KRISHNA'S KNOWLEDGE

What is Gold ETF?

2013-01-28T17:03:00.001-08:00

What is Gold ETF?

Exchange Traded Funds ("ETFs") are open-ended funds that trade on a stock exchange just like the shares of an individual company. Unlike the share of a company, each unit of an ETF represents a portfolio of stocks. So it is similar to a unit of an open-ended mutual fund but with a big difference. The difference between an ETF and an open-ended mutual fund is that the units of an ETF trade on an exchange. So the investor can trade in the ETF during market hours and the units can be sold short or margined just like shares.

Another difference between ETFs and mutual funds is the type of management. Mutual funds employ an active management strategy wherein the fund manager actively chooses the portfolio of stocks and manages them in an endeavour to outperform the fund's benchmark. However, ETFs employ a passive management strategy because they are generally designed to closely track the performance of a specific index. So the fund manager creates the portfolio based on the composition of the benchmark index the ETF is supposed to track and then passively manages the portfolio to ensure that the composition of ETF mirrors the benchmark at all times. There could be slight deviations from this strategy at times if the fund manager feels it is necessary to outweigh or underweigh certain stocks with respect to the benchmark in order to achieve a better return than the benchmark.

Advantages of ETF:

ETFs are supposed to be tax efficient because there have a lower churn of the portfolio owing to the passive management strategy.

ETFs can be traded during market hours and can be sold short or margined.

ETFs have a lower management cost than conventional mutual funds because ETFs do not have to bother about shareholder accounting. Mutual funds have to spend a considerable amount of time and effort in complying with shareholder accounting processes.

Disadvantages of ETF:

Even though ETFs are designed to track an underlying benchmark index, they may not exactly mirror the performance of the index owing to certain management costs charged by the fund.

Since ETFs are passively managed, they can not provide an active return over the benchmark during upmarket moves unlike actively managed mutual funds where the fund managers is constantly trying to beat the benchmark.

Gold ETF:

Gold ETFs are exchange traded funds that are meant to track closely the price of physical gold. So gold ETF lets you own gold in your dmat account. Each unit of the ETF lets the investor own 1gm of gold without physically owning it. Thus investing in a gold ETF provides the benefit of liquidity and marketability which are a limitation of owning physical gold. Gold ETF is liquid because you can trade in it at any time during market hours. Gold ETF is marketable because you can trade any amount in it just like a normal stock including short selling and buying on margin. Owning gold ETF also is cheaper than owning physical gold because it has no cost of carry (the cost of storing physical gold).

What are commodities?

A commodity is a physical good which has a demand for itself and the market treats all sources of supply equally without any differentiation. The price for a commodity is determined purely by global demand and supply. Commodities have emerged as a popular asset class in the recent times because they provide a good hedge against inflation because in an inflationary environment, the nominal price of commodities starts rising even though their real value is unaffected. Since the price of the commodity is usually denominated in the domestic currency, its real value in the home country is unaffected by inflation.

Indian Railways makes history, connects Kashmir Valley to Banihal town

2012-12-30T08:52:00.001-08:00

Kerala overtakes Taj Mahal on google search

2012-12-27T07:50:00.001-08:00

FIRST YEAR BE, B.TECH TUITION ALL UNIVERSITIES

2012-07-12T22:36:00.002-07:00

STRUCTURED CABLING (COPPER AND FIBER)

2012-06-28T11:23:00.005-07:00

Structured cabling is building or campus telecommunications cabling infrastructure that consists of a number of standardized smaller elements (hence structured) called subsystems.

Structured cabling falls into six subsystems:

§ Entrance Facilities are where the building interfaces with the outside world.

§ Equipment Rooms host equipment which serve the users inside the building.

§ Telecommunications Rooms house telecommunication equipment which connect the backbone and the horizontal cabling subsystems.

§ Backbone Cabling connect between the entrance facilities, equipment rooms and telecommunications rooms.

