Daily Current Affairs 23 December 2020 With Video Lecture

The ‘Great’ Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn For the last several days, sky watchers have been captivated by the Great Conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn. The closest pass took place...

Hemanth Kasturi
December 23, 2020
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The ‘Great’ Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn

For the last several days, sky watchers have been captivated by the Great Conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn. The closest pass took place on Monday, December 21, but the spectacle itself began days earlier — and will last until at least Christmas Day.

What’s a great conjunction?

A pairing between any pair of planets is a conjunction. Jupiter and Saturn are the two largest planets visible to the naked eye, hence the expression ‘Great Conjunction’. These two align roughly every 20 years, which is relatively rare compared to the alignments of planets closer to the Sun (and which consequently have shorter orbits).

So, why is this conjunction special?

This time, Jupiter and Saturn are a tenth of a degree apart viewed from Earth. From some views, that might give them the appearance of converging into one, but viewers around the world have found them distinct enough to tell them apart. Also, the position of Earth matters. Not every alignment provides a clear viewing.

And how rare is this conjunction?

The last Great Conjunction happened in 1623. For context, Galileo had discovered four of Jupiter’s moons with his telescope a few years previously — but scientists today believe Galileo would not have found it easy to see the conjunction, because the planets were aligned too close to the Sun from Earth’s perspective. From an Indian context, Jahangir was ruling the Mughal empire at the time, and the Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji was yet to be born.

The last time the two planets were close enough to be viewed in the night sky was in 1226. This was just a year before the death of the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan.

How long will the spectacle continue?

Between December 16 and 25, the distance between the two planets in the sky will appear to a viewer from Earth to be less than the diameter of a full moon.

What if some watchers miss it?

The next two conjunctions are in 2040 and 2060, although they will not be as easy to view or as prominent as this one. It’s the big one after that to look out for — on March 15, 2080. That’s 60 years from today, something for younger sky watchers to be optimistic about.

Datacentre Provider CtrlS bagged World’s first Golden Peacock Eco-Innovation Award

Asia’s Largest Rated-4 Hyperscale Datacentre provider, CtrlS was awarded the prestigious Golden Peacock Award for Eco-Innovation.
The company became the World’s first datacentre to be awarded in this category
CtrlS Datacentre was selected after evaluation of 234 companies on parameters such as innovation, environment, health and safety, energy conservation, and impact on climate Change.
CtrlS focused on energy efficiency and on toxicity and carbon footprint reduction by exercising control on usage of hazardous substances, adoption of eco-friendly chemicals, and optimum consumption of water

About the Golden Peacock Award

It was instituted in 1991 by the Institute of Directors (IOD), India
The Award is globally regarded as a Corporate Excellence benchmark.
It follows a transparent five step evaluation process of evaluation by expert evaluators, site visit to validate and rate the nominees, finalization of winners, and finally award the winners.

China launched new CZ-8 carrier rocket

China successfully test-launched its next-generation CZ-8 (Long March 8) medium-lift carrier rocket
The rocket was launched from the Wenchang spacecraft launch site, located in Hainan.
The carrier delivered five satellites to orbit.
The new rocket is meant to meet the demand for economical, medium-lift, high-frequency commercial missions.
It will have non-toxic propellants and take about 10 days of preparation to launch, with a capacity of at least 10 launches each year.
A future variant of the CZ-8 – the CZ-8R – will be reusable, putting it on par with the Falcon series made by American aerospace company SpaceX.
This would cut the cost of each launch and give it an edge in the commercial rocket market.

WIBA made maiden entry in India

World Influencer & Blogger Awards (WIBA) has now made an entry in India
It is the international contest that is organized for the most distinguished bloggers all over the world.
The global event aims to gather all key influencers together and build new collaborations in the brand community.
WIBA India will also give the winners a unique opportunity to qualify for the international award competition to be held at Cannes Film Festival 2021
The event has also brought on board WAVE, a trending mobile app offering a private space in your phone to browse, share and chat
Each applicant will have an opportunity to communicate directly with business representatives before the awards ceremony to increase their influence through social media.

National Mathematics Day 2020 – 22 December 2020

This day is observed as National Mathematics Day to celebrate the achievements of Srinivasa Ramanujan.
The legendary mathematician was born on this day in 1887.
In 2012, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared 22 December as National Mathematics Day.
Ramanujan compiled more than 3,000 results on equations and identities, many of which were posthumously proven right.
Ramanujan was also known as the “man who knew infinity”.
He made in-depth analysis to solve mathematical problems and equations using new ideas and concepts.
He became the first Indian to be elected a Fellow of Trinity College.

Narendra Modi was awarded Legion of Merit by USA

The Legion of Merit was awarded by United States president Donald Trump to Narendra Modi
It is the latest among a host of international honours bestowed on the prime minister since 2014.
The award is in recognition of the Prime Minister’s steadfast leadership and vision for India’s emergence as a global power
The award was also presented to Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and Australian prime minister Scott Morrison
Japanese prime minister was awarded for his leadership and vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific
Australian Prime Minister was awarded for his leadership in addressing global challenges and promoting collective security

About Legion of Merit

The Legion of Merit was instituted in 1942 by former US president Franklin D Roosevelt
It is the only US military decoration that has distinct ranks, and the first US medal to be awarded to citizens of other nations
The Legion of Merit is a prestigious award conferred by the President of the United States, typically upon Heads of State or Heads of Government of other countries.

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