Science & Technology Current Affairs MCQs

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In November 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in Mauritania and Senegal, Western Africa. Rift Valley Fever is caused by a Phlebovirus from the Phenuiviridae family. It mainly affects animals such as sheep, goats, cattle, and camels. Humans get infected through contact with infected animals or mosquito bites. It does not spread from person to person. The disease was first identified in Kenya’s Rift Valley in the 1930s. It later spread across sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.

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Sentinel-6B was recently launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, marking a major step in global ocean monitoring. It is a joint mission of NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and European Space Agency (ESA). It will track rising sea levels and their impacts, continuing the work of Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich launched in 2020. It orbits Earth at 7.2 km per second, completing one revolution in 112 minutes. It will measure sea levels with accuracy up to one inch, covering over 90% of oceans. Its mission life is 5.5 years. It carries six science instruments and uses fixed plus deployable solar panels in a non-Sun-synchronous orbit

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Chinese researchers discovered tiny Iron oxide crystals (hematite and maghemite) in lunar soil for the first time using samples from China’s Chang’e-6 mission. The finding from the South Pole–Aitken (SPA) Basin challenges the old belief that the Moon’s reducing environment cannot form oxidized minerals. Chang’e-6 was the sixth robotic lunar exploration mission by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The study in Science Advances confirms direct evidence of Iron oxide on the Moon. Scientists say massive ancient impacts created oxygen-rich vapour, leading to “vapour-phase deposition” of hematite crystals. These minerals, including maghemite, may explain magnetic anomalies in the SPA Basin. The breakthrough offers new insights into lunar history, composition, and future missions

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Scientists from ARIES (Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences), IIA (Indian Institute of Astrophysics) and global collaborators have recreated more than 100 years of the Sun’s polar magnetic history. They used archival data and old solar images from the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory (KoSO) to complete this long-term reconstruction. Kodaikanal Solar Observatory (KoSO) is one of India’s oldest and globally recognised solar observatories with over 120 years of uninterrupted solar observation. It is located in the Palani Hills of Tamil Nadu and operates as a field station of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru.

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Samudrayaan is India’s first manned deep-ocean submersible mission to reach 6,000 metres depth. Testing is delayed due to late supply of syntactic foam from France, now expected by year-end after testing in Norway. The project is led by National Institute of Ocean Technology under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. A steel model has been tested up to 100 metres; a 500-metre trial is planned by April next year. The final titanium hull, built by Indian Space Research Organisation, will be tested in Russia. The mission will carry three crew members to collect seabed soil and rocks for future deep-sea mining.

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ISRO Chairman V Narayanan inaugurated Ananth Technologies’ Ananth Centre of Excellence for Navigation (ACEN) in Thiruvananthapuram. ACEN is India’s first private-sector navigation innovation hub. Ananth Technologies, founded in 1992, contributes to ISRO and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) missions with expertise in precision sensors, airworthiness, and system integration. Navigation is crucial for missiles, aircraft, ships, and satellites; reliance on foreign GPS revealed strategic vulnerabilities. ACEN will handle Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) of navigation systems domestically.

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Researchers at National Centre for Radio Astrophysics – Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCRA–TIFR), Pune, discovered a new spiral galaxy named Alaknanda. It lies 12 billion light years away and shows a perfect spiral structure. The name comes from the Alaknanda River and the Hindi word for the Milky Way. The galaxy spans 30,000 light years, with two clear spiral arms around a bright central bulge. It forms stars rapidly, producing 60 solar masses per year. It resembles a young Milky Way, formed when our galaxy was only 10% of its current age. The discovery was made using National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

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The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) reported that 97 central and state laws still have provisions discriminating against persons affected by leprosy. Leprosy (Hansen’s disease) is a chronic bacterial infection caused by bacteria Mycobacterium leprae affecting skin, peripheral nerves, and eyes, which can cause permanent disabilities if untreated. The bacteria spread through droplets from the nose and mouth during close, frequent contact with untreated cases. India’s prevalence rate decreased from 57.2 per 10,000 in 1981 to 0.57 per 10,000 in 2025, achieving national elimination status in 2005.

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NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has signed 70 Technology Transfer Agreements with industry. NSIL was incorporated on 6 March 2019 under the Companies Act, 2013, and works under the Department of Space (DOS), Government of India. It helps Indian industries take up high-technology space activities and promotes commercial use of India’s space products and services.

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Google’s CEO announced Project Suncatcher, a long-term research plan to set up solar-powered data centers in space. The project aims to build satellite constellations that can perform large-scale machine learning using Google’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). These space-based data centers avoid the environmental impact created by Earth-based data centers. They also reduce risks from power outages, undersea cable failures, and natural disasters. The project supports data sovereignty because outer space is not under national jurisdiction as per the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.