India's first space-based mission to the Sun, Aditya-L1, lifts off from Sriharikota

News Network
September 2, 2023

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India’s first space-based mission to the Sun, Aditya-L1, took off successfully from the second launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre here on Saturday, September 2, 2023, nine days after the country’s ambitious Chandrayaan-3 made a safe and soft landing on the unexplored south polar region of the Moon.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s most reliable workhorse PSLVC-57 launched the Aditya L1 spacecraft weighing 1,475 kg at 11.50 am, amid loud cheers from scientists gathered at the Mission Control Room here. The cost of the mission is said to be Rs 420 crore.

Initially, the spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit, which will be made elliptical to launch Aditya L1 towards the Lagrange point L1 using on-board propulsion. As the spacecraft travels towards L1, it will exit the earths’ gravitational Sphere of Influence (SOI) and if all goes well, the spacecraft will be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system in 125 days.

The L1 point is about 1.5 million km from the Earth, just 1 per cent of the 150 million km distance between the two. The distance to be travelled by Aditya L1 is four times more than Chandrayaan-3, which landed on the Moon on August 23 and is coming out significant findings.
Reaching the L1 point will give India a greater advantage of observing the solar activities continuously. All the measurements will be made from the Lagrange point L1, while L5 is a good vantage point for studying the Earth directed CME events and assessing the space weather, scientists said.

Of the seven payloads – all indigenously developed and made by ISRO and other organisations -- four will directly view and study the Sun, while the remaining three will conduct in-situ studies of particles and fields around the L1 point.

Placing a satellite in the halo orbit around the L1 point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/ eclipses and provide a greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its effect on space weather in real time, scientists said.

Through this mission, ISRO hopes to get important scientific studies of the propagatory effect of solar dynamics in the interplanetary medium, while the payloads are expected to provide crucial information to understand the problem of coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities and their characteristics, dynamics of space weather, propagation of particle and fields.

By studying the Sun, ISRO said, scientists can learn much more about stars in the Milky Way as well as about stars in various other galaxies. Since various thermal and magnetic phenomena on the Sun are of extreme nature, Sun will serve as a good natural laboratory to understand those phenomena which cannot be directly studied in the lab.

The suit of Aditya L1 payloads are expected to provide most crucial information to understand the problems of coronal heating, Coronal Mass Ejection, pre-flare and flare activities, and their characteristics, dynamics of space weather, study of the propagation of particles, and fields in the interplanetary medium.

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News Network
October 22,2024

Bengaluru, Oct 22: Torrential rains wreaked havoc in Karnataka’s capital on Monday night, leading to significant flight disruptions at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA). According to airport authorities, over 20 flights were delayed due to the downpour, as reported by ANI.

Among the diversions were an Air India flight from Delhi and three IndiGo flights from Delhi, Hyderabad, and Chandigarh, all rerouted to Chennai. A Thai Lion Air flight from Thailand also had to be diverted to Chennai amid the heavy rainfall.

After western Bengaluru bore the brunt of Sunday’s rains, it was the northern, southeastern, and eastern parts of the city that were pounded by intense thundershowers on Monday. Rainfall across the city varied from light to very heavy, leaving many areas waterlogged.

By 11 PM, Sahakaranagar and Yelahanka in northern Bengaluru had received 154.4 mm and 110 mm of rainfall, respectively, according to data from Weather Union, a platform for crowd-sourced weather information. Other areas that saw heavy downpours included Devanahalli and Koramangala (88.2 mm each), HSR Layout (81.6 mm), and BEL Road (70.4 mm).

While RR Nagar, the most affected neighborhood on Sunday, saw a significant drop with only 19.4 mm of rainfall on Monday evening, other areas faced relentless showers. HAL airport recorded 42.3 mm of rain until 8:30 PM, with a monthly total of 228.5 mm, far exceeding the normal average of 177.3 mm.

