Disk | SilverScorpio.Com

Invading black holes cause ‘cosmic flashes’

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 19 (ANI): Mathematicians at the University of Leeds, UK, have determined that cosmic flashes, known as gamma ray bursts, are produced by jets of plasma that originate from invading black holes.

Gamma ray bursts are beams of high-energy radiation that are similar to the radiation emitted by explosions of nuclear weapons.

The orthodox model for this cosmic jet engine involves plasma being heated by neutrinos in a disk of matter that forms around a black hole, which is created when a star collapses.

But, mathematicians at the University of Leeds, have come up with a different explanation: the jets come directly from black holes, which can dive into nearby massive stars and devour them.

Their theory is based on recent observations by the Swift satellite, which indicates that the central jet engine operates for up to 10,000 seconds – much longer than the neutrino model can explain.

Mathematicians believe that this is evidence for an electromagnetic origin of the jets, that is, that the jets come directly from a rotating black hole, and that it is the magnetic stresses caused by the rotation that focus and accelerate the jet’s flow.

For the mechanism to operate, the collapsing star has to be rotating extremely rapidly.

This increases the duration of the star’s collapse as the gravity is opposed by strong centrifugal forces.

One particularly peculiar way of creating the right conditions involves not a collapsing star, but a star invaded by its black hole companion in a binary system.

The black hole acts like a parasite, diving into the normal star, spinning it with gravitational forces on its way to the star’s centre, and finally eating it from the inside.

“The neutrino model cannot explain very long gamma ray bursts and the Swift observations, as the rate at which the black hole swallows the star becomes rather low quite quickly, rendering the neutrino mechanism inefficient, but the magnetic mechanism can,” said Professor Komissarov from the School of Mathematics at the University of Leeds.

“Our knowledge of the amount of the matter that collects around the black hole and the rotation speed of the star allow us to calculate how long these long flashes will be – and the results correlate very well with observations from satellites,” he added. (ANI)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: amount, ANI, binary system, black hole, black holes, cannot, centre, Centrifugal Forces, collapse, companion, Cosmic Flashes, Cosmic Jet, devour, disk, duration, energy radiation, engine, evidence, explanation, flow, gamma, gamma ray bursts, Gravitational Forces, gravity, hole, Hole Acts, invading, jet, jet engine, knowledge, Leeds, Mathematicians, mathematics, matter, mechanism, model, Nearby Massive Stars, neutrino, Neutrinos, nuclear weapons, origin, parasite, peculiar way, plasma, Professor Komissarov, radiation, rate, ray, rotation, satellite, school, September, speed, star, swift, swift satellite, system, theory, U.K, University, university of leeds, university of leeds uk, Washington, way

NASA’s Swift satellite makes best-ever ultraviolet portrait of Andromeda galaxy

September 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 17 (ANI): NASA’s Swift satellite has acquired the highest-resolution view of a neighboring spiral galaxy ever attained in the ultraviolet.

The galaxy, known as M31 in the constellation Andromeda, is the largest and closest spiral galaxy to our own.

“Swift reveals about 20,000 ultraviolet sources in M31, especially hot, young stars and dense star clusters,” said Stefan Immler, a research scientist on the Swift team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

“Of particular importance is that we have covered the galaxy in three ultraviolet filters. That will let us study M31′s star-formation processes in much greater detail than previously possible,” he added.

M31, also known as the Andromeda Galaxy, is more than 220,000 light-years across and lies 2.5 million light-years away.

On a clear, dark night, the galaxy is faintly visible as a misty patch to the naked eye.

Between May 25 and July 26, 2008, Swift’s Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) acquired 330 images of M31 at wavelengths of 192.8, 224.6, and 260 nanometers.

The images represent a total exposure time of 24 hours.

The task of assembling the resulting 85 gigabytes of images fell to Erin Grand, an undergraduate student at the University of Maryland at College Park who worked with Immler as an intern this summer.

“After ten weeks of processing that immense amount of data, I’m extremely proud of this new view of M31,” she said.

Several features are immediately apparent in the new mosaic.

The first is the striking difference between the galaxy’s central bulge and its spiral arms.

“The bulge is smoother and redder because it’s full of older and cooler stars,” Immler explained. “Very few new stars form here because most of the materials needed to make them have been depleted,” he added.

Dense clusters of hot, young, blue stars sparkle beyond the central bulge.

M31′s disk and spiral arms contain most of the gas and dust needed to produce new generations of stars.

Star clusters are especially plentiful in an enormous ring about 150,000 light-years across.

“Swift is surveying nearby galaxies like M31 so astronomers can better understand star- formation conditions and relate them to conditions in the distant galaxies where we see gamma-ray bursts occurring,” said Neil Gehrels, the mission’s principal investigator at NASA Goddard. (ANI)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: amount, andromeda, Andromeda Galaxy, ANI, bulge, center, Central Bulge, college, constellation, Constellation Andromeda, dense, Dense Clusters, dense star, detail, difference, disk, dust, Erin Grand, exposure, eye, flight, formation, galaxy, Galaxy Washington, Gas, goddard, goddard space flight, goddard space flight center, greenbelt, greenbelt maryland, importance, intern, investigator, July, maryland, May, million light years, mission, misty, NASA, nasa goddard, Neil Gehrels, night, optical, optical telescope, park, patch, Portrait, processing, Research, ring, satellite, scientist, September, space, space flight center, sparkle, spiral, spiral arms, spiral galaxy, star, star clusters, Star Formation Processes, Stefan Immler, student, summer, swift, swift satellite, task, team, Telescope, time, ultraviolet, Ultraviolet Sources, undergraduate, University, university of maryland at college park, UVOT, view, Washington

Warped debris disks around stars a result of interstellar wind

August 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 29 (ANI): In a new research, a team of scientists has determined that the warped shapes of the dust-filled disks where new planets may be forming around other stars, may be due to interstellar wind.

The dust-filled disks where new planets may be forming around other stars occasionally take on some difficult-to-understand shapes.

Now, a team led by John Debes at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, has found that a star’s motion through interstellar gas can account for many of them.

“The disks contain small comet- or asteroid-like bodies that may grow to form planets,” Debes said. “These small bodies often collide, which produces a lot of fine dust,” he added.

As the star moves through the galaxy, it encounters thin gas clouds that create a kind of interstellar wind.

