Chandrayaan-4 Mission Gets Approval, Will Return to Earth This Time
Chandrayaan-4 mission has received approval from the Union Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday. This marks another significant milestone in India’s lunar exploration efforts. Unlike previous missions, Chandrayaan-4 will not only aim for a successful landing on the Moon but will also focus on returning to Earth. This mission will demonstrate critical technologies that will allow for lunar samples to be collected, brought back to Earth, and studied. It represents an essential leap toward India’s long-term goal of landing on the Moon with humans by 2040.
Chandrayaan-4 to Develop Return Technologies
Chandrayaan-4 follows the successful Chandrayaan-3 mission and aims to further advance India’s capabilities in space. The mission will focus on developing technologies essential for docking, undocking, landing, and safe return from the Moon. Collecting lunar samples will also be a key feature, as India moves closer to a full-scale manned mission in the coming decades. The government’s vision includes an Indian Space Station by 2035, followed by human landings on the Moon by 2040.
Mission Details and Industry Involvement
The mission will be completed within 36 months of approval, with ISRO leading the development and launch. It will involve participation from both industry and academia. A budget of ₹2104.06 crore has been allocated for spacecraft development, launch vehicle missions, and deep space support.
This includes costs for special tests and design validation. High employment potential is expected in associated sectors due to this mission.
Aiming for Self-Sufficiency in Space Technologies
Chandrayaan-4 is set to make India self-reliant in crucial space technologies, helping the nation prepare for future manned missions and lunar explorations. The mission will also involve science meets and workshops to include Indian academia and ensure significant contributions to the analysis of lunar samples.
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A stunning solar eruption captured on video on the night of May 12-13 has revealed a 600,000-mile-long filament blasting away from the sun’s northern hemisphere. The outburst occurred around 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT) and spanned a distance more than twice that between Earth and the moon. A massive solar filament suspended above the sun’s surface became unstable and erupted, blasting a CME into space along with a cloud of plasma and magnetic energy. Preliminary models show Earth is nowhere in the firing range of this fiery ejection, but researchers are still watching the phenomenon closely.
Sun’s 600,000-Mile-Long ‘Angel-Wing’ Eruption Stuns Skywatchers, Signals Rising Solar Activity
As per the Space.com report, the eruption originated from a filament structure composed of dense, cooler solar plasma held aloft by magnetic fields. These structures often appear as dark ribbons across the sun’s disk and can become unstable without warning. Solar observers noted that this latest eruption dwarfed similar recent events, both in scale and intensity. Aurora chaser Jure Atanackov remarked that the CME from the blast was among the most spectacular seen this year, although fortunately, it is headed north and will miss Earth.
The event, dubbed the “angel-wing” or “bird-wing” eruption by observers online, was widely shared among solar watchers. Vincent Ledvina, another aurora chaser, noted its incredible visual impact, describing it as a sight worth watching on loop. The eruption is, in fact, so long, by more than a million kilometres, that it is of scientific interest and visually striking as well. Geomagnetic storms resulting from this kind of CME can affect satellites, communication systems, and even Earth.
Although it foreshadows the unpredictable nature of our host star, this particular CME does not pose a threat to Earth at the moment. Solar activity is ramping up as we approach the peak of Solar Cycle 25 in 2025. What’s more, more — and maybe more Earth-threatening — solar explosions could follow.
As a reminder of the formidable and delicate forces at play relatively close by on Earth, the sun remains a source of wonder for astronomers and skywatchers alike.
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Over 80 years, dark matter has been a great mystery for the researchers. Elusive of direct observation, it has made its existence known only by the gravitational impacts it makes on cosmic structures. Even though there is a lot of indirect evidence of its existence, the real nature of dark matter is still unknown. An important attribute of its particle is mass. While past studies have constrained the mass of fermionic dark matter using quantum principles like Pauli’s exclusion principle, bosonic dark matter remained less constrained. In a recent study, scientists have estimated a new lower bound on the mass of ultra-lightweight bosonic dark matter particles.
About the study
According to the study published in Physical Review Letters, the mass of ultralight bosonic dark matter must be more than 2 × 10-21 electron volts (eV), 100 times more than previous estimates using Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.
The team of researchers, led by the first author of the study, Tim Zimmermann, a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, focused their method on the data of Leo II, the Milky Way’s satellite galaxy. It is a dwarf galaxy 1,000 times smaller than the Milky Way. By analyzing the internal motions of stars within Leo II—heavily influenced by dark matter—the team derived 5,000 possible dark matter density profiles using a tool called GRAVSPHERE.
They compared these with profiles generated by quantum wave functions of various dark matter particle masses. If the particle is too light, quantum fuzziness spreads it too thinly, preventing it from forming the observed structures. The study concluded that the dark matter particle must have a mass greater than 2.2 × 10⁻²¹ electron volts (eV)—over 100 times more than previous lower estimates.
Impact on dark matter studies
The findings have significant implications for popular ultralight dark matter models, particularly fuzzy dark matter, which typically proposes particles with masses around 10-22 ev.
Looking ahead, the team plans to extend their methodology to mixed dark matter scenarios, where dark matter is composed of particles with different masses.
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