Daily Current Affairs – 18-04-2024

General/Other

World’s biggest

permafrost crater

Scientists say Russia is warming at least 2.5 times faster than the rest of the world. One of the massive craters in the world, famously known as the “gateway to the underworld” is growing by 35 million cubic feet every year. The huge crater situated in Serbia’s permafrost is expanding due to melting of the ground. Officially known as Batagay ( Batagaika ), the crater or mega slump is a rounded cliff face that was first discovered in 1991 through satellite images.

Rocky Planet with

Atmosphere Found 41 Light Years Away

The planet is a “super-earth”, a rocky world significantly larger than our planet but smaller than Neptune, and it orbits perilously close to a star dimmer and slightly less massive than our sun, rapidly completing an orbit every 18 hours or so. The planet, called 55 Cancri e or Janssen, is about 8.8-times more massive than the earth, with a diameter about twice that of our planet. All of the previous exoplanets found to have atmospheres were gaseous planets, not rocky ones. As Webb pushes the frontiers of exoplanet exploration, the discovery of a rocky one with an atmosphere represents progress.