EARTH-LIKE PLANET

As NASA prepares to hunt for Earth-like planets in our corner of the Milky Way galaxy, there's new buzz that "Star Trek's" vision of a universe full of life may not be that far-fetched.

An artist's impression shows a planet passing in front of its parent star. Such events are called transits.

Pointy-eared aliens traveling at light speed are staying firmly in science fiction, but scientists are offering fresh insights into the possible existence of inhabited worlds and intelligent civilizations in space.
There may be 100 billion Earth-like planets in the Milky Way, or one for every sun-type star in the galaxy, said Alan Boss, an astronomer with the Carnegie Institution and author of the new book "The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living Planets."
He made the prediction based on the number of "super-Earths" -- planets several times the mass of the Earth, but smaller than gas giants like Jupiter -- discovered so far circling stars outside the solar system.
Boss said that if any of the billions of Earth-like worlds he believes exist in the Milky Way have liquid water, they are likely to be home to some type of life.
"Now that's not saying that they're all going to be crawling with intelligent human beings or even dinosaurs," he said.
"But I would suspect that the great majority of them at least will have some sort of primitive life, like bacteria or some of the multicellular creatures that populated our Earth for the first 3 billion years of its existence."
Putting a number on alien worlds
Other scientists are taking another approach: an analysis that suggests there could be hundreds, even thousands, of intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland constructed a computer model to create a synthetic galaxy with billions of stars and planets. They then studied how life evolved under various conditions in this virtual world, using a supercomputer to crunch the results.
Galaxy Quest• The Milky Way is believed to be more than 13 billion years old.• It is just one of billions of galaxies in the universe.• The Milky Way has a circumference of about 250,000-300,000 light years.• It is about 100,000 light years in diameter.• There are three types of galaxies: ellipticals, spirals and irregulars.• The Milky Way is a large disk-shaped barred spiral galaxy. (A barred galaxy has a bar-shaped structure in its middle.)Source: Space.com
In a paper published recently in the International Journal of Astrobiology, the researchers concluded that based on what they saw, at least 361 intelligent civilizations have emerged in the Milky Way since its creation, and as many as 38,000 may have formed.
Duncan Forgan, a doctoral candidate at the university who led the study, said he was surprised by the hardiness of life on these other worlds.
"The computer model takes into account what we refer to as resetting or extinction events. The classic example is the asteroid impact that may have wiped out the dinosaurs," Forgan said.
"I half-expected these events to disallow the rise of intelligence, and yet civilizations seemed to flourish."
Forgan readily admits the results are an educated guess at best, since there are still many unanswered questions about how life formed on Earth and only limited information about the 330 "exoplanets" -- those circling sun-like stars outside the solar system -- discovered so far.
The first was confirmed in 1995 and the latest just this month when Europe's COROT space telescope spotted the smallest terrestrial exoplanet ever found. With a diameter less than twice the size of Earth, the planet orbits very close to its star and has temperatures up to 1,500° Celsius (more than 2,700° Fahrenheit), according to the European Space Agency. It may be rocky and covered in lava.
Hunt for habitable planets
NASA is hoping to find much more habitable worlds with the help of the upcoming Kepler mission. The spacecraft, set to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida next week, will search for Earth-size planets in our part of the galaxy.
Don't Miss
NASA.gov: Explore the Kepler mission
iReport.com: Stargazers unite! Share your view of the universe
Kepler contains a special telescope that will study 100,000 stars in the Cygnus-Lyra region of the Milky Way for more than three years. It will look for small dips in a star's brightness, which can mean an orbiting planet is passing in front it -- an event called a transit.
"It's akin to measuring a flea as it creeps across the headlight of an automobile at night," said Kepler project manager James Fanson during a during a NASA news conference.
The focus of the mission is finding planets in a star's habitable zone, an orbit that would ensure temperatures in which life could exist. Watch a NASA scientist explain the search for habitable planets »
Boss, who serves on the Kepler Science Council, said scientists should know by 2013 -- the end of Kepler's mission -- whether life in the universe could be widespread.
Finding intelligent life is a very different matter. For all the speculation about the possibility of other civilizations in the universe, the question remains: If the rise of life on Earth isn't unique and aliens are common, why haven't they shown up or contacted us? The contradiction was famously summed up by the physicist Enrico Fermi in 1950 in what became known as the Fermi paradox: "Where is everybody?"
The answer may be the vastness of time and space, scientists explained.
"Civilizations come and go," Boss said. "Chances are, if you do happen to find a planet which is going to have intelligent life, it's not going to be in [the same] phase of us. It may have formed a billion years ago, or maybe it's not going to form for another billion years."
Even if intelligent civilizations did exist at the same time, they probably would be be separated by tens of thousands of light years, Forgan said. If aliens have just switched on their transmitter to communicate, it could take us hundreds of centuries to receive their message, he added.
As for interstellar travel, the huge distances virtually rule out any extraterrestrial visitors. iReport.com: Share your view of the universe
To illustrate, Boss said the fastest rockets available to us right now are those being used in NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto. Even going at that rate of speed, it would take 100,000 years to get from Earth to the closest star outside the solar system, he added.
"So when you think about that, maybe we shouldn't be worried about having interstellar air raids any time soon," Boss said.

