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"21-Centimeter Cosmology" --Birth of the Universe Found in an Atom of Hydrogen

2012-09-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

"21-Centimeter Cosmology" --Birth of the Universe Found in an Atom of Hydrogen
"21-Centimeter Cosmology" --Birth of the Universe Found in an Atom of HydrogenThe Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy « Ice Caps at Mars' Poles Reflect Sun's Impact on Climate Change |Main| New Theory of Dark Matter & Energy Alters Einstein's View of Spacetime »

September 06, 2012 "21-Centimeter Cosmology" --Birth of the Universe Found in an Atom of Hydrogen

Current telescopes can only see galaxies about 700 million years old, and only when the galaxy is unusually large or as the result of a big event like a stellar explosion. An international team of scientists led by researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a new method for detecting galaxies of stars that formed when the universe was in its infancy, during the first 180 million years of its existence. The method is able to observe stars that were previously believed too old to find, says Prof. Rennan Barkana of TAU's School of Physics and Astronomy.

The researchers' method uses radio telescopes to seek out radio waves emitted by hydrogen atoms, which were abundant in the early days of the universe. Emitting waves measuring about eight inches (21 centimeters) long, the atoms reflect the radiation of the stars, making their emission detectable by radio telescopes, explains Prof. Barkana. This development opens the way to learning more about the universe's oldest galaxies.

According to Barkana, these waves show a specific pattern in the sky, a clear signature of the early galaxies, which were one-millionth the size of galaxies today. Differences in the motion of dark matter and gas from the early period of the universe, which affect the formation of stars, produce a specific fluctuation pattern that makes it much easier to distinguish these early waves from bright local radio emissions.

The intensity of waves from this early era depends on the temperature of the gas, allowing researchers to begin to piece together a rough map of the galaxies in an area of the sky. If the gas is very hot, it means that there are many stars there; if cooler, there are fewer stars, explains Prof. Barkana.

These initial steps into the mysterious origins of the universe will allow radio astronomers to reconstruct for the first time what the early universe looked like, specifically in terms of the distribution of stars and galaxies across the sky, he believes.

This field of astronomical research, now being called "21-centimeter cosmology," is just getting underway. Five different international collaborations are building radio telescopes to detect these types of emissions, currently focusing on the era around 500 million years after the Big Bang. Equipment can also be specifically designed for detecting signals from the earlier eras, says Prof. Barkana. He hopes that this area of research will illuminate the enigmatic period between the birth of the universe and modern times, and allow for the opportunity to test predictions about the early days of the universe.

"We know a lot about the pristine universe, and we know a lot about the universe today. There is an unknown era in between when there was hot gas and the first formation of stars. Now, we are going into this era and into the unknown," says Prof. Barkana. He expects surprises along the way, for example involving the properties of early stars, and that observations will reveal a more complicated cosmological reality than was predicted by their models.

The image at the top of the page reveals a small region inside the massive globular cluster Omega Centauri (NGC 5139). This is one of the first images taken by the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), installed aboard Hubble in May 2009, during Servicing Mission 4. Hubble observed Omega Centauri on July 15, 2009, in ultraviolet and visible light.

The Daily Galaxy via Tel Aviv University and Nature.com

Image credit: NASA/courtesy nasaimages.org

Posted at 09:37 AM | Permalink

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I'd like to know more about the nature of the spaceless area that surrounded the original singularity before it exploded in what we call the Big Bang.

Posted by:Cyberquill |September 06, 2012 at 12:42 PM

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Curiosity Rover 'Sniffs' Martian Air for Signs of Methane --Will It Prove to Have a Biological Source?

2012-09-12T06:34:00.000-07:00

Curiosity Rover 'Sniffs' Martian Air for Signs of Methane --Will It Prove to Have a Biological Source?
Curiosity Rover 'Sniffs' Martian Air for Signs of Methane --Will It Prove to Have a Biological Source?The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy « CERN's Detection of Higgs Boson Confirmed |Main

September 10, 2012 Curiosity Rover 'Sniffs' Martian Air for Signs of Methane --Will It Prove to Have a Biological Source?

"The loss of Mars' atmosphere has been an ongoing mystery," Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said.One theory is that Mars lost its magnetic field, without which it was defenseless against the brutal onslaught of solar radiation which stripped anything not nailed down (like air) off the planet. Now, Nasa's Curiosity rover has measured the Red Planet's atmospheric composition by sucking the air into its big "Sample Analysis at Mars" (Sam) instrument to reveal the concentration of different gases.The Sam analysis is ongoing but NASA says carbon dioxide will dominate as it has in the past by the Viking probes in the 1970s and the Phoenix lander in 2008.

Of paramount interest will be whether a signal for methane, which has recently been observed by satellite and by Earth telescopes, has been detected by Curiosity.Methane has a short-life span and its persistence suggests a replenishing source of some kind - either biological or geochemical. It is hoped SAM can shed light on the issue.

The results from this first test could be announced next week, said Curiosity deputy principal scientist Joy Crisp, but she cautioned that it would be some time before definitive statements could be made about the status of methane on Mars.

"When Sam is at its best it can measure various parts per trillion of methane, and the expected amounts based on measurements taken from orbit around Mars and from Earth telescopes should be in the 10 to a few 10s of parts per billion," she told reporters."But it's so early in the use of Sam, which is a complicated instrument, and we have to sort through the data."

Planetary scientists have long been puzzling over what could be producing methane gas detected in Mars thin atmosphere. Methane molecules are easily blown apart by ultraviolet light from the Sun, so any methane around must have been released recently. The presence of methane has triggered a hot debate in the Mars science community: is it a sign of microbial life or geology? Perhaps the Curiosity Mission will give us the answer.

The Daily Galaxy via http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment

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Small Magellanic Cloud Reveals a Challenge to Big Bang Physics

2012-09-12T03:10:00.000-07:00

Small Magellanic Cloud Reveals a Challenge to Big Bang Physics
Small Magellanic Cloud Reveals a Challenge to Big Bang PhysicsThe Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy « "Is There Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years?" (Weekend Feature) |Main| Spectacular Globular Cluster Found Harboring a 13-Billion-Year-Old Planet (Weekend Feature) »

September 08, 2012 Small Magellanic Cloud Reveals a Challenge to Big Bang Physics

Stars in the Milky Way have about four times less lithium on the surface than expected by Big Bang predictions. Some scientists suggest that stellar activity might destroy lithium, or the element might sink from the surface through lighter hydrogen, but the remarkably consistent ratio from star to star is a challenge to those explanations. Observations of gas in the Small Magellanic Cloud revealed the amount of lithium that predictions say would have been produced at the Big Bang, but leave no room for subsequent production of the element.

One explanation could be a novel kind of physics operating at the Big Bang that left less lithium than the Standard Model predicts. J. Christopher Howk, Nicolas Lehner and Grant Mathews of the Center for Astrophysics at the University of Notre Dame published a paper this week in the journal Nature titled "Observation of interstellar lithium in the low-metallicity Small Magellanic Cloud."

The astrophysicists have explored a discrepancy between the amount of lithium predicted by the standard models of elemental production during the Big Bang and the amount of lithium observed in the gas of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy near to our own.

"The paper involves measuring the amount of lithium in the interstellar gas of a nearby galaxy, but it may have implications for fundamental physics, in that it could imply the presence of dark matter particles in the early universe that decay or annihilate one another," Howk says. "This may be a probe of physics in the early universe that gives us a handle on new physics we don't have another way to get a handle on right now."

Using observations from European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, the team measured the amount of lithium in the interstellar gas of the Small Magellanic Cloud, which has far fewer star-produced heavy elements than the Milky Way.

In addition to the production of elements by fusion in the core of stars, scientists believe conditions immediately after the Big Bang led to the formation of some elements, including a small amount of lithium. The team will conduct three nights of observations on the VLT in November. They will look for the lithium isotope 7Li in the Large Magellanic Cloud and 6Li in both the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud. The standard model predicts that no 6Li was created at the Big Bang.

The Daily Galaxy via Nature

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AN ELEMENTARY WRONG FORMATION MODEL

Quote: "The astrophysicists have explored a discrepancy between the amount of lithium predicted by the standard models of elemental production during the Big Bang and the amount of lithium observed in the gas of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy near to our own”.

AD: OK then the Big Bang and the Standard model both are wrong regarding the formation of elements, but what then? Maybe the formation has nothing to do with the age of a star? Maybe the star formation hypothesis itself is wrong?

- Since our solar is an integrated part of the galactic rotation its formation shall be connected to this formation and not to “a local cloud of dust and gas that suddenly collapsed and formed our sun and planets”.

The actual amount and composition of gas and dust in the molecular cloud that formed our galaxy – and therefore also our solar system – decided what kind of elements that could be formed in our galaxy and in our solar system, and it is very logical that stars in other galaxies have other compositions of gasses and particles.

- It is the standard formation model itself that is wrong, connecting age to the solar formation and assuming that gasses and particles are evenly spread all over in cosmos, which this article contradicts very clearly.

Posted by:Ivar Nielsen |September 09, 2012 at 01:54 AM

again the 14 billion years and the big-bang BS...is anybody here that believes we`re right in the middle of the sphere? you`re all living in a box with your mind. Let`s consider we are at half distance between middle Universe and the Universe border. We should see stars in one direction (border) at 7 billion LY, and in the other (through the center of the Universe) at 21 billion LY. Instead we see stars at 14 billion LY in all directions. Please get out of your mind box.

Posted by:Gaugain |September 09, 2012 at 02:47 AM

There could be higher concentrations of Lithium in other galaxies. This would balance out the big bang theory. Our universe is not homogenous.

Posted by:Pete |September 09, 2012 at 05:48 AM

From the time of the very auspicious inception of the civilization, mankind is continuing to find out the correct answer to the question about universe creation or creator. Aborigines have taking up the considerations of the causes by religious thoughts in different ways as consolations as there was no practical answer or solutions to the questions. Pensive it mentioned below the little serving as an example of my research results and see Interesting facts about the Universe, as I see its- New Discovery of the Universe. See at http://t.co/jVFHtSCr

Posted by:Shahidur Rahman Sikder |September 09, 2012 at 03:19 PM

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CERN's Detection of Higgs Boson Confirmed

2012-09-12T00:05:00.000-07:00

CERN's Detection of Higgs Boson Confirmed
CERN's Detection of Higgs Boson ConfirmedThe Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy « Image of the Day: Hubble's Successor --The James Webb Space Telescope's Mega Mirror |Main| Curiosity Rover 'Sniffs' Martian Air for Signs of Methane --Will It Prove to Have a Biological Source? »

September 10, 2012 CERN's Detection of Higgs Boson Confirmed

Two laboratories working at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) had jointly announced on July 4 they had detected a new fundamental particle in experiments at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva. The discovery has been hailed as one of the biggest scientific achievements ever. The teams, from labs called Atlas and the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), on Monday each published their findings in the European journal Physics Letters B.

Although CERN's announcement was never doubted, it still had to be vetted by peers and then published in an established journal to meet benchmarks of accuracy and openness. Further work is being carried out to confirm whether the new particle is the famous Higgs, whose existence was theorised back in 1964 to explain why elementary particles obtain mass. Without the Higgs, atoms could not form, which means the physical Universe would not exist, including the galaxy cluster in the Perseus Constellation shown above, say scientists.

"The discovery reported in these papers is a momentous step forward in fundamental knowledge," said Atlas spokeswoman Fabiola Gianotti. "It is the culmination of more than 20 years of effort of the worldwide high-energy physics community to build and operate instruments of unprecedented technology, complexity and performance."

More than 5,000 researchers worldwide took part in the long quest, and both papers are dedicated to the memory of colleagues who had died. Physics Letters B was where British physicist Peter Higgs first published a letter, "Broken symmetries, massless particles and gauge fields," that sparked the hunt for the boson. His name is attached to the particle, but two other groups of theoreticians can also claim to have made major contributions. *Journal reference: Physics Letters B.

The Daily Galaxy via AFP and www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269312001852

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Image of the Day: Tracks of Human Technology on Mars --Curiosity Begins Its Journey!

2012-09-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

Image of the Day: Tracks of Human Technology on Mars --Curiosity Begins Its Journey!
Image of the Day: Tracks of Human Technology on Mars --Curiosity Begins Its Journey!The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy « New Theory of Dark Matter & Energy Alters Einstein's View of Spacetime |Main| Star's Chemistry Key to Creating Habitable Zones »

September 07, 2012 Image of the Day: Tracks of Human Technology on Mars --Curiosity Begins Its Journey!

"No cities. No seas. No forests and no battlegrounds. No prairies. No nations. No histories and no legends. No memories. Just features, features and names. Argyre and Hellas and Isidis. Olympus and Alba and Pavonis. Schiaparelli and Antoniadi, Kasei and Nirgal. Beautiful double-rimmed Lowell. Names from one world projected onto maps of another."

Mars is a microcosm -a spiritual jumping off place in our exploration of the Universe. The white spaces -the unmapped, unexplored, unknown white spaces of the map of Planet Earth are no more. Our 21st Century explorers look to our Solar System and beyond for the challenge of the unexplored, the unknown.

Mars, Oliver Morton tells us in "Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World," "is continuous, seamless and sealess. Its great mountains stand alone; there are no sweeping ranges, no Rockies or Alps or Andes. The rivers are long gone. There are no continents and there are no oceans, and thus there are no shores. Given patience,, provisions, and a pressure suit you could walk from any point on the planet to any other. No edges guide the eye or frame the scene. Nowhere says: Start Here."

Unitl now, tracks from the first drives of NASA's Curiosity rover are visible in the image aboive captured by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The rover is seen where the tracks end. The image's color has been enhanced to show the surface details better.

The two marks seen near the site where the rover landed formed when reddish surface dust was blown away by the rover's descent stage, revealing darker basaltic sands underneath. Similarly, the tracks appear darker where the rover's wheels disturbed the top layer of dust. *Observing the tracks over time will provide information on how the surface changes as dust is deposited and eroded.

The Daily Galaxy via NASA/JPL/University of Arizona and *Oliver Morton -Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World.

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Curiosity Avenue. Editor's Comment: That's good!

Posted by:Susan |September 08, 2012 at 04:34 AM

looks kinda green?

Posted by:Creationist |September 09, 2012 at 02:48 AM

This picture will probably be very valuable one million years from now...

