Astrophile: an alien sunrise just like Earth's

Astrophile is our weekly column on curious cosmic objects, from the solar system to the far reaches of the multiverse


Object: the star HIP 56948
Size: same as the sun
Temperature: same as the sun
Composition: same as the sun
Planets: same as the sun?

On an alien world remarkably like Earth, a sun rises. Its tiny disk scours the landscape with harsh, blue-tinted light... wait a minute, that's not right. On an alien world remarkably like Earth, a sun rises. Its vast face floods the landscape with an eerie blood red glow. No no ? this is still no place like home.

In the search for other Earths, the main goal is to find a planet the same size as ours that sits in the habitable zone ? the region around a given star where planetary surface temperature would be similar to ours, allowing liquid water to exist. Almost all stars have such a zone. Around a hot bright star it is further out than Earth's own orbit; with a dim star it is further in.

But while an Earth-sized world in one of these habitable zones might have seas and rivers, it would look quite different bathed in blue-white or red light. That could affect the development of life. To exploit the available light, plant leaves could be yellow, orange or red, according to research in 2007 by the Virtual Planetary Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.

So some planet searches concentrate on stars that are roughly the same size, brightness and colour as our sun. But even these stars tend to have different chemical compositions, suggesting that their planetary systems may be different too.

Perhaps the best place to look for another Earth would be in orbit around another sun.

Step up, HIP 56948. Around 200 light years away, this star took the title of most eerily similar solar twin in 2007, deposing the previous lookalike champion, 18 Scorpii. New observations show that HIP 56948 is even more of a doppelganger than previously thought, and improve the odds of Earth-like habitats.

The latest precise observations can detect no difference in size, mass and brightness between HIP 56948 and the sun, and it is only about 17?C warmer (while 18 Scorpii is 54?C warmer).

Better still, while 18 Scorpii has appreciably more iron in its atmosphere, the composition of HIP 56948 is almost identical to the sun's.

That is promising. The Sun is depleted in some heavy elements compared with most other stars its size. One theory is that those heavy elements have been locked up in rocky planets instead of mixed up in the star.

If so, the authors calculate, HIP 56948's planetary system should have the same amount of Earth-like material as ours. "It is a hint that what is missing is material that could form other Earths," says team leader Jorge Melendez at the University of Sao Paolo in Brazil.

Because the chemistry is so similar, such planets are more likely to have similar minerals and rocks to Earth and the other terrestrial planets of the solar system.

The team have also found that this system has no giant inner planets that would destabilise an Earth-like world.

So perhaps when the sun rises on a planet orbiting HIP 56948, it casts a familiar, warming yellowish-while light ? a light that falls on blue seas, green leaves and granite mountains.

The light would even be familiar to Earthly artists, although this world perhaps has not had time to evolve its Raphaels and Turners. HIP 56948's only distinct feature is that it's about a billion years younger than the sun. If evolution is running along the same path, the authors say, "complex life may be just developing ... in any hypothetical Earth that this star may host".

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The 7 Most Badass Photos CENTCOM Has Pinned on Pinterest [Image Cache]

Many have assumed that Pinterest merely serves as an online stomping ground for wedding planning. As the U.S. Central Command's presence on the social network shows, that assumption is patently false. In fact, Pinterest is more than just Tumblr for ladiez, it's Tumblr for WAR DOGS. More »


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A Very Powerful Weapon In Business Is Self Improvement | welcome ...

One of the constants of life in business is dealing with problems. Typically problems like this will arise which must be handled immediately before they go too far. Personal issues, which should be dealt with very quickly, are usually the ones that show up. Attaining what you want in life may often require handling your personal concerns before success will come your way. In order to succeed, you need to realize that there is a connection between your job performance and how you feel. Strangely, the two of these are very closely related. To improve your business situation, and to not allow personal challenges to be detrimental to your goals, set a specific plan of action that includes personal and business improvement goals.

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You are not quite finished learning about lawn mower reviews and all that it means in your life. More than anything else, analyze what all the main points are in terms of applicability. We do make the effort to help you as much as possible since this is all about you. There is no doubt that you need to view this from as many sides as you can. If you are really pressed for time, then choose quality information over quantity, always. We all have the same amount of time each day, but we think what normally occurs is people learn to focus. As always, take care of your self or perhaps someone else if you are helping them with this research. One place that is a clear example of where business can become ruthless is in the arena of pay per click advertising. You can also find the same level of competition for organic searches as people try to gain the top search position. In the online world, this is very common and something that you simply need to deal with as you try to succeed. If you want to succeed, you are going to have to just enter the arena and do your best, take some punches, and come out fighting. By moving forward, with your head down ready to fight, you will persevere as these obstacles come your way. Success can only be achieved if you keep moving forward, otherwise, you will fail.

