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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has discovered a new layer of the solar system that scientists hadn't known was there, researchers announced Monday.

Voyager 1 and its sister probe Voyager 2 have been traveling through space since 1977, and are close to becoming the first manmade objects to leave the solar system.

Scientists haven't been sure exactly when that exit would occur, and now say the spacecraft are likely in the outermost region of the solar system, which is defined by the extent of the heliosphere, the large bubble of charged particles the sun puffs out around itself. Voyager 1, in particular, has entered a new region of the heliosphere that scientists are calling a "magnetic highway," which allows charged particles from inside the heliosphere to flow outward, and particles from the galaxy outside to come in.

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"We do believe this may be the very last layer between us and interstellar space," Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, Calif., said during a teleconference with reporters. "This region was not anticipated, was not predicted."

Therefore, he said, it's hard to predict how soon Voyager will leave the solar system behind altogether. [How NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 Probes Work (Infographic)]

"We don?t know exactly how long it will take," Stone said. "It may take two months, it may take two years."

The scientists don't think the Voyagers have left the solar system yet because of the orientation of the magnetic field they detect. So far, this field still runs east-west, in agreement with the field created by the sun and twisted by its rotation. Outside the solar system, models predict the magnetic field to be orientated more north-south.

As Voyager 1, the outermost of the two spacecraft, gets farther and farther away, it measures more and more of the higher-energy charged particles thought to originate beyond the solar system, compared to the lower-energy particles thought to come from the sun.

"Things have actually changed dramatically," said Stamatios Krimigis, principal investigator of the low-energy charged particle instrument, based at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. "The particles from outside have increased a lot and those on the inside ? have dropped quite a bit."

The Voyagers are NASA's longest-running spacecraft, and will keep traveling outward even after they've left the sun's neighborhood. However, it will be at least 40,000 years before they ever come close to another star, Stone said.

Long before that the probes will run out of power to operate their scientific instruments and beam their findings back home.

"We will have enough power for all the instruments until 2020; at that point we will have to turn off our first instrument," Stone said. By 2025 the last instrument will have to be turned off.

"We're very lucky that there seems to be a compatibility between our mission and the extent of the heliosphere," Stone said.

Follow Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50060860/ns/technology_and_science-space/

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Video: Painting the NFL playoff picture

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Cruel new fact of crustacean life: lobster cannibalism

LITTLETON, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Researchers studying Maine's lobster population, booming in recent years amid warming waters and disappearing predators, have detected something never before seen in the wild: lobster cannibalism.

It has long been known that lobsters will attack and eat each other if confined together in a small space ? hence the banding of claws on lobsters in supermarket tanks.

That aggressive behaviour had not been thought to occur in the wild, but with the increasing density of the crustaceans in the Gulf of Maine it seems big lobsters are feasting on little lobsters once the sun goes down.

"We've got the lobsters feeding back on themselves just because they're so abundant," said Richard Wahle, a marine sciences professor at the University of Maine, who is supervising the research. "It's never been observed just out in the open like this," he said.

Maine's lobster catch rose to a record 104 million pounds (45 million kilograms) last year, compared with 23 million pounds in 1981. The 2012 catch is expected to shatter that record as overfishing and other factors have led to the collapse of populations of cod, halibut and other groundfish that feed on lobsters.

Warming waters in the Gulf of Maine due to climate change have also bolstered the population even as the same phenomenon has led to more disease and lower populations in Long Island Sound and southern New England, Wahle said.

A graduate student working with Wahle, Noah Oppenheim, has been documenting the phenomenon using a special infrared camera that allows him to observe a juvenile lobster tethered with a rope to a spot on the ocean floor.

During the daytime, it is fish that typically feed on the tethered juvenile lobsters, but at night the researchers were stunned to see that most of the attacks on the small lobsters were by their larger brethren.

"The population of lobsters in Maine has skyrocketed and there have been some interesting changes in abundance, demographics and, we believe, behaviour," Oppenheim said. "Eight out of nine times at night, predation is due to cannibalism."

Wahle said Canadian researchers studying the contents of lobsters' stomachs had also recently found evidence of cannibalism in the wild.

"There are these cases where encounters with each other are becoming so frequent, they result in more than just a bit of competition but in a predator-prey interaction," Wahle said.

