Twin NASA spacecraft deliberately crash into moon

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Associated Press/NASA - This graphic provide by NASA shows the projected paths into the moon by spacecraft Ebb and Flow. The twin craft on Monday, Dec. 17, 2012, is expected to slam into a lunar mountain near …more the north pole after nearly a year in orbit. (AP Photo/NASA) less

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — A pair of NASA spacecraft tumbled out of orbit around the moon and crashed back-to-back into the surface on Monday, ending a mission that peered into the lunar interior.

Engineers commanded the twin spacecraft, Ebb and Flow, to fire their engines and burn their remaining fuel. Ebb plunged first, slamming into a mountain near the moon's north pole. Its twin, Flow, followed about a half minute later and aimed for the same target.

By design, the final resting place was far away from the Apollo landing sites and other historical spots on the moon.

After the double impacts, mission chief scientist Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said the spot has been named after team member Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, who died earlier this year.

"It's really cool to know that when you look up now at the moon there's this little corner of the moon that's named after Sally," said Ride's sister, Rev. Bear Ride, adding that she hoped schoolchildren will be inspired.

Since the crash site was in darkness, the final act was not visible from Earth. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter circling the moon will pass over the mountain and attempt to photograph the skid marks left by the washing machine sized-spacecraft as they hit the surface at 3,800 mph.

After rocketing off the launch pad in September 2011, Ebb and Flow took a roundabout journey to the moon, arriving over the New Year's holiday on a gravity-mapping mission.

More than 100 missions have been flung to Earth's nearest neighbor since the dawn of the Space Age including NASA's six Apollo moon landings that put 12 astronauts on the surface.

The demise of Ebb and Flow comes on the same month as the 40th launch anniversary of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon.

Ebb and Flow focused exclusively on measuring the moon's lumpy gravity field in a bid to learn more about its interior and early history. After flying in formation for months, they produced the most detailed gravity maps of any body in the solar system.

Secrets long held by the moon are spilling out. Ebb and Flow discovered that the lunar crust is much thinner than scientists had imagined. And it was severely battered by asteroids and comets in the early years of the solar system — more than previously realized.

Data so far also appeared to quash the theory that Earth once had two moons that collided and melded into the one we see today.

Besides a scientific return, the mission allowed students to take their own pictures of craters and other lunar features as part of collaboration with a science education company founded by Ride, who died in July of pancreatic cancer at age 61.

Scientists expect to sift through data from the $487 million mission for years.

Obtaining precise gravity calculations required the twins to circle low over the moon, which consumes a lot of fuel. During the primary mission, they flew about 35 miles above the lunar surface. After getting bonus data-collecting time, they lowered their altitude to 14 miles above the surface.

With their fuel tanks almost on empty, NASA devised a controlled crash to avoid contacting any of the treasured sites on the moon. Mission control at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory applauded when controllers lost signal from the spacecraft.

The last time the space agency intentionally fired manmade objects at the moon was in 2009, but it was for the sake of science. The crash was a public relations dud — spectators barely saw a faint flash — but the experiment proved that the moon contained water.

By ALICIA CHANG | Associated Press

Twin NASA spacecraft deliberately crash into moon

Voyager 1 probe leaving solar system reaches "magnetic highway" exit

• Enlarge Gallery This artists rendering provided by NASA shows the Voyager spacecraft. Thirty-five years after leaving Earth, Voyager 1 is reaching for the stars. Sooner or later, the workhorse spacecraft will bid adieu to …

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - NASA's long-lived Voyager 1 spacecraft, which is heading out of the solar system, has reached a "magnetic highway" leading to interstellar space, scientists said on Monday.

 

The probe, launched 35 years ago to study the outer planets, is now about 11 billion miles (18 billion km) from Earth. At that distance, it takes radio signals traveling at the speed of light 17 hours to reach Earth. Light moves at 186,000 miles per second).

Voyager 1 will be the first manmade object to leave the solar system.

Scientists believe Voyager 1 is in an area where the magnetic field lines from the sun are connecting with magnetic field lines from interstellar space. The phenomenon is causing highly energetic particles from distant supernova explosions and other cosmic events to zoom inside the solar system, while less-energetic solar particles exit.

"It's like a highway, letting particles in and out," lead Voyager scientist Ed Stone told reporters at an American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco.

Scientists don't know how long it will take for the probe to cross the so-called "magnetic highway," but they believe it is the last layer of a complex boundary between the region of space under the sun's influence and interstellar space.

"Our best guess is it's likely just a few months to a couple years away," Stone said.
Voyager 1 hit the outer sphere of the solar system, a region called the heliosphere, in 2004 and passed into the heliosheath, where the supersonic stream of particles from the sun - the so-called "solar wind" - slowed down and became turbulent.

That phase of the journey lasted for 5.5 years. Then the solar wind stopped moving and the magnetic field strengthened.

Based on an instrument that measures charged particles, Voyager entered the magnetic highway on July 28, 2012. The region was in flux for about a month and stabilized on August 25.
Each time Voyager re-entered the highway, the magnetic field strengthened, but its direction remained unchanged. Scientists believe the direction of the magnetic field lines will shift when the probe finally enters interstellar space.

Other clues that Voyager has reached interstellar space could be the detection of low-energy cosmic rays and a dramatic tapering of the number of solar particles, Stone said.

Voyager 1 and a sister spacecraft, Voyager 2, were launched 16 days apart in 1977 for the first flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Voyager 2, traveling on a different path out of the solar system, has experienced similar, though more gradual changes in its environment than Voyager 1. Scientists do not believe Voyager 2, which is about 9 billion miles (14.5 billion km) from Earth, has reached the magnetic highway.
(Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

By Irene Klotz | Reuters

Voyager 1 probe leaving solar system reaches "magnetic highway" exit

China To Build Tallest Skyscraper In 90 Days

A company in China is preparing to build the world's tallest skyscraper in just 90 days.

From the foundations upwards, the whole construction will be erected within three months at a rate of five floors a day.

Work will start at the end of this month and it should all be finished by the end of February.

It is a challenge only China could attempt to take on and it will be built in a city most people will have never heard of - Changsha in Hunan Province.

The building will be called Sky City and its statistics are quite remarkable. It will be 838 metres high, with 220 floors and a construction area of one million square metres.

To achieve that, 200,000 tons of steel will be used.

There will be space for 31,000 people inside, who will be able to move up and down with the help of 104 high speed lifts.

Some 83% of the building will be for residential use, with room for 17,400 people.

It will also contain a hotel with a capacity for 1,000.

There will be schools educating up to 4,600 children and a hospital which will treat 1,400 patients.

Only 3% of the building will be for office use. Any remaining space will be shops and restaurants.

The building will be just a few metres taller than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai but will be constructed at a fraction of the cost.

The company behind it, Broad Sustainable Building (BSB), specialises in prefabricated modular technology which allows them to cut costs significantly.

The Burj in Dubai cost £9,500 per square metre, whereas Sky City will cost just £950 per square metre.

Some of the same team who built the Burj will work on this new project.

It is not the first seemingly impossible, fast construction project by the company. In January, they built a 30-story hotel in just 15 days and it is still standing.

