Artist's conception of Kepler-34b. Credit: David A. Aguilar, Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics
Over the past few years, astronomers have discovered several planets that are circumbinary. That is, they are planets that actually orbit two stars. Just like Tatooine in the Star Wars movies. One of those planets discovered is Kepler-34b, which was discovered in 2012.
One puzzle about Kepler-34b, and other planets like it, is that they
challenge theories that astronomers have adopted as to how planets form
in the first place. That’s because for the planet to have evolved where
it is seems next to impossible based on our current understanding of the
forces involved in the creation of early systems.
But according to research recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters,
a team of researchers may have found the solution to the problem, using
a set of complex computer models. Their answer? Kepler-34b didn’t form
in the same spot it is now.
“We find that super-catastrophic erosion events are the dominant
mechanism up to and including the orbital radius of Kepler-34(AB)b,
making in situ growth unlikely,” they wrote in the paper. In
other words, the gravitational forces would have caused lots of debris
to constantly hit and erode any planet that tried to form in that orbit.
Instead, the astronomers suggest, it’s more likely that the planet
was actually formed over 120 million miles away, and slowly migrated
into its current orbit. What’s more, this same process likely happened
in other (thought not all) known circumbinary solar systems as well.
“Circumbinary planets have captured the imagination of many
science-fiction writers and film-makers – our research shows just how
remarkable such planets are,” said lead author Stefan Lines in a statement.
” Understanding more about where they form will assist future exoplanet
discovery missions in the hunt for earth-like planets in binary star
systems.”
It’ll be fascinating to see how this research helps to guide future
research in observing how planets, both in our solar system and out of
it, evolved to become the way they are now. Follow me on Twitter or Facebook. Read my Forbes blog here.
Planets Outside Of Our Solar System
1 of 9
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Super Earth 55 Cancri e
55 Cancri e is a super-Earth - more massive than the Earth but
lighter than a gas giant. This planet is so close to its Sun that it
orbits every 18 hours. Its light was detected by the Spitzer Space
Telescope.
New
Delhi: If reports are anything to go by then 'The Social Network' actor
Jesse Eisenberg is going to be featured in the role of Lex Luthor in
the sequel of 'Man of Steel'.
New Delhi: If reports are anything to go by
then 'The Social Network' actor Jesse Eisenberg is going to be featured
in the role of Lex Luthor in the sequel of 'Man of Steel'.
If this happens then it's certainly going to be a brave decision
on part of Zack Snyder, the director of 'Man of Steel 2', as the actors
who have played the character of Lex Luthor in the past were older than
Eisenberg.
Gene Hackman played the iconic character in initial Superman films, while Kevin Spacey Played Lex Luthor in 'Superman Returns'.
It has been said that Jeremy Irons will play Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred in the film.
It has also been said that Jeremy Irons will play Bruce Wayne's
butler Alfred in the film, which is scheduled to be released on May 6,
2016. end quote from:
GENEVA - New fireworks erupted at talks between the Syrian
government and the opposition here on Tuesday, as the government
sharply criticized a recent decision by the United States Congress to
approve continued support for the Syrian rebels, and the ...
GENEVA
— New fireworks erupted at talks between the Syrian government and the
opposition here on Tuesday, as the government sharply criticized a
recent decision by the United States Congress to approve continued
support for the Syrian rebels, and the United Nations’ top mediator
decided not to continue talks in the afternoon.
The
opposition delegation presented a detailed plan for the future of
Syria, said Oubai Shahbandar, an adviser to the delegation. But after
what Mr. Shahbandar called an “outburst” from the government’s lead
negotiator, Bashar al-Jaafari, no further discussion was held on forming
a transitional government, the central issue in the talks under the
protocols of the first Geneva conference, in 2012.
Syria’s
information minister, Omran al-Zoubi, played down the clash in the
morning meeting, saying in an interview that the two sides had spent “10
minutes laughing” after Mr. Jaafari, the Syrian ambassador to the
United Nations, joked that Al Jazeera, the Qatari-owned pan-Arab news
channel that the government despises for its sympathetic stance on the
insurgency, was “founded by Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.”
