"Dance Of Death" Stars Found - Can Help Prove Einstein Right

A pair of aging stars have discovered 3,000 light-years is enclosed in a "dance" of death, a marriage that ends your collision and a possible supernova, astronomers say.

The binary star system consists of two white dwarfs, the burned out soul stars like the Sun. White dwarfs are gradually spiral toward each other at breakneck speed of 370 miles (595 kilometers) a second, and they are to merge in 900,000 years.

However, astronomers hope that before the collision, the stars spinning help scientists test the general theory of relativity of Einstein, and even reveal the source of a whole class of supernovae. 

"What is so amazing that this is a pair of Earth and Neptune size exotic stars that orbit each other, only one third of the Earth-Moon distance, circle around each other every 12 minutes," says research director Warren Brown, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"And because there is no interaction or material streaming out of them, we can have a unique stellar laboratory here to search the effects of general relativity and probe the extreme gravity."

Star System offers rare look at the gravity of space

Found the dancing stars of the extent of the white dwarf pair with a 6.5 meter telescope on Mount Hopkins as a mirror in Arizona. Astronomers have measured the relative movements of the stars, looking at the light signatures, or spectra, from the stars and the other in Eclipse.

White dwarfs have densities, only a tablespoon of roads in the area of ​​these objects weighing as much as a car.

When two such massive objects whirling around each other, they raise the space-time fabric that creates ripples like those made by a stone thrown into a pond. As these ripples called gravitational waves that are produced, the couple loses a star of its energy, causing their orbits to shrink slowly.

But the newly discovered star pair is unique in that they do not swap fabrics as they spin, allowing a "clean clock" to measure the effect of gravitational waves, said Mr Brown.

"There are many pairs of stars in the universe but interact and exchange of materials among themselves because they are so close."

That "complicates their interpretation, as they rarely see a star, except for the light from the material that comes and goes between the stars."

With a pair of non-interacting, astronomers can precisely measure the variation of the orbital period of stars in the spiral toward each other.

Astrophysics, Gijs Nelemans, Radboud University in Holland and, adding that the new white dwarf is likely to be a strong source of gravitational waves, which will soon be able to detect gravitational waves space satellite named Lisa, who may begin around 2020.

"The most exciting is that the change of orbital period, it emits gravitational waves can be effectively measured," said Neleman, who was not involved in the search for new ones.

"This means not only an indirect test of general relativity, but also to directly measure gravitational waves predicted, which has never been done before," he said.

"Such a mission should really open a new way to study the universe."

Couple found can illuminate Star Evolution, Death

The discovery could also help astronomers understand the evolution of star and death. It has long been speculated, for example, the white dwarf collisions produce Type Ia supernovae, believed to be caused when matter from a companion star is spilled on a white dwarf, lifting the mass dwarfs beyond a certain physical limit and ignite a thermonuclear explosion.

When the two stars merge, existing models found, the result can be a super-massive white dwarf, or unusually weak stellar explosion, called supernova underluminous.

"If that is the ancestor of these subclasses of the few supernovae, we expect to find these exotic pairs on the same frequency as a supernova. We'll have to wait and see what happens with our investigation," Brown responsible the study said.

Initial measurements were made in March, but now the binary system was moving almost directly behind the sun from our perspective on Earth, making the pair are currently invisible to telescopes.

As a result, Brown and his team will have to wait until autumn to measure the expected shortening of the orbital period.

"Stars of merger in less than a million years is really the blink of an eye in cosmic time scales," said Brown. "Just the fact that we found something, and it is interesting to astronomers."

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Wasps Old Dinosaurs Perched Rotten Eggs?

Wasps may have once perched inside the rotten dinosaur eggs, an idea proposed by the discovery of exceptionally well-preserved fossils of insects in cocoons.

Scientists have recently agreed to explore around the eggs Titanosaurus 70 million years, located in the region of Patagonia Argentina.

Titanosaur belonged to a group of giant plant eaters that included the largest creatures ever to walk the earth. Titanosaur eggs were also high to about 8 inches (20 centimeters) long.

Inside, a sulfur from fossil eggs from Argentina, researchers have found eight small, sausage-shaped structures about an inch (2-3 cm) long and about half an inch (just over an inch) wide .

The strange structure appears to be fossilized insect cocoons are similar in size and shape of cocoons belonging to a range of modern species of wasps.

