Science & Technology Current Affairs MCQs

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In November 2025, scientists from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) collaborated with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to estimate key parameters of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). They used data from the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) payload onboard India’s Aditya-L1 mission. VELC is the main payload of Aditya-L1, India’s first solar observatory placed 1.5 million kilometres from Earth. It is an internally occulted solar coronagraph capable of imaging, spectroscopy, and spectro-polarimetry near the solar limb.

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Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed Ethiopia’s first-ever outbreak of Marburg Virus Disease (MVD). MVD is a severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever caused by the Marburg virus. It was first identified in 1967 in Marburg, Germany. The causative agents are Marburg virus (MARV) and Ravn virus (RAVV) of the species Orthomarburgvirus marburgense. The natural host is the fruit bat Rousettus aegyptiacus of the Pteropodidae family. It spreads from infected bats to humans and then through contact with bodily fluids or contaminated surfaces.

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On November 17, 2025, Karnataka’s Department of Electronics, IT & BT, with KEONICS, launched KEO, a compact, affordable and AI-ready personal computer designed entirely in Karnataka. KEO stands for Knowledge-driven, Economical, Open-source, built on an open-source RISC-V processor with a Linux-based OS. It features an on-device AI core that works without internet and includes BUDDH, an AI agent trained on the Karnataka DSERT syllabus to help students in low-connectivity areas. KEO will be deployed across schools, universities, businesses, homes and government offices, supporting locally adaptable, home-grown computing.

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The Assam Government recently banned inter-district movement of live pigs to stop the spread of African Swine Fever (ASF), a rising concern in the region. African Swine Fever (ASF) is a highly contagious and deadly viral disease affecting pigs and wild boar, with mortality up to 90–100%. It is not zoonotic, meaning it does not infect humans or other livestock. First found in sub-Saharan Africa, ASF is now present across Europe, Asia and Africa, with India reporting its first cases in 2020 in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

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NASA’s Perseverance Rover recently detected electrical activity in the Martian atmosphere for the first time, marking a major scientific breakthrough. Perseverance, also called “Percy”, is part of the Mars 2020 Mission. It landed in 2021 inside the ancient river delta of Jezero Crater. Its main goal is to search for signs of past life and collect rock and soil samples for future return to Earth. It can detect organic matter, study minerals, map chemical composition, and closely observe distant terrain. It is the first rover to record sounds on Mars and send them back to Earth.

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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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NASA has lost contact with its MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft, which has been orbiting Mars since 2014. MAVEN stopped communicating after it went behind Mars, and NASA received only silence when it reappeared. The spacecraft was launched in 2013 as the first mission dedicated to studying the Martian upper atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind. MAVEN helped show that the Sun stripped Mars of its atmosphere over time and also served as a relay for Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. NASA is currently conducting engineering investigations while its other orbiters, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey, remain operational.

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Astronomers studied polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) around the young star T Chamaeleontis using archival data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). T Chamaeleontis is a young, Sun-like star located about 350 light-years away in the southern constellation Chamaeleon. The star is approximately 70% the size of the Sun, with a surface temperature of around 5,111 K (4,838 °C). It is surrounded by a planet-forming circumstellar disk that contains a wide gap, likely created by a forming protoplanet. Normally, the inner dense regions of such disks block ultraviolet light from reaching outer regions, but the gap exposes these areas.

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Iran launched three domestically-built observation satellites—Zafar-2, Paya, and Kowsar 1.5—into space from Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome using a Soyuz rocket. The satellites were designed by Iran’s private sector for observation purposes. Paya is Iran’s most advanced imaging satellite, using artificial intelligence for higher-resolution images. The satellites will focus on water resource management, environmental monitoring, and mapping. The Soyuz rocket was chosen for its reliability in transporting sensitive satellites. Iran has conducted ten satellite launches in the last two years, including one in July 2025 from Russia.

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The Union Minister Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh inaugurated India’s first commercial-scale tropical Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS)–based Rainbow Trout Aquaculture Farm & Research Institute on 5th January 2026 in Hyderabad, Telangana. The facility, established by Smart Green Aquaculture Limited at Kandukur Mandal, Ranga Reddy District, demonstrates year-round farming of high-value cold-water species like Rainbow Trout in tropical climates using precision engineering and advanced water recirculation technologies. The project serves as a live training and demonstration platform, providing youth hands-on experience in advanced aquaculture systems, automation, and biosecurity, strengthening human capital in the fisheries sector.