Suicidal planet seems on death spiral into star

Astronomers have found what appears to be a gigantic suicidal planet.

The odd, fiery planet is so close to its star and so large that it is triggering tremendous plasma tides on the star. Those powerful tides are in turn warping the planet’s zippy less-than-a-day orbit around its star.

The result: an ever-closer tango of death, with the planet eventually spiraling into the star.

It’s a slow death. The planet WASP-18b has maybe a million years to live, said planet discoverer Coel Hellier, a professor of astrophysics at the Keele University in England. Hellier’s report on the suicidal planet is in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.

“It’s causing its own destruction by creating these tides,” Hellier said.

The star is called WASP-18 and the planet is WASP-18b because of the Wide Angle Search for Planets team that found them.

The planet circles a star that is in the constellation Phoenix and is about 325 light-years away from Earth, which means it is in our galactic neighborhood. A light-year is about 5.8 trillion miles.

The planet is 1.9 million miles from its star, 1/50th of the distance between Earth and the sun, our star. And because of that the temperature is about 3,800 degrees.

Its size — 10 times bigger than Jupiter — and its proximity to its star make it likely to die, Hellier said.

Think of how the distant moon pulls Earth’s oceans to form twice-daily tides. The effect the odd planet has on its star is thousands of times stronger, Hellier said. The star’s tidal bulge of plasma may extend hundreds of miles, he said.

via Suicidal planet seems on death spiral into star – Yahoo! News.

NYC’s ‘skinniest’ house has fat price tag: $2.7M

It’s 9 1/2 feet wide and 42 feet long and is billed as the narrowest house in New York City. But there’s nothing small about its asking price: $2.7 million.

Located at 75 1/2 Bedford St. in Greenwich Village, the red brick building was built in 1873, sandwiched between 75 and 77 Bedford.

It’s famous for other reasons, too. Corcoran real estate broker Alex Nicholas says anthropologist Margaret Mead and poet Edna St. Vincent Millay once called it home.

The three-story structure boasts plenty of light with large windows in the front and back, and a skylight.

The current owner bought it in 2000 for $1.6 million.

Nicholas says it’s a place for someone who wants a little history.

via NYC’s ‘skinniest’ house has fat price tag: $2.7M – Yahoo! News.

Ted Kennedy Dies of Brain Cancer at Age 77

Sen. Ted Kennedy died shortly before midnight Tuesday at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass., at age 77.

The man known as the “liberal lion of the Senate” had fought a more than year-long battle with brain cancer, and according to his son had lived longer with the disease than his doctors expected him to.

“We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever,” the Kennedy family said in a statement. “He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it.”

Sen. Edward Moore Kennedy, the youngest Kennedy brother who was left to head the family’s political dynasty after his brothers President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated.

Kennedy championed health care reform, working wages and equal rights in his storied career. In August, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation’s highest civilian honor — by President Obama. His daughter, Kara Kennedy, accepted the award on his behalf.

via Ted Kennedy Dies of Brain Cancer at Age 77 – ABC News.

Doctor Believes Artificial Life Is Just Months Away

On Friday, controversial biologist Dr Craig Venter said that the creation of artificial life was mere months from taking place.

Venter reported that his team of researchers at the J Craig Venter Institute in Maryland had transferred the DNA of one type of bacteria into a yeast cell before modifying it and transferring in into another cell, according to the Daily Mail.

Researchers said the new method allowed them to clone the entire bacterial genome from Mycoplasma mycoides by adding yeast centromeric plasmid sequence to the bacterial chromosome and modifying it in yeast using yeast genetic systems.

“I believe this work has important implications in better understanding the fundamentals of biology to enable the final stages of our work in creating and booting up a synthetic genome,” said Dr Hamilton Smith of the J Craig Venter team.

“This is possibly one of the most important new findings in the field of synthetic genomics.”

Researchers described their new method in the journal Science on Friday.

“Bacteria have ‘immune’ systems that protect them from foreign DNA such as those from viruses,” Dr Sanjay Vashee, a researcher at the J Craig Venter Institute, told BBC News.