Falling lobster prices due to this year's abundant catch have led to tensions between Canadian and U.S. lobstermen. In August, New Brunswick lobstermen picketed processing plants and temporarily blocked shipments of inexpensive Maine lobster from being brought to the Maritime provinces in Canada for processing.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cruel-fact-crustacean-life-lobster-cannibalism-032139648.html

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Monday, December 3, 2012

McDowell clings to a 2-shot lead at Sherwood

Graeme McDowell walks off the second tee during the third round of the World Challenge golf tournament at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Bret Hartman)

Graeme McDowell tees off on the sixth hole during the third round of the World Challenge golf tournament at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Bret Hartman)

Keegan Bradley tees off on the sixth hole during the third round of the World Challenge golf tournament at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Bret Hartman)

Tiger Woods tees off on the fifth hole during the third round of the World Challenge golf tournament at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Bret Hartman)

Tiger Woods loses his handle on his club while teeing of on the sixth hole during the third round of the World Challenge golf tournament at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Bret Hartman)

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP) ? Based on history alone, the most comfortable part of Graeme McDowell's position is being at Sherwood Country Club.

Ever since he first showed up at the World Challenge in 2009 as a last-minute replacement for tournament host Tiger Woods, McDowell has broken par in every round he has played. Saturday was no exception. He rolled in two long birdie putts early in the third round and stretched his streak to 29 holes without a bogey when he walked off the 18th green with a 4-under 68.

As for his two-shot lead? That's not always his best spot from which to win.

McDowell's last three wins started with at least a three-shot deficit. He has never won when he had the outright lead, although he started out tied for the lead four times.

"I'm not sure how many times I've won from the front," McDowell said. "Hopefully, I'll add one tomorrow."

All he knows is that it doesn't figure to be easy to pick up his first win in two years.

Keegan Bradley had to cope with more fallout on the proposed ban of the belly putting stroke when he said one man in the gallery called him a "cheater." It didn't keep the former PGA champion from a 5-under 67 to get into the final pairing with McDowell on Sunday.

Woods, a five-time champion at Sherwood, kept himself in the game. Even though Woods failed to birdie any of the five par 5s, he picked up a pair of birdies on the final two par 3s and added a third to salvage a 69 that left him five shots behind.

"I'm going to have to shoot a low one tomorrow and see what happens," Woods said.

McDowell was at 13-under 203, and will try to win from the front for the first time since he was tied for the 54-hole lead at the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond in 2008. His specialty of late has been rallying on the last day ? four shots behind at the World Challenge, three shots behind at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, four shots behind at the Wales Open, all of those in 2010.

On another overcast day with a light drizzle, McDowell picked up a pair of birdies he wasn't expecting.

He laid up on the par-5 second hole and hit his wedge with two much spin, the ball rolling back down a pair of tiers that left him some 40 feet away. He rolled that in for a birdie, and then holed about a 25-foot birdie putt on No. 4. McDowell's best swing of the day came at the ninth, with the pin at the far back of the green. He hit a 6-iron to about 6 feet for birdie, and picked up his fourth birdie with a two-putt on the 11th, the one par 5 he can reach in two.

The damp conditions all week have made some of the par 5s difficult to reach, even for some of the longer hitters, and birdies are no longer sure things. Woods found that out the hard way, missing the fairway badly to the right on No. 5 and having to lay up. Even when he was in position for birdie on the 11th, he three-putted for par. But he closed strong, and still has an outside chance.

Bo Van Pelt had a 70 and was tied with Woods at 8-under than 208. Jim Furyk was another shot behind after trading three birdies with three bogeys for a 72.

"I felt like I played decent enough to get to 10 under and just didn't do it," Woods said

Bradley and McDowell are the only players to post all three rounds in the 60s. A year ago, Bradley was 10 over for the tournament and never shot better than 73.

"I played so poorly here last year, it just feels so good to be in the hunt, and I'm striking the ball as good as I can," Bradley said. "A few putts go in tomorrow, I think I could have a good run at this."

Bradley has been the center of attention all week, especially after the USGA and the R&A proposed a new rule on anchored strokes that would keep him from using the belly putter. The rule is not to take effect until 2016 at the latest, but some fans are passionate against it.

Already this week, Bradley told of getting a tweet from some follower who advised him to apply for a job at Burger King in 2016. And then he told of the man who told him he was cheating, which was unusual for Bradley because he can't ever recall getting heckled.

"There's always going to be people who are negative," he said.

The primary focus is catching up to McDowell, who is starting to feel right at home in this toney neighborhood. The runner-up finish in 2009 earned him enough ranking points that eventually got him into the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, which he won for his first major, and that win assured him a spot in the Ryder Cup.

He won again in California with his comeback against Woods at Sherwood.

McDowell's only regret Saturday was not making another birdie after the 11th hole, although the pars didn't hurt him.

"I played disciplined golf to some of those tighter pins," McDowell said. "Couldn't seem to get anything to drop, but two shots ahead going into Sunday, I'll take that any week, anywhere, any time, and it's right where you need to be."