§ Horizontal Cabling connect telecommunications rooms to individual outlets on the floor.

§ Work-Area Components connect end-user equipment to outlets of the horizontal cabling system.

Structured cabling design and installation is governed by a set of standards that specify wiring data centers, offices, and apartment buildings for data or voice communications, using category 5 (CAT 5E) or category 6 cable (CAT 6) and modular sockets. These standards define how to lay the cabling in a star formation, such that all outlets terminate at a central patch panel (which is normally 19 inch rack-mounted), from where it can be determined exactly how these connections will be used. Each outlet can be 'patched' into a data network switch (normally also rack mounted alongside), or patched into a 'telecoms patch panel' which forms a bridge into a private branch exchange (PBX) telephone system, thus making the connection a voice port.

Lines patched as data ports into a network switch require simple straight-through patch cables at the other end to connect a computer. Voice patches to PBXs in most countries require an adapter at the remote end to translate the configuration on 8P8C modular connectors into the local standard telephone wall socket. No adapter is needed in the U.S. as the 6P6C plug used with RJ11 telephone connections is physically compatible with the larger 8P8C (RJ-45) socket and the wiring of the 8P8C is compatible with RJ11. In the UK, an adapter must be present at the remote end as the 6-pin BT socket is physically incompatible with 8P8C.

It is common to color code patch panel cables to identify the type of connection, though structured cabling standards do not require it, except in the demarcation wall field.

Cabling standards demand that all eight connectors in Cat5/5e/6 cable are connected, resisting the temptation to 'double-up' or use one cable for both voice and data.

CITY BAKU Alias BAKI

2012-06-27T08:34:00.002-07:00

Is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan

Fiber Technology Certification (INTERNATIONAL) BICSI

2012-06-01T22:36:00.000-07:00

COPPER FIBER CERTIFICATION

Nobel Price for Literature

2012-05-30T08:46:00.001-07:00

2011- Tomas Transtromer
2010- Mario Vargas Liosa
2009- Herta Muller
2008- Jean-Marie Gustave
2007- Doris Lessing

updates will be done later

National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT)

2012-05-05T00:10:00.003-07:00

Meaning of National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) System and How does the NEFT system operate

Q.1. What is NEFT System?

Ans National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system is a nation wide funds transfer system to facilitate transfer of funds from any bank branch to any other bank branch.

Q. 2. Are all bank branches in the system part of the funds transfer network?

Ans No. As on January 31, 2007, 18500 branches of 53 banks are participating. Steps are being taken to widen the coverage both in terms of banks and branches.

Q.3. Whether the system is centre specific or has any geographical restriction?

Ans No, there is no restriction of centres or of any geographical area inside the country. The system uses the concept of centralised accounting system and the bank’s account, that are sending or receiving the funds transfer instructions, gets operated at one centre, viz, Mumbai only. The individual branches participating in NEFT could be located anywhere across the country, as detailed in the list provided on our website.

Q.4. What is the funds availability schedule for the beneficiary?

Ans The beneficiary gets the credit on the same Day or the next Day depending on the time of settlement.

Q.5. How does the NEFT system operate?

Step-1: The remitter fills in the NEFT Application form giving the particulars of the beneficiary (bank-branch,beneficiary’s name, account type and account number) and authorises the branch to remit the specified amount tothe beneficiary by raising a debit to the remitter’s account. (This can also be done by using net banking services offered by some of the banks.)

Step-2: The remitting branch prepares a Structured Financial Messaging Solution (SFMS) message and sends it to its Service Centre for NEFT.

Step-3: The Service Centre forwards the same to the local RBI (National Clearing Cell, Mumbai) to be included for the next available settlement. Presently, NEFT is settled in six batches at 0930, 1030, 1200, 1300, 1500 and 1600 hours on weekdays and 0930, 1030 and 1200 hours on Saturdays

Step-4: The RBI at the clearing centre sorts the transactions bank-wise and prepares accounting entries of net debit or credit for passing on to the banks participating in the system. Thereafter, bank-wise remittance messages are transmitted to banks.

