ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO)

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Context

• For the first time, an alien signal has been beamed to Earth from Mars, confirmed European Space Agency.

Details

• The ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) flashed an encoded message to Earth from its orbit, stimulating a situation when a real signal from another civilization is received by us.

TGO

• The 2016 ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is the first in a series of Mars missions to be undertaken jointly by the two space agencies, ESA and Roscosmos.
• A key goal of this mission is to gain a better understanding of methane and other atmospheric gases that are present in small concentrations (less than 1% of the atmosphere) but nevertheless could be evidence for possible biological or geological activity.
• The Trace Gas Orbiter carries a scientific payload capable of addressing this scientific question, namely the detection and characterization of trace gases in the Martian atmosphere.
• From its approximately 400-km-altitude science orbit, the instruments onboard the Trace Gas Orbiter are deployed to detect a wide range of atmospheric trace gases (such as methane, water vapor, nitrogen oxides, acetylene), with an improved accuracy of three orders of magnitude compared to previous measurements.
• The Trace Gas Orbiter will monitor seasonal changes in the atmosphere’s composition and temperature in order to create and refine detailed atmospheric models.
• Its instruments will also map the subsurface hydrogen to a depth of a meter, with improved spatial resolution compared with previous measurements.
• This could reveal deposits of water ice hidden just below the surface, which, along with locations identified as sources of the trace gases, could influence the choice of landing sites for future missions.

READ ABOUT EXOMARS: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/exomars-mission

https://www.livemint.com/science/news/alien-signal-beamed-to-earth-from-mars-for-first-time-report-11685108613485.html