Any concerns that the speed of construction will seriously jeopardise the safety of Sky City have been refuted by the company.

BSB claim that the building will be state-of-the-art in every respect. It will be resistant to fire for up to 15 minutes and will, they claim, even be able to withstand magnitude nine earthquakes.

By Mark Stone, China Correspondent | Sky News

China To Build Tallest Skyscraper In 90 Days

First map produced of universe 11 billion years ago

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Reuters/Reuters - An illustration showing how SDSS-III was able to measure the distant universe. Light rays from distant quasars (dots at left) are partially absorbed as they pass through clouds of intergalactic …more hydrogen gas (centrE). CREDIT: Zosia Rostomian, LBNL; Nic Ross, BOSS Lyman-alpha team, LBNL; and Springel et al, Virgo Consortium and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics less

Related Content

• Enlarge PhotoA graph showing how the universe’s …
 

 

LONDON (Reuters) - An international team of astronomers has produced the first map of the universe as it was 11 billion years ago, filling a gap between the Big Bang and the rapid expansion that followed.

 

The study, published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, shows the universe went through a phase roughly three billion years after the Big Bang when expansion actually started to slow, before the force of so-called 'dark energy' kicked in and sent galaxies accelerating away from each other.

Much is known about the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang from studies of its afterglow in the cosmic background radiation, and its accelerating expansion over several billion years can be seen with a look at the way distant galaxies are moving.

"Only now are we finally seeing its adolescence... just before it underwent a growth spurt," said Mat Pieri at the University of Portsmouth in Britain, one of the authors of the study.

Little is known about dark energy, and its counterpart dark matter, but astronomers argue the force must exist to account for the speed at which the universe is expanding. Together, dark energy and dark matter are believed to make up about 96 percent of the universe.

The new study supports the theory that dark energy was somehow created as the universe expanded, by detailing a period when gravity was winning the tussle and slowing the expansion.

"If we think of the universe as a roller coaster, then today we are rushing downhill, gaining speed as we go," said Pieri. "Our new measurement tells us about the time when the universe was climbing the hill - still being slowed by gravity."

The map, the work of 63 scientists from nine countries, was compiled using a novel technique for studying the intense light from 50,000 distant quasars as it passes through clouds of hydrogen in space on its way to Earth.

They produce a picture of the ancient universe in same way thousands of flashlight beams would light up a bank of fog.

"The quasars are back-lights," Pieri told Reuters, and the way the gas in front of them absorbs some of the light allows astronomers to get a detailed picture of these distant clouds of gas known as the intergalactic medium.

The study is the first fruit from a five-year project started in 2009. The team, from the third Sloan Digital Sky Survey, expect to expand the survey with light from about 160,000 quasars by the end of the project.

"We're essentially measuring the shadows cast by gas along a series of lines, each billions of light-years long," said Will Percival, a cosmology professor the University of Portsmouth.

"The tricky part is combining all those one-dimensional maps. The problem is like trying to recognize an object from a picture that's been painted on the quills of a porcupine," he said.

(Editing by Michael Roddy)

By Chris Wickham | Reuters

First map produced of universe 11 billion years ago

Good Night, Exoplanet: Baby Name Book to Raise Science Funds

When new planets are discovered beyond the solar system, they often get boring designations such as HD 85512b or Gliese 667Cc. A startup hoping to liven up these names has launched a project to create a Baby Planet Name Book full of more colorful suggestions.

The planet name project is the first official product from Uwingu, a new company that aims to raise money for space research, exploration and education.

Now, for 99 cents apiece, you can nominate any name you like to join the new planet name registry, and you can also vote for your favorites among the current list.

"The many, many planets discovered across the galaxy in past 20 years are a tribute to our natural human desire to explore beyond the horizon," planet-hunting astronomer Geoff Marcy of the University of California at Berkeley said in a statement. "Now people all over the world can participate in these discoveries in a new way, giving identities and even personality to billions of planets in our galaxy for the first time."

To be clear, Uwingu officials say the names won't be official, and won't be attached to particular planets — yet. The only body authorized to officially name celestial objects is the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which hasn't so far expressed an interest in changing the status quo of planet naming.

But Uwingu hopes astronomers might use the names from the project to refer to the new planets they keep finding, at least informally. The current tally of confirmed planets is almost 800 and growing, so that's a lot of worlds that need good names.

"This is a whole new way for the people of Earth, of every age, of every nation, of every walk of life to creatively connect to space!" said Uwingu cofounder Alan Stern, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute. "You can nominate planet names for your favorite town, state, or country, your favorite sports team, music artist, or hero, your favorite author or book, your school, your company, for your loved ones and friends, or even for yourself. And tell your friends about the names you nominate, so they can help vote them to the top! It's fun, it’s social, and it's for a great cause." [Planetary Science Takes a Hit in 2013 (Infographic)]

Uwingu will use the money raised from the project to support research efforts like SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)'s Allen Telescope Array in California, as well as space launches and science outreach. The company has also released a suite of planet-related educational materials for teachers to go along with the new project.

"At Uwingu, we think that it’s important that kids learn, as well as play," said Uwingu education officer Emily CoBabe. "So we want to make Uwingu a place where teachers can stop by to get the best and most up-to-date space education materials."

Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

• The Top 5 Potentially Habitable Alien Planets
• A Galaxy Full of Alien Planets (Infographic)
• Gallery: A World of Kepler Planets

Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

By SPACE.com Staff | SPACE.com

Good Night, Exoplanet: Baby Name Book to Raise Science Funds

'Super-Earth' Alien Planet May Be Habitable for Life

Astronomers have detected an alien planet that may be capable of supporting life as we know it — and it's just a stone's throw from Earth in the cosmic scheme of things.

The newfound exoplanet, a so-called "super-Earth" called HD 40307g, is located inside its host star's habitable zone, a just-right range of distances where liquid water may exist on a world's surface. And the planet lies a mere 42 light-years away from Earth, meaning that future telescopes might be able to image it directly, researchers said.

"The longer orbit of the new planet means that its climate and atmosphere may be just right to support life," study co-author Hugh Jones, of the University of Hertfordshire in England, said in a statement. "Just as Goldilocks liked her porridge to be neither too hot nor too cold but just right, this planet or indeed any moons that it has lie in an orbit comparable to Earth, increasing the probability of it being habitable."

HD 40307g is one of three newly discovered worlds around the parent star, which was already known to host three planets. The finds thus boost the star's total planetary population to six. [Video: Super Earth May Have Liquid Water]

Finding new signals in the data
The star HD 40307 is slightly smaller and less luminous than our own sun. Astronomers had previously detected three super-Earths — planets a bit more massive than our own — around the star, all of them in orbits too close-in to support liquid water.

In the new study, the research team re-analyzed observations of the HD 40307 system made by an instrument called the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS.

HARPS is part of the European Southern Observatory's 11.8-foot (3.6 meters) telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. The instrument allows astronomers to pick up the tiny gravitational wobbles an orbiting planet induces in its parent star.

