The map stretches halfway back to the beginning of the universe and shows how dark matter has grown increasingly clumpy as it collapses under gravity.

Image above: The top “sliced” image shows how dark matter evolved from 6.5 billion to 3.5 billion years ago. Dark Matter is an invisible form of matter that accounts for most of the universe’s mass. The bottom image shows dark matter “clumping” together over time confirming theories of how structure formed in our evolving universe. Click image to enlarge. + High resolution Credit: NASA, ESA, CalTech

Dark matter is an invisible form of matter whose total mass in the universe is roughly five times that of “normal” matter (i.e., atoms). It can be thought of as the scaffolding of the universe. The visible matter we see collects inside this scaffolding in the form of stars and galaxies. The first direct detection of dark matter was made this past year through observations of the Bullet Cluster of galaxies.

The new map provides the best evidence yet that normal matter, including all stars and galaxies, collect within the densest concentrations of dark matter.

Mapping dark matter’s distribution in space and time is fundamental to understanding how galaxies grew and clustered over billions of years.

The map stretches halfway back in time to the beginning of the universe, and reveals a network of dark matter filaments, collapsing under the relentless pull of gravity and growing clumpier over time.

These two false color images compare the distribution of normal matter, red and left, with dark matter, blue and right, in the universe. Image left: These two false-color images compare the distribution of normal matter (red, left) with dark matter (blue, right) in the universe. The brightness of clumps corresponds to the density of mass. The comparison will provide insight on how structure formed in the evolving universe under the relentless pull of gravity. Credit: NASA, ESA, CalTech

This is consistent with conventional theories of how structure formed in our evolving universe, which has transitioned from a smooth distribution of matter at the time of the Big Bang.

The researchers used data from Hubble Space Telescope’s largest survey to date of the universe, the Cosmic Evolution Survey (“COSMOS”). The COSMOS field covers a sufficiently wide area of sky – eight times the area of the full Moon – for the large-scale filamentary structure of dark matter to be clearly evident. To add 3-D distance information, the Hubble observations were combined with data from Europe’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, Japan’s Subaru Telescope in Hawaii, the U.S.’s Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico, as well as the European Space Agency’s orbiting XMM-Newton X-ray Observatory.

The dark matter map was constructed by measuring the shapes of half a million faraway galaxies.

To reach Hubble, their light has had to travel through intervening dark matter, and the path of the light is slightly deflected by the dark matter’s gravity. The observed, subtle distortion of the galaxies’ shapes was used to reconstruct the distribution of intervening mass along Hubble’s line of sight – a method called weak gravitational lensing.

For astronomers, the challenge of mapping the universe has been similar to mapping a city from nighttime aerial snapshots showing only streetlights. Dark matter is invisible, so only the galaxies can be seen directly.

This new map is equivalent to seeing a city for the first time during the day, where the major arteries and intersections of the asphalt roadways become evident, and a variety of neighborhoods are revealed. Because the survey looks back in time the deeper it looks into the universe, it is also like a time-lapse view of the growth of a city over decades.

SOURCE Hubble Maps the Cosmic Web of ‘Clumpy’ Dark Matter in 3-D NASA.gov 01.07.07

The extreme ultraviolet (EUV) sun imaged by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) over one complete solar cycle. The sun changes more at EUV wavelengths than it does in any other part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Credit: NASA/SOHO

The Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) has four primary sensors. MEGS-A and -B are the Multiple UV Grating Spectrographs; ESP is the EUV Spectrophotometer; SAMS is the Solar Aspect Monitor. Credit: NASA

Every 11 years, the sun undergoes a furious upheaval. Dark sunspots burst forth from beneath the sun’s surface. Explosions as powerful as a billion atomic bombs spark intense flares of high-energy radiation. Clouds of gas big enough to swallow planets break away and billow into space. It’s a flamboyant display of stellar power.

So why can’t we see any of it?

Almost none of the drama of Solar Maximum is visible to the human eye. Look at the sun in the noontime sky and—ho-hum—it’s the same old bland ball of light.

“The problem is, human eyes are tuned to the wrong wavelength,” explains Tom Woods, a solar physicist at the University of Colorado in Boulder. “If you want to get a good look at solar activity, you need to look in the EUV.”

EUV is short for “extreme ultraviolet,” a high-energy form of ultraviolet radiation with wavelengths between 1 and 120 nanometers. EUV photons are much more energetic and dangerous than the ordinary UV rays that cause sunburns. Fortunately for humans, Earth’s atmosphere blocks solar EUV; otherwise a day at the beach could be fatal.

When the sun is active, solar EUV emissions can rise and fall by factors of hundreds to thousands in just a matter of minutes. These surges heat Earth’s upper atmosphere, puffing it up and increasing the air friction, or “drag,” on satellites. EUV photons also break apart atoms and molecules, creating a layer of ions in the upper atmosphere that can severely disturb radio signals.