The team discovered how to disable the immune systems, allowing them to access the genome.

“We have as of yet no conclusive proof that we have obtained M. genitalium cells after its genome has been put into various recipient cells,” said Vashee.

“[But this] is a major advance in our effort to create a synthetic cell.”

“We were very concerned that the differences between the modifications in… bacterial DNA and [yeast] DNA might be an insurmountable barrier, preventing transplantation into bacteria of genomes that were passed through yeast.”

“Now we know how to do this.”

“Assuming we don’t make any errors, I think it should work and we should have the first synthetic species by the end of the year,” said Dr Venter.

via Doctor Believes Artificial Life Is Just Months Away – Health News – redOrbit.

“Who are you calling artifical?” These new organisms, once they evolve enough to have thoughts and superstitions, will believe we created the entire universe and that we are flawless, yet we created them, with all of their flaws.

Stopwatch found for Solar System

Scientists have found a new way to time events in the early Solar System.

Writing in the journal Science, they describe how aluminium radioisotopes can now offer precise timing of events 4.5 billion years ago.

The study shows that the rate of decay of isotopes can now be relied upon to give accurate measures of time for that period.

It is hoped that this will give new insights into how the Solar System formed in its first five million years.

The scientists showed how aluminium radioisotopes were uniformly distributed in the region where the Solar System was formed.

As the isotopes decayed steadily across the early Solar System, this allows their use as a type of clock for that period.

One of the scientists, Johan Villeneuve, told BBC News: “we can now use the isotopes to measure the age of different chondrules, parts of meteorites, and understand far more about the early part of our Solar System”.

The findings could also shed light on the origins of the planets.

Philip Bland, from Imperial College London, described the research as “a really nice study”.

“With their high precision measurements, they are able to date formation times for chondrules very precisely,” he said.

“And what is interesting is that they’ve shown that these building blocks for asteroids, and possibly for planets as well, formed over an extended period of two to three million years.”

via BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Stopwatch found for Solar System.

Survival in a post-apocalypse blackout

NATURAL catastrophes such as asteroid impacts, massive volcanic eruptions or large-scale wildfires would have periodically plunged our planet into abnormal darkness. How did life survive without the sun’s life-giving rays during such episodes? With a little help from organisms that can switch to another source of energy while they wait for sunlight to pierce the darkness once more.

To figure out how organisms might have endured periods of so-called “catastrophic darkness”, Charles Cockell of the Open University’s Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research in Milton Keynes, UK, and his team placed samples of both freshwater and marine microorganisms in darkness for six months – a period similar to what might be expected following a catastrophic event. The samples included phototrophs, which convert sunlight into usable energy, and mixotrophs, which can use sunlight or consume dead organic matter.

The team found that the phototrophic species struggled to survive, with the majority of individuals dying off. The few that survived in a dormant state managed to repopulate when light returned.

Mixotrophs, however, seemed to thrive in the darkness. They even offered a helping hand to their light-dependent cousins: when the lights went out, the mixotrophs were able to switch to getting their energy from dead creatures and plants, and in doing so they kept the nutrients turning over. This improved the conditions for phototrophic recovery when the samples were returned to light

The results show that, contrary to common belief, catastrophic darkness does not completely destroy phototrophic organisms, says Cockell. “The photosynthetic biosphere is much more robust than generally assumed.”

via Survival in a post-apocalypse blackout – life – 25 August 2009 – New Scientist.

Wikipedia to add editing safeguard for the living

Wikipedia will soon be adding a feature to its English-language site that assigns an experienced editor to sign off on any changes to articles on living people, according to Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that runs the user-written online encyclopedia.

Confirming a story reported Monday by The New York Times, Wikimedia Foundation spokesman Jay Walsh said the “flagged revisions” feature is already active on the German site, but needs some fleshing out before it goes live to the public on the English site.

The plan is to deploy the feature on a test wiki soon so the Wikipedia community can play around with before it goes public. The test wiki is expected to go live soon, but no specific time frame has been established, Walsh said.

