Editorial 1: James Webb telescope discovers its first Earth-sized exoplanet: What are exoplanets?
Recent Context:
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on January 11 announced that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered its first new exoplanet
- Researchers have labelled the planet as LHS 475 b, and it’s roughly the same size as Earth, the agency added. It is located just 41 light-years away, the planet orbits very close to a red dwarf star and completes a full orbit in just two days
- Earlier, JSWT has captured the first-ever evidence of the presence of carbon dioxide in an exoplanet’s WASP-39b atmosphere.
What are exoplanets?
- Exoplanets are planets that orbit other stars and are beyond our solar system.
- According to NASA, to date, more than 5,000 exoplanets have been discovered. Scientists believe that there are more planets than stars as each star has at least one planet orbiting it.
- Exoplanets come in a host of different sizes. They can be gas giants bigger than Jupiter or as small and rocky as Earth. They are also known to have different kinds of temperatures boiling hot to freezing cold.
Why and how do we study them?
- Why: ? Studying exoplanets not only broadens our understanding of other solar systems but also helps us piece together information about our own planetary system and origin.
- However, the most compelling reason to learn about existing or possibility of existence of life on another planets .
- How? In a bid to understand the characteristics of an exoplanet,
- researchers look for its mass and diameter along with determining if it is solid or gaseous or even has water vapour in the atmosphere.
- Another important element of the study is finding out the distance between an exoplanet and its host star.
- This helps scientists determine if a discovered world is habitable or not.
- If an exoplanet is too close to the star, it might be too hot to sustain liquid water. If it’s too far, it might only have frozen water.
- When a planet is at a distance that enables it to have liquid water, it is said to be in the “Goldilocks zone
- This helps scientists determine if a discovered world is habitable or not.
- With the launch of the Webb telescope, scientists believe that they would now be able to better study exoplanets as it is the only telescope that is capable of characterising the atmospheres of Earth-sized planets orbiting distant stars
How are exoplanets discovered?
According to NASA: Discovering exoplanets is quite tough as they are small and hard to spot around their bright host stars.
- Scientists rely on indirect methods, such as the transit method, which is “measuring the dimming of a star that happens to have a planet pass in front of it”
What are red dwarf stars?
- The newly discovered exoplanet orbits around a red dwarf star. Such types of stars are the most common and smallest in the universe.
- As they don’t radiate much light, it’s very tough to detect them with the naked eye from Earth. However, as red dwarfs are dimmer than other stars, it is easier to find exoplanets that surround them. Therefore, red dwarfs are a popular target for planet hunting.
About James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST or Webb):
- It is an infrared space observatory that launched on Dec, 2021, from ESA's launch site at Kourou in French Guiana
- It has large infrared telescope with a 6.5-meter primary mirror. Therefore, it will complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope, with longer wavelength coverage and greatly improved sensitivity.
- The longer wavelengths enable Webb to look much closer to the beginning of time and to hunt for the unobserved formation of the first galaxies, as well as to look inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today.
- It is an international collaboration between NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
- It is It is deployed in a solar orbit near the Sun–Earth, second Lagrange point (L2) which is a spot in space near Earth that lies opposite from the sun; this orbit will allow the telescope to stay in line with Earth as it orbits the sun. It has been a popular spot for several other space telescopes, including the Herschel Space Telescope and the Planck Space Observatory
GOALS:
- Search for the first galaxies or luminous objects formed after the Big Bang
- Determine how galaxies evolved from their formation until now
- Observe the formation of stars from the first stages to the formation of planetary systems
- Measure the physical and chemical properties of planetary systems, including our own Solar System, and
- investigate the potential for life in those systems
- To study the atmospheres of a wide diversity of exoplanets.
- Search for atmospheres similar to Earth’s, and for the signatures of key substances such as methane, water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and complex organic molecules, in hopes of finding the building blocks of life.
The observatory has four major components
- Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam)
- Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec)
- Mid Infrared Instrument (MIRI)
- Fine Guidance Sensors/Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (FGS/NIRISS)
Expected Positive outcomes of JWST:
- Developments in telescope technology (in all regions of the electromagnetic spectrum and not just the visible range) over the last century have allowed us to know with reasonable certainty a lot about our universe. Under which Webb telescope with advancement of technology offers a unique opportunity.
