MISCELLANEOUS PROBES

1) hayabusa/hayabusa 2
- hayabusa -1 in 2010
- it brought samples of asteroid itokava
- By JAXA

- Hayabusa 2
- Sent in 2022
- On asteroid ryugu

2) Oumuamua
First confirmed interstellar object (not part of our solar system)
An asteroid or a rock which is believed to have entered our solar system around 4.5BYA
It is nesting in jupiter’s orbit, moving retrograd to the sun (opposite to sun’s rotation)
Moving at such a speed that it is likely to leave our solar system in less than 300mn
years
It was discovered w the help of a telescope at huwaii called Pan Star.
Has speed greater than sun’s escape velocity. It isnt influenced by same forces as those
objects around jupiter are influenced by.
Comets are also considered interstellar. Highly elliptical trajectory…

Ultima Thuli and Arrokoth: 2 outermost objects of our solar system (at the edge of
kaiper belt)

3) Borisov:
- It is A comet (comet: frozen ball of gases and metals that revolves around sun in a highly
elliptical orbit producing a glowing tail in the opposite direction of its propagation )

4) Perseverance:
Jan 2021, NASA successfully launched their 5th mars Rover (1st pathfinder, 2nd: spirit,
3rd: opportunity, 4th: curiosity. )
(a) Moxie: artificial tree - trying to convert CO2 into breathable O2. working since
2021. Already stored O2 for a person to survive for more than 2 hrs
(b) Ingenuity: drone helicopter on mars(first time helicopter on celestial body except
earth): more than 200 flights. Came to rest recently.
(c) Mars Reconnaissance mission: first mission ever to successfully bring a sample
of martian soil and rock to earth. Planned in 2025 but the vehicle hasnt been
completed yet. So uncertain abt the year of this mission.

DARK UNIVERSE:
1925-26, Edwin Hubble confirmed the expansion of the universe. First Q asked to him was
‘what are we expanding from?’ what was the state of the univ earlier. He couldnt ans this
question.
1960, george Limatre: came up with Big Bang Theory. Univ was in form of singularity initially,
which exploded 13.7BYA. Instead of slowin down w time, universe is expanding at accelerating
speed. What is causing this acceleration? No one knows

DARK ENERGY: IT IS A type of energy from an unknown source which is believed to be

responsible for accelerated expansion of universe. It is expected to be repulsive in nature.
DESI model: located in sonoran desert, USA (dark energy spectroscopic instrument). It released
first 3D map of universe, it also includes dark energy distribution of universe.
Einstein’s Gravity and THEORY OF RELATIVITY

Light takes 8 mins to reach earth.

Signal of gravity is able to move faster than light (when sun disappeared)
E acknowledged newton’s work and gave nature/behaviour of gravity.
Universe: 3D empty space. But E said that Universe is like a fabric.. In whichever way u travel,
you will be in space only… theres no direction .. space is itself a direction. For him it is not an
empty space.

PARTS OF HIS WORK:

1) Warping of the Fabric of Space and Time: For Einstein, the universe is a 4 dimensional
fabric of space and time, in which the three dimensions of X, Y and Z can be clubbed
together into a single dimension of space.

Warp: gravitational pull of the sun causing depression. Thus for E, gravity is not
technically force but the arrangement of warps created on the fabric of space and time
due to mass and density of the objects.
 Fig: Earth at centre of warp and moon revolving around it. Sun at the centre and plantes
revolving around it.
Why do they not succumb to the centre? Moon should ideally be moving straight to
earth’s centre bcuz of gravity. But earth is not stationary. The shifting of earth makes
moon rotate around earth spirally (not circular)

Milky way is a spiral galaxy with a super massive black hole (Sagittarius A *) at the centre. Sun
is revolving along the centre of the milky way (250MY is the period of sun’s revolution).
Everything is moving. Nothing is stationary. Andromeda and milky way are also coming close to
each other. Even Sagittarius A * is not stationary.