Mr.
Zoubi said the American aid to the rebels, now with explicit
congressional approval, contradicted the United States’ role as a
sponsor of the peace talks. Russia, the other sponsor, has supported the
Syrian government with arms sales, but Syrian officials say that falls
under legal bilateral relations and is not equivalent to the American
funding.
“Russia
is working with the Americans to find a political solution, and
suddenly they find a solution which contradicts the initiative,” he
said, referring to the American financing of the rebels. “Do they want
to destroy Geneva?” He accused the United States of supporting
terrorists.
The
State Department rejected that claim. “Any notion that we support
terrorists is ludicrous,” Edgar Vasquez, a department spokesman in
Geneva, said in a statement. Referring to the Syrian president, Bashar
al-Assad, he added: “The Assad regime is a magnet for terrorists. The
regime’s brutality is the source of the violent extremism in Syria
today. We support the moderate political and military opposition who are
fighting for the freedom and dignity of all the Syrian people.”
Members
of Congress last year raised a variety of concerns about a C.I.A.
program to arm and train Syrian rebels in Jordan, accusing the Obama
administration of wading deeper into the Syrian war without a clear
strategy, and expressing worries that the arms could end up in the hands
of Islamic militants.
The
White House was able to overcome these objections, and lawmakers ended
up approving money for the mission in classified defense appropriations
legislation, as Reuters reported on Monday.
But
the exchanges in Geneva again illustrated how little common ground
there is. The United Nations mediator for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said
at a news conference Tuesday afternoon: “These are not easy
negotiations. They were not easy before, they will not be easy in the
coming few days, but I’m glad that nobody is willing to leave.”
The
two sides have been unable to even begin discussing the issue of
political transition. The government submitted a new document as an
opening statement for the basis of talks that did not refer to a
transition of power, and the opposition rejected it.
Nor
was there progress on what Mr. Brahimi and others had hoped would be
the easiest win for the talks, a humanitarian pause in the fighting in
the western Syrian city of Homs to allow aid to reach blockaded areas
there.
The
United Nations has trucks loaded with food for up to 2,500 people ready
at a warehouse outside Homs but has not yet received authorization to
proceed, a World Food Program spokeswoman told reporters on Tuesday.
In
four days of stuttering peace talks in Geneva, Mr. Brahimi has pressed
Syria’s government and opposition to allow aid agencies to enter
blockaded areas of Homs and let civilians leave as a confidence-building
step, but with little success.
Tuesday’s
afternoon session was canceled over what opposition delegates described
as differences over the goal of the talks, and to give the government
time to make a proposal for the future of the country.
“There
is deep resistance by the regime to move the discussions onto the
question of a transitional government,” an opposition negotiator, Ahmed
Jakal, told Reuters. Murhaf Jouejati, a member of the opposition Syrian
National Coalition’s negotiating team, told The Associated Press that
the opposition was giving the government the chance “to come out with
their own vision for a future Syria” within the context of the agreement
reached at the first Geneva conference.
On
the question of humanitarian assistance, the Syrian government says it
is generally ready to provide aid under an existing plan worked out with
international agencies, and blames threats from insurgents for any
obstruction. But the opposition coalition, its Western backers and some
United Nations agencies say that when it comes to specific permission,
particularly for convoys to enter areas under insurgent control, the
government often denies access.
“The
humanitarian discussions haven’t produced much, unfortunately,” Mr.
Brahimi told reporters at the end of Monday’s discussions, citing “all
sorts of problems,” including the presence of snipers.
The
World Food Program spokeswoman, Elisabeth Byrs, said the United Nations
was preparing to send in a convoy once it received the go-ahead; the
agency has been unable to get supplies into the Old City of Homs for
over a year.