The researchers' new analysis techniques enabled them to spot three more super-Earths around the star, including HD 40307g, which is thought to be at least seven times as massive as our home planet.

HD 40307g may or may not be a rocky planet like Earth, said study lead author Mikko Tuomi, also of the University of Hertfordshire.

"If I had to guess, I would say 50-50," Tuomi told SPACE.com via email. "But the truth at the moment is that we simply do not know whether the planet is a large Earth or a small, warm Neptune without a solid surface."

A jam-packed extrasolar system
HD 40307g is the outermost of the system's six planets, orbiting at an average distance of 56 million miles (90 million kilometers) from the star. (For comparison, Earth zips around the sun from about 93 million miles, or 150 million km, away.)

The other two newfound exoplanets are probably too hot to support life as we know it, researchers said. But HD 40307g — which officially remains a "planet candidate" pending confirmation by follow-up studies — sits comfortably in the middle of the star's habitable zone.

Further, HD 40307g's orbit is distant enough that the planet likely isn't tidally locked to the star like the moon is to Earth, researchers said. Rather, HD 40307g probably rotates freely just like our planet does, showing each side of itself to the star in due course.

The lack of tidal locking "increases its chances of actually having Earth-like conditions," Tuomi said.
The new study has been accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

A candidate for direct observation
Super-Earths have been spotted in other stars' habitable zones before. For example, a team using NASA's prolific Kepler Space Telescope announced the discovery of the potentially habitable world Kepler-22b in December 2011.

Kepler-22b lies 600 light-years away, which is not terribly far considering that our Milky Way galaxy is about 100,000 light-years wide. But HD 40307g is just 42 light-years from us — close enough that future instruments may be able to image it directly, scientists say.

"Discoveries like this are really exciting, and such systems will be natural targets for the next generation of large telescopes, both on the ground and in space," David Pinfield of the University of Hertfordshire, who was not involved in the new study, said in a statement.
Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

• Super-Earth Planet: Potentially Habitable Alien World Explained (Infographic)
• The Top 5 Potentially Habitable Alien Planets
• Planets Large and Small Populate Our Galaxy (Infographic)

Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

By Mike Wall | SPACE.com

'Super-Earth' Alien Planet May Be Habitable for Life 

Monster galaxy may have been stirred up by black-hole mischief

The giant elliptical galaxy in the centre of this image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is the most massive and brightest member of the galaxy cluster Abell 2261. Spanning a little over one million light-years, the galaxy is about 20 times the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy. The bloated galaxy is a member of an unusual class of galaxies with a diffuse core filled with a fog of starlight. Normally, astronomers would expect to see a concentrated peak of light around a central black hole. The Hubble observations revealed that the galaxy's puffy core, measuring about 10 000 light-Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 to measure the amount of starlight across the galaxy, catalogued as 2MASX J17222717+3207571 but more commonly called A2261-BCG (short for Abell 2261 brightest cluster galaxy). Abell 2261 is located three billion light-years away. The observations were taken between March and May 2011. The Abell 2261 cluster is part of a multi-wavelength survey called the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH). Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Postman (Space Telescope Science Institute, USA), T. Lauer (National Optical Astronomy Observatory, USA), and the CLASH team.years, is the largest yet seen. The observations present a mystery, and studies of this galaxy may provide insight into how black hole behavior may shape the cores of galaxies. Astronomers used Hubble's Advanced .

                Asgalaxy, with a core bigger than any seen before. There are two intriguing explanations for the puffed up core, both related to the action of one or more black holes, and the researchers have not yet been able to determine which is correct.tronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a remarkable new view of a whopper of an elliptical

              Spanning a little over one million light-years, the galaxy is about ten times the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy. The bloated galaxy is a member of an unusual class of galaxies with an unusually diffuse core filled without any a concentrated peak of light around a central black hole. Viewing the core is like seeing a city with no centre, just houses sprinkled across a vast landscape.

 An international team of astronomers used Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 to measure the amount of starlight across the galaxy, catalogued as 2MASX J17222717+3207571 but more commonly called A2261-BCG (short for Abell 2261 Brightest Cluster Galaxy). Located three billion light-years away, the galaxy is the most massive and brightest galaxy in the Abell 2261 cluster.

 The Hubble observations revealed that the galaxy's puffy core, measuring about 10 000 light-years, is the largest yet seen. A galaxy's core size is typically correlated with the dimensions of its host galaxy, but in this case, the central region is much larger than astronomers would expect for the galaxy's size. The bloated core is more than three times larger than the centre of other very luminous galaxies.

 Astronomers have proposed two possibilities for the puffy core. One scenario is that a pair of merging black holes gravitationally stirred up and scattered the stars. Another idea is that the merging black holes were ejected from the core. Left without an anchor, the stars began spreading out even more, creating the puffy appearance of the core.

 Previous Hubble observations have revealed that supermassive black holes, with masses millions or billions times more than the Sun, reside at the centres of nearly all galaxies and may play a role in shaping those central regions. google_protectAndRun("render_ads.js::google_render_ad", google_handleError, google_render_ad);Ads by Google

Air Conditioning Repair - Get Better Air Flow with Repair Services from Timothy Off. - www.timothyoffheating.com "

Expecting to find a black hole in every galaxy is sort of like expecting to find a pit inside a peach," explains astronomer Tod Lauer of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, USA, a co-author of the Hubble study. "With this Hubble observation, we cut into the biggest peach and we can't find the pit. We don't know for sure that the black hole is not there, but Hubble shows that there's no concentration of stars in the core."

 Team leader Marc Postman of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, USA, said the galaxy stood out in the Hubble image. "When I first saw the image of this galaxy, I knew right away that it was unusual," Postman explained. "The core was very diffuse and very large. The challenge was then to make sense of all the data, given what we knew from previous Hubble observations, and come up with a plausible explanation for the intriguing nature of this particular galaxy."

 The paper describing the results appeared in the 10 September issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

 The astronomers expected to see a slight cusp of light in the galaxy's centre, marking the location of the black hole and attendant stars. Instead, the starlight's intensity remained fairly even across the galaxy.

 One possibility for the puffy core may be due to two central black holes orbiting each other. These black holes collectively could have been as massive as several billion suns. One of the black holes would be native to the galaxy, while the second could have been added from a smaller galaxy that was gobbled up by the massive elliptical.

 In this scenario, stars circling in the giant galaxy's centre came close to the twin black holes. The stars were then given a gravitational boot out of the core. Each gravitational slingshot robbed the black holes of momentum, moving the pair ever closer together, until finally they merged, forming one supermassive black hole that still resides in the galaxy's centre.

 Another related possibility is that the black hole merger created gravity waves, which are ripples in the fabric of space. According to the theory of general relativity, a pair of merging black holes produces ripples of gravity that radiate away. If the black holes are of unequal mass, then some of the energy may radiate more strongly in one direction, providing the equivalent of a rocket thrust. The imbalance of forces would have ejected the merged black hole from the centre at speeds of millions of kilometres per hour, resulting in the rarity of a galaxy without a central black hole. "The black hole is the anchor for the stars," Lauer explains. "If you take it out, all of a sudden you have a lot less mass. The stars aren't held together very well and they move outwards, enlarging the core even more." The team admits that the ejected black-hole scenario may sound far-fetched, "but that's what makes observing the Universe so intriguing—sometimes you find the unexpected," Postman says.

