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A team of European astronomers said that the most enticing property yet found outside our solar system is about 20 light-years away in the constellation Libra. They have discovered a planet five times as massive as the earth orbiting a dim, red star known as Gliese 581.

Dr.Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory said that it orbits its home star within the so-called habitable zone where surface water, the staff of life, could exist if other conditions are right. He said that they were at the right place for that. He and other astronomers cautioned that it was far too soon to conclude that liquid water was there without more observations.

Sara Seager, a planet expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said if the planet had an atmosphere more massive than Venus’s, then the surface would likely be too hot for liquid water. The discovery in the Gliese 581 system, where a Neptune-size planet was discovered two years ago is now suspected, catapults that system to the top of the list for future generation of space missions.

Dr.Dimitar Sasselov of the Harvard-Smithsomian Centre for Astrophysics, who studies the structure and formation of planets, said that we can go there becauese it is 20 light-years.

An advanced spectrograph on a 141-inch-diameter telescope was used by Udry’s team at the European observatory in La Silla, Chile. The planet, Gliese 581, circles the star every 13 days at a distance of about seven million miles. According to models of planet formation developed by Sasselov and his collegues, such a planet should be about half again as large as the earth and composed of rock and water.

Although the new planet is much closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun, the red dwarf Gliese 581 is only about a hundredth as luminous as the Sun. So seven million miles is a comfortable hoding distance. Using the earth and Venus as two extreme examples, Udry estimated that temperatures on the surface of the planet should be in the range of 0 degree to 40 degree centigrade.

Communication solutions provider AT&T Global Network Services India (AT&T India), is looking forward to start providing internet services to the corporate enterprise sector by the end of this year. AT&T India is a joint Inc, and Mahindra Telecommunications Investment Pvt.Ltd. and has launched its commercial business within the countrys. In November 2006, AT&T became the first foreign telecom operator to secure new licences -IId/NLD/ISO under the government’s revised policy on foreign direct investment which allows up to 74 percent foreign ownership.

AT&T India has already developed a well established set of network within India and currently has five MPLS enabled Global Network nodes for providing to set up two new nodes by the end of this year, besides doubling the capacity of its existing two nodes at Bangalore and Mumbaim, AT&T CEO and Managing Director Sanjiv Bhagat said while talking to reporters in New Delhi. With such network and global pressence at its back it would be easier for the company to provide newer services.

AT&T Asia Pacific Vice President V.S.Gopi Gopinath said that India was a high-priority market for just about every global MNC and the increasingly competitive telecom landscape would be a major factor in helping attract further MNC investment and expansion into India. As per its AT&T’s global strategy, India is of utmost importance for the company. He said that the company would invest $750 million in 2007 globally.

AT&T recorded 40 percent growth last year in India and is expecting similar growth rate to continue for the next two years, he added. It currently provides its services to over 300 business customers in the country and is talking to its existing customers as well as new companies to provide ISp services by the end of this year.

The offshore aerospace engineering services in India likely to grow phenomenally in the next five years, Bangalore-based CSM Software Pvt Ltd, an engineering services solutions provider, is cashing in on this growth.

It has plans to tie-up with two universities for providing training programmes to engineering students in automobile and aerospace areas. One of the universities is at Pune and another in Karnataka, the deal for which is likely to be finalised in the next six weeks.

Satya Srikanth, CEO, CSM, told that the aerospace engineering services in the country employed about 6,000 people, with the requirements likely to go up to 150,000 to 200,000 in the next five years. The industry is set to grow substantially from about $500 million to $5 billion. He said that the government was conducting training programmes in this industry with private sector programmes being miniscule.

Design support to aerospace majors is provided by the services division of CSM Software Pvt Ltd. It is looking at a business of $10 million to be generated from this sector in the next couple of years. The company is in talks with aerospace OEMs and tier I suppliers to aerospace OEMs for design support with positive results expected in the next four to five weeks.

With the Indian government proposing to develop a small passenger jet through the National Aerospace Laboratories in Bangalore, CSM Software Pvt Ltd. sees opportunities increasing in this sector.

CSM Software Pvt Ltd. will impart training to about 450 to 500 students in FY08, of which 70 percent would be from companies and 30 percent fresh engineering graduates. In 2006, CSM Software Pvt Ltd trained 300 engineers with 200 from companies and 100 fresh engineers.

Srikanth added that the company had earmarked a capex of Rs 13 to Rs 14 crore in the current fiscal for expansion of infrastructure for training and services in Bangalore, Hyderabgad, Chennai and Pune.