OPEN INFO

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

2011-04-14T04:03:00.001-07:00

Rise of the Planet of the Apes WETA Concept Art

Earlier today, WETA held a special online presentation for this summer's prequel/reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes, where they showed off some of the concept art from the movie. You can check out some of these images, which depict an ape uprising and take-over, in the photos below.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes comes to theaters August 5th, 2011 and stars James Franco,Brian Cox, Andy Serkis, John Lithgow, Freida Pinto, Tom Felton. The film is directed by Rupert Wyatt.

Awesome......

2011-04-14T03:59:00.000-07:00

Amazing Art......

2011-04-14T03:51:00.000-07:00

Northwest Greenland Canyons

2011-04-14T01:25:00.000-07:00

About Stars

2011-04-14T01:17:00.003-07:00

Stars

Stars are the most widely recognized astronomical objects, and represent the most fundamental building blocks of galaxies. The age, distribution, and composition of the stars in a galaxy trace the history, dynamics, and evolution of that galaxy. Moreover, stars are responsible for the manufacture and distribution of heavy elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, and their characteristics are intimately tied to the characteristics of the planetary systems that may coalesce about them. Consequently, the study of the birth, life, and death of stars is central to the field of astronomy.

Orion Nebula Image: Hubble & Spitzer Panoramic View of Orion Nebula Reveals Thousands of Stars - In one of the most detailed astronomical images ever produced, NASA's Hubble & Spitzer Space Telescopes captured an unprecedented look at the Orion Nebula. The Orion Nebula is a picture book of star formation, from the massive, young stars that are shaping the nebula to the pillars of dense gas that may be the homes of budding stars. Credit: NASA, ESA, T. Megeath (University of Toledo) and M. Robberto (STScI)

Star Formation

Stars are born within the clouds of dust and scattered throughout most galaxies. A familiar example of such as a dust cloud is the Orion Nebula, revealed in vivid detail in the adjacent image, which combines images at visible and infrared wavelengths measured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope. Turbulence deep within these clouds gives rise to knots with sufficient mass that the gas and dust can begin to collapse under its own gravitational attraction. As the cloud collapses, the material at the center begins to heat up. Known as a protostar, it is this hot core at the heart of the collapsing cloud that will one day become a star. Three-dimensional computer models of star formation predict that the spinning clouds of collapsing gas and dust may break up into two or three blobs; this would explain why the majority the stars in the Milky Way are paired or in groups of multiple stars.

As the cloud collapses, a dense, hot core forms and begins gathering dust and gas. Not all of this material ends up as part of a star — the remaining dust can become planets, asteroids, or comets or may remain as dust.

In some cases, the cloud may not collapse at a steady pace. In January 2004, an amateur astronomer, James McNeil, discovered a small nebula that appeared unexpectedly near the nebula Messier 78, in the constellation of Orion. When observers around the world pointed their instruments atMcNeil's Nebula, they found something interesting — its brightness appears to vary. Observations with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory provided a likely explanation: the interaction between the young star's magnetic field and the surrounding gas causes episodic increases in brightness.

Main Sequence Stars

A star the size of our Sun requires about 50 million years to mature from the beginning of the collapse to adulthood. Our Sun will stay in this mature phase (on the main sequence as shown in the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram) for approximately 10 billion years.

Stars are fueled by the nuclear fusion of hydrogen to form helium deep in their interiors. The outflow of energy from the central regions of the star provides the pressure necessary to keep the star from collapsing under its own weight, and the energy by which it shines.

As shown in the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, Main Sequence stars span a wide range of luminosities and colors, and can be classified according to those characteristics. The smallest stars, known as red dwarfs, may contain as little as 10% the mass of the Sun and emit only 0.01% as much energy, glowing feebly at temperatures between 3000-4000K. Despite their diminutive nature, red dwarfs are by far the most numerous stars in the Universe and have lifespans of tens of billions of years.

On the other hand, the most massive stars, known as hypergiants, may be 100 or more times more massive than the Sun, and have surface temperatures of more than 30,000 K. Hypergiants emit hundreds of thousands of times more energy than the Sun, but have lifetimes of only a few million years. Although extreme stars such as these are believed to have been common in the early Universe, today they are extremely rare - the entire Milky Way galaxy contains only a handful of hypergiants.

Stars and Their Fates

In general, the larger a star, the shorter its life, although all but the most massive stars live for billions of years. When a star has fused all the hydrogen in its core, nuclear reactions cease. Deprived of the energy production needed to support it, the core begins to collapse into itself and becomes much hotter. Hydrogen is still available outside the core, so hydrogen fusion continues in a shell surrounding the core. The increasingly hot core also pushes the outer layers of the star outward, causing them to expand and cool, transforming the star into a red giant.

If the star is sufficiently massive, the collapsing core may become hot enough to support more exotic nuclear reactions that consume helium and produce a variety of heavier elements up to iron. However, such reactions offer only a temporary reprieve. Gradually, the star's internal nuclear fires become increasingly unstable - sometimes burning furiously, other times dying down. These variations cause the star to pulsate and throw off its outer layers, enshrouding itself in a cocoon of gas and dust. What happens next depends on the size of the core.