Step-6: The receiving banks process the remittance messages received from RBI and effect the credit to the beneficiaries’ accounts.

Q.6. How is this NEFT System an improvement over the existing RBI-EFT System?

Ans The RBI-EFT system is confined to the 15 centres where RBI is providing the facility, where as there is no such restriction in NEFT as it is based on the centralised concept. The detailed list of branches of various banks participating in NEFT system is available on our website. The system also uses the state-of-the-art technology for the communication, security etc, and thereby offers better customer service.

Q.7. How is it different from RTGS and EFT?

Ans: NEFT is an electronic payment system to transfer funds from any part of country to any other part of the country and works on Net settlement, unlike RTGS that works on gross settlement and EFT which is restricted to the fifteen centers only where RBI offices are located.

Q.8. Any limit on the amount of individual transaction?

Ans There is no value limit for individual transactions.

Q.9. What about Processing Charges/Service Charges

Ans While RBI has waived the processing charges till March 31, 2008, levy of service charges by banks is left to the discretion of the respective banks. The bank-wise details of charges levied are available on the RBI website.

Q.10. How I will know which are the branches participating in the NEFT?

Ans RBI publishes the list of bank branches participating in the NEFT on its website i.e. www.rbi.org.in .

Q.11. What is IFS Code (IFSC)? How it is different from MICR code?

Ans Indian Financial System Code (IFSC) is an alpha numeric code designed to uniquely identify the bank-branches in India. This is 11 digit code with first 4 characters representing the banks code, the next character reserved as control character (Presently 0 appears in the fifth position) and remaining 6 characters to identify the branch. The MICR code has 9 digits to identify the bank-branch.

Q.12. How I will know, what is the IFS Code of my bank-branch?

Ans RBI had since advised all the banks to print IFSC on cheques leaves issued to their customers. You may also contact your bank-branch and get the IFS Code of that branch.

Q.13. Whom I can contact, in case of non-credit or delay in credit to the beneficiary account?

Ans Contact your bank / branch. If the issue is not resolved satisfactorily, the Customer Service Department of RBI at-

The Chief General Manager,
Reserve Bank of India,
Customer Service Department,
1st Floor, Amar Building, Fort,
Mumbai-400001

Q.14. Is it necessary to have a bank account to originate the NEFT transaction?

Ans Yes, NEFT is an account to account funds transfer system.

Q.15. Is it necessary that the beneficiary should have an account at the destination bank-branch?

Ans Yes, NEFT is an account to account funds transfer system.

Q.16. Can I receive foreign remittances through NEFT?

Ans This system can be used only for remitting Indian Rupee among the participating banks within the country.

Q.17. Can I send remittances abroad using the NEFT?

Ans No

Q.18. Can I originate a transaction to receive funds from another account?

Ans No

Q.19. Can I send/receive funds from/to NRI accounts?

Ans: Yes, subject to applicability of provisions of FEMA

Q.20. Would the customer receive an acknowledgement of money credited to the beneficiary?

Ans: No, however electronic acknowledgement is generated for the customer that his money is received by the beneficiary at the sender branch.

Q.21. Would the remitting customer get back the money if it is not credited to the beneficiary’s account?

Ans: Yes, the remitting customer gets back the money if it is not credited to the beneficiary account.

Q.22. Till what time NEFT service window is available?

Ans: There are six settlements at 0930, 1030, 1200, 1300, 1500 and 1600 hours on weekdays and 0930, 1030 and 1200 hours on Saturdays.

Q.23. What is the essential information that the remitting customer would have to furnish for the remittance to be effected?

Ans: The essential information that the remitting customer has to furnish is:

· Beneficiary details such as beneficiary name and account number

· Name and IFSC of the beneficiary bank branch.

Q.24. Is there any way a remitting customer can track the remittance transaction?