“The small particles slam into the flow, slow down, and gradually bend from their original trajectories to follow it,” said Debes.

Far from being empty, the space between stars is filled with patchy clouds of low-density gas.

When a star encounters a relatively dense clump of this gas, the resulting flow produces a drag force on any orbiting dust particles.

The force only affects the smallest particles – those about one micrometer across, or about the size of particles in smoke.

“This fine dust is usually removed through collisions among the particles, radiation pressure from the star’s light and other forces,” explained Debes. “The drag from interstellar gas just takes them on a different journey than they otherwise would have had,” he said.

Working with Alycia Weinberger at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and Goddard astrophysicist Marc Kuchner, Debes was using the Hubble Space Telescope to investigate the composition of dust around the star HD 32297, which lies 340 light-years away in the constellation Orion.

He noticed that the interior of the dusty disk – a region comparable in size to our own solar system – was warped in a way that matched a previously known warp at larger distances.

“Other research indicated there were interstellar gas clouds in the vicinity. The pieces came together to make me think that gas drag was a good explanation for what was going on,” Debes said.

“It looks like interstellar gas helps young planetary systems shed dust much as a summer breeze helps dandelions scatter seeds,” Kuchner said.

As dust particles respond to the interstellar wind, a debris disk can morph into peculiar shapes determined by the details of its collision with the gas cloud. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: Alycia, Alycia Weinberger, ANI, astrophysicist, August, breeze, carnegie, carnegie institution of washington, center, cloud, clump, collide, collision, comet, composition, constellation, constellation orion, debris, Dense Clump, Density Gas, Different Journey, disk, drag, dust, Dust Particles, Dusty Disk, explanation, far, fine, flight, flow, force, galaxy, Gas, goddard, goddard space flight, goddard space flight center, greenbelt, greenbelt maryland, hubble, Hubble Space Telescope, institution, interior, interstellar, Interstellar Wind, John Debes, journey, kind, lot, low-density, Marc Kuchner, maryland, micrometer, morph, motion, NASA, New Planets, ORION, own solar system, patchy, pressure, radiation, Radiation Pressure, region, Research, result, scatter, size, smoke, space, Space Between Stars, space flight center, star, summer, system, team, Telescope, vicinity, warp, Warped, Washington, way, Weinberger, wind, working

“Mars spectacular” event on August 27 a hoax, say astronomers

August 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 27 (ANI): Astronomers have confirmed that an email promising a “Mars spectacular” event on August 27, when the Red Planet will look as large as the full moon, is nothing but a hoax.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the anonymous message from an unknown part of the globe says that the red planet “will look as large as the full moon” in the night sky, and that “no one alive today will ever see this again.”

The claim has been bombarding people’s inboxes worldwide every summer for five years.

Today, the Mars hoax has grown into a kind of cyber legend-one that astronomers are still struggling to debunk.

“The possibility of seeing Mars as large as the moon strikes the imagination,” said Marc Jobin, staff astronomer at the Montreal Planetarium in Quebec.

“The sad reality is that a lot of people have little comprehension of astronomy and are unable to call the hoax,” he added.

But, there is a thread of truth that inspired the prank several years ago.

Planets are not on perfectly circular orbits, and during their elliptical paths around the sun, planets can vary in their exact distances to each other over time.

On August 27, 2003, Mars made a historically tight approach to Earth, coming about 56 million kilometers away.

Such a near pass hadn’t happened in nearly 60,000 years, and it won’t happen again until August 28, 2287.

In 2003, planetariums had sent out notices alerting stargazers of the real astronomical event.

“At the time, through the telescope, Mars looked as large as the full moon would with the naked eye,” explained Geza Gyuk, astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Illinois.

Through a backyard telescope with a high-power eyepiece, viewers could even make out many surface features on Mars’s disk.

With the naked eye, Mars still appeared as nothing more than a brilliant orange-colored star in the sky.

Still, an email hoax was born.

If the red planet actually did appear as huge as purported in the Mars hoax email, the planet would be just 750,000 kilometers from Earth, or about twice as far away as the moon.

According to Jobin, at that distance, life on Earth would likely be doomed.

Given the interplay of gravity between the planets and the sun, a much closer Mars “would have extreme consequences on the shape of the Earth’s orbit, with our planet swinging much closer and much farther away from the sun,” he said. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: adler planetarium, ANI, anonymous message, approach, astronomer, Astronomers, Astronomical Event, astronomy, August, August 27 2003 Mars, backyard, Backyard Telescope, Chicago, Circular Orbits, claim, Colored Star, Comprehension, cyber, disk, distance, Earth, email, Email Hoax, event, Exact Distances, eye, eyepiece, full moon, geographic, Geza, globe, gravity, Gyuk, hoax, illinois, imagination, interplay, kind, legend one, life, lot, Marc Jobin, mars, Mars As Large As The Moon, Mars Hoax, message, montreal, Montreal Planetarium, moon, national, National Geographic News, NEWS, night, nothing, orbit, part, pass, planet, planets, possibility, prank, quebec, reality, red, report, shape, sky, Spectacular Event, staff, Staff Astronomer, star, star in the sky, summer, Sun, surface, Telescope, Telescope Eyepiece, thread, time, today, truth, Washington, worldwide

Disk drive with Clinton White House data disappears

May 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 20 (ANI): A disk drive containing one terabyte of data from President Bill Clinton’s administration is being investigated as a possible theft.

The hard drive went missing from a National Archives facility in Maryland between October 2008 and March of this year, a ranking member of the House Government Oversight and Government Reform committee, said in a statement.

“Data on the drive includes more than 100,000 social security numbers (including Al Gore’s daughter), contact information (including addresses) for various Clinton administration officials, Secret Service and White House operating procedures, event logs, social gathering logs, political records and other highly-sensitive information,” Politico quoted Issa, as saying.

Issa said he learned of the drive’s disappearance in a briefing Tuesday from the National Archives’ Inspector General.

“The hard drive was moved from a ‘secure’ storage area to a workspace while it was in use as part of a process to convert [data from] the Clinton Administration,” Issa said.

