Extra Innings: Mississippi Jr. Sunbelt Classic Team. ... Division 1-3A Player of the Year. ... Switch-hitter committed to Mississippi State as an eighth grader.
ALMATY, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - An unmanned Russian rocket carrying three navigation satellites crashed shortly after lift-off from the Russian-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, spilling its highly toxic propellant.
State-run Rossiya-24 television showed footage of the Proton-M booster rocket veering off course seconds after lift-off. It fell apart in flames in the air and crashed in a big ball of fire near the launch pad.
There were no reported injuries. Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying launch facility personnel were in bunkers when the rocket lifted off.
Kazakhstan's space agency Kazcosmos said the accident at launch pad No. 81 had taken place at 8:38 a.m. (10.38 p.m. EDT Monday).
"According to the preliminary estimates from the Russian side, there is no destruction and there are no casualties," Kazcosmos said.
The rocket fell on the territory of Baikonur, spreading components of its fuel, it said.
Quoting a Kazakh security source, Interfax said around 170 metric tons (1 metric ton = 1.1023 tons) of heptyl, a highly toxic rocket propellant, were burning at the scene.
The agency said Kazakh emergency authorities were considering evacuating nearby towns in the sparsely populated area because of the potential health threat.
Kazakhstan's government will hold an emergency meeting later on Tuesday, a government spokesman said.
The estimated loss from the three satellites, meant for Russia's troubled Glonass satellite navigation system, was about $200 million, Rossiya-24 reported.
Russia's state-run RIA news agency said the cause could have been a problem with the engine or the guidance system.
Russia plans to spend more than 300 billion roubles ($9.1 billion) by 2020 on Glonass, its answer to the U.S. GPS system.
The system, first conceived by the Soviet Union more than 40 years ago, has been plagued by previous failed launches, including one in 2010 in which three satellites were also lost, and by suspicions of corruption and embezzlement. Its chief designer was dismissed last year during a fraud investigation.
The Proton rocket, known at the time under its UR-500 code, made its first test flights in the mid-1960s.
It was originally designed as an intercontinental ballistic missile to carry a nuclear warhead targeting the Soviet Union's Cold War foe the United States. But it was never deployed as a nuclear weapon.
Several crashes of Proton rockets accompanied by spills of heptyl have led to temporary strains in relations between Russia and Kazakhstan.
Russia is increasing spending on space and plans to send a probe to the moon in 2015, but the pioneering program that put the first man in space in 1961 has been plagued in recent years by setbacks, including botched satellite launches and a failed attempt to send a probe to a moon of Mars.
(Additional reporting by Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
July 1, 2013 ? Hovering about 70 light-years from Earth -- that's "next door" by astronomical standards -- is a star astronomers call HD 97658, which is almost bright enough to see with the naked eye. But the real "star" is the planet HD 97658b, not much more than twice Earth's diameter and a little less than eight times its mass. HD 97658b is a super-Earth, a class of planet for which there is no example in our home solar system.
While the discovery of this particular exoplanet is not new, determining its true size and mass is, thanks to Diana Dragomir, a postdoctoral astronomer with UC Santa Barbara's Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope (LCOGT). As part of her research, Dragomir looked for transits of this exoplanet with Canada's Microvariability & Oscillations of Stars (MOST) space telescope. The telescope was launched in 2003 to a pole-over-pole orbit about 510 miles high. Dragomir analyzed the data using code written by LCOGT postdoctoral fellow Jason Eastman. The results were published online today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
A super-Earth is an exoplanet with a mass and radius between those of Earth and Neptune. Don't be fooled by the moniker though. Super-Earth refers to the planet's mass and does not imply similar temperature, composition, or environment to Earth. The brightness of HD 97658 means astronomers can study this star and planet in ways not possible for most of the exoplanet systems that have been discovered around fainter stars.
HD 97658b was discovered in 2011 by a team of astronomers using the Keck Observatory and a technique sometimes called Doppler wobble. But only a lower limit could be set on the planet's mass, and nothing was known about its size.