United
Nations agencies say they do not know how many people remain in the Old
City, but in addition to the month’s worth of supplies for 2,500
people, the World Food Program also has specialized nutrition for
children presumed to be suffering from acute malnutrition and stunted
growth.
The
agency distributed food to 687,000 people at 50 other locations in Homs
Province last month, Ms. Byrs said, but in many towns it has been able
to enter only every three to six months. The United Nations is
increasingly concerned about the fate of 775,000 people elsewhere in the
country, including in the city of Deir al-Zour in the east, which it
has been unable to reach for some months, Ms. Byrs added.
United
States officials in Geneva said earlier that talks were continuing
among the United Nations, Russia, the Syrian government and the
opposition on the issues of humanitarian aid to “besieged communities,”
prisoner releases and exchanges, and localized cease-fires — all seen by
international negotiators as potential confidence-building measures.
Western
diplomats have said that if progress is not made soon, they may take
the impasse to the Security Council, where they believe Russia is less
likely now to use its veto than in the past because it is concerned
about its image on the eve of hosting the Winter Olympics.
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Geneva, and Mark Mazzetti from Washington.
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesians have joined the thousands of foreign fighters who have traveled to Syria
to help extremist groups trying to create an Islamic state there,
according to a new report, a finding that analysts said Friday could
help ...
JAKARTA,
Indonesia — Indonesians have joined the thousands of foreign fighters
who have traveled to Syria to help extremist groups trying to create an
Islamic state there, according to a new report, a finding that analysts
said Friday could help revive a weakened jihadi movement in Indonesia
and set off more attacks on minority Shiites in the Southeast Asian
country.
The report
by the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, based in Jakarta,
said that the Syrian conflict, approaching its third anniversary in
March, had “captured the imagination of Indonesian extremists in a way
no foreign war has before.”
“The
enthusiasm for Syria is directly linked to predictions in Islamic
eschatology that the final battle at the end of time will take place in
Sham, the region sometimes called Greater Syria or the Levant,
encompassing Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Israel,” the report
said, adding that atrocities committed by government forces against
Sunni Muslims have been given strong play in the Indonesian news media
and on radical websites.
Sidney
Jones, the institute’s director, said the Indonesian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, based on information from the Syrian government,
estimated that at least 50 Indonesians had traveled to Syria via Turkey
to take up arms since 2012. While she emphasized that the figure was “a
guesstimate,” the report warned that the numbers could increase.
As
many as 11,000 foreign fighters have poured into Syria by way of the
Middle East and North Africa. The fighters include radicalized young
Muslims with Western passports from Europe, North America and Australia.
Ms.
Jones said Indonesian fighters could easily fly on commercial airlines
to Turkey, where Ahrar al-Sham, one of the Islamic groups fighting the
government of President Bashar al-Assad, helped them cross the border
into Syria. Some Indonesian extremists have also been linking up with
the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a hard-line group linked to Al
Qaeda, she said.
“There
are two main concerns for Indonesia,” Ms. Jones said. “One is the
return of foreign fighters and what that could mean to providing
leadership to the very weak and incompetent jihadi movement here.”
“Second,
the process of raising funds for Syria could strengthen the resource
base of groups in Indonesia, such as Jemaah Islamiyah,” she said,
referring to the Southeast Asian terrorist network linked to Al Qaeda
that carried out the Bali bombings in 2002, and whose members and
splinter cells carried out other terrorist attacks in Indonesia from
2000 to 2009. She said Jemaah Islamiyah had used its network to recruit
and send Indonesian fighters to Syria.
Indonesian
extremists are known to have trained and fought in Afghanistan in the
1980s and ’90s, in the southern Philippines and possibly in Bosnia. The
involvement of Indonesian fighters in Syria became more prominent after
an extremist from the Borneo Island of Indonesia named Riza Fardi was
killed there last year, according to the report from the Institute for
Policy Analysis of Conflict.