To monitor these energetic photons, NASA is going to launch a sensor named “EVE,” short for EUV Variability Experiment, onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory this winter.

“EVE gives us the highest time resolution and the highest spectral resolution that we’ve ever had for measuring the sun, and we’ll have it 24/7,” says Woods, the lead scientist for EVE. “This is a huge improvement over past missions.”

Although EVE is designed to study solar activity, its first order of business is to study solar inactivity. SDO is going to launch during the deepest solar minimum in almost 100 years. Sunspots, flares and CMEs are at a low ebb. That’s okay with Woods. He considers solar minimum just as interesting as solar maximum.

“Solar minimum is a quiet time when we can establish a baseline for evaluating long-term trends,” he explains. “All stars are variable at some level, and the sun is no exception. We want to compare the sun’s brightness now to its brightness during previous minima and ask: is the sun getting brighter or dimmer?”

The answer seems to be dimmer. Measurements by a variety of spacecraft indicate a 12-year lessening of the sun’s “irradiance” by about 0.02% at visible wavelengths and 6% at EUV wavelengths. These results, which compare the solar minimum of 2008-09 to the previous minimum of 1996, are still very preliminary. EVE will improve confidence in the trend by pinning down the EUV spectrum with unprecedented accuracy.

The sun’s variability and its potential for future changes are not fully understood—hence the need for EVE. “The EUV portion of the sun’s spectrum is what changes most during a solar cycle,” says Woods, “and that is the part of the spectrum we will be observing.”

Woods gazes out his office window at the Colorado sun. It looks the same as usual. EVE, he knows, will have a different story to tell.

Credit: NASA/Goddard Conceptual Image Lab Credit: NASA/SOHO

Mars is a cold desert planet with no liquid water on its surface. But in the Martian arctic, water ice lurks just below ground level. Discoveries made by the Mars Odyssey Orbiter in 2002 show large amounts of subsurface water ice in the northern arctic plain. The Phoenix lander targets this circumpolar region using a robotic arm to dig through the protective top soil layer to the water ice below and ultimately, to bring both soil and water ice to the lander platform for sophisticated scientific analysis.

Image right: This map centered on the north pole of Mars is based on gamma rays from the element hydrogen — mainly in the form of water ice. Regions of high ice content are shown in violet and blue and those low in ice content are shown in red. The very ice-rich region at the north pole is due to a permanent polar cap of water ice on the surface. Elsewhere in this region, the ice is buried under several to a few tens of centimeters of dry soil. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/UA

The complement of the Phoenix spacecraft and its scientific instruments are ideally suited to uncover clues to the geologic history and biological potential of the Martian arctic. Phoenix will be the first mission to return data from either polar region providing an important contribution to the overall Mars science strategy “Follow the Water” and will be instrumental in achieving the four science goals of NASA’s long-term Mars Exploration Program.

–Determine whether Life ever arose on Mars

–Characterize the Climate of Mars

–Characterize the Geology of Mars

–Prepare for Human Exploration

The Phoenix Mission has two bold objectives to support these goals, which are to (1) study the history of water in the Martian arctic and (2) search for evidence of a habitable zone and assess the biological potential of the ice-soil boundary.

Image and Text Credit- NASA

NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander uses its Meteorological Station and its Robotic Arm at the same time in this artist’s concept of the spacecraft on the surface of Mars.

The other instruments in the spacecraft’s science payload are the Surface Stereoscopic Imager; the Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer; the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer; the Mars Descent Imager; and the Robotic Arm Camera.

The dark “wings” to either side of the lander’s main body are solar panels for providing electric power.

The Phoenix mission is led by Principal Investigator Peter H. Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, with project management at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and development partnership with Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver. International contributions for Phoenix are provided by the Canadian Space Agency, the University of Neuchatel (Switzerland), the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), the Max Planck Institute (Germany) and the Finnish Meteorological institute. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA/Lockheed Martin

Satellite photos show snow and ice cover on Mt. Kilimanjaro in 1993 (top) and 2000

In a report published Tuesday, researchers say the melting on Kilimanjaro is accelerating and that in a few years there may be no ice left.

“Between the period of February 2000 to February 2009, we have lost over 50 percent of the ice thickness at a rate of 0.54 meters per year,” said Prof. Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University. “If you would project that into the future, that ice field will disappear sometime before 2018.”

Thompson is the lead author of the study, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He says that as the ice thins and the glaciers divide, the ice is lost at a faster and faster rate.

“It makes it more vulnerable in that the ice fields are breaking up. The Furtwängler Glacier divided two years ago into two sections, and those sections are now in the process of dividing. And when they divide, they expose the darker crater floor underneath them, which means more [heat] radiation is absorbed, and so we expect to see an acceleration in the rate that that ice disappears.”

