NASA confirmed that it has found evidence for extrasolar planets that were captured by the Hubble telescope in 1998. Back then, the planets escaped the eyes of astronomers, but a recent re-analysis of the infrared image data revealed four huge planets orbiting HR 8799.

In 2007 and 2008, the first three planets were discovered in near-infrared ground-based images taken with the Keck Observatory and the Gemini North telescope, NASA said. A fourth innermost planet was uncovered in 2010. According to NASA, this is the only multiple exoplanetary system for which astronomers have obtained direct photos to date. What makes this discovery special is the fact that the innermost planet circles HR 8799 at a distance of about 1.5 billion miles, but cannot be seen because it is on the edge of Hubble’s Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) “coronagraphic spot that blocks the light from the central star,” NASA said.

The researchers said that the planets were not found back in 1998 as technology had to evolve to reveal them. “When astronomers subtracted the light from the central star to look for the residual glow of planets, the residual light scatter was still overwhelming the faint planets,” NASA said. A method that used images of reference stars, as well as imaging technology that enabled increased contrast and minimized residual light eventually revealed the planets. According to NASA, The planets shown in the image data have only about 1/100,000th the brightness of their parent star when viewed in near-infrared light.

HR 8799 is about 130 light years from Earth.

According to the data published, the three outer gas-giant planets take about 100, 200 and 400 years to orbit HR 8799. The outermost planet has “barely moved” over a 10-year period, said Remi Soummer of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

A research team at the University of Illinois claims to have developed an ionic liquid to act as a catalyst when greenhouse gas emissions are converted to fuel. Using the liquid, the scientists were able to dramatically reduce the energy needed to change carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide, which is the first step in turning emissions into fuels such as formic acid or methanol.

The idea isn’t new and is generally knows as artificial photosynthesis, where a solar cell or wind turbine powers an electrochemical cell to convert carbon monoxide. So far, however, scientists needed more energy for the conversion from carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide than can be gained from the final product. According to the research team led by chemical and biological engineering professor and chair Paul Kenis, the ionic liquids stabilize the intermediates in the reaction, which lowers the need for electricity for the conversion. Kenis and his team did not reveal how much the need dropped, but said that they are now looking into ways to make the conversion more efficient and accelerate it so that their ionic liquid can be used in commercial applications.

“More work is needed, but this research brings us a significant step closer to reducing our dependence on fossil fuels while simultaneously reducing CO2 emissions that are linked to unwanted climate change,” Kenis said.

SOURCE via University of Illinois

Is Seagate shipping 5 TB hard drives three months from now? That’s a hint the company dropped in a recent interview at GITEX 2011, a technology event held in Dubai. Seagate later followed up after the event by saying that an eventual 5 TB drive isn’t any real revelation, nor is the timeframe in which the product may arrive.

“Now we have 1 TB per disk,” said a Seagate Middle East salesperson by the name of Christian six minutes into the interview. “If you just do a simple calculation … now a drive can have five disks … so suddenly you make the disk 5 TB … within three months you will see it.”

Seagate first introduced a GoFlex Desk external hard drive featuring 1 TB platters and an areal density of 625 Gigabits per square inch back in May, revealing a special 3-platter, 3 TB Barracuda XT hard drive crammed inside (which typically uses 5 platters for 3 TB). According to the company, that’s enough capacity to store up to 120 high-definition movies, 1,500 video games, thousands of photos or “virtually countless hours of digital music.”

Then in September the company added a 4 TB version to its GoFlex Desk line of external drives, but instead of using 1 TB platters, it featured a 5-platter (800 GB each) 7200RPM design. Seagate will reportedly introduce an internal 4 TB hard drive in November which will also use the 5-platter (800 GB each) 7200RPM design.

That said, it’s safe to assume that Seagate’s 5TB storage monster will arrive in the form of a GoFlex Desk external drive first, and will likely be revealed during CES 2012 in January. Of course, that’s just guesswork based on Seagate’s current pattern.

SOURCE via The Register

BlackBerry service resumes for users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, parts of South America, and North America. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has announced that services have resumed around the globe following a three day outage of BBM and email services. Founder Mike Lazaridis announced the news during a phone in press conference this morning.

Lazaridis also mentioned that the folks over at BlackBerry working to resolve the issue haven’t been home since Monday, so when they said they were ‘working around the clock’ to restore services, it actually wasn’t just a figure of speech. A message on RIM’s support page confirmed that services are now operating normally worldwide:

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16 processor companies and four IP suppliers are going after the rapidly evolving mobile devices market, according to a report released by Jon Peddie Research (JPR).

The firm believes that more than 2 billion processors will be shipping into the mobile market place in 2016. The forecast mentions 750 million smartphones, 869 million feature phones, about 300 million tablets, 100 million e-book readers and 91 million handheld game consoles.

JPR said that those categories will be able to coexist for some time and will appeal to consumers via a different form, primary function, and price. The firm predicts that all those devices will be connected all the time and most will feature 3D displays and 3D cameras.

The mobile devices market is shaping up to be highly-competitive and, because of its 16 processor companies, to be headed into a market consolidation phase, JPR suggests. According to Jon Peddie, the new entrants and smaller manufacturer will be at risk of being acquired by the established processor makers.

SOURCE via JPR

After a long and drawn out legal battle that stretches back to August, Apple has been granted an injunction that will prevent Samsung from launching its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Australia. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Justice Annabelle Bennett today said that Apple had a ‘prima facie’ case that Samsung had infringed two of its patents relating to touchscreen technology. This means that the dispute will go to trial, with a full hearing expected sometime in the new year.

Last week, Samsung offered Apple a settlement that would see the company release a modified version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1. However, Apple turned down the offer, insisting that the modified version would still infringe upon one of its patents. Following Apple’s decision, Samsung said that, unless it could launch the tablet in time for the holiday shopping season, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 likely wouldn’t make it to Australia at all. The company said that the Christmas season was too important to miss and said the tablet would be ‘dead’ by the time it reached the market.

“Samsung will continue its legal proceeding against Apple’s claim in order to ensure our innovative products remain available to consumers,” the company told the SMH.

Samsung and Apple have been locked in legal proceedings since April of this year, when Apple accused the South Korean company of ‘slavishly’ copying the iPad and iPhone. Samsung in turn counter-sued, alleging that Apple was infringing on some of its mobile patents. The two are engaged in law suits in numerous countries around the world.

SOURCE via SMH

Wednesday Gartner Research said that worldwide PC shipments actually grew 3.2-percent in the third quarter of 2011 compared to the same quarter in 2010, totaling 91.8 million units. However Gartner also said that the numbers are actually lower than its earlier projection of a 5.1-percent growth during Q3 2011.

“The inventory buildup, which slowed growth the last four quarters, mostly cleared out during the third quarter of this year; however, the PC industry has been performing below normal seasonality,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “As expected, back-to-school PC sales were disappointing in mature markets, confirming that the consumer PC market continues to be weak. The popularity of non-PC devices, including media tablets, such as the iPad and smartphones, took consumers’ spending away from PCs.”

Ouch. Yet despite all the talk about spinning off its PC division, Gartner points out that HP actually grew faster than the industry standard in the third quarter, and still reigns as the #1 worldwide PC vendor shipping over 16 million units, a 5.3-percent jump from the numbers seen in the same quarter last year. It’s current market share hovers at 17.7-percent, just over 4-percent more than the new #2 PC vendor, Lenovo.

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