Water vapour seen 'raining down' on young star system

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected enough water vapour to fill the oceans on Earth five times inside the collapsing nest of a forming star system. Astronomers say the water vapour is pouring down from the system's natal cloud and smacking into a dusty disc where planets are thought to form. The observations provide the first direct look at how water, an essential ingredient for life as we know it, begins to make its way into planets, possibly even rocky ones like our own. "For the first time, we are seeing water being delivered to the region where planets will most likely form," said Dan Watson of the University of Rochester, N.Y. The star system, called NGC 1333-IRAS 4B, is still growing inside a cool cocoon of gas and dust. Within this cocoon, circling around the embryonic star, is a burgeoning, warm disc of planet-forming materials. The new Spitzer data indicate that ice from the stellar embryo's outer cocoon is falling toward the forming star and vaporising as it hits the disc. "On Earth, water arrived in the form of icy asteroids and comets," said Watson. "Now we've seen that water, falling as ice from a young star system's envelope. This water vapour will later freeze again into asteroids and comets." Water is abundant throughout our universe. It has been detected in the form of ice or gas around various types of stars, in the space between stars, and recently Spitzer picked up the first clear signature of water vapour on a hot, gas planet outside our solar system, named HD 189733b. In the new Spitzer study, water also serves as an important tool for studying long-sought details of the planet formation process.
NGC 1333-IRAS 4B is located in a pretty star-forming region approximately 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Perseus. Its central stellar embryo is still "feeding" off the material collapsing around it and growing in size. At this early stage, astronomers cannot tell how large the star will ultimately become. Spitzer

Just what is it about 'Neutron Stars' that makes me shiver and shake?

Einstein's predicted warping of space-time has been discovered around neutron stars, the most dense observable matter in the universe. The warping shows up as smeared lines of iron gas whipping around the stars, astronomers say. The finding also indicates a size limit for the celestial objects. The same distortions have been spotted around black holes and even around Earth, so while the finding may not be a surprise, it is significant for answering basic questions of physics. There could be exotic kinds of particles or states of matter in the centres of neutron stars. Neutron stars can pack more than a sun's worth of material into a city-sized sphere. A few cups of neutron-star stuff would outweigh Mount Everest. Astronomers use these collapsed stars as natural laboratories to study how tightly matter can be crammed under the most extreme pressures nature can offer. To even begin to address the mystery of what lies within these dying stars, scientists must accurately and precisely measure their diameters and masses. In two concurrent studies, astronomers studied the spectral lines from hot iron atoms that whirl around in a disc just beyond the neutron stars' surfaces at speeds reaching 40 percent light speed. The measurements allowed them to determine maximum star size. "We're seeing the gas whipping around just outside the neutron star's surface," said team member Edward Cackett of the University of Michigan. "And since the inner part of the disc obviously can't orbit any closer than the neutron star's surface, these measurements give us a maximum size of the neutron star's diameter." He said the neutron stars can be no larger than about 33 kilometres across. Space.Com

a theory of everything?

Ancient philosophers thought wind, water, fire and earth were the most basic elements of the cosmos, but the study of the small has since grown up. Physicists continue to carve the known universe into particles to describe everything from magnetism to what atoms are made of and how they remain stable. Yet striking similarities in the world of quantum mechanics, as the study of particles and their forces is known, has led to a one of the most important questions in modern science: Is there a single theory that can describe everything? "We understand a lot about the universe up to the first few energetic microseconds, but earlier than that our physics break down," said Mark Jackson, a theoretical physicist at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois. "But those first moments are where the really interesting things happened." If a theory can be designed to withstand the incredible energies of the early universe as well as incorporate gravity, then a universal theory of physics could become a reality. The "standard model" of physics views particles as infinitesimal points, some of which carry basic forces. The time-tested theory is the best tool scientists have for explaining physics. But the stubbornness of the standard model has been too much for some physicists, however, leading to new theories that include gravity and work at extremely high energies. Perhaps the most popularized of them all is string theory, which describes particles as strands of energy vibrating at different "frequencies." To explain the point-like nature of particles, string theory holds that strings are wrapped up in 10 or 11 dimensions-six to seven more than are currently recognized.
Some scientists think some strings could have been stretched across the universe into "superstrings" - ones large enough to detect in space today. It's hard to imagine that the universe has two different sets of rules for physics. We know there is quantum mechanics and we know there is gravity, so it seems there should be one overall theory. A growing number of theorists are betting that it's string theory."
Space.Com