Ans: The remitting customer can track the remitting transaction through the remitting branch only, as the remitting branch is informed about the status of the remitted transactions.

What is a Repo Rate?

2012-01-23T22:22:00.000-08:00

What is a Repo Rate?

Whenever the banks have any shortage of funds they can borrow it from RBI. Repo rate is the rate at which our banks borrow rupees from RBI. A reduction in the repo rate will help banks to get money at a cheaper rate. When the repo rate increases borrowing from RBI becomes more expensive

What is CRR (Cash Reverse Ratio)

2012-01-23T22:07:00.000-08:00

CRR(Cash Reserve Ratio):Cash reserve Ratio (CRR) is the amount of Cash(liquid cash like gold) that the banks have to keep with RBI. This Ratio is basically to secure solvency of the bank and to drain out the excessive money from the banks. If RBI decides to increase the percent of this, the available amount with the banks comes down and if RBI reduce the CRR then available amount with Banks increased and they are able to lend more.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL FROM ME AND MY FAMILY

2012-01-01T20:13:00.000-08:00

Higgs Boson

2011-12-14T19:47:00.000-08:00

The Higgs boson is a hypothetical massive elementary particle that is predicted to exist by the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. It is known as God Particle. The higgs Boson ia an integral part of theoretical Higgs Mechanism.

Scientists say they have found hints of the existence of the Higgs Boson, anever before seen subatomic particle long thought to be a fundamental building block of the Universe.

The standard Model of particle physics lays out the basic of how elementary particles interact in the universe. But the theory crucially fails to explain how particles actually get their mass.

Particles, or bits of matter, range in size and can be larger or smaler than atoms. Electrons, protons and neutrons, for instance are the subatomic particles that make up an atom.

Scientists belive that the Higgs Boson is the particle that gives all matter its mass.

TRAVANCORE KINGS

2011-12-07T02:06:00.001-08:00

MARTHANDA VARMA - 1729-1758

DHARMA RAJA ( KARTHIKA THIRUNAL RAMA VARMA)- 1758-1798

BALARAMA VARMA- 1798- 1810

Maharani Ayilyom Thirunal Gouri Lakshmi Bayi - (1791–1814)

Maharani Uthrittathi Thirunal Gowri Parvati Bayi- (1815- 1829)

Sri Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma- (1829-1846)

UTHRAM THIRUNAL- ( 1846- 1860)

AYILYAM THIRUNAL- (1860-1880)

VISAKHAM THIRUNAL ( 1880- 1885)

MOOLAM THIRUNAL ( 1885- 1924)

SETHU LAKSHMI BAI ( 1924- 1931)

CHITHIRA THIRUNAL ( 1931- 1947)

KEPLER SPACECRAFT

2011-12-06T19:32:00.001-08:00

The Kepler spacecraft is an American space observatory, the space-based portion of NASA's Kepler Mission to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. The spacecraft, named in honor of the 17th-century German astronomer Johannes Kepler, was launched in March 2009with a planned mission lifetime of at least 3.5 years.

The Kepler mission is "specifically designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover dozens of Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets." Kepler's only instrument is a photometer that continuously monitors the brightness of over 145,000 main sequence stars in a fixed field of view. This data is analyzed to detect periodic fluctuations that indicate the presence of extrasolar planets that are in the process of crossing the face of other stars.

Mission Of Spacecraft

The centuries-old quest for other worlds like our Earth has been rejuvenated by the intense excitement and popular interest surrounding the discovery of hundreds of planets orbiting other stars. There is now clear evidence for substantial numbers of three types of exoplanets; gas giants, hot-super-Earths in short period orbits, and ice giants. The challenge now is to find terrestrial planets (i.e., those one half to twice the size of the Earth), especially those in thehabitable zone→ of their stars where liquid water might exist on the surface of the planet.

The Kepler Mission, NASA Discovery mission #10, is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone→ and determine the fraction of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy that might have such planets.