The Secret Service and the Department of Justice are assisting in the investigation, the statement said. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: administration., Al Gore, ANI, area, Bill Clinton, briefing, clinton, Clinton Administration Officials, Clinton White, committee, contact, data, daughter, department, department of justice, disappearance, disk, drive, event, Event Logs, facility, gathering, Government, Government Oversight, Government Reform Committee, hard drive, house, information, Inspector General, investigation, Issa, justice, March, maryland, May, member, national, National Archives, October, operating, oversight, part, politico, president bill clinton, process, reform, secret, secret service, Secure Storage, security, service, Social Security, social security numbers, statement, storage, storage area, terabyte, theft, Tuesday, use, Washington, workspace, year

Tiny crystals in frozen comets created by outbursts from stars

May 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 14 (ANI): Astronomers have used NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to determine that outbursts from stars create tiny silicate crystals in frozen comets.

Scientists have long wondered how tiny silicate crystals, which need sizzling high temperatures to form, have found their way into frozen comets, born in the deep freeze of the solar system’s outer edges.

The crystals would have begun as non-crystallized silicate particles, part of the mix of gas and dust from which the solar system developed.

Now, a team of astronomers believes they have found a new explanation for both where and how these crystals may have been created, by using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to observe the growing pains of a young, Sun-like star.

The researchers from Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands found that silicate appears to have been transformed into crystalline form by an outburst from a star.

They detected the infrared signature of silicate crystals on the disk of dust and gas surrounding the star EX Lupi during one of its frequent flare-ups, or outbursts, seen by Spitzer in April 2008.

These crystals were not present in Spitzer’s previous observations of the star’s disk during one of its quiet periods.

“We believe that we have observed, for the first time, ongoing crystal formation,” said Attila Juhasz of the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, one of the research paper’s authors.

“We think that the crystals were formed by thermal annealing of small particles on the surface layer of the star’s inner disk by heat from the outburst. This is a completely new scenario about how this material could be created,” Juhasz added.

Annealing is a process in which a material is heated to a certain temperature at which some of its bonds break and then re-form, changing the material’s physical properties.

The crystals appear to be forsterite, a material often found in comets and in protoplanetary disks.

The crystals also appear hot, evidence that they were created in a high-temperature process, but not by shock heating.

“At outburst, EX Lupi became about 100 times more luminous,” said Juhasz.

“Crystals formed in the surface layer of the disk but just at the distance from the star where the temperature was high enough to anneal the silicate – about 1,000 Kelvin – but still lower than 1,500 Kelvin. Above that, the dust grains will evaporate,” Juhasz added.

The radius of this crystal formation zone, the researchers note, is comparable to that of the terrestrial-planet region in the solar system. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: ANI, anneal, Annealing, April, Astronomers, astronomy, Attila Juhasz, comets, crystal, Crystal Formation, crystals, disk, distance, dust, evidence, explanation, flare ups, form, formation, forsterite, freeze, Gas, Germany, Germany Hungary, growing pains, heat, heating, Heidelberg, heidelberg germany, high temperatures, Hungary, Infrared Signature, institute, Juhasz, Kelvin, layer, Lupi, material, max, max planck institute, max-planck, May, mix, NASA, New Explanation, note, outburst, outer edges, paper, part, Planck, process, Quiet Periods, region, Research, scenario, shock, signature, silicate, silicate particles, space, spitzer, spitzer space telescope, star, Sun-like, surface, Surface Layer, system, team, Telescope, temperature, the Netherlands, time, tiny, Tiny Crystals, Washington, way, zone

Samsung Introduces New “Rugged” High-capacity 500-Gigabyte 2.5-inch Hard Disk Drive for Mobile Computing

April 24, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

SEOUL, South Korea–(Business Wire)–
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in digital consumer electronics
and information technology, today introduced their new 500-Gigabyte (GB)
2.5-inch hard disk drive with a shock operation tolerance of 400G/2ms. The
Spinpoint M7 500GB 2.5-inch hard drive with 250GB per platter features a rugged
base and cover design, offering better data protection for road warriors and
other mobile laptop users.

“Our customers have been requesting hard drives with higher density, lower power
and greater reliability for their mobile applications,” said C.H. Lee, vice
president, Storage sales and marketing, Samsung Electronics. “The Spinpoint M7
answers these needs with a high-speed operating shock specification and
extraordinary drive capacity for storing large data files, music, photos and
videos.”

The Spinpoint M7 is available in 250-, 320-, 400-, 500-GB capacities. A new
controller has been adopted to reduce power consumption in seek mode to up to 25
percent over conventional 2.5″ drives. In particular, internal test results on
PC Mark show an 18 percent improvement in overall performance over 2.5″ hard
drives.

“Samsung`s M7 will appeal to notebook PC customers who want to have a hard drive
operating shock tolerance for mobile applications in tough environments,”
commented John Chen, senior director, TRENDFOCUS.

The Spinpoint M7 utilizes Samsung`s proprietary SilentSeek and NoiseGuard
technologies to minimize the noise-level of the mechanical drive operation. The
halogen-free drive complies with the European Union`s Restriction of the Use of
Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS)
regulations.

The Spinpoint M7 500GB hard drive is lightweight and durable, featuring a
5400rpm spindle speed, 8MB cache, native command queuing and a 3.0Gbps SATA
interface. The perpendicular magnetic recording technology enables the 500GB
drive to store 160,000 digital images, 125 hours of DVD movies, or 60 hours of
high definition video images.

Qualification samples of the Spinpoint M7 are currently shipping to major OEMs.
Global shipments in the United States and Europe began in April with shipments
to other regions to follow accordingly.

About Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor,
telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2008
consolidated sales of US$96 billion. Employing approximately 150,000 people in
134 offices in 62 countries, the company consists of two business units: Digital
Media and Communications and Device Solutions. Recognized as one of the fastest
growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs,
memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit
www.samsung.com.

