Scientists have discovered a new continent that had & been missing from our knowledge for 375 years and have created a detailed map of it. This continent, called Zealandia, is mostly underwater but consists of a group island, similar to New Zealand.
Zealandia was originally part of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana, Which existed about 1 billion to 542 million years ago. They gathered data by studying rock samples from the ocean floor. Zealandia is a vast continent, about six times the size of Madagascar, covering 4.9 million square km. It’s the eighth continent discovered, and it’s the smallest, thinnest, and youngest one.
Recently, a capsule carrying samples of a distant asteroid, collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft landed safely in the desert in Utah (US). These samples are the largest amount of asteroid material ever returned to Earth and were taken from a mountain-sized asteroid named Bennu. Scientists believe that this sample could help them answer the age-old question: where do we come from?
OSIRIS-REx was launched in 2016, and spent two years travelling through space to reach Bennu. The goal of the mission was to collect samples from the asteroid.
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Bennu is over 320 million km away from the Earth. When the spacecraft reached the asteroid, It began to orbit it. Finally, in 2020, the spacecraft touched the surface of the asteroid for the several seconds, using a special arm to blow air and suck up dust and pebbles. Since then, the OSIRIS-REx has been heading back towards the Earth. The Capsule has been taken to NASA’s Johnson Space Center In Houston, Texas, where a very special lab has been set up to handle the asteroid sample.
System, and how life might have begun on the Earth. Scientists will look for chemicals that are important to life, such as amino acids – the building blocks of proteins.
What is asteroid Bennu?
Asteroid Bennu is a very big mass of rock weighing around 78 billion kg, in space. According to NASA, the asteroid probably broke off a much bigger one around 2 billion years ago. Because Bennu looks so similar to asteroids found on Earth scientists think it could contain some of the universe’s oldest ma-terials. This is why NASA is so keen to investigate it – it could help scientists find out more about where we come from.
By Karmas Saluja, Year 9, The British School, New Delhi
On September 17, 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a group of Namibian cheetahs into an enclosure at Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park. The aim of this reintroduction and conservation project is to restore the cheetah to a natural habitat in India. This is one of the world’s first intercontinental large wild carnivore translocation projects.
Of the 20 adult cheetahs that were imported, four have died in captivity and two have died while ranging free. Of the litter of four cubs, three are dead. Currently, 14 adult cheetahs and one cub are surviving and they are in some form of captivity or the other.
It is reported that the next batch of cheetahs will be transported from South Africa and introduced into Madhya Pradesh’s Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary, which will be ready to accept the spotted felines by the end of the year.
Did You Know?
Cheetahs are the world’s fastest land animals and can run at speeds of up to 65 mph. There are five subspecies and all have suffered major drops in numbers caused by climate change, hunting by humans, and habitat destruction.
India was home to the Asiatic cheetah. Their population was wiped out last century, with the last documented Asiatic cheetah being shot by Maharajah Ramanuj Singh Deo in 1947. The Asiatic cheetah now survives only in Iran.
The Women’s Reservation Bill, which is officially known as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhinivam or the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, has now received the assent of the President Droupadi Murmu and has become law. The law proposes to reserve one-third of the seats in Lok Sabha and all state assemblies for women. However, the new law will take time to come into effect.
The areas are physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace, and economics. The prizes honour people anywhere in the world who have done outstanding work in one of these areas.
The Nobel Prizes are named after Alfred Nobel, a Swedish scientist. He invented an explosive called dynamite. The invention made him rich. He decided to use the money to honour people who helped humankind in some way.
The Nobel Prize In Physics 2023
Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier because they discovered a way to create small pulses of light which help measure the way electrons move. This discovery is very useful for understanding more about the way electrons move in a material.
Ferenc KrauszPierre AgostiniAnne L’Huillier
The Nobel Prize In Physiology Or Medicine 2023
The US based duo Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for the modification of mRNA (a material in our cells which helps in transport of genetic material) to fight against Covid-19, which led to the formation of a vaccine. This created a big impact in the world of medicine.
Drew WeissmanKatalin Karikó
The Nobel Prize In Literature 2023
Jon Fosse, a Norwegian author, “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”.
Jon Fosse
The Nobel Prize Chemistry 2023
Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexei I. Ekimov “for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots”. These tiny par-ticles, which are the smallest part of nanotechnology, can be used to give a lot of light and help surgeons and other doctors to perform surgeries where they need to observe something very small.
Alexei I. Ekimov Louis E. BrusMoungi G. Bawendi
Nobel Peace Prize 2023
Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.
Narges Mohammadi
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize In Economic Sciences 2023
Claudia Goldin for “having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes”