It helps being at Sherwood.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-12-01-GLF-World-Challenge/id-9c4ccefcedd344169b91574952e2b3cd

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North Korea gears up to launch long-range rocket

FILE - In this April 8, 2012 file photo, a group of journalists walk down a road in front of North Korea's Unha-3 rocket at Sohae Satellite Station in Tongchang-ri, North Korea. April 8, 2012. North Korea said Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012 it will launch a long-range rocket between Dec. 10 and Dec. 22. The launch will heighten already strained tensions with South Korean ahead of its presidential election on Dec. 19. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File)

FILE - This Monday Nov. 26, 2012 file satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe and annotated by 38 North, the website of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, shows the Sohae Satellite Launch Station in Cholsan County, North Pyongan Province, North Korea. North Korea said Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012 it will launch a long-range rocket between Dec. 10 and Dec. 22, a move likely to heighten already strained tensions with Washington and Seoul ahead of South Korean presidential elections Dec. 19. (AP Photo/DigitalGlobe via 38 North, File)

FILE - In this April 8, 2012 file photo, a North Korean soldier stands in front of the country's Unha-3 rocket, slated for liftoff between April 12-16, at Sohae Satellite Station in Tongchang-ri, North Korea. Rocket sections are apparently being trucked into North Korea's northwest launch site, but some analysts are asking whether it's just a calculated bluff meant to jangle the Obama administration and influence South Korean voters ahead of Dec. 19 presidential elections in three weeks. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File)

FILE - In this April 8, 2012 file photo, North Korea's Unha-3 rocket stands at Sohae Satellite Station in Tongchang-ri, North Korea. North Korea said Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012 it will launch a long-range rocket between Dec. 10 and Dec. 22. The launch will heighten already strained tensions with South Korean ahead of its presidential election on Dec. 19. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File)

FILE - In this Wednesday, April 8, 2012 file photo, North Korea's Unha-3 rocket, slated for liftoff between April 12-16, stands at Sohae Satellite Station in Tongchang-ri, North Korea. North Korea said Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012 it will launch a long-range rocket between Dec. 10 and Dec. 22. The launch will heighten already strained tensions with South Korean ahead of its presidential election on Dec. 19. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea is gearing up to fire a long-range rocket this month in a defiant move expected to raise the stakes of a global standoff over its missile and nuclear programs.

The North's announcement Saturday that it would launch the rocket between Dec. 10 and Dec. 22 came as President Barack Obama prepares for his second term and as South Korea holds a presidential election Dec. 19.

It would be North Korea's second launch attempt under leader Kim Jong Un, who took power following his father Kim Jong Il's death nearly a year ago. Some analysts have expressed skepticism that North Korea has corrected whatever caused the embarrassing misfire of its last rocket eight months ago. That launch earned the country widespread international condemnation.

A spokesman for North Korea's Korean Committee for Space Technology, however, said scientists have "analyzed the mistakes" made in the failed April launch and improved the precision of its Unha rocket and Kwangmyongsong satellite, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

The statement said the launch was a request of late leader Kim Jong Il. He died on Dec. 17, 2011, and North Koreans are expected to mark that date this year with some fanfare. The space agency said the rocket would be mounted with a polar-orbiting Earth observation satellite, and maintained its right to develop a peaceful space program.

Washington considers North Korea's rocket launches to be veiled covers for tests of technology for long-range missiles designed to strike the United States, and such tests are banned by the United Nations.

"A North Korean 'satellite' launch would be a highly provocative act," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in Washington, D.C. "Any North Korean launch using ballistic missile technology is in direct violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions."

In 2009, North Korea conducted rocket and nuclear tests within months of Obama taking office.

China, the North's main ally and aid provider, also expressed concerns about the launch. Beijing's Foreign Ministry on Sunday acknowledged North Korea's right to the peaceful use of outer space, but said that had to be harmonized with restrictions including those set by the U.N. Security Council.

North Korea has capable short- and medium-range missiles, but long-range launches in 1998, 2006, 2009 and in April of this year ended in failure. North Korea is not known to have succeeded in mounting an atomic bomb on a missile but is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen bombs, according to U.S. experts. In 2010 it revealed a uranium enrichment program that could provide a second source of material for nuclear weapons.

Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program in exchange for aid fell apart in early 2009.

There has been some skepticism about whether North Korea will succeed.

"Preparing for a launch less than a year after a failure calls into question whether the North could have analyzed and fixed whatever went wrong," David Wright, a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, wrote on the organization's website this week.

North Korea said it chose a safe flight path so debris won't endanger neighboring countries. But there are still concerns over falling debris, and Japan's defense minister issued an order to missile units to prepare to intercept the rocket if it or its fragments threaten to hit Japan.