	Average Stars Become White Dwarfs For average stars like the Sun, the process of ejecting its outer layers continues until the stellar core is exposed. This dead, but still ferociously hot stellar cinder is called a a White Dwarf. White dwarfs, which are roughly the size of our Earth despite containing the mass of a star, once puzzled astronomers - why didn't they collapse further? What force supported the mass of the core? Quantum mechanics provided the explanation. Pressure from fast moving electrons keeps these stars from collapsing. The more massive the core, the denser the white dwarf that is formed. Thus, the smaller a white dwarf is in diameter, the larger it is in mass! These paradoxical stars are very common - our own Sun will be a white dwarf billions of years from now. White dwarfs are intrinsically very faint because they are so small and, lacking a source of energy production, they fade into oblivion as they gradually cool down. This fate awaits only those stars with a mass up to about 1.4 times the mass of our Sun. Above that mass, electron pressure cannot support the core against further collapse. Such stars suffer a different fate as described below.
	White Dwarfs May Become Novae If a white dwarf forms in a binary or multiple star system, it may experience a more eventful demise as a nova. Nova is Latin for "new" - novae were once thought to be new stars. Today, we understand that they are in fact, very old stars - white dwarfs. If a white dwarf is close enough to a companion star, its gravity may drag matter - mostly hydrogen - from the outer layers of that star onto itself, building up its surface layer. When enough hydrogen has accumulated on the surface, a burst of nuclear fusion occurs, causing the white dwarf to brighten substantially and expel the remaining material. Within a few days, the glow subsides and the cycle starts again. Sometimes, particularly massive white dwarfs (those near the 1.4 solar mass limit mentioned above) may accrete so much mass in the manner that they collapse and explode completely, becoming what is known as a supernova.
	Supernovae Leave Behind Neutron Stars or Black Holes Main sequence stars over eight solar masses are destined to die in a titanic explosion called a supernova. A supernova is not merely a bigger nova. In a nova, only the star's surface explodes. In a supernova, the star's core collapses and then explodes. In massive stars, a complex series of nuclear reactions leads to the production of iron in the core. Having achieved iron, the star has wrung all the energy it can out of nuclear fusion - fusion reactions that form elements heavier than iron actually consume energy rather than produce it. The star no longer has any way to support its own mass, and the iron core collapses. In just a matter of seconds the core shrinks from roughly 5000 miles across to just a dozen, and the temperature spikes 100 billion degrees or more. The outer layers of the star initially begin to collapse along with the core, but rebound with the enormous release of energy and are thrown violently outward. Supernovae release an almost unimaginable amount of energy. For a period of days to weeks, a supernova may outshine an entire galaxy. Likewise, all the naturally occurring elements and a rich array of subatomic particles are produced in these explosions. On average, a supernova explosion occurs about once every hundred years in the typical galaxy. About 25 to 50 supernovae are discovered each year in other galaxies, but most are too far away to be seen without a telescope.
	Neutron Stars If the collapsing stellar core at the center of a supernova contains between about 1.4 and 3 solar masses, the collapse continues until electrons and protons combine to form neutrons, producing a neutron star. Neutron stars are incredibly dense - similar to the density of an atomic nucleus. Because it contains so much mass packed into such a small volume, the gravitation at the surface of a neutron star is immense. Like the White Dwarf stars above, if a neutron star forms in a multiple star system it can accrete gas by stripping it off any nearby companions. The Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer has captured telltale X-Ray emissions of gas swirling just a few miles from the surface of a neutron star. Neutron stars also have powerful magnetic fields which can accelerate atomic particles around its magnetic poles producing powerful beams of radiation. Those beams sweep around like massive searchlight beams as the star rotates. If such a beam is oriented so that it periodically points toward the Earth, we observe it as regular pulses of radiation that occur whenever the magnetic pole sweeps past the line of sight. In this case, the neutron star is known as a pulsar. View the Video (MPEG, 4MB)
	Black Holes If the collapsed stellar core is larger than three solar masses, it collapses completely to form a black hole: an infinitely dense object whose gravity is so strong that nothing can escape its immediate proximity, not even light. Since photons are what our instruments are designed to see, black holes can only be detected indirectly. Indirect observations are possible because the gravitational field of a black hole is so powerful that any nearby material - often the outer layers of a companion star - is caught up and dragged in. As matter spirals into a black hole, it forms a disk that is heated to enormous temperatures, emitting copious quantities of X-rays and Gamma-rays that indicate the presence of the underlying hidden companion.
	From the Remains, New Stars Arise The dust and debris left behind by novae and supernovae eventually blend with the surrounding interstellar gas and dust, enriching it with the heavy elements and chemical compounds produced during stellar death. Eventually, those materials are recycled, providing the building blocks for a new generation of stars and accompanying planetary systems.

