered is if the particle it interacts with is able to change its energy
  • The Raman Effect is when the change in the energy of the light is affected by the vibrations of the molecule or material under observation, leading to a change in its wavelength
  • In their first report to Nature, titled “A New Type of Secondary Radiation,” CV Raman and co-author KS Krishnan wrote that 60 different liquids had been studied, and all showed the same result – a tiny fraction of scattered light had a different colour than the incident light
  • “It is thus,” Raman said, “a phenomenon whose universal nature has to be recognised.”
  • Raman would go on to verify these observations using a spectroscope, publishing the quantitative findings in the Indian Journal of Physics on March 31, 1928
5.Importance of the Discovery
  • CV Raman’s discovery took the world by storm as it had deep implications far beyond Raman’s original intentions
  • As Raman himself remarked in his 1930 Nobel Prize speech, “The character of the scattered radiations enables us to obtain an insight into the ultimate structure of the scattering substance.”
  • For quantum theory, in vogue in the scientific world at the time, Raman’s discovery was crucial
  • The discovery would also find its use in chemistry, giving birth to a new field known as Raman spectroscopy as a basic analytical tool to conduct nondestructive chemical analysis for both organic and inorganic compounds
  • With the invention of lasers and the capabilities to concentrate much stronger beams of light, the uses of Raman spectroscopy have only ballooned over time
  • Today, this method has a wide variety of applications, from studying art and other objects of cultural importance in a non-invasive fashion to finding drugs hidden inside luggage at customs
 
 
 
Source:indianexpress
 

INTERNET SHUTDOWN

 

1. Context

Following the brutal on-camera killing of tailor Kanhaiyalal Teli in Udaipur by two men, the Rajasthan government imposed a ban on Internet services. Shutting down the Internet as an administrative or law-and-order measure has been a common step taken across India for a range of reasons and by almost all political parties and governments.

2. What do the data on internet suspensions say? 

  • According to the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), a large services organization working in this field in India, since 2012 there gave been 665 Internet shutdowns in India to date.
  • Here, 'shutdowns' mean a total ban on mobile (3G, 4G/LTE), or fixed-line (dial-up, wired/wireless broadband) Internet, both of which may be shut down.
  • According to Internet freedom and tech policy organizations, India is the leading country (by number) for Internet disruption incidents and the frequency of shutdowns.
  • This year, 59 shutdowns have been enforced, according to SFLC, which determines shutdowns based on government orders and media reports.

3. Internet shutdowns in States

  • Jammu and Kashmir have had more than 411 shutdowns since 2012, and the longest one went on far more than 552 days after the abrogation of the special status of the erstwhile state.
  • Among the states, Rajasthan has had the most shutdowns with 88 such instances in almost 10 years. The reasons have ranged from protests by the Gujjar community for reservation, to preventing cheating in the Rajasthan Eligibility Examination for Teachers (REET) held to select primary school teachers last year, which was taken by an estimated 16 lakh aspirants.

4. How do governments justify shutting down the Internet?

  • Governments say misinformation and rumors can lead to deterioration in law and order in an area, so curbing the flow of information helps maintain peace among communities in times of crisis.
  • But many experts have countered that in the absence of information sources like news outlets, rumors lly end up spreading even more.
  • Also, important services such as those related to payments, banking, and educational access, all get cut in an instant, resulting in disruptions at multiple levels and economic losses.

5. Provisions regarding Internet Shutdowns in India

India telegraph act 1885
Section 7 of the aforementioned act has been amended to include temporary suspension of telecom services (public emergency and public safety)rules.
As per rules, only the home secretary of the union or the state can issue such an order, it has to be reviewed by a committee within 5 days. such an order shall not be operational for more than 15 days.
Powers under section 144 CrPC
In an unavoidable circumstances, the order can be issued by an office of the rank of joint secretary or above, authorized by the union or state home secretary.
Section 69(A) of the information technology Act 2008
It gives the government power to block particular websites and not the internet as a whole.

6. Arguments favoring Internet Shutdowns

Deterrent to hate speech and fake news
The Internet has become a medium for spreading animosity and hatred against various religious and ethnic groups. Xenophobic tendencies can be effectively tackled.
Ensure peace and stability
Internet shutdowns may be seen as a preventive measure used by the law & order administration as a last resort to address mass protests, and civil unrest, curbing the spread of misinformation to ensure peace and public safety.
Avoid Anarchy
In certain extreme situations where rumors through Whatsapp and other social media start playing a disruptive role, it may become necessary to have internet shutdowns.

