söndag, juni 30, 2013
Femen stages topless protest in Stockholm mosque
 |
| (Libanon) |
June 29, 2013 02:12 PM
 |
| Marguerite Stern (L) and Pauline Hillier of France (C) and Josephine Markmann of Germany (R), members of the women's rights group Femen who were released from a Tunisian jail, and Ukrainian activist Inna Shevchenko (top L) attend a news conference at their 'training camp' at the Lavoir Moderne Parisen (LMP) in Paris June 27, 2013. |
STOCKHOLM: Three feminist activists from the radical protest group Femen staged a topless protest inside a Stockholm mosque on Saturday before they were led away by police.
The women burst into the mosque and tore off their black robes to bare their breasts, which were emblazoned with slogans such as "No sharia in Egypt and the world" and "My body is mine, not somebody's honour".
The women shouted "Free Women", "No Sharia" and "No Oppression".
The mosque was largely empty at the time apart from a couple of employees and some members of the press who had been told of the planned protest in advance.
Mosque employees called police who removed the women from the scene. The women did not explain why they wanted to protest inside an empty mosque.
"They're suspected of disorderly conduct and abuse," police commander Jonas Svalin told reporters, saying that the mosque employees had accused the women of shoving them.
The women were reportedly from Egypt, Tunisia and Sweden, although police were not immediately able to confirm their identities or nationalities.
Founded in Ukraine in 2008, Femen is a self-declared "radical feminist" group known for its topless protests against sexual exploitation of women, sexism and religious institutions.
The women burst into the mosque and tore off their black robes to bare their breasts, which were emblazoned with slogans such as "No sharia in Egypt and the world" and "My body is mine, not somebody's honour".
The women shouted "Free Women", "No Sharia" and "No Oppression".
The mosque was largely empty at the time apart from a couple of employees and some members of the press who had been told of the planned protest in advance.
Mosque employees called police who removed the women from the scene. The women did not explain why they wanted to protest inside an empty mosque.
"They're suspected of disorderly conduct and abuse," police commander Jonas Svalin told reporters, saying that the mosque employees had accused the women of shoving them.
The women were reportedly from Egypt, Tunisia and Sweden, although police were not immediately able to confirm their identities or nationalities.
Founded in Ukraine in 2008, Femen is a self-declared "radical feminist" group known for its topless protests against sexual exploitation of women, sexism and religious institutions.
Maracaná i natt
Spaniens troliga startelva i natt i finalen mot Brasilien:
Casillas, Arbeloa, Ramos, Piqué, Alba; Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro, Mata och Fernando Torres
Obama Visits Prison Where Mandela Was Jailed
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
After touring Nelson Mandela’s prison cell on Robben Island, President Obama lauded Mr. Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, for his courage and refusal to yield to injustice.
432 and Above EME Newsletter
The July issue of the free amateur radio 432 MHz and Above EME Newsletter is now available
The newsletter can be downloaded in Word or PDF formats from http://www.nitehawk.com/rasmit/em70cm.html
Previous newsletters are athttp://www.nitehawk.com/rasmit/em70cm_arc.html
Heat breaks records in Southern California
Los Angeles Times | June 29, 2013 | 6:33 PM
More records broke Saturday as a heat wave kept its grips on California and the West.According to the National Weather Service, several desert and Inland Empire communities set new records for the date, including Palm Springs (122 degrees [50 C!]), Indio (121) and Riverside (105). Other record highs for the day were recorded in Lancaster (111), Paso Robles (111), Idyllwild (98) and Camarillo (89), according to the NWS. Officials said the extreme heat will continue until at least Tuesday. Fahrenheit to Celcius: http://fc.kahi.cz/ |
lördag, juni 29, 2013
Jeff Dunham
Jeff Dunham, kanske världens bäste buktalare kommer till Stockholm (Hovet) och Göteborg (Lisebergsteatern) i september.
VM U20
Igår
Australien- Turkiet 1-2
El Salvador- Colombia 0-3
Mali - Mexiko 1-4
Grekland - Paraguay 1-1
Visit by Obama Is Overshadowed by Mandela Vigil
By DECLAN WALSH and MICHAEL D. SHEAR
Outside the hospital gates, South Africans of all races prayed, sang and dropped flowers for their revered father figure. Less harmoniously, a simmering family feud over his funeral arrangements burst into public view. A 65-year-old woman claiming to be his illegitimate daughter stepped forward, demanding to be let into the hospital to meet him.