His
death was announced on Nov. 28 on the Twitter account of Suquor al-Izz
Brigade, an armed group with which Mr. Riza was fighting, the report
said. It added that Mr. Riza graduated from Al Mukmin Islamic boarding
school, in the Central Java Province of Indonesia, an institution that
has produced multiple terrorists and whose founder, the radical cleric
Abu Bakar Bashir, is in prison on a terrorism conviction.
The
report said that Indonesian Islamic organizations had made multiple
humanitarian missions to Syria since the conflict began, “bringing in
cash and medical assistance to the Islamist resistance in a way
apparently designed to open channels for more direct participation in
the fighting.”
Noor
Huda Ismail, the founder of the Institute for International Peace
Building, which helps assimilate former Indonesian terrorists back into
society, noted that six people suspected of being terrorists who were
killed after an all-night standoff beginning on Dec. 31 in a town
outside Jakarta were planning to travel to Turkey and had already bought
airline tickets.
“At
the microlevel, most of the Indonesians who travel to Syria — whether
they fight or were involved in humanitarian actions — they will tell
their story when they return and inspire others to follow in their
footsteps,” he said. “Individuals who travel there manage to provide a
new narrative about jihad, which will be widely translated. This new
narrative is the most important thing — a narrative about enlarging the
conflict.”
Mr.
Noor said the Syrian civil war was viewed by many Muslims as a conflict
between Sunnis and the Shiite-backed government of Mr. Assad. He said
the participation of Indonesian fighters would have ramifications back
in Indonesia, which is the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation and
has a small minority of Shiites who in recent years have faced
harassment and physical attacks.
“The
Indonesian Shiite groups are worried about these movements,” Mr. Noor
said. “It creates ramifications where you see tensions between the Sunni
and Shiite communities in Indonesia.”
Ms.
Jones, of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, said another
major concern was that Jemaah Islamiyah, which had fallen off the radar
after ceasing terrorist attacks on Western targets in Indonesia in 2007
because of, among other things, an internal backlash over the fact that
the majority of its victims were Indonesian Muslims, was increasing its
prestige by helping to send fighters to Syria.
The revival of Jemaah Islamiyah as a jihadi organization could have significant consequences in the long term, she said.
Concerns about the global economy and company
earnings in the United States, as well as turmoil in emerging markets,
led major indexes to their worst month in two years.
Concerns
about the global economy and company earnings in the United States, as
well as turmoil in emerging markets, led major indexes to their worst
month in two years.
However,
many remain hopeful that the problems in January will not spill over
into the rest of 2014. They even see the month’s downturn as healthy,
given the market’s torrid 30 percent rise last year.
The
Dow Jones industrial average fell 5.3 percent in January, the worst
start to a year since 2009. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index
fell 3.6 percent in January, and the Nasdaq composite fell 2 percent.
Many
investors expected 2014 to be more muddled and volatile, looking for
additional pullbacks and possibly a drop of at least 10 percent in one
of the market indexes, known as a correction.
“People
did look at these stock market valuations at the beginning of the year
with a degree of nervousness,” said David Kelly, chief market strategist
at J. P. Morgan Funds. “A correction would probably be healthy for the
market.”
Even
so, many investors were surprised by January’s turbulence. With one
exception, the Dow had triple-digit moves every trading day in January.
Investors
point to the December jobs report, released on Jan. 10, as a starting
point for the recent troubles. The government said then that employers
created only 74,000 jobs in December, the worst month for job creation
since 2011 and far below expectations. Up until that point, weeks of
data showed that the economic recovery was accelerating.
“It set a negative tone for the market,” Mr. Kelly said.
Other
economic reports also painted a picture of growth possibly flattening
out instead of accelerating. Added to these worries were mixed signals
from companies in the United States. Half of the members of the
S.&P. 500 have reported, and while fourth-quarter corporate earnings
are up a respectable 7.9 percent from a year earlier, companies have
been cutting their full-year outlooks and reporting weaker sales,
according to the data provider FactSet.
