NASA invites people to submit names to go onboard its new solar mission
Washington: NASA is inviting people around the world to submit their names online to be placed on a microchip aboard NASAs historic Parker Solar Probe mission, to be launched this summer.
The mission will travel through the Sun's atmosphere, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions -- and your name will go along for the ride. The submissions of names will be accepted until April 27, the US space agency said in a statement on Thursday.
"This probe will journey to a region humanity has never explored before. This mission will answer questions scientists have sought to uncover for more than six decades," said Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for Science Mission Directorate at NASA.
The spacecraft -- about the size of a small car -- will travel directly into the Sun's atmosphere about four million miles from the star's surface.
The primary goals for the mission are to trace how energy and heat move through the solar corona and to explore what accelerates the solar wind as well as solar energetic particles.
To perform the investigations, the spacecraft and instruments will be protected from the Sun's heat by a 4.5-inch-thick carbon-composite shield.
The state-of-the-art heat shield will keep the four instrument suites designed to study magnetic fields, plasma and energetic particles, and image the solar wind at room temperature.
In May 2017, NASA renamed the spacecraft from the Solar Probe Plus to the Parker Solar Probe in honour of astrophysicist Eugene Parker.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Periya twin murder case: CBI court found 14 guilty including former CPI(M) MLA
Kochi(PTI): A CBI court here on Saturday found 14 accused including a CPI(M) former MLA guilty in the murder of two Youth Congress workers - Kripesh and Sarath Lal at Periya in Kasaragod district of Kerala five years ago.
Of the 24 accused, the court found the first eight accused guilty of murder and conspiracy charges and another six guilty of conspiracy, destruction of evidence and providing assistance for operating the crime, while remaining 10 accused have been acquitted in the case.
The court will pronounce the sentence on January 3.
The case pertains to the murder of Youth Congress workers Kripesh, 19, and Sarath Lal P K, 24, allegedly by CPI(M) workers on February 17, 2019.
The accused found guilty include former MLA and CPI(M) district leader K V Kunhiraman, Kanhangad block panchayat president K Manikandan, former CPI(M) Periya local committee member A Peethambaran, and former Pakkam local secretary Raghavan Velutholi.
According to the prosecution, the twin murders were carried out after politically motivated attacks and counterattacks between the workers of CPI(M) and Congress in the area.
The CBI filed the charge sheet in this case against 24 persons including six CPI(M) workers under various charges such as murder, criminal conspiracy, and unlawful assembly.
The central agency had taken over the investigation from the Kerala Police on October 23, 2019 on the directives of the Kerala High Court.
The crime branch of the state police had filed a charge sheet on May 20, 2019 against 14 accused, but the parents of the victims moved the high court, seeking quashing of charge sheet expressing anguish over the findings of the police.
The Kerala government opposed a CBI probe in the high court and later at the Supreme Court, but the apex court allowed the central probe agency to carry on with its investigation, officials said.
Sathyanarayanan, the father of the deceased Sarathlal, expressed satisfaction with the verdict but added that the legal fight would continue until all the accused are brought to justice. "Ten accused have been acquitted, and we will pursue legal action after consulting with the prosecutor," he said.