Whatever is in your mind you should not be afraid to face it as it may be causing worse problems. Self improvement, if you put your mind to it, can be an effective and powerful tool.

The scope of what people experience with camping tent reviews and in terms of numbers of people is pretty impressive. It is completely normal for all of us to just go along with life until problems begin to arise, and then we take notice.

Probably the best defense against such situation is paying attention to your thoughts and keeping your eyes wide open. We all know the saying about an ounce of prevention, but still that holds true in very many situations. Even when there are just a few hints about a potential situation, it can be easy to overlook it and others simply ignore it. I am sure that way before reading this you intuitively knew that the smartest course of action is taking in the right information so you can act on it.

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Spam Rank: The Google-Backed Research Fighting Fake Reviews [Spam]

Fake online reviews are a pain in the ass: they make interent shopping harder than it already is. But thankfully there are people out there who are developing ways of spotting and blocking rogue five-star reviews, and a new algorithm backed by Google seems to be the most effective yet. More »


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Groupon Acquires Social Recommendation App Ditto.me

Screen shot 2012-04-16 at 6.24.10 PMIt's a big day for M&A. The latest of today's deal announcements is the news that Groupon has acquired Ditto.me, the mobile app for discovering and planning new places to go with friends. Ditto announced its sale in an entry on its company blog. Ditto's service will eventually be shut down as part of the integration into Groupon, the company said. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Ditto was founded by Jyri Engestrom, who was previously known as the co-founder of Jaiku, the microblogging site that was Europe's early answer to Twitter and was acquired by Google in 2007. Engestrom left the big G in 2009 to re-enter the entrepreneurial space, and the official launch of Ditto followed in March 2011.

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Agents in prostitution scandal had president's schedule in rooms

New details about the Secret Service personnel alleged to have brought prostitutes to their hotel rooms have emerged, including reports that two of the 11 were supervisors. NBC's Kristen Welker reports.

By Isolde Raftery, msnbc.com

The Secret Service agents who brought prostitutes back to their hotel rooms in Colombia last week had copies of the president?s schedule in their rooms, which raises the issue of a potential security breach, officials told Reuters.

Secret Service personnel were in Cartagena in advance of President Barack Obama?s arrival at the Summit of the Americas, a trade conference, over the weekend. At least 11 were placed on administrative leave and flown back to the United States on Saturday when it came to light that they had hired prostitutes. Their security clearances have since been pulled, NBC News has learned.

The story might have been kept a secret had it not been for a disgruntled woman who claimed she had not been paid by one of the agents. She argued with two Secret Service agents and then went to Colombian police. Local police reported the matter to the U.S. Embassy, Reuters reported.


It has also been revealed that among the Secret Service personnel involved were full-fledged agents, which further ratchets up the seriousness of the incident, officials told NBC News.

The heavily armed agents play a key role in protecting the president, and their job is to neutralize attacks, according to the agency?s website.

It was initially reported that five military service members were also involved, but that they may have only broken curfew. Now officials say that more were involved and that they did more than just return to their hotel rooms too late ?- several also paid for prostitutes.

The military service members involved were explosives experts and dog handlers from the Navy, Army and Marine Corps. The military advance team also included linguists and drivers, but they have not been implicated in the Wednesday night incident.

Members of elite unit among those suspended

At a press conference Sunday,?Obama said he would be angry if the allegations turned out to be true.

?When we travel, we have to observe the highest standards,??he said. ?We?re not just representing ourselves. We?re here on behalf of our people.?

The Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the Secret Service, is weighing whether to launch an investigation into the prostitution allegations.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said they were embarrassed by the allegations.

?What we do know is that several of our members distracted the issue from what was a very important regional engagement for our president,? Dempsey said. ?We let the boss down because nobody is talking about what went on in Colombia other than this incident, so to that extent we let him down.?

But Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.,?defended agents in the service, calling them outstanding. He received Secret Service protection in 2008 when he was running for president.

?I am confident that the overwhelming majority of Secret Service people did not engage in this kind of behavior,? McCain said.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

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bizmatcenter.org ? Health And Fitness

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$35 Raspberry Pi computers have started shipping ? Computer ...

