The Ministry of AYUSH planned an event ‘Ocean Ring of Yoga’ (symbolising unity and solidarity) in coordination with Ministry of Defence and other ministries to support International Yoga Day.

• It is an initiative of Ministry of AYUSH in coordination with Ministry of Defence and other ministries to support International Yoga Day.
• The initiative aims to spread the awareness of yoga to national ports and friendly foreign national ports in Indian Ocean.
• Naval ships deployed in the Indian Ocean region are used to spread the message of “Yoga for Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”, theme of international yoga day 2023.
• Yoga sessions are being organised in accordance with the "Common Yoga Protocol".

The Order of Nile Award was recently awarded to PM Narendra Modi by Egypt

• The award is Egypt's highest state honour.
• The award is presented to heads of states, crown princes, and vice presidents.
• Egyptians and foreigners who provide ‘invaluable services’ to the country or humanity may also be eligible for the honour.
• PM Narendra Modi is the only Indian PM to receive a maximum number of such awards from other countries.
• This is the 13th international award conferred upon the prime minister.
• Awards conferred by other countries to PM Narendra Modi includes:

Recent study have found that Mitochondria in eukaryotic cells and chloroplasts in plant cells have evolved from free-living bacteria

• Organisms on planet earth are broadly divided into prokaryotes and eukaryotes.
• Prokaryotes are unicellular, do not have any organelles such as mitochondria.
• The DNA of prokaryotes is not packaged into a nucleus.
• Eukaryotes have mitochondria, their DNA is packaged into a nucleus, and most eukaryotes are complex, multicellular beings.
• Archaea is a subset of unicellular organisms that have a different line of descent as compared to bacteria.
• Archaea lack peptidoglycan, but they still form rigid cell boundaries.
• Archaea and bacteria differ in the composition of their cell walls, and in the sequence of some of their genes.
• The Archaea constitute a significant portion of the Earth's microbial diversity, being dominant members of marine and soil environments.
• Asgard archaea are a group of archaea that are closely related to eukaryotes.
• They are thought to be the ancestors of mitochondria, the energy-generating organelles of eukaryotic cells.
• Asgard archaea are found in a variety of environments, including hydrothermal vents, marine sediments, and freshwater lakes.
• It is now thought that mitochondria evolved from a symbiotic relationship between an Asgard archaea and an ancient archaea.

Recently India was inducted into Artemis Accords which brings the ISRO close with NASA in exploring space sector.

• Artemis Accord is a non-binding set of principles designed to guide civil space exploration and use in the 21st century.
• It is an accord by USA to return humans to the moon by 2025, with the ultimate goal of expanding space exploration to Mars and beyond.
• This treaty has 113 parties which includes India.
• Parties to the Accord gain greatly from the exchange of information and gain access to NASA’s Artemis programme, which would greatly help India’s own Gaganyaan mission
• It act as a soft-law alternative to the Moon Agreement.
• India is signatory to the Moon Agreement but it has not ratified it yet.
• 5 treaties that govern activities in outer space includes:
  • Outer Space Treaty,
  • Rescue and Return Agreement,
  • Liability Convention,
  • Registration Convention and
  • Moon Agreement.

An international team of researchers revealed global observations of auroras associated with carbon dioxide.

• Auroras is tiny flashes of colourful light produced when charged particles like electron and proton collide with the gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere.
• Auroras near the North Pole is called an aurora borealis or northern lights and Auroras near the South Pole is called an aurora australis or the southern lights.
• Even though auroras are visible only during night, they are actually caused by the Sun.
• The usually observed green and red auroras happen between 100 kilometres and 250 kilometres above the surface of the planet due to an excited state of atomic oxygen.
• Most of these emissions are not visible to the unaided human eye.
• Auroras can appear at any planet that has an atmosphere and magnetic field.
• Auroras were also seen in Jupiter and Saturn.

CO2 associated Auroras

• When charged particles crash into the planet’s atmosphere, they interact with many different atoms and molecules and carbon dioxide is one among them.
• When carbon dioxide molecules become excited during an aurora, they emit infrared radiation.
• International researchers gather data on infrared energy emitted from Earth’s surface and atmosphere and highlighted the elevated infrared signals from carbon dioxide during an aurora.