Japan asteroid probe enters 'target orbit'

HayabusaA Japanese space probe successfully entered "target orbit" and is on its way to rendezvousing with a far away asteroid, in a quest to study the origin of the solar system, authorities said Monday.
Earlier this month, the unmanned explorer, Hayabusa 2, passed by Earth to harness the planet's gravitational pull in a bid to switch its orbital path to continue toward tiny Ryugu asteroid. 
"The Hayabusa 2... entered the target orbit to travel to the asteroid," Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said in a statement.
Hayabusa 2 was launched a year ago aboard Japan's main H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima Space Center for its six-year mission to bring back mineral samples from the asteroid.
It is expected to reach Ryugu, named after a mythical castle in a Japanese folk tale, in mid-2018 and spend around 18 months in the area.
It will also drop rover robots and a "landing package" that includes equipment for surface observation.
If all goes well, soil samples will be returned to Earth in late 2020.
Analysing the extra-terrestrial materials could help shed light on the birth of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago and offer clues about what gave rise to life on Earth, scientists have said.

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Soon, pay bills through Twitter!

Twitter users in India may soon be able to pay their bills though the micro-blogging site, the media reported.
The company has announced a partnership with India-based start-up Lookup to enable users send a direct message to @lookuplite in order to book appointments, inquire about services and make transactions with businesses, Techcrunch reported.
Lookup lets retailers and consumers chat with each other through direct messaging. It boasts of 1.2 million registered users despite listing merchants from Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Currently, users can buy directly within the social network thorough Twitter's 'Buy' button.
In the new arrangement, orders and payments would be fulfilled separately and offline with Twitter simply facilitating the conversation.
Lookup will use Twitter's API, as well as its monitoring capabilities, to handle connecting the customer to the prospective merchant.
Instead of connecting users through phone numbers, Lookup instead uses Google Maps to give users a view of all the retailers in their area.

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Paris attacks top Google searches

Terror attacks in Paris top the global ranking of Google searches in 2015.Terror attacks in Paris topped the global ranking of Google searches in 2015 -- alongside the transgender icon Caitlyn Jenner and the downfall of ex-NBA star Lamar Odom.

The single most popular overall search was for Odom, the former basketballer and estranged husband of reality TV star Khloe Kardashian found unconscious in a Nevada brothel in October.
But the city of Paris-traumatized by deadly attacks in January and November-dominated search queries across categories, according to the Google trend ranking released for the 15th year.
“Charlie Hebdo,” the French satirical magazine attacked by Islamic extremists in what triggered a global outpouring of solidarity, was the second most frequent global search overall, while “Paris” came fifth.
For news, Charlie Hebdo and Paris were also the top two queries.
“Within two minutes of the deadly attack on Paris in November, the French capital was searching for information on the assault underway in their city,” Google said on its blog Wednesday.
“Less than 10 minutes later, the rest of the world started searching. As of today, we’ve seen more than 897 million searches about the city as the world came together to ‘Pray for Paris.’”
Paris was followed in news searches by the record-breaking storm Hurricane Patricia, ISIS (an acronym for the Islamic State organization), and by Nepal.
Third on the overall list was the Agar.io online action game, and fourth came “Jurassic World,” the science fiction thriller film released around the world in May and June.
For individuals, Odom was followed by the martial arts star Ronda Rousey-and Caitlyn Jenner, the transgender Olympian formerly known as Bruce Jenner.
“Across the globe, she (Jenner) was searched more than 344 million times, and her story helped give a new voice to the transgender community,” Google said.
The number four celebrity search was for pop singer Adele, and fifth was actor Charlie Sheen, who revealed last month that he was HIV-positive.
The top global sporting event searches were about the Copa America football tournament, Wimbledon tennis championship, the Tour de France cycling race, the Rugby World Cup and the American football Super Bowl.
For consumer technology, the iPhone 6S released this year was the top item, followed by the rival Samsung smartphone Galaxy 6S, the Apple Watch, iPad Pro and the LG G4 smartphone.
In music, Adele was followed by the Australian singer Sia and the Eagles of Death Metal-the US rockers who were performing at the Paris club that attacked by jihadists last month.
Fourth and fifth, respectively, were British singer Sam Smith and American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor.
Top film searches were for “Jurassic Park,” action film “Furious 7,” war picture “American Sniper,” erotic drama “Fifty Shades of Grey” and the animated 3D movie “Minions.”

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China launches first dark matter satellite

China on Thursday launched its first Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) satellite in a fresh search for smoking-gun signals of the invisible material that scientists believe makes up most of the universe’s mass.

The DAMPE satellite, nicknamed “Wukong” after the Monkey King with penetrating eyes in the Chinese classical fiction “Journey to the West”, blasted off on Thursday morning on a Long March 2-D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu province, Xinhua news agency reported.
It will enter a sun-synchronous orbit at a height of 500 km to observe the direction, energy and electric charge of high-energy particles in space.
From there, scientists hope the 1.9-tonne desk-sized satellite could help lift the “invisible cloak” on the dark matter and shine more light on the hypothetical mass.
With the new DAMPE satellite, scientists will look for evidences of dark matter annihilation or decay.
Wukong will scan the space in all directions in the first two years and focus on sections where dark matter are most likely to be observed afterwards.
More than 100 scientists will study the data sent back by Wukong. Initial findings are expected to be published in the second half of 2016.
Dark matter, which does not emit or reflect enough electromagnetic radiation to be observed directly, is one of the huge mysteries of modern science.
Theorised by scientists who could not understand missing mass and strangely bent light in faraway galaxies, dark matter has become widely accepted in the physics community even though its existence has never been concretely proven.
Scientists now believe only around five percent of the total mass-energy of the known universe are made up of ordinary matter, whereas dark matter and dark energy make up the rest.
Knowing more about dark matter could hence give humanity a clearer idea about the past as well as future of galaxies and the universe, and will be revolutionary for the world of physics and space science.

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Facebook founder urges free Internet in India

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg urged India Monday to approve a controversial plan that would provide a free Internet service to the poor, his latest bid amid an escalating row with authorities.

The head of the social network tried to drum up support for the Free Basics service that offers people without the Internet free access to a handful of websites through mobile phones, in a column in the largest-selling English daily The Times of India.

“If we accept that everyone deserves access to the Internet, then we must surely support free basic Internet services,” the chief executive wrote, comparing the Internet to a library, public health care and education.

“Surprisingly, over the last year there’s been a big debate about this in India,” he added.

“Instead of wanting to give people free access to basic Internet services, critics of the programme continue to spread false claims-even if that means leaving behind a billion people.”

Zuckerberg’s personal appeal comes amid fierce criticism from net neutrality activists who say his plan violates the principle that the whole Internet should be available to all and unrestricted by any one company.

Earlier this month the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ordered Reliance Communications, the sole mobile operator for the service, to suspend it temporarily without giving a reason, documents seen by AFP show.

Some 3.2 million people have petitioned India’s telecoms regulator not to ban Free Basics, formerly named Internet.org. It launched nationwide last month after being trialled in several states.

Several prominent Indian entrepreneurs and members of the tech community have spoken out against Free Basics, arguing that even for poor citizens, no Internet is better than a hand-picked and corporate-controlled web offering.

But in an attempt to counter claims “that this will make Internet more like a walled garden”, Facebook has taken out billboards and full-page newspaper adverts defending the initiative.

Free Basics is “at risk of being banned” in India, Facebook said in the adverts, adding that the service aims to help a billion unconnected Indians-mostly living in poor rural areas-to get online.

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