A newly discovered cluster of galaxies, more than 5 billion light years from Earth…is among the most massive clusters of galaxies in the universe, and produces X-rays at a rate faster than any other known cluster.
It also creates new stars at an “unmatched” pace of more than 700 per year, said Michael McDonald. “This extreme rate of star formation was unexpected,” he said during a NASA news conference Wednesday, noting that the Milky Way forms just one or two stars a year.
In addition to being massive, unique, and the biggest star-nursery in the universe, this area, called Phoenix, also helps theorists with something, the galactic cooling problem.
Phoenix Cluster: a combination of the X-ray, Optical, and Ultraviolet images, left; artists concept of the central galaxy, right. (photo: NASA)
For years scientists have been coming up with explanations for how stars are formed. The earliest being a mass of molecules would collapse in on themselves as fusion begins. The mass would then accumulate until its gravity becomes strong enough to spin, turn into a sphere, and pull on everything around it, collecting planets, asteroids, and other debris into its solar system.
But, this doesn’t take into account thermodynamics, specifically why doesn’t the star expand as it heats up. Indeed, several half-stars were observed in the universe stuck in this state of expansion unable to contract into the ultra-compact ball of a star.
That’s where a new theory comes in, the galactic “cooling flow”.
**There appears to be no name for the theory, all references are to a general theory theory of star formation.
This says the creation of stars is a lot like an explosion, with an initial burst of heat which then dissipates bringing cool air back into the explosion zone. In this case, thermonuclear fusion ignites much of the galaxy and begins sucking into the center lots of mass, including the surrounding galaxies.
As the (star) forms, this plasma initially heats up due to the gravitational energy released from the infall of smaller galaxies.
As the gas cools, it should condense and sink inward, a process known as a “cooling flow.” In the cluster’s center, this cooling flow can lead to very dense cores of gas, termed “cool cores,” which should fuel bursts of star formation in all clusters that go through this process. Most of these predictions had been confirmed with observations – the X-ray glow, the lower temperatures at the cluster centers – but starbursts accompanying this cooling remain rare. – TG Daily
A step forward in our knowledge of star formation, but something tells me we are not there yet.
No, masers are not just a word that we came up with just now. They’ve actually been around since the 1950s, before lasers were invented. The problem is that they’ve always been impractical–that is, until the team of researchers came up with a device that could let masers over take lasers in the coolness race.
They have yet to determine what the maser can do, but like the laser the discoveries only happen when you shoot stuff.
The expectation is that the more precise maser can shoot through clouds (lasers can’t), detect extra-terrestrials, and turn into a surgical tool that can exactly attack a tumor.
The maser is the microwave-frequency precursor of the now ubiquitous laser. But it has had little technological impact compared with the laser, in large part because of inconvenience: masers typically require vacuum and/or low-temperature operating conditions.
“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
When it became law on June 23, 1972, Title IX changed the landscape of collegiate athletics.
Its impact over the last 40 years has been profound from coast-to-coast.
My alma mater, UCLA, is writing about the 40 greatest women athletes since Title IX, and the list is quite impressive.
Among the athletes are Florence Griffith-Joyner (Flo-Jo), who according to Wikipedia is “considered the “fastest woman of all time” based on the fact that she still holds the world record for both the 100 metres and 200 metres, both set in 1988 and never seriously challenged.”
Jackie Joyner-Kersee (JJK), from Wikipedia, “ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the women’s heptathlon as well as in the women’s long jump. Sports Illustrated for Women magazine voted Joyner-Kersee the Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th century.”
At the company’s big three papers — the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, and Boston Globe — print and digital ad dollars dipped 6.6 percent to $220 million, while circulation revenue was up 8.3 percent to $233 million. The historical rebalancing may indicate a sea change in an industry that has long relied on advertising to stay afloat.
An interesting fact all by itself. Sending my mind along multiple future paths for the newspaper. Will readership shrink as it goes from free to paid? Can it still be the paper of record if it’s behind a paywall? Are they just forcing freeloading readers to go elsewhere?
It did send me to the Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, and, ironically, to social media for alternate news sources.
Though, I do have a bone to pick with one of the closing statements in the article, “…no longer depend on ad revenue, but must rely more than ever on the whims of the customer.”
I would have thought being free of advertisers to be a positive move. Is this a ‘thing’ in the newspaper industry that readers are so whimsical?
And, why does the New York media always have to insult its readers?
Here is the perfect Pinterest account to follow, The Los Angeles Times. The paid photographers of newspapers and magazines are the ideal users of Pinterest. After all, they are trained professionals in the art of awesome photography.
While most of us are creating boards called “Things I like” and “My Style” they are doing things like “Cityscapes at Dusk” and “Photos of Celebrities at the Oscars”. Getting to places we often can’t get to and going to places we are too busy (or lazy) to go to.
At least, that’s my thought on the subject, and my argument for print publications to rock Pinterest. They can only make the site better.
Because, I mean, haven’t you fallen in love with Pinterest?
A set of podcasts is the 21st-century equivalent of a textbook, not the 21st-century equivalent of a teacher. Every age has its autodidacts, gifted people able to teach themselves with only their books. Woe unto us if we require all citizens to manifest that ability.
Brilliantly put.
Educators are coaches, personal trainers in intellectual fitness. The value we add to the media extravaganza is like the value the trainer adds to the gym or the coach adds to the equipment.
Just as coaching requires individual attention, education, at its core, requires one mind engaging with another, in real time: listening, understanding, correcting, modeling, suggesting, prodding, denying, affirming, and critiquing thoughts and their expression.
A fascinating piece of curation from Brain Pickings. Ten centuries of anatomy drawings covering everything from Civil War wounds to anti-tuberculosis flyers from China.
For the past 175 years, the The National Library of Medicine in Bethesda has been building the world’s largest collection of biomedical images, artifacts, and ephemera. With more than 17 million items spanning ten centuries, it’s a treasure trove of rare, obscure, extravagant wonders, most of which remain unseen by the public and unknown even to historians, librarians, and curators. Until now.
I really enjoyed the Olympics, particularly seeing Oscar Pistorius compete in his carbon fibre Cheetah foot. Now, I’m looking forward to seeing some of the more exciting Paralympic events:
Following his historic appearance at the Olympic Games – where he was the first male athlete with a disability to compete at the able-bodied Games – South African Pistorius will be keen to assert his dominance on the Paralympic stage once more.
He will be participating in his third Paralympic Games and will hope to repeat his success at Beijing 2008, where he won gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 400m events in the T44 category. – London 2012 Paralympics
