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Prelim Bits 15-04-2017

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April 15, 2017

Saturn Moon

  • Data collected by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft suggest the possibility of hosting life in Saturn’s moon Enceladus.
  • Enceladus is a small moon with an ocean of liquid water beneath its icy crust. Clouds of gas erupting out of Enceladus contain hydrogen.
  • There are hydrothermal chemical reactions similar to those that occur at hot fissures at the ocean bottoms on the earth, in which minerals in the rocks of ocean bottom absorbs oxygen atoms from the hot water flows past the rocks and releasing hydrogen.

Cassini Spacecraft

  • It is a joint NASA-European space agency mission.
  • Cassini-Huygens is an unmanned spacecraft sent to the planet Saturn in 2004.
  • It is the fourth space probe to visit Saturn (pioneer 11, Voyager1, Voyager 2) and the first to enter orbit.
  • Its design includes a Saturn Orbiter and a Lander called “Huygens” for the moon Titan.
  • This was the first landing ever accomplished in the outer solar system.
  • The spacecraft is heading into its final months; it begins its last journey orbiting the planet and its rings before its mission finally ends with a crash into Saturn’s atmosphere in September.

European Court of Human Rights

  • The European Court of Human Rights is an international court set up in Strasbourg, France in 1959.
  • It rules on individual or state applications alleging violations of the civil and political rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.
  • It is a full-time court and individuals can apply to it directly and its judgments are binding on the countries concerned.
  • The Court monitors respect for the human rights in the 47 Council of Europe member States that have ratified the Convention.

Council of Europe

  • It is the Europe’s leading Human Rights Organisation.
  • It includes 47 member States, 28 of which are members of European Union.
  • All the member states have signed the European Convention of Human Rights. The European Court of Human Rights oversees the implementation of the Convention.
  • Recently, the court has ruled against the Russian government, that it violated the Article 2 of the convention in its planning and use of lethal force to tackle the hostage crisis in Beslan region.
  • Some of the outside EU members in Council of Europe are Russia, Iceland, Switzerland, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia. Japan, Canada, U.S, Mexico, Israel are observers to the council.

Disease in news

  • Agra or Nalband Mutation – It causes neurodegenerative disease caused by the mutation in the gene MLC-1 in the chromosome 21. It is found among Nalband communities in Agra.
  • Polymelia – It is rare birth defect in which the individual has more than the usual number of limbs.
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