About Stars

2011-04-14T01:17:00.001-07:00

Stars

Orion Nebula Image: Hubble & Spitzer Panoramic View of Orion Nebula Reveals Thousands of Stars - In one of the most detailed astronomical images ever produced, NASA's Hubble & Spitzer Space Telescopes captured an unprecedented look at the Orion Nebula. The Orion Nebula is a picture book of star formation, from the massive, young stars that are shaping the nebula to the pillars of dense gas that may be the homes of budding stars. Credit: NASA, ESA, T. Megeath (University of Toledo) and M. Robberto (STScI)

Star Formation

Main Sequence Stars

Stars and Their Fates

	Average Stars Become White Dwarfs For average stars like the Sun, the process of ejecting its outer layers continues until the stellar core is exposed. This dead, but still ferociously hot stellar cinder is called a a White Dwarf. White dwarfs, which are roughly the size of our Earth despite containing the mass of a star, once puzzled astronomers - why didn't they collapse further? What force supported the mass of the core? Quantum mechanics provided the explanation. Pressure from fast moving electrons keeps these stars from collapsing. The more massive the core, the denser the white dwarf that is formed. Thus, the smaller a white dwarf is in diameter, the larger it is in mass! These paradoxical stars are very common - our own Sun will be a white dwarf billions of years from now. White dwarfs are intrinsically very faint because they are so small and, lacking a source of energy production, they fade into oblivion as they gradually cool down. This fate awaits only those stars with a mass up to about 1.4 times the mass of our Sun. Above that mass, electron pressure cannot support the core against further collapse. Such stars suffer a different fate as described below.
	White Dwarfs May Become Novae If a white dwarf forms in a binary or multiple star system, it may experience a more eventful demise as a nova. Nova is Latin for "new" - novae were once thought to be new stars. Today, we understand that they are in fact, very old stars - white dwarfs. If a white dwarf is close enough to a companion star, its gravity may drag matter - mostly hydrogen - from the outer layers of that star onto itself, building up its surface layer. When enough hydrogen has accumulated on the surface, a burst of nuclear fusion occurs, causing the white dwarf to brighten substantially and expel the remaining material. Within a few days, the glow subsides and the cycle starts again. Sometimes, particularly massive white dwarfs (those near the 1.4 solar mass limit mentioned above) may accrete so much mass in the manner that they collapse and explode completely, becoming what is known as a supernova.
	Supernovae Leave Behind Neutron Stars or Black Holes Main sequence stars over eight solar masses are destined to die in a titanic explosion called a supernova. A supernova is not merely a bigger nova. In a nova, only the star's surface explodes. In a supernova, the star's core collapses and then explodes. In massive stars, a complex series of nuclear reactions leads to the production of iron in the core. Having achieved iron, the star has wrung all the energy it can out of nuclear fusion - fusion reactions that form elements heavier than iron actually consume energy rather than produce it. The star no longer has any way to support its own mass, and the iron core collapses. In just a matter of seconds the core shrinks from roughly 5000 miles across to just a dozen, and the temperature spikes 100 billion degrees or more. The outer layers of the star initially begin to collapse along with the core, but rebound with the enormous release of energy and are thrown violently outward. Supernovae release an almost unimaginable amount of energy. For a period of days to weeks, a supernova may outshine an entire galaxy. Likewise, all the naturally occurring elements and a rich array of subatomic particles are produced in these explosions. On average, a supernova explosion occurs about once every hundred years in the typical galaxy. About 25 to 50 supernovae are discovered each year in other galaxies, but most are too far away to be seen without a telescope.
	Neutron Stars If the collapsing stellar core at the center of a supernova contains between about 1.4 and 3 solar masses, the collapse continues until electrons and protons combine to form neutrons, producing a neutron star. Neutron stars are incredibly dense - similar to the density of an atomic nucleus. Because it contains so much mass packed into such a small volume, the gravitation at the surface of a neutron star is immense. Like the White Dwarf stars above, if a neutron star forms in a multiple star system it can accrete gas by stripping it off any nearby companions. The Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer has captured telltale X-Ray emissions of gas swirling just a few miles from the surface of a neutron star. Neutron stars also have powerful magnetic fields which can accelerate atomic particles around its magnetic poles producing powerful beams of radiation. Those beams sweep around like massive searchlight beams as the star rotates. If such a beam is oriented so that it periodically points toward the Earth, we observe it as regular pulses of radiation that occur whenever the magnetic pole sweeps past the line of sight. In this case, the neutron star is known as a pulsar. View the Video (MPEG, 4MB)
	Black Holes If the collapsed stellar core is larger than three solar masses, it collapses completely to form a black hole: an infinitely dense object whose gravity is so strong that nothing can escape its immediate proximity, not even light. Since photons are what our instruments are designed to see, black holes can only be detected indirectly. Indirect observations are possible because the gravitational field of a black hole is so powerful that any nearby material - often the outer layers of a companion star - is caught up and dragged in. As matter spirals into a black hole, it forms a disk that is heated to enormous temperatures, emitting copious quantities of X-rays and Gamma-rays that indicate the presence of the underlying hidden companion.
	From the Remains, New Stars Arise The dust and debris left behind by novae and supernovae eventually blend with the surrounding interstellar gas and dust, enriching it with the heavy elements and chemical compounds produced during stellar death. Eventually, those materials are recycled, providing the building blocks for a new generation of stars and accompanying planetary systems.

