Comet Whips Up Whirling Debris in Close-Up Hubble Telescope View

Comet Whips Up Whirling Debris in Close-Up Hubble Telescope View
By Sarah Lewin, Staff Writer | May 13, 2016 09:34am ET





A shining jet of dust whirls around a comet zooming past Earth in newly released time-lapse images from the Hubble Space Telescope.

When Comet 252P/LINEAR flew by Earth in late March, it passed within just 3.3 million miles (5.2 million kilometers) of Earth, or about 14 times the distance between Earth and the moon. That makes this comet "one of the closest encounters between a comet and our planet," not to mention "the closest celestial object Hubble has observed, other than the moon," Space Telescope Science Institute officials said in an image description. The Hubble team created a new time-lapse movie of the comet flyby using the space telescope's imagery.

Hubble Space Telescope captured these images of Comet 252P/LINEAR on April 4, 2016, about two weeks after the object streaked past Earth, using the observatory's Wide Field Camera 3. The comet passed by Earth at a distance of just 3.3 million miles (5.2 million kilometers), which is about 14 times the Earth-moon distance.Credit: NASA, ESA and J.-Y. Li (Planetary Science Institute)

Hubble caught this sequence of photos about two weeks after the comet's closest approach, spotlighting the sunlight reflecting off of the object's jet of ice and dust. The comet's nucleus is too small for Hubble to see, officials said in the caption, but the spinning jet indicates that the little nucleus was rotating as it flew. By now, the comet has traveled more than 25 million miles (40 million km) away from Earth.

The object is around 750 feet (230 meters) wide, and it was first discovered by MIT's Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) survey in 2000. The day after 252P passed Earth, in March, another, smaller comet passed even closer; researchers said this object might be a piece broken off of 252P.

The dynamic nature of the comet can be seen clearly in the time-lapse movie from Hubble's images, Hubble officials said.

"The movie underscores the dynamics and volatility of a comet's fragile nucleus," they wrote in the image description.- See more at: http://www.space.com/32875-comet-whirls-by-hubble-time-lapse.html#sthash.8CqGAb8y.dpuf

Message from His All Holiness on the Holy and Great Council - Ecumenical Patriarchate Press Office

Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 13 Μαΐ 2016

His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew offers his dreams and prayers for the Holy and Great Council, meeting in Crete in late June 2016. The Holy and Great Council is the first time in 1200 years that 14 autocephalous Orthodox churches are meeting, with a common desire for strengthened relations and to be a sign of “unity in a world afflicted by conflict and division.”

The Holy and Great Council gathers in Crete in the latter part of June 2016. It is the first time in 1200 years that 14 autocephalous Orthodox churches are meeting. Approximately 500 individuals will be part of this historic gathering, with a common desire to reinforce their relations and address contemporary spiritual and social challenges in the world. 

Lost Mayan City” Discovered By Teenager May Not Be A City After All

May 12, 2016 | by Ben Taub

photo credit: The rectangular structure seen in these satellite images may actually be a marijuana field. Canadian Space Agency

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Scientists are once again officially not dumber than school kids, now that it has been suggested that the supposed lost Mayan city discovered by a Canadian teenager probably isn’t a city at all.

In what had seemed like the most sensational Mayan-based news story since the world failed to end in 2012, media outlets (including us) had been purring about 15-year-old William Gadoury, who seemed to have cracked an ancient mystery that had eluded his full-grown peers, by noticing that Mayan cities were constructed in alignment with stellar constellations.

Using satellite imagery provided by the Canadian Space Agency, he was then able to pinpoint what many experts claimed was a large man-made structure, deep in the jungles of the Yucatan peninsula. Some began to suggest that the square-shaped object was the base of an enormous Mayan pyramid, and in the initial excitement the story went global.

However, an archaeologist from the University of California, San Diego, named Geoffrey E. Braswell soon got in touch with Gizmodo and the Washington Post to explain that he has in fact visited the site, and can confirm that “there are no ancient pyramids” anywhere to be seen. Instead, he claims that “the two rectangular features identified as pyramids are small fields filled with weeds,” adding that “the fields may be fallow or may be active marijuana fields, which are common in the area.”