Posted by:ovi |September 09, 2012 at 03:25 AM

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LA Galaxy Academy teams set to kick off new season

2012-09-11T16:21:00.000-07:00

LA Galaxy Academy teams set to kick off new season | LA Galaxy #bg { background: #2a2d51 url(http://www.lagalaxy.com/sites/losangeles/files/la-WEB_BACKGROUND_v2.jpg) no-repeat scroll center top !important; } Castfire.html5ify({ ios_ext: "adaptive.m3u8", // Profile for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad h264_ext: "640.mp4" // Profile for Android, webOS, Blackberry }); Skip To Content SCHEDULE 2012 Schedule Reserve League Schedule Broadcast Schedule Schedule Download Promotional Nights Upcoming Appearances

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CARSON, Calif. (Friday, September 7, 2012) – The 2012-13 Development Academy season kicks off this weekend with the LA Galaxy U-18 and U-16 teams hosting Seattle Sounders FC on Saturday morning and the Portland Timbers on Sunday at The Home Depot Center.

First up for last year’s SoCal Division champions in both age groups is the Sounders this Saturday on University Field 2 at The Home Depot Center. The U-18’s will kickoff at 10 a.m., followed by the U-16’s at 12:30 p.m.

On Sunday, the Galaxy return to the same field to host the Portland Timbers, who are in their first year in the Development Academy. The games kickoff at the same time as the day before, U-18’s at 10 a.m. followed by the U-16’s at 12:30 p.m.

LA Galaxy U-18 Head Coach Eddie Soto is ready for the season to start and is aware that the road to the playoffs won’t be easy.

“It's going to be a long season with ups and downs, but I feel with the right guidance we'll be able to manage these kids down the right path,” Soto said. “Alex Yi (Galaxy U-18 Assistant Coach) and I are fully committed to help develop these kids to reach there full potential physically, technically, and emotionally.

“With our recent success of our homegrown signees, we'll continue to look to create an environment that's competitive and challenging. If we can do that, the transition into the first team hopefully isn't as big of an adjustment.”

The U-18 and U-16 teams aren’t the only teams starting their new season this weekend. All four of the club’s youth teams that play in the Southern California Development Soccer League also start playing on Saturday and Sunday.

The U-12’s start the new season, their first under head coach Ted Eck, at home at North Torrance High School against Real So Cal at 9 a.m. The U-13’s begin their first season with head coach Braeden Cloutier against FC Golden State at Veterans Sports Park in Pomona Saturday at 2:10 p.m.

The U-14’s, led by former MLS forward Ante Razov, kick off the season on Sunday, September 9, against Pateadores at Hollywood High School at 2 p.m., while the U-15’s, under the guidance of head coach Alex Yi, play their season opener on Saturday, September 8 against Real So Cal at Canoga Park High School at 2:10 p.m.

All four of the Galaxy’s youth teams in SCDSL are coached by former MLS players. Razov is one of just seven players in league history with more than 100 goals, while Cloutier, Eck and Yi all played in MLS for the San Jose Earthquakes, Dallas Burn and FC Dallas, respectively.

EARLY START TO THE SEASON: When the Galaxy U-16 and U-18 teams kick off the new Development Academy season this weekend, it will be the earliest the club has started their campaign, besting last year’s start by nine days.

In 2008, the first time the Galaxy took part in the Development Academy, the teams kicked off the season on Sept. 27. The next year, the Galaxy started on Oct. 3. Last year, the teams began on Sept. 17.

The Galaxy’s record on opening day has been quite good, with the U-18’s holding a 3-0-0 mark. Including a 1-0 win over De Anza Force last year, and the U-16’s registering a 1-1-2 record, including a 4-4 draw with De Anza Force last year. Last year, the Galaxy went up against De Anza Force in their first game of the season on the road. The U-18’s got a 1-0 win while U-16’s played them to a 4-4 draw.

The younger teams enjoyed similar success in the Southern California Development Soccer League. The U-12’s started the year a 1-0 win over FC Golden State Academy, it was their first of four-straight win to start the season. The U-13’s began their campaign with a 1-1 draw with eventual league champions Pateadores, while the U-14’s started the year with a terrific 4-0 win over Exiles SC. The U-15’s, then coached by current U-16 head coach Craig Harrington, started their season with an impressive 5-0 win, they followed that up with a 6-2 win over South Bay Force en route to a 10-1-0 record and the league championship, the only title the club won in the SCDSL last year.

ARRIOLA TRAVELS TO NETHERLANDS WITH U.S. U-18: LA Galaxy forward Paul Arriola (Chula Vista, CA) was one of 20 players named to the U.S. Under-18 team that will travel to the Netherlands to play against the Dutch U-18 team. Headed up by head coach Javier Perez, the U.S. U-18 team will be based in the Netherlands from Sept. 6-17 and will also play friendlies against Feyenoord Rotterdam, Borussia Dortmund and Club Brugge during the trip. Arriola will miss this weekend’s Galaxy Academy games against Seattle and Portland, but will be eligible for selection for the next game against Arsenal FC on Saturday, Sept. 22, at Riverside Community College.

RAMOS IN CAMP WITH U.S. U-15 NATIONAL TEAM: LA Galaxy U-16 defender Alex Ramos (Reseda, CA) was named to the 36-player U.S. Under-15 training camp taking place at The Home Depot Center this week. The camp, which goes Sept. 1-8, is the final training camp in the U-15 cycle for Ramos and 29 other players. The new cycle (players born in 1998) is expected to begin in October.

U.S. SOCCER TO LAUNCH U-14 SEASON IN 2013: In an effort to identify and develop soccer players in this country at a younger age, U.S. Soccer announced on Aug. 30 that it would be creating an Under-14 division for the Development Academy. The division, which begin play fall of 2013, will consist of current Academy teams that participate in the U-16 and U-18 divisions and will possibly add a limited number of clubs that are not currently part of the structure. The clubs selected for the U-13/14 age group will follow a model that increases training to four times a week, with fewer but meaningful matches, and the schedule structure will be regionalized to limit the amount of travel. For more information on the launch of the U-14 Development Academy League, head over to ussoccer.com.

THIS WEEK’S SCHEDULE

LA Galaxy U-12 vs. Real So Cal U-12
Saturday, September 8
Game will be played at North Torrance High School at 9 a.m.

LA Galaxy U-13 vs. FC Golden State U-12
Saturday, September 8
Game will be played at Veterans Sports Park in Pomona at 2:10 p.m.

LA Galaxy U-14 vs. Pateadores U-14
Saturday, September 9
Game will be played at Hollywood High School at 2 p.m.

LA Galaxy U-15 vs. Real So Cal U-15
Saturday, September 8
Game will be played at Canoga Park High School at 2:10 p.m.

LA Galaxy U-18 vs. Seattle Sounders FC U-18
Saturday, September 8
Game will be played at The Home Depot Center at 12:30 p.m.

LA Galaxy U-18 vs. Portland Timbers U-18 Team
Sunday, September 9
Game will be played at The Home Depot Center at 12:30 p.m.

LA Galaxy U-18 vs. Seattle Sounders FC U-18
Saturday, September 8
Game will be played at The Home Depot Center at 10 a.m.

LA Galaxy U-18 vs. Portland Timbers U-18
Sunday, September 9
Game will be played at The Home Depot Center at 10 a.m.

Times and locations for all games are correct as of Friday, September 7. Click here for a complete schedule of games in the Southern California Development Soccer League and U.S. Soccer Development Academy, which includes the Galaxy Academy’s U-16 and U-18 teams.

Academy Press Releases Related Links Galaxy Academy ProgramFrom Inglewood to The Home Depot CenterLA Galaxy Development Academy kicks off this weekend Related Content From Inglewood to The Home Depot Center LA Galaxy Development Academy kicks off this weekend LA Galaxy Midfielder Dan Keat Called Up to New Zealand National Team for FIFA World Cup Qualifiers LA Galaxy sign Swedish International Midfielder Christian Wilhelmsson #sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_body {padding: 0px; line-height: 0px;}#sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_header, #sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_bg {border: 0px none;}

News & Blog NewsBlog LA Galaxy Academy teams set to kick off new season DeLaGarza, Dunivant, Franklin and Gonzalez key to Galaxy’s second half success From Inglewood to The Home Depot Center LA Galaxy Development Academy kicks off this weekend LA's Beckham wins fourth AT&T Goal of the Week award Landon Donovan targets September 14 match against Colorado for his return Wilhelmsson excited for American adventure 3rd Place Unveiled in LA Galaxy 3rd Kit Contest LA Galaxy Midfielder Dan Keat Called Up to New Zealand National Team for FIFA World Cup Qualifiers LA Galaxy sign Swedish International Midfielder Christian Wilhelmsson MORE LATEST NEWS The Transfer Game Sep 10 8:25 am Academy Roundup: Galaxy U-18's win, U-16's draw against Portland Timbers Sep 09 4:41 pm AM Notes: Earthquakes clinch playoff spot, Academy play Timbers on Sunday and more Sep 09 10:47 am Galaxy Academy sides pick up draws against Sounders Academy in Day One of USSDA Sep 08 4:10 pm From Inglewood to The Home Depot Center: The story of Jose Villarreal, added quotes Sep 08 1:09 pm From Inglewood to The Home Depot Center: The story of Jose Villarreal Sep 08 11:59 am AM Notes: Donovan-less USMNT fall to Jamaica, San Jose Earthquakes could clinch playoff berth today Sep 08 10:43 am Sorto hoping to become the LA Galaxy's next Homegrown player Sep 07 2:10 pm Keat, New Zealand pick up World Cup qualifier victory over New Caledonia Sep 07 1:10 pm Keane scores as Ireland defeats Kazakhstan in 2014 World Cup qualifier Sep 07 12:43 pm MORE BLOG POSTS Stay Connected

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From Inglewood to The Home Depot Center

2012-09-11T12:17:00.000-07:00

From Inglewood to The Home Depot Center | LA Galaxy #bg { background: #2a2d51 url(http://www.lagalaxy.com/sites/losangeles/files/la-WEB_BACKGROUND_v2.jpg) no-repeat scroll center top !important; } Castfire.html5ify({ ios_ext: "adaptive.m3u8", // Profile for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad h264_ext: "640.mp4" // Profile for Android, webOS, Blackberry }); Skip To Content SCHEDULE 2012 Schedule Reserve League Schedule Broadcast Schedule Schedule Download Promotional Nights Upcoming Appearances

TICKETS Season Tickets Stretch Run Plan Single Game Tickets Special Offers & Promotions Metro PCS Friends & Family Offer Group Tickets Seating Map Ticket Marketplace Manage My Season Tickets

GAMEDAY Gameday Info Gameday Live The Home Depot Center Directions Parking & Traffic Information Prohibited Items Seating Map Stadium FAQs Game Alert E-News Community Donation Requests Los Angeles Galaxy Foundation Player Appearances Events How Suite It Is Fundraisers Name in Lights Make-A-Wish Kicks for Kids Español Shop From Inglewood to The Home Depot Center Jose Villarreal's story from "Inglewood kid" to one of the LA Galaxy's top performers September 7, 2012 Adam Serrano LAGalaxy.com Tweet villarreal_celebration_blue jersey Photo Credit: AP “He’s been my biggest influence and I’m pretty sure that he’s proud of me and even though he doesn’t show it, I know that he’s happy. He’s the first person that I go to for everything and I ask him about advice for soccer and anything that I need. Your parents, they know everything so they let you know and I’m just fortunate to have a dad like mine and he’s always been there behind me one hundred percent.”

The quote above could come from any of the thousands of teenagers that reside in Southern California. Learn that it comes from Jose Villarreal and it is no surprise that he describes himself as, “just a normal kid from Inglewood.”

On the surface Villarreal could be any teenager in Southern California, he still lives at home with his father, mother and two brothers and enjoys hanging out with family and friends. But when the teenager—who turns 19 on Monday—puts on his LA Galaxy jersey, he is anything but normal.

Displaying a deft touch and maturity on the ball that exceeds his age, the young forward from Inglewood has quickly burst onto the scene in his first MLS season since signing a Homegrown deal with LA in December. The deal with the Galaxy came as a surprise to some because Villarreal chose to stay close to his family in Los Angeles rather than sign with a number of interested teams abroad, despite not being able to play until July due to MLS rules that dictate that he spend a year in LA’s Academy setup.

Villarreal Highlights

However, once he was cleared he quickly became one of LA’s key contributors tallying two goals—including a world class strike against Vancouver for his first career goal—and one assist in all competitions.

A rise that the kid from Inglewood never imagined would be happening so quickly.

“When I got cleared, I was just hoping to get on the bench and work my way up from there. And it seems that my hard work has paid off, there’s still a lot more to go…but I’m very happy with the way that things are going right now,” Villarreal told LAGalaxy.com. “It’s always fun to be known as the kid from Inglewood that plays with Beckham and the big stars and played against Real Madrid, so it’s been a lot of fun.”

To truly appreciate the youngster’s meteoric rise, one must go back to a youth soccer field in San Bernardino where the forward’s career really took off. At the time, the then 12-year-old Villarreal was playing for a tiny club called Pacific Coast that was made up of friends from the neighborhood and coached by his father, Jaime Sr.

In the stands of the match was South Bay Force head coach Todd Saldana, who had been tipped off by Villarreal’s elder brother Alexis about the talents of young Jose. Saldana, a former head coach at UCLA where he coached the likes of Carlos Bocanegra and Nick Rimando, among others, was immediately impressed by what he saw.

“I had heard about [Jose] and I took the drive to watch them play because they’re from our area and I thought let’s take a look,” Saldana recently told LAGalaxy.com. “He was a noticeable, competitive, skillful young little talent. He was left-footed and had some special qualities, but he was playing with his friends and being coached by his dad, and while you could see special qualities it was a case of can we potentially bring him into an organized club situation and take him further.”

Saldana did eventually bring Villarreal into the South Bay Force set up, where he spent several years before moving to U.S. Soccer Development Academy club Pateadores. Saldana immediately followed his star pupil becoming the club’s head coach as the side would go on to win the 2011 Development Academy title with a two-goal performance from Villarreal in the final.

Saldana is a natural mentor for the Galaxy youth star as the pair share a similar upbringing. Both players decided against careers in Europe, signing professional contracts with Los Angeles-based clubs as teenagers— Saldana signed with the NASL’s Los Angeles Aztecs in 1980 at the age of 18.

At the time of Saldana’s signing’ the Aztecs were every bit the star club that the Galaxy are now, with the local-kid from Torrance playing alongside Dutch soccer legend Johan Cruyff and Mexican international Javier Aguirre. This unique experience provided Saldana with plenty of advice to share with Villarreal once he was nearing a professional contract with a Galaxy.

“He talked to me about playing with Cryuff and George Best and how similar it was to me playing with Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane and David Beckham,” Villarreal said. “He said take in as much advice as I can, do anything that they tell me to do and just work hard.”

That hard working mentality has been clearly evident during Villarreal’s rollercoaster first season as a professional. Villarreal’s preseason was cut short just days after the start of training camp due as he underwent surgery to repair bilateral lower-leg compartment syndrome. The injury, which dated back to his youth soccer days, was the teenager’s first true experience of being injured.