2) Time dilation:
Speed = distance/time. Speed of light is constant C=3x108 m/s
For E, light is affected by gravity thus whenever light passes through a warped fabric of
space and time, the time taken by the light will increase depending on the length of the
stretching of the fabric of space and time
 Fig. Laser pulse reaches C first, for C one second will happen faster than D bcuz at D,
distance has been stretched because of the wrap created by earth. This is called time
dilation, time has been stretched and has become slower.

3) Gravitational waves:
For E, gravitational waves refer to ripples produced on the fabric of space and time
whenever an object having mass travels in accelerated motion. The speed of
gravitational waves is equal to the speed of light (C=3x108 m/s). Thus, if we get to know
sun has disappeared in 8 mins then earth will also know it in 8mins. 14th sept 2015,
gravitational waves were discovered.

4) Gravitational lensing
Constellation: recognizable pattern of stars (for us). 88 has been found.. 11 have been taken as
zodiac sign. However, they can be galaxies outside ours or a super massive black hole.
Saggitarius constellation has a milky way centre which is the super massive black hole.

Sun being a star will produce light in all possible direction. Treat blackhole as puncture in the
fabric of space and time. When sun throws light, the light going straight into hole will be gone
forever. But the lights moving in other directions, may have fair chance of escaping it (though
warps may affect the direction, it will still manage to escape the gravity).

● Event horizon: it the point deep in the warp of a black hole which is often considered as
the point of ‘no return’ from where not even light can escape.
 ● Accretion disc: It is a bright ring of light produced around event horizon that signifies the
light which manages to escape out from the black hole’s gravity. Accretion disc is not
uniformly bright bcuz side of AD nearer to us will be brighter.. If we see from up, it will be
equally bright.

Fig: Messier-87 (M-87) blackhole. First ever captured black hole. Shot by 12 telescope called
Event Horizon Telescope. Image released in 2019.

Sagittarius A: 9th of June 2022. Released by the same team. Second black hole image
released.
Quasars: brightest spots in the universe. Aka Active galactic nuclei
Stephen hawking: extremely powerful may be emitting strong jet of radiowaves, bcuz of
centrifugal force… the energy sucked by blackhole is thrown out in the form called plasma jet
emerging from centre. This is called quasar. They are found in newly formed blackhole and new
galaxies are being formed and taking shape. Thus they are called Active galactic nuclei. A lot of
radiation is released.

What is a laser: highly concentrated beam of light. It is highly monochromatic (maintains single
wavelength throughout the journey)
LIGO (laser Interferometer Gravitational Waves Observatory)
- It is an observatory to study GW by measuring the interference patterns in lasers.
- Observatory that discovered first ever evidence of gravitational waves (on 14th sept
2014)
- How LIGO discovered GW:
● Whenever a ripple would pass through the fabric of space and time, the object
over it would start bouncing.
● Scientists in the 1970s at nasa discovered that there are 2 blackholes that have
come dangerously close, that they’ll merge in 40-50 years which would create
massive earthquake like vibrations all over the space time fabric which is capable
of bouncing bodies like earth. They set up the observatory LIGO (underwent lot
of modification, it was fully set up in 2009)
● Built 2 4 km long tunnels facing NS direction and EW direction. Installed 2 mirrors
at the edn of the tunnels. Fired two lasers from the origin at the same time. Both
the lasers will travel in opposite phases.

●
● They'll cause destructive interference and the result will be a straight line.
 ● The moment GV reached earth, earth will start bouncing, earth will change its
shape (vertical expansion leads to horizontal contraction and vice versa)
expansion of NS tunnel leads to contraction of EW tunnel. The lasers wont cover
equidistance. So the resultant wont be destructive interference, Confirming GW.
● How earthquake wont affect LIGO? : to build 2 LIGO observatories at diff
locations. One in Hanford in Washington (US), second in Livingstone in
Louisiana (US). distance between them (needed for accuracy purpose) (aka
baseline difference): 2500km.
● 3rd obv came up in GEO-100 in EU (italy), 4th: Virgo in germany, 5th: Kagra in
japan, 6th: INDIGO in Hingoli in INDIA
● 6th: INDIGO indian gravitational observatory. Will be completed by next yr (2026)