Thompson and his colleagues studied ice cores, which are cylinders drilled out of the glacier from top to bottom. Thompson says they represent almost 12,000 years of history, since the glaciers first formed on Kilimanjaro. He says the top, most recent layer shows evidence of melting and refreezing, in the form of elongated air bubbles – a pattern that is not seen at any other time in the glaciers’ history.

“So in the 11,700-year history, we don’t find that type of melting having been preserved, and it would be preserved and you should be able to see it in the bubble structure,” he said in an interview.

As the glaciers melt away, Thompson suggests the change in the mountain’s appearance may have a direct impact on people who live near Kilimanjaro.

“There’s 30,000-40,000 tourists that go to that mountain every year. And the government of Tanzania and the parliament, they have discussed, how many people are going to come to Kilimanjaro when those ice fields do disappear.”

Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University says that the phenomenon of glacial melting can be seen elsewhere in the tropics – in South America, Indonesia, and elsewhere in Africa. He writes that the pattern suggests that the cause is rooted in global climate change, rather than local conditions.

Credit: Art Chimes Washington, DC Voice of America 05 November 2009

Anybody who is thinking of committing suicide, generally exhibits some form of alteration in their normal mental being, and if a friend or loved one can spot this change in time, they can take action to reduce the likelyhood of a suicide attempt. [1]

Research has shown that people feeling depressed may be more willing to discuss their problems with relative strangers rather than friends or family because they feel embarrassed about talking to someone they know. Some people really open up while they’re having their hair cut – from the silly things to the most important things in their lives.[2]

Warning signs of suicide include:

– A previous attempt;

– Talk or plans of suicide;

– A strong wish to die or preoccupation with death;

– Giving away prized possessions;

– Signs of depression such as moodiness, hopelessness or withdrawal;

– Increased alcohol and/or drug use;

– Hinting at not being around in the future. [4]

Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) teaches people to recognize the signs that a person is at risk and how to intervene to prevent suicide. The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium has trained more than 100 teachers, health aides, licensed counselors and caregivers in the last year, expanding prevention resources in communities statewide. [3]

In UK, hairdressers and taxi drivers are being trained to help spot vulnerable people who might be contemplating taking their own lives. [2]

Statistics
Alaska’s suicide rate – 19.6 per every 100,000 people – is twice the national average. In 2008, 165 Alaskans committed suicide. [3]….why?

Reference
[1] Committing Suicide is a Permanent Solution to a Temporary Problem dbtechno.com September 11, 2009 [2] Mark Simpson Hairdressers to help prevent suicide BBC Ireland 10 September 2009 [3] Kate Burkhart My turn: Together communities can prevent suicide juneauempire.com September 11, 2009. [4] Michelle Dupler Group to walk for suicide prevention The News Tribune 09/11/09

Helheim Glacier nearly doubled its speed in just a few years, flowing through a rift in the barren coastal mountains at a stunning 100 feet (30 meters) per day. [1]

The speed of the other major glacier in Greenland, Kangerdlugssuaq, is even more dramatic. It moves some 38 metres a day or 14 kilometres a year. [2]

The two glaciers produce 10 percent of Greenland’s ice output into the North Atlantic. Glaciers that shed their ice cause sea levels to rise. [2]

[1] Greenland’s melt mystery unfolds, at glacial pace Associated Press Sep 10, 7:46 pm [2] Greenland glaciers melting faster than ever: NGO The News Thursday, September 10, 2009

His problem: His clientele was heavily Roman Catholic. In those days, most Catholics abstained from meat every Friday, as well as during Lent, the 40-day period of repentance that begins this week with Ash Wednesday.[1]

His solution: He created the Filet-O-Fish — a sandwich that saved his restaurant and eventually would be consumed at a rate of 300 million a year. [1]

What makes up a Filet-O-Fish sandwich? An ugly creature from the sunless depths of the Pacific — hoki, or whiptail, a bug-eyed specimen found far down in the waters around New Zealand. The hoki may be exceedingly unattractive, but when its flesh reaches the consumer it’s just fish — cut into filets and sticks or rolled into sushi — moist, slightly sweet and very tasty. [2]

[1] No fish story: Sandwich saved his McDonald’s USA Today Updated 2/20/2007 3:37 PM ET
[2] From Deep Pacific, Ugly and Tasty, With a Catch, The New York Times September 9, 2009

Almost at the same time, Stanford researchers discovered that the globs of human fat removed during liposuction contain versatile cells that can be coaxed into becoming pluripotent (iPS) stem cells more easily than the skin cells that are often used by researchers! [2]

[1] Chinese experts grow live mice from skin cells Reuters Thu Jul 23, 2009
[2] Making Stem Cells From Liposuction Leftovers Is Easier Say Researchers medicalnewstoday.com 09 Sep 2009