500-year-old well

A 500-year-old well, discovered on the purposed Kartarpur Corridor.

It is believed to have been built during the lifetime of the founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak Dev, has been discovered at the enclosure of a gurdwara on the Kartarpur corridor, which will facilitate easy passage of Sikh pilgrims to the historic Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan.

 

 

Astronaut Christina Koch

Astronaut Christina Koch will set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman when she completes her 11-month-long mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in February 2020.Her planned mission duration will be just shy of the longest single spaceflight by a NASA astronaut — 340 days set by former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly during his one-year mission in 2015-16

What is the purpose?

• Will help in NASA’s preparation of human missions to the Moon and Mars.
• Will provide researchers the opportunity to observe effects of long-duration spaceflight on a woman. Male and female bodies respond differently, and health conditions occur at different rates in male and female populations.

 

NASA’s Human Research Programme continues to lay the groundwork for future one-year missions on the space station and has selected 25 proposals to investigate biological, physiological, and behavioural adaptations to spaceflight. With information gained from the selected studies during future missions, NASA said it aims to address five hazards of human space travel — space radiation, isolation and confinement, distance from Earth, gravity fields (or lack thereof), and hostile/closed environments that pose great risks to the human mind and body in space.

 

Maruti Suzuki to eliminate diesel models from April 1, 2020

The decision taken by Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest passenger vehicle manufacturer, to eliminate diesel models from April 1, 2020, when the Bharat Stage VI emission standard is introduced, mirrors emerging global trends.
The world’s biggest market for diesel cars where sales of even well-known marques have fallen during 2018 by 20%. In a variety of mandated and suggestive ways, car-owners are being nudged towards petrol and alternative fuels.
This is the direction that many world cities are taking. Paris, Madrid and Athens have announced a prohibition on diesel vehicles by 2025, while London hasmade it more expensive for older vehicles to enter the city.

 

 

Ishad mango

A local mango variety called Ishad, is facing the threat of becoming rare in its homeland, Ankola of Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, thanks to competition from hybrid varieties.

• The pulp of Ishad variety has been extracted for over a century for making value-added products.
• The production of pulp dropped from 20,000 tons a year a decade ago to between 10,000 and 12,000 tons.
• The mango, harvested from mid-May, has a short shelf life of not more than two or three days.
• Its pulp lasts more than a year. It was not being exported from the cooperative society.

 

 

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