Cosmic inflation theory:

- Boomerang experiment: 1)univ is flat 2) there's uniform distribution of mass and energy.
- Big bang couldn't explain this 2 problems.
- CIT studies the universe exactly after the bigbang.
- Time before big bang theory: studied by string theory and Loopquantum theory.
- Less than one sec after big bang is Cosmic inflation era
- CIT studies: this era, dist of mass and energy, expansion, flatness, Isotropic GW, cosmic
microwave Background (CMB)

- Dark ages: 100-200MY after Bigbang

- During cosmic inflation era-> very high temp, v high speed of expansion, x rays, gamma
rays released
- 100 MY later expansion became slower and started releasing lower radiation like VL.
- Stars, galaxies started forming post 100 MY during darkages (only when univ became
slower and cooler for gravity to kickin.)
 - Dark ages: it is the period of rapid expansion of univ after the bugbang when it was
extremely hot. Only when the univ gets slower and cool enough that matter could now
assemble and create first galaxies and stars, this era of dark ages ended.
- Energy of big bang still found in the form of CMB.
- CMB: It is the remnant energy of big bang that is found to be equally distributed across
the univ in the form of microwaves.

Types of univ:
● Actual univ: bigger than measurable univ
● Measurable univ: 93bn light years. has many observable univs.
● Observable univ

James Webb space telescope: biggest telescope ever to be deployed in space. It is capable
of seeing the edge of the observable universe (13.7-14bn LY)
- It is the direct successor to the Hubble space telescope .
- It is an infrared telescope.
- It is a newtonian telescope
- Its aperture(length or face of the lens/mirror) is 6.5m. Bigger the aperture, more the light
it captures.
- Mirrors are made up of Gold and beryllium
- Its location: at L2 Lagrange point between sun and earth

-
Fig: newtonian telescope uses mirror instead of glass lens unlike galileo's telescope that
uses glass lens which would break easily.
- Lagrange points: point between two bodies, where the net effect of gravity becomes 0
between the two bodies. Lagrange discovered 5 such points.
 Fig; lagrange points:
- L3, L4 AND L5 very stable points. The Other two keep moving as earth moves.

Aditya L1:
- located at L1 point between earth and sun. it is not fixed, it is revolving around L1
between sun and earth at 0.1 AU (1.5mn km) distance from earth

-
- Why not stationary?: it would have eclipsed the sun for us. It would block our view of
sun.
- First solar probe/ mission of india
- To study 3 layers of the sun, space weather phenomenon, solar flare, send warnings
regarding corona mass ejections, solar cycle (change in magnetic polarity)

Parker solar probe: named after EUGENE PARKER.

- 7 yr long (2018-2025)
- Already touched solar corona (first ever to touch sun’s corona)
- In 2025: it will end its mission, by touching the solar surface (photosphere) (first probe
ever to touch sun)
- Obj: to study solar corona, space weather phenomena, origin of sun spot
- It is moving in an orbit that slowly came near the sun and eventually touched sun
corona. It recorded data near sun and sent it when it came near venus
Gravitational lensing

ENERGY TECHNOLOGY

Refer to non renewable energy from compass.

Renewable Energy sources:
● Solar
● Wind
● Hydal
● Ocean
 ● Geothermal
● Bioenergy:
● Hydrogen
Renewable Source Harnessed through

Hydrogen ● steam reformation

● Electrolysis of H2O
● Cryogenic engine
● H-ICE (Internal Combustion engine)
● H Fuel cell.