“It was frustrating for us and certainly for him. We knew that it wasn’t career-ending; it was one of those things that delayed a lot of the beginning. We try with every injured player to keep them mentally in it and especially for a young kid,” said Galaxy Associate head coach Dave Sarachan. “Sometimes young kids don’t know the difference between being injured and being hurt. He had a severe situation and we just tried to give him encouragement to say just keep working, just keep getting fit, listen to the trainers and he did. To his credit, he got back.”

Once Villarreal returned from his injury, it was clear that the hard work had paid off as it he needed just two appearances to tally his first professional goal and two weeks to become a member of LA’s rotation. Since becoming eligible, Villarreal has been on the Galaxy’s 18-man roster for every game since including the club’s two CONCACAF Champions League matches. But Villarreal’s rapid ascension comes with strings attached as the forward must deal with the increasing pressure of being considered one of the league’s top prospects.

One of the most intense pressures that young players in MLS deal with –from media and fans alike—is the question of international play and Villarreal has proven no different. Over the past year, Villarreal earned a number of calls from U.S. youth national teams and is part of their set up, but he’s leaving his options open while focusing on his club career.

“Every now and then, I get asked about would I play for the U.S. or Mexico,” Villarreal said. “For now, whichever, (if) U.S. or Mexico comes up to me and asks me to play, then I’ll play for them, but for now I’m focused on the Galaxy.”

Villarreal’s focus isn’t international glory, but rather success at the club level. With the Galaxy currently in the thick of the playoff chase, he has quickly developed into one of head coach Bruce Arena’s most valuable weapons.

And while that may be the realization of a dream for the youngster, there is no question that the “normal kid from Inglewood” belongs at The Home Depot Center.

“I always felt like I belonged here,” said Villarreal. “I grew up here; I always came to watch the games when I was small so now that I have a chance to play here and I think I belong here.”

Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at LAGalaxy.com/Insider and contact him at LAGalaxyInsider@gmail.com

Follow@lagalaxyinsider Academy Featured Interview Player Related Links Villarreal's 2012 HighlightsAll-Access Podcast: Jose VillarrealVillarreal-McBean strike partnership Related Content LA Galaxy Academy teams set to kick off new season DeLaGarza, Dunivant, Franklin and Gonzalez key to Galaxy’s second half success LA Galaxy Development Academy kicks off this weekend Landon Donovan targets September 14 match against Colorado for his return #sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_body {padding: 0px; line-height: 0px;}#sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_header, #sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_bg {border: 0px none;}

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Spectacular Globular Cluster Found Harboring a 13-Billion-Year-Old Planet (Weekend Feature)

2012-09-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

Spectacular Globular Cluster Found Harboring a 13-Billion-Year-Old Planet (Weekend Feature)
Spectacular Globular Cluster Found Harboring a 13-Billion-Year-Old Planet (Weekend Feature)The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy « Small Magellanic Cloud Reveals a Challenge to Big Bang Physics |Main| The 'Daily Galaxy' Twitter Followers Soar Above 200,000! »

September 09, 2012 Spectacular Globular Cluster Found Harboring a 13-Billion-Year-Old Planet (Weekend Feature)

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the center of globular cluster M 4. The power of Hubble has resolved the cluster into a multitude of glowing orbs, each a colossal nuclear furnace. M 4 is relatively close to us, lying 7200 light-years distant, making it a prime object for study. It contains several tens of thousands stars and is noteworthy in being home to many white dwarfs—the cores of ancient, dying stars whose outer layers have drifted away into space.

In July 2003, Hubble helped make the astounding discovery of a planet called PSR B1620-26 b, 2.5 times the mass of Jupiter, which is located in this cluster. Its age is estimated to be around 13 billion years—almost three times as old as the Solar System! It is also unusual in that it orbits a binary system of a white dwarf and a pulsar (a type of neutron star).

The Daily Galaxy via NASA

Posted at 08:00 AM | Permalink

Comments

This is actually quite staggering.

Posted by:vortex |September 08, 2012 at 11:00 AM

yep you're right there. would love to go and see. :-)

Posted by:Martyn |September 08, 2012 at 03:36 PM

The most amazing thing is that we do not think life as we know it could survive there, I'll give you that... But at the same time it would be arguably naive to say that, "life in general couldn't have evolved here after 13 billion!! years". Anyone who does believe life is not possible really does not understand time... And anyone who says there are no aliens out there does not appreciate/understand space and time. The more we look, the more astounded we are about where life can survive/thrive... I really do not understand any modern religion... Its only because I appreciate time and space in our universe and no "modern" religion can.

Posted by:Cullen |September 09, 2012 at 03:30 AM

Wow, if life were possible on a moon orbiting this planet, I wouldn't mind having a look at the night sky...if it ever goes dark that is

Posted by:Ruth Mc |September 09, 2012 at 08:29 AM

An Ancient religion that began as Ancient Science and is recorded in the Vedas tells all about Time and Space. In the Drama of Lord Jaganatha , a King from Earth flies to Satayaloka and when he returns to Earth everything has changed and aged what was but a short span -a few years at most was over 300 years on Earth ~~~He realizes it's due to Time Dilation . The Vedas also speak of the millions of life forms the permeate and populate the Omniverse in both the Material and Anti-Material Skies.

Posted by:preston |September 09, 2012 at 11:40 AM

Woo...

Posted by:Q |September 10, 2012 at 07:09 AM

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"Is There Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years?" (Weekend Feature)

2012-09-11T04:52:00.000-07:00

"Is There Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years?" (Weekend Feature)
"Is There Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years?" (Weekend Feature)The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy « Star's Chemistry Key to Creating Habitable Zones |Main| Small Magellanic Cloud Reveals a Challenge to Big Bang Physics »

September 08, 2012 "Is There Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years?" (Weekend Feature)

The controversial climate-change contrarian, S. Frederick Singer, a former space scientist and government scientific administrator, who holds PhD in Physics from Princeton University and is co-author of Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years, presents the theory that global temperatures have been rising mostly or entirely because of a natural cycle.

Using historic data from two millennia of recorded history combined with natural physical records, they argue that the 1,500 year natural sunspot magnetic waves cycle that has always controlled the earth's climate remains the driving force in the current warming trend. Man created carbon dioxide has very little effect on the earth's climate.

Since the 1,500 year cycle was discovered in the early 1980's it's general characteristics have been confirmed by measurements in: tree rings (living, preserved and fossilized), pollen, coral, glaciers, boreholes, stalagmites, tree lines, and sea sediments. The most recent cycles have been recorded in human history with forced migrations, starvation, and disease during the cold portion of the cycle and greater population, expanded farm land, greater crop variety, and extra building during the warm portion.

The causes of the 1,500 year cycle are not well understood although 600 of them have been identified in the last million years. This permits the authors to be relatively confident that we have been moving into the warm phase of the cycle for the last 150 years. It also suggests that we may have one or two degrees more warming if we are to get to the typical high of the warm phase.

Although the warm phase of the cycle has been typically more regular than the cold phase, it does not move steadily to a peak and then fall off, but rather moves abruptly higher at the start of the warm phase followed by highly irregular (but modestly higher) temperatures for hundreds of years.

Singer explained that the recent warming the Earth has experienced is not dangerous and is not something humans could alter. Global warming activists such as Al Gore, Singer believes, are hyping the problem. He said that such activists have not come close to demonstrating that human-generated greenhouse gases are contributing to global warming.

If politicians truly wanted to make a change to affect energy use, Singer told the Stanford audience, they would have to increase taxes on gasoline, which would decrease use of vehicles. He believes that such taxes would hit people of low income the hardest.

Singer claimed that many businesses, such as the wind farm industry, are making money off the global warming hype. Singer said that it is essential to convince the proponents of global warming that what they are doing is counterproductive and will not make any difference to the climate.

What do you think?

The Daily Galaxy via Stanford University and newsbusters.org

Posted at 07:59 AM | Permalink

Comments

I don't know what to think. Even if, IF, global warming is tied to a natural Sun cycle, isn't it still worthwhile to move away from energy use that pollutes our earth?

Posted by:tom perry |September 09, 2012 at 08:08 AM

Yep, what he said!

Posted by:Ruth Mc |September 09, 2012 at 08:24 AM

That the author chose to comment on the environmentalist wackos shows an agenda which discredits him some in my opinion. While it is comforting to think that we are witnessing a natural phenomenon and haven't destroyed our world, I always wonder how the release of carbon over a two hundred year period that was slowly accumulated over hundreds of millions of years wouldn't have any effects on climate.

Posted by:Dmih211 |September 09, 2012 at 08:37 AM

Good article. I've long maintained that Global Warming is a natural cycle. The planet began heating up, on its own, to end the ice age. And we're still experiencing that warming trend. It wasn't Jim-Bob driving around in his gas guzzling SUV that caused the ice age to end. It should be self explanatory as to why that is. The "Greens" like to say it has been caused by humans, because I'm the one with the wallet. Not mother nature.

Posted by:Rich |September 09, 2012 at 09:10 AM

Its about time to call bullsh*t on these climate deniers. There is no longer any reasonable doubt on global warming, that is: the scientists who study this have reached the conclusion that it is happening and human activity is to blame. Here is a modest proposal: On an annual basis, get an actuarial estimate of the number, if any, of additional weather related deaths. Should there be a substantial and statistically verifiable increase then charge these people with crimes against humanity. That takes care of these mouthpieces. For the companies that generate the greenhouse gases, a special tax of 50% on profits, and 50% on all bonuses to execs. The money earmarked for research and development of 'green energy' and to offset the energy price increases for the poor. Enough talk, let's do something.

Posted by:farticustheelder |September 09, 2012 at 09:15 AM

I'm with Tom. Regardless of whether global warming (which is certain) is caused or even aggravated by humans (which is not, though I personally lean toward the latter being the case), it only makes sense to move away from fossil fuels and toward sustainable, nonpolluting energy sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, fusion, and so forth.

For a balanced, rational perspective on this and other issues, I highly recommend "Physics for Future Presidents" by Richard A. Muller.

Posted by:Bob Greenwade |September 09, 2012 at 09:34 AM

Also, even if global warming is tied to solar cycles, isn't it very, very likely that this cycle and future warming cycles will be *worse* due to the waste and chemicals we're dumping into the atmosphere, land and water? Maybe our contribution to global warming will cause a runaway effect...do you want to take that chance?

Posted by:tom perry |September 09, 2012 at 10:36 AM

I'm with Fred.
He is using real data to support his theory. As an engineer I know you have to use real data or your bridge will fall down. You can't use politically manipulated data for whatever you think is right and good. We should be glad we didn't try to "fix" the coming ice age which was a consensus scientific opinion in the 1970's.
I'm with Fred.

Posted by:Engineer |September 09, 2012 at 01:48 PM

I am pretty much in agreement with Bob. We are in natural warming cycle where the sun in the PRIME influence. Climate modeling is way too primative to even come close to taging CO2 or any other gas as having a major impact. That being said, the most abundant resource we have is coal - a very dirty fuel, dirty to mine, dirty to transport and dirty burn.
Until we can create a usable, sustainable fusion reactor the next best alternatives are, I think, natural gas (the Northern Hemisphere has LOT of that) suplemented by solar and geothermal.
I ave seen the wind farms in the Western states. These are not practical without heavy subsdies. In the Winter many of these wind farms consume more electricty than they generate because the oil in the gear boxes has to be kept warm.
Think how much electricity we could generate if we followed in Iceland's footsteps, and tapped the geothermal vents in the Yellowstone caldera.
Just a few thoughts.

Posted by:oldfart |September 09, 2012 at 01:48 PM

I am a computer scientist. The CO2 Hypothesis appears to be BS to me.

Check out the graph "Global Temperature and Atmospheric CO2 over Geologic Time ". Present day is to the right. This means that most of the life in our seas evolved when CO2 levels were much higher than they are today. Also, the global average temperature appears almost constant at 25 C at this time scale, except during the extinction events, when the climate catastrophically cooled. No correlation between temperature and CO2 in this graph, even when CO2 ranged up to 7,000 ppm. In the past, CO2 appears to have had no effect on climate when it was between 1,000 ppm and 7,000 ppm, and now, it is supposedly very powerful at less than 400 ppm? How does that make sense?

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/Carboniferous_climate.html

That temperature graph is from Professor Christopher R. Scotese, Geology Professor at UT Arlington
Here is his CV
http://www.scotese.com/ScoteseCV.htm

Here is his temperature graph
http://www.scotese.com/climate.htm

That CO2 graph appears the same as from this University web page
http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/virtualmuseum/climatechange2/07_1.shtml

Posted by:Christopher J. Shaker |September 09, 2012 at 03:09 PM

This is the same Fred Singer who has been claiming for decades that it isn't getting warmer; that it in fact has been cooling , and that the satellite data supports this. It doesn't - he's lying. I say lying because he's been told many times that the satellite data shows the same general warming trend as the instrumental record he just refuses to correct his mistake.

So in this book he says it's happening, and it's unstoppable. He's still saying out the other side of his mouth it isn't warming too, but I guess his followers aren't able to see the contradiction.
There is no 1500 year warming cycle, btw. There was a cycle in ice core data during the glacial period of the current ice age, where Greenland would show a warming while Antarctica simultaneously had a cooling event, and vice versa. It's a bi-polar see-saw, not a global warming event. There is no net increase in global temps. The whole premise of Singer's book is a crock.

Posted by:Robert Murphy |September 09, 2012 at 05:24 PM

this rolling stone article is written for anyone to understand in clear language http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719?print=true

Posted by:cld1 |September 09, 2012 at 10:53 PM

Just 1 question i have for everyone denying human involvement in climate change or its intensity.

Did the Sun put the hole in our Ozone layer? no....

Ok then don't sit around talking about how it would be just as bad if we had not sprayed countless billions of pounds of toxic chemicals into our atmosphere.

Posted by:Matthew |September 10, 2012 at 12:33 AM

"This is the same Fred Singer who has been claiming for decades that it isn't getting warmer; that it in fact has been cooling , and that the satellite data supports this. It doesn't - he's lying."

The one lying here is you.

The satellite data is world wide and far more accurate. The observations station data is BS. See Anthony Watts sufacestations.org report and pay particular attention to the historical data.

Posted by:Sharpshooter |September 10, 2012 at 01:56 AM

"The one lying here is you."

Not at all. The satellite record shows almost the same warming trend as the instrumental record. Here's UAH (Roy Spencer and John Christy's satellite product):
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/uah/from:1979/to:2013/trend

About .14C of warming a decade. Singer *still* claims it shows cooling. He's the one lying.

"The satellite data is world wide and far more accurate."