BUY THESE BOOKS

THE BATTLE DESTINED TO FIGHT
THE PREVAILING GATE OF HELL
MOUNTAIN OF PREY
PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
A CALL TO HONOUR: A BIOGRAPHY OF APOSTLE JOSEPH AYO BABALOLA
CHRISTHOOD FOR MANKIND
INTRODUCTION TO CHRISTIAN LIVING

Author: Rev. Babatunde Ezekiel Ajibola

Published and distributed by lulu.com

http://www.lulu.com/ezekielbookshelve

FATHER AT 13? GOD BLESS THE CHILD: B.E. AJIBOLA

We might be tempted to want to say this is new but I assure us that there is nothing new under the heavens. I am sure such as this must have taken place in several remote locations of the earth far away from news media glare and attention. However, we can not turn our eyes away from such and pretend it is one of those things. Thank to science that has made us to know that all that is needed to become a father and a mother is to have the male sperm to fertilise the female ovary where ever they are both available. Definitely when the two involved have reached puberty they stand the risk of becoming father and mother if they copulate. This knowledge saves us from stories affiliated with taboos or moral impositions in the human society.
In the bible we read about men getting to an advance age before becoming a father. If we compare such era with the present day mentality, we might want to ask the question what is this world turning into.
I remember when I was in my early years I would turn green if any young girl of about my age was being referred to as my wife. Such an insinuation would make any teenage boy shy not to talk of being a father. In some primitive culture such an occurrence will bring all the village elders into the village square to discuss what they will regard as an abominable act especially in situations like this where the mother is older than the father. It might call for sacrifice or even excommunication from the community in order to avoid the wrought of the local deity.
There are many things that happen these days which we have never found the like written in the bible. Many are yet to start manifesting and many are already manifesting which is not yet opened to the world. We however thank science for having explanation to most of these issues even though not all of science explanation sound convincing.
I admire the courage of this young father who already agree to take responsibility for his baby. I hope he knows the economic implications. I guess he does not. Thanks to the parents of the young couple, they seem to be helping out. What job Can we offer this young dad. Let us give him some time to have enough experience of what it is to be a father at such an early age, we might find him useful as counsellor to young men of his age who might want to do the same, to tell them if it is worth taken the risk or not. God bless mother and child. Read the News article below.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FATHER AT THIRTEEN?

Alfie Patten's girlfriend Chantelle Steadman, 15, gave birth to Maisie Roxanne in Eastbourne Hospital, East Sussex, four days ago.

Little Alfie, who stands just 4ft tall and looks young for his age, told a newspaper: "I thought it would be good to have a baby."

But he admitted he did not think about how he would afford to raise his child.

"I don't really get pocket money. My dad sometimes gives me £10," he said.