Key mistakes to clean up the nests of Dino

The authors of the study suggest that the old egg was slightly ajar until hatched. Scavengers such as locusts could be fed egg yolk, and spiders later dined on scavengers.

Wasps may have attacked either the initial or carrion spiders, their eggs in the bodies of these creatures. The wasp offspring then spun their cocoons inside rotten eggs.

The finding could be the first evidence of invertebrates such as crickets in eggs of dinosaur exploration because it is "the first time [wasp] blossoms are associated with a dinosaur egg," said co-author Jorge Genise, an entomologist at the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences.

While Bugs benefited from the death of the egg, the creatures were probably essential to keep the nest clean all titanosaur added co-author Laura Sarzetti, another entomologist at the museum.

Devouring rotten things, washing insects established in the nest of potentially dangerous microbes.

Fossil cocoons found described in the July issue of the journal Paleontology.

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The Dawn Is Close Early Long Stay In Giant Asteroid

Pasadena, Calif. - NASA's Dawn spacecraft is on track to begin the first extended visit to a large asteroid. The Mission expects to go into orbit around Vesta, July 16 and start collecting scientific data in early August. Vesta reside in the main asteroid belt, and is believed to be the source of many meteorites that fall to the ground.

"The spacecraft is right on target," said Robert Mase, Project Director Dawn Laboratory at NASA's Jet Propulsion in Pasadena, Calif. "We look forward to exploring this unknown world on the eve of one year stay in orbit of Vesta. "

After traveling for almost four years and 1.7 billion miles (2.7 billion kilometers), the Dawn of about 96,000 miles (15.500 million) away from Vesta. When prisoners of its orbit Vesta Dawn July 16, there will be about 9900 miles (16,000 km) between them. When Orbit is reached, they will be about 117 million miles (188 million kilometers) away from Earth.

After dawn in the orbit of Vesta, the engineers will need several days to determine the exact time of capture. Unlike other applications where a dramatic, nail-biting drive burn resulting in the insertion orbit around a planet, Dawn spent her calm ion propulsion system that subtly shape his path for years to match the orbit of Vesta around the sun.

The dawn Framing camera images, navigation, seems slow to Vesta. They also show Vesta rotates 65 degrees field of view. The images are about twice as strong as the best pictures of Vesta Hubble Space Telescope from NASA, but the details of the surface of the Dawn is still a mystery.

"Navigating photos from a camera framing Dawn gave us great tips of Vesta, but we look forward to the heart of operations of Vesta when we start officially collecting scientific data," said Christopher Russell, principal investigator Dawn at UCLA. "We can not wait for dawn to peel the layers of time and reveal the early history of our solar system."

Dawn has three instruments all work and seems to be properly calibrated. Mapping spectrometer visible and infrared, for example, is starting to get images of Vesta, which is larger than a few pixels in size. During the initial reconnaissance orbit, about 1700 miles (2700 km), the probe will get a broad picture of Vesta with color images and data in different wavelengths of reflected light. The probe is moving in an orbit mapping at high altitude, about 420 miles (680 km) above the surface to systematically map the parts of Vesta's surface illuminated by the sun, collect stereo images to see the high topographic and downs, get high-resolution data to map rocks to the surface and learn more about the thermal properties of Vestas.

At dawn, then moves closer to a low-altitude mapping orbit about 120 miles (200 km) above. The primary scientific objectives of this rotation is detected by-products of cosmic rays hit the surface, and to help researchers find a variety of atoms there, and probe the internal structure of the proto-planet. As dawn spirals of Vesta, it will stop once the high-altitude mapping orbit. As the angle of the sun's surface has progressed, the researchers were able to see previously hidden in off-road, at the same time to obtain the views of different surface characteristics.

"We've done our year is full of Vesta observations to help scientists unravel the mysteries of Vesta," said Carol Raymond, Dawn deputy principal investigator at JPL. Vesta is considered a protoplanet, or organization that has never been to become a full-fledged planet.

