December 2011
China launched a high-speed bullet train in Quingdao, Shandong province. Its speed can reach up to 500 kmph. The train was launched by China’s largest rail vehicle maker, CSR Corp. Ltd. China has the largest network of bullet-train track in the world, with 8000 miles of track.
NASA`s Kepler mission on 20 December 2011 discovered the first Earth-size planets orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system. The planets, called Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are too close to their star to be in the so-called habitable zone where liquid water could exist on a planet`s surface, but they are the smallest exoplanets ever confirmed around a star like our sun. The discovery marks the next important milestone in the ultimate search for planets like Earth. Both planets reside in a five-planet system called Kepler-20, approximately 1000 light-years away in the constellation Lyra.
The indigenously designed and developed Rustom-1 (medium altitude long endurance unmanned combat aerial vehicle) completed its 8th successful flight. It flew at an altitude of 6,000 ft and at a speed of 90 knots during its 30 minutes flight near Hosur, said a Defence Research and Development Organsiation release. Rustom-1 weighs 661 kg.
A team of researchers from NASA’s Kepler Mission discovered a habitable earth-like planet, called Kepler-22b. This newly discovered planet orbits around a sun-like star 600 light years away from the planet earth. The star is located near the constellations of Lyra and Cygnus. The planet is very much similar to earth in key aspects. It has a surface temperature of about 72 degrees Fahrenheit and it is likely to have water and land.
The star was categorized as a G5 star. It has a mass and radius smaller than that that of the Sun. It makes the star 25 percent less luminous than the Sun. NASA`s Kepler mission confirmed its first planet in the habitable zone, the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. The new exoplanet has the smallest radius amongst all the planets so far discovered.