QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 20 February 2020

Solution: b)

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is also preparing to send its first scientific expedition to study the Sun. Named Aditya-L1, the mission, expected to be launched early next year, will observe the Sun from a close distance, and try to obtain information about its atmosphere and magnetic field. ISRO categorises Aditya L1 as a 400 kg-class satellite, that will be launched using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in XL configuration. The space-based observatory will have seven payloads (instruments) on board to study the Sun’s corona, solar emissions, solar winds and flares, and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), and will carry out round-the-clock imaging of the Sun. Aditya L1 will be ISRO’s second space-based astronomy mission after AstroSat, which was launched in September 2015.

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Solution: d)

Every planet, including Earth and the exoplanets beyond the Solar System, evolves — and this evolution is governed by its parent star. The solar weather and environment, which is determined by the processes taking place inside and around the sun, affects the weather of the entire system. Variations in this weather can change the orbits of satellites or shorten their lives, interfere with or damage onboard electronics, and cause power blackouts and other disturbances on Earth. Knowledge of solar events is key to understanding space weather. To learn about and track Earth-directed storms, and to predict their impact, continuous solar observations are needed. Every storm that emerges from the Sun and heads towards Earth passes through L1, and a satellite placed in the halo orbit around L1 of the Sun-Earth system has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/eclipses, ISRO says on its website.

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Solution: a)

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO’s) food price index — which is a measure of the change in international prices of a basket of major food commodities with reference to a base period (2002-04 = 100) — touched 182.5 points in January 2020, the highest since the 185.8 level of December 2014.

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Solution: b)

Recently Finance Minister announced an onsite museum at Adichanallur to highlight the archaeological findings belonging to a civilised society that lived close to the Tamirabarani waterway between 905 BCE and 696 BCE.

Adichanallur is an archaeological site in Thoothukudi district in Tamil Nadu, India that has been the site of a number of very important archaeological finds. Korkai, the capital of the Early Pandyan Kingdom, is located about 15 km from Adichanallur.

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Solution: c)

Kaziranga is crisscrossed by four main rivers — Brahmaputra, Diphlu, Mora Diphlu and Mora Dhansiri and has numerous small water bodies.