In the evening, Mr. Obama entered the fray, faced with a delicate diplomatic balancing act involving statesmanship, policy and respect for a fading hero. Mr. Obama, who had planned weeks ago to visit Mr. Mandela during this trip, wishes to honor the man who inspired his career in politics, mindful that he is arriving as South Africans are sorrowful over their beloved former president’s condition. On Saturday the White House announced that Mr. Obama would meet later in the day with relatives of Mr. Mandela, but not visit the former leader at the hospital.
“I don’t need a photo-op,” Mr. Obama said while on his way to South Africa, where he landed just a few miles from the Pretoria hospital where Mr. Mandela has been lying in intensive care. “Right now, our main concern is with his well-being, his comfort, and with the family’s well-being and comfort.”
At any other time, Mr. Obama’s arrival would have been a symbolically potent moment with resonance for both countries: America’s first black president visiting a nation that only two decades ago shook off the yoke of white minority rule.
But for South Africans, their hearts, if not their eyes, were focused on something else.
“This trip is overshadowed by Nelson Mandela’s illness,” said Justice Malala, a political commentator and columnist. “Its impact will be blunted because people’s attention is elsewhere.”
Some unfolding events seemed to be exactly what Mr. Mandela had hoped to avoid. A court hearing in a provincial town on Friday exposed a bitter family rift over arrangements for his funeral.
Mr. Mandela has long been painfully aware of the divides within his family, and on Friday lawyers and magistrates confirmed that 16 Mandela relatives, led by his eldest daughter, Makaziwe Mandela, had filed a lawsuit against a grandson, Mandla Mandela, a tribal chief.
A report from South Africa’s national broadcaster pointed to a macabre squabble at work: the plaintiffs want to compel Mandla to rebury three relatives, who had been exhumed and moved some years ago from the family graveyard at Qunu, Nelson Mandela’s home village, back in their original graves.
The court action appeared to stem from an argument over where Mr. Mandela should be buried. Mandla prefers a site at the headquarters of his tribal village of Mvezo, where Mr. Mandela was born; the rest of the family wants him to be buried at Qunu, where he grew up.
Among some South Africans, the government’s careful management of news about Mr. Mandela even stoked speculation that it was somehow keeping him alive in order to facilitate Mr. Obama’s trip. The government flatly rejected such rumors.
“Urban legend,” said Mac Maharaj, the presidential spokesman. “That has been put to us before, and it is wrong. People take the government’s report as accurate.”
Mr. Obama, who is accompanied by his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Sasha and Malia, arrived from Senegal and was due to travel to Tanzania on Sunday. His long-awaited African tour is intended to stress the importance of trade, not aid, for the continent.
“Everything we do is designed to make sure that Africa is not viewed as a dependent, as a charity case, but is instead viewed as a partner,” he told reporters on Friday.
In South Africa, Mr. Obama plans to salute Mr. Mandela’s life with a visit on Sunday to Robben Island, the prison where Mr. Mandela spent 18 years in a tiny cell, now a somber tourist attraction inhabited mainly by penguins.
Mr. Obama’s host here will be President Jacob Zuma, a controversial figure who in some ways epitomizes the disappointments of the post-Mandela era.
More: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/world/africa/mandela-obama.html?pagewanted=2&tntemail0=y&_r=0&emc=tnt
fredag, juni 28, 2013
West Wing Week: 06/28/13 or “The Case For Action”
This week, the President gave a major speech on climate change policy, hosted a roundtable discussion with business leaders, named a new director of the FBI, and welcomed the next class of Presidential Innovation Fellows.
IKEA Founder Ingvar Kamprad to Move Back to Sweden
STOCKHOLM—IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad intends to move before the end of the year to Sweden, a country he left in the 1970s due to high tax rates.
Mr. Kamprad's decision to move back to the small town of Älmhult in the Swedish province of Småland—where he started the company some 70 years ago—comes after the 87-year-old founder left the board of the parent company of the furniture brand earlier this month. /THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Midsommar Festival in New Sweden welcomes new traditions
AROOSTOOK
Posted June 27, 2013, at 11:32 a.m.
Lisa Wilcox/Aroostook Republican & News
From left, Jayden Holmes, Jolena Easter and Landin Spooner help Little Dancers leader Brenda Jepson carry the dance troupe’s banner off the stage after their performance at the Midsommar Festival program at Thomas Park on June 23.
NEW SWEDEN, Maine — New Sweden was bustling with flowers, food, music and dancing as the Maine Swedish Colony held their annual Midsommar Festival last weekend.
