Uttarakhand State PCS

• 28 Mar 2022

Comet Leonard

Why in News?

Recently, a very bright comet (C2021A1)) broke apart. Its fragmented remains have been seen in the skies of the Southern Hemisphere.

Key Points

• Dr. Shashibhushan Pandey, senior astronomer of Aryabhatta Observational Science Research Institute (ARIES), Nainital said that this comet was discovered by GJ Leonard on January 3, 2021, due to which it is also known as Comet Leonard.
• This comet passed close to Earth on December 12, 2021, whose photo was taken by astrophotographer Rajiv Dubey of Nainital.
• It reached close to the sun on January 3, 2022. On reaching near the sun, it had lost its direction and began to break apart.
• This comet was very bright, which was seen even with the naked eye. Astronomers from many parts of the world captured it on camera when it came close to Earth.

Ritu Khanduri: Speaker of Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly

Why in News?

On March 26, 2022, Ritu Khanduri Bhushan, the Bharatiya Janata Party's MLA from Kotdwar, was elected unopposed as the Speaker of the fifth Legislative Assembly of Uttarakhand.

Key Points

• Ritu Khanduri is the first woman speaker of Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly. She has become an MLA for the second time. In the last assembly elections, she became an MLA from Yamkeshwar.
• Born on January 29, 1965 in Nainital, Khanduri is the daughter of former Chief Minister and former Union Minister Major General (Retd) Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri.
• She has graduated from Raghunath Girls College, Meerut (UP) and is a Postgraduate (PG) in History from Rajasthan University.
• Khanduri has worked as a faculty member at Amity University in Noida from the year 2006 to 2017 and has authored three books on Indian history.