Alfie, who lives with his mother Nicola, 43, in Eastbourne, was 12 when Maisie was conceived.

The pair, who have the support of their parents, kept the pregnancy secret until Chantelle's mother Penny noticed her daughter's swollen belly.

Alfie said: "When my mum found out, I thought I was going to get in trouble. We wanted to have the baby but were worried how people would react

"I didn't know what it would be like to be a dad. I will be good, though, and care for it."

Alfie's father Dennis said his son wanted to be a devoted and responsible father, but did not fully appreciate what he had taken on by having a child.

He said Alfie had wanted to be the first to hold his child. "He could have shrugged his shoulders and sat at home on his Playstation. But he has been at the hospital every day," he said.

Chantelle and Maisie have been discharged from hospital and are living with her family in a council house in Eastbourne.

ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL, THE LORD GOD MADE THEM ALL

Doctors in California have been astonished by a baby boy born with 24 perfectly formed and fully functioning fingers and toes. Skip related content
Related photos / videos Double Dozen Digit Baby Blessing Kamani Hubbard has six digits on each hand and foot, a condition commonly known as polydactylism.

Doctors at St Luke's Hospital in San Francisco say, because the extra fingers and toes are so well formed, they do not consider it a deformity or disability.

Maternity staff and the radiographer did not detect the baby's extra digits, so it came as quite a surprise to Kamani's father.

Kris Hubbard said "I was in amazement. It took a little while for me to take it all in.

"My son has six fingers, then I saw his toes and I thought 'This is quite unique'."

Polydactylism affects around 1 in 500 babies.

The extra digits are usually small pieces of soft tissue. They occasionally contain bone without joints and are rarely complete, functioning digits.

Famous polydactyls include: actress Gemma Arterton; West Indian cricketer Gary Sobers; Blues guitarist Hound Dog Taylor; and Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII.

Dr Michael Treece, a paediatrician at St Luke's Hospital, said: "It's merely an interesting and beautiful variation rather than a worrisome thing.

"Imagine what sort of pianist a 12-fingered person would be. Imagine what sort of flamenco guitarist. If else, think of their typing skills."

The parents have not decided whether to have the extra fingers and toes removed, but doctors say the baby should keep them.

BLACKHOLE

Black holes found at the center of galaxies around the cosmos seem to have appeared first not the other way around, scientists say, solving an age-old riddle which long has dogged astronomers. Skip related content
Related photos / videos Enlarge photo "It looks like the black holes came first. The evidence is piling up," said Chris Carilli, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Carilli outlined the research conducted by an international team of astronomers at a meeting Wednesday of the American Astronomical Society's meeting in Long Beach, California.

Scientists long have believed that a link exists between galaxies and black holes, but in a classic "chicken or egg" conundrum, were uncertain about which came first.

Researchers were particularly intrigued by a link between masses of the black holes and the central "bulges" of stars and gas in galaxies, said Dominik Riechers of the California Institute of Technology.

"The black hole and the bulge affect each others' growth in some sort of interactive relationship," Riechers said.

"The big question has been whether one grows before the other or if they grow together, maintaining their mass ratio throughout the entire process."

The research appears to have solved the mystery, using the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array radio telescope and the Plateau de Bure Interferometer in France to peer far back into the 13.7 billion-year history of the universe.

"We finally have been able to measure black hole and bulge masses in several galaxies seen as they were in the first billion years after the Big Bang, and the evidence suggests that the constant ratio seen nearby may not hold in the early universe," said Fabian Walter of the Max-Planck Institute for Radioastronomy (MPIfR) in Germany.

"The black holes in these young galaxies are much more massive compared to the bulges than those seen in the nearby universe," he said. "The implication is that the black holes started growing first."

The researchers said the next challenge is to figure out precisely how the black hole and the bulge affect each others' growth.

"To understand how the universe got to be the way it is today, we must understand how the first stars and galaxies were formed when the universe was young," Carilli said.

"With the new observatories we'll have in the next few years, we'll have the opportunity to learn important details from the era when the universe was only a toddler, compared to today's adult."