Earth's Core & the Synchrotron

It is hard to know what is going on over 3000 km beneath our feet, but until recently scientists were fairly confident that they understood the way the iron atoms in the Earth's core packed together. However, new research has overturned conventional thinking and revealed that the structure of the core is not as straightforward as was once thought. Pressures and temperatures at the Earth's core are stupendous - more than 3.5 Mbar and 7000?K - and currently it is impossible to recreate these conditions in the laboratory. Our information about the core comes from observing the way that seismic waves travel through the core, extrapolating from experimental studies and studying iron rich meteorites. As a result we know that the core is mostly iron, but that it also must contain some light impurities such as oxygen, silicon, sulphur, hydrogen and magnesium (because the density of the core is too low to be pure iron). The most significant impurity is thought to be nickel, which makes up between 5 and 15% of the composition. Most studies on the Earth's core have approximated the composition to be pure iron. "It was assumed that the alloy elements were not very important for the structural and elastic properties of the core," says Igor Abrikosov, a theoretical physicist at Linkoping University in Sweden. Experimental and theoretical studies on pure iron led to a 'standard model' for the core, which said that the iron atoms were packed in a 'hexagonal close packed' formation. This resembles a honeycomb structure in which the atoms are in densely packed layers of hexagons, with every other layer lying directly above its partner two layers below. Other packing structures were ruled out because they were assumed to be less energetically efficient. "At moderate pressures other structures have some magnetism and they turn out to have lower stability," explains Abrikosov. Carrying out experiments at anything close to the pressures and temperatures experienced at the core is pretty much impossible. "To achieve high pressures the sample has to be made very small and then it is difficult to see the diffraction patterns from the structures," explains Leonid Dubrovinsky, a geo-scientist at the University of Bayreuth in Germany. What is more, at high temperatures the iron tends to diffuse and react with the carbon in the diamond anvil cell - a device that pinches samples between two diamond points and creates extreme pressures. An inability to recreate core conditions hampered our understanding of the core, but in recent years powerful computer models have stepped in the breach. Expertise has been developed in 'Ab intio' (first principles) calculations and we are able to do higher quality extrapolations to understand core conditions," says Abrikosov. In addition experiments have improved greatly, with very high pressures and temperatures reached recently in new diamond anvil cells. Combined with the use of synchrotron radiation scientists have been able to observe structures at conditions that are ever closer to conditions at the Earth's outer core. Using this combination of theory, experiments and powerful simulations Abrikosov, Dubrovinsky and their colleagues have revisited the core. This time they have also included alloy elements such as Nickel and Magnesium in their calculations and, to their surprise, they found that it has a significant effect. "At high pressures the magnetism is squeezed out of the other structures and they all have similar stability," says Abrikosov, who presented his findings at the 1st EuroMinScI Conference near Nice, France in March this year. The new research has revealed that 'face centred cubic' and 'body centred cubic' structures can not be ruled out and that all of these structures are energetically possible. "The standard model has been killed," says Abrikosov. EuroMinScI is the European Collaborative Research (EUROCORES) Programme on "European Mineral Science Initiative" developed by the European Science Foundation (ESF). Face centred cubic structures have an atom in the centre of every face, as well as at each of the corners, while body centred cubic has one atom in the centre of the cube. Compared to the hexagonal close packed the face centred cubic structure alternates every third layer, with the atoms making a spiral pattern up through the layers.Elements like nickel, silicon, oxygen and magnesium are also likely to play a key part in way atoms pack in the core. Recent experiments have shown that at very high pressures magnesium atoms are compressed to such an extent that they can fit easily into iron structures. In addition the element nickel is more comfortable than iron in a 'face centred cubic' structure. So why does this matter and what kind of difference could these structures make in the core" "It has implications for the anisotropy of the core," says Dubrovinsky. Studies of seismic waves have revealed that the waves travel faster in a north-south direction and slower in an east-west direction through the core - a phenomenon that scientists call anisotropic. The way the atoms pack in the core is vital for understanding this anisotropy. What is more, the Earth's core produces our magnetic field. Without it the Earth would be bombarded with dangerous cosmic rays and life would struggle to survive. As well as relying on Earth's magnetic field to protect us, we now use it to navigate and keep satellites in place. Life on Earth depends upon the magnetic field, but until we understand the core we can't fully understand how this field is created, or how it is likely to change. For scientists studying the Earth's core it is time to go back to the drawing board and rethink what lies underneath our feet. However, a new generation of powerful computer simulations, along with experiments that we could previously only dream about, mean that optimism is high and scientists are confident that the core will reveal its secrets soon.
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/All_Change_At_The_Earth_Core_999.html