Samsung Semiconductor Inc.
Chris Goodhart, 408-544-4122
cgoodhart@ssi.samsung.com

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: April, base, business, C H Lee, C.H. Lee, cache, capacity, certain, Certain Hazardous Substances, cgoodhart, Chris Goodhart, com, command, communications, company, computing, Consumer, consumption, controller, convergence, copyright, definition, density, design, device, digital, Digital Consumer Electronics, director, disk, drive, dvd, electronic, electronics, Employing, equipment, Europe, European, Gb Capacities, GBps, Gigabyte, hard, Hard Disk Drive, High-capacity, improvement, inc, inch, information, interface, Internal Test, Introduces, John Chen, Korea, laptop, leader, ltd, Magnetic Recording Technology, marketing, Mechanical Drive, media, memory, Mobile, mode, music, New, NoiseGuard, notebook, notebook pc, OEMs, operating, operation, Pc Customers, PC Mark, percent, performance, perpendicular, Perpendicular Magnetic Recording, power, Power Consumption, president, producer, protection, qualification, Recognized, recording, reliability, restriction, road, Road Warriors, Rohs, rpm, Rugged, Samsung, samsung electronics co, samsung electronics co ltd, sata, semiconductor, Seoul, Seoul South Korea, shock, Shock Tolerance, show, SilentSeek, South Korea, South Korea Business, specification, speed, spindle, Spindle Speed, Spinpoint, SSI, storage, Storage Sales, Substances, Technology, telecommunication, test, TFT-LCDs, today, tolerance, TRENDFOCUS, union, United States, US, use, vice, video, visit, wire, world, www

How diamonds are created in space

April 24, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 24 (ANI): Astronomers have learned that creating diamonds in space requires very special conditions.

Loads of tiny diamonds, each measuring one micrometer are located in the material that surrounds some stars – their circumstellar disks.

Few stars have been identified which show clear evidence of diamonds in their disks.

Now, astronomers, using the Subaru Telescope, have learned that creating diamonds in space requires very special conditions.

When scientists look for diamonds in space, they are like detectives using fingerprints to trace a missing person.

The fingerprints of diamond crystals take the form of signature lines in the infrared wavelength, outside the range of visible light.

After more than fifteen years of puzzling over the reasons for these signature lines, astronomers have concluded that diamonds are the carriers of these emissions.

But, the question remains: Why are there so few diamond-studded stars?

An international team of astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Germany, Hokkaido University in Japan, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) in Hawaii, Jena University in Germany, and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark used observations from the Subaru Telescope to provide data for their interpretation of why only particular stars have diamonds.

One of their major findings was that the emissions of diamond-disk stars are more centrally located and densely concentrated in the disk than other kinds of emissions.

The scientists then related this finding to another intriguing feature of two of the three stars with diamonds: Large X-ray flares are observed near them.

For stars of intermediate mass, like Elias 1, it is rather uncommon to have a strong X-ray emission, let alone an X-ray flare.

Were these rare occurrences – diamonds and X-ray flares – linked together in some way?

Findings from previous laboratory experiments provided the astronomers with a possible answer. In 1996, physicists in Germany found that tiny diamond particles formed at the core of “carbon onions” when they fired high-energy electron beams into a vacuum.

Led by the MPIA, the scientific team drew parallels between the laboratory findings and what happens in interstellar space.

The X-ray flares seem to come from the lighter companions to the primary stars of the binary systems, where two stars are consistently associated with each other.

Particle acceleration always accompanies the X-ray flare, as these two come from the same energetic phenomena related to stellar magnetic activity.

These conditions could result in a carbon onion in space, with the necessary high pressure to create diamonds. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: acceleration, activity, ANI, answer, April, Astronomers, astronomical, astronomy, carbon, circumstellar, copenhagen, core, Denmark, diamond, Diamond Crystals, Diamond Disk, diamond-studded, disk, Disk Stars, electron, elias, emission, evidence, feature, fifteen, findings, form, Germany, hawaii, hokkaido, Hokkaido University, Infrared Wavelength, institute, interpretation, interstellar, Intriguing Feature, Japan, Jena, Jena University, Laboratory, light, loads, mass, material, max, max planck institute, max-planck, micrometer, More Than Fifteen Years, MPIA, NAOJ, national, National Astronomical Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory Of Japan, observatory, onion, particle, person, Physicis, Planck, pressure, question, range, rare occurrences, ray, signature, Signature Lines, space, Subaru, subaru telescope, team, Telescope, Tiny Diamonds, University, university in germany, university of copenhagen, vacuum, Washington, wavelength, way

Scientists discover mysterious ‘space blob’ at cosmic dawn

April 23, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 23 (ANI): Using information from a suite of telescopes, astronomers have discovered a mysterious, giant ‘space blob’ that existed at a time when the universe was only about 800 million years old.

Dubbed extended Lyman-Alpha blobs, such objects are huge bodies of gas that may be precursors to galaxies.

This blob was named Himiko for a legendary, mysterious Japanese queen, as it was discovered early in the history of the universe in a Japanese Subaru field.

It stretches for 55 thousand light years, a record for that early point in time. That length is comparable to the radius of the Milky Way’s disk.

But, researchers are puzzled by the object.

Even with superb data from the world’s best telescopes, they are not sure what it is.

Because it is one of the most distant objects ever found, its faintness does not allow the researchers to understand its physical origins.

It could be ionized gas powered by a super-massive black hole; a primordial galaxy with large gas accretion; a collision of two large young galaxies; super wind from intensive star formation; or a single giant galaxy with a large mass of about 40 billion Suns.

“The farther out we look into space, the farther we go back in time,” explained lead author Masami Ouchi, a fellow at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution who led an international team of astronomers from the US, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

“I am very surprised by this discovery. I have never imagined that such a large object could exist at this early stage of the universe’s history,” Ouchi added.

“According to the concordance model of Big Bang cosmology, small objects form first and then merge to produce larger systems. This blob had a size of typical present-day galaxies when the age of the universe was about 800 million years old, only 6 percent of the age of today’s universe!” Ouchi further added.

No extended blobs have previously been found when the universe was younger.

Himiko is located at a transition point in the evolution of the universe called the reionization epoch.

It’s as far back as we can see to date, and at 55 thousand light years, Himiko is a big blob for that time.

“If this was the discovery of a class of objects that are ancestors of today’s galaxies, there should be many more smaller ones already found-a continuous distribution,” said Carnegie’s Alan Dressler, a member of the team. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: accretion, age, Age Of The Universe, Alan Dressler, alpha, ANI, April, author, bang, Bang Cosmology, Big, blob, carnegie, Carnegie Institution, class, collision, concordance, cosmic dawn, cosmology, date, dawn, discovery, disk, Distant Objects, distribution, epoch, evolution, Faintness, fellow, field, formation, galaxy, Gas, giant, Giant Galaxy, Giant Space, Himiko, history, history of the universe, hole, information, institution, Japan, Japanese, Japanese Queen, Larger Systems, length, Lyman, Lyman Alpha, Masami, Masami Ouchi, mass, massive black hole, member, Milky Way, model, Mysterious Space, object, observatories, percent, Physical Origins, point, queen, record, Reionization, size, space, stage, star, star-formation, Subaru, suite, team, time, today, transition, United Kingdom, universe, US, Washington, wind, world

Planets around cool suns have different mix of life-forming chemicals

April 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 8 (ANI): A new study from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope hints that planets around stars cooler than our Sun might possess a different mix of potentially life-forming, or “prebiotic,” chemicals.