Steeped in tradition, Midsommar combines celebration of the summer solstice with Swedish heritage. The New Sweden Historical Society sponsors the event, which features tours of the Swedish Colony’s historical sites, plenty of food, traditional Swedish costumes and flowered hair wreaths, the creation of a Majstang pole and Swedish folk dancing performances by New Sweden’s Little Folk Dancers troupe.
Despite the looming threat of rain, which held off for the most part, this year’s Midsommar was again successful, organizers said.
“I was very pleased with the way things went,” said Brenda Jepson, leader of the Little Folk Dancers. “We had good crowds.”
Jepson felt that what was most impressive about the event was the voluntary participation of New Sweden’s more youthful population.
“Our younger people are getting involved more without being asked,” Jepson commented. “They are willing to carry on the traditions and to add to them.”
An example of a new tradition this year was the 25 members of the Little Folk Dancers walking with the Majstang pole as it was carried from the Historical Society to Thomas Park for the Midsommar Fest program.
“That’s quite the hike for such little kids,” Jepson pointed out. “The dancers haven’t walked with the pole in over 10 years.”
This year’s program also included the addition of a new dance called “Fjaskern” to the Little Dancers’ repertoire.
Local musicians Luke Lagasse, Elyse Kiehn, Steve Boody and Rachel Ring performed selections with the Northern Maine Chamber Orchestra, including the “New Sweden Rhapsody,” which is a collection of excerpts from traditional Swedish folk songs that the orchestra performs especially for New Sweden’s Midsommar Festival.
New Sweden residents Almon and Marilyn McDougal were honored at the program for their years of dedicated service to the New Sweden Historical Society. The program concluded with master of ceremonies Finn Bondeson leading the crowd in the traditional “Langdans,” in which everyone who is present at the program, and able to, joins hands in a parade around the park as Swedish music is played.
The Midsommar Festival attracts visitors from all over the world. This year, as always, residents of Sweden were welcomed to town along with two sisters from Boston who were staying with the Jepson family.
Half Acadian and half Swedish, the sisters originally planned to visit to do some research on their Acadian heritage and the Acadian Congress being held next year, but Jepson encouraged them to schedule their trip to coincide with Midsommar. According to Jepson, the sisters were quite pleased with the experience of getting in touch with their Swedish heritage and will return for Midsommar again.
Steeped in tradition, Midsommar combines celebration of the summer solstice with Swedish heritage. The New Sweden Historical Society sponsors the event, which features tours of the Swedish Colony’s historical sites, plenty of food, traditional Swedish costumes and flowered hair wreaths, the creation of a Majstang pole and Swedish folk dancing performances by New Sweden’s Little Folk Dancers troupe.
Despite the looming threat of rain, which held off for the most part, this year’s Midsommar was again successful, organizers said.
“I was very pleased with the way things went,” said Brenda Jepson, leader of the Little Folk Dancers. “We had good crowds.”
Jepson felt that what was most impressive about the event was the voluntary participation of New Sweden’s more youthful population.
“Our younger people are getting involved more without being asked,” Jepson commented. “They are willing to carry on the traditions and to add to them.”
An example of a new tradition this year was the 25 members of the Little Folk Dancers walking with the Majstang pole as it was carried from the Historical Society to Thomas Park for the Midsommar Fest program.
“That’s quite the hike for such little kids,” Jepson pointed out. “The dancers haven’t walked with the pole in over 10 years.”
This year’s program also included the addition of a new dance called “Fjaskern” to the Little Dancers’ repertoire.
Local musicians Luke Lagasse, Elyse Kiehn, Steve Boody and Rachel Ring performed selections with the Northern Maine Chamber Orchestra, including the “New Sweden Rhapsody,” which is a collection of excerpts from traditional Swedish folk songs that the orchestra performs especially for New Sweden’s Midsommar Festival.
New Sweden residents Almon and Marilyn McDougal were honored at the program for their years of dedicated service to the New Sweden Historical Society. The program concluded with master of ceremonies Finn Bondeson leading the crowd in the traditional “Langdans,” in which everyone who is present at the program, and able to, joins hands in a parade around the park as Swedish music is played.
The Midsommar Festival attracts visitors from all over the world. This year, as always, residents of Sweden were welcomed to town along with two sisters from Boston who were staying with the Jepson family.
Half Acadian and half Swedish, the sisters originally planned to visit to do some research on their Acadian heritage and the Acadian Congress being held next year, but Jepson encouraged them to schedule their trip to coincide with Midsommar. According to Jepson, the sisters were quite pleased with the experience of getting in touch with their Swedish heritage and will return for Midsommar again.
