Washington, October 24: Scientists have identified a cluster of galaxies further from earth than anything else that has ever been detected in the skies.
The cluster now known as JKCS041 is so far away that it has taken three quarters of the lifetime of the universe for its light to reach earth. Its distance, 10.2 billion light years away, beats the previous record by about a billion light years.
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New Delhi, October 22: After a sheer disappointment with Vista, Microsoft Corp has come up with another novel product from its stock as it launched Windows 7 today. Being the world’s largest software company, Microsoft Corp aims to win back the customers with their new operating system.
Besides being faster, Windows 7 works on a simple premise making it less cluttered. Creating a landmark in the history of operating system, Microsoft proudly declares that their new product is a more upgraded version of the older operating systems.
United Nations, October 22: After the success of its first Chandrayaan moon mission, India is now looking at exploration of outer space using planetary missions including a human space flight programme, a UN panel was told.
“Having achieved self-reliance in end-to-end space programme, the Indian space programme is entering into space exploration phase mainly to explore inner solar system and build such capabilities for exploring outer solar system,” a member of the Indian parliament said Wednesday.
United Nations, October 22: After the success of its first Chandrayaan moon mission, India is now looking at exploration of outer space using planetary missions including a human space flight programme, a UN panel was told.
“Having achieved self-reliance in end-to-end space programme, the Indian space programme is entering into space exploration phase mainly to explore inner solar system and build such capabilities for exploring outer solar system,” a member of the Indian parliament said Wednesday.
Washington, October 21: An American scientist credited with helping find water on the Moon on India’s Chandrayaan mission has been ordered to remain in jail on a charge of spying for the Israeli government for a payment of $11,000.
US Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson Tuesday ordered Stewart D. Nozette, 52, arrested Monday afternoon after a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sting operation, detained until a preliminary hearing Oct 29.
Washington, October 21: Nasa’s new rocket arrived at the launch pad yesterday for a test flight next week at a time when the future of the country’s space-flight programme is uncertain. It is the first time in 34 years that a rocket other than a space shuttle has stood at Launch Pad 39-B.
Nasa modified the pad for this rocket, which is supposed eventually to carry astronauts to the Moon. But the White House may scrap those plans. A panel of aerospace experts that provided President Barack Obama with a list of possible exploration options is issuing its final report this week.
Paris, October 20: Merck and Co’s failed AIDS vaccine may not have worked, but it probably did not raise the risk of infection either, doctors said on Tuesday.
Data analyzed after the large clinical trial was stopped in 2007 contradict earlier findings that suggested some groups, such as uncircumcised men, may have been more vulnerable to infection if they got the vaccine, Dr. Susan Buchbinder of the San Francisco Department of Public Health told an AIDS vaccine conference.
Paris, October 20: Astronomers announced Monday the discovery of 32 new planets outside our solar system, some of them only a few times larger than Earth.
The relatively small size increases the odds that these so-called exoplanets could have conditions similar to the ones that gave rise to life on Earth.
Scientists made the finds using the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS, the most successful low-mass exoplanet hunter in the world.
The HARPS spectrograph is attached to the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) 3.6-metre telescope at La Silla, Chile.
New Delhi, October 18: Passengers onboard the ‘Royal Rajasthan on Wheels’ can now be connected with the rest of the world while on the move as the luxury train has been equipped with wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) system and satellite television.
Announcing this, Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation CMD Manjeet Singh told reporters here that the train, which was flagged off from Safdarjung railway station today for its first commercial trip of this year, includes several other new attractions for passengers like cultural programmes, and food served at five star hotels.
San Francisco, October 18: Microsoft releases Windows 7 to the world as the US software giant tries to regain its stride after an embarrassing stumble with the previous generation operating system Vista.
“It’s a big deal for Microsoft,” analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley said of the Windows 7 launch. “Windows Vista was a train wreck.”
While computer users may not give much thought to operating systems that serve as the brains of their machines, the programs are at the heart of Microsoft’s global software empire.
Miami, October 18: The Pacific’s El Nino ocean-warming phenomenon has resulted in an especially calm Atlantic hurricane season – a welcome respite for Caribbean and southeastern US residents still smarting from a 2008 pounding.
There have only been two hurricanes in the 2009 Atlantic season, which runs from June 1 to late November 30, but normally peaks in September and October.
Los Angeles, October 18: NASA’s much-hyped mission to hurl a spacecraft into the moon turned out some worthwhile data after all, scientists said.
New images show a 1.6 kilometre-high plume of lunar debris from the Cabeus crater shortly after the space agency’s Centaur rocket struck October 9.
“We were blown away by the data returned,” Anthony Colaprete, the mission’s chief scientist, said in a report Friday from the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, which managed the launch. “The team is working hard on the analysis, and the data appear to be of very high quality.”
Munich, October 18: In a three-way battle among operating systems, Windows 7 comes out ahead by a nose.
At least that’s how the experts at Munich-based Chip magazine see it. The magazine recently compared the latest operating system from Microsoft with Apple’s Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Kubuntu, a Linux distribution.