 Lauer adds: "This is a system that's interesting enough that it pushes against a lot of questions. We have thought an awful lot about what black holes do. But we haven't been able to test our theories. This is an interesting place where a lot of the ideas we've had can come together and can be tested, fairly exotic ideas about how black holes may interact with each other dynamically and how they would affect the surrounding stellar population."

 The team is now conducting follow-up observations with the Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico. The astronomers expect material falling onto a black hole to emit radio waves, among other types of radiation. They will compare the VLA data with the Hubble images to more precisely pin down the location of the black hole, if it indeed exists.

 The Abell 2261 cluster is part of a multi-wavelength survey, led by Postman, called the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH). The survey probes the distribution of dark matter in 25 massive galaxy clusters. Journal reference: Astrophysical Journal Provided by ESA/Hubble Information Centre

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-monster-galaxy-black-hole-mischief.html#jCp

Monster galaxy may have been stirred up by black-hole mischief

Monster Galaxy's Core Is Biggest Ever Seen

A faraway galaxy's core is the largest ever seen, and it may have been puffed up by the merger of two black holes, a new study reports.

The core of the elliptical galaxy A2261-BCG is about 10,000 light-years across, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope discovered. That's unexpectedly huge, even for a galaxy 10 times wider than our own Milky Way. The core is also strangely diffuse, without a concentrated peak of light around an obvious central black hole.

That last detail is a bit of a surprise, since supermassive black holes are thought to lurk at the core of most, if not all, galaxies.

"Expecting to find a black hole in every galaxy is sort of like expecting to find a pit inside a peach,"study co-author Tod Lauer, of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Ariz., said in a statement. "With this Hubble observation, we cut into the biggest peach and we can't find the pit. We don't know for sure that the black hole is not there, but Hubble shows that there's no concentration of stars in the core." [Photos: Black Holes of the Universe]

A2261-BCG (short for Abell 2261 Brightest Cluster Galaxy) is 1 million light-years wide and is found 3 billion light-years from Earth. Its strangely bloated core is three times larger than the centers of other extremely luminous galaxies, researchers said.

The astronomers think a black hole merger — involving objects containing several billion times the mass of our sun — may have puffed up the galaxy's core. This could have happened in two different ways, they say.

In one scenario, the merger gravitationally stirred up and scattered the stars. The black holes lost momentum in the process and fell into each other, forming a supermassive black hole that resides at A2261-BCG's heart today.

In the other, the black-hole merger created gravity waves, which are ripples in the fabric of space-time. These waves radiated most strongly in one direction, booting the merged black hole from the galaxy.

"The black hole is the anchor for the stars,"Lauer said. "If you take it out, all of a sudden you have a lot less mass. The stars aren't held together very well and they move outwards, enlarging the core even more."

The ejection theory may sound far-fetched,"but that's what makes observing the universe so intriguing — sometimes you find the unexpected," said study lead author Marc Postman, of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

The research team is now actively searching for evidence of A2261-BCG's black hole, if it exists. The astronomers expect that material falling onto a black hole should generate radio waves, so they're probing the galaxy with New Mexico's Very Large Aray radio telescope.

The study was published in the Sept. 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

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By SPACE.com Staff

Monster Galaxy's Core Is Biggest Ever Seen

Earliest Evidence of Biblical Cult Discovered

For the first time, archaeologists have uncovered shrines from the time of the early Biblical kings in the Holy Land, providing the earliest evidence of a cult, they say.

Excavation within the remains of the roughly 3,000-year-old fortified city of Khirbet Qeiyafa, located about 19 miles (30 kilometers) southwest of Jerusalem, have revealed three large rooms used as shrines, along with artifacts, including tools, pottery and objects, such as alters associated with worship.

The three shrines were part of larger building complexes, and the artifacts included five standing stones, two basalt altars, two pottery libation vessels and two portable shrines, one made of pottery, the other of stone. The portable shrines are boxes shaped like temples.

The shrines themselves reflect an architectural style dating back as early as the time of King David (of the biblical David and Goliath story), providing the first physical evidence of a cult in the time of King David, according to an announcement by Yosef Garfinkel, an archaeologist at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. [Religious Worship: Top 10 Cults]

The research is presented in the book, "Footsteps of King David in the Valley of Elah" (Yedioth Ahronoth, 2012).

Radiocarbon dating on burnt olive pits found in the ancient city of Khirbet Qeiyafa indicate it existed between 1020 B.C. and 980 B.C., before being violently destroyed.

According to Biblical tradition, the ancient Isrealites' belief in one God and their ban on human and animal figures set them apart from their neighbors. However, it hasn't been clear when these distinct practices arose.

The discoveries offer a clue to the timing, since they contain none of the human or animal figurines common at other sites. No bones from pigs showed up here or elsewhere in the city.

"This suggests that the population of Khirbet Qeiyafa observed two Biblical bans — on pork and on graven images — and thus practiced a different cult than that of the Canaanites or the Philistines," Garfinkel said in a press release issued by the university. The discoveries also offer support for the Biblical depiction of King David, he said.

Garfinkel suggests some of the features and styles of the structures appear analogous to those described in the Bible. For instance, one of the shrines, the clay one, is decorated with an elaborate façade that includes two guardian lions, two pillars, folded textile and three birds standing on the roof. The two pillars are suggestive, he said, of Yachin and Boaz described in the Bible as belonging to Solomon's Temple.

The announcement was met with some skepticism from scientists such as Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University, who has studied the ruins of the nearby Philistine city of Gath. Maeir told the Times of Israel the new finds don't conclusively prove the site was inhabited by Israelites, and that the images of lions and birds also undercut that no animal or human figures were found.

"There's no question that this is a very important site, but what exactly it was — there is still disagreement about that," Maeir said in the Times of Israel, adding that the finding doesn't add dramatic new evidence to the broader debate over whether the Bible is an historical record of events, largely mythical or a mix between fact and fiction.

You can follow LiveScience senior writer Wynne Parry on Twitter @Wynne_Parry. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

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By Wynne Parry, Senior LiveScience Writer 

Earliest Evidence of Biblical Cult Discovered - Yahoo! News

'Jesus Discovery:' Jerusalem Archeology Reveals Birth Of Christianity

The following is an excerpt by James D. Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici, authors of The Jesus Discovery: The New Archaeological Find That Reveals the Birth of Christianity

On the morning of Tuesday, June 29, 2010, outside the Old City of Jerusalem, we made an unprecedented archaeological discovery related to Jesus and early Christianity. This discovery adds significantly to our understanding of Jesus, his earliest followers, and the birth of Christianity. In this book we reveal reliable archaeological evidence that is directly connected to Jesus' first followers, those who knew him personally and to Jesus himself. The discovery provides the earliest archaeological evidence of faith in Jesus' resurrection from the dead, the first witness to a saying of Jesus that predates even the writing of our New Testament gospels, and the earliest example of Christian art, all found in a sealed tomb dated to the 1st century CE.