Similar articles:
Aroostook County är ett administrativt område i delstaten Maine, USA. Aroostook är ett av de sexton områdena i staten och ligger i den norra delen och är det nordligaste countyt i Maine. År 2010 hade Aroostook County 71 870 invånare. Den administrativa huvudorten (county seat) är Houlton.
Enligt United States Census Bureau så har countyt en total area på 17 687 km². 17 280 km² av den arean är land och 407 km² är vatten.
Några ortnamn med svensk anknytning i Aroostook County är Stockholm, New Sweden och Westmanland. /Wikipedia
Enligt United States Census Bureau så har countyt en total area på 17 687 km². 17 280 km² av den arean är land och 407 km² är vatten.
Några ortnamn med svensk anknytning i Aroostook County är Stockholm, New Sweden och Westmanland. /Wikipedia
"I'm not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker,"
President Barack Obama said on Thursday that he wouldn't be scrambling military jets to secure the capture of National Security Agency leak source Edward Snowden, saying he wouldn't participate in "wheeling and dealing" to get Snowden extradited back to the United States.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-edward-snowden-scrambling-jets-hacker-2013-6#ixzz2XUaGbuL3
"I'm not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker," Obama said of Snowden at a press conference Thursday in Senegal, Africa. Snowden actually turned 30 years old last week.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-edward-snowden-scrambling-jets-hacker-2013-6#ixzz2XUaGbuL3
A second amyloid may play a role in Alzheimer's disease, UC Davis researchers find
June 27, 2013
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) —
A protein secreted with insulin travels through the bloodstream and accumulates in the brains of individuals with type 2 diabetes and dementia, in the same manner as the amyloid beta (Αβ) plaques that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease, a study by researchers with the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center has found.
The study is the first to identify deposits of the protein, called amylin, in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as combined deposits of amylin and Aβ plaques, suggesting that amylin is a second amyloid as well as a new biomarker for age-related dementia and Alzheimer’s.
“We’ve known for a long time that diabetes hurts the brain, and there has been a lot of speculation about why that occurs, but there has been no conclusive evidence until now,” said UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center Director Charles DeCarli.
“This research is the first to provide clear evidence that amylin gets into the brain itself and that it forms plaques that are just like the amyloid beta that has been thought to be the cause of Alzheimer’s disease,” DeCarli said. “In fact, the amylin looks like the amyloid beta protein, and they both interact. That’s why we’re calling it the second amyloid of Alzheimer’s disease.”
"Amylin deposition in the brain: A second amyloid in Alzheimer’s disease?” is published online today in the Annals of Neurology.
Charles DeCarli
Type 2 diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder that increases the risk for cerebrovascular disease and dementia, a risk that develops years before the onset of clinically apparent diabetes. Its incidence is far greater among people who are obese and insulin resistant.
Amylin, or islet amyloid polypeptide, is a hormone produced by the pancreas that circulates in the bloodstream with insulin and plays a critical role in glycemic regulation by slowing gastric emptying, promoting satiety and preventing post-prandial spikes in blood glucose levels. Its deposition in the pancreas is a hallmark of type 2 diabetes.
When over-secreted, some proteins have a higher propensity to stick to one another, forming small aggregates, called oligomers, fibrils and amyloids. These types of proteins are called amyloidogenic and include amylin and Aβ. There are about 28 amyloidogenic proteins, each of which is associated with diseases.
The study was conducted by examining brain tissue from individuals who fell into three groups: those who had both diabetes and dementia from cerebrovascular or Alzheimer’s disease; those with Alzheimer’s disease without diabetes; and age-matched healthy individuals who served as controls.
The research found numerous amylin deposits in the gray matter of the diabetic patients with dementia, as well as in the walls of the blood vessels in their brains, suggesting amylin influx from blood circulation. Surprisingly, the researchers also found amylin in the brain tissue of individuals with Alzheimer’s who had not been diagnosed with diabetes; they postulate that these individuals may have had undiagnosed insulin resistance. They did not find amylin deposits in the brains of the healthy control subjects.
“We found that the amylin deposits in the brains of people with dementia are both independent of and co-located with the Aβ, which is the suspected cause of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Florin Despa, assistant professor-in-residence in the UC Davis Department of Pharmacology. “It is both in the walls of the blood vessels of the brain and also in areas remote from the blood vessels.
“It is accumulating in the brain and we found signs that amylin is killing neurons similar to Aβ,” he continued. “And that might be the answer to the question of ‘What makes obese and type 2 diabetes patients more prone to developing dementia?’”