GREETINGS

HAPPY NEW YEAR

BLACK AND WHITE TWINS BABY

A mixed-race couple who had one black and one white twin daughter seven years ago have described how they defied the odds and did it again. Skip related content
Related photos / videos Black And White Twins... Again! Dean Durrant, 33, and Alison Spooner, 27, of Fleet, Hampshire, have had another set of twin girls with different coloured skin.

Miya has her father's black skin and Leah is white like her mother.

The couple's first set of twins arrived in 2001, with blue-eyed, red-haired Lauren taking after her mother while Hayleigh has black skin and hair like her father.

Ms Spooner told Sky News: "I honestly didn't think it would happen again.

"I thought we would have two the same - and I didn't think we'd have twins again for a start. That was a shock," she said.

The couple tried to put a bet on just in case but say bookies William Hill refused because the did not have the medical knowledge to offer them odds.

Rupert Adams, a spokesman for William Hill, said some novelty bets are difficult to offer fair odds on.

However, the bookes will try and offer a price if the couple want to make it third time lucky.

"If they came to us again saying they would try for another set, we'd give them odds of 10,000 to one," he said.

Miya and Leah were delivered by Caesarean section at Frimley Park Hospital, in Surrey, at just 37 weeks of pregnancy after scans revealed both babies were in the breech position.

Mr Durrant said he began to suspect they were different colours when second-born Miya arrived.

He explained: "I was sure in my mind there was a difference but I didn't think it was as much as with Hayleigh and Lauren but obviously it is."

The babies were taken to a special care unit because they were not breathing properly so it took five days for the parents to see them side by side.

"It's amazing," Mr Durrant added. "I think I'm still in shock."

SEARCH CODE

SEARCH CODE

SANTA JOURNEY ON SATELLITE

For web-savvy kids everywhere, Santa's journey from the North Pole can be tracked online. Skip related content
Related photos / videos Track Santa by satellite! The North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad), which is responsible for aerospace and maritime defence, has teamed up with internet giants Google to make Santa's busy 24 hours visible online via the www.noradsanta.org site.

It appears he has already dropped off some some gifts in Russia, Japan, Fiji, North Korea, New Zealand and Australia and will be heading to the UK later.

So you'd better be good for goodness sake...

NASA TO SELL THREE USED SPACE SHUTTLES

For anyone with an interest in the starry skies and around 42 million dollars to spare, NASA may have an interesting proposition. Skip related content
Related photos / videos Enlarge photo
Related content
US gives green light for first commercial spaceport
UN chief calls 2009 'year of climate change'
X-ray measurements boost dark energy theory
Related Hot Topic: Space
Have your say: Space
The US space agency has announced it is selling three used space shuttles when they are retired in 2010, after 30 years of service.

Sadly for enthusiasts planning their own voyage of discovery, the orbiters will only be made available for display in museums and other educational institutes.

And potential buyers may have to move quickly.

One of the three craft -- the most complex aircraft ever built which launches into space like a rocket before gliding back to Earth like a plane -- has already been earmarked for the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

There the shuttle will join a wealth of exhibits held by the museum which mark the history of flight and space exploration, including a first successful motorized plane produced by the Wright brothers in 1903.

The two remaining craft, which were generally used to transport equipment into space, will be cleaned, decontaminated and stored in the Kennedy Space Center in Florida while new homes are found.

The 42-million dollar cost includes six million dollars to fly the shuttle to its new home piggybacked on a special Boeing 747, but not the costs of the final road transport.

For those with a smaller budget, NASA is also selling engines found at the rear of the shuttles and which run on a mixture of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. They will cost around 400,000-800,000 dollars each, not including delivery.

The 37-metre long shuttle has carved a place into space history, helping to construct the orbiting International Space Station and to repair the Hubble space telescope.

It must be kept in a covered and temperature-controlled area, NASA said.

Only six space shuttles were ever built. The prototype Enterprise never flew in space.