- As the astrophysicist get to know about the universe mainly through universe is electromagnetic radiation. These are the waves which span a whole spectrum of wavelengths from the very long radio waves through visible light to the ultra-short gamma rays, travel at the speed of light.
- JWST is infrared telescope with a large 6.5-meter primary mirror, therefore it will extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope, with longer wavelength coverage and greatly improved sensitivity.
- As Infrared radiation has the advantage that it passes through dust clouds more easily than visible light So, now it is possible to see through the dust clouds that obscure regions where star and planet formation is taking place.
- Therefore, it also produces a huge amount of spectroscopic data which reveals, among other things, the chemical composition of the region producing the radiation. Studying the chemical composition of exo-planets and the planets orbiting other stars would determine whether life as we know it is possible on these extraterrestrial worlds.
So, it is expected that JWST over its lifetime would provide us with a space data which help in resolving some of the many mysteries of the cosmos which are not directly detected such as dak matter and dark energy.
Editorial 2: The good cooperative: AMUL as a model
Context:
- Cooperative organisation plays a significant role in inclusive development of society at the very grass root level in an organised manner.
- As Cooperatives, are organisations owned by members who could be producers or consumers. These members may own shares, but value the cooperative mainly for the services it provides them.
- Such services, if it is a producer-owned cooperative, would include purchase, processing and marketing of their produce or supplying them inputs used in production.
- Success metrics in this case are not earnings per share or dividend payout ratios, but the procurement price of produce and the timeliness of payment or the provision of quality cattle feed, farm extension and animal healthcare support, fertilisers and credit at least cost.
- On the other hand, Companies are investor-owned entities that exist primarily to maximise their return on capital.
- This is reflected in the value of their shares, whether or not traded in an exchange.
- The investor-owned eventually seeks capital appreciation and the highest possible price for the shares he may want to sell or pledge to raise further monies.
Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF). AMUL: a successful example of cooperative:
- It is an apex organisation of dairy cooperatives in Gujarat, it is ultimately owned by 36.4 lakh farmers pouring milk to 18,154 village-level societies across the state.
- Between 2001-02 and 2021-22, GCMMF’s sales turnover rose from Rs 2,336 crore to Rs 46,481 crore and average daily milk procurement from 47.32 lakh litres to 263.66 lakh litres, which included 42.68 lakh litres from outside Gujarat.
- But for the farmer-owner, it is the price paid for her milk that really matters, just as a company’s share price is for the investor-owner.
- In the last 20 years, the average procurement price paid to producers by GCMMF’s district milk unions has gone up from Rs 184 to Rs 820 per kg of fat.
- It was possible due to professional management.
- As, the Amul organisational model, from the time of Verghese Kurien to B M Vyas and R S Sodhi, has been based on an elected board of directors operating through a chief executive and his team, which include marketing and finance professionals, project engineers, veterinarians, agronomists, and nutritionists.
- (It brings accountability to boards and manager to the farmer)
- This model has made GCMMF different from other state dairy cooperative federations, whose managing directors are usually Indian Administrative Service officers reporting to secretaries of animal husbandry and dairying departments.
- Therefore, it reduces the accountability boards nor managers to farmers )
- As, the Amul organisational model, from the time of Verghese Kurien to B M Vyas and R S Sodhi, has been based on an elected board of directors operating through a chief executive and his team, which include marketing and finance professionals, project engineers, veterinarians, agronomists, and nutritionists.
The following are the outcomes of AMUL model which need to be adopted by other cooperative societies:
- Role of cooperative societies in farmer and women empowerment along with social upliftment of the weaker sections of the society.
- Sense of ownership and belongingness among the participants for success of an organization or a program, eg. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Self Help Groups, etc.
- It also promotes the significance of organizational democracy, positive work culture, and focus on quality management and end-customers for long-term growth and development of an organization.
- It also promotes and strengthen the concept of Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) for increasing the bargaining power of farmers for better price discovery in the market and increasing their access to the quality inputs.
- Importance of up-dation with time and adoption of latest technology for staying relevant in the field.
- Being the accountability and transparency to the Board and managers
- Value of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Conclusion:
- The Amul model has been about both farmer empowerment and valuing professional management in organisations controlled by and working for producers.
- It’s probably a sign of the time that the National Dairy Development Board, which spearheaded India’s White Revolution, has paled into insignificance. It does not have a full-time chairman today, even while having IAS officers heading it after 2014.