The first stage of the rocket is expected to fall in the Yellow Sea and the second stage in waters east of the Philippines, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said Sunday. The official said Japanese officials provided the information after intercepting a North Korean-dispatched telex about the launch.

The message said North Korea plans to launch the rocket between 7 a.m. (2200 GMT) and noon (0300 GMT) during its planned launch window, the South Korean official said on condition of anonymity because of department rules.

South Korean officials have accused North Korea of trying to influence the South's presidential election with what they consider provocations meant to put pressure on voters and on the United States as the North seeks concessions. Conservative Park Geun-hye, the daughter of late President Park Chung-hee, is facing liberal Moon Jae-in in the South Korean presidential vote. Polls show the candidates in a close race.

North Korea is "working hard to influence the upcoming election. They may have a preferred candidate," South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said in an interview with a small group of foreign reporters in the presidential Blue House. "Even if they test fire a missile, it will not have a big impact on the election," Lee said, speaking through an interpreter.

Lee gave the interview Thursday but his office embargoed the publication of his comments until Sunday.

North Korea under its young leader has pledged to bolster its nuclear arsenal unless Washington scraps what the North calls a "hostile" policy. North Korea maintains that it is building bombs to defend itself against what it sees as a U.S. nuclear threat in the region.

This year is the centennial of the birth of national founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of Kim Jong Un. According to North Korean propaganda, 2012 is meant to put the North on a path toward a "strong, prosperous and great nation."

"North Korea appears to be under pressure to redeem its April launch failure before the year of the 'strong, prosperous and great nation' ends," said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Dongguk University in Seoul.

He added that a successful rocket launch would raise North Korea's bargaining power with South Korea and the United States "because it means the country is closer to developing missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads."

Before its last two rocket launches, North Korea notified the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization about its intentions to launch. IMO spokeswoman Natasha Brown said that as of Friday the organization had not been notified by North Korea.

The North's announcement on Saturday comes two days after South Korea canceled what would have been the launch of its first satellite from its own territory. Scientists in Seoul cited technical difficulties. South Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the North's planned launch is "a grave provocation and a head-on challenge to the international community."

North Korea's missile and nuclear programs will be a challenge for Obama in his second term and for the incoming South Korean leader. Washington's most recent attempt to negotiate a freeze of the North's nuclear program and a test moratorium in exchange for food aid collapsed with the April launch.

In Japan, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said he would coordinate with the U.S., South Korea, China and Russia in strongly urging the North to refrain from the rocket launch. Kyodo News agency said Japan also postponed high-level talks with North Korea scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned North Korea's launch plan, saying a failure by North Korea to cancel the firing will lead to a further response by the international community.

The Korean Peninsula remains in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Washington stations nearly 30,000 troops in South Korea as a buttress against any North Korean aggression. Tens of thousands more are in nearby Japan.

___

Associated Press writers Jean H. Lee, Hyung-jin Kim and Sam Kim in Seoul, Jill Lawless in London, Thomas Strong in Washington, D.C., and Elaine Kurtenbach in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2012-12-02-AS-NKorea-Rocket-Launch/id-7cb0f5bc572b4b11900ae7801ec66d5b

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Wildfire in Rocky Mountain National Park prompts evacuations

DENVER (Reuters) - A wind-driven wildfire in Rocky Mountain National Park northwest of Denver jumped containment lines overnight, triggering the evacuation of hundreds of people on Saturday, fire officials said.

Wind gusts of more than 70 miles per hour blew flames from the so-called Fern Lake Fire close to dwellings and destroyed at least one cabin, said fire spokeswoman Traci Weaver.

The east side of the park was closed, and authorities called 1,100 cell and home phones, warning people to either evacuate or prepare to leave quickly if winds drive flames their way.

About 200 people went to stay at an evacuation center in a high school in nearby Estes Park after evacuations were ordered early on Saturday, said Nick Christensen, spokesman for the Larimer County Sheriff's Office.

There are no reports of any injuries, Christensen said.

The forced evacuations represented a dangerous development in firefighters' efforts to quell the stubborn Fern Lake Fire, which has burned for nearly two months.

Efforts to battle the fire have been hampered by the steep, rugged terrain, gusty winds that have restricted air resources, and a lack of precipitation, Weaver said.

The blaze, which has blackened some 1,550 acres, was ignited in October by an illegal campfire and is burning through stands of beetle-killed trees.

It was about 40 percent contained before the overnight flare-up, officials said.

Winds subsided after daybreak Saturday, Weaver said, and two heavy air tankers from Southern California were dispatched to the fire. "What we really need is snow," he said.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver: Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wildfire-rocky-mountain-national-park-prompts-evacuations-205823537.html

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