The Raspberry Pi is a remarkable little device. This $35 ARM-based system is the size of a credit card, and is capable of running real Linux environment plus doing things like decoding HD video. Designed by a British non-profit, the initial pre-sale of 10,000 units sold out in a matter of minutes when they went on sale in February. Those units have made their way to suppliers, and are now ready to ship this week (and in some cases have shipped) to excited buyers, after seeing numerous delays.

The main board for the Raspberry Pi fits in the hand, and comes equipped with a 700MHz ARM SoC, HDMI-out, two USB ports, an SD card slot, Ethernet, and 256MB of RAM. Clearly you?re not going to run Crysis on this device, but it is a complete package that could encourage people all over the world, and especially in developing countries, to get interested in computer science. The RasPi will also have the juice to run a game like Quake III or output 1080p video over HDMI.

Raspberry Pi

If this sounds right up your alley, don?t worry too much. New batches of the Raspberry Pi are slated for production soon. One of the suppliers, RS Components, is taking contact information from interested nerds to get in on the next pre-order. The price was originally intended to be $25, but the current $35 price should stay in place for future waves. There is still a $25 version of the Raspberry Pi, but that?s not currently for sale has features a few differences from the more expensive Model B.

The Raspberry Pi has already garnered huge attention in the modding community with expansion kits and printable cases on the horizon. if you?re not among the lucky few to have access to this device, the video above will have to suffice for now.

via Cnet

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IRL: oStylus Dot, Sansa Clip and SanDisk's Extreme Pro 128GB CompactFlash Card

Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment.

Image
This week's IRL is a quirky mix of vintage and modern, with Billy getting comfy with a new iPad stylus and Jason clinging to the Sansa Clip+ player he's owned since 2009. Rounding things out, Darren's decided to put all his digital media in one proverbial basket: a 128GB CompactFlash card.

Continue reading IRL: oStylus Dot, Sansa Clip+ and SanDisk's Extreme Pro 128GB CompactFlash Card

IRL: oStylus Dot, Sansa Clip+ and SanDisk's Extreme Pro 128GB CompactFlash Card originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Autism research may be about to bear fruit

In this undated photo provided by the UC Davis Health System, Irva Hertz-Picciotto is shown. Irva Hertz-Picciotto, a researcher at the University of California, Davis, is leading a study into what sparks autism disorders. More than $1 billion has been spent over the past decade searching for autism?s causes. (AP Photo/UC Davis Health System)

In this undated photo provided by the UC Davis Health System, Irva Hertz-Picciotto is shown. Irva Hertz-Picciotto, a researcher at the University of California, Davis, is leading a study into what sparks autism disorders. More than $1 billion has been spent over the past decade searching for autism?s causes. (AP Photo/UC Davis Health System)

Chart looks at sources of autism research funding.

(AP) ? More than $1 billion has been spent over the past decade researching autism. In some ways, the search for its causes looks like a long-running fishing expedition, with a focus on everything from genetics to the age of the father, the weight of the mother, and how close a child lives to a freeway.

That perception may soon change. Some in the field say they are seeing the beginning of a wave of scientific reports that should strengthen some theories, jettison others and perhaps even herald new drugs.

"I do think over the next three to five years we'll be able to paint a much clearer picture of how genes and environmental factors combine" to cause autism, said Geraldine Dawson, a psychologist who is chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks.

The effort has been infused with new urgency by a recent federal report that found autism disorders are far more common than was previously understood, affecting 1 in 88 U.S. children. Better diagnosis is largely responsible for the new estimate, but health officials said there may actually be more cases of autism, too.

If autism's causes remain a mystery, "you're not going to be able to stop this increase," said Irva Hertz-Picciotto, a researcher at the University of California, Davis who is leading a closely watched study into what sparks autism disorders.

In the past week, a spate of studies released during National Autism Awareness Month has offered tantalizing new information about potential causes. Research published in the journal Nature widened the understanding of the genetic roots of some cases and confirmed the elevated risks for children with older fathers. Another study, released online Monday in Pediatrics, suggested maternal obesity may play a role.

To be sure, finding the causes of autism ? an umbrella term for a variety of disorders that delay children socially or intellectually ? remains daunting. The causes are believed to be complicated, and not necessarily the same for each child. Some liken autism to cancer ? a small word for a wide range of illnesses. In many cases, autism can be blamed on both genetic problems that load the gun and other factors that pull the trigger.

