Discovered for the First Time by Sri Lankan Scientists
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Wednesday, September 4, 2019 he second phase of the ‘Shilpasena’ science and technology. TExhibition series organized by the Min- istry of Science, Technology and Research The exhibition will be held from the 11th to will be held at the Kaduruwela Sports the 15th of this month with the participation Complex, Polonnaruwa with the objec- of President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime tive of disseminating Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Speaker the knowledge of Karu Jayasuriya and many other Ministers. The exhibition is organized in four major zones, which will educate the public on 13 technical themes. The third phase of this ‘Shilpasena’ se- ries of exhibitions being implement- ed in pursuance of a concept by the Hon. Sujeewa Senahinghe, Minister of Science Technol- ogy & Research is scheduled to be held in the Kandy district. ahasak Nimavum” the Na- The “Sahasak Nimavum 2019” A New Planetary System Continued tional Inventions and Inno- Exhibition is scheduled to be on “S vations Exhibition for Sri Lankan held on 20th, 21st and 22nd of Discovered Page 02 Inventors which is organizing September 2019 at the Sri Lanka for the First Time by the Sri Lanka Inventors Exhibition & Convention Cen- Commission (SLIC) yearly tre, Colombo 10 from 9.00 a.m. By Sri Lankan Scientists will be opened to the foreign onwards. inventors from this year onwards. As an newspaper to the internet Lake house Government Another mission of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Research Log on to www.dailynews.lk/vidya Relations Wednesday, September 4, 2019 02 17,220 Km (2.7 times the ra- Continued From Page 01 dius of the Earth) with an equi- s a result of research conducted at librium temperature of 42 de- Athe Arthur C Clark Centre for Mod- grees centigrade. This means ern Technologies, a group of Sri Lankan that the two planets belong to a scientists have found a new extra-solar class of planets known as sub- planetary system (Exoplanets) for the Neptunes, which have sizes fi rst time in the nation’s history. between that of Earth and Nep- Mr. Saraj Gunesekara, the Principle re- tune. The sizes of the planets search scientist at the Astronomy divi- strongly imply that they have sion of the Arthur C Clark Institute began atmospheres thicker and larger a research programme to search for exo- than that of our Earth, likely planets in 2017. Then in 2018, 27 year composed of elements such old Mahesh Herath joined the institute as Hydrogen, Helium and perhaps water on a contract basis to take part in this vapour and Ammonia. There is uncer- research project and has been with the tainty whether these planets are rocky or programme ever since. gaseous due to their existence in a size The NASA Kepler/K2 mission which is a range that hovers between the generally spacecraft with a powerful optical tele- accepted sizes for both rocky planets and scope, had observed 588, 991 stars over of Technology, University of St An- gaseous planets. What is likely is that the the course of 10 years since 2009, and drews, among others. These new planets may have characteristics of both types of plan- the data was made available to the gen- planets have now been added to ets, possessing rocky inner layers and a thick gaseous eral public by NASA. In order to search the NASA exoplanet archive as well envelope. Using statistical and empirical methods, the these thousands of observed data sets, as the Exoplanet Encyclopaedia as masses of the two planets were inferred to be roughly an algorithm was developed by Mr Her- well as Wikipedia, all of which are equal at about 9.4 times the mass of the Earth. However, ath to mine through the data. In 2018, the available online. further studies must be conducted to know more about Sri Lankan science team decided to do The two planets have orbital peri- the masses, compositional and atmospheric properties further studies of the star designated as ods of 13 and 65 days respectively, of these planets. Due to the proximity of these planets to EPIC 212737443, which was observed with the second planet being among the star, it is possible that they are in a state known as during Campaign 6 of the Kepler/K2 mis- the few planets found by the Kepler “Tidal Locking”. This happens when the rotational time sion. During these investigations, two mission with orbital periods great- of a planet is equal to its orbital period, meaning that previously undiscovered planets were er than 50 days. Both planets are only one side of the planet faces the star. An example of found to orbit this star. Subsequently, 11 closer to this star than Mercury tidal locking closer to home is our own moon. scientists from several different countries is to our sun. The fi rst planet is As the fi rst exoplanetary system discovered under the agreed to take