The feature was debated earlier this year in the aftermath of a false entry that was posted by a user, saying Sens. Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd had died after an inaugural luncheon in January.

It’s intended to provide some additional “protection” and to “prevent vandals” from messing with living-person articles, Walsh said. Until approved by the volunteer editor, any changes to such articles will sit invisible to the public on Wikipedia’s servers.

via Wikipedia to add editing safeguard for the living | Digital Media – CNET News.

Mysterious Tubular Clouds Defy Explanation?

These long, crazy-looking clouds can grow to be 600 miles long and can move at up to 35 miles per hour, causing problems for aircraft even on windless days.

Known as Morning Glory clouds, they appear every fall over Burketown, Queensland, Australia, a remote town with fewer than 200 residents. A small number of pilots and tourists travel there each year in hopes of “cloud surfing” with the mysterious phenomenon.

Similar tubular shaped clouds called roll clouds appear in various places around the globe. But nobody has yet figured out what causes the Morning Glory clouds.

This shot was captured by photographer Mick Petroff from his plane near Australia’s Gulf of Carpenteria.

via Mysterious Tubular Clouds Defy Explanation | Wired Science | Wired.com.

Hey wired, they look like the result of gravity waves to me, wave clouds:

Giant sphere attracts attention in Stead

You might have noticed an unuusal sight if you passed by the Reno-Stead Airport recently. The giant white sphere has generated quite a few calls to our newsroom. So what is it ?

It turns out its a prototype airship being developed by a private company called Sierra Nevada Corporation. They’re testing out in hopes of marketing it one day to businesses and government agencies.

Jim McGinley at SNC says the round airship could be used to monitor crowds or border crossings. Right now FAA regulations require that it be manned but in the future it may be operated by remote control.

McGinley says the airship could be valuable to anyone who desires a persistent surveillance presence in a remote location.

The company says it will continue testing in Stead for the next two or three weeks.

via Giant sphere attracts attention in Stead – My News 4.

Book Review: ‘The Third Man Factor’

In 1953, Austrian mountaineer Herman Buhl became the first person to climb Nanga Parbat in the ­Himalayas—at 26,660 feet, the ninth tallest peak in the world. He climbed by himself and not far from the summit was forced to spend the night out in the open without a sleeping bag or tent. It was an agonizing ­bivouac, but Buhl survived—in part, he later wrote, ­because he sensed that he shared the ordeal with a ­companion. “I had an extraordinary feeling,” he wrote, “that I was not alone.”

Accounts of experiencing a supportive presence in extreme situations—sometimes called the “third-man phenomenon”—are common in mountaineering ­literature. In 1933, Frank Smythe made it to within a 1,000 feet of the summit of Mount Everest before ­turning around. On the way down, he stopped to eat a mint cake, cutting it in half to share with . . . someone who wasn’t there but who had seemed to be his ­partner all day. Again on Nanga Parbat, on a 1970 climb during which his brother died, Reinhold Messner ­recalled being accompanied by a companion who ­offered ­wordless comfort and encouragement.

In “The Third Man Factor,” John Geiger, a fellow at the University of Toronto, presents many accounts of such experiences, and not only from climbers. Among those who have felt a ghostly companionship he cites Charles Lindbergh on his solo flight across the ­Atlantic in 1927 and the last man to walk out of the South Tower of the World Trade ­Center before it ­collapsed on 9/11. “Over the years,” Mr. Geiger writes, “the ­experience has ­occurred again and again, not only to 9/11 survivors, mountaineers, and ­divers, but also to ­polar explorers, ­prisoners of war, solo sailors, shipwreck ­survivors, aviators, and ­astronauts. All have ­escaped ­traumatic events only to tell strikingly similar stories of having experienced the close presence of a companion and helper.” Mr. ­Geiger’s book is a highly readable, often gripping, ­collection of survival stories, alongside a survey of theories that attempt to explain the third-man phenomenon.

via Book Review: ‘The Third Man Factor’ – WSJ.com.