Not really, though it has some strengths that the instrumental record doesn't have. For instance, it doesn't suffer from the UHI effect or have other siting issues that ground based records have. It does however have some biases of it's own that have to be statistically worked out - drift of satellites for instance, or bleeding of temps from the stratosphere. It doesn't take the temp directly of course; the temp has to be figured out through mathematical models. Not better necessarily, but independent.

"The observations station data is BS. See Anthony Watts sufacestations.org report and pay particular attention to the historical data."

Watts is a clown. He uses pictures of stations to make wild claims but actual analysis of the station data shows that the instrumental data is very accurate. As I said above, too, if you don't like the instrumental data, use the satellite data - it shows the same thing.

Posted by:Robert Murphy |September 10, 2012 at 02:32 AM

I doesn't matter whether GW is man-aggrevated or not. Using cleaner fuels that minimize environmental footprints is a respect thing, not a save-ourselves thing. The best part of evolution is that you maximize the resources from your niche in a better way then competitors ... less impact is better.

Posted by:Noochy |September 10, 2012 at 07:03 AM

Natural mechanisms rule.

Just think of the early Carboniferous when CO2 levels were much higher than today. Huge amounts of Limestone were deposited to remove the excess CO2 and large deposits of coal removed carbon from the atmosphere. Rather than the greenhouse effect taking over, an Ice Age started in the late Carboniferous! In fact compared to other geologic times, the earth’s current atmosphere is CO2 impoverished. Just think of the methane and CO2 levels in the Precambrian. The earth did not heat up and destroy itself, plant activity was stimulated, extracting CO2 and pumping oxygen into the atmosphere.

Temperature changes (from ice cores) match changes in solar activity. Changing solar activity explains the dip after 1940 and the more recent rise. Surprisingly obvious that the Sun is driving climate change and CO2 is less or largely irrelevant. The graphs produced from ice core research seem to show if anything, that C02 rises lag behind temperature rises not the other way round. Probably C02 is being released by warming of the oceans.

In all the climate in the geological past seems controlled by solar activity (Milancovitch cycles and cosmic ray changes) and if there is a relationship between temperature rise and C02 rise it is certainly not a simple one.

Now don't get me started on renewable energy . . . . lol

North Holland Province Says “No” To New Windparks: “Mega Money Pit With Virtually No Merit”:

http://notrickszone.com/2012/09/09/north....ally-no- merit/

"Adding it all up, one must conclude that under the present conditions in the Netherlands a 100 MW (Megawatt) ‘name plate’ capacity wind development produces on average 23 MW because of the capacity factor. 4,6 MW (20%) of this has to be subtracted from the final net result because of initial energy investments. From the actual Statline production figures we know that 27% of this 23 MW = 6,17 MW represents the actual fossil fuel and CO2 savings. But from this figure we need to subtract the amount of energy invested in the construction works: 4,6 MW. The net total of fuel saving electricity provided by our wind turbines therefore is 6.17 – 4.6 = 1.57 MW on average over the year. That is ~ 1.6% of the installed capacity. It makes wind developments a mega money pit with virtually no merit in terms of the intended goal of CO2 emission reduction or fossil fuel saving."

Posted by:orkneylad |September 10, 2012 at 08:27 AM

"Just think of the early Carboniferous when CO2 levels were much higher than today."

And the Sun was radiating about 4% less energy then(25% when it was formed 4.6 billion years ago). You forgot about that part. When you take into account the significantly reduced solar irradiance, the higher CO2 levels from 400-500 million years ago do not seem quite as high as they would today, when the Sun is giving off 4% more energy.

"Changing solar activity explains the dip after 1940 and the more recent rise."

But solar activity didn't stop rising until the 60's, and it has if anything actually decreased a little (though very little indeed)over the last 40 years. Solar activity has gone in the opposite direction of temp during that time - we've had recent warming despite, not because, of what the Sun has been doing. What did rise very fast in the 40's until the 70's was aerosols from fossil fuel burning; this did of course dampen temperatures. By the 70's and 80's aerosols leveled off as governments in the West cleaned up their acts. In the meantime, CO2 kept rising, and the warming from rising GHG's overtook the cooling from the aerosols. Mostly the Sun has been irrelevant in the last half century as far as temperature change is concerned.

"The graphs produced from ice core research seem to show if anything, that C02 rises lag behind temperature rises not the other way round."

And that has not been happening now - CO2 is clearly rising much faster than the rise in temps could possibly explain. Nobody has claimed that only CO2 or other GHG's can change the Earth's energy balance. Far from it. Warming from changes in the Earth's orbit (Milankovitch cycles) caused the oceans to release CO2. This lead to more warming; it was a feedback, not a cause of the Holocene. Rising solar irradiance is considered responsible for about half of the rise in temps from the mid 1800's to the 1940's. CO2 is the forcing that is changing temps now however. There is no contradiction in CO2 being able to be a feedback or a forcing depending on circumstances.

"In all the climate in the geological past seems controlled by solar activity (Milancovitch cycles and cosmic ray changes)"

Milankovitch cycles have nothing to do with changes in solar activity. They have to do with various irregularities in our orbit that affect how solar radiation hits the Earth. They would happen just the same if the Sun had a perfectly stable output. They act on scales of 10's of thousands of years though and can not explain any of the warming we've seen recently. For one thing, the present configuration of the cycles should have been producing a very slow long term cooling. This is what was actually seen for the last 5K years or so.

As for cosmic rays, they have had a minimal effect on temperature, and have been going in the wrong direction (like solar irradiance and the sunspot cycles) over the last 40-50 years to explain the recent warming. There is as yet no experimental or observational evidence that shows GCR's have anything but the most minor influence on cloud cover.

"Now don't get me started on renewable energy . . . . lol"

Why would one? This article isn't about renewable energy.

Posted by:Robert Murphy |September 10, 2012 at 10:57 AM

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DeLaGarza, Dunivant, Franklin and Gonzalez key to Galaxy’s second half success

2012-09-11T01:40:00.000-07:00

DeLaGarza, Dunivant, Franklin and Gonzalez key to Galaxy’s second half success | LA Galaxy #bg { background: #2a2d51 url(http://www.lagalaxy.com/sites/losangeles/files/la-WEB_BACKGROUND_v2.jpg) no-repeat scroll center top !important; } Castfire.html5ify({ ios_ext: "adaptive.m3u8", // Profile for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad h264_ext: "640.mp4" // Profile for Android, webOS, Blackberry }); Skip To Content SCHEDULE 2012 Schedule Reserve League Schedule Broadcast Schedule Schedule Download Promotional Nights Upcoming Appearances

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CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy’s inexorable rise up the Western Conference standings can be traced to a number of factors.

Some might point out the recent goal-scoring exploits of Robbie Keane, tied for fourth in MLS with New York’s Thierry Henry with 11 goals. Others may bring up the play of David Beckham, who has an MLS career-high 7 goals and 9 assists, second on the team behind only Landon Donovan’s 11, or the recent goal scoring exploits of Juninho.

But another reason, arguably one of the biggest, for the Galaxy’s improved play of late is the defense. A back four consisting of left back Todd Dunivant, center backs Omar Gonzalez and A.J. DeLaGarza and right back Sean Franklin, combined with goalkeeper Josh Saunders, has allowed just one goal in LA’s last four league matches, going 3-0-1 in that time.

It is a foursome that can trace its roots back to 2009, when Gonzalez and DeLaGarza were drafted third and 17th overall, respectively, in that year’s MLS SuperDraft and Dunivant was acquired in a trade with Toronto FC. Franklin had been drafted fourth overall out of Cal State Northridge a year earlier and was the reigning MLS Rookie of the Year.

The beneficiary of this quartet’s recent steadiness has been Saunders, who also re-joined the Galaxy on a permanent basis in 2009 after spending the final months of the season with the club on loan. He calls their collective understanding of each other the key to their success.

“They know what each other’s going to do,” Saunders said. “If you watch this group their spacing is so good that if a play breaks down the other guy is there to pick up the pieces. And their knowledge of the game and where to be for each other.

“They can put out fires before they even begin.”

Saunders said Franklin is especially effective for his ability go forward and defend at the same time. He called DeLaGarza the ultimate utility player for his ability to play anywhere on the back four and marvels at his consistency. The 6-foot-4 Gonzalez, Saunders said, covers so much space and makes it easier for Saunders to defend on crosses. Dunivant, the oldest member of the group at 32, simply is reliable, Saunders went on.

“You know what you’re going to get from him,” Saunders said. “He’s going to give you everything he’s got.

“It’s a pleasure to watch all of these guys play.”

DeLaGarza, who jokingly referred to the Galaxy’s back line as the “Fab Four,” said their time together – this marks their fourth season together on the Galaxy – has made a world of difference.

“That’s the main thing for successful defenses,” DeLaGarza said.

“We’ve been together for a while. When Houston won a couple of championships, they had the same team year in and year out.”

Added Franklin, “We’ve had chemistry over the years. It’s a comfortable thing to play with guys you’ve played many games with, and right now we’re playing well.

“But we know our job’s not done.”

Dunivant doesn’t underestimate the return of Gonzalez, who missed most of the season while he recovered from major knee surgery.

“It’s nice to see him out there again,” Dunivant said. “You can see his physical presence and what a difference it makes. He’s confident, and you can feel that throughout the team.”

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New Theory of Dark Matter & Energy Alters Einstein's View of Spacetime

2012-09-10T22:28:00.000-07:00

New Theory of Dark Matter & Energy Alters Einstein's View of Spacetime
New Theory of Dark Matter & Energy Alters Einstein's View of Spacetime The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy « "21-Centimeter Cosmology" --Birth of the Universe Found in an Atom of Hydrogen |Main| Image of the Day: Tracks of Human Technology on Mars --Curiosity Begins Its Journey! »

September 06, 2012 New Theory of Dark Matter & Energy Alters Einstein's View of Spacetime

A pair of mathematicians -- one from Indiana University and the other from Sichuan University in China -- have proposed a unified theory of dark matter and dark energy that alters Einstein's equations describing the fundamentals of gravity.

"In a nutshell, we believe that new gravity theory will change our view on energy, gravitational interactions, and the structure and formation of our universe," said Shouhong Wang, a professor of mathematics at Indiana University.

Wang and Tian Ma, a professor at Sichuan University, suggest the law of energy and momentum conservation in spacetime is valid only when normal matter, dark matter and dark energy are all taken into account. For normal matter alone, energy and momentum are no longer conserved, they argue.

While still employing the metric of curved spacetime that Einstein used in his field equations, the researchers argue the presence of dark matter and dark energy -- which scientists believe accounts for at least 95 percent of the universe -- requires a new set of gravitational field equations that take into account a new type of energy caused by the non-uniform distribution of matter in the universe. This new energy can be both positive and negative, and the total over spacetime is conserved, Wang said.

It is curved spacetime, along with a new scalar potential field representing the new energy density, and the interactions between the two that form the foundation for the new gravitational field equations.

"Many people have come up with different theories for dark energy," Wang said. "Unfortunately, the mystery remains, and in fact, the nature of dark energy is now perhaps the most profound mystery in cosmology and astrophysics. It is considered the most outstanding problem in theoretical physics.

"The other great mystery concerning our universe is that it contains much more matter than can be accounted for in our visible stars. The missing mass is termed as dark matter, and despite many attempts at detecting dark matter, the mystery remains and even deepens."

The researchers postulate that the energy-momentum tensor of normal matter is no longer conserved and that new gravitational field equations follow from Einstein's principles of equivalence and general relativity, and the principle of Lagrangian dynamics, just as Einstein derived his field equations. Wang said the new equations were the unique outcome of the non-conservation of the energy-momentum tensor of normal matter.

When Einstein developed his theory, dark energy and dark matter had not yet been discovered, so it was natural for him to start his theory using the conservation law of energy and momentum of normal matter, Wang added.*"The difference between the new field equations and Einstein's equations is the addition of a second-order covariant derivative of a scalar potential field," he said. "Gravity theory is fundamentally changed and is now described by the metric of the curved spacetime, the new scalar potential field and their interactions."

Tensors provide a concise framework for solving general relativity problems and the energy-momentum tensor quantifies the density and current of energy and momentum in spacetime. The second-order covariant derivative would be the geometric analog of a second order derivative in calculus which measures how the rate of change of a quantity is itself changing.

Associated with the scalar field is a scalar potential energy density consisting of positive and negative energies and representing a new type of energy caused by the non-uniform distribution of matter in the universe. The scalar potential energy density varies as the galaxies move and matter redistributes, affecting every part of the universe as a field.

Wang said negative energy produces attraction while the positive energy produces a repelling force fundamentally different from the four forces -- gravity, electromagnetism, the weak interaction and the strong interaction -- recognized in physics today.

"Most importantly, this new energy and the new field equations offer a unified theory for both dark energy and dark matter, which until now have been considered as two totally different beasts sharing only 'dark' in name," he said. "Both dark matter and dark energy can now be represented by the sum of the new scalar potential energy density and the coupling energy between the energy-momentum tensor and the scalar potential field."

The negative part of this sum represents the dark matter, which produces attraction, and the positive part represents the dark energy, which drives the acceleration of expanding galaxies, he said.

Kevin Zumbrun, chair of the Department of Mathematics at IU Bloomington, said the new unified theory looked sound in principle."It is speculative at the cosmological level, since one must match with experiment, but the math is solid," he said. "It's a new and elegant angle on things, and if this does match experiment, it is a huge discovery. Quite exciting!"

Wang said the new field equations also lead to a modified Newtonian gravitational force formula, which shows that dark matter plays a more important rule in a galactic scale at about 1,000 to 100,000 light years, but is less important in the larger scale of the solar system, where dark energy will be significant (more than 10 million light years).

"This unified theory is consistent with general characterizations of dark energy and dark matter, and further tests of the theory up to measured precisions of cosmic observations are certainly crucial for an eventual validation of the theory," Wang added.

Above, a combined radio/optical image shows the galaxy cluster Abell 3376 in visible light(blue) and radio (red) images. The giant radio arcs surrounding the cluster were discovered using the Very Large Array. The visible-light image is from the Digitized Sky survey.

The Daily Galaxy via http://newsinfo.iu.edu/

Posted at 09:40 AM | Permalink

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"A pair of mathematicians -- one from Indiana University and the other from Sichuan University in China -- have proposed a unified theory of dark matter and dark energy that alters Einstein's equations describing the fundamentals of gravity."

Did Kevin Zumbrun at IU Bloomington, "propose" this theory or simply comment on Wang and Ma's theory?

Posted by:John |September 06, 2012 at 11:11 AM

Wonder about mass oscillation, and back to 2008. Well, I'll always have the discovery of the electric force constant so mass and EM units can become consistent, and the opposite charge effect of a minus sign factors into a constant.