7. Arguments against Internet Shutdowns

Human rights violations
Kerela high court's judgment in Faheema Shirin v/s State of Kerela, where the right to internet access was recognized as a fundamental right forming a part of the right to privacy and the right to education under Article 21 of the constitution.
Social Cost
Essential services like education, Health, Public services, etc are held back. Internet shutdown is also causing a digital divide and disparity in education, especially in the instances of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fails to achieve the objective
There is no conclusive evidence showing that Internet shutdowns lead to the maintenance or restoration of public order.
Social Chaos
Shutting down the internet results in an information blackout that can also create hysteria, and panic and can result in even more discord.

For Prelims & Mains

For Prelims: Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), Jammu and Kashmir, India telegraph act 1885, and Section 69(A) of the information technology Act 2008.
For Mains: 1. India is sometimes referred to as the ‘Internet shutdown capital of the world’. Discuss the measures to reduce instances of internet shutdown.
 
Source: The Indian Express
 

IEA's ANNUAL REPORT 

1. Context 

According to the International Energy Agency's (IEA) annual Methane Global Tracker report, fossil fuel companies emitted 120 million metric tonnes of methane into the atmosphere in 2022, only slightly below the record highs seen in 2019.
It added that these companies have done almost nothing to curb the emissions despite their pledges to find and fix leaking infrastructure.

2. Key Points

  • The report said 75 per cent of methane emissions from the energy sector can be reduced with the help of cheap and readily available technology.
  • The implementation of such measures would cost less than three per cent of the net income received by the oil and gas industry in 2022, but fossil fuel companies failed to take any substantial action regarding the issue.
  • The report has come just weeks after energy giants such as Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and others reported record profits last year as the Russia-Ukraine war drove up oil and natural gas prices.
  • The New Global Methane Tracker shows that some progress is being made but that emissions are still far too high and not falling fast enough especially as methane cuts are among the cheapest options to limit near-term global warming. There is just no excuse.
Image Source: Britannica

3. Findings of the report

  • The energy sector accounts for around 40 per cent of the total average methane emissions from human activity as oil and natural gas companies are known to release methane into the atmosphere when natural gas is flared or vented.
  • The greenhouse gas is also released through leaks from valves and other equipment during the drilling, extraction and transportation process.
  • More than 260 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas (mostly composed of methane) is wasted through flaring and methane leaks globally today.
  • Although it's impossible to avoid all of this amount, the right policies and implementation can bring 200 bcm of additional gas to markets.
  • In the oil and gas sector, emissions can be reduced by over 75 per cent by implementing well-known measures such as leak detection and repair programmes and upgrading leaky equipment.
  • It further mentioned that 80 per cent of the available options to curb the release of methane could be implemented by the fossil fuel industry at net zero cost.
Based on average natural gas prices from 2017 to 2021, estimate that around 40 per cent of methane emissions from oil and gas operations could be avoided at no net cost because the outlays for the abatement measures are less than the market value of the additional gas that is captured.
  • Ultimately, reducing 75 per cent of the wastage of natural gas could lower global temperature rise by nearly 0.1 degree Celsius by mid-century.
  • This would have the same effect on the soaring global temperatures as immediately stopping greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles such as cars, trucks, buses and two and three-wheeler vehicles across the world.
  • However, fossil fuel companies have done little to tackle the problem.
  • Unfortunately, it is not a new issue and emissions remain stubbornly high.
  • Many companies saw hefty profits last year following a turbulent period for international oil and gas markets amid the global energy crisis.
  • Fossil fuel producers need to step up and policymakers need to step in and both must do so quickly.

4. Methane emissions driving climate change

  • Methane is a greenhouse gas, which is responsible for 30 per cent of the warming since preindustrial times, second only to carbon dioxide.
  • A report by the United Nations Environment Programme observed that over 20 years, methane is 80 times more potent at warming than carbon dioxide.
  • In recent years, scientists have repeatedly sounded the alarm regarding the increasing amount of methane in the atmosphere.
  • Last year, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said that the atmospheric levels of methane jumped 17 parts per billion in 2021, beating the previous record set in 2020.
  • While carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for much longer than methane, methane is roughly 25 times more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere and has an important short-term influence on the rate of climate change.