We refer to this tomb as the Patio tomb, since it is now located beneath an apartment patio, eight feet under the basement of a condominium complex. Such juxtapositions of modernity and antiquity are not unusual in Jerusalem, where construction must often be halted to rescue and excavate tombs from ancient times. The Patio tomb was first uncovered by construction work in 1981 in East Talpiot, a suburb of Jerusalem less than two miles south of the Old City.

Our discoveries also provide precious new evidence for evaluating the Jesus son of Joseph's tomb, discovered a year earlier, which made international headlines in 2007. We refer to this 1980 tomb as the Garden tomb, since it is now situated beneath a garden area in the same condominium complex. These two tombs, both dating to around the time of Jesus, are less than two hundred feet apart. Together with a third tomb nearby that was unfortunately destroyed by the construction blasts, these tombs formed a cluster and most likely belonged to the same clan or extended family. Any interpretation of one tomb has to be made in the light of the other. As a result we believe a compelling argument can be made that the Garden tomb is that of Jesus of Nazareth and his family. We argue in this book that both tombs are most likely located on the rural estate of Joseph of Arimathea, the wealthy member of the Sanhedrin who according to all four New Testament gospels took official charge of Jesus' burial.

Who was Joseph of Arimathea and how did he enter the historical picture? The Jesus Discovery explores the answers to this and a series of related questions. The recent discoveries in the Patio tomb put the controversy about the Jesus family tomb in new light. We now have new archaeological evidence, literally written in stone, that can guide us in properly understanding what Jesus' earliest followers meant by their faith in Jesus' resurrection from the dead, with his earthly remains, and those of his family, peacefully interred just yards away. This might sound like a contradiction, but only because certain theological traditions regarding the meaning of resurrection of the dead have clouded our understanding of what Jesus and his first followers truly believed. When we put together the texts of the gospels with this archaeological evidence, the results are strikingly consistent and stand up to rigorous standards of historical evidence.

Accessing the sealed Patio tomb was a tremendous challenge. The technological challenge alone was daunting. Our only access to this tomb was through a series of eight-inch drill holes in the basement floor of the condominium. We were not even positive these probes would open into the tomb. We literally had only inches to spare. Investigating the tomb required getting agreements from the owners of the building over the tomb; the Israel Antiquities Authority, which controls permission to carry out any archaeological work in Israel; the Jerusalem police, whose task is to keep the peace and avoid incitements to riot; and the Heredim, the ultra-Orthodox authorities whose mission is to protect all Jewish tombs, ancient or modern, from any kind of disturbance. None of these parties had any particular motivation to assist us and for various reasons they disagreed with one another about their own interests. Any one of them could have stopped us at any point along the way, and there were many anxious times when we thought the exploration would never happen. Ultimately we were able to persuade each group to support the excavation. That we succeeded at all is more than a minor miracle. At the same time we had no evidence that our exploration of this tomb, if it were possible, would yield anything of importance. But we both agreed it was a gamble worth taking.

At many points the entire operation seemed likely to collapse. We pushed on, however, not because we knew what was inside the tomb, but because we could not bear the thought of never knowing. Since that time we have begun to put the entire story together and a coherent picture is emerging that offers a new understanding of Jesus and his earliest followers in the first decades of the movement.

Archaeologists who work on the history of ancient Judaism and early Christianity disagree over whether there is any reliable archaeological evidence directly related to Jesus or his early followers. Most are convinced that nothing of this sort has survived, not a single site, inscription, artifact, drawing, or text mentioning Jesus or his followers, or witnessing to the beliefs of the earliest Jewish Christians either in Jerusalem or in Galilee.

Jesus was born, lived, and died in the land of Israel. Most scholars agree he was born around 5 BCE and died around 30 CE. We have abundant archaeological evidence from this period related to Galilee, where he began his preaching and healing campaigns, and Jerusalem, where he was crucified. There is evidence related to Herod Antipas, the high priest Caiaphas, and even Pontius Pilate, who had him crucified, but nothing that would connect us to Jesus himself, or even to his earliest followers -- until now. Our hope is that these exciting new discoveries can become the catalyst for reconsidering other archaeological evidence that might well be related to the first Jewish-Christian believers.

The oldest copies of the New Testament gospels date to the early 4th century CE, well over two hundred years after Jesus' lifetime. There are a few papyri fragments of New Testament writings that scholars have dated to the 2nd century CE, but nothing so far in the 1st century. The earliest Christian art is found in the catacomb tombs in Rome, dating to the late 2nd or early 3rd centuries CE. Our discovery effectively pushes back the date on early Christian archaeological evidence by two hundred years. More significantly, it takes us back into the lifetime of Jesus himself.

This has been the most extraordinary adventure of our careers, and we are pleased to be able to share with readers the surprising and profound story of The Jesus Discovery.


'Jesus Discovery:' Jerusalem Archeology Reveals Birth Of Christianity

Egypt: Tomb of a Woman Found in Valley of the Kings, Near Tomb of King Tut

In a rare find, Egyptian and Swiss archaeologists have unearthed a roughly 1,100 year-old tomb of a female singer in the Valley of the Kings, an antiquities official said Sunday.

It is the only tomb of a woman not related to the ancient Egyptian royal families ever found in the Valley of the Kings, said Mansour Boraiq, the top government official for the Antiquities' Ministry in the city of Luxor,

The Valley of the Kings in Luxor is a major tourist attraction. In 1922, archaeologists there unearthed the gold funerary mask of Tutankhamun and other stunning items in the tomb of the king who ruled more than 3,000 years ago.

Boraiq told The Associated Press that the coffin of the female singer is remarkably intact.

He said that when the coffin is opened this week, archaeologists will likely find a mummy and a cartonnage mask molded to her face and made from layers of linen and plaster.

The singer's name, Nehmes Bastet, means she was believed to be protected by the feline deity Bastet.

The tomb was found by accident, according to Elena Pauline-Grothe, field director for excavation at the Valley of the Kings with Switzerland's University of Basel.

"We were not looking for new tombs. It was close to another tomb that was discovered 100 years ago," Pauline-Grothe said.

Pauline-Grothe said the tomb was not originally built for the female singer, but was reused for her 400 years after the original one, based on artifacts found inside. Archaeologists do not know whom the tomb was originally intended for.

The coffin of the singer belonged to the daughter of a high priest during the 22nd Dynasty.

Archaeologists concluded from artifacts that she sang in Karnak Temple, one of the most famous and largest open-air sites from the Pharaonic era, according to evidence at the site.

At the time of her death, Egypt was ruled by Libyan kings, but the high priests who ruled Thebes, which is now within the city of Luxor, were independent. Their authority enabled them to use the royal cemetery for family members, according to Boraiq.

The unearthing marks the 64th tomb to be discovered in the Valley of the Kings.

By AYA BATRAWY Associated Press
CAIRO January 15, 2012 (AP)

Egypt: Tomb of a Woman Found in Valley of the Kings, Near Tomb of King Tut - ABC News

NASA Telescope Confirms Alien Planet in Habitable Zone

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has confirmed the discovery of its first alien world in its host star's habitable zone — that just-right range of distances that could allow liquid water to exist — and found more than 1,000 new explanet candidates, researchers announced today (Dec. 5).