Astronomers used Spitzer to look for a prebiotic chemical, called hydrogen cyanide, in the planet-forming material swirling around different types of stars.

Hydrogen cyanide is a component of adenine, which is a basic element of DNA.

The researchers detected hydrogen cyanide molecules in disks circling yellow stars like our Sun – but found none around cooler and smaller stars, such as the reddish-colored “M-dwarfs” and “brown dwarfs” common throughout the universe.

“Prebiotic chemistry may unfold differently on planets around cool stars,” said Ilaria Pascucci, lead author of the new study from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

Young stars are born inside cocoons of dust and gas, which eventually flatten to disks.

Dust and gas in the disks provide the raw material from which planets form. Scientists think the molecules making up the primordial ooze of life on Earth might have formed in such a disk.

Prebiotic molecules, such as adenine, are thought to have rained down to our young planet via meteorites that crashed on the surface.

“It is plausible that life on Earth was kick-started by a rich supply of molecules delivered from space,” said Pascucci.

But, could the same life-generating steps take place around other stars?

Pascucci and her colleagues addressed this question by examining the planet-forming disks around 17 cool and 44 Sun-like stars using Spitzer’s infrared spectrograph, an instrument that breaks light apart, revealing signatures of chemicals.

The stars are all about one to three million years old, an age when planets are thought to be growing.

The astronomers specifically looked for ratios of hydrogen cyanide to a baseline molecule, acetylene.

They found that the cool stars, both the M-dwarf stars and brown dwarfs, showed no hydrogen cyanide at all, while 30 percent of the Sun-like stars did.

“Perhaps ultraviolet light, which is much stronger around the Sun-like stars, may drive a higher production of the hydrogen cyanide,” said Pascucci.

The team did detect their baseline molecule, acetylene, around the cool stars, demonstrating that the experiment worked.

This is the first time that any kind of molecule has been spotted in the disks around cool stars.

The findings have implications for planets that have recently been discovered around M-dwarf stars. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: acetylene, adenine, age, ANI, April, Astronomers, author, baltimore, baseline, Basic Element, Brown Dwarfs, chemical, chemistry, Cocoons, component, cool, cyanide, disk, dna, dust, dwarf, Earth, element, experiment, Gas, hopkins, hydrogen, Hydrogen Cyanide, Ilaria Pascucci, Infrared Spectrograph, instrument, johns, johns hopkins university, kind, life, life on earth, light, maryland, material, meteorites, million years, mix, molecule, molecules, NASA, none, ooze, percent, place, planet, planets, Prebiotic, Primordial Ooze, production, question, raw material, space, spectrograph, spitzer, spitzer space telescope, study, Sun, Sun-like, supply, surface, team, Telescope, time, ultraviolet, universe, University, Washington, Yellow Stars, young, Young Planet, young stars

Kids to send their signatures to space through NASA shuttle

April 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 5 (ANI): This year, on Space Day, which is celebrated on the first Friday in May, NASA and Lockheed Martin’s main program would involve signatures by students flown aboard a space shuttle mission.

Known as ‘Student Signatures in Space’, the program will be one of the highlighted projects during the Space Day.

The mission of Space Day is to use space-related activities to inspire and prepare young people for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Student Signatures in Space began in 1997 as a way to draw kids into space studies by giving them a personal connection to space.

Participating schools are sent large posters for students to sign on Space Day. NASA and Lockheed Martin, of Bethesda, Maryland, are currently accepting school names for participation.

The program is open to elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as science museums and regional Boy Scout and Girl Scout councils.

After schools return the posters to Lockheed Martin, the signatures are scanned onto a disk and flown aboard a space shuttle mission.

Schools also receive lesson plans and information about the mission their signed posters are flying on.

Upon completion of the shuttle flight, the posters are returned to the schools along with a photo of the astronaut crew that took the signatures to space and a NASA flight certification verifying that the signatures flew in space.

Schools are allowed to participate in the signatures program once every six years. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: ANI, April, astronaut, Astronaut Crew, bethesda, bethesda maryland, boy, boy scout, Careers In Science, Certification, completion, connection, crew, day, disk, engineering, First Friday, flight, Flight Certification, Friday, Girl, Girl Scout Councils, information, kids, large posters, lesson, Lockheed, lockheed martin, Martin, maryland, mathematics, Mathematics Student, May, mission, NASA, Nasa Flight, NASA shuttle, participating, Participating Schools, participation, personal connection, photo, program, school, School Names, schools, Science, Science Museums, scout, shuttle, Shuttle Flight, signatures, space, Space Shuttle Mission, Space Studies, student, Student Signatures, Technology, Washington, way, year

Now, ‘racetrack’ memory for PCs to beat ‘back-up’ blues

April 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 4 (ANI): No need to panic if your hard disk is about to crash and you have not yet copied your favourite pictures and notes on a CD, for a new kind of computer memory may soon make ‘back-up’ a thing of the past.

Racetrack memory, developed by Physicists at the University of Leeds and scientists at IBM Research’s Zurich lab, may become the standard method of storing information in home computers.

Commonly used hard drives are metal discs made up of millions of tiny spaces, called domains, in which all the atoms are magnetised in one direction or the other to represent binary data.
The disc spins around until the ‘head’ finds and reads the information, just like a record player.

However, racetrack memory, a concept invented by Stuart Parkin at IBM Research’s Almaden Lab, has no moving parts – instead it is the information that moves.

It works on a kind of physics called spin transfer, in which scientists use electrons (in the form of electrical current) to switch the magnetism of the domains, pushing them to a different location along a nanowire.

“The reason why the hard disk on your computer is likely to break is because it has moving parts which eventually wear out, but the racetrack method of storing information is much more reliable as all the parts are static,” said Dr Chris Marrows, reader in condensed matter physics at the University of Leeds.

In comparison to flash memory, found in flash drives and iPods, racetrack memory is expected to be 100 times cheaper.

