Gizmorama
July 19, 2010
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Good Morning,
Researchers have found potential answers to how stars are
born by observing a galaxy that has a high density of new
stars. Check out the last article for more details on this
'turbulent' process.
Until Next Time,
Erin
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Space observatory blinded by X-rays
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - A NASA space observatory was tempor-
arily blinded by a massive blast of X-rays from beyond the
Milky Way, the largest ever detected, astronomers say. The
National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Swift orb-
iting space observatory was overwhelmed June 21 by a gamma-
ray burst caused by a star exploding before becoming a black
hole, Penn State University release said Wednesday. "This
gamma-ray burst is by far the brightest light source ever
seen in X-ray wavelengths at cosmological distances," said
David Burrows, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at
Penn State and lead scientist for Swift's X-ray telescope.
Although purposefully designed to study gamma-ray bursts,
the instrument was not designed to handle an X-ray blast this
bright, scientists say. "The intensity of these X-rays was
unexpected and unprecedented" said Neil Gehrels, Swift's
principal investigator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
The instrument quickly recovered from the initial blast of
X-rays and recorded the rest of the incoming radiation, the
university release said.
'God particle' not found despite rumor
BATAVIA, Ill. - Media reports that an American particle phys-
ics lab has discovered the long-sought "God particle" have
no factual basis, a lab official said. A British newspaper
reported Monday that the Fermi National Accelerator Labora-
tory in Batavia, Ill., had discovered the elusive Higgs boson,
the elemental particle that could explain why all matter has
mass, the Batavia Sun reported Wednesday. The United States'
premier particle physics lab, Fermi has been searching for
the Higgs for years, and hopes to discover it before the
Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland renders Fermi-
lab's own Tevatron accelerator obsolete, the Sun said. The
British publication apparently based its article on a blog
item by a physicist at the University of Padua in Italy who
claimed to have "two different, possibly independent sources"
suggesting Fermilab had found the Higgs, the Sun said. On
Tuesday, Fermi lab spokeswoman Judy Jackson said it was
completely untrue. "It has no factual basis, and we don't
comment on rumors," Jackson said. The incorrect story had
spread rapidly across the Internet, despite a follow-up story
in the British newspaper debunking the claims. On Monday
afternoon, the lab's communications staff issued a brief
statement. "Let's settle this: The rumors spread by one fame-
seeking blogger are just rumors. That's it."
New clues in human evolution timeline
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The fossilized remains of a previously
unknown primate found in Saudi Arabia could offer new clues
to the timeline of human evolution, researchers say. The
discovery could yield evidence of the date of divergence
between hominoids and Old Word monkeys, a paper in this
week's issue of the journal Nature reported. The timing of
the divergence of hominoids -- apes and humans -- and cerco-
pithecoids -- Old World monkeys -- from a common ancestor is
a key topic in human evolution, the paper says. Genome-based
estimates place the split at around 35 to 30 million years
ago, but little has been found in the fossil record to im-
prove the estimate of the timing. The new fossil, a partial
skull of a medium size primate dated to about 29 millions
years ago, still has a few characteristics of the common
ancestor, suggesting the split occurred later than previously
thought, somewhere between 29 and 24 million year ago, the
journal paper says.
Star clues found in galaxy 'tail'
PASADENA, Calif. - A distant galaxy with a tail studded with
bright clumps of new stars offers clues to how such stars
form, U.S. researchers say. Galaxy IC 3418's tail was formed
as it collided with the neighboring Virgo cluster of galax-
ies, ScienceDaily.com reported Wednesday. "The gas in this
galaxy is being blown back into a turbulent wake," said
Janice Hester of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena. "The gas is like sand caught up by a stiff wind,"
she said. "However, the particular type of gas that is needed
to make stars is heavier, like pebbles, and can't be blown
out of the galaxy. "Observations are teaching us that this
heavier, star-forming gas can form in the wake, possibly in
swirling eddies of gas." Collisions between galaxies are a
fairly common occurrence in the universe, and battered gal-
axies are often left with tails of material stripped off
during the collisions, SPACE.com said. "These tails are
unique, exotic locations where we can probe the precise mech-
anisms behind star formation," Hester said. "Understanding
star formation is pivotal to understanding the life cycles
of galaxies and the dramatic transformations that some gal-
axies undergo," she said. "We can also study how the process
affects the development of planets like our own."
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