Will there be another earthquake around the time of the lunar eclipse?

I wasnot going to post this as a new entry but on carefuul consideration decided to go ahead with it. This may be looked at as pure 'conjecture'but is based on facts and trends, but there is no way to prove a coming occurrence. This assumption is based on the science-of-cycles and on ancient texts passed down by our ancestors. I believe we will witness a second mega-quake within the next 14 days. This is based on the documented records of previous large quakes which have occurred 14 days prior to, and/or 14 days after a Full Lunar Eclipse. The next Lunar Eclipse will occur on August 28th 2007. The science of seismic activity is a difficult one. We have made great advances. In fact, just two days ago, a new "provable" study came out indicating the Sun puts off vibrating waves that cause seismic events here on Earth. This has never been acknowledged by the scientific community until now.
The science of knowing exactly where along the ring-of-fire the earthquake will occur, is still unknown. There has been progress on precursors, thereby giving at least some warning, but not much. There is an electrical magnetic charge that occurs just prior to an event. It can be so pronounced, it looks like bright light in the sky, or as an 'arch' somewhat like an aurora. Other precursors, are unusual animal behavior and the ebb of ocean waves and currents is a sure sign to move to higher ground immediately.Quakes that have been recorded prior to and after lunar eclipses are recorded in a prior post.
The science behind the connection between lunar events and earthquakes indicates it is the act of "fluid displacement" which is the culprit. Not just seawater of the oceans, but also fresh waters of large lakes, magma, and even oil. During the phases of a Full Lunar Eclipse, gravity is increased and water (fluid) rises. This in turn puts increased pressure on tectonic plates. The reverse is also a culprit. When the event phases of a 'new moon' occur, fluids retract. It is the "displacement"--- whether it is the expanding or the contracting, which causes the plates to shift.

Wild weather a taste of things to come

A MONSOON dropped 35 centimetres of rain in one day across many parts of South Asia this month. Germany had its wettest May on record, and April was the driest there in a century. Temperatures reached 45 degrees in Bulgaria last month and 32 degrees in Moscow in late May, shattering long-time records. The year still has almost five months to go, but it has already experienced a range of weather extremes that the UN's World Meteorological Organisation says is well outside the historical norm and is a precursor to much greater weather variability as global warming transforms the planet. The warming trend confirmed in February by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - based on the finding that 11 of the past 12 years had higher average ground temperatures than any others since formal temperature recording began - appears to have continued with a vengeance into 2007. The meteorological organisation reported that January and April were the warmest worldwide ever recorded. "Climate change projections indicate it to be very likely that hot extremes, heatwaves and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent," the organisation said. The heavy rains in South Asia have resulted in more than 500 deaths and displaced 10 million people, while 13.5 million Chinese have been affected by floods, the report said. In England and Wales, the period from May to July was the wettest since record-keeping began in 1766, resulting in floods that killed nine and caused more than $US6billion ($7billion) in damage. The World Meteorological Organisation, which is co-sponsoring a series of meetings and reports on global climate change, is putting together an early-warning system for climate extremes and establishing long-term monitoring systems, and plans to help countries most vulnerable to climate change. "The average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely the highest during any 50-year period in the last 500 years, and likely the highest in the past 1300 years," the report said. Global warming is expected to result in more extreme weather because of changes in atmospheric wind patterns and the ability of warmer air to hold more moisture, said Martin Manning, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's working group on the physical science of climate change. He said that one year of heavier than normal rains and warmer than usual temperatures said nothing definitive about climate change, but they were consistent with the panel's long-term predictions."What we have projected is an increase in extreme events as the global temperatures rise," Dr Manning said. "Floods, droughts and heatwaves are certainly consistent with that."
The World Meteorological Organisation reported the extreme weather occurred in many parts of the world. In May, a series of large waves (estimated at up to 3.6 metres) swamped almost 70 islands in 16 atolls in the Maldive Islands off south India, causing serious flooding and extensive damage. Halfway around the globe, Uruguay was hit during the same month by the worst flooding since 1959 - floods that affected more than 110,000 people and severely damaged crops and buildings. Two months later, an unusual winter brought high winds, blizzards and rare snowfall to parts of South America.Meanwhile, two extreme heatwaves affected south-eastern Europe in June and July. Dozens of people died, and firefighters worked nonstop battling blazes that destroyed thousands of hectares. On July 23, temperatures hit the record 45 degrees in Bulgaria. The Washington Post