The researchers undertook the investigation after Despa and his colleagues found that amylin accumulates in the blood vessels and muscle of the heart. From this evidence, he hypothesized that the same thing might be happening in the brain. To test the hypothesis he received a pilot research grant through the Alzheimer’s Disease Center.
Florin Despa
The research was conducted using tissue from the brains of individuals over 65 donated to the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center: 15 patients with Alzheimer’s disease and type 2 diabetes; 14 Alzheimer’s disease patients without diabetes; and 13 healthy controls. A series of tests, including Western blot, immunohistochemistry and ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) were used to test amylin accumulation in specimens from the temporal cortex.
In contrast with the healthy brains, the brain tissue infiltrated with amylin showed increased interstitial spaces, cavities within the tissue, sponginess, and blood vessels bent around amylin accumulation sites.
Despa said that the finding may offer a therapeutic target for drug development, either by increasing the rate of amylin elimination through the kidneys, or by decreasing its rate of oligomerization and deposition in diabetic patients.
"If we’re smart about the treatment of pre-diabetes, a condition that promotes increased amylin secretion, we might be able to reduce the risk of complications, including Alzheimer’s and dementia,” Despa said.
Additional study authors are Kaleena Jackson, Gustavo A. Barisone, Elva Diaz and Lee-Way Jin, all of UC Davis.
The study was funded by National Science Foundation grant CBET 1133339 (F.D.); American Diabetes Association grant 1-13-IN-70 (F.D.); the University of California, Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Pilot Project Program (F.D.); National Institute on Aging award P30AG010129 (C.D.); and a Vision Grant from the University of California, Davis Health System (F.D.).
Amylin molecule
The study is the first to identify deposits of the protein, called amylin, in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as combined deposits of amylin and Aβ plaques, suggesting that amylin is a second amyloid as well as a new biomarker for age-related dementia and Alzheimer’s.
“We’ve known for a long time that diabetes hurts the brain, and there has been a lot of speculation about why that occurs, but there has been no conclusive evidence until now,” said UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center Director Charles DeCarli.
“This research is the first to provide clear evidence that amylin gets into the brain itself and that it forms plaques that are just like the amyloid beta that has been thought to be the cause of Alzheimer’s disease,” DeCarli said. “In fact, the amylin looks like the amyloid beta protein, and they both interact. That’s why we’re calling it the second amyloid of Alzheimer’s disease.”
"Amylin deposition in the brain: A second amyloid in Alzheimer’s disease?” is published online today in the Annals of Neurology.
Charles DeCarli
Type 2 diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder that increases the risk for cerebrovascular disease and dementia, a risk that develops years before the onset of clinically apparent diabetes. Its incidence is far greater among people who are obese and insulin resistant.
Amylin, or islet amyloid polypeptide, is a hormone produced by the pancreas that circulates in the bloodstream with insulin and plays a critical role in glycemic regulation by slowing gastric emptying, promoting satiety and preventing post-prandial spikes in blood glucose levels. Its deposition in the pancreas is a hallmark of type 2 diabetes.
When over-secreted, some proteins have a higher propensity to stick to one another, forming small aggregates, called oligomers, fibrils and amyloids. These types of proteins are called amyloidogenic and include amylin and Aβ. There are about 28 amyloidogenic proteins, each of which is associated with diseases.
The study was conducted by examining brain tissue from individuals who fell into three groups: those who had both diabetes and dementia from cerebrovascular or Alzheimer’s disease; those with Alzheimer’s disease without diabetes; and age-matched healthy individuals who served as controls.
The research found numerous amylin deposits in the gray matter of the diabetic patients with dementia, as well as in the walls of the blood vessels in their brains, suggesting amylin influx from blood circulation. Surprisingly, the researchers also found amylin in the brain tissue of individuals with Alzheimer’s who had not been diagnosed with diabetes; they postulate that these individuals may have had undiagnosed insulin resistance. They did not find amylin deposits in the brains of the healthy control subjects.
“We found that the amylin deposits in the brains of people with dementia are both independent of and co-located with the Aβ, which is the suspected cause of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Florin Despa, assistant professor-in-residence in the UC Davis Department of Pharmacology. “It is both in the walls of the blood vessels of the brain and also in areas remote from the blood vessels.
“It is accumulating in the brain and we found signs that amylin is killing neurons similar to Aβ,” he continued. “And that might be the answer to the question of ‘What makes obese and type 2 diabetes patients more prone to developing dementia?’”