Galaxies

2011-04-14T01:13:00.000-07:00

Galaxies

Artist's Conception - The Milky Way
Where are we?
We live in a somewhat remote arm of the Milky Way. This video shows you the way from our home to a vantage point outside the Local Group.
Animation (Quicktime, 3MB)

Hubble Ultra Deep Field galaxies: Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team

Universe Galaxies-5 CartwheelThe unusual shape of the Cartwheel Galaxy is likely due to a collision with one of the smaller galaxies on the lower left several hundred million years ago. This image combines data from four different observatories: the Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple); the Galaxy Evolution Explorer satellite (ultraviolet/blue); the Hubble Space Telescope (visible/green); and the Spitzer Space Telescope (infrared/red).
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is typical: it has hundreds of billions of stars, enough gas and dust to make billions more stars, and at least ten times as much dark matter as all the stars and gas put together. And it’s all held together bygravity.
Like more than two-thirds of the known galaxies, the Milky Way has a spiral shape. At the center of the spiral, a lot of energy and, occasionally, vivid flares. are being generated. Based on the immense gravity that would be required explain the movement of stars and the energy expelled, the astronomers conclude that the center of the Milky Way is a supermassive black hole.
Other galaxies have elliptical shapes, and a few have unusual shapes like toothpicks or rings. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) shows this diversity. Hubble observed a tiny patch of sky (one-tenth the diameter of the moon) for one million seconds (11.6 days) and found approximately 10,000 galaxies, of all sizes, shapes, and colors. From the ground, we see very little in this spot, which is in the constellation Fornax.
Formation
After the Big Bang, the Universe was composed of radiation and subatomic particles. What happened next is up for debate - did small particles slowly team up and gradually form stars, star clusters, and eventually galaxies? Or did the Universe first organize as immense clumps of matter that later subdivided into galaxies?
Collisions
The shapes of galaxies are influenced by their neighbors, and, often, galaxies collide. The Milky Way is itself on acollision course with our nearest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy. Even though it is the same age as the Milky Way, Hubble observations reveal that the stars in Andromeda's halo are much younger than those in the Milky Way. From this and other evidence, astronomers infer that Andromeda has already smashed into at least one and maybe several other galaxies.

Our Galactic Neighbors
The "lifestyles" of 75 neighboring galaxies are illuminated in this poster from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
In this composite, blue colors reveal light from an older population of stars. Tints of green represent organic molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, while red lumps show clouds of warm dust and gas heated by radiation from newborn stars.

CREDIT:NASA/JPL-Caltech/K. Gordon (Space Telescope Science Institute) and SINGS Team

Black Holes

2011-04-14T01:12:00.000-07:00

Black Holes

Don't let the name fool you: a black hole is anything but empty space. Rather, it is a great amount of matter packed into a very small area - think of a star ten times more massive than the Sun squeezed into a sphere approximately the diameter of New York City. The result is a gravitational field so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. In recent years, NASA instruments have painted a new picture of these strange objects that are, to many, the most fascinating objects in space.

Universe Black Holes-1 Spitzer. This star-studded infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Milky Way's churning center. In this false-color image, old, cool stars appear blue, and the dust near hot, massive stars is red. Astronomers believe there is a supermassive black hole in the galaxy's core, visible here as a bright white spot. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S. Stolovy (SSC/Caltech).

Although the term was not coined until 1967 by Princeton physicist John Wheeler, the idea of an object in space so massive and dense that light could not escape it has been around for centuries. Most famously, black holes were predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity, which showed that when a massive star dies, it leaves behind a small, dense remnant core. If the core's mass is more than about three times the mass of the Sun, the equations showed, the force of gravity overwhelms all other forces and produces a black hole.

Scientists can't directly observe black holes with telescopes that detect x-rays, light, or other forms of electromagnetic radiation. We can, however, infer the presence of black holes and study them by detecting their effect on other matter nearby. If a black hole passes through a cloud of interstellar matter, for example, it will draw matter inward in a process known as accretion. A similar process can occur if a normal star passes close to a black hole. In this case, the black hole can tear the star apart as it pulls it toward itself. As the attracted matter accelerates and heats up, it emits x-rays that radiate into space. Recent discoveries offer some tantalizing evidence that black holes have a dramatic influence on the neighborhoods around them - emitting powerful gamma ray bursts, devouring nearby stars, and spurring the growth of new stars in some areas while stalling it in others.

Another interesting possibility becomes available when the black hole is in a binary star system with a compact star like a neutron star or another black hole. When two black holes orbit each other, their accelerated masses directly create gravitational waves that stream away through space and carry information about the masses and strong fields that created them. Gravitational waves are waves of space curvature and may be detected by missions such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) through the way they affect the geometry of space at the location of the detector. In a sense, a black hole is the mass it contains plus the intense gravitational field around it, so LISA will actually be able to "see" black holes. From these observations, astronomers will be able to study the details of the gravitational field around the black hole and measure all the parameters of the black hole - its mass, its spin, and its location in the sky.

Universe Black Holes-2 Double Burst. When a massive star runs out of fuel, as this animation shows, the core collapses and forms a black hole.Scientists long thought that the explosion would be followed by an afterglow of dying embers, but new evidence from the Swift telescope indicates that a newborn black hole somehow re-energizes the explosion again and again, creating multiple bursts of energy in a few minutes. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Dana Berry.

One Star's End is a Black Hole's Beginning

Most black holes form from the remnants of a large star that dies in a supernova explosion. (Smaller stars become dense neutron stars, which are not massive enough to trap light.) If the total mass of the star is large enough (about three times the mass of the Sun), it can be proven theoretically that no force can keep the star from collapsing under the influence of gravity. However, as the star collapses, a strange thing occurs. As the surface of the star nears an imaginary surface called the "event horizon," time on the star slows relative to the time kept by observers far away. When the surface reaches the event horizon, time stands still, and the star can collapse no more - it is a frozen collapsing object.

