Sriharikota, September 23: India successfully launched its 16th remote-sensing satellite Oceansat-2 and six small Europeans satellites on board a rocket that blasted off from here at 11.51 a.m. Wednesday.
The 44.4-metre tall, 230-tonne Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) freed itself from the launch pad at the spaceport and lifted itself up, lugging the 960-kg Oceansat-2 and the six nano satellites all together weighing 20 kg.
Chennai, September 23: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday launched seven satellites into space from the Sriharikota range off Orissa.
A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) took off with the 970-kg Oceansat-2 and six European satellites.
Oceansat-2 is India’s 16th remote sensing satellite and will replace Oceansat-1, which has completed 10 years of its space journey.
Oceansat-2 is slated to have a mission life of five years and is meant to help identify potential fishing zones and aid weather forecasting.
Chennai, September 19: While the preparations for launch of India’s ocean monitoring satellite Oceansat 2 and six other nano satellites Sep 23 is on, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is getting ready for the bigger launch slated in the next two months — that of the communications satellite GSAT 4.
San Francisco, Septembar 19: The founders of Skype have sued owner eBay Inc and an investor group that has agreed to buy the Webphone service, accusing them of copyright violation and potentially disrupting the $1.9 billion deal.
The lawsuit brought by Joltid Ltd, a Swedish firm owned by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, says Skype used its technology without authorization.
Brussels, September 18: NATO proposed a new era of cooperation with Russia Friday, calling for joint work with Moscow and Washington on missile defense after the United States scrapped a planned anti-missile system.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin described as “correct and brave” President Barack Obama’s decision to drop the missile shield intended for Europe by predecessor George W. Bush. Russia’s NATO envoy welcomed the NATO cooperation proposals.
Washington, September 18: Google Inc said Apple Inc rejected its Google Voice application for the popular iPhone, contradicting Apple’s statement to regulators last month.
The issue prompted the Federal Communications Commission to send letters to the companies and AT&T Inc, the iPhone’s exclusive carrier, seeking explanations.
New York, September 17: Japan, which has promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020, could play a leading role as a catalyst for change in global efforts to reduce the impact of climate change, World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature has said.
The new administration in Tokyo could play a crucial role in the UN climate change conference to be held here next week, it said.
Beijing, September 17: China’s military-backed space program has selected 45 astronaut candidates, including its first women hopefuls, for a training program less than a year after the country completed its first spacewalk.
The 30 male and 15 female candidates are part of a program to pick five men and two women astronauts to participate in three more manned missions planned before 2012. The missions are to prepare for the rendezvous and docking tasks required for constructing a space station, a news agency reported on Thursday.
Paris, September 17: Astronomers on Wednesday described a dwarf planet orbiting in the far, frozen reaches of the Solar System and unveiled a geological map of Ganymede, an icy satellite of Jupiter.
Space scientists were to provide the most detailed snapshots of these elusive objects at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam, on the outskirts of Berlin.
Observers led by Pedro Lacerda of Queen’s University, Belfast, used a giant infra-red telescope atop a mountain in Hawaii to get unprecedented views of a frozen mini-world called Haumea, first spotted in 2005.
Geneva, September 17: The World Meteorological Organisation said on Wednesday that the ozone hole is expected to be smaller in 2009 than a year ago.
“The meteorological conditions observed so far could indicate that the 2009 ozone hole will be smaller than those of 2006 and 2008 and close to that of 2007,” said the UN agency in a statement.
The hole in the layer over the Antarctic was discovered in the 1980s. It regularly tends to form in August, reaching a maximum size late September or early October before it fills again in December.
The size is dependent on weather conditions.
Washington, September 17: Astronomers have finally found a place outside our solar system where there’s a firm place to stand – if only it weren’t so broiling hot.
As scientists search the skies for life elsewhere, they have found more than 300 planets outside our solar system. But they all have been gas balls or can’t be proven to be solid. Now a team of European astronomers has confirmed the first rocky extrasolar planet.
Scientists have long figured that if life begins on a planet, it needs a solid surface to rest on, so finding one elsewhere is a big deal.
Wellington, September 17: A dozen Greenpeace activists lashed themselves on Wednesday to a cargo ship in New Zealand to protest its shipment of animal feed produced at palm plantations that they blame for massive deforestation.
The environmental advocacy group claims millions of hectares of rain forest are being cut down to make way for the plantations, destroying animal habitats and seriously impacting the climate.
Amsterdam, September 17: Muslims who want to learn more about Islam or avoid information that does not comply with their religion while using the internet, can now use a search engine developed by a Dutch start-up company.
“The ImHalal search engine tells you exactly what Islam thinks about the keywords you enter,” Reza Sardeha, 20, a student in international business management in Amsterdam and founder of the project, told the German Press Agency dpa on Wednesday.