The researchers undertook the investigation after Despa and his colleagues found that amylin accumulates in the blood vessels and muscle of the heart. From this evidence, he hypothesized that the same thing might be happening in the brain. To test the hypothesis he received a pilot research grant through the Alzheimer’s Disease Center.
Florin Despa
The research was conducted using tissue from the brains of individuals over 65 donated to the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center: 15 patients with Alzheimer’s disease and type 2 diabetes; 14 Alzheimer’s disease patients without diabetes; and 13 healthy controls. A series of tests, including Western blot, immunohistochemistry and ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) were used to test amylin accumulation in specimens from the temporal cortex.
In contrast with the healthy brains, the brain tissue infiltrated with amylin showed increased interstitial spaces, cavities within the tissue, sponginess, and blood vessels bent around amylin accumulation sites.
Despa said that the finding may offer a therapeutic target for drug development, either by increasing the rate of amylin elimination through the kidneys, or by decreasing its rate of oligomerization and deposition in diabetic patients.
"If we’re smart about the treatment of pre-diabetes, a condition that promotes increased amylin secretion, we might be able to reduce the risk of complications, including Alzheimer’s and dementia,” Despa said.
Additional study authors are Kaleena Jackson, Gustavo A. Barisone, Elva Diaz and Lee-Way Jin, all of UC Davis.
The study was funded by National Science Foundation grant CBET 1133339 (F.D.); American Diabetes Association grant 1-13-IN-70 (F.D.); the University of California, Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Pilot Project Program (F.D.); National Institute on Aging award P30AG010129 (C.D.); and a Vision Grant from the University of California, Davis Health System (F.D.).
The UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center is one of only 29 research centers designated by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Aging. The center's goal is to translate research advances into improved diagnosis and treatment for patients while focusing on the long-term goal of finding a way to prevent or cure Alzheimer's disease. Also funded by the state of California, the center allows researchers to study the effects of the disease on a uniquely diverse population. For more information, visit alzheimer.ucdavis.edu.
Voyager 1 Approaches Interstellar Space
June 27, 2013: Three new papers published in today's issue of Science suggest that Voyager 1, now more than 18 billion kilometers from the sun, is closer to becoming the first human-made object to reach interstellar space.
Data
published in today's issue of Science suggest that Voyager 1 is nearing the edge
of the heliosphere. More
"This strange, last region before interstellar space is coming into focus, thanks to Voyager 1, humankind's most distant scout," said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Voyager 1 is the near the edge of the heliosphere, a vast bubble made of the sun's own magnetic field. When Voyager punches through the bubble, it will exit the solar system and enter interstellar space--the realm of the stars.
The papers describe how
Voyager 1's recent entry into a region called "the
magnetic highway" revealed two of three telltale signs of a breakthrough:
charged particles disappearing as they zoom out along the solar magnetic field,
and cosmic rays from far outside zooming in. Scientists have not yet seen the
third sign, an abrupt change in the direction of the magnetic field, which would
indicate the presence of the interstellar magnetic field.
"If you looked at the cosmic ray and energetic particle data in isolation, you might think Voyager had reached interstellar space," says Stone, "but the team feels Voyager 1 has not yet gotten there because we are still within the domain of the sun's magnetic field."
Voyager 1 and its twin spacecraft, Voyager 2, were launched in 1977. They toured Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune before embarking on their interstellar mission in 1990. They now aim to leave the heliosphere. Measuring the size of the heliosphere is part of the Voyagers' mission.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 |
| / Stig |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Voyager 2 is about 9 billion miles (15 billion kilometers) from the sun and still inside the heliosphere. Voyager 1 was about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from the sun Aug. 25 when it reached the magnetic highway, which appears to connect the spacecraft to interstellar space. This region allows charged particles to travel into and out of the heliosphere along a smooth magnetic field line, instead of bouncing around in all directions as if trapped on local roads. Voyager 1 can therefore sample interstellar space before it actually enters the new realm.
Scientists do not know exactly how far Voyager 1 has to go to reach interstellar space. They estimate it could take several more months, or even years, to get there. The arrival could come at any time, so stay tuned.
For more information about
the Voyager spacecraft mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/voyager and http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov .
Credits:
Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
More information:
The Science papers focus on observations made from May to September 2012 by Voyager 1's cosmic ray, low-energy charged particle and magnetometer instruments, with some additional charged particle data obtained through April of this year.