Super funds hit by falls

THE unprecedented four-year dream run of the Australian sharemarket appears to be over, with another big sell-off yesterday pushing losses over the past month to $150 billion, or more than 10 per cent. Spooked by growing financial turmoil in the United States, investors savaged the shares of some of Australia's best-known companies, pushing the market to its lowest point since March. Markets across Asia and Europe have also been battered, prompting fears of further declines and a growing conviction among analysts that the long shares boom could be over. If sustained, the market rout will deliver an unfamiliar dose of red ink for millions of Australians with money in superannuation funds, which are heavily exposed to local and overseas shares. After successive years of spectacular gains, super funds are now looking at the real prospect of negative returns. Market analysts are blaming the drop on investors taking fright at the upheaval in the US, where high-risk lending practices and falling home prices have combined to create a growing sense of crisis. Macquarie Bank's head of equity strategy, Neale Goldston-Morris, predicted the Australian sharemarket would fall further, with prices not recovering until the middle of next year. Yesterday's 3 per cent drop on the S&P/ASX200 index dragged the market to its lowest point since March 14. Until a month ago, Australian shares had not dropped more than 2.7 per cent in a day since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
BHP and Macquarie Bank — two companies whose shares are widely held by small investors — were among the worst hit in yesterday's sell-off. Macquarie shares were stripped of more than 5 per cent of their value to close down $3.55 at $66.68. BHP slumped $1.86, or 5.3 per cent, to close trading at $33.20. Shares in RAMS Home Loans Group, which were savaged on Tuesday by revelations that the company's profits would be hit by the global crisis, lost another six cents to close at $1.35.Intersuisse director of equities Andrew Sekely said the RAMS statement may have sparked the panic selling. "The problems that have been mostly in the US up until now have suddenly come to Australia," he said. "That's made people a bit frightened as to what the further ramifications might be." There are fears that the crisis in the US surrounding the so-called sub-prime mortgages could have a major impact on the US economy and, by extension, global economic growth. But the damage to the Australian sharemarket has frustrated some market watchers, who point to the strong performance of Australian companies, low inflation and continued economic growth. Commonwealth Bank shares fell 1.85 per cent yesterday, despite the bank reporting a 14 per cent profit rise and a higher dividend. "Investor fear is driving this now, not fundamentals," said Bell Potter Securities research director Peter Quinton. By falling more than 10 per cent, the market is said to have experienced a "correction" — meaning investors have substantially revalued it and the change is more significant than the usual, daily fluctuations.Citi Investment Research director Graham Harman said that while the correction did not necessarily mean the bull market was over, the bull was ageing. The market would recover as long as inflation remained low and companies continued recording big profits. "If inflation really gets out of the bottle, this bull market has got a problem — and this is separate to the sub-prime problem," he said.
So, why have I posted this on my blog? easy, to mark this event as a historic marker recorded. Reason? because I have known that the us's economy will fail and fall drastically and I just wanted to note the date of this beginning and how stupid sheeple are when they don't see just how different we are to 'us' and how we (Aus) can continue being abundant and prosperous without the 'us'