Here are today’s most important updates from the realm of Science and Space.
A team of researchers from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai are planning to launch fruit flies aboard Gaganyaan-1, India's maiden human space flight. The fruit flies will be used to assess how space travel affects living organisms and what kind of biological changes and stresses they go through during the flight. The team will be sending fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), which share close to 75% of the genetic pathways that influence human disease. This trait makes them ideal for studying biological phenomena. The flies will be placed in multiple vials and will be monitored in real-time. With the lifespan of the flies around 5-60 days, they are apt for the full 5-7-day-long flight of Gaganyaan Mission.
New research has suggested that the Earth's inner core may have undergone a significant transformation in its shape over the past two decades. Contrary to the long-held belief that the inner core is a perfect sphere, a team of scientists led by Professor John Vidale has proposed that its edges may have deformed by as much as 100 meters or more in certain areas. Earth's core plays a vital role in sustaining life on our planet and generates a magnetic field that shields us from the Sun's harmful radiation. The inner core rotates independently of the liquid outer core and the rest of the planet, creating a dynamic motion. Without this motion, our planet would be unable to support life, and would likely become a barren, Mars-like landscape.
European Space Agency's (ESA) Euclid space telescope has captured an image of an extremely rare cosmic phenomenon known as Einstein ring. This stunning visual showcases a ring of light encircling the centre of the galaxy NGC 6505, which is around 590 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco. Though it may sound far, in astronomical terms, the galaxy is located in our 'cosmic backyard'. Einstein ring is nothing but light from a distant galaxy bending to form a ring that appears aligned with a foreground object. The strong gravitational field produced by the lens galaxy distorts the structure of space-time in its neighbourhood, and this not only attracts objects which have a mass but also bends the paths of light.
Researchers at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre (SWC) at UCL have looked at how the brain learns to suppress responses to fear, and perceived threats which become harmless over time. The team detected an area in the brain called the ventrolateral geniculate nucleus (vLGN), which could help in suppressing fear reactions when active, as well as tracking previous experiences of threat. The study could have potential implications for developing therapeutics for fear-related disorders such as phobias, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
