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Weekly Update: Greek satellite shot into space from Florida
CAPE CANAVERAL: A Lockheed Martin Corp. Atlas 5 rocket launched a Greek communications satellite into orbit on Tuesday, launch officials said.
Liftoff came at 6:10pm (2210 GMT) from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
This was the second launch for the Atlas 5, one of a new generation of expendable rockets built under the sponsorship of the US Air Force.
The Atlas sent the 3,250-kg Hellas-Sat on its way to a stationary orbit 35,890 km above the equator. The satellite is to provide a number of communications services, including broadcast of the 2004 Summer Olympics from Athens, to much of the Mediterranean.
Officials from Internation-al Launch Services, a consortium of Lockheed and the Russian aerospace company Energia, scrubbed a launch attempt on Monday because of on-board instrumentation problems.— Reuters
Jupiter is king as 23 more moons found
PARIS: Astronomers say they have detected nearly two dozen more satellites orbiting Jupiter, bringing the number of moons encircling the Solar System’s greatest planet to an astonishing 112.
The 23 newcomers are tiny objects between just two and eight kilometres across, making them the smallest moons ever to be detected from Earth.
The discoverers, Scott Sheppard and David Jewitt of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii, have already notched up many Jovian moons to their credit.
The newly-found satellites have tilted, irregular orbits, which suggest they were lonely bodies that wandered the heavens until, billions of years ago, they were sucked into Jupiter’s gravitational maw and never escaped.
The discovery restores Jupiter to its pre-eminence as the planet with the most moons. The gassy giant accounts by itself for nearly half of the 128 known planetary moons in the Solar System. — APP/AFP
Bionic eye can restore some sight to the blind
LOS ANGELES: A bionic retina can restore some eyesight in people blinded by degenerative eye diseases, and may some day bring vision to children born blind, according to new research.
Three patients have so far been implanted with the device, a sliver of silicone and platinum studded with 16 electrodes — one-third the size of a contact lens — that sits atop the retina.
It works by electrically stimulating remaining healthy retinal cells, which pass on the visual information to the brain through the optic nerve.
The device “can be used by the patients to detect light or even to distinguish between objects such as a cup or plate,” Dr Mark Humayun, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, said on Friday.
The bionic implant is designed to stand in for damaged retinal cells in people suffering from blinding diseases like retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly.— Reuters
West Indies create Test cricket history
ST JOHNS: The West Indies created Test cricket history with the highest successful run chase to reel in Australia by three wickets in the fourth and final Test at the Recreation Ground here on Tuesday.
Vasbert Drakes hit the winning boundary off leg-spinner Stuart MacGill for the West Indians to reach 418 for seven on the final day of an absorbing Test.
The sensational win ended Australia’s bid to sweep the series 4-0 and stopped their nine-Test winning domination of the West Indies.
The West Indians’ memorable victory surpassed India’s 406 for four against the West Indies in Trinidad in April 1976, which up to Tuesday had stood as the high-water mark in Tests. — APP/AFP
Giant Miami plant blooms in stinking splendour
MIAMI: Rotting trash can? Decaying dead animal?
No. It was a giant tropical plant whose rare bloom in Miami on Monday night drew a small gaggle of rapturous plant enthusiasts to admire the smelly splendour.
“Mr Stinky,” the amorphophallus titanium, or Titan Arum, was towering at more than 85 inches in a conservatory at the Fairchild Tropical Garden.
“It’s like wet, dead rat, really,” laughed Miami lawyer Claudio Rivera. He hurried over from work to see the bloom, which has grown in recent weeks at a rate of up to seven inches a day.
The Titan Arum was discovered by botanists in Sumatra, Indonesia in 1878 and is considered by many to be the most spectacular bloom in the world. Its powerful smell is released over the first hours of the blooming to attract the carrion beetles thought to be its pollinators.
Monday night’s was the third blooming by the Miami plant in the last five years.
Mr Stinky’s blooming followed the first blooming by a nearby smaller Titan, “Audrew III,” last week, which conservatory manager Craig Allen said had left him feeling nauseated. Fortunately for him, the blooming lasts only a couple of days. — Reuters
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