Even bigger black holes can result from stellar collisions. Soon after its launch in December 2004, NASA's Swift telescope observed the powerful, fleeting flashes of lightknown as gamma ray bursts. Chandra and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope later collected data from the event's "afterglow," and together the observations led astronomers to conclude that the powerful explosions can result when a black hole and a neutron star collide, producing another black hole.

Babies and Giants

Although the basic formation process is understood, one perennial mystery in the science of black holes is that they appear to exist on two radically different size scales. On the one end, there are the countless black holes that are the remnants of massive stars. Peppered throughout the Universe, these "stellar mass" black holes are generally 10 to 24 times as massive as the Sun. Astronomers spot them when another star draws near enough for some of the matter surrounding it to be snared by the black hole's gravity, churning out x-rays in the process. Most stellar black holes, however, lead isolated lives and are impossible to detect. Judging from the number of stars large enough to produce such black holes, however, scientists estimate that there are as many as ten million to a billion such black holes in the Milky Way alone.

On the other end of the size spectrum are the giants known as "supermassive" black holes, which are millions, if not billions, of times as massive as the Sun. Astronomers believe that supermassive black holes lie at the center of virtually all large galaxies, even our own Milky Way. Astronomers can detect them by watching for their effects on nearby stars and gas.

So far, there has been no direct evidence of mid-sized black holes. The question is, why not? Historically, scientists have believed simply that no such black holes exist, but recent observations have led some astronomers to think otherwise. The question of whether black holes of intermediate mass exist is a subject of much current research.

Universe Black Holes-3 Globular Clusters. For decades, most researchers have believed that black holes came in two sizes: the mass of a few stars, or the mass of a million stars or more. These two previously undiscovered black holes provide an important link that sheds light on the way in which black holes grow. The black hole in M15 (left) is 4,000 times more massive than our Sun. G1 (right), a much larger globular cluster, harbors a heftier black hole, about 20,000 times more massive than our Sun.

In 1997, the Hubble Space Telescope was equipped with an instrument that separates visible light into various wavelengths, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). Measurements by STIS can reveal the speed and other properties of gas as it swirls into a black hole, which, in turn, reveals certain characteristics of the black hole itself — its mass, for example, and how fast it is spinning. It is these observations from Hubble that show that most, possibly all, large galaxies are home to achurning black hole. One black hole in the constellation Virgo, 50 million light-years away, has been calculated to have a mass equal to about three billion Suns.

Universe Black Holes-4 Merging Galaxies. This illustration shows two merging galaxies, an event that triggers a burst of star formation and provides fuel for the supermassive black holes in each galaxy's center. The inset shows a Chandra image of two central black holes -- about 70,000 light years apart - in merging galaxies. The varying colors represent differences in X-ray absorption by gas and dust around the black holes. Credit: CXC/M.Weiss.

The matter surrounding a stellar black hole — known as the accretion disk — consists of gas and dust. Around a supermassive black hole in the middle of a galaxy, this disk can include stars as well. In 2004, data from Chandra offered scientists their first-ever glimpse of a black hole shredding a nearby star.

Later that year, Chandra spotted two supermassive black holes orbiting in the same galaxy — and therefore doomed to collide. And in October 2005, Chandra revealed a series of stars thought to have been spawned by the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

Outer Solar System

2011-04-14T01:07:00.001-07:00

Outer Solar System

NASA’s Planetary Science missions to the outer planets help reveal secrets about the solar system by observing those outer distant worlds up close. Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus are now thought to hide liquid water beneath their frozen surfaces and are high priority targets for NASA. Unlocking their secrets and those of the outer planets will help scientists understand more about planet Earth and the formation and evolution of the solar system.

Saturn's icy satellites wheel about the colorful giant planet, while the rings shine dimly in scattered sunlight. The Ringed Planet is, in many ways, a laboratory for investigating the history of our solar system and how planets form around other stars.

Jupiter has more mass than all other planets in the solar system combined. It helps protect Earth by steering comets either towards the sun or ejecting them to the outer reaches of the solar system or beyond. Jupiter has dozens of moons orbiting it, one of which, Europa, is thought to have a sub-surface liquid salt water ocean. It therefore may possibly harbor life as heat and water, the two ingredients required for life on Earth as we know it, are seemingly present below the moon’s surface.

Saturn has intrigued man for centuries, especially since the invention of the telescope when the Saturn’s grand rings were observed for the first time. Much like Jupiter, Saturn has many dozens of moons, one of which, Enceladus, could provide a foot-hold for life to form. Observations by the Cassini spacecraft revealed Enceladus’ to have tenuous geyser and therefore heated liquid must be lurking below the surface. Water and energy are essential to all forms of life on Earth and these two constituents are what scientists treasure most in the search for life beyond our planet.

Uranus - Over the 2006–2016 timeframe, there are no strategic missions planned to Uranus and only one spacecraft, the extremely productive Voyager II, has ever visited the distant planet. Ultimately, deep-entry probes into Uranus will be necessary in order to understand its composition and compare it to that of the other “water giant,” Neptune.

This beautiful image of the crescents of volcanic Io and more sedate Europa was snapped by New Horizons' color Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC) at 10:34 UT on March 2, 2007, about two days after New Horizons made its closest approach to Jupiter.