Bioenergy ● Fermentation (bioethanol)

● Ethylene hydration (industrial ethanol)
● bioGasification
● Biomethanation (bio-CNG)
● Pyrolysis (biochar)
● Plasma Arc Gasification (Syn Gas
(synthetic gas)): Aka poison gas and
water gas)
● Biodiesel

Geothermal ● TEC (Thermal Energy Conversion)

(no such projects in india)

Ocean ● OTEC (Ocean thermal energy

conversion)
● Tidal (bulb type and barrage type)
● Osmotic power (through salinity)
● Offshore Wind Power Plant
● Waves

Hydal power ● Run of the river type PP (popular,

mostly found in india and himalayan
region)
● Pump Storage type
●

Wind ● Turbine (only way)

Solar (most popular) ● Solar Photovoltaic cell (SPVs)

● Solar Furnace (SPT (Solar Paraboloid
Tech )
● Active (actively controlling solar
energy through lil electricity) /Passive
(completely based on solar energy)

I) Bioenergy
Fig: methane as source of biogas
Why is biogas better than natural gas?
Biogas is carbon neutral. It doesn't increase or decrease the amount of carbon in the env
But if we start drilling , the carbon trapped in the ecosystem is released. Thus natural gas in the
earth’s interior is carbon positive.

Fig: Process: (dark) fermentation (molasses to ethanol)

● C= carbohydrate part of the food
Fact: vehicle bought after 2010 -> BS-IV -> E-10 Compatible i.e 10% ethanol can be added to it.
After 2020 -> BS- VI: E-20 compatible i.e fueled 20% ethanol
E 100: called Flex Fuel Vehicle …. 100% ethanol or any blend

PM JIVAN: pradhan mantri- jaiv indhan vatavaran anukool avshesh nivaran : by ministry of
petroleum and natural gas: to promote more ethanol prodn in india

2018: NBF (National biofuel policy)

Aim: from 1st april 2020: E 10 petrol.. Couldn't be achieved due to covid. Goal achieved on
1st apr 2022.
From 1st april 2025: E20 Petrol
NBCC (national biofuel coordination committee)= Rs. 61/lit

● F= Fat from the food

Veg oil is dense and viscous compared to petrol and diesel
Transesterification: process of lowering down viscosity of veg oil and bringing it to the levels
of petroleum diesel by heating the vege oil with alcohol. Product: biodiesel (good substitute of
diesel) and glycerol.
After 2010- BS IV: all the cars are B100 : can run on 100% biodiesel. 100% carbon neutral.
Under NBF: from 1st april 2030, expected to introduce B-V diesel
 - Why investing in petrol than on diesel: India is a largest importer of oilseeds unlike rice
and sugarcane. Thus it's a burden. Thus, india doest have 100% biodiesel run vehicle.
E-5 Diesel test: ethanol + diesel run vehicle (ethanol is compatible with diesel as well). Thus
ethanol is a better choice.

● P=protein
It has no such energy potential

Pyrolysis:
It is a method of converting wood into charcoal. Pyro means fire, lysis means breaking.
Biomass to biochar (charcoal is one of the types of biochar) conversion.
- What is charcoal: Whenever wood burns, it produces smoke, irritants (bcuz of Volatile
organic (VOL) compounds). But when you burn charcoal, it burns with less smoke and
VOL.

Gobardhan (MoJS initiative): water to energy, water to wealth.

Biogas is water intensive.
Biochar: pyrolytic convertors can be used
uses: bricks, pellets, bio fertilizer
(refer env notes for more info)

SAMARTH (Sustainable agrarian mission for the use of agro residues in a thermal power
plant): SELL BIOCHAR for prodn of electricity in a thermal power plant. Initiative by Ministry of
Power.