“Magnetic racetrack memory is designed to replace the hard disk, and it’s estimated that it could compete on price since it’s very dense – it can store lots of bits of data on a small area of chip, as the information is stored in vertical towers,” said another researcher working on the project.

Racetrack memory is not only more reliable than hard disks but faster also.

There are no ‘seek’ times when the head has to search the disk for information, so computers would be able to boot up almost instantly.

It is believed that a fully working racetrack memory could be available within 10 years.

The study has been published in Physical Review Letters. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: Almaden, ANI, Apr, area, back-up, Binary Data, boot, chip, commonly, comparison, Computer, computer memory, concept, Condensed Matter Physics, direction, disc, disk, dr chris, Dr Chris Marrows, favourite, Flash Drives, form, Hard Disks, head, home, Home Computers, IBM, information, kind, lab, Leeds, location, magnetism, Marrows, matter, memory, metal, method, Moving Parts, nanowire, past, physical, physicists, physics, player, price, project, racetrack, reader, reason, record, Record Player, Research, researcher, review, Stuart Parkin, study, the, thing, tiny spaces, University, university of leeds, Vertical Towers, Washington, zurich, Zurich Lab

Hubble captures quadruple Saturn moon transit

March 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, March 18 (ANI): The Hubble Space Telescope has taken a photo of four moons of Saturn passing in front of their parent planet, in a rare moon transit.

In this view, the giant orange moon Titan casts a large shadow onto Saturn’s north polar hood.

Below Titan, near the ring plane and to the left is the moon Mimas, casting a much smaller shadow onto Saturn’s equatorial cloud tops.

Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, crossed Saturn on four separate occasions: January 24, February 9, February 24, and March 12, although not all events were visible from all locations on Earth.

Farther to the left, and off Saturn’s disk, are the bright moon Dione and the fainter moon Enceladus.

These rare moon transits only happen when the tilt of Saturn’s ring plane is nearly “edge on” as seen from the Earth.

The latest pictures were taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on February 24, 2009, when Saturn was at a distance of roughly 775 million miles (1.25 billion kilometers) from Earth.

Hubble can see details as small as 190 miles (300 km) across on Saturn.

The dark band running across the face of the planet slightly above the rings is the shadow of the rings cast on the planet.

Saturn’s rings will be perfectly edge on to our line of sight on August 10, 2009, and September 4, 2009. Unfortunately, Saturn will be too close to the Sun to be seen by viewers on Earth at that time.

This “ring plane crossing” occurs every 14-15 years.

In 1995-96, Hubble witnessed the ring plane crossing event, as well as many moon transits, and even helped discover several new moons of Saturn.

The banded structure in Saturn’s atmosphere is similar to Jupiter’s.

Early 2009 was a favorable time for viewers with small telescopes to watch moon and shadow transits crossing the face of Saturn. (ANI)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ANI, atmosphere, August, band, Below, Bright Moon, camera, cast, cloud, Dione, disk, distance, Earth, edge, Enceladus, equatorial, event, face, fainter, Farther, Favorable Time, February, field, field planetary camera, four moons, front, hood, hubble, Hubble Space Telescope, hubble telescope, January, jupiter, left, line, March, Mimas, moon, moon mimas, moon titan, Moon Transit, Moon Transits, Moons Of Saturn, New Moons, orange, Orange Moon, parent, Parent Planet, photo, plane, planet, Planet Saturn, Planetary, quadruple, ring, Ring Plane, saturn, Saturn Moon, September, shadow, sight, space, structure, Sun, Telescope, tilt, time, Titan, Titan Moon, transit, view, Washington, wide, wide field planetary camera

Soon, ozone jabs to help relieve herniated disks pain

March 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 10 (ANI): Researchers from University of Toronto have suggested a new minimal invasive therapy for relieving the pain of herniated disks.

The minimally invasive interventional radiology treatment uses oxygen/ozone to relieve the chronic pain of herniated disks.

“Having a herniated disk can affect how you perform everyday activities and can cause severe pain that influences almost everything you do; however, you don’t have to undergo invasive surgery,” said Dr Kieran J. Murphy, interventional neuroradiologist and vice chair and chief of medical imaging at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Oxygen/ozone therapy involves injecting a gas mixture of oxygen and ozone into a herniated disk. The treatment can limit pain and inflammation by reducing the disk’s volume.

Currently, open diskectomy and microdiskectomy (both involving removal of disk material through an incision) are used for treating the herniated disk.

“Oxygen/ozone treatment of herniated disks is an effective and extremely safe procedure; interventional radiologists use imaging to guide a needle to inject oxygen/ozone into injured disks,” said Murphy.

“The estimated improvement in pain and function is impressive when we looked at patients who ranged in age from 13 to 94 years with all types of disk herniations.

“Equally important, pain and function outcomes are similar to the outcomes for lumbar disks treated with surgical diskectomy, but the complication rate is much less (less than 0.1 percent),” he added.

“In addition, the recovery time is significantly shorter for the oxygen/ozone injection than for the diskectomy,” said Murphy.

“The spine is a stunningly beautiful piece of engineering, or, as our engineers say, the spine is like a complex electromechanical system. And the interventional radiology oxygen/ozone treatment takes a minimalist approach. It’s all about being gentle.

“Ozone shrinks disk volume; this is why it provides pain relief,” he added.

The study was presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 34th Annual Scientific Meeting. (ANI)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: addition, age, ANI, annual, approach, Canada, chair, Chief, complication, Complication Rate, disk, Disk Material, Disk Volume, diskectomy, Dr Kieran, Dr Kieran J, Electromechanical System, engineering, Everyday Activities, everything, function, Gas, gas mixture, imaging, improvement, incision, inflammation, injection, interventional, invasive surgery, Invasive Therapy, jabs, lumbar, mar, material, microdiskectomy, Minimalist Approach, mixture, Murphy, needle, neuroradiologist, ontario, oxygen, ozone, Ozone Injection, Ozone Therapy, Ozone Treatment, pain, percent, piece, procedure, Radiology, rate, recovery, recovery time, relief, removal, scientific, Severe Pain, society, spine, study, surgery, system, therapy, time, toronto, Toronto Ontario Canada, treatment, University, university of toronto, vice, volume, Washington

How magnetic forces create ‘knots’ in stars’ jets

February 11, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Feb 10 (ANI): Scientists at Rochester University have performed the first laboratory experiment to explain how jets of matter streaming out of stars achieve their mysterious knotted shapes through magnetic forces.

