Monday, August 17, 2009

Planck Sees Light Billions of Years Old


The Planck space telescope has begun to collect light left over from the Big Bang explosion that created our universe. The mission, which is led by the European Space Agency with important participation from NASA, will help answer the most fundamental of questions: How did space itself pop into existence and expand to become the universe we live in today? The answer is hidden in ancient light, called the cosmic microwave background, which has traveled more than 13 billion years to reach us. Planck will measure tiny variations in this light with the best precision to date.

The mission officially started collecting science data today, Aug. 13, as part of a test period. If all goes as planned, these observations will be the first of 15 or more months of data gathered from two full-sky scans. Science results are expected in about three years.

"We are targeting to issue two lakh global credit cards to our customers by end of the current fiscal," PNB Chief General Manager (Credit Card Venture) Ranjan Dhawan told this to a news agency on Monday. The bank would also shortly launch its new cards- Corporate and Platinum credit cards.

"Corporate Cards will be meant for senior executives of companies who often travel for business purposes. In this category, there will be two cards such as Individual liability and corporate liability," he informed.

Another second Platinum card will come with enhanced benefits for high end customers (income having between Rs 7 to 10 lakh per annum). "This card will meet the requirements of customers like premium gold membership, lounge expenses etc," he said.


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