For Prelims & Mains

For Prelims: Methane, climate change, IEA's annual report, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, The New Global Methane Tracker, 
 
 
Previous year questions
 
1. With reference to two non-conventional energy sources called 'coalbed methane' and 'shale gas' consider the following statements: (2014)
1. Coalbed methane is the pure methane gas extracted from coal seams, while shale gas is a mixture of propane and butane only that can be extracted from fine-grained sedimentary rocks.
2. In India, abundant coalbed methane sources exist, but so far no shale gas sources have been found.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A. 1 only  B. 2 only C. both 1 and 2 D. neither 1 nor 2 
 
Answer: D

2. Which of the following statements is/are correct about the deposits of ‘methane hydrate’? (2019)

  1. Global warming might trigger the release of methane gas from these deposits.
  2. Large deposits of ‘methane hydrate’ are found in Arctic Tundra and under the sea floor.
  3. Methane in atmosphere oxidises to carbon dioxide after a decade or two.

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3

Ans: (d)

3. Consider the following: (2019)

  1. Carbon monoxide
  2. Methane
  3. Ozone
  4. Sulphur dioxide

Which of the above are released into atmosphere due to the burning of crop/biomass residue?

(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2, 3 and 4 only
(c) 1 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

Ans: (d)

4. In the cities of our country, which among the following atmospheric gases are normally considered in calculating the value of Air Quality Index? (2016)

  1. Carbon dioxide
  2. Carbon monoxide
  3. Nitrogen dioxide
  4. Sulphur dioxide
  5. Methane

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1, 2 and 3 only
(b) 2, 3 and 4 only
(c) 1, 4 and 5 only
(d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

Ans: (b)
 
Source: The Indian Express
 

RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN

 

1. Context

The Delhi High Court, on March 15, is all set to hear a doctor’s plea for enforcement of his ‘Right to be Forgotten, which includes the removal of news articles and other incriminating content related to his “wrongful arrest” in response to a “fabricated FIR against him” which he claims is causing detriment to his life and personal liberty.

2. What is the Right to be Forgotten?

The "Right to be Forgotten" is the right to remove or erase content so that it's not accessible to the public at large. It empowers an individual to have information in the form of news, video, or photographs deleted from internet records so it does not show up through search engines, like google in the present case.

3. What is the law on the Right to be Forgotten?

  • Section 43A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 says that organizations who possess sensitive personal data and fail to maintain appropriate security to safeguard such data, resulting in wrongful loss or wrongful gain to anyone, may be obligated to pay damages to the affected person.
  • While, the IT Rules, 2021 do not include this right, they do however, lay down the procedure for filing complaints with the designated Grievance Offitos to have content exposing personal information about a complainant removed from the internet.
  • Moreover, on December 11, 2019, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology introduced the Personal Data Protection Bill in the Lok Sabha.
  • While the bill is yet to be passed by the parliament, owing to a parliamentary joint committee's suggestion to amend 81 of the 99 sections of the same, clause 20 under chapter V of the draft bill titled, "Rights of Data Principal" mentions the "Right to be Forgotten" as the right to restrict or prevent the continuing disclosure of personal data by a "data fiduciary".

4. Origin of this right

  • The Right to be Forgotten gained importance after the 2014 decision of the court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the Google Spain Case.
  • The right to be Forgotten has been recognized as a statutory right in the Europen Union under the General data protection Regulation (GDPR).
  • It has been upheld by several courts in the United Kingdom, and in Europe.

5. Status in India

  • In India, no law specifically provides for the right to be forgotten. However, the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 recognized this right.
  • Information Technology Act, of 2000 provides for safeguarding against certain breaches of data from computer systems.
  • It contains provisions to prevent the unauthorized use of computers, computer systems, and data stored therein.

6. Right to Privacy and Right to be Forgotten

  • The Right to be Forgotten falls under the purview of an individual's right to privacy, which is governed by the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019.
  • In 2017, the Right to Privacy was declared a fundamental right by the Supreme Court in its landmark Puttaswamy case verdict.
  • The court said that "the right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as a part of the freedoms guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution."

7. Challenges

7.1 Conflict with public Record

  • The right to be forgotten may get into conflict with matters involving public records.
  • For instance, judgments have always been treated as public records and fall within the definition of a public document according to section 74 of the Indian Evidence Act, of 1872.
  • The Right to be Forgotten can not be extended to official public records, especially judicial records as that would undermine public faith in the judicial system in the long run.

7.2 Individual vs Society

The right to be Forgotten creates a dilemma between the right to privacy of individuals and the right to information of society and freedom of the press.

For Prelims & Mains

For Prelims: Right to be Forgotten, Fundamental Rights, Section 43A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, Rights of Data Principal, Right to Privacy, Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, General data protection Regulation (GDPR), and court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
For Mains: 1. What is the Right to Privacy? Discuss the significance of the Right to be Forgotten.
 