Dawn was launched in September 2007. After a year of Vesta, the spacecraft will start its second destination Ceres dwarf planet in July 2012. Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by JPL for the Science Branch of NASA's mission to Washington. Dawn is a project of Discovery program of the Directorate managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama

UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn made a science. Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Va., designed and built the spacecraft. German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the Italian Space Agency and the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics are part of the team. JPL is managed by NASA at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more information about Dawn, visit: here      

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Posted On Plan To Save The Northern Spotted Owl

SEATTLE - It was past two decades the fate of a shy bird that most people had never seen came to symbolize the bitter divide on whether record or see the ancient forests of the Pacific North West. However, it was not until Thursday that the federal government offered its final plan to keep the bird, the northern spotted owl, to exit.

After several revisions, court battles and constant evolution of science, Fish and Wildlife Service presented a plan that addresses a number of threats to the owl, some few imagined when it was listed as a threatened species in 1990 .

Recent threats of climate change and the arrival of a formidable competitor for pens, Barred Owl, the rise of the ancient evergreen forests of Washington, Oregon and California spotted owl nesting and hunting.

An experiment is included in the plan: hundreds of shooting barred owls to see if it helps get spotted owls.

Even after all these years, since the spotted owl has become a Celebrate in September, and the environmental movement, is not at all clear that the plan is the solution. Supporters from both sides say it is inevitably called into question, and both parties expressed frustration with the Obama administration.

Some controversial issues have not yet been addressed, as I survey the so-called protection of critical habitats. And some experts say that despite two decades, the protection of the owl have helped to preserve the ecosystem of the forest, are less sure that the bird can still be saved.

The spotted owl is declining by an average of 3 percent per year through its range. Although some populations in southern Oregon and northern California are more stable, some of the highest rates of decline are here in Washington. Some areas of study in the Olympic and Cascade ranges show annual declines of up to 9 percent.

"I have certainly become much less confident that the years have passed," said Eric Forsman, a research biologist with the U.S. Forest Service in Corvallis, Oregon, whose work in the 1970s first drew attention to the owl. "If you had asked me in 1975," Can we fix it? "I would have said," Oh yes, this problem will disappear. "

The listing of the spotted owl as an endangered species has led to a virtual ban on logging in old forests of anger inspiring many federal prosecutions and threats of violence by loggers against defenders of rural owls that often came from urban areas.

"We're trained not to tell people in the villages of the area that spotted owls were raised," said Paula Sweden, an owl government land in the 1990s, who now works for a nonprofit group organization develop incentives for private forest owners to conserve and restore habitat for the owl.

But over time, the public passion and the owl both faded.

Although unemployment in some counties of the wood increased steadily in both figures, it is not drinking presidential conferences, and Clinton had a bill in Oregon in 1993, seeking common ground between conservation and protection of the economies rural areas. Many factors contribute to the rural decline, but registration restrictions played a role.

"I have nothing against the bird, but it has caused much havoc in the Pacific Northwest for 20 years," said Ray Wilkeson, chairman of the Oregon Forest Industries, which represents loggers , sawmills, and others in the industry. "A lot of human suffering is the result of that. Now there are new threats to the owl, which may be beyond the ability of anyone to control. "

The owl frozen, a bigger, more adaptable bird with a broad plan that flying squirrels and wood rats spotted owls prefer, has extended its range westward in the last century and is now a resident more frequent than spotted owls in the forests of the Northwest lot. Sometimes owls prohibited even kill spotted owls and males mate with females.

"The owl is frozen most threatening challenge," said Paul Henson, Fish and team leader Wildlife Service for the recovery plan. "We believe there is a very good chance of recovering the owl Spotted in the long run if we can manage escrow owl short-term problems. "

Others are less certain. While some experiments have shown initial success, Dr. Forsman, U.S. Forest Service biologist, wondered if barred owls could be handled on a large scale, if it came to that.

"You do not shoot forever barred owls to do," he said, "and I do not think there is likely to happen."

Supporters of the plan say it includes studies that could reveal how to manage forests to create space for both birds.

Although the plan does not map critical habitat - the allocation process is more than a year before the final, which frustrates environmentalists - which aims to expand protection for birds beyond areas now set aside. The existing areas were described by the Northwest Forest Plan, which was adopted one year after the Conference of President Clinton Wood, revised under the presidency of George W. Bush to allow more logging and reinstated by President Obama.

American Forest Resources Council, a timber industry group, said the plan would have caused "massive new restrictions, as well as federal and private lands."