Instrument

The Kepler instrument is a specially designed 0.95-meter diameter telescope called a photometer or light meter. It has a very large field of view for an astronomical telescope — 105 square degrees, which is comparable to the area of your hand held at arm's length. It needs that large a field in order to observe the necessary large number of stars. It stares at the same star field for the entire mission and continuously and simultaneously monitors the brightnesses of more than 100,000 stars for the life of the mission—3.5 or more years.

The photometer must be spacebased to obtain the photometric precision needed to reliably see an Earth-like transit and to avoid interruptions caused by day-night cycles, seasonal cycles and atmospheric perturbations, such as, extinction associated with ground-based observing.

Results from the Kepler mission will allow us to place our solar system within the context of planetary systems in the Galaxy.

Courtesy Wekipedia, NASA

Kepler 22b

2011-12-06T19:01:00.001-08:00

WASHINGTON: In another step toward finding Earth-like planets that may hold life, NASA said on Monday the Kepler space telescope has confirmed its first-ever planet in a habitable zone outside our solar system.

French astronomers earlier this year confirmed the first rocky exoplanet to meet key requirements for sustaining life. But Kepler-22b, initially glimpsed in 2009, is the first the US space agency has been able to confirm.

Confirmation means that astronomers have seen it crossing in front of its star three times. But it doesn't mean that astronomers know whether life actually exists there, simply that the conditions are right.

Such planets have the right distance from their star to support water, plus a suitable temperature and atmosphere to support life.

"We have now got good planet confirmation with Kepler-22b," said Bill Borucki, Kepler principal investigator at NASA Ames Research Center.

"We are certain that it is in the habitable zone and if it has a surface, it ought to have a nice temperature," he told reporters.

Spinning around its star some 600 light years away, Kepler-22b is 2.4 times the size of the Earth, putting it in class known as "super-Earths," and orbits its Sun-like star every 290 days.

Its near-surface temperature is presumed to be about 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 Celsius). Scientists do not know, however, whether the planet is rocky, gaseous or liquid.

The planet's first "transit," or star crossover, was captured shortly after NASA launched its Kepler spacecraft in March 2009.

NASA also announced that Kepler has uncovered 1,094 more potential planets, twice the number it previously had been tracking, according to research being presented at a conference in California this week.

Kepler is NASA's first mission in search of Earth-like planets orbiting suns similar to ours, and cost the US space agency about $600 million.

It is equipped with the largest camera ever sent into space -- a 95-megapixel array of charge-coupled devices -- and is expected to continue sending information back to Earth until at least November 2012.

Kepler is searching for planets as small as Earth, including those orbiting stars in a warm, habitable zone where liquid water could exist on the surface of the planet.

The latest confirmed exoplanet that could support life brings to three the total number confirmed by global astronomers.

In addition to French astronomers' confirmed finding of Gliese 581d in May, Swiss astronomers reported in August that another planet, HD 85512 b, about 36 light years away seemed to be in the habitable zone of its star.

However, those two planets are "orbiting stars smaller and cooler than our Sun," NASA said in a statement, noting that Kepler-22b "is the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone of a star similar to our Sun."

"The Europeans have also been very active, actively working on confirming our candidates," said Natalie Batalha, Kepler deputy science team lead at San Jose State University.

"They have already confirmed two that are published and they have got another batch that are on the preprint servers so those will be, I'm sure, in the published literature soon," she added.

"So we are just thrilled about this. We need all telescopes observing these candidates so we can confirm as many as possible."

A total of 48 exoplanets and exomoons are potential habitable candidates, among a total of 2,326 possibilities that Kepler has identified so far.

courtesy NASA

Buffett’s firm buys more than 5% of IBM

2011-11-14T10:51:00.001-08:00

Investor Warren Buffett says his company bought $10.7 billion of IBM stock this year, about a 5.6 per cent stake.

Mr. Buffett revealed the new investment during an interview on CNBC on Monday. Mr. Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, will file a full quarterly update on its U.S. stock portfolio on Monday afternoon.

