SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
New planet “Wolf 1061c” close to Earth found
In a recent discovery, Australian astronomers have found the possibly nearest habitable planet near Earth. Titled as “Wolf 1061c”, the red dwarf star is around 14 light years away from earth, in the constellation Ophiuchus. It has been detected by scientists at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia. The new planet is one of the three planets that are likely to be solid and rocky. One of the three planets, Wolf 1061c, exists with in the ‘Goldilocks zone’ at a distance from the star that is not too hot and not too cold for liquid water. This leads to the speculations of possibility of life on the planet.
SpaceX launches reusable rocket ‘Falcon 9’
SpaceX successfully launched reusable spacecraft by making a Falcon 9 booster the first piece of an orbital rocket to land back on Earth minutes after lofting satellites towards orbit. The SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off and then returns to a landing zone at the Cape Canaveral air force station in Florida. The two stage rocket propelled it’s payload of 11 Orbcomm Inc. Satellites aloft. It was the company’s first flight. SpaceX’s upgraded design for it’s Falcon 9 rocket worked flawlessly.
Barak 8 Missile successfully tested
India and Israel jointly developed Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LRSAM) Barak 8 was successfully test fired from INS Kolkata. The firing trial of the LR SAM has been jointly carried out by the Indian Navy, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Israel Aerospace Industries. This missile along with the Multi-Functional Surveillance and Threat Alert Radar (MF STAR) would provide these ships the capability to neutralize aerial threats at extended ranges.
“.cn” becomes world’s largest code domain
China’s country code domain ‘.cn’ has become the world’s most commonly used in the internet with 16.36 million users, surpassing Germany’s ‘.de’ domain. According to the data released on 8 January 2016 by the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC), which manages the domain,‘.cn’ had 16.36 million users by the end of 2015.The ‘.cn’ domain is also world leading in domain resolution service, security and the ratio of benign uses.It is used by all central and provincial governments in China and most telecom companies besides commercial banks.Multinationals including Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Citibank are among those using it. China has around 670 million internet users and over 4.13 million websites, according to the official data.
ISRO successfully launched the fifth navigation satellite IRNSS-1E
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its 33rd flight (PSLV-C31), launched IRNSS-1E, the fifth satellite of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). The launch took place on 20 January 2016 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.IRNSS-1E is the fifth navigation satellite of the seven satellites constituting the IRNSS space segment. Its predecessors, IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C and 1D were launched by PSLV-C22, PSLV-C24, PSLV-C26 and PSLV-C27 in July 2013, April 2014, October 2014 and March 2015 respectively. IRNSS-1E has a lift-off mass of 1425 kg. The configuration of IRNSS-1E is similar to that of IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C and 1D. IRNSS-1E carries two types of payloads – navigation payload and ranging payload. The navigation payload of IRNSS-1E will transmit navigation service signals to the users. This payload will be operating in L5-band and S-band. A highly accurate Rubidium atomic clock is part of the navigation payload of the satellite. The ranging payload of IRNSS- 1E consists of a C-band transponder which facilitates accurate determination of the range of the satellite. IRNSS-1E also carries Corner Cube Retro Reflectors for laser ranging.