Source: The Indian Express

GREAT ANDAMAN NICOBAR

1. Context

Recently, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change gave environmental clearance for the ambitious Rs 72, 000 crores development project on the strategically important Great Nicobar Island.
The project is to be implemented in three phases over the next 30 years.

2. The proposal for a greenfield city

  • A greenfield city has been proposed including an International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT), a greenfield international airport, a power plant and a township for the personnel who will implement the project.
  • The proposed port will allow Great Nicobar to participate in the regional and global maritime economy by becoming a major player in cargo transhipment.
  • The port will be controlled by the Indian Navy, while the airport will have dual military-civilian functions and will cater to tourism as well.
  • Roads, public transport, water supply and waste management facilities and several hotels have been planned to cater to tourists.
A total of 166.1 sq km along the southeastern and southern coasts of the island have been identified for the project along a coastal strip of width between 2 km and 4 km.
Some 130 sq km of forests have been sanctioned for diversion and 9.64 lakh trees are likely to be felled.
 
  • Development activities are proposed to commence in the current financial year and the port is expected to be commissioned by 2027-28.
  • More than 1 lakh new direct jobs and 1.5 lakh indirect jobs are likely to be created on the island throughout development.
Image source: Research Gate

3. About the Island

  • Great Nicobar, the southernmost of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, has an area of 910 sq km.
  • The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a cluster of about 836 islands in the eastern Bay of Bengal, the two groups of which are separated by the 150 km wide Ten Degree Channel.
  • The Andaman Islands lie to the north of the channel and the Nicobar Islands to the South.
  • Indira Point on the Southern tip of Great Nicobar Island is India's southernmost point, less than 150 km from the northernmost island of the Indonesian archipelago.
  • Great Nicobar is home to two national parks, and a biosphere reserve and the Shompen and Nicobarese tribal peoples, along with ex-servicemen from Punjab, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh were settled on the island in the 1970s.

4. Shompen

  • The Shompen are hunter-gatherers who depend on forest and marine resources for sustenance.
  • The Nicobarese, who lived along the west coast of the island mostly relocated after the 2004 tsunami.
  • An estimated 237 Shompen and 1,094 Nicobarese individuals now live in a 751 sq km tribal reserve 84 sq km of which is proposed to be denotified.
  • The approximately 8, 000 settlers who live on the island are engaged in agriculture, horticulture and fishing.
The Great Nicobar Island has tropical wet evergreen forests, mountain ranges reaching almost 650m above sea level and coastal plains.
Fourteen species of mammals, 71 species of birds, 26 species of reptiles, 10 species of amphibians and 113 species of fish are found on the island some of which are endangered.
The leatherback sea turtle is the island's flagship species.

5. The purpose

  • The island has a lot of tourism potential, but the government's greater goal is to leverage the locational advantage of the island for economic and strategic reasons.
  • Great Nicobar is equidistant from Colombo to the southwest and Port Klang and Singapore to the southeast and positioned close to the East-West international shipping corridor, through which a very large part of the world's shipping trade passes.
  • The proposed ICTT can potentially become a hub for cargo ships travelling on this route.
  • The proposal to develop Great Nicobar was first floated in the 1970s and its importance for national security and consolidation of the Indian Ocean Region has been repeatedly underlined.
  • Increasing Chinese assertion in the Bay of Bengal and the Indo-Pacific has added great urgency to this imperative in recent years.

6. The concerns

  • The proposed massive infrastructure development in an ecologically important and fragile region, including the feeling of almost a million trees, has alarmed many environmentalists.
  • The loss of tree cover will not only affect the flora and fauna on the island, but it will also lead to increased runoff and sediment deposits in the ocean, impacting the coral reefs in the area, they have cautioned.
  • Coral reefs, already under threat from warming oceans are of enormous ecological importance.
  • Environmentalists have also flagged the loss of mangroves on the islands as a result of the development project.
  • India successfully translocated a coral reef from the Gulf of Mannar to the Gulf of Kutch earlier.
  • The Zoological Survey of India is currently in the process of assessing how much of the reef will have to be relocated for the project.
  • The government has said that a conservation plan for the leatherback turtle is also being put in place.
  • According to the government, expediting the project is of paramount national security and strategic importance.
  • Officials said that after the grant of stage I clearance on October 27, all aspects will be carefully weighed before final approval is granted.
  • The project site is outside the eco-sensitive zones of Campbell Bay and Galathea National Park.
  • The Centre has said that the development area is only a small percentage of the area of the island and its forest cover and that 15 per cent of the development area itself will be green cover and open spaces.
For Prelims & Mains
 
