14 March 2014 Current Affairs
Web-GIS Tool For Estimating Rooftop Solar Power Potential
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has unveiled the first-ever cloud based open-source Web-GIS Tool for estimating rooftop solar power potential for Indian solar cities. The main objective of this initiative is to develop a high performing and flexible Web-GIS tool to estimate the rooftop solar power potential for Indian cities. The web-GIS tool will be launched in Chandigarh followed by other cities.This initiative is being supported by Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (SSEF), with strategic support from the Chandigarh Renewable Energy Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST), the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Largest Yellow Star Ever Found In Galaxy
Astronomers have spotted the largest yellow star ever observed in our galaxy and say it is 1,300 times larger than our own yellow star, the sun. The yellow hypergiant star HR 5171 A is also in the top-10 of the largest stars known and about one million times brighter than the sun.Despite its great distance of nearly 12,000 light-years from earth, the object can just about be seen with the naked eye. The two stars are so close that they touch and the whole system resembles a gigantic peanut. His team estimated the star is 50 percent larger than the famous red supergiant Betelgeuse. Yellow hypergiants are very rare, with only a dozen or so known in our galaxy. HR 5171 A has been getting bigger over the last 40 years.