Mr. Buffett has long refused to invest in high-tech companies because he has said it’s too difficult to predict which technology businesses will prosper in the long run.

But he said he recently changed his view of IBM based on what he read in the company’s annual reports. He said he should have realised years sooner that the heart of IBM’s business is providing service and equipment to information technology departments.

“There’s a fair amount of presumption in many places that if you’re with IBM, you stay with them,” Mr. Buffett said.

So Berkshire bought about 64 million shares since March, or about 5.6 per cent of IBM. Mr. Buffett says he believes IBM has a sound plan for the future.

IBM shares rose $1.39 to $188.77 in premarket trading after rising as high as $190.55 earlier.

Berkshire’s investments are closely watched in the market because of Mr. Buffett’s successful record. Mr. Buffett has said that Berkshire has been buying aggressively during the recent market turmoil.

Mr. Buffett said on Monday that Berkshire had been adding to its already sizable stake in Wells Fargo, but he didn’t say how many more shares had been bought recently. At the end of June, Berkshire held 352.3 million Wells Fargo shares. That was up from 342.6 million shares Berkshire held at the end of March.

Monday afternoon’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission may not reveal a full picture of Berkshire’s investments because regulators often allow the Omaha-based company to conceal new investments for a time while building a position.

Mr. Buffett said that the third-quarter report that will be filed on Monday won’t show all of Berkshire’s new IBM stake because some of the shares were bought in the fourth quarter.

Besides investments, Berkshire owns roughly 80 subsidiaries including insurance, railroad and utility firms.

Courtesy The Hindu

Does Nuclear Power Plants are Nuclear Arms

2011-11-12T19:31:00.001-08:00

The study happen in Germany and other nuclear weapon production countries has answered to this questions. The Nuclear Power Plants are equivalent to 100 Nuclear bombs and 1000 atom bombs. We have seen the bad conditions of Japan durng the second world war.

IF WE CANT CONTROL THE FUSION (Collision of atoms ) PROCESS WE CANT COUNT THE LOSS HAPPEN TO THAT.

Disadvantages of Nuclear power plants
1) Waste management
2) Accidents
3) Proliferation
4) Fuel

Nasa announce 2014 test flight of its Orion deep space capsule

2011-11-10T08:41:00.001-08:00

Nasa will launch a test flight in 2014 of a new deep-space capsule designed to send astronauts to asteroids, the Moon, Mars.

The Orion capsule, which is being developed by Lockheed Martin Corp, would fly aboard a Delta 4 or Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, said Nasa spokesman Josh Byerly.

The test capsule would be launched into an orbit that soars as high as 5,000 miles (8,000 km) above the planet.

Courtesy Dailymail

Space Station Astronauts Connect Live With D.C. Students

2011-11-09T23:02:00.000-08:00

Washington- To highlight International Education Week (IEW), NASA and the U.S Department Education will host a live, long-distance call for students with international Space Station resident and Expedition 29 Commander Mike Fossum. Schools and students Participating have strong military connections and were selected in collaboration with the U.S Department Defense Education Activity.

Courtesy NASA

Huge asteroid headed for close encounter with Earth

2011-11-07T22:39:00.000-08:00

Cape Canaveral: A huge asteroid will pass closer to Earth than the moon on Wednesday morning, giving scientists a rare chance for study without having to go through the time and expense of launching a probe, officials said.

Earth's close encounter with Asteroid 2005 YU 55 will occur at 8:28 AM IST on Wednesday November 8 (6:28 PM EST Tuesday), as the space rock sails about 201,000 miles from the planet.

"It is the first time since 1976 that an object of this size has passed this closely to the Earth. It gives us a great - and rare - chance to study a near-Earth object like this," astronomer Scott Fisher, a program director with the National Science Foundation, said Thursday during a Web chat with reporters.

The orbit and position of the asteroid, which is about 1,312 feet in diameter, is well known, added senior research scientist Don Yeomans, with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"There is no chance that this object will collide with the Earth or moon," Yeomans said.