A
gauge on the Voyager home page tracks levels of two of the three key signs
scientists believe will appear when the spacecraft leave our solar neighborhood
and enter interstellar space. Check it out
Upon entering the magnetic highway, "we saw a dramatic and rapid disappearance of the solar-originating particles. They decreased in intensity by more than 1,000 times, as if there was a huge vacuum pump at the entrance ramp onto the magnetic highway," said Stamatios Krimigis, the low-energy charged particle instrument's principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. "We have never witnessed such a decrease before, except when Voyager 1 exited the giant magnetosphere of Jupiter, some 34 years ago."
Other charged particle behavior observed by Voyager 1 also indicates the spacecraft still is in a region of transition to the interstellar medium. While crossing into the new region, the charged particles originating from the heliosphere that decreased most quickly were those shooting straightest along solar magnetic field lines. Particles moving perpendicular to the magnetic field did not decrease as quickly. However, cosmic rays moving along the field lines in the magnetic highway region were somewhat more populous than those moving perpendicular to the field. In interstellar space, the direction of the moving charged particles is not expected to matter.
In the span of about 24 hours, the magnetic field originating from the sun also began piling up, like cars backed up on a freeway exit ramp. But scientists were able to quantify that the magnetic field barely changed direction -- by no more than 2 degrees.
"A day made such a difference in this region with the magnetic field suddenly doubling and becoming extraordinarily smooth," said Leonard Burlaga, the lead author of one of the papers, and based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "But since there was no significant change in the magnetic field direction, we're still observing the field lines originating at the sun."
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., built and operates the Voyager spacecraft. California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA. The Voyager missions are a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Latest Solar Mission Launched on NASA TV
| ||
How about this week?
|
torsdag, juni 27, 2013
Confederations Cup
Semi
Spanien till final. Straffavgörande där Spanien efter de båda lagens tolv av tretton straffar av högsta klass tog hem spelet. Italien förlorade, men på ett högst värdigt sätt.
Final på söndag med start kl 23:45 svensk tid: Världens bästa lag Spanien mot ett lag som en gång i tiden var världens bästa.
Spanien till final. Straffavgörande där Spanien efter de båda lagens tolv av tretton straffar av högsta klass tog hem spelet. Italien förlorade, men på ett högst värdigt sätt.
Final på söndag med start kl 23:45 svensk tid: Världens bästa lag Spanien mot ett lag som en gång i tiden var världens bästa.
Nighttime Image of Texas Cities
One of the Expedition 36 crew members aboard the International Space Station, some 240 miles above Earth, used a 50mm lens to record this oblique nighttime image of a large part of the nation’s second largest state in area, including the four largest metropolitan areas in population. The extent of the metropolitan areas is easily visible at night due to city and highway lights.
The largest metro area, Dallas-Fort Worth, often referred to informally as the Metroplex, is the heavily cloud-covered area at the top center of the photo. Neighboring Oklahoma, on the north side of the Red River, less than 100 miles to the north of the Metroplex, appears to be experiencing thunderstorms. The Houston metropolitan area, including the coastal city of Galveston, is at lower right. To the east near the Texas border with Louisiana, the metropolitan area of Beaumont-Port Arthur appears as a smaller blotch of light, also hugging the coast of the Texas Gulf. Moving inland to the left side of the picture one can delineate the San Antonio metro area. The capital city of Austin can be seen to the northeast of San Antonio.
Image Credit: NASA
The largest metro area, Dallas-Fort Worth, often referred to informally as the Metroplex, is the heavily cloud-covered area at the top center of the photo. Neighboring Oklahoma, on the north side of the Red River, less than 100 miles to the north of the Metroplex, appears to be experiencing thunderstorms. The Houston metropolitan area, including the coastal city of Galveston, is at lower right. To the east near the Texas border with Louisiana, the metropolitan area of Beaumont-Port Arthur appears as a smaller blotch of light, also hugging the coast of the Texas Gulf. Moving inland to the left side of the picture one can delineate the San Antonio metro area. The capital city of Austin can be seen to the northeast of San Antonio.
Image Credit: NASA
Tevez
Manchester City-anfallaren Tevez på en balkong i Turin. Utan att tveka hälsar argentinaren till de jublande supportrarna som samlats på gatan. Vad han hade i händerna? En Juventus-tröja med nummer tio och namnet på ryggen.
Då är det alltså klappat och klart: Carlos Tevez världsanfallaren Juventus så länge suktat efter?
The Remarkable Remains of a Recent Supernova
Astronomers estimate that a star explodes as a supernova in our Galaxy, on average, about twice per century. In 2008, a team of scientists announced they discovered the remains of a supernova that is the most recent, in Earth's time frame, known to have occurred in the Milky Way.