The new finds bring the Kepler space telescope's total haul to 2,326 potential planets in its first 16 months of operation.These discoveries, if confirmed, would quadruple the current tally of worlds known to exist beyond our solar system, which recently topped 700.

The potentially habitable alien world, a first for Kepler, orbits a star very much like our own sun. The discovery brings scientists one step closer to finding a planet like our own — one which could conceivably harbor life, scientists said.

"We're getting closer and closer to discovering the so-called 'Goldilocks planet,'" Pete Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., said during a press conference today. [Gallery: The Strangest Alien Planets]

The newfound planet in the habitable zone is called Kepler-22b. It is located about 600 light-years away, orbiting a sun-like star.

Kepler-22b's radius is 2.4 times that of Earth, and the two planets have roughly similar temperatures. If the greenhouse effect operates there similarly to how it does on Earth, the average surface temperature on Kepler-22b would be 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius).

Hunting down alien planets

The $600 million Kepler observatory launched in March 2009 to hunt for Earth-size alien planets in the habitable zone of their parent stars, where liquid water, and perhaps even life, might be able to exist.

Kepler detects alien planets using what's called the "transit method." It searches for tiny, telltale dips in a star's brightness caused when a planet transits — or crosses in front of — the star from Earth's perspective, blocking a fraction of the star's light.

The finds graduate from "candidates" to full-fledged planets after follow-up observations confirm that they're not false alarms. This process, which is usually done with large, ground-based telescopes, can take about a year.

The Kepler team released data from its first 13 months of operation back in February, announcing that the instrument had detected 1,235 planet candidates, including 54 in the habitable zone and 68 that are roughly Earth-size.

Of the total 2,326 candidate planets that Kepler has found to date, 207 are approximately Earth-size. More of them, 680, are a bit larger than our planet, falling into the "super-Earth" category. The total number of candidate planets in the habitable zones of their stars is now 48.

To date, just over two dozen of these potential exoplanets have been confirmed, but Kepler scientists have estimated that at least 80 percent of the instrument's discoveries should end up being the real deal.

More discoveries to come

The newfound 1,094 planet candidates are the fruit of Kepler's labors during its first 16 months of science work, from May 2009 to September 2010. And they won't be the last of the prolific instrument's discoveries.

"This is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth's twin," Douglas Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a statement.

Mission scientists still need to analyze data from the last two years and on into the future. Kepler will be making observations for a while yet to come; its nominal mission is set to end in November 2012, but the Kepler team is preparing a proposal to extend the instrument's operations for another year or more.

Kepler's finds should only get more exciting as time goes on, researchers say.

"We're pushing down to smaller planets and longer orbital periods," said Natalie Batalha, Kepler deputy science team lead at Ames.

To flag a potential planet, the instrument generally needs to witness three transits. Planets that make three transits in just a few months must be pretty close to their parent stars; as a result, many of the alien worlds Kepler spotted early on have been blisteringly hot places that aren't great candidates for harboring life as we know it.

Given more time, however, a wealth of more distantly orbiting — and perhaps more Earth-like — exoplanets should open up to Kepler. If intelligent aliens were studying our solar system with their own version of Kepler, after all, it would take them three years to detect our home planet.

"We are getting very close," Batalha said. "We are homing in on the truly Earth-size, habitable planets."

You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcomand on Facebook.

NASA Telescope Confirms Alien Planet in Habitable Zone

Largest Fossil Spider Found in Volcanic Ash - Yahoo! News

The largest fossil spider uncovered to date once ensnared prey back in the age of dinosaurs, scientists find.

The spider, named Nephila jurassica, was discovered buried in ancient volcanic ash in Inner Mongolia, China. Tufts of hairlike fibers seen on its legs showed this 165-million-year-old arachnid to be the oldest known species of the largest web-weaving spiders alive today — the golden orb-weavers, or Nephila, which are big enough to catch birds and bats, and use silk that shines like gold in the sunlight.

The fossil was about as large as its modern relatives, with a body one inch (2.5 centimeters) wide and legs that reach up to 2.5 inches (6.3 cm) long. Golden orb-weavers nowadays are mainly tropical creatures, so the ancient environment of Nephila jurassica probably was similarly lush. [Image of fossil spider]

"It would have lived, like today's Nephila, in its orb web of golden silk in a clearing in a forest, or more likely at the edge of a forest close to the lake," researcher Paul Selden, director of the Paleontological Institute at the University of Kansas, told LiveScience. "There would have been volcanoes nearby producing the ash that forms the lake sediment it is entombed within."

Spiders are the most numerous predators on land today, and help keep insect numbers in check. So these findings help us "understand the evolution of the insect-spider predator-prey relationship," Selden said, suggesting that golden orb-weavers have been ensnaring insects and influencing their evolution since the Jurassic Period. [Read: Ancient Spider Guts Revealed in 3-D]

"There were many large or medium-sized flying insects around at that time on which it would have fed indiscriminately," Selden said.

In modern golden orb-weaver species, females are typically much larger than males. This new fossil was a female, suggesting this trend stretches back at least as far as the Middle Jurassic, Selden said — that is, back before the first known bird, Archaeopteryx, or giant dinosaurs such as Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus.

Although this is the largest fossil spider known to date, it is not the oldest. Two species from Coseley, England, Eocteniza silvicola and Protocteniza britannica, both come from about 310 million years ago.

Selden and his colleagues are now investigating other fossil spiders from China, "as well as those from elsewhere in the world — currently Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, Italy and Korea," he said.

The scientists detail their findings online April 20 in the journal Biology Letters.

Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

Charles Q. Choi, LiveScience Contributor,

Largest Fossil Spider Found in Volcanic Ash - Yahoo! News: "Largest Fossil Spider Found in Volcanic Ash"

Nikon D7000 Review

It’s one of the key truths of the consumer electronics biz: Prices will drop like a rock soon after you buy your new toy. Oh, there are exceptions, like the iPad and iPhone, but you know the drill — buy it today, see a lower price in a month. Amazingly there is a pricey camera, the 16.2-megapixel Nikon D7000, that’s currently defying the laws of CE gravity—if you can even find one. Let’s see why.

Features and Design
The Nikon D7000 doesn’t look radically different than many other mid-range, all-black DSLRs on the market, such as the 18-megapixel Canon EOS 60D ($999 body only). With the 18-105mm kit lens, the Nikon has a no-nonsense vibe that says “I’m a serious camera.” Don’t even think of casually carrying it around. The D7000 measures 5.2 x 4.1 x 3 (WHD, in inches) and weighs 1.5 pounds without a battery, card or lens. Hefty and serious indeed.

Looking closely at the D7000, you get an inkling of its capabilities, but nothing that quite gives away its position as the hottest DSLR on the market. It has the usual Nikon red accent on the grip and a few judiciously-placed logos and icons. Drill down a bit and some of the finer points appear, such as a second LCD readout on the top, and a 3-inch 921K-pixel LCD on the rear. But the real enhancements are internal, as we’ll soon see.