Sounds interesting :)

Posted by:Simon Jackson |September 06, 2012 at 01:12 PM

Go Big Red! Glad to see that people are still expanding their minds at good old IU in Bloomington.

One must remember 'laws of physics' are not like mathematical proofs they are approximations. The better the repeatable results of a theory when compared against experiment (do not forget those pesky error bars that denote uncertainty of result) it is called a law. As we know from Quantum Mechanics some things cannot be measure at the same time position and momentum for example.

All solutions of partial differential equations are themselves approximations. What if the constants of nature are not but are functions themselves of something like local gravitational curvature, or dark energy radiation pressure or the mass of a quark. It all gets kicked into a hat so to speak (a black one at that probably).

The Theory of Everything (TOE) is a Holy Grail, a chimera, something that is like a cloud. When the cloud is far off it is sharp and distinct but once near or in the cloud it is just a fuzzy light scatterer. A TOE makes sense because we do not have it, but as we approach it, what is it exactly? What predictions does it make? Can they be measured.

It is possible that a TOE is not mathematical at all but something else (shades of Herman Weyl).

Nonetheless carry on chaps and solve those clouds. In the meantime I'll be blowing the foam off a few at the Bluebird with Duke Tumatoe (a TOE himself) getting ready for another one of those beautiful Friday nights in Bloomington.

Posted by:George Giles |September 06, 2012 at 04:37 PM

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Posted by:Princesswu112 |September 07, 2012 at 01:57 AM

95% of the known universe is made up of Dark Matter and Dark Energy? If the universe has such an abundance of this stuff, why is it not present in our neck of the woods? Dark Matter and Dark Energy does not exist here because we are such a rarity that only ordinary matter exist here in our part of the universe. Although, no one has ever seen Dark Energy or Dark Matter, we know they exist due to the influence it has on other heavenly bodies (the acceleration of the universe. Although there is still debate on the fact of whether the expansion of the universe is really happening, via dark matter, and dark energy. Can we recreate dark matter in a lab?

In search of the Snark.

Posted by:kristi276 |September 07, 2012 at 02:45 AM

Bravo!

Wish I understood the math. I am stuck with only conceptual explanations of things. Can someone who knows math, physics, and CIG Theory ( www.CIGTheory.com) assess whether or not there is any connection between the two? CIG also combines Matter-Dark Matter-Dark Energy. It would be so appreciated if the math that Dr. Wang and Dr. Tian Ma could be explained to me in a "physically this is happening and why - words only explanation" (the math could be included if all variables are explained as to their meaning and intent). [The other choice is that I learn math]

Any takers. Please see CIG Theory. www.CIGTheory.com

Any link between this paper and CIG?

Thank you kindly,

Doug (respond to lippfamily@earthlink.net)

Posted by:Douglas W Lipp |September 07, 2012 at 04:03 AM

My math in CIGTheory is nearly limited to MTS where :

M= Matter

T = forward/reverse vector quantity (picture arrows on the T) which represent any possible rate of travel from zero to "c"
("T" was used because at "c" there is an equvalency to Time itself)(the theory also started in 1979 with a Rate x Time = Distance thought process - incorrectly so, I now believe, since the RxT=Distance equation forgets to state that something has be traveling [I quess this is supposed to be understood])

S = Space (The Darkest of Deep Dark Energy)

So, M = black hole at zero %"c" travel
and S = Dark Energy at full "c" travel
In between is the Standard Model , Dark Matter, Light Dark Matter, Heavy Dark Matter, etc.

Matter manifests itself into space (a mass to space quatification is in the theory) . This theory takes matter and turns it into a spatial quantity.

Is there any correlation between CIG Theory
( www.CIGTheory.com ) and this new paper by Dr. Wang and
Dr. Tian Ma?

I would really like someone to comment on my theory.

THX
doug [please comment to: lippfamily@earthlink.net ]

Posted by:Douglas W Lipp |September 07, 2012 at 04:17 AM

I don't like how modern fundamental science has turned into almost pure speculation and sometimes outright fantasy! There is a big paradigm crisis that no one wants to face. Ugly mess in particle physics and nonsense in cosmology. It is a dead end...

Posted by:Roman |September 07, 2012 at 05:31 AM

In simple terms dark matter is an excess attraction, and dark energy is an excess repulsion. So either these things are real and have a fermionic/bosonic nature, or they are aberrations caused by not correctly understanding the interaction between matter and space.

Simply put above average matter connection appears as extra gravity, or dark matter effect, and below average matter connection appears as less gravity, or dark energy effect.

Think what would happen to waves in a medium, if waves of similar frequency became attracted when in phase and repelled when in anti-phase. The scalar field represents to some extent the frequency of vibration of mass/energy content at a point in space.

That's how I choose to understand it, the actual details may differ.

Posted by:Simon Jackson |September 07, 2012 at 02:36 PM

The basic concept makes sense to me. If dark matter and dark energy can exert forces on normal matter, then normal matter should exert forces back on dark matter and dark energy. That's Isaac Newton's "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." This suggests that the momentum and energy (which in relativity is essentially the time component of momentum) should be conserved only when considering dark matter, dark energy, and normal matter together. Of course this specific theory will need experimental verification.

In reply to kristi276, dark matter and dark energy should be present all around us. It's just very weakly interacting so it's hard to detect the interactions on less than galactic scales. Unless of course the concepts of dark matter and dark energy are wrong.

Posted by:Andrew |September 07, 2012 at 09:10 PM

Is it not possible that gravity is, in fact, the fabric in which space-time is woven? That matter is not reacting to gravity, rather, gravity is reacting to matter? It might be possible that the three things in "modern" physics that we understand the least; Gravity, dark-energy and dark-matter, have more in common than we realize... Is it conceivable that 95% of the universe is comprised of a form of "gravity" [fabric]that we have yet to comprehend? After all- "Wang said the new field equations also lead to a modified Newtonian gravitational force formula, which shows that dark matter plays a more important rule in a galactic scale at about 1,000 to 100,000 light years, but is less important in the larger scale of the solar system, where dark energy will be significant (more than 10 million light years).
Perhaps gravity has more secrets to reveal about it's mysterious nature than we realize. I simply CANNOT wait to find out! Great article!

Posted by:Curly |September 08, 2012 at 01:24 AM

Sub: Need to search Cosmology vedas Interlinks
Space Time Energy Concepts -need to be linked to Prime concepts
that form cosmological Index. the Milkyway Galactic frame helps to evolve base concepts. Plasma regulated Electromagnetic phenomena in magnetic field environment has been clearly identified in my projections - see cosmology structures new modeling-by V nanduri
Carnegie Centennial symposium-3, jan 2003
search more links
vidyardhicosmology [dot]blogspot [dot]in/2011/10/light-flow-interaction-plasma-vision [dot]html

Posted by:Vidyardhi Nanduri |September 08, 2012 at 05:58 AM

Curly is going in the right direction.
While gravity is much, much weaker than it should be, (because most of it comes from somewhere else) we should be looking into dark matter and energy to see if the same thing applies!

Posted by:Allan W Janssen |September 08, 2012 at 07:06 AM

A refreshing approach covering the totality of mass energy content of the Universe. Yes, 95% is dark matter and energy and only 5 % is visible. We have done and studied the visible but the dominant part remains beyond study except for its repulsive gravity towards the visible universe of ours. Such an approach should be taken way back to time zero of Big Bang creation and one should study how one primordial matter got divided into two, visible and dark and how! I have few conceptual ideas. t involves treating heavy particulate primordial matter that decayed under strong field and this process got stopped with falling strength of initial strength of strong force and then emerged gravitational force of two variety attractive and repulsive, one for interactions within visible matter, as the dominant part of dark matter got a different constituents to that of visible baryonic matter!

Posted by:Narendra Nath |September 09, 2012 at 04:18 AM

My brain hurts

Posted by:Ruth Mc |September 09, 2012 at 07:49 AM

as a layman, always curious about Cosmology, the Quantam World etc, but I understood .005% of this article. That's fine, love to see great minds at work, guess I'll have to wait for a science writer to digest this and boil it down for a science magazine. I wonder if we'll ever totally, completely, fundamentally understand reality and creation. Why are we here?

Posted by:tom perry |September 09, 2012 at 07:58 AM

Tom perry, there is no answer to that why. There is no "reason",we just are. Look up on entropy and go from there.

Posted by:Insomnia |September 10, 2012 at 07:53 AM

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Star's Chemistry Key to Creating Habitable Zones

2012-09-10T19:16:00.000-07:00

Star's Chemistry Key to Creating Habitable Zones
Star's Chemistry Key to Creating Habitable ZonesThe Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy « Image of the Day: Tracks of Human Technology on Mars --Curiosity Begins Its Journey! |Main| "Is There Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years?" (Weekend Feature) »

September 07, 2012 Star's Chemistry Key to Creating Habitable Zones

The search for potentially habitable planets involves discussion of what is sometimes referred to as the "Goldilocks Zone" – the relatively thin band in a solar system in which conditions on a planet can support life. Astrobiologists and planetary scientists agree that a planet's distance from its parent star is of paramount importance for creating those optimum conditions.

A new study by Arizona State University researchers suggests that the host star's chemical makeup also can impact conditions of habitability of planets that orbit them. The team's paper, published in the August issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters, demonstrates that subtle differences in a star's internal chemistry can have huge effects on a planet's chances of long-term habitability.

"We have identified changes in the ratios of different elements as particularly important for a given solar system's habitability," says Patrick Young, an assistant professor in ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration and lead author on the paper. "The more abundant elements carbon, oxygen, silicon, magnesium and sodium are particularly important. The greater the abundances of these four elements in a star, the slower it, and the location of its Goldilocks Zone, will evolve."

"Habitability is very difficult to quantify because it depends on a huge number of variables, some of which we have yet to identify," says Young. "It also depends on the definition of habitable that we choose to use. We chose to use a relatively simple model that predicts whether a planet can sustain liquid water on its surface with reasonable assumptions about planetary atmospheres."

As a star evolves, it becomes brighter, causing the habitable zone to move outwards through its solar system. The team's study indicates that a greater abundance of oxygen, carbon, sodium, magnesium and silicon should be a plus for an inner solar system's long-term habitability because the abundance of these elements make the star cooler and cause it to evolve more slowly, thereby giving planets in its habitable zone more time to develop life as we know it.

To explore whether stellar internal chemistry causes significant changes in the evolution of stars and therefore their habitable zones, Young and his colleagues, graduate students Mike Pagano and Kelley Liebst, did simulations of stars that are like our sun. "We used spectra from 145 broadly sun-like stars targeted by planet to estimate the amount of variation in the abundance ratios of elements," explains Pagano, who is a graduate student in the School of Earth and Space Exploration astrophysics program.

"For each model, we varied the amount of one element to the extremes of variation we estimated from our analysis of the observations. Oxygen is the most abundant element in the universe besides hydrogen and helium, so a change in the oxygen abundance results in a significant change in the total amount of heavy elements in the star," Pagano said. "Oxygen turns out to be highly variable in abundance. The effect of increased heavy element abundance on a star is to make it harder for the energy produced by nuclear fusion to escape the star. This means less energy needs to be produced to support the star, and it can live longer."

The stellar abundance of oxygen seems crucial in determining how long planets stay in the habitable zone around their host star. If there had been less oxygen in the Sun's chemical makeup, for example, Earth likely would have been pushed out of the Sun's habitable zone about a billion years ago, well before complex organisms evolved. Considering the first complex multicellular organisms only arose about 650 million years ago, such a move would have likely destroyed any chance of complex life taking hold on Earth. Planets being searched for signs of life may be about to leave their habitable zones or only have just entered them.

Journal reference: Astrophysical Journal Letters

The Daily galaxy via Arizona State University

Posted at 08:45 AM | Permalink

Comments

I have real problems with the articles assumptions, not only because of the unknown variables but because we cannot possibly even begin to claim that we have enough information about the universe to even form a educated guess on this subject. The article makes no mention of binary star systems or how that would impact habitable zones. For all we know life could thrive far past or even closer to a parent star given certain strange and unique variables not currently known to us. Until we can confidently say we have surveyed at least 20% of the known universe, which i think will take decades at our current level of technology. How can we make such assumptions? Knowing they will likely be proven false as many other assumptions are daily, with regards to science in general let alone the greatest mysteries of the universe. The goldilocks zone crap is just another man made idea of how the universe should operate, and hasn't it already proven to us that we don't understand how it operates on both grand and small scales.

Posted by:Matthew |September 07, 2012 at 09:08 AM

seems like every week we get a new crop of scientists talking about habitable zones.

Posted by:poor richard |September 07, 2012 at 11:52 AM

Actually, I thought this was a rather well-done article, except for one detail: it discusses the "four" elements of carbon, oxygen, silicon, magnesium, and sodium.

(I'm not readily finding the article under discussion here, so I can't tell if this was an error at TDG, of Dr. Young's, or at some middle point. I more strongly suspect the last.)

But never mind that. This discovery should help our astronomers to more easily identify and locate the stars with the correct chemistry to have planets habitable by us. For that, I think this development is prize-worthy.

Posted by:Bob Greenwade |September 07, 2012 at 12:20 PM

Goldilocks was not an alien, she was a high class hooker who liked expensive meals and slept a lot in hotel rooms.

Posted by:Bro |September 07, 2012 at 01:14 PM

“Goldilocks, Goldilocks, Goldilocks”! Are we really betting the universe is indeed trivial when it comes to conditions for life? Or, are we engaged in ‘human-speak’ and talking about conditions, the “G-zone’, that…might…just might lead to life 'FORMS’ that resemble us? I would be shocked if the answer was “Yes”, only the G-zone spawns life forms of any kind. But maybe we bow too deeply when we speak of the vastness, and vast probabilities, of the universe. Is the universe trivial when it comes to life forms?

Posted by:resonanz |September 07, 2012 at 05:47 PM

Although a Daily Galaxy article in the last few weeks pointed out the possibility of alternate biochemistries, terrestrial aqueous hydrocarbon biochemistry is the only system that we know for sure works, so it's reasonable to consider and discuss the constraints of this hydrocarbon chemistry. The high abundance of carbon and oxygen relative to other "metals" may also produce a bias toward this biochemistry system and increase its importance.

I like the consideration of the evolution of the habitable zone. Planets like Gliese 581d may be becoming more habitable albeit very slowly.