Thousands of amateur and professional astronomers are expected to track YU 55's approach, which will be visible from the planet's northern hemisphere. It will be too dim to be seen with the naked eye, however, and it will be moving too fast for viewing by the Hubble Space Telescope.

"The best time to observe it would be in the early evening on November 8 from the East Coast of the United States," Yeomans said. "It is going to be very faint, even at its closest approach. You will need a decent-sized telescope to be able to actually see the object as it flies by."

Scientists suspect YU 55 has been visiting Earth for thousands of years, but because gravitational tugs from the planets occasionally tweak its path, they cannot tell for sure how long the asteroid has been in its present orbit.

"These sorts of events have been happening for most of the lifetime of the Earth, about 4.5 billion years," Fisher said.

Computer models showing the asteroid's path for the next 100 years show there is no chance it will hit Earth during that time, added Yeomans.

"We do not think that it will ever impact the Earth or moon (but) we only have its orbit calculated for the next 100 years," he said.

Previous studies show the asteroid, which is blacker than charcoal, is what is called a C-type asteroid that is likely made of carbon-based materials and some silicate rock.

More information about its composition and structure are expected from radar images and chemical studies of its light as the asteroid passes by the planet.

"I've read that we will be able to see details down to a size of about 15 feet across on the surface of the asteroid," Fisher said.

NASA is working on a mission to return soil samples from an asteroid known as 1999 RQ36 in 2020, followed by a human mission to another asteroid in the mid-2020s.

Japan also plans to launch an asteroid sample return mission in 2018.

Courtesy IBN live

ALMA'S VIEW Antennae galaxies

2011-11-02T10:07:00.001-07:00

ALMA'S View of Antennae galaxies, created measuring from 16 of the dishes installed on the chajnanator Plateau in the Atacamma desert CHILE. The distance of Antennae galaxies are 70million light years from Earth.

China's Newest Supercomputer Uses Homegrown Chips

2011-10-31T07:39:00.000-07:00

China's Newest Supercomputer Uses Homegrown Chips

China has built its first supercomputer based entirely on homegrown microprocessors, a major step in breaking the country's reliance on Western technology for high-performance computing .

China's National Supercomputer Center in Jinan unveiled the computer last Thursday, according to a report from the country's state-run press. The supercomputer uses 8,704 "Shenwei 1600" microprocessors, which were developed by a design center in Shanghai, called the National High Performance Integrated Circuit Design Center.

Details of the microprocessors and the design center were not immediately available.

The supercomputer has a theoretical peak speed of 1.07 petaflops (quadrillion floating-point calculations per second), and a sustained performance of 0.79 petaflops when measured with the Linpack benchmark. This could place it at number 13 in the world's top 500 supercomputing.

China's Shandong Academy of Sciences built the computer. Officials of the academy could not be immediately reached for comment on Monday.

A report from The New York Times said the supercomputer's name in English was the Sunway BlueLight MPP.

China is increasingly investing in supercomputing technology. Last November, its Tianhe-1A supercomputer briefly grabbed the spot as the world's most powerful, but the computer used chips from Intel and Nvidia. The Tianhe-1A has a theoretical peak speed of 4.7 petaflops and a sustained performance of 2.5 petaflops.

China currently has 61 supercomputers on the top 500 list. In comparison, the U.S. has 255 on the list. Japan's "K Computer" is currently ranked first in the top 500 list, after bumping Tianhe-1A to the second place.

Experts have been anticipating that China would build its own supercomputer, using domestically developed chips. Chinese state-run press hailed the new supercomputer as a symbol of China's strength.