So it seems that Gadoury may actually have just exposed the hidden operations of illegal drug manufacturers rather than a historical relic. Regardless of what the fields are being used for, though, several other researchers have come out in agreement with Braswell that the features on the satellite images are indeed pyramidless plots of land.

Anthropologist Thomas Garrison, who is an expert in remote sensing, told Gizmodo that “the rectilinear nature of the feature and the secondary vegetation growing back within it are clear signs of a relic milpa,” a type of cropping field common throughout Mexico and Central America. “This is obvious to anyone that has spent any time at all in the Maya lowlands,” he says.

Just as when people prematurely jumped on the 2012-apocalypse bandwagon, it seems that once again we’ve let our imaginations run away with us when it comes to the Mayans. Sadly, some researchers are now even tearing apart Gadoury's idea that the pre-Columbian culture built its cities in line with celestial bodies, suggesting that Mayan settlements are just so numerous throughout the Yucatan that finding a pattern like this is inevitable once you look for it.

Στο Άγιο Όρος για ολιγόωρη επίσκεψη ο Πρόεδρος της Δημοκρατίας--The Holy Mountain for intra-day visit of the President of the Republic

Στο Άγιο Όρος για ολιγόωρη επίσκεψη ο Πρόεδρος της Δημοκρατίας





Το Άγιον Όρος επισκέπτεται σήμερα ο Πρόεδρος της Δημοκρατίας, Προκόπης Παυλόπουλος. Πρόκειται για την πρώτη του επίσκεψη, μετά την εκλογή του στο προεδρικό αξίωμα.
Κατά την αντιφώνηση του στον Ιερό Ναό του Πρωτάτου, στις Καρυές, ο Πρόεδρος της Δημοκρατίας δήλωσε πως η Ελληνική Δημοκρατία έχει υποχρέωση προστασίας του Ιερού Τόπου του Αγίου Ορους, για τη διατήρηση αναλλοίωτου του χαρακτήρα και της πορείας του στο μέλλον.
Ο κ. Παυλόπουλος σημείωσε ότι όλοι οι Ελληνες αισθανόμαστε υπερήφανοι για το γεγονός ότι το Άγιον Όρος περιλαμβάνεται στην πατρίδα μας και εξέφρασε τη χαρά και την προσδοκία ότι η σημερινή συνάντηση και συναναστροφή θα συμβάλει, ακόμη περισσότερο, στην καλλιέργεια πνεύματος εγγύτητας και αμεσότητας.
Τον πρόεδρο της Δημοκρατίας προσφώνησε ο Πρωτοεπιστάτης του Αγίου Ορους, ο Γέροντας Παύλος από την Ιερά Μονή Μεγίστης Λαύρας, ο οποίος καλωσόρισε τον κ. Παυλόπουλο και χαρακτήρισε το Περιβόλι της Παναγίας «Ακρόπολη της Ορθοδοξίας και του ελληνισμού». Ταυτόχρονα αναφέρθηκε στην οικονομική κρίση στη χώρα μας και εξέφρασε την ευχή και την ελπίδα η ελληνική πολιτεία, ο πολιτικός κόσμος να αφουγκραστούν την αγωνία και τα δίκαια αιτήματα του ελληνικού λαού, να σταθεί δίπλα του.

Επίσης υπογράμμισε ότι παρά τα οικονομικά προβλήματα ο αριθμός των προσκυνητών στο Άγιον Όρος αυξάνεται.



Τον πρόεδρο της Δημοκρατίας υποδέχθηκαν στις Καρυές ο πολιτικός διοικητής του Αγίου Ορους Αρίστος Κασμίρογλου, ο Πρεωτιστάτης γέροντας Παύλος και τα μέλη της Ιεράς Επιστασίας, οι ηγούμενοι των 20 Μονών και ο εκπρόσωπος του Οικουμενικού Πατριαρχείου, ο Μιλήτου Απόστολος.
Αμέσως παρακολούθησε τη δοξολογία στον ιερό ναό του Πρωτάτου όπου προσκύνησε και την ιερή εικόνα της Παναγίας "Αξιον Εστί".


