Nasa Discoveries Spark Hopes Of Alien Life

Nasa's planet-hunting deep space observatory has found hundreds of new potential planets, sparking hopes of finding other worlds similar to Earth.

The objects were found in Nasa's Kepler Mission, a space observatory designed to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars.

Its massive telescope monitors the brightness of over 145,000 stars in a fixed field of view in three constellations in the Milky Way.

A 95-megapixel camera records and analyses the passage of planets around those stars by measuring the changes in light radiation.

The findings show 140 of the new discoveries could be similar in size to Earth.

"From the orbital size and the temperature of the star, the planet's characteristic temperature can be calculated," Nasa explains on the mission's website.

"From this the question of whether or not the planet is habitable (not necessarily inhabited) can be answered."

Scientists say the results contradict older theories that had suggested small and Earth-like planets would be less frequent.

An astronomer on the Kepler mission, Dimitar Sasselov, professor of astronomy at Harvard University, revealed the findings in a conference in Oxford earlier this month.

He said the next step would be to determine whether the suspected planets would indeed be habitable.

"The figures suggest our galaxy, the Milky Way, will contain 100 million habitable planets," he said.

"With our own little telescope just in the next two years we will able to identify at least 60 of them.

"There is a lot more work we need to do with this, but the statistical result is loud and clear, and it is that planets like our own Earth are out there."

Google Unveils Nexus One 'Superphone'

Google has unveiled its new smartphone in a direct challenge to the Apple iPhone.

The internet giant billed the Nexus One as a "superphone" and the next step in the evolution of its Android software.
Google worked with Taiwanese electronics firm HTC to make the touch-screen device.

"I think you will see it pushes the limits of what's possible on a smart phone," HTC chief executive Peter Chou said.

"It is very thin and feels good in your hand."

Google engineer Erick Tseng said the Nexus One handsets are no thicker than pencils and no heavier than a Swiss Army knife keyring.

"It is a great marriage of form and function. It is really light," he said.
Tseng added that the new phones are built on the same Android 2.1 software that runs Droid smartphones but feature innovations such as 3D graphics and speech recognition. Though it is worth mentioning that the Nexus one phone does not ahve as many apps as the iPhone and it is slightly more expensive at the moment.

Google said it is also launching its own online store, from which the Nexus One can be bought "unlocked" for $529 (£330).

It will ship devices to buyers in Singapore, Hong Kong and Britain, it said.

But if customers in the US buy the handset with a two-year T-Mobile contract, the price starts at $179 (£111).
Google said its European customers should be able to use a Nexus One with a Vodafone contract by the middle of the year.