Like any DSLR, the key feature on the front of the D7000 is the lens mount. In this case, it’s a Nikon F bayonet-type, and all functions are possible with AF Nikkor glass. As always, you can spend a small fortune on lenses, but the 5.8x kit lens (18-105mm, 27-157.5mm 35mm equivalent) with built-in Vibration Reduction is a good start. Also up front are an AF Assist lamp and buttons for Function, depth-of-field preview and lens release. There’s a three-pinhole mono mic, so if you want stereo sound for your videos, get ready to spend some extra cash on an aftermarket mic. You can connect one with the handy mic input in one of the side compartments. The pistol grip is solid, and there’s a jog wheel right below the shutter button and power switch.

On the top is the main mode dial, which sits on a perplexing control called a Release-Mode Dial. With it, you change your frame rate (most commonly) such as single frame, continuous low speed (1 to 5 fps) or continuous high speed (6 fps). Access to this dial is good, but in order to turn it, you have to press a nearby locking button at the same time. This seems very convoluted for such a basic and important control. In contrast, Canon cameras have a drive button you simply press to make this adjustment. That said, after some initial fumbling, we made adjustments using the left index and middle fingers. The same dial also gives you access to the self-timer, quiet shutter release option, using a remote control and “Mup” for Mirror up. The main mode dial has the usual options: Auto, Auto flash off, Program AE, Shutter- and Aperture-Priority as well as full Manual. Scene is typical as you can choose specific shooting situations (portrait, landscape and so on, 19 options total). There are also two settings (U1, U2) to save your favorite configurations.

Next to the stacked dials are the flash, hot shoe and control panel LCD, one of the key features separating entry-levels DSLRs from “enthusiast” models (500 clams more is another huge point of difference, but that’s another story). This readout lets you check your settings without having to put the camera in front of your face, and is very handy for shooting on the fly. Next to the shutter are buttons to change metering type and exposure compensation.

The rear has a very good and bright viewfinder with 100-percent field of view and 0.95x magnification (by comparison, the Canon EOS 60D is 96-percent coverage with 0.95x magnification). A diopter control lets you fine-tune it for your eyesight. Below the VF is very good LCD screen rated 921K pixels. The 60D has an articulating 3-inch screen with more dots (1.04 million total), so Canon wins that round.

Surrounding the screen are the usual array of buttons for white balance, ISO and so on, with another jog wheel on the top right to move through menu options and a controller with center OK button. Since this is 2011, there’s a red video dot in middle of the Live View lever—simply pull it to the right, the mirror raises up, press the dot and you can shoot HD video (1920 x 1080 at 24 fps MOV files). There’s a six-pinhole speaker nearby. This is hardly the 1080p at 60 fps of the recently reviewed Panasonic SDT750, but it’s home video nonetheless (more in the performance section).

On the right side is a compartment for two SDHC/SDXC cards. You can put stills on one, video the other if that rings your bell, or just use a single card. The D7000 is the first camera we’re aware of that uses the Ultra High Speed system (UHS-1) for faster read and write speeds. The left side has a compartment with A/V, USB and mini-HDMI outs. A second has inputs for mics and GPS. Near the lens mount is an AF/Manual switch, as well as bracket and flash-open keys.

The bottom of this Made-In-Thailand DSLR has the battery compartment, metal tripod mount, and the contact cover for an optional battery pack. As with lenses, you can spend thousands if you want to trick out your camera. Hold off for a while, since the D7000 is far from cheap to begin with.

What's in the Box
The D700 includes kit includes both the body and 18-105mm VR lens, if you decide on that option. You’ll also get EN-EL15 rechargeable Li-ion battery rated up to 850 shots per CIPA, charger, eyepiece cap, rubber eyecup, USB and A/V cables, strap, LCD monitor cover, body cap, accessory shoe cover and ViewNX 2 software on CD-ROM. For good measure, Nikon includes a 328-page user’s manual for light reading.

Since this camera is one of the first that’s UHS-1 compatible, which allows for up to 45 Mbps read speeds, we popped in a new 16GB SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC card and hit the streets.

Performance and Use
The Nikon D7000 uses a 16.2-megapixel APS-C size sensor (23.6 x 15.8mm), a first for the company. Its most expensive DSLRs feature full-frame imagers (23.6 x 36mm) but expect to pay at least $2,500 for one. While not the 18-megapixels of the APS-C 60D, at these levels you’d be hard pressed to notice the difference, unless you’re blowing up your images to fill a Times Square billboard. Both are overkill for most shutterbugs, but if there’s no compromise with image quality at these high numbers, what’s the harm? Note there is definitely harm with many 14- and 16-megapixel point-and-shoots with their tiny CCDs — that’s why we suggest avoiding nose-bleed figures in that category.

At 16.2MP, you’re capturing 4928 x 3264 pixel files. We put the camera into RAW+JPEG Fine mode to test its ability to push piles of pixels. As usual, we started in Auto, then moved to manual options since it’s a shame not to play with a camera of this level. Videos were shot at the highest resolution.

When we were first shown the D7000, Nikon execs were really stoked describing the new 2,016-pixel RGB 3D Color Matrix metering system. They claimed it would deliver incredibly accurate exposures. They noted the $8,000 D3x uses the “old” 1,005-pixel 3D Color Matrix Metering II setup. This—along with the new sensor—are among the key advances of this DSLR, as is the speedier burst mode of 6 fps versus the 4.5 of the 12.3-megapixel D90. The Nikon D3s is Nikon’s fastest camera, at 9 fps, but it costs $5,199 (body only). Another advance is increased ISO sensitivity. Native is 100 to 6400, but it hits 25,600 in the Hi 2 setting, for shooting in near darkness. Toss in a new 39-point AF system with nine center cross-type sensors, and you’ve got one impressive DSLR in your hands. Now it was time to see if all the pieces in the puzzle came together.

It’s dead of winter in the Northeast, and it’s hard to find anything moving quickly to test the burst mode in our neck of the woods. Not so in Manhattan, where yellow cabs and red buses fly by along with silver-clad messengers on scooters. We used Continuous H to capture them.

Before getting to the results, let’s state that using the Nikon D7000 is quite enjoyable. Response time is blazing fast even shooting RAW+JPEG Fine; peeling off bursts of 10 to 20 images, the camera barely seemed to breathe hard. Once we got the feel of this beefy DSLR, changing parameters was quite simple, even that odd Release Mode dial.

After filling our SanDisk card, we made prints, reviewed the files closely on a monitor and watched the videos on a 50-inch plasma HDTV via HDMI. Nikon claims with the expanded ISO range you can “capture just about every moment that captures you.” Well, we had to try shooting a single candle in a very dark room at 25,600 ISO — the results were predictable as we had a pixilated mess. Oh, you can clean up the noise in the RAW files, but the JPEGs were pretty bad. You need a full-frame sensor, and to spend twice the money, for solid results at those levels. That on the table, the D7000 handles noise unbelievably well up to ISO 3200, with noise making its presence felt at 6400. At 10,000 the snowstorm turns into a blizzard, but if you stay within the native range of 100 to 6400, you’ll be quite happy.