Then
there are concerns about overseas markets. In China, the world’s
second-largest economy, a recent report showed that manufacturing
activity unexpectedly contracted in January. Then came the currency
troubles in smaller emerging markets, particularly Argentina, South
Africa and Turkey.
On
Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 149.76 points, or 0.94
percent, to 15,698.85. The S.&P. 500 dropped 11.60 points, or 0.65
percent, to 1,782.59, and the Nasdaq lost 19.25 points, or 0.47 percent,
to 4,103.88.
In
bond trading, the price of the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose
14/32 to 100 29/32, and its yield fell to 2.65 percent from 2.69 percent
late Thursday.
Investors
should not panic yet, money managers say. More opportunities for good
news abound, including next week’s jobs report for January, and another
93 members of the S.&P. 500 are scheduled to report earnings.
“A
5 percent decline in equities is not an earth-shattering event by any
measure, particularly after last year,” said Krishna Memani, chief
investment officer at Oppenheimer Funds. “It’s still way too early to
give up on equities.”
I remember the last big drought in California which was in the mid 1970s. Then there were many brown lawns and shubs from not being watered across the state. Shasta Dam was mostly empty to the point where it was hard to water ski anymore but I think I remember houseboats still some there. The motto was "yellow mellow brown down" in regard to flushing toilets. We put 5 gallon buckets under the sink and carried them to the open toilet backs to pour the kitchen grey water into to flush them. No plants were allowed to be watered most of the time. Bottled water was the rule to drink because the remaining water wasn't usually safe to drink (or at least it tasted terrible from too many chemicals as well.
Since then people have learned that low water levels in dams often also means now more likelihood of
Cryptosporidium is a genus of apicomplexan protozoans that can cause gastrointestinal illness with diarrhea in humans. Cryptosporidium is the organism most ...
during the summer and fall months many places which can kill people with compromised immune systems like those with HIV or worse even drinking tap water like that once or twice. This is true all over the country in cities even with enough rainfall year around. And Clorine and Fluoridation does not kill Cryptosporidium because it is immune to both now here in the U.S. and likely other places as well.
So, bottled water is the safest thing to drink even though reverse osmosis systems likely would be good for cooking still.
Yes. Brown lawns most places likely will become the norm this year along with brown shrubs and no flowers for most homes in the state as well as no vegetables grown likely much at all except for people who might still have wells that the state doesn't cap during these times.
A newsman was saying today that even if it rained every other day until May the state would still be in trouble in regard to water this year.
Tonight I was listening to the news about how 25 million customers in California are going to have their water curtailed or just shut off soon. A man was also saying how no state in the United States has EVER had a drought as serious as this one ever.
I think this is because there are 38.04 million people in California and they are now going to either drastically curtail or end water to 25 million customers in the state because of the present water emergency. So, I think we might be (unless we get a whole lot of rain soon) moving into Biblical Drought status in California something like out of Egypt in the Bible or something like that. However, there weren't trains and trucks that could haul water then like their are now. I wonder if Santa Barbara is taking it's Sea water conversion systems out of mothballs about now?
Two of my grown children and I had dinner with an old friend who is an investor. He was pretty upset with the stock market even though he had positioned himself after something like this happening last year about this time. So, he said that only half of his stocks were affected by this downturn this year. So, it wasn't as bad for him this year. I said, "It's the 10% adjustment right?". He said, "No. not exactly. What is happening in Argentina and in Turkey are more affecting the market." I said, "What about China?" He said, "That was already factored in. The shot out of the blue is Argentina and the reaction in Turkey as a results reverberating around the world now."
That was news to me. I hadn't heard about the Argentina-Turkey reactions yet. My son said he had read about this happening in Argentina in the last year. I was wondering why Google News and Yahoo hadn't been writing more about this and wondered why CNN hadn't been reporting about this too?
So, this is the latest news from someone I know who studies the stock market at least 5 days a week and sometimes more as his business.