It has been a growing public concern for two decades, as studies have found it to be more and more prevalent. The U.S. government dramatically increased funding for autism research in the last decade, and now budgets about $170 million a year through the National Institutes of Health. That's only about a quarter of what NIH will spend on breast cancer research and $50 million less than what it will spend on asthma.

But more than a half-dozen foundations and autism advocacy groups have been adding to the pot, putting annual research spending in recent years at more than $300 million. About a third of that has been devoted to finding autism's causes.

The lion's share of money for finding a cause has been spent on genetics, which so far experts believe can account for roughly 20 percent of cases. The earliest success was in the early 1990s and involved the discovery of the genetic underpinnings of Fragile X syndrome, a rare condition that accounts for just 2 to 4 percent of autism cases but is the most common form of inherited intellectual disability in boys.

The focus on genetics has been bolstered by dramatic improvements in gene mapping as well as the bioengineering of mice with autism symptoms. Dozens of risk genes have been identified, and a half-dozen drug companies are said to be working on developing new treatments.

"We've made some very significant progress on the genetics end of this search," said Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health.

Scientists have used autistic mice to test new drugs. Among the most promising is a small, white, strawberry-flavored pill that is so experimental it doesn't have a name. Developed by a Massachusetts company called Seaside Therapeutics Inc., the drug is aimed at a problem area in the brains of autistic children, where neurons connect and conduct signals through the nervous system.

It's a bit like the way tree-hopping ants might cross the twig ends of one tree branch to another. In Fragile X syndrome, scientists have noted the branches are thinner and the twigs too numerous. The experimental drug thins the twigs and strengthens the branches, allowing a more solid and centralized bridge.

The same problem hasn't been as visible in other types of autism, but many believe the phenomenon is somewhat similar.

The drug was deemed successful in mice and is now being tested in children and adults. In small, early studies, the drug made a striking difference in small groups of Fragile X children, causing hermit-like youngsters to start hanging out in the kitchen to chat with their mothers, said Dr. Paul Wang, Seaside's vice president of clinical development.

Now it is being tried in a preliminary study of about 150 children with a range of other autism disorders, including Asperger's. The results are expected to be presented at a scientific conference in the next year.

"It's going to be an exciting time, we hope," when those results come in, said Dawson, from Autism Speaks.

But even genetics enthusiasts acknowledge that genes are only part of the answer. Studies of identical twins have shown that autism can occur in one and not the other, meaning something outside a child's DNA is triggering the disorder in many cases. Some cases may be entirely due to other causes, Dawson said.

That broad "other" category means "environmental" influences ? not necessarily chemicals, but a grab bag of outside factors that include things like the age of the father at conception and illnesses and medications the mother had while pregnant.

For years, the best-known environmental theory involved childhood vaccines, prompted by a flawed 1998 British study that has been thoroughly discredited. Dozens of later studies have found no link between vaccines and autism.

But there are other possible candidates. In all cases, these are "association" studies ? they don't prove cause and effect. They merely find connections between certain factors and autism. And sometimes these conclusions can be skewed by other things researchers failed to account for. Some study results expected within a year:

? Hertz-Picciotto's study of 1,600 children in Northern California is comparing autistic children, youngsters with other developmental disabilities, and those who have no such diagnoses. Some results have been released already, including the recent finding that suggests a link between autism and a mother's obesity. An earlier part of the study found that children born to mothers living less than two blocks from a freeway were twice as likely to have autism ? presumably because of auto exhaust and air pollution, the researchers speculated.

?A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study involves 2,700 families nationwide. The researchers are interviewing parents and poring over medical records to look for common threads among autistic families, as well as doing genetics tests and checking hair samples for mercury. Much of the focus is on illnesses, medications, nutritional deficiencies or other problems during pregnancy.

?A study by Pennsylvania researchers involves 1,700 families in various regions of the country. Scientists are doing brain-imaging to look for changes over time in the brains of infants who have an older autistic sibling.

?A large Scandinavian study is examining patient registries in six countries for prenatal risk factors.

As study findings are reported, researchers are hoping to see repetition ? confirmation, that is ? that certain factors are playing significant roles.

Even so, scientists are still casting nets.

Said Coleen Boyle, a CDC official overseeing research into children's developmental disabilities: "We're at the infancy of just understanding how these factors relate to autism."

___

Online:

CDC study under way: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/seed.html

Northern California study: http://beincharge.ucdavis.edu

Pennsylvania researchers' study: http://www.earlistudy.org

Associated Press

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