Kempegowda International Airport recorded 105 mm of rainfall, while GKVK saw 21.2 mm as rains intensified late into the night, leaving northern and eastern Bengaluru grappling with the aftermath.

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News Network
October 18,2024

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Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been martyred in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza's Rafah city, a senior Hamas official confirmed.

Khalil Hayya, head of Hamas in Gaza, delivered a statement on Friday, a day after reports of Sinwar's martyrdom. 

"We mourn the great national leader, the Mujahid Martyr Brother Yahya Al-Sinwar (Abu Ibrahim), Head of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Commander of Al-Aqsa Storm Operation," he said.

He remembered Sinwar as "one of the noblest and bravest men, a man who dedicated his life to Palestine and gave his soul for the sake of Allah on the path to its liberation."

"He rose as a heroic martyr, advancing and never retreating, wielding his weapon, engaging and confronting the occupation army at the frontlines. He moved between all combat positions, steadfast and stationed on the honored land of Gaza, defending the land of Palestine and its holy sites, inspiring the spirit of endurance, patience, steadfastness, and resistance."

Referring to the history of Sinwar's struggle against the Israeli regime, Hayya noted that the fallen leader "attained the highest rank and the noblest medal, ascending as a witness and a martyr, content with the jihad and sacrifice he offered."

Naming a host of other resistance leaders assassinated by the Israeli regime in the past years, the Hamas official noted that "these sacrifices will continue to illuminate our path and drive us to more resilience and steadfastness."

"Hamas remains committed to the promise of its founding leaders and martyrs until the aspirations of our people are fully realized: the complete liberation and return, and the establishment of the Palestinian state on the entire national soil with Al-Quds as its capital, by Allah’s will," he said, adding, "This will become a curse upon the invading occupiers who are strangers to this land."

He underlined that the martyrdom of leaders "only strengthens Hamas and our resistance, making us more determined and steadfast in following their path, honoring their blood and sacrifices."

He highlighted that Israeli captives held in Gaza "will not return except with the cessation of aggression on Gaza, its withdrawal, and the release of our heroic prisoners from the occupation’s jails."

The charismatic leader of the Palestinian resistance movement had escaped many assassination attempts before and after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Oct. 7, 2023.

Sinwar, 62, played an instrumental role in coordinating and supervising the landmark operation that jolted the Zionist regime. 

Before becoming the Hamas leader in Gaza in 2017, Sinwar spent 22 years in an Israeli prison. He was released as part of a prisoner swap in 2011.

“Hamas will never abandon the path of resistance… Our resistance will continue until the liberation of all of Palestine,” he declared during a speech in Gaza in late October 2017.

Sinwar had been chosen as the overall Hamas leader after Israel assassinated Ismail Haniyeh in July.

Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, where he was to attend the inauguration ceremony of new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

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News Network
October 21,2024

Mangaluru: The MLC by-election for the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi Local Authorities Constituency commenced at 8 AM on Monday, with voting set to continue until 4 PM. A total of 392 polling booths have been established across the two districts, which form the constituency.

The constituency has 6,032 eligible voters, including 3,127 women. Early reports indicated brisk voting at the Mangaluru City Corporation polling booth, where corporators were seen patiently standing in line in the morning.

In a unique moment, Sharath, a gram panchayat member from Kokkada, cast his vote at Kokkada Gram Panchayat before heading to his wedding ceremony.

The constituency features 53 sensitive polling booths. Eligible voters include members of gram panchayats, corporators from Mangaluru City Corporation, city and town municipal councils, town panchayats, MLAs, MLCs, and Lok Sabha members representing the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.

Notably, Byndoor MLA Gururaj Gantihole and MLC Prathap Simha Nayak, who do not represent local bodies, were left out of the voters' list. According to electoral rules, only those MLAs, MLCs, and MPs who represent city corporations, municipalities, town panchayats, taluk panchayats, or zilla panchayats are granted voting rights in the MLC elections for the Local Authorities’ Constituency.

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