Colors, as you’d expect, were very accurate. Although we tend to like ours more saturated and vivid, you can tweak the D7000 to whatever level suits you, as Nikon has a suite of retouching options available during playback. We’re talking fine-tuning here, as the basic photos are much better than acceptable. The new metering mode handled some difficult in-and-out of shadow subjects but it’s not perfect — you still need your fill flash and exposure compensation skills for best results. Focusing was super sharp, and very fast, with terrific detail.

We had no trouble capturing fast-moving vehicles flying down Manhattan streets with hardly any blur. This will be a great camera for parents with budding athletes, or if you have a hyper-energetic kid (aren’t they all?).

We can go on and on about the D7000’s still capabilities, but you get the idea, it’s a very fine DSLR. It is not, however, a very fine camcorder.

Our issues with contrast-phase-detection focusing systems remain on the table. Nikon’s AF system works OK, and colors are spot on, but when you touch any of the controls, such as pressing the shutter or working the zoom, the mic picks it up, something no camcorder does. Sony’s SLT-series DSLRs with phase-detect focusing still remain the video leaders, as far as DSLRs are concerned.

Conclusion
Having extensively tested the Nikon D7000, it’s easy to understand why this camera ranks up there in popularity, even with a $1,200 price tag. Simply put, if you’re serious about photography, you want this camera. As for the video, it’s a nice feature, but not the raison d’être for this very impressive DSLR. Good luck finding one—or getting a deal.

Compare Prices on Yahoo! Shopping for the Nikon D7000

Highs:

• 16.2MP APS-C DSLR
• Terrific photos
• Very responsive (6 fps)
• Top ISO of 25,600
• Fast focusing, excellent detail

Lows:

• Hard to find and forget about a price break
• Weird Release-Mode dial
• Heavy noise above ISO 10,000—which is pretty amazing anyway
• HD video still problematic

Nikon D7000 Specifications
Type: Single-lens reflex digital camera

Lens mount: Nikon F mount (with AF coupling and AF contacts)

Effective pixels: 16.2 million

Image sensor: 23.6 x 15.6 mm CMOS sensor

Image size (pixels) - 4,928 x 3,262 [L]
- 3,696 x 2,448 [M]
- 2,464 x 1,632 [S]

File format: 1) NEF(RAW), 2)JPEG, 3)NEF(RAW)+JPEG

Media SD: (Secure Digital) memory cards *1, SDHC and SDXC compliant

Frame advance rate: CL：1 to 5frames fps*
CH：6 fps *
*CIPA guidelines
ISO sensitivity ISO 100 to 6400, can be set up to approx. 2 EV (ISO 25600 equivalent) above ISO 6400; auto ISO sensitivity control available

Movie: Frame size (pixels) and frame rate:
[NTSC] 1,920 x 1,080; 24p - 1,280 x 720; 30p - 1,280 x 720; 24p - 640 x 424; 30p [PAL] 1,920 x 1,080; 24p - 1,280 x 720;25p - 1,280 x 720;24p - 640 x 424; 25p
Maximum Recording Time:Approx.20 min.
File format/Video compression: MOV, H.264/MPEG-4 Advanced Video Cording
Audio recording device; Built-in monaural or external stereo microphone

Monitor: 3-in., approx. 921k-dot, TFT LCD with brightness adjustment

Power source: Battery; One rechargeable Li-ion battery EN-EL15
AC adapter(optional);EH-5a AC adapter; requires EP-5B power connector

Dimensions (approx.): (W x H x D) 132 X 105 X 77mm

Weight (approx.): 690g without battery, memory card, or body cap, 780g;with battery and memory card but without body cap

Major supplied accessories: Rechargeable Li-ion battery EN-EL15, Battery charger MH-25, Camera strap AN-DC1, USB cable, Audio video cable,ViewNX 2 CD-ROM.


A professional feel and features make the ultra-capable Nikon D7000 one of the hardest cameras to find on the market today, for good reason.

By David Elrich, DigitalTrends.com

Nikon D7000 Review: "Nikon D7000 Review"

Scientists' amazing California discovery includes fishing tackle 12,000 years old

People are discovering antique fishing tackle all the time, in closets and at garage sales, but none of that compares to discoveries made recently by archaeologists at two of the Channel Islands off Southern California.

Looking for signs of ancient human settlement, they unearthed meticulously-crafted spearheads and other tools (see photo at right) that date back 12,000 years and provide insight into the lives of a seafaring culture that obtained bounty from the ocean.

The astonishing discoveries, at three sites on Santa Rosa and San Miguel islands west of Santa Barbara, strongly support the theory that during an era when the first traces of humans appeared in the archaeological record in North America, a coastal culture existed that was distinct from the well-chronicled inland Clovis culture, which consisted of big-game hunters who subsisted on mastodons and other large mammals.

A 15-member team led by Jon Erlandson of the University of Oregon's Museum of Natural and Cultural History found chipped stone tools, used for fishing and hunting, along with an abundance of discarded seashells and bones.

A story about the finds appears in the March 4 issue of Science; it was summarized by New Scientist and Science Daily. New Scientist's headline: "Found: fine American fishing tackle, 12 millennia old."

In the Science Daily piece, Erlandson said, "This is among the earliest evidence of seafaring and maritime adaptations in the Americas, and another extension of the diversity of Paleoindian economies. The points we are finding are extraordinary, the workmanship amazing. They are ultra thin, serrated and have incredible barbs on them. It's a very sophisticated chipped-stone technology."

The sites are thought to have represented seasonal hunting grounds. Prey items probably included surf perch and rockfish, geese, cormorants and other birds, shellfish and perhaps seals, sea lions and otters. The crescent-shaped stones probably were used at the ends of darts to stun birds. Fish and larger marine mammals were speared.

Team member Todd Braje, of Humboldt State University, is quoted by New Scientist as saying, "We found very thin, expertly made projectile points and it blew us away that these delicate flint-knapped points are this old."

Most of the tools were different from those unearthed at inland Clovis sites on the North American mainland, but some of the spearheads were similar, perhaps implying that trade existed between the cultures.

The newly discovered sites might help scientists learn more about how North America became populated. It's widely believed that people arrived via a land bridge connecting Siberia and Alaska, but some scientists believe seafaring migration occurred.

Erlandson explained that his team's find supports the notion that mariners were either first to inhabit North America, or that they arrived at about the same time as those via the land route.

While the recent finds are not the oldest in North America, Braje explained in the New Scientist story that "this pushes back the chronology of New World seafaring to 12,000, maybe 13,000 years ago. It gets us a big step closer to showing that a coastal migration route happened, or was at least possible."

-- Top image is of the ancient fishing tackle discovered recently by scientists at Santa Rosa and San Miguel islands off Southern California. Courtesy of Jon Erlandson. Second image, of Santa Miguel Island, and Channel Islands map graphic are from Wikipedia

By: Pete Thomas, GrindTV.com

Scientists' amazing California discovery includes fishing tackle 12,000 years old: "Scientists' amazing California discovery includes fishing tackle 12,000 years old"