● Generations of Biofuels:
1) 1st gen: made from edible substances. If promoted by govt, it will impact the food
security of the country leading to food inflation. RUCO (repurposed used cooking
oil initiative): initiative by FSSAI. Used cooking oil has high fats. This oil can be
used for fuel application i.e. make biodiesel. Through RUCO, various fast food
chains, community kitchens are connected and then the oil is converted to
biodiesel.
2) 2nd gen: made form inedible substances (husk from rice, straw from wheat,
bagasse from sugarcane: all food waste and rich in carbohydrates & can be
converted to ethanol, Jatropha: inedible oil (21%) rich in fats biodiesel can be
made, karanj (pongamia pinata) converted to biodiesel): cannot directly impact
food inflation. If promoted, it can affect the water table as the crops are water
intensive. It can also indirectly affect food inflation as farmers would be more
inclined to produce inedible crops like karanj and jatropha which will affect the
food security and hence food inflation.
3) 3RD Gen: derived from Algae, microorganism. Algal oil has high productivity
bcuz its biomass is high. Does Not have problem of land availability or food
security.
 4) 4th Gen: result of modern biotech, GM Algae: they’ll have higher productivity.
5) Advanced Biofuel: Ethanol made from organic materials.. But it will be 100%
carbon neutral
In india, 4th gen hasnt been developed yet. Other gen bf have been promoted.

PLASMA ARC GASIFICATION (PAG):

Pyrolysis: used in rural waste management, while PAG used in urban waste management.
Urban waste: municipal waste (solid waste), plastic waste, e-waste, hazardous chemicals.
(mostly non biodegradable in nature). Thus cannot be managed using simple pyrolysis.
PAG: technique similar to pyrolysis where urban waste is treated with high temp plasma in
absence of O2 where it breaks into syn-gas and slag (syngas: combi of CO and H2(used as
fuel), Slag: used in road construction and cement). Any waste can be treated using PAG except
radioactive waste.

What is Plasma?
- Often considered as the 4th state of matter.
- Extremely high temp ionised gases. (ions: charged atoms): thermal ionisation.
- Always positively charged

Fig: ions: when there's imbalance in charge. (negative ion: electrons are excessive, positive
ions: excess proton)

Thermal ionisation:
 Heat supplied is absorbed by p and e which breaks the electro magnetic force between them
which leads to dislocation of e leading to formation of H+ ions. This is H+ plasma (high temp
ionised gas). This process is called thermal ionisation (because of use of heat).

II) HYDROGEN
- Flexible fuel
- H2O is produced as residue
- Storage of energy is higher.
- Methods of producing H2:
(a) steam reformation: steam methane reformation. It is a process of separating
carbon and hydrogen in methane where methane is exposed to super heated
steam with nickel as a catalyst (helps in breaking bond)

Carbon captures and stored: blue hydrogen

Not CCsS: grey hydrogen
(b) Electrolysis of H2O: India emphasising on Green Hydrogen: through electrolysis
of water, provided the energy comes from renewable sources
Electrolysis: breaking of bond in presence of electricity

Fig: breaking of Na and Cl from NaCl

 Fih: separation of H+ and O2- from H2O using electrolysis

(c) Hydrogen fuel cell:

- Workes by the process of reverse electrolysis in which hydrogen and
oxygen are kept in 2 separate chambers, are made to react with each
other by exchange of electrons producing water and electricty as residue
OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion)
- Anomalous expansion of water (water becomes lighter when it solidifies)
- Two layers of ocean: epilimnion (upper most layer: warmer (25degreees-35degree C)
and hypolimnion (bottommost: cooler, 4 degree C )
- OTEC: harness this naturally occurring thermal difference, it is converted into energy.
- In 2019, MoES: launched O-SMART (ocean smart initiative): 2 OTEC power plants have
been set up at Kavaratti, lakshadweep by NIOT (national insti of ocean tech)
- NIOT has built first OTEC at Tuticorin in india
- How does OTEC fxn?
Water is not used as working fluid as water temp isnt sufficient to make it a super heated
steam. So we use ammonia (NH3). it is gaseous at room temp (25 degree C).
NH4+ i.e ammonium is liquid at room temp.