Neptune poses a number of important questions regarding how giant planets form and what truncates the formation of multiple giant planets in a planetary system. Residing on the edge of our planetary system, Neptune may hold, deep in its interior, chemical clues concerning the nature of the rocky and icy debris that formed the giant planets. A comprehensive study of Neptune, and its moon Triton, is considered a priority for the third decade by the Solar System Exploration roadmap team.

Pluto was redefined in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as a “dwarf Planet.” Throughout the scientific community there is still much debate about this definition and many organizations have yet to weigh in. Pluto shares a region of its orbit with a collection of similar icy bodies called Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO’s). The Kuiper Belt is believed to represent the best available record of the original interstellar materials that formed the solar nebula. This region is also the birthplace of the short-period comets. Pluto’s orbit also crosses inside that of Neptune’s which renders Pluto a member of the Trans-Neptunian Object (TNO) class. Pluto’s moon, Charon, was discovered in 1978, but more recently in 2005, two moonlets, Nix and Hydra were revealed in telescopic surveys. The Pluto System is unique and the New Horizons mission will be the first spacecraft to glimpse these distant icy bodies when it encounters the system in 2015.

Inner Solar System

2011-04-14T01:06:00.000-07:00

Inner Solar System

Planetary Science missions, past, current, in planning or in development, extend mankind’s presence to the solar system’s inner rocky worlds, helping to unlock the secrets of the solar systems’ composition, history and evolution, and how life established itself on Earth.

This image was taken by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft at a distance of approximately 17,000 miles following the spacecraft's closest approach to Mercury on January 14, 2008.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Mercury is the least explored terrestrial or “rocky” planet in our solar system. Previously NASA’s only encounters with the innermost planet were the three flybys performed in 1974 and 1975 by the Mariner 10 mission that mapped 45 percent of the planet’s surface. In January 2008, the MESSENGER spacecraft flew by Mercury for its first of three fly-bys. As it begins to reveal the planet’s composition and history, it will in turn, help scientists understand more about our home planet and its place in the inner solar system.

Venus has often been described as Earth’s sister planet since the two are very similar in size and bulk composition, although they evolved to very different ends. Venus is not currently targeted by any NASA missions although future mission concepts include the Venus In Situ Explorer (VISE) and Venus Mobile Explorer (VME) that would investigate the surface of Venus and help understand the climate change processes that led to the extreme conditions of Venus today. A Venus Surface Sample Return (VSSR) mission is also being considered. These missions remain long-range goals for Venus exploration.

Earth’s Moon has a special place among the objects of the solar system, as it is the only body other than Earth where humans have journeyed to and where humans will return relatively soon. NASA is sending robotic missions to the moon to prepare for mans’ prolonged habitation on the lunar surface which ultimately will help man reach for Mars and attain the goals set forth in the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE). Studying the Moon and its history provides insight on the formation history of the Earth-Moon system and events that shaped the inner solar system.

Mars is a highly attractive object of study: not only does it provide an excellent laboratory for studying planetary evolution in the context of the Earth and Venus, but it is the most compelling target in the solar system to search for life’s existence beyond Earth. Additionally, Mars is an eventual goal of the Vision for Space Exploration’s human spaceflight program. Finally, Mars is relatively easily accessed with launch opportunities occurring approximately every 2 years. For these reasons, the Mars Exploration Program is a fully integrated program, designed to maximize the scientific return, technology infusion, and public engagement of the robotic exploration of the Red Planet. Each strategic mission of the program has both technological and scientific linkages to previous missions and orbiters, and landers support each other’s operations.

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2011-04-14T00:45:00.000-07:00

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2010-08-18T15:06:00.003-07:00

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2010-08-18T15:06:00.001-07:00

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2010-08-18T15:05:00.001-07:00

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2010-08-18T15:04:00.001-07:00

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2010-08-18T15:03:00.001-07:00

Mohammad Ali Wins The Olympic Gold medal

2010-08-18T05:51:00.000-07:00

Ali Wins Olympic Gold Medal

After fighting his way to the top of amateur boxing by winning the 1959 International Golden Gloves heavyweight title, Cassius Clay, who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali, earned a place on the United States 1960 Olympic boxing team. Clay’s powerful jabs and graceful footwork earned him a gold medal, and his entertaining personality established him as a favorite of Olympic fans.

Ali Wins Olympic Gold Medal

When Cassius Clay stepped into the ring for the final match in the 178 lbs (80.7 kg) class at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Italy, it marked the dawn of a new era.

At 18, Clay was still a relatively unknown young boxer from Louisville, Kentucky. It was 4 years before he would win the heavyweight championship of the world, over Sonny Liston; 6 years before he would convert to Islam and change his name to Muhammad Ali; and 11 years before the first of his three epic battles with Joe Frazier. To most Americans, Vietnam was still a remote and unfamiliar country in Southeast Asia. John F. Kennedy had not yet been elected president. The social turmoil of the 1960s, which would catapult Muhammad Ali to fame far greater than that of the boxing ring, had yet to begin.

But the young Clay was already brash and mercurial, a magnetic personality whose boundless energy and ceaseless boasting, along with his mesmerizing skill and speed in the ring, captivated the Olympic crowds.