Two were destroyed. Challenger exploded 73 seconds after its lift-off in 1986 killing seven astronauts on board. Columbia disintegrated as it returned to the Earth's atmosphere in 2003 also with seven astronauts on board.

Only three shuttles remain -- Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour. They are due to make eight more flights to the ISS to finish construction and carry out the last maintenance mission on the Hubble.

According to the British daily The Guardian, the Science Museum in London has voiced interest in buying Endeavour, but reportedly only American organizations are being considered.

NUCLEAR CLEAN-UP

By Jorn Madslien
Business reporter, BBC News, Sellafield



The National Nuclear Laboratory's Fiona Rayment tours Sellafield's new research centre.

Staring into a dark green crystal ball, nuclear engineer Matt Clough is eyeing the future.


It tells us where the hazards are and how severe they are

Matt Clough, nuclear engineer


Consortium takes charge

"The basic idea is that it's transparent when it's new," he grins, holding it up against the light.

"The darker it is, the more radiation it's absorbed."

Mr Clough is a member of a team of scientists at the recently-established National Nuclear Laboratory, a nuclear technology services provider owned by the state, but run as a private enterprise.

Mr Clough and his team are behind the RadBall, or radiation ball, made from a polymer material that becomes opaque when exposed to radiation.

To nuclear decommissioners, who are working to clean up the mess left behind from half a century of nuclear weapons and energy production, the RadBall could soon become a vital tool.

The RadBall's main advantage is that it is very portable.

"You can use it in hard-to-reach areas in the plant and in areas where electric devices struggle with high radiation levels," Mr Clough explains.

"It tells us where the hazards are and how severe they are."

"We're actually trialling it on plant at Sellafield at the moment, so the technology is being used in the field," says RadBall's inventor, Dr Steven Stanley, who won the young engineer of the year award for his creation.

Nuclear's emergence

High up in a 120m tall building, half the height made up by a fragile-looking chimney, a team of nuclear decommissioning experts are prepared for the worst.

Dressed in PVC suits and wearing breathing apparatus, they work behind a sealed, low-pressurised canvas cover, chipping away at a steel and concrete structure that will eventually be demolished.

THE BLACK HOLE

There is a giant black hole at the centre of our galaxy, a study has confirmed.

German astronomers tracked the movement of 28 stars circling the centre of the Milky Way, using two telescopes in Chile.

The black hole is four million times more massive than our Sun, according to the paper in The Astrophysical Journal.

Black holes are objects whose gravity is so great that nothing - including light - can escape them.

According to Dr Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), the results suggest that galaxies form around giant black holes in the way that a pearl forms around grit.

'The black pearl'

Dr Massey said: "Although we think of black holes as somehow threatening, in the sense that if you get too close to one you are in trouble, they may have had a role in helping galaxies to form - not just our own, but all galaxies.

The most spectacular aspect of our 16-year study, is that it has delivered what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that super-massive black holes do exist

Professor Reinhard Genzel
Head of the research team

"They had a role in bringing matter together and if you had a high enough density of matter then you have the conditions in which stars could form.

"Thus the first generation of stars and galaxies could have come into existence".

The researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany said the black hole was 27,000 light years, or 158 thousand, million, million miles from the Earth.

"Undoubtedly the most spectacular aspect of our 16-year study, is that it has delivered what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that super-massive black holes do really exist," said Professor Reinhard Genzel, head of the research team.

"The stellar orbits in the galactic centre show that the central mass concentration of four million solar masses must be a black hole, beyond any reasonable doubt."

Observations were made using the 3.5m New Technology Telescope and the 8.2m Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. Both are operated by the European Southern Obsevatory (Eso).


There is a giant black hole at the centre of our galaxy, a study has confirmed.

German astronomers tracked the movement of 28 stars circling the centre of the Milky Way, using two telescopes in Chile.

The black hole is four million times more massive than our Sun, according to the paper in The Astrophysical Journal.

Black holes are objects whose gravity is so great that nothing - including light - can escape them.

According to Dr Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), the results suggest that galaxies form around giant black holes in the way that a pearl forms around grit.

