Daily Current Capsules - 26^th JULY 2019

Space Awareness
CHANDRAYAAN 2 Updates
FIRST ORBIT-RAISING OF SPACECRAFT PERFORMED SUCCESSFULLY

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the mission chandrayaan- 2) + Mains ( GS III awareness in the field of space)
What's the NEWS

• The first earth-bound orbit-raising manoeuvre for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully on Wednesday, the Indian Space Research Organisation said.
• The manoeuvre was carried out at 2.52 pm using the onboard propulsion system for a firing duration of 57 seconds, two days after the successful launch into elliptical Earth orbit of 170 x 45,475 km, ISRO said. The new orbit will be 230 X 45163 km, the space agency said.
• According to ISRO, the second orbit raising manoeuvre is scheduled in the early hours of Friday at about 1 am IST.

Know! more about the launch and the schedule

• India had launched the country's second moon mission Chandrayaan 2 on-board its powerful rocket GSLV-MkIII-M1 from the spaceport of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh with the aim of landing a rover in the unexplored lunar south pole.
• The 3,850-kg Chandrayaan 2, a three-module spacecraft comprising an orbiter, lander and rover, has been injected into the earth's orbit.
• It will be subjected to a series of orbit manoeuvres in the coming weeks to take it to the vicinity of the moon, with the rover soft landing planned on September 7.
• Further major activities include Earth-bound manoeuvres, Trans Lunar Insertion, Lunar bound manoeuvres, Vikram Separation and Vikram Touch Down
• As per the schedule, Vikram, the moon lander will soft-land on the moon and then Pragyaan will roll out to explore the moon surface.
• The ISRO is aiming for a soft landing of the lander (spacecraft) in the South Pole region of the moon where no country has gone so far.
• The space agency said the earth-bound manoeuvres are planned to be executed from Wednesday onwards culminating into Trans Lunar Insertion scheduled on August 14, 2019, which will send the Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft to the moon.
• In a giant leap for the country's ambitious low-cost space programme, ISRO has undertaken the most complex and its prestigious mission ever aimed at landing the rover on the moon.
• If successful, it will make India the fourth country after Russia, the US and China to pull off a soft landing on the moon.

Prelims Factoids
Three asteroids to pass so close to Earth
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the three asteroids)
What's the NEWS

• Three asteroids namely '2019 OD', '2015 HM10' and '2019 OE' may hit the blue planet on July 24 but there is no reason to panic as one of the asteroid 2019 OD to move past our Earth at a distance of 219,375 miles.
• The distance may look too far away but it is fairly close in astronomical terms.
• Asteroid 2015 HM10, which is a second largest asteroid and could be up to 361 feet wide, will also approach towards the Earth
• The third and final asteroid to approach Earth on Wednesday will be 2019 OE, which will be 597,706 miles away.

Miscellaneous Factoids
20 million-year-old species of Vine Snake found in India
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the vine snake and about western ghats)
What's the NEWS

• A new species of vine snake, belonging to an ancient lineage dating back to between 20 and 30 million years, has been discovered in the Agasthyamalai hills in the Western Ghats of India
• The vine snake Proahaetulla antiqua, which lives in trees, is a member of the Ahaetuliinae family.

• The Ahaetuliinae family comprises 62 non-venomous species of snakes belonging to four genera: Ahaetulla (vine snakes), Chrysopelea (flying snakes), Dendrelaphis (bronzebacks) and Dryophiops (whip snakes).
• They are distributed mostly in south and south-east Asia, and parts of East Asia. Dendrelaphis is the largest genus, with 45 species.
• The discovery partially sheds light on the ancient colonisation of members of the family Ahaetuliinae in various parts of Asia, such as Peninsular India and Sri Lanka, Malik says.
• Researchers from IIS found that the genus Proahaetulla resides within the family Ahaetuliinae, is a close relative of all the other vine snakes belonging to the genus Ahaetulla and is visually similar.

Know! about integrative taxonomy

• Researchers confirmed about their finding with integrative taxonomy.
• Integrative taxonomy is an amalgamation of different lines of evidence, from teeth, genetics and molecular phylogenetics, structure and bone analysis to traditional taxonomy that helped the researchers to identify a new genus.
• Latest discovery of ancient vine snake will not only help to know more about the evolution of vine snakes but also the evolutionary history of the Western Ghats. The Western Ghats are older than Himalayas.

Know! about Western Ghats of India

• Western Ghats of India extends along the west coast of India from River Tapti in the north to the southern corner of India. Western Ghats was declared as world heritage site on July 2012 by UNESCO.
• Western Ghats are a habitat of more than 5,000 plant and 140 species, 16 of them are endemic. Apart from this, 179 types of different species of amphibians found in the Western Ghats.
• The Western Ghats starts right from the coastal areas of Gujarat, goes to Maharashtra and Goa. After that Malnad region of Karnataka and some high-lands of Tamil Nadu and Kerala includes in Wester Ghats that ends at Kanyakumari.

Environment Conservation
Scalyfoot snail species of Indian Ocean may be first victim of deep-sea mining

Relevance IN - Prelims (about scalyfoot snail) + Mains ( GS III environment conservation)
What's the NEWS

• A rare snail species called ‘ScalyFoot Snail' found at only three spots on Indian Ocean floor near Madagascar has become the 1st species to be officially declared threatened due to deep-sea mining.
• It was added by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to its updated Red List of Endangered Species on 18 July 2019.

Know! about Scaly-Foot Snail Scaly-foot snail (or Chrysomallon squamiferum)

• It is also known as Sea Pangolin. It has become the 1^st marine species to be assessed as officially endangered due to potential threat of deep sea mining.

Know! about the reason behind it and about hydrothermal vent

• A hydrothermal vent is ‘a fissure on the seafloor from which geothermally heated water issues'
• When this happens, the hot water mixes with the cold seawater, in turn depositing minerals such as copper and manganese on the ocean floor.
• In the past, extracting such minerals was cumbersome and expensive. But now, with technological advances, it has become much easier.
• Two of the vents where the snail is found, could be mined in the near future for precious minerals.
• According to the Nature report, researchers settled on including the snail in the new Red List based on the criteria that it was found at just three spots on the ocean floor and the looming threat of deep-sea mining.

Measures taken by International seabed authority

• For the moment, there is a freeze on all global ocean-floor mining activities. The International Seabed Authority, a United Nations agency, is currently formulating guidelines on how to conduct ocean-floor mining, which should be completed by 2020.
• However, experts hope that the scaly-foot snail finding its way into the Red List would act as a deterrent to mining companies.
• At least 14 more species found in a hydrothermal vent ecosystem could be included in the next edition of the Red List to be out later this year
  
  

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