Transits, such as those observed by Dragomir, occur when a planet's orbit carries it in front of its parent star and reduces the amount of light we see from the star ever so slightly. Dips in brightness happen every orbit, if the orbit happens to be almost exactly aligned with our line of sight from Earth. For a planet not much bigger than our Earth around a star almost as big as our Sun, the dip in light is tiny but detectable by the ultraprecise MOST space telescope.
The first report of transits in the HD 97658 system in 2011 turned out to be a false alarm. That might have been the end of the story, but Dragomir knew that the ephemeris of the planet's orbit (a timetable to predict when the planet might pass in front of the star) was not exact. She convinced the MOST team to widen the search parameters, and during the last possible observing window for this star last year, the data showed tantalizing signs of a transit -- tantalizing, but not certain beyond doubt. A year later, MOST revisited HD 97658 and found clear evidence of the planet's transits, allowing Dragomir and the MOST team to estimate the planet's true size and mass for the first time.
"Measuring an exoplanet's size and mass leads to a determination of its density, which in turn allows astronomers to say something about its composition," Dragomir said. "Measuring the properties of super-Earths in particular tells us whether they are mainly rocky, water-rich, mini gas giants, or something entirely different."
The average density of HD 97658b is about four grams per cubic centimeter, a third of the density of lead but denser than most rocks. Astronomers see great significance in that value -- about 70 percent of the average density of Earth -- since the surface gravity of HD 97658b could hold onto a thick atmosphere. But there's unlikely to be alien life breathing those gases. The planet orbits its sun every 9.5 days, at a distance a dozen times closer than we are from our Sun, which is too close to be in the Habitable Zone, nicknamed The Goldilocks Zone. The Goldilocks nickname is apropos: If a planet is too close to its star, it's too hot; if it's too far away, it's too cold, but if it's in the zone, it's "just right" for liquid water oceans, one condition that was necessary for life here on Earth.
Over the past few years, systems with massive planets at very small orbital radii have proved to be quite common despite being generally unexpected. The current number of confirmed exoplanets exceeds 600, with the vast majority having been discovered by radial velocity surveys. These are severely biased toward the detection of systems with massive planets (roughly the mass of Jupiter) in small orbits. Bucking that trend is HD 97658b, which orbits its star at a distance farther than many of the currently known exoplanets. HD 97658b is only the second super-Earth known to transit a very bright star.
"This discovery adds to the still small sample of transiting super-Earths around bright stars," said Dragomir. "In addition, it has a longer period than many known transiting exoplanets around bright stars, including 55 Cnc e, the only other super-Earth in this category. The longer period means it is cooler than many closer-in exoplanets, so studying HD 97658b's properties is part of the progression toward understanding what exoplanets in the habitable zone might be like."
Low levels of toxic proteins linked to brain diseases, study suggestsPublic release date: 2-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Eleanor Cowie eleanor.cowie@ed.ac.uk 131-650-6382 University of Edinburgh
Uni of Edinburgh
Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's could be better understood thanks to insight into proteins linked to such conditions, a study suggests.
Scientists studying thread-like chains of protein called amyloid fibres have found that low levels of these proteins may cause more harm to health than high levels.
These rarely formed protein chains, which have been linked with dozens of diseases, are produced as a result of a genetic flaw or changes in body chemistry brought about by ageing.
When this happens, short fibres are formed which become sticky and attract copies of themselves, forming an endless chain. These chains spontaneously break, creating more filament ends to which more proteins attach.
In the context of neurodegenerative diseases, it is these short, broken pieces that seem to be most harmful, scientists say.
Researchers have found that when protein levels are low, lots of short protein threads are formed. But when protein levels are high, this spontaneous breakage stops and most protein filaments remain long.
Compared with harmful short protein fibres, long fibres do not appear to be damaging in the case of neurodegenerative diseases. Researchers therefore believe that high levels of the protein which lead to these longer chains may actually be protective.
In addition to shedding light on disease, this insight into the protein chains may help scientists develop useful biomaterials, such as cell scaffolds, which are used for tissue engineering or to make artificial silk.