Courtesy PCWORLD

World Heaviest Gold Coin 1,012kg

2011-10-28T19:09:00.001-07:00

World Heaviest Gold Coin 1,012kg

PERTH(BullionStreet) : Australia's Perth Mint unveiled world's largest , heaviest and inherently most valuable gold coin with acurrent value of nearly $55 million.
The coin weighing 1012 kilograms and is more than a tonne of 99.99 per cent pure gold . The giant coin is 80 centimetres wide, 12 centimetres deep, took 18 months to create
The obverse of the coin features Ian Rank Broadley portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and carries the face value of AU$1,000,000. The reverse design features the classic kangaroo design by Dr. Stuart Devlin AO CMG, goldsmith and jeweller to Queen Elizabeth II. The inscriptions include the "2012″ date and "1 Tonne 9999 Gold".
Perth Mint said the coin was a showpiece of the Australian kangaroo gold bullion coin program, and would coincide with the release of several smaller gold coins this week.
The weight and purity of each issue is guaranteed by the West Australian government.
Previous holders of the title of world's largest gold coin include a 31 kilogram Gold Philharmonic coin struck by the Austrian Mint in 2004, which carried a €100,000 denomination. This was followed by a 100 kilogram Gold Maple coin struck by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2007, which carried a face value of CA$1,000,000.

Courtesy- Billion street

NASA Launches Multi-Talented Earth-Observing Satellite

2011-10-28T10:34:00.000-07:00

NASA Launches Multi-Talented Earth-Observing Satellite

WASHINGTON -- NASA's newest Earth-observing satellite soared into space early today aboard a Delta II rocket after liftoff at 5:48 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

NASA's National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project, or NPP, successfully separated from the Delta II 58 minutes after launch, and the first signal was acquired by the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. NPP's solar array deployed 67 minutes after launch to provide the satellite with electrical power. NPP is on course to reach its sun-synchronous polar orbit 512 miles (824 km) above Earth.

"NPP is critical to our understanding of Earth's processes and changes," said NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver. "Its impact will be global and builds on 40 years of work to understand our complex planet from space. NPP is part of an extremely strong slate of current and future innovative NASA science missions that will help us win the future as we make new discoveries."

NPP carries five science instruments, including four new state-of-the-art sensors, which will provide critical data to help scientists understand the dynamics of long-term climate patterns and help meteorologists improve short-term weather forecasts. The mission will extend more than 30 key long-term datasets NASA has been tracking, including measurements of the ozone layer, land cover, and ice cover.

NPP serves as a bridge mission between NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) of satellites and the next-generation Joint Polar Satellite System, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) program that will also collect weather and climate data.

Scientists will use NPP data to extend and improve upon EOS data records. These satellites have provided critical insights into the dynamics of the entire Earth system, including clouds, oceans, vegetation, ice, solid Earth and atmosphere. NPP will allow scientists to extend the continuous satellite record needed to detect and quantify global environmental changes.

"The measurements from NPP will benefit science and society for many years to come," said Michael Freilich, director of NASA's Earth Science Division. "NPP will help improve weather forecasts, enable unique scientific insights, and allow more accurate global environmental predictions. I'm confident that the strong partnerships forged in the NPP program between NASA and NOAA, industry, and the research and applications communities will ensure the success of the mission."

The satellite will be operated from the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility in Suitland, Md. NASA will operate NPP for the first three months after launch while the satellite and instrument are checked out. NPP operations will then be turned over to NOAA and the JPSS program for the remainder of the mission.

NPP data will be transmitted once every orbit to a ground station in Svalbard, Norway, and to direct broadcast receivers around the world. The data will be sent back to the United States via fiber optic cable to the NOAA Suitland facility. NPP data is then processed into data records that NASA and NOAA will make available through various data archives.

The Delta II launch vehicle that delivered NPP into orbit also deployed auxiliary payloads within 98 minutes after launch. The five small "CubeSat" research payloads are the third in a series of NASA Educational Launch of Nanosatellite missions, known as ELaNa missions.

The NPP mission is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., for the Earth Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The Joint Polar Satellite System program provides the NPP ground system. NOAA will provide operational support for the mission. Launch management is the responsibility of the NASA Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Courtesy NASA