Posted by:Andrew |September 07, 2012 at 08:58 PM

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Ice Caps at Mars' Poles Reflect Sun's Impact on Climate Change

2012-09-10T15:45:00.000-07:00

Ice Caps at Mars' Poles Reflect Sun's Impact on Climate Change
Ice Caps at Mars' Poles Reflect Sun's Impact on Climate ChangeThe Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy « Image of the Day: "How to Get to Mars" --Don't Miss This! |Main| "21-Centimeter Cosmology" --Birth of the Universe Found in an Atom of Hydrogen »

September 06, 2012 Ice Caps at Mars' Poles Reflect Sun's Impact on Climate Change

Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute have linked the layers in the ice cap on Mars's north pole to variations in solar insolation on Mars, thus established the first dated climate history for Mars, where ice and dust accumulation has been driven by variations in insolation.

The ice caps on Mars's poles are kilometres thick and composed of ice and dust. There are layers in the ice caps, which can be seen in cliffs and valley slopes and we have known about these layers for decades, since the first satellite images came back from Mars. The layers are believed to reflect past climate on Mars, in the same way that the Earth's climate history can be read by analysing ice cores from the ice caps on Greenland and Antarctica.

Solar insolation on Mars has varied dramatically over time, mainly due to large variations in the tilt of Mars's rotational axis (obliquity) and this led to dramatic climate variations on Mars. For years people have tried to link the solar insolation and layer formation by looking for signs of periodic sequences in the visible layers, which can be seen in the upper 500 meters. Periodic signals might be traceable back to known variations in the solar insolation on Mars, but so far it has been unclear whether one could find a correlation between variations in insolation and the layers.

The layers can have varying level of dust. Credit: NASA/JPL/UA Correlation between ice, dust and sun "Here we have gone in a completely different direction. We have developed a model for how the layers are built up based on fundamental physical processes and it demonstrates a correlation between ice and dust accumulation and solar insolation, explains Christine Hvidberg, a researcher in ice physics at the Centre for Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen.

Hvidberg explains that in the model the layer formation is driven by insolation and the dust rich layers can be formed by two processes: 1: Increased evaporation of ice during the summer at high obliquity (when the rotational axis tilts down) and 2: Variations in dust accumulation as a result of variations in the axial tilt. The model is simple, but physically possible and it can be used to examine the relationship between climate variability and layer formation.

The researchers established a framework for the model that could explain the layer formation so that it was consistent with the observations. By comparing the layer distribution in the model with precise measurements of the layer structure from high resolution satellite images of the ice cap on Mars's north pole, they have discovered that the model is able to reproduce the complex sequences in the layers.

"The model dates the upper 500 meters of the northern ice cap on Mars, equivalent to approximately 1 million years and an average accumulation rate of ice and dust of 0.55 mm per year. It links the individual layers to the maxima in solar insolation and thereby establishes a dated climate history of the north pole of Mars over 1 million years," says Christine Hvidberg.

Even though the model is only based on a comparison with the visible layers in the upper 500 meters, preliminary studies indicate that the entire thickness and internal structure of the ice cap can be explained by the model and can thus explain how ice and dust accumulation on Mars's north pole has been driven by variations in solar insolation for millions of years.

For more information: dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2012.08.009 Journal reference: Icarus.

The image at top of page shows ice cap on Mars?' north pole, primarily composed of water ice and containing a few percent of dust. It has a spiral structure formed by white, ice-covered areas and dark slopes where the layers in the ice cap can be seen.

The Daily galaxy via University of Copenhagen

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS

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Interesting, I wonder what causes the spiral structure of the northern ice cap...

Posted by:Ruth Mc |September 09, 2012 at 07:23 AM

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Image of the Day: Hubble's Successor --The James Webb Space Telescope's Mega Mirror

2012-09-10T12:39:00.000-07:00

Image of the Day: Hubble's Successor --The James Webb Space Telescope's Mega Mirror
Image of the Day: Hubble's Successor --The James Webb Space Telescope's Mega MirrorThe Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy « The 'Daily Galaxy' Twitter Followers Soar Above 200,000! |Main| CERN's Detection of Higgs Boson Confirmed »

September 10, 2012 Image of the Day: Hubble's Successor --The James Webb Space Telescope's Mega Mirror

This image shows the huge $20 million, honeycomb-like mirror that will unlock unsolved mysteries of Universe for the infrared-optimized James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) when it is eventually launched into orbit in 2018. After settling 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, the telescope will collect infrared light emitted by galaxies more than 13 billion light years away, enabling astronomers to look back through time at the early stages of the universe's life.

To fit inside its rocket, the JWST's 6.5-metre-high reflector, six times larger than Hubble's, is folded into 18 hexagonal pieces, which will assemble to function as a single giant mirror once the telescope is in orbit. The mirror is made of beryllium - a material that despite its lightness is strong enough to survive a rocket's violent launch and temperatures of -223 °C or lower. The honey glow comes from a thin coating of gold, added to improve the reflection of infrared rays.

Image Credit: David Higginbotham/NASA/MSFC

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Image of the Day: "How to Get to Mars" --Don't Miss This!

2012-09-09T02:39:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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Wilhelmsson has ‘good performance” in appearance with Galaxy Reserves

2012-09-08T23:06:00.000-07:00

Wilhelmsson has ‘good performance” in appearance with Galaxy Reserves | LA Galaxy #bg { background: #2a2d51 url(http://www.lagalaxy.com/sites/losangeles/files/la-WEB_BACKGROUND_v2.jpg) no-repeat scroll center top !important; } Castfire.html5ify({ ios_ext: "adaptive.m3u8", // Profile for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad h264_ext: "640.mp4" // Profile for Android, webOS, Blackberry }); Skip To Content SCHEDULE 2012 Schedule Reserve League Schedule Broadcast Schedule Schedule Download Promotional Nights Upcoming Appearances

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Swedish International Christian Wilhelmsson went 58 minutes during the LA Galaxy’s 2-0 Reserve League defeat to the San Jose Earthquakes on Tuesday, his first reserve appearance since joining the club in training last week.

Throughout the match, the Swede was a threat to score as he played the first half on the left flank before switching sides in the second half. However, the 32-year-old was unable to find the back of the net, being whistled for offside a total of four times—one of which negating a goal early in the first half. Although the non-contracted Swede was unable to find the back of the net, he drew considerable praise from Galaxy Reserve head coach Curt Onalfo.

“I thought that he created some things. He’s a pure wide player so was able to get into some situations that were good for our team,” Onalfo told reporters in a conference call after the match. “Like I said, there were four controversial offside calls that we didn’t think were offside that would have turned the terms of the game...he had a good performance.”

The reserve match was Wilhelmsson’s first competitive game since August 15th when the 32-year-old winger appeared for Sweden during an international friendly with Brazil in Stockholm.

“For him it’s about getting minutes and utilizing this as an opportunity to advance,” Onalfo said. “He played fine, he played well. You can tell that he has a lot of quality and that he’s a very quality wide player. He’s a good and very clever wide player.”

Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at LAGalaxy.com/Insider

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News & Blog NewsBlog LA Galaxy sign Swedish International Midfielder Christian Wilhelmsson Wilhelmsson has ‘good performance” in appearance with Galaxy Reserves LA Galaxy fall 2-0 on the road to San Jose in Reserve League action LA Galaxy rolling heading into international break Galaxy defense back at its best form in LA's latest win Insider Reports Galaxy confirm Wilhelmsson will travel to San Jose for Reserve League Match Tuesday First XI: Top 11 stories from LA’s 2-0 win over Vancouver VOTE: Beckham, Juninho nominated for AT&T Goal of the Week: Week 26 LA's Beckham surprising even himself with scoring run Postgame Notes & Quotes: LA vs Vancouver MORE LATEST NEWS A look at LA Galaxy number nine's through the years Sep 05 4:12 pm LA Galaxy Academy's Arriola called into U.S. Under-18s for Netherlands training camp Sep 05 2:50 pm Tactical Analysis: Where will Wilhelmsson fit in the Galaxy attack? Sep 05 11:24 am Video: Wilhelmsson, on joining the LA Galaxy Sep 05 10:21 am Galaxy announce Wilhelmsson signing Sep 05 9:54 am Boyens excited about opportunity to coach in LA Galaxy Academy Sep 04 6:33 pm LA Galaxy Academy defender Ramos joins U.S. U-15 BNT Sep 04 5:03 pm Buddle puts in dangerous stint during Galaxy Reserves 2-0 loss Sep 04 4:34 pm Wilhelmsson gives a "good performance" in 58 minutes with Galaxy reserves Sep 04 4:00 pm Report: Wilhelmsson signs with Galaxy Sep 03 4:47 pm MORE BLOG POSTS Stay Connected

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Strange "Lithium Star" Found in Globular Cluster Orbiting Milky Way

2012-09-08T18:34:00.000-07:00

Strange "Lithium Star" Found in Globular Cluster Orbiting Milky Way
Strange "Lithium Star" Found in Globular Cluster Orbiting Milky WayThe Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy « Image of the Day: "How to Get to Mars" --Don't Miss This! |Main

September 05, 2012 Strange "Lithium Star" Found in Globular Cluster Orbiting Milky Way

A new image from ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile shows the spectacular globular star cluster Messier 4. This ball of tens of thousands of ancient stars is one of the closest and most studied of the globular clusters and recent work has revealed that one of its stars has strange and unexpected properties, apparently possessing the secret of eternal youth.

The Milky Way galaxy is orbited by more than 150 globular star clusters that date back to the distant past of the Universe (eso1141). One of the closest to the Earth is the cluster Messier 4 (also known as NGC 6121) in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion). This bright object can be easily seen in binoculars, close to the bright red star Antares, and a small amateur telescope can show some of its constituent stars.

This new image of the cluster from the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory reveals many more of the cluster’s tens of thousands of stars and shows the cluster against the rich background of the Milky Way.

Astronomers have also studied many of the stars in the cluster individually using instruments on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. By splitting the light from the stars up into its component colours they can work out their chemical composition and ages.

New results for the stars in Messier 4 have been surprising. The stars in globular clusters are old and hence not expected to be rich in the heavier chemical elements. This is what is found, but one of the stars in a recent survey was also found to have much more of the rare light element lithium than expected. The source of this lithium is mysterious. Normally this element is gradually destroyed over the billions of years of a star's life, but this one star amongst thousands seems to have the secret of eternal youth. It has either somehow managed to retain its original lithium, or it has found a way to enrich itself with freshly made lithium.

Most of the chemical elements heavier than helium are created in stars and dispersed into the interstellar medium at the end of their lives. This enriched material then forms the building blocks of future stellar generations. As a result very old stars, such as those in globular star clusters, which formed before significant enrichment had occurred, are found to have lower abundances of the heavier elements when compared to stars, such as the Sun, that formed later.

The WFI image above and belwo gives a wide view of the cluster and its rich surroundings.

The Daily Galaxy via ESO

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LA Galaxy sign Swedish International Midfielder Christian Wilhelmsson

2012-09-08T13:49:00.000-07:00

LA Galaxy sign Swedish International Midfielder Christian Wilhelmsson | LA Galaxy #bg { background: #2a2d51 url(http://www.lagalaxy.com/sites/losangeles/files/la-WEB_BACKGROUND_v2.jpg) no-repeat scroll center top !important; } Castfire.html5ify({ ios_ext: "adaptive.m3u8", // Profile for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad h264_ext: "640.mp4" // Profile for Android, webOS, Blackberry }); Skip To Content SCHEDULE 2012 Schedule Reserve League Schedule Broadcast Schedule Schedule Download Promotional Nights Upcoming Appearances

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CARSON, Calif. (Wednesday, September 5, 2012) – The LA Galaxy announced today that the club has signed Swedish international midfielder Christian Wilhelmsson. The 32-year-old joins the Galaxy as the next step in a successful career that has seen him earn 78 caps for the Swedish National Team and play club soccer throughout Europe as well as in the Middle East. Wilhelmsson will officially be added to the Galaxy roster pending the receipt of his P-1 visa and International Transfer Certificate (ITC).

Wilhelmsson, who arrived in Southern California late last week and has been training with the club ever since, played 58 minutes for the Galaxy in a Reserve League game against the San Jose Earthquakes on Tuesday. He will be available to the local media for the first time as a Galaxy player on Thursday morning following the club’s 10 a.m. training session at The Home Depot Center.

READ: Tactical Analysis: Where will Wilhelmsson fit in the Galaxy attack?

A native of Malmo, Sweden, Wilhelmsson began his professional career at the age of 17, signing with Mjallby of the Swedish Division 1 Sodra (then-second division) after coming through their youth ranks. He spent three years with Mjallby, scoring 11 times in 52 games before joining Stabaek in Norway’s top division, the Tippeligaen. He helped lead Stabaek to the UEFA Cup twice and scored 25 goals in just more than three seasons with the club. Ahead of the start of the 2003/04 season, Wilhelmsson signed with Anderlecht of the Belgium First Division. In his first season with the club, Wilhelmsson scored four times in 27 appearances, helping lead Anderlecht to their first title in three years and qualify for the UEFA Champions League, where they advanced to the Group Stage. The following season, Anderlecht finished second, narrowly missing out on a second consecutive title, but still helping them again reach the Group Stage of the Champions League. The 2005/06 season was his third and final season in Belgium, leading the club to another title with five goals in 31 league games and sending them back to the Group Stage of the Champions League.

Following the 2006 World Cup, during which he appeared in all four of Sweden’s games as they reached the Round of 16, Wilhelmsson signed with Nantes in France’s Ligue 1. After spending the first half of the 2006/07 season with Nantes, making 13 appearances in the league, Wilhelmsson went on loan to Italy, joining Serie A giants Roma. He scored once in 19 games for the club, helping them win the Coppa Italia and qualify for the Champions League by finishing second in Serie A. The following season, Wilhelmsson went on loan again, spending the first half of the 2007/08 season in England with Bolton Wanderers, appearing in eight Premier League games, before heading to Spain with Deportivo la Coruna. He made 15 appearances in Spain, scoring once while helping Deportivo finish in the top half of the table and earn a berth in the Intertoto Cup, through which they claimed a spot in the UEFA Cup.

Following the 2008 European Championships, Wilhelmsson left Europe in order to move to the Middle East, signing with Al-Hilal in the Saudi Professional League. In his second season with the club, Wilhelmsson helped Al-Hilal win a title, scoring nine times in 20 games. He led his club to a repeat of their title the following season while also winning the Crown Prince Cup in both 2010 and 2011, scoring in each of those finals. Wilhelmsson spent the first half of the 2011/12 campaign on loan in Qatar with Al-Ahli before rejoining Al-Hilal for the second half of his final season with the club.

Wilhelmsson has collected 78 caps in his international career, scoring nine times for Sweden since making his debut in 2001 against the Faroe Islands. He was a part of the Swedish team that played in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 European Championships, as well as at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, appearing in 12 of the 14 games that Sweden played in those tournaments. He last played for his country on August 15, starting in their 3-0 loss to Brazil in Stockholm.

