Prelims Facts Corner – 16 October 2023

Psyche Mission

NASA has sent a spacecraft named ‘Psyche’ on a six-year journey towards a unique metal-rich asteroid Psyche, orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.

Goals and objectives –

  • Understand a previously unexplored building block of planet formation: iron cores.
  • For the first time, examine a world made not of rock and ice, but metal.
  • Look inside terrestrial planets, including Earth, by directly examining the interior of a differentiated body, which otherwise could not be seen.

Kanwar lake

Kanwar Lake (Kabartal Wetland) is facing threat of running dry.

  • Location – Bihar
  • A freshwater natural wetland and an ox-bow lake.
  • It draws water from confluence of the Gandak, Bia and Kareh river.
  • It is an important stopover along the Central Asian Flyway.
  • In 2020, it was designated as Ramsar wetland site.

Dampa Tiger Reserve

A new species of toad (Frog) is found in Dampa tiger reserve.

  • Location: western flank (Lushai Hills) of Mizoram.
  • On the West, it is bound by the Chittagong hill tracts (Sazek hill range) of Bangladesh.
  • declared a tiger reserve under the Project Tiger initiative in 1994.
  • Drained by the River Khawthlangtuipui in the West and the Teirei River to the East.

Aestivation

What is it? | Estivation: summer urge to nap | The Hindu

  • It is a biological phenomenon whereby the animal enters a long period of dormancy, or inactivity, in response to high temperature or maybe even drought-like conditions.
  • It is a survival strategy that helps the animal conserve energy and water in a difficult time.
  • Examples – West African lungfish, Desert tortoises, Snails etc.

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