21 September 2015 Current Affairs
Japan’s elderly population hits new record
The number of Japanese aged 65 and above has risen to a new record of about 33.8 million people or 26.7 percent of the population. Men accounted for about 14.62 million of the total and women, 19.21 million. Japan’s elderly population account for a record 26.7 percent of Japan’s population, an increase of 0.8 percentage points from last year. The number of Japanese aged 80 and above has raisen by 380,000 from last year to 10.02 million, topping 10 million for the first time.
Novak Djokovic maintains top position in ATP rankings
Serbain Tennis player Novak Djokovic maintains the top position in the latest Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings with 16,145 points. Swiss player Roger Federer still in second place followed by Britain’s Andy Murray. Rafel Nadal of Spain is at seventh position.
NASA developing world’s first space shot gun to blast Asteroids
NASA is developing the world’s first space shot gun that can blast asteroids into small pieces for collection as samples when a robotic space craft reaches near one such space rock in the near future. Along with a Brooklyn based company Honey Bee Robotics, the US Space agency is working on a shot gun as part of its Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM). The ARM aims to chop off a massive chunk of an asteroid and shift it into the moon’s orbit. Then, a manned spacecraft will collect samples and send these back to the Earth for further examination. The US Space agency plans to launch the unmanned ARM in early 2020s.