Moon drops
The moon mineralogy mapper (M3), a scientific instrument of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) onboard India's first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, found iron-bearing minerals on the lunar surface, the US space agency said on Thursday.
"The mapper spectrometer has beamed images of the Orientale Basin region of the moon, indicating abundance of iron-bearing minerals such as pyroxene. Using different wavelengths of light, the instrument has also revealed for the first time changes in rock and mineral composition," M3 principal investigator Carle Pieters said in a statement hosted on NASA website.
Data from the 7-kg mapper provides space scientists first opportunity to examine lunar mineralogy at high spatial and spectral resolution.
The Orientale Basin is located on the moon's western limb. M3 captured the data last week when Chandrayaan was orbiting the moon at an altitude of 100 km.
"The imaging spectrometer provides us with compositional information across the moon that we have never had access to before. Our ability to identify and map the composition of the surface in geologic context provides a new level of detail needed to explore and understand the earth's nearest celestial neighbour," affirmed Pieters, who teaches at Brown University in Rhode Island.
The mapper was selected as a mission of opportunity through the NASA discovery programme. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory designed and built the instrument at Pasadena in California.
"M3 will also help in characterising and mapping lunar minerals for knowing the moon's early geological evolution. Its compositional maps will improve our understanding of the early evolution of a differentiated planetary body and provide a high-resolution assessment of lunar resources," Chandrayaan project director M Annadurai averred.
M3 is one of the 10 instruments onboard the unmanned Chandrayaan, conducting experiments while the spacecraft orbits over the moon next two years.
Five instruments were indigenously built by the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), while the remaining six payloads are of foreign origin, including three from the European Space Agency, two from NASA and one from Bulgaria.
Chandrayaan was blasted off Oct 22 onboard the 316-tonne polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV-C11) from ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota spaceport, about 80 km north of Chennai.
After traversing 384,000 km through the deep space for 18 days, the spacecraft entered the lunar orbit Nov 8 and its moon impact probe was lowered on the moon's surface Nov 14.
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victory over England in the first Test in Chennai.
One often cribs about Yash Raj repeatedly casting SRK in similar roles, in film after film. However, this allegation is far from true. Right from DARR to CHAK DE INDIA, the combination has collaborated on varied subjects. With RAB NE BANA DI JODI, they take this association to another level altogether.
For the present-day generation, a story like RAB NE BANA DI JODI may come across as an original piece of work, but if you've been a keen observer of films of yore, you can't help overlook the similarities with Dr. V. Shantaram's NAVRANG and more precisely, Raj Kapoor's SATYAM SHIVAM SUNDARAM. In fact, RAB NE BANA DI JODI also brings back memories of the low-cost MAIN MERI PATNI AUR WOH [Rajpal Yadav, Rituparna Sengupta], not in terms of story, but in terms of characters.
Director Aditya Chopra chooses a desi plot and weaves a story around an ordinary, middle class couple. The story begins with gusto and the initial scenes between Shah Rukh and Anushka are thoroughly interesting. But the screenplay falters the moment Shah Rukh's character Surinder transforms into Raj and his personality undergoes a sea-change. The first question that strikes you is, why didn't Anushka realize it's him, her husband, not someone else? Sure, he has undergone a complete makeover, but how can you not recognise your husband's voice or appearance? That's a glaring flaw, it's like taking the viewer for granted! 
Shah Rukh is superb as the simpleton and your heart goes out to him every time he appears on screen. You want the underdog to win and here too, the way SRK tackles this part, you're all the more convinced. As Raj, SRK goes overboard at times. Anushka looks the character and surprises you with a confident performance. It's no small achievement to share screen space with an actor of the calibre of SRK and Anushka manages it very well from start to end. Vinay Pathak is incredible. He contributes enormously in making the proceedings lively.