Στη συνέχεια μετέβη στο κτίριο της Ιεράς Κοινότητας όπου τον κέρασαν με τον παραδοσιακό αγιορείτικο τρόπο και του έδειξαν τον "Τράγο", δηλαδή την περγαμηνή από δέρμα τράγου πάνω στην οποία είναι γραμμένο το πρώτο Τυπικό (ο καταστατικός χάρτης του Αγίου Ορους), φέρει τις ιδιόχειρες υπογραφές του αυτοκράτορα του Βυζαντίου Ιωάννη Τσιμισκή και του Αγίου Αθανασίου του Αθωνίτη και είναι το ιστορικότερο κείμενο του Αγίου Ορους (972μ.Χ.)
Ακολούθως, ο κ. Παυλόπουλος θα παρακαθίσει σε γεύμα προς τιμή του που παραθέτει η Ιερά Κοινότητα στις Καρυές και μετά θα επισκεφθεί διαδοχικά τις Ιερές μονές Ιβήρων και Μεγίστης Λαύρας.


Το απόγευμα ο Πρόεδρος της Δημοκρατίας θα επιστρέψει στην Αθήνα.
Το Σάββατο 28 Μαΐου ο Προκόπης Παυλόπουλος θα μεταβεί και πάλι στον Άγιον Όρος, αυτή τη φορά μαζί με τον Πρόεδρο της Ρωσίας Βλαντιμίρ Πούτιν. Εκεί θα βρίσκεται από την προηγουμένη (Παρασκευή 27 Μαΐου) και ο πατριάρχης Μόσχας Κύριλλος.

Jet-powered hoverboard shatters world record

When footage of a flying hoverboard first emerged last month, many thought it was fake, because the relatively tiny device appears to be breaking the laws of physics. But the "Flyboard Air" from inventor Franky Zapata is real, spectacular and just set a world record for the longest hoverboard flight of all time. It traveled 2,252 meters or 7,388 feet, nearly ten times farther than the mark set last year by Catalin Alexandru Duru on a much larger device. The record has already been certified by Guinness, which attended the event (see the full video, below).

Frenchman Zapata is the man behind the Flyboard, a watersports device that amounts to a firehose attached to boots. However, the Flyboard Air is completely untethered, and has mind-boggling specs -- it can supposedly fly up to 10,000 feet high and hit 93 miles per hour. Zapata makes it look pretty easy to maneuver, though he is a jet ski champ with a lot of experience on the original Flyboard. In fact, he says that it would be insane to try the Flyboard Air without at least 50 hours of experience on the water-powered model.

Given the performance, the Flyboard Air makes every jet pack out there obsolete, as it has better range, height, speed and maneuverability. It took Zapata four years to create the device, which runs on four 250-horsepower RC jet engines, according to The Verge. It's powered by Jet A1 kerosene held in a backpack, and engine power is controlled by a hand-held remote. There's no steering wheel, obviously -- the pilot turns by banking and shifting his body weight.

Zapata only flies the device above water, and was forced to deliberately splash down recently after the battery system failed. "It broke all the electronics on the board, so it will cost me money, but the rest of it is fine," he told the The Verge. He adds that the system can run on three of the four jet engines in case one fails, and that the sensors and WiFi control channels have triple redundancy.

The company plans more demonstrations and will soon release additional footage. As for commercializing it, Zapata has already been approached by numerous companies, and thinks the Flyboard Air would be useful for government and security forces. He's even working on a more advanced design that would be easier for the general public to use. "If everybody wants a Flyboard Air, we have to work with the government, we have to work with liability, we have to work on a thousand things. But why not?"

Personal electric plane won't need an airport

Backed by the ESA, the "Lilium" will take off vertically and fly at 250 mph.

Now that hoverboards are an honest-to-god thing, we have to say we're pretty disappointed with how flying cars have worked out. Another company has jumped into the fray with a vertical take-off plane called theLilium that can soar at 400 km/h (250 mph). We'd normally say they're dreaming with the specs: A 10,000 foot ceiling, 500 km (310 mile) range and helicopter-like takeoffs, all on battery power. However, it's hosted by a European Space Agency (ESA) incubator and the team from the Technical University of Munich plans manned tests next year.