Moscow, September 17: Russia will pushed back its flagship satellite mission to Mars’ moon until 2011 in a move which will delay the joint launch of China’s first Mars probe, space sources were cited as saying on Wednesday.
“The prospects of the spacecraft Phobos’ flight to Mars was discussed at a conference of scientist and space industry firms today. The dominant opinion was that this flight would be put off until 2011,” one source told the Interfax news agency.
Miami, September 17: A 60-year-old US grandmother, blind for nearly a decade, has recovered her sight after surgeons implanted a tooth in her eye as a base to hold a tiny plastic lens, her doctors said on Wednesday.
Sharron “Kay” Thornton, from the southern US state of Mississippi, lost her sight in 2000 when she came down with a case of Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a rare disease that scarred her cornea, according to the University of Miami’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.
Mysore, September 15:Infosys is a “stunning reminder” of what talent, ingenuity and hard work can accomplish, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi said today.
You have shown to India and the world that an Indian company can not only be world class, but be ahead of the rest of the world”, the Congress President said after inaugurating the company’s Global Education Centre-II here.
She said Infosys’ success,India’s second largest software exporter, should not be measured in dollars alone, but in terms of the difference it makes in transforming the society.
Berlin, September 14: Jupiter snared a passing comet in the middle of the last century, eventually releasing it 12 years later, astronomers reported today.
Data presented at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam, near Berlin, showed that the biggest planet of the Solar System gained a temporary satellite, a comet called 147P/Kushida-Muramatsu, between 1949 and 1961.
It is only the fifth captured comet to be identified, a press release said.
Attention, countries of the world: Do you know where your moon rocks are?
The discovery of a fake moon rock in the Netherlands’ national museum should be a wake-up call for more than 130 countries that received gifts of lunar rubble from both the Apollo 11 flight in 1969 and Apollo 17 three years later.
Nearly 270 rocks scooped up by U.S. astronauts were given to foreign countries by the Nixon administration. But according to experts and research by AP, the whereabouts of some of the small rocks are unknown.
Bangalore, September 13:The Centre for Development and Advance Computing hit a significant milestone on Tuesday in its journey to bridge the digital divide in India.
In a medium where English is the presiding deity, the CDAC’s release of fonts and software tools in six languages — thus completing the releases in all 22 official Indian languages — is a significant step towards increasing Indian language content on the Internet.
London, September 13: British astronomers have claimed that thousands of moons capable of supporting life, like those shown in the popular Star Wars’ flicks, could be scattered all over our galaxy, and are likely to be spotted by 2014.
A team at University College London hopes to track the habitable moons within the next five years, using a telescope launched by US space agency Nasa earlier this year to hunt out other planets.
London, September 13: Facebook is the most visited website after Google.com, Facebook has been ever growing after it’s relaunch under the name facebook.com from older domain thefacebook.com.
It’s traffic never went down and is still going upwards. And if it maintain their current growth for more 3-6 months they may be the mosted visited website on internet.
London, September 13: CaptionTube a new Test tube feature from YouTube is a hit YouTube. It allow individuals to add captions and subtitles to YouTube videos with interactive caption editor.
Before individual can do it he/she needs a Google account linked with YouTube account. Which is fairly simple as more then 50% of the YouTube users already have Google account.
Captioning of video allows individuals to pace some text on the video which will be displayed when the video will be shown while playing the videos. It can act a descriptor of the video elements.
New Delhi, September 13: A NASA scientist has said that his joint experiment with ISRO to look for ice in a permanently shadowed crater near the moon’s North Pole using Chandrayaan-I had failed.
Known as bi-static experiment, it involved coordinated use of Chandrayaan-I and US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft.
Ahead of the experiment, LRO executed a minor manoeuvre to adjust its orbit to Chandrayaan-I and both spacecraft made observations of the Erlanger Crater from different angles at the same time.
Oslo, September 13: Version 10 of the Opera web browser is now available. The biggest innovation in this latest product from the Norwegian software designers is its Turbo compression technology. It provides quicker loading of web content even for slow internet connections. The developers have also redone the browser’s interface and provided spell checking and options for enlarging and reducing the tab bar.
The newest version can be downloaded for free at http://www.opera.com. Opera is available for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.
–Agencies
Bangalore, September 12: Business software major Oracle has selected Pearson Vue as its test delivery provider for certifying IT professionals and managers worldwide.
With about 5,000 authorised test centres across 165 countries, Pearson will deliver about 120 Oracle certification exams through a single registration and scheduling system, the Pearson subsidiary said in a statement here Saturday.
The tie-up will also enable Oracle to enhance online security to protect the value of IT certification.
–Agencies