The explosion would have been visible from Earth a little more than a hundred years ago if it had not been heavily obscured by dust and gas. Its likely location is about 28,000 light years from Earth near the center of the Milky Way. A long observation equivalent to more than 11 days of observations of its debris field, now known as the supernova remnant G1.9+0.3, with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is providing new details about this important event.
The source of G1.9+0.3 was most likely a white dwarf star that underwent a thermonuclear detonation and was destroyed after merging with another white dwarf, or pulling material from an orbiting companion star. This is a particular class of supernova explosions (known as Type Ia) that are used as distance indicators in cosmology because they are so consistent in brightness and incredibly luminous.
The explosion ejected stellar debris at high velocities, creating the supernova remnant that is seen today by Chandra and other telescopes. This new image is a composite from Chandra where low-energy X-rays are red, intermediate energies are green and higher-energy ones are blue. Also shown are optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey, with appearing stars in white. The new Chandra data, obtained in 2011, reveal that G1.9+0.3 has several remarkable properties.
The Chandra data show that most of the X-ray emission is "synchrotron radiation," produced by extremely energetic electrons accelerated in the rapidly expanding blast wave of the supernova. This emission gives information about the origin of cosmic rays -- energetic particles that constantly strike the Earth's atmosphere -- but not much information about Type Ia supernovas.
In addition, some of the X-ray emission comes from elements produced in the supernova, providing clues to the nature of the explosion. The long Chandra observation was required to dig out those clues.
Most Type Ia supernova remnants are symmetrical in shape, with debris evenly distributed in all directions. However, G1.9+0.3 exhibits an extremely asymmetric pattern. The strongest X-ray emission from elements like silicon, sulfur, and iron is found in the northern part of the remnant, giving an extremely asymmetric pattern.
Another exceptional feature of this remnant is that iron, which is expected to form deep in the doomed star's interior and move relatively slowly, is found far from the center and is moving at extremely high speeds of over 3.8 million miles per hour. The iron is mixed with lighter elements expected to form further out in the star.
Because of the uneven distribution of the remnant's debris and their extreme velocities, the researchers conclude that the original supernova explosion also had very unusual properties. That is, the explosion itself must have been highly non-uniform and unusually energetic.
By comparing the properties of the remnant with theoretical models, the researchers found hints about the explosion mechanism. Their favorite concept for what happened in G1.9+0.3 is a "delayed detonation," where the explosion occurs in two different phases. First, nuclear reactions occur in a slowly expanding wavefront, producing iron and similar elements. The energy from these reactions causes the star to expand, changing its density and allowing a much faster-moving detonation front of nuclear reactions to occur.
If the explosion were highly asymmetric, then there should be large variations in expansion rate in different parts of the remnant. These should be measurable with future observations with X-rays using Chandra and radio waves with the NSF's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array.
Observations of G1.9+0.3 allow astronomers a special, close-up view of a young supernova remnant and its rapidly changing debris. Many of these changes are driven by the radioactive decay of elements ejected in the explosion. For example, a large amount of antimatter should have formed after the explosion by radioactive decay of cobalt. Based on the estimated mass of iron, which is formed by radioactive decay of nickel to cobalt to iron, over a hundred million trillion (i.e. ten raised to the power of twenty) pounds of positrons, the antimatter counterpart to electrons, should have formed. However, nearly all of these positrons should have combined with electrons and been destroyed, so no direct observational signature of this antimatter should remain.
A paper describing these results is available online and will be published in the July 1, 2013 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The first author is Kazimierz Borkowski of North Carolina State University (NCSU), in Raleigh, NC and his co-authors are Stephen Reynolds, also of NCSU; Una Hwang from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, MD; David Green from Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, UK; Robert Petre, also from GSFC; Kalyani Krishnamurthy from Duke University in Durham, NC and Rebecca Willett, also from Duke University. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.
Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/NCSU/K. Borkowski et al.; Optical: DSS
--> › Read more/access all images
--> › Chandra's Flickr photoset
Confederations Cup
Idag
Spanien-Italien. Semifinal.
Från Castelão Fortaleza i Brasilien.
SVT kl. 20.45
Årets match om inte finalen blir det
Federer loses at Wimbledon
Seven-time champion Roger Federer loses to 116th-ranked Sergiy Stakhovski in the second round at Wimbledon.
 |
| This Week at NEJM.org | June 27, 2013 |
perspective 
June 26, 2013 | D. Orentlicher
(DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1304513)
(DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1304513)
perspective
June 26, 2013 | R. Bayer, D. Johns, and J. Colgrove
(DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1306205)
(DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1306205)
