SCIENCE

Researchers from Imperial College London stressed that these estimated reductions in severity must be balanced against the larger risk of infection with Omicron, due to the reduction in protection provided by both vaccination and natural infection. For example, at a population level, large numbers of infections could still lead to large numbers of hospitalisations.

The discovery, published in the Nature Astronomy journal and released to the public on Thursday, took a deep dive into the black hole at the center of the galaxy Centaurus A, about 12 million light-years away, reported Xinhua news agency. Despite being galaxies far away, the erupting black hole extended across a length equal to 16 moons placed side by side in the night sky. However, it is not visible to the naked eye.

The findings suggest that booster programmes are needed to help maintain protection from severe disease, said a team of researchers led by University of Edinburgh. The researchers from Scotland and Brazil analysed data for two million people in Scotland and 42 million people in Brazil who had been vaccinated with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine which uses an adenovirus, specifically a common cold virus from chimpanzees, to train the immune system to fight the virus.

The study, led by the University of Leeds, also reveals that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking far more rapidly than glaciers in other parts of the world, a rate of loss the researchers describe as 'exceptional' as they lost around 40 per cent of their area. The research is the latest confirmation that the changes in the Himalayan glaciers are accelerating.

NASA's auditing body, the Office of Audits, has produced a report detailing the agency's commitment to replace the orbiting lab with commercial space stations. Astronauts have lived and worked onboard the ISS orbiting roughly 250 miles above the Earth's surface for more than 20 years. "The ISS costs about $3 billion a year, roughly a third of NASA's annual human space flight budget, and while current plans call for the Station's retirement in 2024, an extension to 2030 is likely," the US space agency said in the audit report.

The findings, described in a paper published in the Astronomical Journal, showed a planetary system that comprises a star and at least two gas giant planets, each roughly the size of Saturn and located unusually close to one another. The discovery is significant because it's rare to find gas giants -- like Saturn in the solar system -- as close to their host star as they were in this case.

The Prawn Nebula is a massive stellar nursery located in the constellation Scorpius, about 6,000 light years from Earth. Though the nebula stretches 250 light-years and covers a space four times the size of the full moon, it emits light primarily in wavelengths the human eye cannot detect, making it extremely faint to earthbound viewers.

This DART mission is targeted to launch at 1:21 a.m. EST (11:51 am India time) on November 24, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, NASA said in a statement. The DART spacecraft is designed to impact an asteroid as a test of technology to see if it can change the motion of an asteroid in space. The mission aims to see if intentionally crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change its course.

The study led by an international team of researchers from Australia, the UK and China conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of non-pharmaceutical interventions showing for the first time that mask wearing, social distancing and handwashing are all effective measures at curbing cases -- with mask wearing the most effective.

The Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) crew will conduct approximately 25 experiments, in human research, life and physical sciences, technology demonstrations and Earth observation, while onboard the ISS, the company said in a statement.