Cait MacPhee, Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Edinburgh's School of Physics and Astronomy, said; "We would expect that the higher the level of toxins, the worse the disease. However, in this study we found that the lower the level of the protein, the more of these damaging short fibres we see. Understanding how these protein chains form offers us insight not only into how diseases progress, but how we can produce controlled biomaterials for tissue engineering."
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The study, which is published in Nature Communications, was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Royal Society.
For further media information please contact Eleanor Cowie, Press and PR Office, Tel + 44 131 650 6382; Email Eleanor.Cowie@ed.ac.uk
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Low levels of toxic proteins linked to brain diseases, study suggestsPublic release date: 2-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Eleanor Cowie eleanor.cowie@ed.ac.uk 131-650-6382 University of Edinburgh
Uni of Edinburgh
Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's could be better understood thanks to insight into proteins linked to such conditions, a study suggests.
Scientists studying thread-like chains of protein called amyloid fibres have found that low levels of these proteins may cause more harm to health than high levels.
These rarely formed protein chains, which have been linked with dozens of diseases, are produced as a result of a genetic flaw or changes in body chemistry brought about by ageing.
When this happens, short fibres are formed which become sticky and attract copies of themselves, forming an endless chain. These chains spontaneously break, creating more filament ends to which more proteins attach.
In the context of neurodegenerative diseases, it is these short, broken pieces that seem to be most harmful, scientists say.
Researchers have found that when protein levels are low, lots of short protein threads are formed. But when protein levels are high, this spontaneous breakage stops and most protein filaments remain long.
Compared with harmful short protein fibres, long fibres do not appear to be damaging in the case of neurodegenerative diseases. Researchers therefore believe that high levels of the protein which lead to these longer chains may actually be protective.
In addition to shedding light on disease, this insight into the protein chains may help scientists develop useful biomaterials, such as cell scaffolds, which are used for tissue engineering or to make artificial silk.
Cait MacPhee, Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Edinburgh's School of Physics and Astronomy, said; "We would expect that the higher the level of toxins, the worse the disease. However, in this study we found that the lower the level of the protein, the more of these damaging short fibres we see. Understanding how these protein chains form offers us insight not only into how diseases progress, but how we can produce controlled biomaterials for tissue engineering."
###
The study, which is published in Nature Communications, was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Royal Society.
For further media information please contact Eleanor Cowie, Press and PR Office, Tel + 44 131 650 6382; Email Eleanor.Cowie@ed.ac.uk
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
According to Kim Kardashian's trainer, the new mom is "super motivated" to get her pre-baby body back.
Tracy Anderson tells Us Weekly that Kardashian, who gave birth to daughter North West on June 15, is taking some time to be in mommy-mode before hitting the gym hard to regain her famous figure.
Although losing weight isn't a priority for Kardashian at the moment, Anderson says she's devising a workout plan so that they can get going within the next couple of weeks.
"It's a tough time, and a lot of women feel like it's a huge mountain to climb to get back, but Kim, surprisingly, has had the totally opposite reaction to other moms," Anderson tells Us. "She's like, 'We're going to be so good. It's fun, I feel great!' She just loves the whole process. From our talks during her pregnancy, I thought she was going to be really concerned [about her weight] once the baby was out, but she's just not," Anderson adds. "She's in baby heaven. She's excited to get started, but she's really calm about it all."
Reports have been flying that Kardashian wants to shed 30 pounds in 30 days, but Anderson's comments make us believe otherwise. The fitness guru, who trains Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez as well, is going to wait at least five weeks before getting Kardashian to work on strengthening her "abdominal muscles." She'll start the 32-year-old off with four-day-a-week workouts before moving toward five or six days.
"Kim is super motivated. She's all in," Anderson admits. "Pregnancy is actually an opportunity for women to look better than ever. And [Kim] will."
Sure, the Kindle Fire HD may only have a front-facing camera, but its solitary shooter is about to start flexing more than its video chat muscles. Vine has just arrived on Amazon's Appstore, and it's ready for owners to download and churn out as many six-second video clips as they please. Hit the source link below to grab ahold version 1.2 of the free app.
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Public release date: 2-Jul-2013
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