Context:
- Japan launches rocket with lunar lander and X-ray telescope to explore origins of the universe.
- The mission is significant for delivering insight into the properties of hot plasma, the superheated matter that makes up much of the universe.
More terms in news:
- HII-A and H3 rockets – launch vehicles operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
About Plasma:
- Plasma is superheated matter – so hot that the electrons are ripped away from the atoms forming an ionized gas.
- It comprises over 99% of the visible universe.
- Places where plasma is present – stars, nebulas, auroras formed in the north and south poles, branch of lightning that cracks the sky, etc.
- Plasma is often called “the fourth state of matter,” along with solid, liquid and gas.
- Just as a liquid will boil, changing into a gas when energy is added, heating a gas will form plasma – a soup of positively charged particles (ions) and negatively charged particles (electrons).
- Applications of plasma research
- making fusion reactors
- making computer chips,
- rocket propulsion,
- cleaning the environment,
- destroying biological hazards,
- healing wounds
- colorful neon lights, often used in signs, use electricity to convert gas molecules into glowing plasma
- certain types of flat-screen televisions make use of plasma
States of Matter:
- The 4 fundamental states of matter are solid, liquid, gas and plasma
- Many other states of matter have been created under extreme or exotic conditions.
- Bose–Einstein condensate – Albert Einstein and Satyendra Nath Bose predicted the “Bose–Einstein condensate” (BEC) – sometimes referred to as the fifth state of matter – formed at extremely low temperature
- Fermionic condensate – A sister phase to the BEC -Fermionic condensates are superfluids (they can flow with no viscosity).
- Liquid glass
- Time crystals
- Rydberg molecule
Source: The Hindu
Previous year question
A team of scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory including those from India created the heaviest antimatter (antihelium nucleus). What is/are the implications of the creation of antimatter?
1. It will make mineral prospecting and oil exploration easier and cheaper.
2. It will help probe the possibility of the existence of stars and galaxies made of anti matter.
3. It will help understand the evolution of the universe.
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
[UPSC Civil Services Exam – 2012 Prelims]
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: (b)
