PIB Summary- 25th August, 2022 | PIB (Press Information Bureau) Summary - UPSC PDF Download

Universal Postal Union

Why in News?
Recently, The Union Cabinet approved the ratification of amendments to the Constitution of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) as contained in the Eleventh Additional Protocol to the Constitution signed during the 27th Congress of the Universal Postal Union held at Abidjan 2021.

Universal Postal Union (UPU)

• The UPU established by the Treaty of Bern of 1874 is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system.
• The UPU’s headquarters are located in Bern, Switzerland.
• The UPU contains four bodies consisting of the Congress, the Council of Administration (CA), the Postal Operations Council (POC) and the International Bureau (IB).
• It also oversees the Telematics and Express Mail Service (EMS) cooperatives. Each member agrees to the same terms for conducting international postal duties.
• India joined the UPU in 1876.

Significance of the Approval

• It would enable the Department of Posts, Government of India to have the “Instrument of Ratification” signed by the Hon’ble President of India and have the same deposited with the Director General of the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union.
• Further, it would fulfill the obligations arising from Articles 25 and 30 of the UPU Constitution which provides for ratification of the amendments to the Constitution adopted by a Congress as soon as possible by the member countries.

Nova V1280 Scorpii

Why in News?
Scientists from SN Bose Centre for Basic Science (SNBCBS) observed the imploding novae called Nova V1280 Scorpii and found that a thick dust formed around it after a month and lasted for about 250 days.

About Novae

• A nova is an astronomical occurrence in which a powerful explosion temporarily increases the brightness of a star by hundreds to millions of times before gradually dimming over the course of weeks or months.
• It happens in a binary star system made up of a white dwarf and a main-sequence star, which is characterised by two stars orbiting a shared centre of mass.
• The primary star is the one that is brighter; the secondary star is the one that is fainter.
• White dwarf stars are those whose hydrogen nuclear fuel has been completely consumed.
  • Such stars have very high density. A typical white dwarf is half the size of our Sun and has a surface gravity 1,00,000 times that of Earth.

What are the Findings?

• Scientists constructed simple models to estimate parameters of dust like hydrogen density, temperature, luminosity and elemental abundances during pre- and post-dust phase.
• High abundance of certain elements like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen was found along with a mixture of small amorphous carbon dust grains and large astrophysical silicate dust grains.
• Dust formation in novae ejecta is not a common phenomenon.
• It has been observed only in a few novae within 30 to 100 days after an outburst, as compared to interstellar dust, which typically takes a few thousand years to form and hence provided opportunity to study the dust formation process in novae.
• High abundance of isotopes of certain elements like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen was found in the predust phase.
• A mixture of small amorphous carbon dust grains and large astrophysical silicate dust grains present in the ejecta was found in the post dust phase.
• Some complex organic compounds like amorphous organic solids with a mixed aromatic–aliphatic structure was found which play an important role in formation of molecular clouds in stars and planets.