For which project, The Union Cabinet forms a three-member crew to be sent to space for at least seven days.

An international research team including Dr. Surhud More and Dr. Anupreeta More from Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune has ruled out the possibility of primordial black holes being a major constituent of dark matter using Subaru telescope. This finding disproves a theoretical claim of Prof Stephen Hawking. In the solar system, Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, takes just 88 days to make one revolution around the sun, while Neptune, the farthest one, takes 165 years to make one round. In like manner, laws of gravity expect us to see stars closer to the centre of galaxies rotating faster than the stars on the edge.

Popular ad filmmaker and theatre personality Alyque Padamsee passed away in Mumbai. 90-year-old Padamsee was reportedly in bad health and had been ailing for quite some time. Padamsee played the role of Muhammad Ali Jinnah in Richard Attenborough's Oscar winner Gandhi. A veteran in the theatre and advertising world, Padamsee was known as the brains behind several iconic Indian ad campaigns including Lalitaji for Surf, the Liril girl under the waterfall, Hamara Bajaj and the MRF muscle man.

A renowned Marathi writer, novelist and translator Kavita Mahajan, died following pneumonia in Pune, Maharashtra. She was 51 years old. She was born in Nanded, Maharashtra. Some of her popular novels are Brr, Bhinna, etc. She had won Sahitya Akademi translation award in 2011 and Shashikalatai Agashe Award for Children's Literature in 2013.

Former Prime Minister of Nepal Tulsi Giri has passed away in Kathmandu. He was 93. Giri was suffering from liver cancer for a long time. He twice served as the prime minister of Nepal first from 1962 to 1964 and again from 1975 to 1977.

The 41st President of the US, George HW Bush has passed away on at the age of 94.

According to a new collaborative study by the Queen's University Belfast and Aberystwyth University in the UK, the sun's magnetic field is ten times stronger than previously thought. Using the Swedish one-metre Solar Telescope at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, in the Canary Islands, David Kuridze studied a particularly strong solar flare which erupted near the surface of the Sun on September 10, 2017. A combination of favourable conditions and an element of luck enabled the team to determine the strength of the flare's magnetic field with unprecedented accuracy. The researchers believe the findings have the potential to change our understanding of the processes that happen in the Sun's immediate atmosphere. The study found that the sun's corona extends millions of kilometres above the surface, measuring 1,400,000 kilometres across -- 109 times larger than Earth and 150,000,000 km from Earth. Solar flares appear as bright flashes and occur when magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released.

Chang'e-4 lunar probe, a Chinese space probe, touched down on the far side of the moon. The probe, which has a lander and a rover, that was launched in December made the soft landing and transmitted the first-ever close-range image of the far side of the moon. It touched down at a targeted area near the moon's south pole in the Von Karman Crater. The purpose of the Chang'e-4 includes astronomical observation, surveying the moon's terrain, landform, and mineral makeup, and measuring the neutron radiation and neutral atoms to study the environment of its far side. The moon is tidally locked to Earth, rotating at the same rate as it orbits our planet, so most of the far side or dark side is never visible to us. Previous spacecraft have seen the far side, but none has landed on it. China's space agency hailed the event as a historic first and a major achievement for the country's space programme.

Cricket Australia have added seven-year-old Archie Schiller in the 15-member squad for the third Test of the series against India, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Boxing Day, December 26. He was co-captain alongside Tim Paine. Archie Schiller, who has endured 13 heart operations and spent half of his life in hospital after being diagnosed with a life-threatening congenital disease, had the dream of captaining the Australian cricket team. Make a Wish Australia and Cricket Australia, worked together to make Archie's cricket dreams come true.

India successfully test fired the short range Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile (QRSAM), developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the Indian Army, from a test range along the coast of Odisha. It is a sleek and highly mobile air defence system with a strike range of 25 km to 30 km and has a capability of engaging multiple targets. It is different from normal air defence system, as this is an all-weather, all-terrain missile with electronic counter measures against jamming by aircraft radars. It was first tested in June 2017 and followed by the second successful test in July 2017. It will replace the 'Akash' missile defence system which is on its way out due to technological obsolescence.

Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas progressed towards manufacture in an enhanced, battle standard format on December 31. The LCA is being designed and developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) in Bengaluru. A new limited clearance from military airworthiness certifier CEMILAC for the Indian fighter green-lights its production in a superior lethal version. HAL aims to get the first aircraft out in late 2019. The Indian Air Force (IAF) has asked Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to make 40 LCA aircraft. Of this, 20 will be in the advanced Final Operational Clearance (FOC) format. Another 20 are in the earlier Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) version. The IAF has modified and upgraded its trainer requirement in its old package order of 40 LCA aircraft.