A natural fighter, Clay was rangy and powerful, with uncanny hand and foot speed for a man 6 ft 3 in. His great natural gifts allowed him to ignore some of boxing's fundamental rules: He often threw punches while moving backward, and instead of ducking under punches he would lean back, out of range. His long arms and his gliding, dancing style kept him beyond most opponents' attacks, and he could put together dazzling combinations of punches.

His personality suited his style. Clay was one of the first athletes to see himself as a performer, and he played his part to the hilt. His confidence and verbal ingenuity were evident early on: In 1957 the trainer Angelo Dundee, who would occupy Ali's corner in many of his greatest bouts, was sitting in a Louisville hotel room with light heavyweight Willie Pastrano when the phone rang. Dundee answered. It was Clay, phoning from the lobby.

“My name's Cassius Marcellus Clay,” the 15-year-old said. “I'm the Golden Gloves champion of Louisville, Kentucky. I'm gonna win the (national) Golden Gloves, and I'm gonna win the Olympics in 1960, and I want to talk to you.”

Under Dundee, Clay compiled a 100-8 win-lose record, won two consecutive national Amateur Athletic Union of the United States (AAU) championships as a light heavyweight, and captured two straight Golden Gloves titles, as a light heavyweight in 1959 and as a heavyweight in 1960.

In Rome, Clay was the toast of the Olympic Village. A reporter of the time wrote, “If anyone had held an election for mayor of the Olympic Village, Cassius Clay would have been a prime candidate.” He won his first bout, against Yan Becaus of Belgium, in a second-round knockout. In succeeding rounds he won decisions over Gennady Schatkov of the Soviet Union and Tony Madigan of Australia.

In the final, the New York Times reported, “Clay battered the Pole (Polish fighter Zbigniew Pietrzykowski) mercilessly in the last round with a flurry of left and right combinations that had his rival groggy. He opened a cut over the Pole's left eye and almost finished him.”

The decision was unanimous, 5-0 in favor of Cassius Clay. Clay had danced and taunted his way to victory, showing the world a new kind of fighting and a new kind of fighter: voluble, cocky, and rebellious.

And the brash young fighter who won gold in Rome in 1960 would become one of the most celebrated athletes of the 20th century.

Forex News: Portugal's Jobles Rate

2010-08-17T03:19:00.000-07:00

Portugal's jobless rate remained unchanged in the second quarter from the previous quarter, a report by the Statistics Portugal showed on Tuesday.

The jobless rate was 10.6% in the second quarter, same as in the previous quarter. A year earlier, the jobless rate was 9.1%.

The number of unemployed persons totaled 589.8 thousand persons in the first quarter, smaller than the 592.2 thousand persons in the previous quarter. The number of unemployment decreased 0.4% compared to the previous quarter and increased 16.2% over a year ago.

The labor force participation rate was 52.5% in the second quarter, down from 52.7% in the first quarter. The labor force totaled 5.58 million persons.

Portuguese labor cost growth slowed in the second quarter from the previous year. The labor cost index, excluding public administration, rose 1.2% annually in the second quarter, but slower than a 4.2% growth in the previous year. The average costs of labor increased 1.6% and number of hours worked grew 0.3%.

Portugal's jobless rate remained unchanged in the second quarter from the previous quarter, a report by the Statistics Portugal showed on Tuesday. (Market News Provided by RTTNews)

Mars Climate

2010-08-17T03:15:00.000-07:00

Mars Climate Orbiter

Mars Climate Orbiter, United States spacecraft launched in 1998 to explore the planet Mars. A navigational error caused the spacecraft to orbit too close to Mars, where it was apparently destroyed by friction with the Martian atmosphere. Mars Climate Orbiter was one of a series of U.S. Mars probes that began with Mars Global Surveyor 96 and Mars Pathfinder, a pair of spacecraft launched in 1996 and 1997. The probe was part of the Mars exploration strategy of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA’s exploration of Mars focuses on learning about climate and on finding signs of life and useful resources.

Mars Climate Orbiter was designed to provide a global view of the climate of Mars from an altitude of 400 km (250 mi) for an entire 687-day Martian year. It was to study clouds, dust storms, hazes, water vapor, and ozone in the Martian atmosphere. Mars Climate Orbiter was also designed to relay radio signals between Earth and Mars Polar Lander, a probe launched in 1999 that was to land on the Martian surface.

NASA launched Mars Climate Orbiter toward Mars on December 11, 1998. The spacecraft had two main parts: a propulsion module and an equipment module. The propulsion module contained the main engine, four large thruster rockets, four small thrusters, and propellant tanks. The equipment module contained scientific instruments, batteries, computers, low-gain and medium-gain radio antennas, radio equipment, guidance systems, and reaction wheels for turning the spacecraft. A large solar array was attached to the orbiter and unfolded during flight. The array provided power to the craft and its systems. The orbiter also included an attached, high-gain dish antenna that was to provide a radio link to Earth once the craft was in orbit around Mars.

Mars Climate Orbiter carried two scientific instruments for measuring conditions in Mars’s atmosphere. The Pressure Modulator Infrared Radiometer (PMIRR) was to measure the temperature of Mars’s atmosphere and observe the concentration of dust and water vapor in the atmosphere. The second instrument, the Mars Color Imager (MARCI), consisted of a wide-angle camera and a medium-angle camera. The cameras were to gather images in visual light and ultraviolet radiation. Visual light and ultraviolet radiation are different types of electromagnetic energy (vibrating electric and magnetic waves). MARCI weighed only 1 kg (2 lb), making it the lightest camera ever sent to Mars.