part in the further study of this system in at 1/10th the distance between the Earth and sun, while leadership of Sri Lankan scientists, it is a great leap for order to concentrate on different aspects of the charac- the second planet is at 1/3rd the distance between the scientifi c research within the nation, and would provide terization of these planets and the host star. At present Earth and sun. The star itself is 2/3 the radius and mass a pathway for future scientists to continue in Astronomy Mr Herath is working under the guidance of Professor of our sun, and is a type of star known as an “Orange research. As of this year, Sri Lanka joins a select group Chandana Jayaratne of the University of Colombo to dwarf”. This star can be found near the constellation of nations with institutions from which exoplanets were complete his MPhil degree. Virgo, and is at a distance of 1133 light years from our discovered; a list that include mostly developed nations The results of this research venture were accepted for Solar System. This star was found to be cooler than our such as the United States, Canada, Western, Northern publication by the prestigious 200 year old journal known sun, with a surface temperature of 4700 Kelvins com- and Central European nations, Australia, Japan and as the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Socie- pared to the 5800 Kelvin temperature of our Sun. China. ty (MNRAS), which is the premier Astronomy and Space The smaller of these two planets, named K2-310b, has science journal in the United Kingdom. The article was a radius of 16,500 Km (2.6 times the radius of the Earth) Astronomy Section, published in July 2019, and was subsequently accepted with an equilibrium temperature of 263 degrees centi- as new planets by NASA/JPL and the California Institute grade, while the larger second planet has a radius of Arthur C. Clark Institute of Modern Technology the world. Developed countries such as United Status, innovation in the country. Accordingly, the Sri Lanka Germany, Russia, Japan, South Korea and Israel as Inventors Commission is implementing a program to well as developing countries such as China and India establish adolescent innovation clubs in Schools, Uni- are the examples for that today, almost all the devel- versities and Tertiary Education Institutions. This ena- oped countries have built their economies on innova- bles them to acquire a number of special benefi ts such tion. They generate the revenues by producing and as awareness on invention, fi nancial support for the exporting their inventions and by selling the new tech- purchase of equipment needed for innovation (up to nologies to other countries. They use these revenues Rs. 30,000/-), and awareness on intellectual property to develop and make advance their status. rights etc... In this case the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission, which If you are interesting on inventions and If you have not is the forerunner in facilitating and promoting the local yet established an Inventors Club at your School, Uni- lmost all developed countries have created “Inven- innovation processes, has the tremendous responsi- versities or Tertiary Education Institute, you can send a Ativeness” based economy for the benefi t of their bility. Therefore, the Commission aims to contribute requesting letter to “Sri Lanka Inventors Commissions, states. The emergence of inventions has existed since to innovation for future generation with the objective No. 46/48, Cotta Road, Colombo 08”or sent an e-mail long before in the world. As a result, technology evolu- of creating a culture for innovation in the country by to “[email protected]” or call through “0112676650”. tion has been occurred worldwide. promoting the innovation throughout the country. The The Industrial revolution, the fi rst & the Second World Sri Lanka Inventors Commission has been identifi ed Eranga Weerasuriya Wars act-as catalysts for global innovation which had Students in Schools, Universities and Tertiary Educa- been led to the development of many countries around tional Institutions who are involving and promoting the Research Assistant Sri Lanka Inventors Commission Wednesday, September 4, 2019 03 STEM education. With all these, we hope to We have been able to provide over 600 job opportunities bring scientifi c knowledge to our rural population. through the job and career zone. This is another major achievement for us through the “Shilpasena”. The work all ready done Also, a large number of innovators were in the innova- This year we have focused special attention on tion zone. Discussions with buyers, who have offered the “vidatha” centers. Vidatha centers are to buy some of these products, are currently underway. the network through which Science and Not only that, we have seen that a lot of school children Technology is transferred to the vil- had paid special attention to the technology zone.