But supporters say it will allow more timber plants to increase forest thinning and restoration work to fight against threats such as disease and fire, which could increase with climate change. The plan would allow logging companies incentives to create potential habitat for the spotted owl. Officials from the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, which oversees logging on federal lands, have expressed support for the plan.

"Because of dilution, is that we are always offered as an alleged cause," said Wilkeson Oregon Forest Industries Council. "But it is very limited."

While the protection of wood requires the issuance of a bird which some say may be related to extinction, environmentalists say it is too early to give up the spotted owl and the fight to save the benefits served extensive forests, water cleaner air and habitat for hundreds of other species, including endangered salmon.

"The spotted owl is an icon," said Dr. Forsman, "but there are many other players in terms of species and the protection of biodiversity in forests."

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Minotaur Rocket Launch From NASA Wallops Done

Wallops Island, Virginia - A U.S. Air Force Minotaur 1 rocket, the Ministry of Defence Operational Responsive Space Office SRO-1 satellite was launched successfully at 11:09 EDT today range Lancer NASA Wallops Flight Facility and the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport, in Virginia.

"We are very pleased to continue our support for the U.S. Air Force and the Office of operational response space (ORS) with the successful launch," said Bill Wrobel, Director of the Fund for the stealing of the NASA Wallops. "It's a Minotaur IV launch from Wallops December 2006 and look forward to working with the Air Force and the ORS in future projects."

"Today's launch continues the tradition of providing efficient and economical Wallops effective support to our launch customers, including government and commercial organizations," said Wrobel.

SRO-1 is the space the first satellite office operating operating response.

Additional information about the mission is available online at here

Future missions Wallops Information is available at here

Release information is also available in the status line 757-824-2050 Wallops launch.

The next planned mission of the NASA facility in Wallops flight is two sets of two suborbital rockets. Both series include a Terrier-Orion Black Brant V and Improves 9:30 to 13:30 on July 5 to 25. Read More...

10 Most Important Handheld Devices of All Time

10 IBM DiskOnKey (2000)

Goodbye, floppy. Adios, Zip Drive! IBM’s first flash drive model featured just 8MB of storage, which was several times the capacity of a floppy. And it fit in our pockets.

9 WALKMAN TPS-L2 (1979)

The boombox era officially died when Sony released the Walkman, which sported a metal case and not one, but two minijacks. Its cone of silence also enabled countless movie and TV murders in the early ’80s.

8 Palm VII (1999)

This was the first truly wireless data/ communication device, with a connection powered by a wireless antenna, the Mobitex network, and the $14.95 per month Palm.net service. We still have ours.

7 Canon 5D Mark II (2008)

Factor in a hot new image processor (DIGIC 4), a big, bright 21-megapixel sensor, and 1080p video capabilities so sophisticated that it was used to film an episode of TV’s House, and you quite simply have one of the finest cameras ever produced.

6 iPad (2010)

Regardless of your thoughts about Apple, it’s clear that the iPad is a bold, popular step into uncharted waters. It borrows from everything, but also projects a unique flavor that’s caused a hell of an industry stir. There have always been a ton of “me too” devices in the consumer tech marketplace—this isn’t one of them.

5 Harmony Remote Control (2001)

Zenith’s Space Command may be the forefather of living-room remotes, but Harmony’s initial series of universal remotes was an evolutionary leap. Even the very first model delivered Internet connectivity—further proof of a product that was more than slightly ahead of its time.

4 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS ‘CAL TECH’ (1967)

Invented by engineers who were still trying to find a home for the integrated circuit, the first handheld calculator known to man never surpassed the prototype stage and handled just the basics. “Cal Tech” was the foundation for the Canon Pocketronic and bazillions of handheld calculators afterwards.

3 iPhone 3G (2008)

The reason we’ve included the 3G version of the iPhone in this list has just as much to do with the concept that simultaneously debuted with it: the App Store, where boundaries are seemingly limited only by our imagination. Seven billion downloaded applications to date? Wow.

2 Amazon Kindle (2007)

The Kindle is so ubiquitous, and its impact on society so pronounced, that we can’t believe it’s only been commercially available for three years.

1 Abacus (600 B.C.)

Long before the smartphone or the laptop or the calculator—or the mechanical clock or even paper— there existed a handheld device that kept tabs on virtually anything involving numbers. That it’s still in use today in various parts of the world, some 2000- plus years later, drives home its importance.

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