UPSC Quiz – 2024 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 5th April 2024

·       A tidally-locked planet in its orbit around a star keeps the same face towards the star. This happens when the rotation period of the planet around its own axis becomes equal to its revolution period around the star.

·       On a tidally locked planet, one side is always facing a star while the other is cloaked in perpetual darkness. The dark side could be so cold that water and would-be atmospheric components (e.g., carbon dioxide, nitrogen, or methane) are frozen, certainly an inhospitable environment for life.

Examples of Tidal Locking:

·       The Moon is tidally locked to the Earth because it rotates in exactly the same time as it takes to orbit the Earth. That is why we only see one side of the Moon.

·       Pluto-Charon system: Here both bodies are of comparable size and are close together, both bodies can be tidally locked to each other

·       Tidal locking does influence how a planet moves, because tidal locking slows down its spin.

·       This phenomenon of tidal locking can happen with other bodies in space too, as astronomers often say that binary stars or star systems that have two stars at their center, are most likely tidally locked to each other.

·       Bacteria are prokaryotic and unicellular organisms. The cell wall of bacteria is made up of peptidoglycan layer, and they lack membrane-bound organelles. The bacterial cell has a simpler organisation of structure.

·       Hence, the given statement is false as bacteria are not eukaryotic organisms.

·       Symbiotic or mutualistic: These species live in root nodules of certain plants. Plants of the pea family, known as legumes which are some of the most important hosts for nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

·       Examples: Rhizobium, which is associated with plants in the pea family and various Azospirillum species, which are associated with cereal grasses.

·       Other nitrogen-fixing bacteria are free-living and do not require a host. They are commonly found in soil or in aquatic environments.

·       Examples: Cyanobacteria Anabaena and Nostoc and genera such as Azotobacter, Beijerinckia, and Clostridium.s

·       Main roles: It will be to detect signals from the first stars and galaxies, reveal the cosmic dawn of the universe, answering the question when the first stars formed, the nature of the first stars and what was the light from the first stars.

·       It will carry a wideband frequency-independent antenna, a self-calibrating analog receiver and a digital correlator to catch radio noise in the all-important signal from the Dark Ages.

·       Initially, ISRO will place PRATUSH into orbit around the earth. After some fine-tuning, the space agency will launch it moon wards.

·       The fort is popularly known as Indraprastha or Pandavon ka Qila or Old fort.

·       Built by – The present citadel at Purana Qila was believed to have been built by the 2nd Mughal Emperor Humayun and was completed by Afghan Sher Shah Suri.

·       The fort was the inner citadel of the city of Din Panah during Humayun’s rule.

·       Architecture – Purana Quila is roughly rectangular in shape having a circuit of walls built using red sandstone.

·       It was surrounded by a wide moat (deep trench) connected to river Yamuna, which used to flow on the east of the fort.

·       The Qila-i-Kunha Mosque situated within the fort exhibits 5 doorways and is designed in the Indo-Islamic architectural style.

·       Sher Mandal is situated within the fort, it is an octagonal tower built by Humayun as an observatory and library.

·       It is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.

·       In 2018, archaeologists had unearthed a mass burial site with 500 graves on the outskirts of Khatiya village in Gujarat’s Kutch district.

·       In the recent excavations, the finding of the skeleton, along with pottery artefacts and animal bones, from, nearby Padta Bet site, point to the presence of a 5,200-year-old Harappan settlement that was nearby the mass burial ground of Juna Khatiya, an Early Harappan necropolis (a cemetery, especially a large one belonging to an ancient city).

·       The latest find supports the theory that the graveyard site may have served as a common facility for a cluster of several such smaller settlements.

·       A network of such small Harappan settlements around the necropolis might have played a significant role in the cultural formation of Early Harappan and subsequent occupations in this arid area.