6.3.10

Showcase - From Cosmic Stars to Cricket Stars

Recently, Nasa launched a telescope in space called WISE. The new Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope carries with it a 40-centimetre (16 in) diameter infrared-sensitive telescope, which looks at the entire sky in the 3 to 25 ¼velength range. This range of sight cannot be seen by the human eye and is over a thousand times more sensitive than the previous infrared-sensitive telescopes sent into orbit. And now scientists have been receiving breathtaking images from the telescope, notably the comet Sliding Spring with a tail that stretches for 10 million miles; long enough to wrap itself around the Sun 23 times! The image library developed will have new images and data on our local Solar System, the Milky Way Galaxy, and the more distant universe. WISE will also study are asteroids, cool, dim stars such as brown dwarfs, and the most luminous infrared galaxies.

He has been part of cricket for nearly 20 years; the little master Sachin Tendulkar stapled his status as a legend of cricket by scoring 200 runs in an One-Day International against South Africa recently. The 36-year-old hit 25 fours and three sixes in an unbeaten 200 off 147 balls, and led India to victory over South Africa by 153 runs. The previous record holders included, Zimbabwean Charles Coventry who scored 194 (not out) against Bangladesh in 2009, Saeed Anwar 194 against India in 1997, Viv Richards who scored 189 against England and Sanath Jayasuriya with 194 against India in 2000. Not only did Tendulkar raise the level of the game of cricket, it also sheds a more competitive light on the traditional ODI format which is quickly losing ground to the ever popular 20/20 format.

iTunes, the popular online store for purchasing music for Apple software users, has recently sold its one billionth track online. The Black Eyed Peas’ I Gotta Feeling is officially the site’s most downloaded track. In recent years, thanks to the rise of hardware such as personal MP3 players, especially the iPod, music purchase online has been on the rise. Apple’s iTunes is but one of the many ways a user can download music onto their music players and enjoy the latest tunes. Lady Gaga comes in a close second with her hit Poker Face. She also has Just Dance and Bad Romance featured in the top 25 most downloaded songs, according to Billboard. The person who bought the 10 billionth track won a $10,000 iTunes gift card.

Nintendo once ruled the handheld portable gaming market with its GameBoy gaming system for many years. The GameBoy lasted through many generations of gaming systems and also became the most sold system of all time. Now, Nintendo’s next generation handheld system the Nintendo DS gets an upgrade in the form of Nintendo DSi XL. The newer system gets a size upgrade and a bigger gameplay screen whilst maintaining a much lighter weight. At the same time, the system is backward compatible with all DS games. The new DS system appears to have come as an attempt to counter the latest PlayStation Portable system from Sony, the PSP GO.