Fig: evaporator: put ammonium in it. Bcux of the heat supplied, it turns into ammonia.
This ammonia will now be sent as working fluid into the turbine. Bcuz of the energy it
has, the turbine will rotate. Generating electricity.
Condenser: uses cold water from ocean. The used ammonia is converted into
ammonium which goes up to evaporator.
This process goes on as the temp diff in gonna be constant.

Waves:
● Wave is a disturbance that tends to propagate without actual movement of its particles.
Water molecules oscillate perpendicularly while the waves travel horizontally.
● Types of Waves:
1) Longitudinal Wave: those waves where the waves particles oscillate parallel to its
direction of propagation. Eg sound wave, mechanical wave, P waves of seismic
waves
2) Transverse Wave: where wave particles oscillate perpendicular to the direction of
the wave. Eg. entire solar spectrum (electromagnetic wave spectrum),
gravitational waves, s waves.
● Characteristics of a wave:
1) Wavelength (lambda λ): distance travelled by a wave (one complete crest
and one complete trough) displacement travelled in one full wave. Units:
all units used for measuring length.

2) Frequency (meu μ): number of times a wave is produced per second. Unit:
hertz. Freq of audible range: 20hertz-20000hz (sonic freq). <20 hz
(infrasonic). >20khz (ultrasonic). (fact: current used in houses: 50-60 hz).
High freq= higher pitch (female voice)

Fig. freq: 3 hertz.

3) Amplitude (A): extent of crest and trough across the mean line. Decides the
loudness of the sound. Increasing amp doesnt change wavelength and freq.
● Characteristics of sound wave:
- Type of longitudinal wave.
- It always requires material medium for its propagation (water, air,
solid) thus it cannot travel through vacuum. Thus, we can speak in
space but u cant hear it.
- Speed of sound depends on two factors:
1) Stiffness of the medium: how quickly disturbance can
travel from one particle to another. solid>liq>gas -> speed
of sound.
2) Temp of the medium: high temp=high speed (speed of
sound at 0 degree C= 332m/s, at 25 degree C=349m/s)

- Mach number (M): ratio of speed of an object with the speed of

sound at 0degrree C . It is a methodology of comparing speed of
an object with the speed of sound.

-
- 3M: brahmos missile
● If mac number is 1. It means speed of object is equal to
sound -> sonic speed
● If Mac no.> 1. Speed of object>speed of sound ->
supersonic speed
● If mac no.<1. Speed of obj <speed of sound. -> subsonic
● If Mac >5. Speed of obj >speed of sound. -> hypersonic
speed. Speed of HSTDV(hypersonic technology
demonstrator vehicle) is 5.5M. Brahmos 2 missile,
proposed speed= 7.5M
- Sonic Boom: it is a shock wave that is produced whenever an
object crosses its own sound barrier.
- Echo: bouncing of a wave into the original medium. It refers to a
delayed reflection of sound. To hear an echo, minimum distance
b/w the reflective surface and the observer should be 17.2 meters
(in air) and with the time delay of minimum 0.1 sec. Echo locating
 animals: bat, dolphins, hales. Even if the dont have ear, they
understand through vibrations. Eg snakes.

- Reverberation: multiple reflections of sound without a time delay that

creates a more persistent sound. Eg stethoscope, roman cathedral
Standard Atomic Model:
Made of two particles: fermiones and bosons
Fermiones: particles that carry mass. Made up of quarks and leptons
- Quarks: inside atoms and exist in groups. Three diff forms in which quarks exist.
● When any three (out of those 6) quark particles combine, they make Baryons.
● Measons: made of 2 quarks
● Hadron: 5 quarks (baryons+measons)
- Leptons: those which can exist as single independent particle even outside the atom.
Eg. electron, neutrino
Bosons: particles tyat carry energy: are of two types” Higgs and Scalar
Scalar:
● Strong NF: carried by Gluon (glues the proton particles)
● EMF: Photon
● WNF: By W Boson, Z boson
● Gravitational force: not yet found in SAM (gravitons not discovered yet)

Red: photon, blue: gluon. Fig. thermal ionisation.

Fig: photoionisation (by light)