The Lilium has wings and flies like a regular plane, but takes off like a helicopter by swiveling its ducted fan engines, much like DARPA's VTOL X-Plane concept. The engines, batteries and controllers are all redundant for safety, and it can take off in a space as small as 50 x 50 feet. The inventors want to certify it in the light sport aircraft (LSA) category, meaning pilots with as little as 20 hours training could fly it in good weather conditions. To start with, though, it would be confined to airfields and take off like a regular airplane.

The plan is to eventually get it approved for vertical takeoffs, which would be fully controlled by a computer rather than a pilot. It will feature fly-by-wire joystick controls and a touchscreen, panoramic windows, a retractable landing gear and recharging system that could plug into regular power. Thanks to the ducted engines, it'll be much quieter than helicopters during takeoff and landing.

Despite the ESA's backing, the project has a lot of hoops to jump through. As we've mentioned, certification for regular airplanes is already time-consuming and expensive, and the Lilium hardly qualifies as regular. Getting it approved for vertical takeoffs is really a stretch, as the only comparable aircraft is the V22 Osprey, which cost billions to certify. Also, 500 km on battery power sounds very dubious, considering the high performance.

However, the inventors have already flown a half-scale prototype (above) and plan to fly a full-scale model this summer, with manned flights ambitiously scheduled for 2017. However, we've heard that tune before from Terrafugia, AeroMobile and numerous other wannabe flying cars, and we're still waiting.

San Francisco sheriff’s deputies charged in connection with November beating

Published time: 11 May, 2016 02:41

© sfpublicdefender / YouTube

Two San Francisco sheriff’s deputies face felony charges following the release of a video showing them beating a suspected car thief during an arrest. The Alameda County officers are expected to surrender by Wednesday and be held in lieu of bail.

Luis Santamaria and Paul Wieber were experienced officers. Santamaria had spent 14 years serving the Alameda County Sherrff’s Office and Wieber had three years with them, yet in November, both officers were caught on film beating Stanislav Petrov with their batons in an alley.

Now the officers are charged with assault under the color of authority, along with battery with serious bodily injury and assault with a deadly weapon, according to the Los Angeles Times.

On top of that, the officers are being investigated by the San Francisco Public Corruption Task Force for additional allegations of false police statements, theft, bribery, witness tampering and other wrongdoing related to this case, KGO reported.

Petrov’s representative, Michael Haddad, called the case “the worst videotaped beating since Rodney King” in a statement to the LA Times.

Sea Cucumber

Photo: NOAA National Ocean Service

Weird Gramma here, and this is “WeirdFins,” all about strange stuff in the sea, and brought to you by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Well, Pat in Tigard, Oregon, has heard of a cigar-shaped thing that can hurl its innards out its rear end and then grow ‘em again!

Well, Pat, this is a sea cucumber, and more than a thousand species live all over the world. They’re related to starfish and sea urchins, but they have a soft, leathery skin instead of hard spines. Some sea cukes are ugly and some are pretty, some live nearshore and some, miles down in ocean trenches. Some can swim, some hide in the sand, and some just chug along the sea floor. One kind is the size of a kidney bean, but another is 15 feet—as long as a car!

Most sea cucumbers scavenge for their food. This exposes them to crabs and other creatures that want to eat them so sea cukes have a nifty defense: They shoot a wad of sticky threads from their rear end that entangles the attacking crab while the sea cuke sneaks away to re-grow its innards. If you handle this goo, you can get a bad skin rash, and if the stuff gets in your eyes, it can cause blindness! So fishermen who harvest sea cukes tend to be real careful.

Sea cucumbers are sold for Asian cooking, where they’re called trepang or bêche-de-mer. Some species have toxins used for medical research, and some kinds are popular for home aquaria. And in the Pacific Islands, fishermen not only use them for fish bait but use the gooey threads as bandages on bleeding wounds.

Sea cucumbers are real important to healthy oceans. They grind stuff into finer particles that are part of the sea’s great nutrient cycle. So, too much fishing for them ruin bottom habitat for other animals.

You can see pictures of sea cucumbers on the on the National Marine Fisheries Service