'The black pearl'

Dr Massey said: "Although we think of black holes as somehow threatening, in the sense that if you get too close to one you are in trouble, they may have had a role in helping galaxies to form - not just our own, but all galaxies.

The most spectacular aspect of our 16-year study, is that it has delivered what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that super-massive black holes do exist

Professor Reinhard Genzel
Head of the research team

"They had a role in bringing matter together and if you had a high enough density of matter then you have the conditions in which stars could form.

"Thus the first generation of stars and galaxies could have come into existence".

The researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany said the black hole was 27,000 light years, or 158 thousand, million, million miles from the Earth.

"Undoubtedly the most spectacular aspect of our 16-year study, is that it has delivered what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that super-massive black holes do really exist," said Professor Reinhard Genzel, head of the research team.

"The stellar orbits in the galactic centre show that the central mass concentration of four million solar masses must be a black hole, beyond any reasonable doubt."

Observations were made using the 3.5m New Technology Telescope and the 8.2m Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. Both are operated by the European Southern Obsevatory (Eso).



There is a giant black hole at the centre of our galaxy, a study has confirmed.

German astronomers tracked the movement of 28 stars circling the centre of the Milky Way, using two telescopes in Chile.

The black hole is four million times more massive than our Sun, according to the paper in The Astrophysical Journal.

Black holes are objects whose gravity is so great that nothing - including light - can escape them.

According to Dr Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), the results suggest that galaxies form around giant black holes in the way that a pearl forms around grit.

'The black pearl'

Dr Massey said: "Although we think of black holes as somehow threatening, in the sense that if you get too close to one you are in trouble, they may have had a role in helping galaxies to form - not just our own, but all galaxies.

The most spectacular aspect of our 16-year study, is that it has delivered what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that super-massive black holes do exist

Professor Reinhard Genzel
Head of the research team

"They had a role in bringing matter together and if you had a high enough density of matter then you have the conditions in which stars could form.

"Thus the first generation of stars and galaxies could have come into existence".

The researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany said the black hole was 27,000 light years, or 158 thousand, million, million miles from the Earth.

"Undoubtedly the most spectacular aspect of our 16-year study, is that it has delivered what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that super-massive black holes do really exist," said Professor Reinhard Genzel, head of the research team.

"The stellar orbits in the galactic centre show that the central mass concentration of four million solar masses must be a black hole, beyond any reasonable doubt."

Observations were made using the 3.5m New Technology Telescope and the 8.2m Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. Both are operated by the European Southern Obsevatory (Eso).
There is a giant black hole at the centre of our galaxy, a study has confirmed.

German astronomers tracked the movement of 28 stars circling the centre of the Milky Way, using two telescopes in Chile.

The black hole is four million times more massive than our Sun, according to the paper in The Astrophysical Journal.

Black holes are objects whose gravity is so great that nothing - including light - can escape them.

According to Dr Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), the results suggest that galaxies form around giant black holes in the way that a pearl forms around grit.

'The black pearl'

Dr Massey said: "Although we think of black holes as somehow threatening, in the sense that if you get too close to one you are in trouble, they may have had a role in helping galaxies to form - not just our own, but all galaxies.

The most spectacular aspect of our 16-year study, is that it has delivered what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that super-massive black holes do exist

Professor Reinhard Genzel
Head of the research team

"They had a role in bringing matter together and if you had a high enough density of matter then you have the conditions in which stars could form.

"Thus the first generation of stars and galaxies could have come into existence".

The researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany said the black hole was 27,000 light years, or 158 thousand, million, million miles from the Earth.

"Undoubtedly the most spectacular aspect of our 16-year study, is that it has delivered what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that super-massive black holes do really exist," said Professor Reinhard Genzel, head of the research team.

"The stellar orbits in the galactic centre show that the central mass concentration of four million solar masses must be a black hole, beyond any reasonable doubt."

Observations were made using the 3.5m New Technology Telescope and the 8.2m Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. Both are operated by the European Southern Obsevatory (Eso).



ARIELLE FORD







ARIELLE FORD