Mars Climate Orbiter traveled to Mars without any apparent mishap, reaching the planet in September 1999. Just as it was supposed to enter orbit around Mars on September 23, however, navigators lost touch with the spacecraft. Investigations of the failure revealed that two different teams working on the spacecraft had used two different systems of units for the same measurement. Engineers at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Denver, Colorado, had built the spacecraft and used the English unit of pounds-seconds to describe the power of the spacecraft’s thrusters. Meanwhile, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, had used the metric unit of newton-seconds for thrust power in their calculations of the spacecraft’s trajectory.

\The difference in units led to a miscalculation of the orbiter’s trajectory. Because the thrusters contributed only a small amount to the spacecraft’s trip, the mistake set the 670-million-km (416-million-mi) journey off by just 100 km (60 mi). However, the difference was enough to send the craft too close to the Martian surface, where it was destroyed by friction with the Martian atmosphere.

In reaction to the loss of Mars Climate Orbiter, NASA appointed a board of investigators to look into factors that contributed to the mission’s failure. The board found a fatal lack of communication between the company that had built the spacecraft and the company running the mission. While previous missions to Mars involved spacecraft built and run by Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA tried to save money on the Mars Climate Orbiter mission by contracting out the building of the spacecraft to Lockheed Martin. Another significant factor was that the mission used computer software that was not robust enough to find discrepancies in the expected and actual calculations of the spacecraft’s path. Many experts attributed these and other factors that contributed to the mission’s failure to a lack of sufficient funding. The mission cost NASA $125 million, less than half that of its predecessor

Pix

2010-08-16T04:10:00.000-07:00

About Forex

2010-08-16T04:05:00.000-07:00

What Is Forex

Forex is an inter-bank market that took shape in 1971 when global trade shifted from fixed exchange rates to floating ones. This is a set of transactions among forex market agents involving exchange of specified sums of money in a currency unit of any given nation for currency of another nation at an agreed rate as of any specified date. During exchange, the exchange rate of one currency to another currency is determined simply: by supply and demand – exchange to which both parties agree

Advantage

Liquidity:
the market operates the enormous money supply and gives absolute freedom in opening or closing a position in the current market quotation. High liquidity
is a powerful magnet for any investor, because it gives him or her the freedom to open or to close a position of any size whatever.

FOREX is a highly profitable business which does not depend on time, place or political situation in your country. Advantage of this business is that you make deals using computer from any part of the world 24 hours per day 5 days per week.

What Moves Forex

Foreign Exchange is affected by various economic and political factors. The largest fluctuations in currency prices usually occur during Central Bank intervention, when governments trade in huge amounts forex in an attempt to either raise or lower the value of their own currency. This, aswell as many other factors such as interest rate changes, economic figures, political instability and large lot transactions by hedge funds can move the market.

Participants

Commercial Banks
Central Banks
Currency Exchanges
Investment Funds
Brokerage Houses

Participants of this market are, first of all, large commercial banks through which the basic operations under the instruction of exporters and importers, investment institutes are carried out, insurance and pension funds, hedge and individual investors. Also these banks operations and in the interests due to own means, thus at large banks volumes of daily operations reach billions dollars, and at some banks even the basic part of the profit is formed only due to speculative operations with curren

Turkey's unemployment rate declined in the April to June period compared to a year ago, while consumer confidence declined slightly in June,

2010-08-16T04:02:00.001-07:00

turkey's unemployment rate declined in the April to June period compared to a year ago, while consumer confidence declined slightly in June, figures showed on Monday.

The Turkish Statistical Institute said the unemployment rate fell to 11% from 13.6% in the same period a year ago. The number of unemployed persons decreased by 536,000 compared to the same period of the previous year to 2.8 million.

The urban unemployment rate fell to 13.4%, while the rural unemployment rate fell to 6.4%. Nine out of 10 of those registered unemployed had worked previously.

At the same time, the number of employed persons increased by 1.6 million to 23.6 million. Agricultural employment increased by 423,000 and non-agricultural employment increased by 1.2 million.

The labor force participation rate climbed to 49.4% in the April to June period from 48.2% a year ago. Some 17% of the total labor force were under the age of 25.

Separately, the statistical office said Turkish consumer confidence declined slightly in July due to a deterioration in consumers' assessments concerning their buying time conditions of durable periods.

The consumer confidence index fell to 87.5 in July from 88.0 in the previous month. An index score below 100 means pessimists outnumber optimists.

Turkey has seen strong economic growth after it averted an economic collapse in 2002 by agreeing a strict recovery program with the International Monetary Fund. Since then, inflation has fallen rapidly, although unemployment and foreign debt remain major problems.

The Turkish economy expanded 11.7% annually between January and March, the strongest pace of growth in nearly six years. But the central bank has kept interest rates at low levels, citing uncertainty in the global economy and high unemployment.

Turkey's unemployment rate declined in the April to June period compared to a year ago, while consumer confidence declined slightly in June, figures showed on Monday. (Market News Provided by RTTNews

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2010-08-15T14:24:00.001-07:00

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2010-08-15T14:23:00.000-07:00