Important Facts For Prelims (15th May 2019)

• 15 May 2019

First Female ICC Match Referee

• India’s G.S. Lakshmi has become the first woman to be appointed to the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) international panel of match referees and will be eligible to officiate in international games with immediate effect.
• GS Lakshmi who first officiated as a match referee in domestic women's cricket in 2008-09, has overseen three women's ODI matches and three women's T20I matches.
• Earlier this month, Claire Polosak became the first ever woman umpire to stand in a men’s ODI.

International Cricket Council (ICC)

• It is the global governing body for cricket.
• Representing 104 members, the ICC governs and administers the game and works with its members to grow the sport.
• It has its headquarters in Dubai, UAE.

The Moon is Shrinking due to Quakes

The Moon is steadily shrinking, causing wrinkling on its surface and earthquakes, according to an analysis of imagery captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).

• A survey of more than 12,000 images revealed that lunar basin Mare Frigoris near the Moon's north pole – one of many vast basins long assumed to be dead sites from a geological point of view – has been cracking and shifting.
• Unlike our planet, the Moon doesn't have tectonic plates; instead, its tectonic activity occurs as it slowly loses heat from when it was formed 4.5 billion years ago. This, in turn, causes its surface to wrinkle, similar to a grape that shrivels into a raisin.
• Since the moon's crust is brittle, these forces cause its surface to break as the interior shrinks, resulting in so-called thrust faults, where one section of the crust is pushed up over an adjacent section.
• As a result, the Moon has shrunk about 150 feet over the past several hundred million years.

Mission Artemis

• NASA’s new manned mission to the moon will be named as Artemis.
• According to Greek mythology, Artemis, the goddess of the Moon, was a twin Sister of Apollo.
• The Artemis program began when President Donald Trump signed Space Policy Directive in 2017, directing NASA to send astronauts to the moon.
• It will land in the lunar south pole in 2024 and will include women on board too.

World's first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean in LSA

• Captain Aarohi Pandit, a 23-year-old pilot from Mumbai became the world's first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo in a Light Sports Aircraft (LSA).
• This is part of her ongoing year-long global circumnavigation flight which was launched with her friend Keithair Misquitta.
• In doing so she also landed her plane at Pakistan, making her the first civilian LSA flight pilot to land in the neighbouring country since 1947.

Plastic trash at Challenger Deep

• Victor Vescovo (a US citizen), an under-sea explorer dove nearly 6.8 miles to a point in the Pacific Ocean's Mariana trench that is the deepest place on earth.
  
  • His dive went 52 feet (16 meters) lower than the previous deepest descent in the trench in 1960.
  • It was the third time humans have dived to the deepest point in the ocean, known as Challenger Deep.
• Findings
  • He made the unsettling discovery about undiscovered species of sea life ranging from shrimp-like arthropods with long legs and antennae, sea pigs similar to a sea cucumber.
  • He also saw angular metal or plastic objects, one with writing on it.
• DSV limiting Factor: It is a two-manned Deep Sea Vehicle(DSV) vessel, that is capable of diving to full ocean depth.
• Plastic waste has reached epidemic proportions in the world’s oceans with an estimated 100 million tonnes dumped there to date, according to the United Nations.
  • Scientists have found large amounts of microplastic in the guts of deep-dwelling ocean mammals like whales.

• In India, MoEF&CC has notified the new Solid Waste Management Rules (SWM), 2016.
• These rules are the sixth category of waste management rules brought out by the ministry, as it has earlier notified plastic, e-waste, biomedical, hazardous and construction and demolition waste management rules.