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One of largest lunar meteorites in existence has been put up for auction at Christie's in London at $2.49 million. This fifth largest Moon rock weighs over 13.5 kg and was found in the Sahara Desert two years ago. One of Christie's officials, James Hyslop, said the meteorite is "about the size of a football" and "larger" than one's head.

A 1.9-kilometre-wide asteroid safely passed by the Earth today. The asteroid made its closest approach at around 3:26 pm IST and came within 6.3 million kilometres of Earth. Known as 1998 OR2, the asteroid is classified as a "potentially hazardous object" as it is bigger than 140 metres and passes within 8 million kilometres of Earth's orbit.

The US' Department of Defense on Monday authorised the release of three unclassified Navy videos that show what appear to be unidentified flying objects (UFOS). "DOD is releasing [these] in order to clear up..misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage.was real," it said. "The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterised as 'unidentified'," the statement read. Video link :- factrend video

Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp on Monday said that spread of "highly forwarded" messages on its platform has dropped by 70% globally in weeks after introducing a new restriction. WhatsApp restricted sharing of frequently forwarded messages to only one chat at a time. Launched on April 7 globally, the limit was aimed at curbing the spread of fake news on COVID-19.

MIT engineers have developed a method to deliver life-saving treatments to plants with diseases that affect their circulatory systems and cannot be treated with pesticides. It uses microneedles made of silk-based biomaterial to deliver nutrients or drugs to specific parts of the plant. They can target phloem, the vascular tissue that transports food, to carry the compound into the roots.

US' health protection agency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added six new symptoms to its official list of COVID-19 symptoms on Sunday. The symptoms are chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and new loss of taste or smell. This is in addition to previously known symptoms of fever, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is "alive and well", South Korean government adviser Chung-in Moon has said. Moon said Kim had been living in Wonsan area of the country since April 13. Earlier, reports quoting a Hong Kong Satellite Television top official claimed that Kim Jong-un has died. The official had said she was informed by a "very solid source".

A hole in the ozone layer above the Arctic caused due to unusual atmospheric conditions, including freezing temperatures in the stratosphere, has closed. The development was confirmed by Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) and Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) implemented on behalf of the European Commission. The hole was first spotted by scientists in late March this year.

Global fires ignited by an asteroid impact likely drove the mass extinction that killed 75% of Earth's species, including dinosaurs, a study claims. It said the impact winter after the strike would've been severe but not devastating enough to drive mass extinction. However, soot emissions from forest fires that blocked sunlight were possibly devastating to photosynthesizers and all dependant life.

Two Chinese pharma companies, which supplied 5.5 lakh rapid testing kits for COVID-19 to India, said they are ready to cooperate with Indian agencies looking into allegations of poor accuracy of their products. The Indian Council of Medical Research had earlier advised states to stop using the rapid antibody test kits for two days till it examines their quality.

Researchers said that 100 million years ago, Africa's Sahara was the "most dangerous place" in the history of Earth, where "a human time- traveller wouldn't last very long". Reviewing fossils from south-eastern Morocco, they found three of the largest known predatory dinosaurs roamed the area. Among them was the 26-foot- tall sabre-toothed Carcharodontosaurus, which had 8-inch-long serrated teeth.

China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced the name of China's first Mars exploration mission, Tianwen-1, on China's Space Day. It said China's planetary exploration missions in the future will be named the Tianwen series. China plans to launch the Mars probe in 2020, aiming to complete orbiting, landing and roving in one mission.

NASA has developed VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally), a high-pressure ventilator in 37 days to treat COVID-19 patients. The device is composed of far fewer parts, many of which are available to potential manufacturers, NASA said. "Its flexible design means it can be modified for use in hospitals being set up in hotels and other high- capacity facilities," NASA added.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that all available evidence suggests the novel coronavirus originated in animals and was not manipulated or constructed in a laboratory. "It most likely has its ecological reservoir in bats but how the virus came from bats to humans is still to be seen and discovered," WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib said.

Talking about the days when he was filming his upcoming film 'Extraction' in India, Chris Hemsworth said, "I loved shooting in India.During shooting, we had hundreds and thousands of people..lining up...after every take, cheering and applauding." Chris further said that he never experienced anything like that before. "I didn't realise how popular the Marvel films were in India," he added.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday tweeted, "I will be signing an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the Ünited States." He said that he will be doing so because of the "attack from the invisible enemy (coronavirus)" and to "protect the jobs of great American citizens". The US has recorded over 786,000 coronavirus cases so far.

The US crude crashed on Monday, falling below $0 to $-1.43 at one point, the weakest level since New York Mercantile Exchange opened oil futures trading in 1983. This marks a historic one-day decline from Friday's close of $18.27 a barrel. Coronavirus crisis has reduced oil demand and producers have run out of places to store all their excess barrels.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un is in "grave danger" following a surgery, CNN reported citing an anonymous US official. Separately, a Seoul-based website run mostly by North Korean defectors reported that Kim underwent a "cardiovascular surgical procedure" and was now mostly recovered. His health has deteriorated in recent months due to heavy smoking, obesity and overwork, it added.

Stocks begin the week on a down note, with global shares mixed. Global markets traded mixed to lower on Monday, as news of the coronavirus outbreak's relentless spread overcame signs of progress in some of the hardest-hit countries. European markets opened mixed after a largely muted trading day in Asia, despite a big stock rally in the United States on Friday. Futures markets were predicting Wall Street would slump when it opens. The United States appeared to make progress in stabilizing its response. Lawmakers said they were nearing a deal for a new support package for small businesses, and President Trump said the authorities would step up testing. But protests in some states against the lockdowns underscored the economic damage that many households are suffering, in the United States and around the world. Underscoring the unease, prices for U.S. Treasury bonds rose, suggesting investors were putting their money in safer havens. Oil prices whipsawed, as futures co...

Coronavirus Live Updates: The United States on Sunday continued to top the list of the countries recording the most number of coronavirus deaths with its toll at 35,835, followed by Italy (23,227) at a distant second and Spain (20,639) third. According to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, at least 2.3 million people have been infected and 160,518 have died globally due to the pandemic so far.  A total of 100,501 deaths out of 1,136,672 infections in Europe has made it the continent hit hardest by COVID-19, according to an AFP tally. In France, 642 people died in last 24 hours taking the country's toll to 19,323. However, the number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals fell by 551 to 30,639. The numbers in intensive care meanwhile fell by 194 to 5,833. In Afghanistan, about 20 workers in President Ashraf Ghani's palace have tested positive for the virus, two officials told AFP on Saturday. However, there has been no indication of the president himself being contracted the ...

Tens of thousands of Bangladeshis ignored a nationwide lockdown on Saturday to attend the funeral of a Muslim political leader, prompting fears of a new outbreak in a country straining to contain the disease. The Bangladeshi police said about 100,000 people had gathered in the town of Sarail without masks or other protective gear for the funeral of Maulana Jubayer Ahmed Ansari, a senior member of an Islamist party. Alamgir Hossain, a police superintendent in the area, told the Dhaka Tribune that the authorities tried to get people to obey social distancing by blasting messages over loudspeakers, but that the situation soon became impossible to control. The Bangladeshi police force suspended several senior officers in the district for failing to disperse the crowd. lockdown on March 26 and banned more than five people from praying together in the country's 300,000 mosques.  But enforcing the rules has been challenging in religious seminaries. Risks of a super spreader ...