Major Developments » Science & Technology

Biggest Solar Eclipse Of The Millennium

admin — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 10:31:07 +0000

The longest solar eclipse of the millennium was seen on January 15, 2010. This is the longest lasting solar eclipse since the annular solar eclipse on January 4, 1992. This eclipse lasted for about 11 minutes and 8 seconds. This duration will not exceed until December 23, 3043.

Where was the Eclipse Visible?
This was mainly seen in central Africa, the Indian Ocean and eastern Asia. Maximum point of solar eclipse was seen in the middle of the Indian Ocean whereas annular phase were seen from either Africa or Asia. The capital city of Kampala witnessed seven minutes and 39 seconds, the city of Nakuru observes more than eight minutes, capital of Nairobi witnessed six minutes, the Maldives witnessed for 10 minutes and 44 seconds, the city of Nanyang witnessed for seven minutes and 26 seconds and Xuzhou observes it for six minutes and 56 seconds.

The Eclipse’s Path
Its path started from the western part of the Central African Republic then, it passes through Uganda, Kenya and southern Somalia. This eclipse path was 333 kilometers wide and the sun was present 66 degrees above the flat horizon. The duration of annularity is 11 minutes and eight seconds.

Microsoft’s First Android App Scans Barcodes

admin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:51:36 +0000

Microsoft introduced an Android app, Tag, which was the first to be developed for the direct opponent to Microsoft’s own mobile OS, Windows Mobile.

Tag will make the Android owners use their device like a barcode scanner, efficiently. The user can take a photo of a barcode. The program can identify it, and probably alerts the user regarding special coupons or discounts open for the item or at the store.

Primarily, Tag is not only competing with third-party applications such as ShopSavvy, which works same as that of a Tag, but it is also competing promptly against Google Shopper, a Google-designed app which enables user to take photograph of items, not just the use of barcodes, to search for them.

In fact, Tag has already been introduced on many other popular smartphone devices, like Windows phones, the iPhone, and Blackberry and Symbian devices. Microsoft also introduced a Bing app for the iPhone, that remains in the App Store which will be a drawback to Google, the search engine that comes automatically installed in the iPhone’s default browser, Safari.

Scientists Confirmed that Dinosaurs Were Killed by Giant Asteroid

admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:05:58 +0000

Scientists have recently confirmed that a giant asteroid that struck the Earth some 65 million years ago killed dinosaurs and 70 percent of other species on earth.

Scientists have been working on this single-impact theory since last 30 years. A research team has gathered huge amounts of evidence that a single asteroid struck the Gulf of Mexico. The asteroid was estimated to be around 6 miles in diameter and traveling around 43,000 mph. A member of this research team said that the impact caused a 24 miles deep and 125 miles wide crater, which was discovered in 1991 in Chicxulub, Mexico.

Scientists said that the impact was so powerful that it is equivalent to a blast from hundred million megatons of TNT, which is more powerful than blasting all the atomic weapons on the Earth at a shot. Scientists say the impact triggered a huge earthquake also.

Other theories also suggested some reasons for this mass extinction. Some suggest that it would have taken many meteorites to cause such a disaster. Another theory suggested that a massive volcanic eruption in India around the same time might have caused this.

Water discovered on Saturn’s Moon

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:42:14 +0000

Saturn’s icy moon, Enceladus, raising the interesting possibility for existence of hidden supernatural living creatures. This discovery astonished scientists who are looking for signs of life in space. Enceladus is calculated to be 314 miles across and is considered as the shiniest object in the solar system. The Cassini spacecraft was launched in 1997 and went into orbit around Saturn in 2004, examining its spectacular rings and many moons. Liquid water and a heat source are two essential elements for life. Even though its distance from the Sun is very high, Enceladus clearly has an internal heat source probably caused by Saturn’s gravitational pull, which warms water adequately to produce the geysers. Any life on that moon would likely be in the form of extremophilic primitive organisms (organisms that live in extreme conditions). Previously wet Mars has long been the main focus of the search for life on other planets. But, Saturn’s moon Enceladus could be an even more promising place to start the search for extraterrestrials (space beings). Now Enceladus joins the list of those bodies, Mars and Europa, that have signs of liquid water on them and energy sources coming from radioactive heating and tidal heating that make the very interesting places to look for the origins of life.

Pluto is No More a Planet

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:40:23 +0000

August 24, 2006, was an important day in the history of planetary science. It was absolutely the first day when official scientific definition of the word “planet” is explained. It was also the famous day as Pluto was propelled out of the planetary family. Pluto is a tiny, solid, icy world in a more lengthened orbit unlike other planets, which move closely in circular paths. Another abnormality about Pluto is the inclination of its orbit. All the other planets follow paths in a confined band within the limits of the constellations, we call the zodiac, but Pluto’s orbit deviates from this and takes the path above and below that band. Another deviation is Pluto does not dominate its neighborhood i.e., Charon, its large “moon,” is only about half the size of Pluto, while all the true planets are far bigger than their moons. So officially, Pluto is not a planet and considered as dwarf planet. Pluto is the second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System (after Eris) and the tenth-largest body noticed, directly revolving around the Sun. Before 2006, there were nine planets, they Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Now, there are only eight planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

iPhone Created Revolution in use of Mobile phones

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:07:45 +0000

Apple has revolutionized the way to approach mobile phones. Apple has inserted application and design into a single device. Sales of iphones reached half a billion turnover after its release in span of two months. It became so much popular because of its features. It is having a serious impact on the mobile and computing industries. Apple iphone is simply a greatest smart phone ever developed, as it is very easy to use. It became standard for all future cell phone developments. The touchscreen technology used in this is marvelous. Apple’s chief executive, Steve Jobs, launched iphone and called it as “magic”, “super-smart”, super-hyped device, which provides more ordinary functions of the traditional phone. The iPhone uses Apple’s OSX operating system and enables users to watch films, download songs, store photos, as well as provides facilities like emailing, seeing calendar, and contacts. The new iPhone 3G was introduced on June 9, 2008 combining all the advanced features of iPhone with 3G networking that is very fast. It is made available in 70 countries. As Apple, iphone has good rechargeable battery, which lasts for long time, as it looks very stylish and design is unique, and available in good colors, they became very popular.

Large Hadron Collider Experiment is Successful

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:06:22 +0000

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It is situated in a tunnel having the dimensions of 27kilometres (17mi) circumference, located at 175metres (570ft) underground in the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland and its cost of building is 10 billion dollars. Two rays of subatomic particles called ‘hadrons’ either protons or lead ions will travel in opposite directions inside the circular accelerator, acquiring energy when passing through each orbit. By colliding the two beams head-on at very high energy, Physicists assumed that they could recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang. The new particles created after many physicists around the world with many experiments study the collision. They expected that many theories will come into existence and new world of physics will be emerged as the Standard Model of particle physics could only explain the fundamental laws of Nature but working and emergence of world is not explained whereas LHC can provide solution to this. The main aim of this collider is to investigate questions on Universe like creation of new particles ‘Higgs Boson’ which do not exist before. The initial test on LHC was conducted on 10^th September 2008. This experiment’s opponents, who had taken its architects to court in the United States and France, believed that earth will disappear as it will create black holes. Some people argued on creating of black holes and some argued that everything will be swallowed by black holes with Large Hadron Collider. But LHC experiment is successful.