“The predominant theory says that jets are essentially fire hoses that shoot out matter in a steady stream, and the stream breaks up as it collides with gas and dust in space. But, that doesn’t appear to be so after all,” said Adam Frank, professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester, and co-author of the paper.

“The experiments strongly suggest that the jets are fired out more like bullets or buckshot. They don’t break into pieces-they are formed in pieces,” he explained.

According to Frank, the experiment, conducted by Professor Sergey Lebedev’s team in the Department of Physics at Imperial College London, may be the best astrophysical experiment that’s ever been done.

“Replicating the physics of a star in a laboratory is exceptionally difficult, but the Imperial experiment matches the known physics of stellar jets surprisingly well,” he said.

At Imperial, Lebedev sent a high-powered pulse of energy into an aluminum disk. In less than a few billions of a second, the aluminum began to evaporate, creating a cloud of plasma very similar to the plasma cloud surrounding a young star.

Where the energy flowed into the center of the disk, the aluminum eroded completely, creating a hole through which a magnetic field from beneath the disk could penetrate.

“The field initially pushes aside the plasma, forming a bubble within it, who carried out the astrophysical analysis of the experiment,” said Frank.

“As the field penetrates further and the bubble grows, however, the magnetic fields begin to warp and twist, creating a knot in the jet. Almost immediately, a new magnetic bubble forms inside the base of the first as the first is propelled away, and the process repeats,” he added.

“We can see these beautiful jets in space, but we have no way to see what the magnetic fields look like,” said Frank.

“I can’t go out and stick probes in a star, but here we can get some idea-and it looks like the field is a weird, tangled mess,” he added.

According to Frank, other aspects of the experiment, such as the way in which the jets radiatively cool the plasma in the same way jets radiatively cool their parent stars, make the series of experiments an important tool for studying stellar jets.

“With this new model, astrophysicists do not have to assume that the knotted jets they see in nature mean some unknown phenomenon interrupted the jets’ flow of material,” he said. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: Adam Frank, aluminum, Analysis, ANI, base, bubble, buckshot, center, cloud, co-author, college, department, disk, dust, energy, experiment, Feb, field, fire, flow, frank, Gas, hole, imperial, jet, knot, Laboratory, Lebedev, London, material, matter, mess, model, Nature, paper, parent, phenomenon, physics, plasma, predominant, process, professor, pulse, Replicating, rochester, Second, Sergey, series, space, star, stream, team, theory, tool, twist, University, warp, Washington, way

Astronomers spot ‘cosmic dust fountain’

February 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Feb 6 (ANI): A team of astronomers has literally spotted a ‘cosmic dust fountain’ in the far reaches of space, which is namely a double-star system that displays all the characteristics that are associated with dust production.

The system was found by York, the University of Toledo’s Adolf Witt, and their collaborators.

The double star system, designated HD 44179, sits within what astronomers call the Red Rectangle, an interstellar cloud of gas and dust (nebula) located approximately 2,300 light years from Earth.

One of the double stars is of a type that astronomers regard as a likely source of dust. These stars, unlike the sun, have already burned all the hydrogen in their cores.

Labeled post-AGB (post-asymptotic giant branch) stars, these objects collapsed after burning their initial hydrogen, until they could generate enough heat to burn a new fuel, helium.

During this transition, which takes place over tens of thousands of years, these stars lose an outer layer of their atmosphere.

Dust may form in this cooling layer, which radiation pressure coming from the star’s interior pushes out the dust away from the star, along with a fair amount of gas.

In double-star systems, a disk of material from the post-AGB star may form around the second smaller, more slowly evolving star.

“When disks form in astronomy, they often form jets that blow part of the material out of the original system, distributing the material in space,” York explained.

This seems to be the phenomenon that Witt’s team observed in the Red Rectangle, probably the best example so far discovered.

The discovery has wide-ranging implications, because dust is critical to scientific theories about how stars form.

“If a cloud of gas and dust collapses under its own gravity, it immediately gets hotter and starts to evaporate,” York said.

Something, possibly dust, must immediately cool the cloud to prevent it from reheating.

The giant star sitting in the Red Rectangle is among those that are far too hot to allow dust condensation within their atmospheres. And yet a giant ring of dusty gas encircles it.

“Our observations have shown that it is most likely the gravitational or tidal interaction between our Red Rectangle giant star and a close sun-like companion star that causes material to leave the envelope of the giant,” said Witt.

Some of this material ends up in a disk of accumulating dust that surrounds that smaller companion star. Gradually, over a period of approximately 500 years, the material spirals into the smaller star. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: Adolf Witt, AGB, amount, ANI, Astronomers, astronomy, atmosphere, blow, branch, cloud, companion, condensation, discovery, disk, dust, Earth, Envelope, example, Feb, fountain, fuel, Gas, giant, gravity, heat, helium, hotter, hydrogen, interaction, interstellar, Labeled, layer, material, nebula, part, period, phenomenon, place, post, pressure, production, radiation, Rectangle, red, ring, something, source, space, spot, star, Sun, system, team, toledo, transition, type, University, Washington, york

French UPS major Socomec sets ambitious targets for Indian market

January 22, 2009 By Rajesh Leave a Comment

Chennai, Jan 22 (ANI/Business Wire India): The Chennai-based Socomec UPS India Pvt. Ltd., the wholly owned subsidiary of French UPS major and global leader in UPS technology, Socomec, has set ambitious plans for Indian market by launching a wide range of new UPS products, including: Green Power UPS, ITYS, Statys and Asys in India, with the power range spanning from 1 to 800kVA.

The company has fostered a marketing arrangement with Redington India Ltd., a premier end-to-end Supply Chain Management (SCM) solutions provider to strengthen its Indian presence. Socomec India aims to generate a turnover of Rs 200 crore by 2011.

Addressing the media persons here on Wednesday, Norbert Jacobsen, Managing Director, Socomec UPS India, said that Socomec India is a technology driven company that provides best technology and value based products. The company is launching the new range of UPS products in India to address the needs of the secure power supply with high efficiency and Green electrical energy for the industrial and services sectors.

Jacobsen said that Socomec India wants to be one among the top three UPS companies in India. The company has recently set up its fully owned subsidiary in India to take a handgrip of its marketing, distribution and retailing processes. Socomec India expects to increase its yearly turnover to Rs 200 crore by 2011. Socomec India has tied-up with Redington to reach its UPS products across India in tier 1, 2 and 3 cities. Redington will play liaison between Socomec and its channel partners.