The Galaxy will be back in action on Friday, September 14 when they host the Colorado Rapids at The Home Depot Center. That game, which is presented by MetroPCS, kicks off at 8 p.m. and can be seen live on KDOC and Univision Deportes. For more information about this game or to purchase tickets, please visit www.lagalaxy.com/tickets.

Follow@LAGalaxy Player Press Releases Related Links Photos: Christian WilhelmssonPlayer BioGet tickets to remaining Galaxy games!Galaxy schedule Related Content Insider Reports Galaxy confirm Wilhelmsson will travel to San Jose for Reserve League Match Tuesday LA expect to be without still-mending Donovan vs Vancouver As Galaxy rev up, Michael Stephens gets comfortable in unique role Buddle returns from injury layoff, targets starting spot #sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_body {padding: 0px; line-height: 0px;}#sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_header, #sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_bg {border: 0px none;}

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LA Galaxy fall 2-0 on the road to San Jose in Reserve League action

2012-09-08T09:11:00.000-07:00

LA Galaxy fall 2-0 on the road to San Jose in Reserve League action | LA Galaxy #bg { background: #2a2d51 url(http://www.lagalaxy.com/sites/losangeles/files/la-WEB_BACKGROUND_v2.jpg) no-repeat scroll center top !important; } Castfire.html5ify({ ios_ext: "adaptive.m3u8", // Profile for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad h264_ext: "640.mp4" // Profile for Android, webOS, Blackberry }); Skip To Content SCHEDULE 2012 Schedule Reserve League Schedule Broadcast Schedule Schedule Download Promotional Nights Upcoming Appearances

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SAN JOSE, Calif. — The LA Galaxy lost their second straight Reserve League game and slipped to second place in the West Division standings with a 2-0 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes on Tuesday. Mehdi Ballouchy and Sercan Guvenisik each scored for San Jose, who handed LA their first shutout in Reserve League play this season. With the loss, LA slips to 4-3-1 on the season, leaving them one point behind San Jose for the division lead with two games remaining on their schedule.

RESERVE LEAGUE SCHEDULE/RESULTS

Swedish midfielder Christian Wilhelmsson, who began training with the Galaxy late last week, started the game for LA and played 58 minutes on the right side of midfield, challenging the San Jose defense before being replaced by Hector Jimenez.

Despite Wilhelmsson’s constant threat down the right flank, it was the Earthquakes that opened the scoring through Mehdi Ballouchy in the ninth minute. A Matt Fondy shot from the top of the box struck the bar and Ballouchy was the first to react, heading the rebound past Brian Perk to put San Jose in front 1-0.

The score remained that way until halftime, despite Edson Buddle and Jose Villarreal each going close in the closing minutes of the first half.

After the break, Rafael Garcia challenged San Jose goalkeeper Evan Newton with a freekick from 25 yards out, but Newton was able to dive to his right and make the save, keeping the score 1-0.

It would stay that way until the 80th minute when Sercan Guvenisik took a pass from Khari Stephenson and placed a shot from the top of the box past Perk for his sixth goal of the season.

Jose Villarreal and Jack McBean each went close for LA in the game’s closing minutes, but it was not enough as Newton and the San Jose defense were able to maintain their clean sheet and claim the victory.

Tuesday’s game was the Galaxy’s fifth and final road game in the Reserve League this season. They return to action on Monday, September 10 when they host the Portland Timbers. LA will then close out their Reserve League schedule on Friday, October 12 when they host Vancouver Whitecaps FC. Both of those games will be played on University Field #1 at The Home Depot Center with kickoff scheduled for 11 a.m. VIEW REMAINING RESERVE LEAGUE SCHEDULE

LA Galaxy 0 Jose Earthquakes 2
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Earthquakes Training Facility – San Jose, Calif.

Scoring Summary:
SJ – Mehdi Ballouchy (Unassisted) 9’
SJ – Sercan Guvenisik (Khari Stephenson) 80’

Misconduct Summary:
LA – Bryan Gaul (Yellow Card) 55’
SJ – Brad Ring (Yellow Card) 65’
SJ – Evan Newton (Yellow Card) 84’

Lineups:

LA Galaxy: Brian Perk, Oscar Sorto^, Andrew Boyens, Tommy Meyer, Bryan Gaul; Christian Wilhelmsson* (Hector Jimenez 58’), Kenney Walker, Rafael Garcia, Michael Stephens (Raul Mendiola^ 70’); Jose Villarreal, Edson Buddle (Jack McBean 46’).

Subs Not Used: Brian Rowe, Drew Murphy^.

^ - Galaxy Academy Players

* - Galaxy Guest/Training Player

San Jose Earthquakes: Evan Newton; Jacob Hustedt, Brad Ring, Josh Suggs, Jordan Stewart*; Sam Garza, Mehdi Ballouchy, Khari Stephenson, Elisama Padilla^ (Johnny Knutsen^ 87’); Sercan Guvenisik (Jesse Morales^ 87’), Matt Fondy*.

Subs Not Used: David Bingham, Irving Ventura^.

^ - Earthquakes Academy Players

* - Earthquakes Guest/Training Player

Referee: Nestor Chavez
Referee's Assistants: Vicente Cortes and Matthew R. Buckman
4th Official: Joe Dickerson

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News & Blog NewsBlog LA Galaxy fall 2-0 on the road to San Jose in Reserve League action LA Galaxy rolling heading into international break Galaxy defense back at its best form in LA's latest win Insider Reports Galaxy confirm Wilhelmsson will travel to San Jose for Reserve League Match Tuesday First XI: Top 11 stories from LA’s 2-0 win over Vancouver VOTE: Beckham, Juninho nominated for AT&T Goal of the Week: Week 26 LA's Beckham surprising even himself with scoring run Postgame Notes & Quotes: LA vs Vancouver Galaxy Insider reports LA have confirmed interest in Wilhelmsson Recap: LA's Juninho, Beckham deal Vancouver 4th straight loss MORE LATEST NEWS Boyens excited about opportunity to coach in LA Galaxy Academy Sep 04 6:33 pm LA Galaxy Academy defender Ramos joins U.S. U-15 BNT Sep 04 5:03 pm Buddle puts in dangerous stint during Galaxy Reserves 2-0 loss Sep 04 4:34 pm Wilhelmsson gives a "good performance" in 58 minutes with Galaxy reserves Sep 04 4:00 pm Report: Wilhelmsson signs with Galaxy Sep 03 4:47 pm Wilhelmsson to travel for LA Galaxy Reserve League match in San Jose on Tuesday Sep 03 4:12 pm Juninho and Beckham up for Goal of the Week honors Sep 03 3:37 pm Ask the Insider: Edition Six Sep 03 11:51 am Gonzalez and LA's defense lock down Vancouver Sep 02 7:27 pm Still battling hamstring strain, Donovan left off USMNT roster for World Cup qualifiers against Jamaica Sep 02 12:57 pm MORE BLOG POSTS Stay Connected

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Unsolved Mystery of Molecules Found in Andromeda & Triangulum Galaxies

2012-09-08T04:47:00.000-07:00

Unsolved Mystery of Molecules Found in Andromeda & Triangulum Galaxies
Unsolved Mystery of Molecules Found in Andromeda & Triangulum GalaxiesThe Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy « Binary-Star Systems may be 'Hot Zones' for Life --New NASA Discovery |Main

September 04, 2012 Unsolved Mystery of Molecules Found in Andromeda & Triangulum Galaxies

In the summer of 2011, a team of NASA and European scientists recorded the "fingerprints" of mystery molecules in two distant galaxies, Andromeda and the Triangulum (image above). Astronomers can count on one hand the number of galaxies examined so far for such fingerprints, which are thought to belong to large organic molecules (molecules that have at least 20 atoms or more), according to the team's leader, Martin Cordiner of NASA's Goddard Center for Astrobiology. This is quite small compared to, say, a protein, but huge compared to a molecule of carbon monoxide, a very common molecule in space.

Figuring out exactly which molecules are leaving these clues, known as "diffuse interstellar bands" (DIBs), is a puzzle that initially seemed straightforward but has gone unsolved for nearly a hundred years. The answer is expected to help explain how stars, planets and life form, so settling the matter is as important to astronomers who specialize in chemistry and biology as determining the nature of dark matter is to the specialists in physics.

The findings provide some evidence against one of the top candidates on the list of suspects: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a group of molecules that is widespread in space. The research also reveals that some of the signatures found in Andromeda and the Triangulum are similar to ones seen in our own Milky Way, despite some big differences between those galaxies and ours.

"We have studied DIBs in incredibly diverse environments. Some have low levels of UV radiation. Some have radiation levels thousands of times higher. Some have different amounts of 'ingredients' available for making stars and planets," Cordiner said. "And throughout all of these, we see DIBs."

Until now, only two galaxies beyond our own have been investigated in detail for DIBs. Those are our nearest neighbors, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, which lie 160,000 to 200,000 light years away. Andromeda and the Triangulum are located much farther away, at about 2.5 to 3 million light years from Earth. "At those distances, individual stars are so faint that we need to push even the largest telescopes in the world to their limits in order to observe them," Cordiner said.

To effectively study DIBs, researchers have to pick out individual stars within the galaxy, and only a few telescopes worldwide are powerful enough to gather sufficient light for that, which is why most DIBs found so far have been in the Milky Way. (The team used the Gemini Observatory's telescope in Hawaii.)

"The first step is choosing which stars to observe," Cordiner explained. Cordiner's colleagues at Queen's University in Belfast, U.K., took the lead on finding good targets. They picked blue supergiants—stars that are very large, very hot and very bright. Supergiants also burn very clean: unlike our sun and other cooler stars, they contribute little background clutter to the observations being made.

In the image below, The Triangulum Galaxy, located nearly 3 million light years from Earth, researchers have found diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs). The detailed observations needed to see DIBs along a straight line from Earth to an individual star in such a distant galaxy stretch the limits of even the largest telescopes.

To look for DIBs, an astronomer points the telescope at a star and scans through a rainbow made up of thousands of wavelengths of light. This rainbow, or spectrum, is extended a bit beyond visible light, into the UV at the blue end and into the infrared at the red end.

DIBs are not defined by what astronomers see while doing this, but by what they don't see. The colors missing from the rainbow, marked by black stripes, are the ones of interest. Each one is a wavelength being absorbed by some kind of atom or molecule.

A DIB is one of these regions where the color is missing. But compared to the nice, neat "absorption lines" that are identified with atoms or simple molecules, a DIB is not well-behaved, which is why it stands out.

"Astronomers were used to seeing quite sharp, narrow bands where typical atoms and molecules absorb," said Cordiner. "But DIBs are broad; that's why they are called 'diffuse.' Some DIBs have simple shapes and are quite smooth, but others have bumps and wiggles and may even be lopsided."

Over time, astronomers have been building up catalogs to show exactly which wavelengths are absorbed by all kinds of atoms and molecules. Each molecule has its own unique pattern, which can be used like a fingerprint: if a pattern found during an astronomical observation matches a pattern in one of the catalogs, the molecule can be identified.

It's a pretty straightforward concept. So, early researchers "would surely not have thought that the solution to the diffuse band problem would still be so elusive," wrote Peter Sarre in a 2006 review article about DIBs. Sarre, a professor of chemistry and molecular astrophysics at the University of Nottingham, U.K., supervised Cordiner's graduate-school work on DIBs.

The significance of the first DIBs, recorded in 1922 in Mary Lea Heger's Ph.D. thesis, was not immediately recognized. But once astronomers began systematic studies, starting with a 1934 paper by P. W. Merrill, they had every reason to believe the problem could be solved within a decade or two.

More than 400 DIBs have been documented since then. But not one has been identified with enough certainty for astronomers to consider its case closed.

"With this many diffuse bands, you'd think we astronomers would have enough clues to solve this problem," observed Joseph Nuth, a senior scientist with the Goddard Center for Astrobiology who was not involved in this work. "Instead, it's getting more mysterious as more data is gathered."
Detailed analyses of the bumps and wiggles of the DIBs, suggest that the molecules which give rise to DIBs—called "carriers"—are probably large.

Recently, more interest has been focused on at least one small molecule, a chain made from three carbon atoms and two hydrogen atoms (C3H2). This was tentatively identified with a pattern of DIBs.

On the list of DIB-related suspects, all molecules have one thing in common: they are organic, which means they are built largely from carbon. Carbon is great for building large numbers of molecules because it is available almost everywhere. In space, only hydrogen, helium and oxygen are more plentiful. Here on Earth, we find carbon in the planet's crust, the oceans, the atmosphere and all forms of life.

Astronomers "see DIBs pretty much in any direction we look," says Jan Cami, an astronomer at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. He has collaborated with Cordiner before but was not involved in this study. "And we see lots of DIBs."

Carbon is also great for building molecules in all kinds of configurations—millions of carbon compounds have been identified—and especially for building very stable molecules.

DIB carriers also seem to be quite stable. They survive the harsh physical conditions in the interstellar medium—the material found in the space between the stars. They also hang tough in the Large Magellanic Cloud, where radiation levels are thousands of times stronger than in the Milky Way. In fact, says Cordiner, DIB carriers seem comfortable almost everywhere except in the clouds of dense gas where stars are born.

"The carriers are readily formed but not readily destroyed in a wide range of different environments," says Cordiner. "It's remarkable how tenacious these molecules really are."

In short, carriers are thought to be made of carbon, Cami says, "because it's a lot easier to build strong and stable molecules from carbon atoms than from other elements, such as silicon or sulfur. Using those elements rather than carbon would be like building a house from a bucket of sand while there's a huge pile of bricks at the construction site."

The top three carrier candidates are: chain-like molecules, like the one now tentatively associated with a pattern of DIBs; PAHs, which often come up in studies of how planets formed; and compounds related to fullerenes, the soccer-ball-shaped molecules also known as buckyballs.

"This list covers most types of carbon molecules," notes Cami. "Chains are essentially the one-dimensional carbon molecules, PAHs are the two-dimensional ones, and fullerene compounds are the three-dimensional ones."

In spite of the challenges of looking for DIBs in other galaxies, it's worth the effort to astronomers because they need to see what DIBs look like under different conditions.

"But being on Earth and looking at another object in the Milky Way is like being in the crowd at Times Square in New York City on New Year's Eve and trying to find your friend," explains Nuth.

"It's much easier to spot the person if you are on a balcony rather than standing in the crowd yourself." Likewise, it's much easier to get a clear overview of a galaxy when you are outside of it.
In some respects, Andromeda and the Triangulum are similar to the Milky Way. All three are spiral galaxies that belong to a collection of more than 30 nearby galaxies called the Local Group. The Milky Way is the largest member of this group. Andromeda is the second-largest, and the Triangulum is third.

Like the Milky Way, Andromeda and the Triangulum are thought to be good places to synthesize large organic molecules, which is what DIBs carriers are thought to be. And yet, says Cordiner, "nobody knew until now whether DIBs actually existed in either galaxy."