For Prelims: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Andaman Nicobar Islands, Indian Navy, International Container Transhipment Terminal, Bay of Bengal,  Ten Degree Channel, Shompen, Nicobarese tribal peoples, leatherback sea turtle, mangroves, The Zoological Survey of India, Campbell Bay, Galathea National Park,
 
1. Which one of the following pairs of islands is separated from each other by the 'Ten Degree Channel'?
A. Andaman and Nicobar
B. Nicobar and Sumatra
C. Maldives and Lakshadweep
D. Sumatra and Java
 
Answer: A
The Andaman and Nicobar are separated by a water body which is called the Ten-degree channel.
 
For Mains: 
1. Does development projects lead to the destruction of the environment? Critically Analyze. (250 Words)
 
Source: The Indian Express
 

ALMA TELESCOPE

 

1. Context

The Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) a radio telescope comprising 66 antennas located in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile is set to get software and hardware upgrades that will help it collect much more data and produce sharper images than ever before, the journal Science reported recently. It added that the upgrades would take around five years to finish and cost $37 million.

2. Recent Changes to ALMA

  • The most significant modernization made to ALMA will be the replacement of its correlator, a supercomputer that combines the input from individual antennas and allows astronomers to produce highly detailed images of celestial objects.
  • ALMA's correlators are among the world's fastest supercomputers. Over the next 10 years, the upgrade will double and eventually quadruple their overall observing speed.

3. Structure and Operation

  • As ALMA is operated under a partnership among the United States, and 16 countries in Europe, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Chile, the announcement came after all the partners cleared the funding required for the improvements.
  • Fully functional since 2013, the radio telescope was designed, planned, and constructed by the US's National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), and the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
  • Over the years, it has helped astronomers make groundbreaking discoveries, including that of starburst galaxies and the dust formation inside supernova 1987A.

4. What is ALMA?

  • ALMA is a state-of-the-art telescope that studies celestial objects at millimetre and submillimeter wavelengths they can penetrate through dust clouds and help astronomers examine dim and distant galaxies and stars out there.
  • It also has extraordinary sensitivity, which allows it to detect even extremely faint radio signals.
  • As mentioned before, the telescope consists of 66 high-precision antennas, spread over a distance of up to 16km.
  • Each antenna is outfitted with a series of receivers, and each receiver is tuned to a specific range of wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum.
  • The antennas can be moved closer together or farther apart for different perspectives like the Zoom lens of a camera.
  • The result is magnificent, never-before-seen imagery of the deepest darkest space.
Image Source: NRAO

5. Why is ALMA located in Chile's Atacama Desert?

  • ALMA is situated at an altitude of 16,570 feet (5,050 metres) above sea level on the Chajnantor plateau in Chile's Atacama Desert as the millimetre and submillimetre waves observed by it are very susceptible to atmospheric water vapour absorption on Earth.
  • Moreover, the desert is the driest place in the world, meaning most of the nights here are clear of clouds and free of light-distorting moisture making it a perfect location for examining the universe.
  • For travelling from Japan, it takes 40 hours to get to the ALMA site in Chile including connection time. Despite such a long distance, the selected site is still the ultimate observing site on Earth with ideal conditions for the ALMA telescope.

6. Notable discoveries made by ALMA

  • With ALMA's capability of capturing high-resolution images of gas and dust from which stars and planets are formed and materials that could be building blocks of life, scientists are trying to find answers to age-old questions of our cosmic origins.
  • One of the earliest findings came in 2013 when it discovered starburst galaxies earlier in the universe's history than they were previously thought to have existed.
  • These newly discovered galaxies represent what today's most massive galaxies looked like in their energetic, star-forming youth.
  • Next year, ALMA provided detailed images of the protoplanetary disc surrounding HL Tauri a very young T Tauri star in the constellation Taurus, approximately 450 light-years from Earth and transformed the previously accepted theories about planetary formation.
  • In 2015, the telescope helped scientists observe a phenomenon known as the Einstein ring, which occurs when light from a galaxy or star passes by a massive object en route to the Earth, in extraordinary detail.
  • More recently, as part of the Event Horizon Telescope project, a large telescope array consisting of a global network of radio telescopes, it provided the first image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way Galaxy. The image was unveiled by scientists in May 2022.
For Prelims & Mains
 
For Prelims: Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA), Radio telescope, National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), European Southern Observatory (ESO), and the Atacama Desert. 
 
Source: The Indian Express
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