Socomec’s Green Power is a family of static UPS systems with power ranging from 100 to 200 kVA, for loads with power factor 0.9. This new range, which is designed especially for the IT industry, comes with 96 percent* efficiency, more or less constant throughout the entire load curve. Socomec’s ITYS is a new range of single-phase UPS systems, designed with the objective of achieving high volume sales through the power and IT distribution channel. Socomec’s Statys and Asys Switches are meant for absolute certainty in the power supply from a dual-redundant system.

The Statys is a range of static load transfer systems (STS) with power levels ranging from 16 A to 63 A single-phase and 63 A to 100 A three-phase in rack versions and up to 1800 A three-phase in cabinet or panel-integratable versions.

Currently, Socomec India has 14 offices and customer service centres across Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Pune, Kolkata, Madurai, Cochin, Chandigarh, Indore, Ahmedabad and Aurangabad to support its Sales and Service function. It has an 11 per cent market share in the Indian UPS Market.

Socomec has won the “Best Service Provider Award and No. 1 UPS in Product Quality Award” for 10 KVA and above UPS capacity in the Indian market with 94 percent Customer Satisfaction rating as surveyed by SOFT DISK magazine for the year 2007. (ANI)

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: Ahmedabad, ANI, arrangement, Asys, aurangabad, award, Bangalore, business, cabinet, capacity, cent, certainty, chain, Chandigarh, channel, Chennai, Chennai-based, Cochin, Coimbatore, company, crore, curve, customer, Delhi, director, disk, distribution, efficiency, energy, factor, family, French, function, green, handgrip, Hyderabad, India, Indian, Indore, industry, ITYS, jan, Kolkata, KVA, leader, liaison, load, ltd, Madurai, magazine, management, managing, market, marketing, Mumbai, Norbert Jacobsen, objective, percent, power, Premier, presence, product, provider, Pune, pvt, quality, rack, range, rating, Redington, retailing, satisfaction, SCM, service, share, Socomec, Statys, STs, subsidiary, supply, switches, system, Technology, tier, transfer, turnover, ups, value, volume, Wednesday, wire, year

Jupiter-like planets may easily form around twin star systems

January 6, 2009 By Rajiv Gupta Leave a Comment

Washington, Jan 6 (ANI): In a new study, astronomers have suggested that Jupiter-like planets may easily form around certain types of twin star systems.

A disk of molecules discovered orbiting a pair of twin young suns in the constellation Sagittarius strongly suggests that many such binary systems also host planets.

“We think the molecular gas orbiting these two stars almost literally represents ‘smoking gun’ evidence of recent or possibly ongoing ‘giant’ (Jupiter-like) planet formation around the binary star system,” said astronomer Joel Kastner, professor at Rochester Institute of Technology’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science.

Kastner used the 30-meter radiotelescope operated by the Institut de Radio Astronomie Millimetrique (IRAM) to study radio molecular spectra emitted from the vicinity of the two stars in a binary system called V4046 Sgr, which lies about 210 light-years away from our solar system.

The scientists found “in large abundance” raw materials for planet formation around the nearby stars, including circumstellar carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide, in the noxious molecular gas cloud.

The young stars, approximately 10 million years old, are close in proximity to each other—only 10 solar diameters apart—and orbit each other once every 2.5 days.

“In this case, the stars are so close together, and the profile of the gas in terms of the types of molecules that are there is so much like the types of gaseous disks that we see around single stars, that it’s a real link between planets forming around single stars and planets forming around double stars,” Kastner said.

Planets that have just formed around young stars like the V4046 Sgr twins might leave leftover gas, a potential clue for astronomers who hunt planets.

Kastner is now encouraging other scientists to look closely at V4046 Sgr to see if planets are forming around them.

“We really don’t have any idea right now about what kinds of planets form around double stars or even if planets can form around double stars,” Kastner said.

“It’s not something that’s established. It’s theoretically possible, but I’m not aware of a single observation yet of a planet orbiting a double star. I hope someone will go looking soon, if they haven’t already, around V4046 Sagittarius,” he added. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: abundance, ANI, apart, around, Astronomers, binary, carlson, discovered, disk, double, form, formation, Gas, gaseous, haven, institut, jupiter-like, kastner, leave, leftover, lies, materials, million, molecular, molecules, monoxide, operated, orbiting, planets, possible, potential, radio, rochester, sagittarius, Scientists, sgr, single, solar, stars, study, suggests, system, Technology, theoretically, twin, types, used, v4046, years, young

MRI proving a great boon to back pain treatment, says report

January 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, January 2 (ANI): Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is providing an increasing number of clinical benefits when used in the evaluation of back pain, and additional technical developments may allow it to provide even more useful orthopaedic benefits in future, according to a research article.

“Because of the many different ways to gather this important information, MRI can be used to identify or display almost every type of spinal tissue or pathology. The imaging sequence can be modified to meet many different clinical needs,” Dr. Victor M. Haughton, a radiologist at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics, says in the article published in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

The authors write that MRI—which is considered safe, fast and versatile—is being used in several spinal applications like intervertebral disk and facet joint degeneration, spinal canal stenosis, vascular disorders, and trauma.

They also suggest it to be useful for almost every spinal pathology—such as diseases of the spinal cord, nerve roots, vertebrae, disks and blood vessels.

They further say that there is no radiation risk to the patient undergoing MRI.

“The possibilities of magnetic resonance have not yet been realized. It is a rapidly evolving field. When we need tools to identify a possible herniated disk, the simplest type of MR imaging or CT imaging can be used successfully. However, if you want to find out which disk is causing pain, which nerve is firing, which metabolites are present in abnormal amounts, or how well the spinal elements are functioning, MR will provide the answers,” adds Dr. Haughton. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: academy, according, almost, ANI, applications, Article, benefits, clinical, cord, different, disk, disorders, dr, elements, evolving, firing, haughton, identify, imaging, important, magnetic, metabolites, modified, mr, mri, nerve, orthopaedic, pain, pathology, patient, possible, provide, published, radiologist, resonance, sequence, several, spinal, stenosis, successfully, technical, tissue, tools, trauma, type, used, vascular, versatile, vertebrae, Wisconsin