The testers found that Kubuntu is hardly a pushover, especially for tech-savvy computer users. Even so, the review ultimately turned into a duel between Mac OS and Windows 7.
Los Angeles, October 18: NASA’s much-hyped mission to hurl a spacecraft into the moon turned out some worthwhile data after all, scientists said.
New images show a mile-high plume of lunar debris from the Cabeus crater shortly after the space agency’s Centaur rocket struck on October 9.
“We were blown away by the data returned,” Anthony Colaprete, the mission’s chief scientist, said in a report on Friday from the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., which managed the launch.
“The team is working hard on the analysis, and the data appear to be of very high quality.”
Los Angeles, October 18: NASA’s much-hyped mission to hurl a spacecraft into the moon turned out some worthwhile data after all, scientists said.
New images show a 1.6 kilometre-high plume of lunar debris from the Cabeus crater shortly after the space agency’s Centaur rocket struck October 9.
“We were blown away by the data returned,” Anthony Colaprete, the mission’s chief scientist, said in a report Friday from the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, which managed the launch. “The team is working hard on the analysis, and the data appear to be of very high quality.”
New York, October 17: To give more room for game, movie and music downloads, Sony is launching a PlayStation 3 with a larger hard drive on Nov. 3.
The $350 gaming console will have a 250 gigabyte hard drive, more than twice as big as the recently launched slimmer, lighter PlayStation 3.
That one costs $300 and has a 120 gigabyte hard drive. Other than the hard drive size, the new PS3 will look and work the same as the 120 gigabyte system.
Sony’s move comes as game companies gear up for the holiday season, when they reap most of their profit for the year.
—Agencies
Chennai, October 17: If you ignore e-mails from strangers telling you that you have won a lottery and need to send some money to claim it, you are alert. However, don’t let your guard down because a mail from a friend in distress, stuck in a foreign land, requiring money to return home, could well be fake too.
When business associates and friends in the contact list of V K Mohanarangan of Korattur received mails about his plight, most of them started calling his number, while a kind hearted man even sent $1000.
Toronto, October 17: What was believed to be an act of vandalism in a small Canadian town has actually turned out to be an act of a 4.6 billion-year-old meteorite.
The rocks from this meteorite smashed the windowshield of a truck in Grimsby near Niagara Falls on the night of Sep 25.
Thinking that it was an act of vandalism committed with some ‘unusual rocks’, the truck owners – Tony Garchinski and his mother Yvonne Garchinski – reported the matter to police.
But these ‘unusual rocks’ turned to be visitors from space, astronomers at the University of Western Ontario said Friday.
London, October 17: The sun can block direct communication between Earth and Mars for weeks at a time, cutting off any potential mission to the red planet. The solution – satellites on special orbits around Mars.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is working on how to ensure reliable radio communication when Mars and Earth line up at opposite sides of the sun, blocking any signal between mission controllers on Earth and astronauts on Mars.
Washington, October 17: For the past 30 years, business leaders, former government officials and scientists have been secretly working on a plan to save humanity from destruction when the Earth collides with another planet on 21 December 2012.
They have set up a covert Institute for Human Continuity which has now agreed to go public and warn the world that there is a 94 per cent probability of “cataclysmic forces” destroying our planet in three years’ time.
New Delhi, October 17: Mahatama Gandhi’s philosophy of simplicity and equality is extremely relevant in the present context of the dangerous impact of global warming, noted climate change expert R K Pachauri has said.
Ahead of the Copenhagen meet on climate change in December, he said, “It is an opportune moment for world leaders to be guided by Gandhiji’s writings and thoughts for achieving a lasting solution at Conference of Parties 15.”
Thiruvananthapuram, October 16: The Kerala Bio-diversity Board today opposed the Centre’s move to allow Bt brinjal in the country holding that genetically modified seeds would pose health hazards and destroy eco-system.
The GM seeds also would not give high yield, an argument put forward by the advocates of GM seeds, Board Chairman V S Vijayan told reporters here today.
The nod for introduction of Bt-brinjal by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee was taken in haste, he alleged.
Washington, October 16: Online search giant Google says the worst of the recession is over as it reported quarterly profit and sales that rose from year-earlier results and easily topped Wall Street’s forecasts.
“Google had a strong quarter-we saw 7 percent year-over-year revenue growth despite the tough economic conditions,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, on a conference call with investors Thursday.
San Francisco, October 16: Web search leader Google saw profits rise 27 percent in the third quarter to $1.64 billion, the company said Thursday.
Revenue rose 7.3 percent to $5.94 billion.
Google’s results gave further evidence that the worst of the recession may be over, coming just days after another tech bellwether Intel also reported positive earnings and revenue growth.
In a statement, Google’s chief executive, Eric E Schmidt, said the company had a strong quarter.
Toronto, October 16: BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) Thursday unveiled a new version of its Storm smart phone.
Called BlackBerry Smart2, the new touch screen smart phone features a much faster web browser than the Storm1 which was introduced last year in competition to Apple’s iPhone.
But the first Storm smart phone was not well received because of its software, though RIM sold more than a million devices.
The new smart phone will be first launched in the US and Canada later this month.