The problem of Argentina and Turkey likely is going to affect both Middle Eastern Nations and the problem in Argentina likely will have the most affect on South American and Central American countries the most. However, since the U.S. is on the border of Mexico and Central and South America it will affect the U.S. and Canada to some degree too.
I mentioned to my grown kids and my friend how the default on loans to South America and Mexico had caused the default of the Savings and Loans here in the U.S. and many people lost everything in the 1980s and some killed themselves especially if they were over 50 and couldn't replace their savings nest eggs because they were too old here in the U.S.
That's why there are no Savings and Loans here in the U.S. now. There are only Credit Unions and banks with FDIC insured savings up to $250,000 per account.
I'm not the 5 day or more a week investor that my friend is. But, I'm hoping the bottom for this market is around 15,000 or so, so it can slowly go up to 16,000 and 17,000 and beyond again.
I was surprised when a friend called me about this. It is a pretty big deal that something this big sold as an "oceanfront getaway". If high end sales for homes are being made if you are selling your home somewhere in California or other western states this might be good news for you.
Man washes up in Marshall Islands 'after 16 months adrift'
12 hours ago
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View gallery
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Majuro (Marshall Islands) (AFP) - An emaciated man whose boat
washed up on a remote Pacific atoll this week claims he survived 16
months adrift on the Pacific, floating more than 12,500 kilometres
(8,000 miles) from Mexico, a researcher said Friday.
The man, with long hair and beard, was discovered
Thursday when his 24-foot fibreglass boat with propellerless engines
floated onto the reef at Ebon Atoll and he was spotted by two locals.
"His
condition isn't good, but he's getting better," Ola Fjeldstad, a
Norwegian anthropology student doing research on Ebon, the southern most
outpost of the Marshalls, told AFP by telephone.
Fjeldstad said
the man, dressed only in a pair of ragged underpants, claims he left
Mexico for El Salvador in September 2012 with a companion who died at
sea several months ago.
Details of his survival are sketchy, Fjeldstad added, as the man only speaks Spanish, but he said his name was Jose Ivan.
"The boat is really scratched up and looks like it has been in the water for a long time," said the researcher from Ebon.
Map locating the Marshall Islands, in the northern Pacific Ocean, which are home to barely 60,000 pe …
Ivan indicated to Fjeldstad that he survived by eating turtles, birds and fish and drinking turtle blood when there was no rain.
No
fishing gear was on the boat and Ivan suggested he caught turtles and
birds with his bare hands. There was a turtle on the boat when it landed
at Ebon.
Stories of survival in the vast Pacific are not uncommon.
In
2006, three Mexicans made international headlines when they were
discovered drifting, also in a small fibreglass boat near the Marshall
Islands, in the middle of the ocean in their stricken boat, nine months
after setting out on a shark-fishing expedition.
They survived on a diet of rainwater, raw fish and seabirds, with their hope kept alive by reading the bible.
And in 1992, two fishermen from Kiribati were at sea for 177 days before coming ashore in Samoa.
According
to Fjeldstad, the Marshall Islanders who found Ivan took him to the
main island on the atoll, which is so remote there is only one phone
line at the local council house and no Internet, to meet Mayor Ione de
Brum, who put in a call to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Majuro.
Officials at the Foreign Ministry said Friday they were waiting to get more details and for the man to be brought to Majuro.
The
government airline's only plane that can land at Ebon is currently down
for maintenance and is not expected to return to service until Tuesday
at the earliest, with officials considering sending a boat to pick up
the castaway.
"He's staying at the local council house and a
family is feeding him," said Fjeldstad, who added that the man had a
basic health check and was found to have low blood pressure.
But he did not appear to have any life-threatening illness and was able to walk with the aid of men on the island.
"We've been giving him a lot of water, and he's gaining strength," said the Norwegian.
The
Marshall Islands, in the northern Pacific, are home to barely 60,000
people spread over 24 atolls, with most of them standing at an average
of just two metres above sea level.
