{"id":21014,"date":"2025-11-27T11:58:05","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T06:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=21014"},"modified":"2025-11-27T17:14:46","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T11:44:46","slug":"iau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/iau\/","title":{"rendered":"International Astronomical Union (IAU)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>International Astronomical Union (IAU) Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A 3.5-billion-year-old Martian crater has been named after pioneering Indian geologist M.S. Krishnan, following the International Astronomical Union\u2019s (IAU\u2019s) approval of this and several other Kerala-proposed names for Martian landforms.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About International Astronomical Union (IAU)<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was <\/span><b>founded in 1919<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as a senior body <\/span><b>governing international professional astronomical activities<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> worldwide.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Its mission is to promote and <\/span><b>safeguard the science of astronomy <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in all its aspects, including <\/span><b>research, communication, education, and development,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> through international cooperation.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Activities:<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Definition of fundamental astronomical and dynamical constants <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>unambiguous astronomical nomenclature<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rapid dissemination of new discoveries<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Organization of <\/span><b>international observing campaigns<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Promotion of educational activities in astronomy to early informal discussions of possible future international large-scale facilities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the <\/span><b>only organization recognized<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> professionally<\/span><b> for the naming of astronomical bodies, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which it <\/span><b>does solely on the basis of merit, history, or discoverer\u2019s privilege.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The IAU <\/span><b>holds<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a <\/span><b>general assembly every three years<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in varying parts of the world. The long-term policy of the IAU is defined by the General Assembly.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Headquarters: Paris, France.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A key activity of the IAU is the <\/span><b>organization of scientific meetings.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Every year the IAU sponsors 9 international IAU Symposia.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Membership:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Its <\/span><b>individual Members<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 structured into Divisions, Commissions, and Working Groups \u2014 are <\/span><b>professional astronomers <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">from all over the world, <\/span><b>at the Ph.D. level and beyond<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, who are active in professional research, education and outreach in astronomy.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The IAU <\/span><b>also has Junior Members.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The IAU has a total membership of 12742.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These members are <\/span><b>labeled as &#8220;active&#8221;<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the IAU database, meaning they have a valid email (are<\/span><b> able to vote and stay connected to the IAU activities<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) and are <\/span><b>affiliated to at least one Division.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IAU membership spans 92 countries. Out of those countries, 85 are National Members. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/kerala\/names-proposed-by-kerala-based-researchers-approved-for-martian-landforms\/article70324823.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>International Astronomical Union (IAU) was founded in 1919 as a senior body governing international professional astronomical activities worldwide. Read more about International Astronomical Union (IAU), Purpose, Headquarters, Membership, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":75340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3912,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-21014","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-international-astronomical-union","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}