The team found that, indeed, DIBs do exist in both places, and they are strong, which implies there are many carriers.

In the Milky Way, when researchers find strong DIBs, they tend to find a lot of dust, too. This makes sense, because whenever there's more raw material available to make DIBs carriers, there's also more available to make dust. The team found the same situation in Andromeda, Cordiner says.

Of greater interest in Andromeda was whether the strength of the DIBs was related to the amount of PAHs, which are high on the list of candidates for carriers. The researchers knew going into the study that PAHs are plentiful in Andromeda, as they are in the Milky Way.

"The details of the PAH population seem to be somewhat different in Andromeda, though," says Cami. "This makes it interesting to try and find out exactly what is different."

But after checking to see if the PAH levels were related to DIBs strength, "we didn't find any correlation between the two," Cordiner says. That finding doesn't rule out a connection, but it might shift more attention to chains of carbon atoms or to fullerene compounds.

The carriers are not pure, isolated fullerenes, says Cami, who led the team that first detected fullerenes in space. More likely, "atoms or molecules are either locked up in fullerene cages or attached to the outside surface, " he explains. "This might even hold for some of the other proposed molecules. For example, you could think of carbon chains dangling from other molecules or even from dust grains."

One big difference between the Milky Way and Andromeda is the number of massive young stars. The Milky Way has more than Andromeda. Because those young stars generate a lot of UV radiation, the Milky Way's interstellar medium has higher levels of this radiation than Andromeda's does.

More radiation means a harsher environment, so organic molecules should survive better in an environment with less radiation. In that sense, Andromeda should be more favorable for the carriers of DIBs and, in theory, should be able to boast more of them. But Cordiner and his colleagues found that the DIBs in Andromeda were only slightly stronger than those in the Milky Way, implying that Andromeda can only claim slightly more carriers.

The observations in the Triangulum add even more intrigue. There, the researchers found strong DIBs even though this galaxy differs in its metallicity, which is a measure of the availability of ingredients for making stars and planets.

The consistency from galaxy to galaxy is surprising, given how much the conditions are thought to vary among them. "But there are no detailed studies of Andromeda to tell us everything we want to know about conditions there," says Cordiner. "And even less is known about the Triangulum."

"If we're going to understand fully how interstellar chemistry works—how stars and planets form," says Cordiner, "then we need a full understanding of the ingredients they use."

Image below shows Andromeda, one of two distant galaxies where astronomers recently searched for diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs). If DIBs were found when looking in a straight line from Earth to a star in the galaxy, the star is circled. Bigger circles indicate stronger DIBs. An "x" means no DIBS were observed. The colors in the insets correspond to wavelengths of the spectrum: blue for UV, green for visible light, and red for infrared.

Image credit: M31 image by Bill Schoening, Vanessa Harvey/REU program/NOAO/AURA/NSF. Insets from Nick Cox, Institute for Astronomy, K.U. Leuven.

The Daily Galaxy via NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

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Binary-Star Systems may be 'Hot Zones' for Life --New NASA Discovery

2012-09-08T00:51:00.000-07:00

Binary-Star Systems may be 'Hot Zones' for Life --New NASA Discovery
Binary-Star Systems may be 'Hot Zones' for Life --New NASA Discovery The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy « Image of the Day: 14-Billion-Year Evolution of the Universe (VIDEO) |Main| Unsolved Mystery of Molecules Found in Andromeda & Triangulum Galaxies »

September 04, 2012 Binary-Star Systems may be 'Hot Zones' for Life --New NASA Discovery

"Star-Wars" like Tatooine binary-star worlds may prove to be hot spots for the existence of smaller, rockier planets at distances where liquid water can exist. NASA's Kepler mission has just discovered multiple transiting planets orbiting two suns for the first time. The system, known as a circumbinary planetary system, is 4,900 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.

"Unlike our sun, many stars are part of multiple-star systems where two or more stars orbit one another. The question always has been -- do they have planets and planetary systems? This Kepler discovery proves that they do," said William Borucki, Kepler mission principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "In our search for habitable planets, we have found more opportunities for life to exist."

Coming less than a year after the announcement of the first circumbinary planet, Kepler-16b, this discovery proves that more than one planet can form and persist in the stressful realm of a binary star. The discovery demonstrates the diversity of planetary systems in our galaxy.

Astronomers detected two planets in the Kepler-47 system, a pair of orbiting stars that eclipse each other every 7.5 days from our vantage point on Earth. One star is similar to the sun in size, but only 84 percent as bright. The second star is diminutive, measuring only one-third the size of the sun and less than 1 percent as bright.

"In contrast to a single planet orbiting a single star, the planet in a circumbinary system must transit a 'moving target.' As a consequence, time intervals between the transits and their durations can vary substantially, sometimes short, other times long," said Jerome Orosz, associate professor of astronomy at San Diego State University and lead author of the paper. "The intervals were the telltale sign these planets are in circumbinary orbits."

The inner planet, Kepler-47b, orbits the pair of stars in less than 50 days. While it cannot be directly viewed, it is thought to be a sweltering world, where the destruction of methane in its super-heated atmosphere might lead to a thick haze that could blanket the planet. At three times the radius of Earth, Kepler-47b is the smallest known transiting circumbinary planet.

The outer planet, Kepler-47c, orbits its host pair every 303 days, placing it in the so-called "habitable zone," the region in a planetary system where liquid water might exist on the surface of a planet. While not a world hospitable for life, Kepler-47c is thought to be a gaseous giant slightly larger than Neptune, where an atmosphere of thick bright water-vapor clouds might exist.

To search for transiting planets, the research team used data from the Kepler space telescope, which measures dips in the brightness of more than 150,000 stars. Additional ground-based spectroscopic observations using telescopes at the McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas at Austin helped characterize the stellar properties. The findings are published in the journal Science.

"The presence of a full-fledged circumbinary planetary system orbiting Kepler-47 is an amazing discovery," said Greg Laughlin, professor of Astrophysics and Planetary Science at the University of California in Santa Cruz. "These planets are very difficult to form using the currently accepted paradigm, and I believe that theorists, myself included, will be going back to the drawing board to try to improve our understanding of how planets are assembled in dusty circumbinary disks."

The Daily galaxy via http://www.nasa.gov/kepler

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If there is a moon orbiting Kepler 47ABc with sufficient mass to contain liquid water(MINIMUM: o.3 EARTH MASS), KST could detect it via transit duration variations(as opposed to the MORE COMMON method of transit TIMING variations, used to detect non-transiting planets in systems with at least one transiting planet). This takes a bit longer than TTVs, so it may be a few years before we have a definitive answer.

Posted by:Harry Ray |September 04, 2012 at 09:52 AM

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Image of the Day: 14-Billion-Year Evolution of the Universe (VIDEO)

2012-09-07T20:40:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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The 'Daily Galaxy' Twitter Followers Soar Above 200,000!

2012-09-07T17:34:00.000-07:00

The 'Daily Galaxy' Twitter Followers Soar Above 200,000!
The 'Daily Galaxy' Twitter Followers Soar Above 200,000! The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, TechFollow the Daily Galaxy « Origins of Supermassive Black Holes --Formed 13 Billion Years Ago (Holiday Feature) |Main| The Weekly Poll: "Could There be Life in the Universe Far Older Than Ours?" »

September 04, 2012 The 'Daily Galaxy' Twitter Followers Soar Above 200,000!

Join the 200,000 Daily Galaxy fans around the world who follow us via their Twitter page. Our followers include many of the planet's leading astronomers and scientists, astronauts, space observatories, news organizations, universities, and governmental space organizations such as NASA, JPL, ESO, and Royal Astronomy Society members. Follow us daily at twitter.com/dailygalaxy

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Galaxy defense back at its best form in LA's latest win

2012-09-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

Galaxy defense back at its best form in LA's latest win | LA Galaxy #bg { background: #2a2d51 url(http://www.lagalaxy.com/sites/losangeles/files/la-WEB_BACKGROUND_v2.jpg) no-repeat scroll center top !important; } Castfire.html5ify({ ios_ext: "adaptive.m3u8", // Profile for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad h264_ext: "640.mp4" // Profile for Android, webOS, Blackberry }); Skip To Content SCHEDULE 2012 Schedule Reserve League Schedule Broadcast Schedule Schedule Download Promotional Nights Upcoming Appearances

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CARSON, Calif. — The LA Galaxy are unbeaten and have conceded just one goal in four Major League Soccer games since reassembling their first-choice backline the second week of August.

The defense was at its best in Saturday's 2-0 triumph over visiting Vancouver, settling down an energetic Whitecaps attack and allowing them just two shots — neither on target — from otherwise decent work.

Postgame Press Conference Highlights

Head coach Bruce Arena wouldn't declare it the best backline job of the season — “I'll let you kind of conclude that,” he said during the postgame news conference — but he sure was pleased after the group posted its second straight shutout and the Galaxy's third in a row across all competitions.

“It was good,” Arena said. “It was good tonight. Omar [Gonzalez] and A.J. [DeLaGarza] continue to play well in their partnership in central defense. I think [Sean] Franklin has played very well the last couple months. Todd [Dunivant] is moving along, and Josh [Saunders] looks very comfortable in the goal right now. That group is good.”

Said Gonzalez (above): “We all did really well defensively, from our forwards to our midfield to our backline. We knew [Whitecaps striker Kenny] Miller was good at making runs, so we just tried to drop off before he could make that run and keep him in front of us.”

The backline has been outstanding since Dunivant came back from a calf injury Aug. 12. Gonzalez was already a 90-minute man after returning in July from a torn anterior cruciate ligament, and the 4-0 romp over Chivas USA was the first game the quartet had been together since LA's post-championship tour of Southeast Asia and Australia last fall.

READ: Championship back four helps LA to 4-0 SuperClasico victory

The Galaxy conceded once in the 1-1 draw Aug. 15 with Columbus — a Jairo Arrieta shot from outside the box that Saunders should have stopped — and twice more, the second a penalty kick, in a 5-2 CONCACAF Champions League victory over El Salvador's Isidro Metapán. Since then, they've posted successive shutouts over FC Dallas, Puerto Rico Islanders (in the CCL, with a reserve lineup) and now the Whitecaps.

The Galaxy have seven shutouts in 15 MLS games since mid-June after posting none in their first 13 matches, but they were surrendering goals at nearly the same rate until the first-choice unit regrouped. Foes scored 21 times in LA's 3-8-2 start and 16 more in the first 11 games after the league's minibreak for June's World Cup qualifiers, with San Jose and Seattle netting four apiece and Portland three. The Galaxy's 7-3-1 record in that span was mostly about their 23 goals.

Now LA are defending much like they did last year, when they had shutouts in 17 of 34 regular-season games, two of four playoff games and three of six CCL contests. To hold a rather vibrant Vancouver attack to no shots on goal was certainly illuminating.

“We've given up one goal [in league play] since the back four from last year has been together,” Gonzalez said. “So I'd say we've been doing pretty well.”

Miss Saturday night's 2-0 win? Get the lowdown in 5 minutes with Galaxy in Five

Related Links Postgame Match ReportVOTE NOW - Beckham, Juninho up for Goal of the WeekMatch Highlights #sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_body {padding: 0px; line-height: 0px;}#sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_header, #sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_bg {border: 0px none;}

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LA Galaxy rolling heading into international break

2012-09-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

LA Galaxy rolling heading into international break | LA Galaxy #bg { background: #2a2d51 url(http://www.lagalaxy.com/sites/losangeles/files/la-WEB_BACKGROUND_v2.jpg) no-repeat scroll center top !important; } Castfire.html5ify({ ios_ext: "adaptive.m3u8", // Profile for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad h264_ext: "640.mp4" // Profile for Android, webOS, Blackberry }); Skip To Content SCHEDULE 2012 Schedule Reserve League Schedule Broadcast Schedule Schedule Download Promotional Nights Upcoming Appearances

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CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy sent a message to MLS on Saturday night with their decisive 2-0 victory over Vancouver Whitecaps FC: The early season doldrums are a thing of the past as the team that won the 2011 MLS Cup title has seemingly returned.

Saturday’s victory over the Whitecaps extended LA’s unbeaten streak to six games in all competitions—the club’s longest of the season—four of which have been shutouts. Following LA’s victory, the consensus in the Galaxy locker room is that the club is playing their best soccer of the season.

READ: Galaxy defense back at its best form in LA's latest win

“I think so. Consistently winning games, we haven’t done that really this year until now, so yeah, I guess it dates back to last year,” defender Omar Gonzalez told reporters after the match. “We just have to keep it going, keep on playing well and just make a good run.”

Miss the match? Your Galaxy in 5

With the combination of a sturdy defense and an in-form attack, LA has rocketed up the Western Conference standings in recent weeks. Currently, the Galaxy sit in fourth place, but are within reaching distance of third place Seattle, who are just one point ahead of LA and second place Real Salt Lake, who are three points ahead of the Galaxy. Both of those teams will visit The Home Depot Center next month. SCHEDULE

This run of form has carried over to CONCACAF Champions League play as the Galaxy are currently 2-0-0 in Group 5 play with two comprehensive victories over El Salvador’s Isidro Metapán and the Puerto Rico Islanders.

“In the league we’re 13-11-4 and we were 3-8-2 at one point. If you do the math, that’s pretty good, so we’ve been in real good form over the last couple of months,” head coach Bruce Arena told reporters after the match. “We’re positioned now to move up the ladder in the conference standings as well as a good position to move through the Champions League. So we’ve got a lot of work to do, we can play better, we know that and hopefully we’ll show that in September, October and November.”

Now, the Galaxy head into a two week international break with their next match not coming until September 14th against the Colorado Rapids. Although some may worry about the break cooling LA’s recent hot streak, the Galaxy believe that the rest will only boost the club’s performance down the stretch run.

“I think is actually going to be good for us, I think we need it,” said Arena. “I think we’re going to have two reserve games during the break, which is a real plus as well. I think it comes at a good time for us. We’ll be fine by the time September 14th comes around.” RESERVE LEAGUE SCHEDULE

Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at LAGalaxy.com/Insider

Follow@lagalaxyinsider Vancouver Whitecaps FC Related Links Postgame Match ReportGalaxy defense back at its best form in LA's latest winPostgame Interview: Juninho Related Content First XI: Top 11 stories from LA’s 2-0 win over Vancouver LA's Beckham surprising even himself with scoring run Postgame Notes & Quotes: LA vs Vancouver Recap: LA's Juninho, Beckham deal Vancouver 4th straight loss #sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_body {padding: 0px; line-height: 0px;}#sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_header, #sidebar_second #block-block-4 .block_bg {border: 0px none;}

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