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In the brightest region of this glowing nebula called RCW 34, gas is heated dramatically by young stars and expands through the surrounding cooler gas.
Once the heated hydrogen reaches the borders of the gas cloud, it bursts outwards into the vacuum like the contents of an uncorked champagne bottle – this process is referred to as champagne flow.
But the young star-forming region RCW 34 has more to offer than a few bubbles; there seem to have been multiple episodes of star formation within the same cloud.
This new image from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile shows a spectacular red cloud of glowing hydrogen gas behind a collection of blue foreground stars.
Within RCW 34 – located in the southern constellation of Vela – a group of massive young stars hide in the brightest region of the cloud.
These stars have a dramatic effect on the nebula. Gas exposed to strong ultraviolet radiation – as occurs in the heart of this nebula – becomes ionized, meaning that the electrons have escaped the hydrogen atoms.
Hydrogen is treasured by cosmic photographers because it glows brightly in the characteristic red color that distinguishes many nebulae and allows them to create beautiful images with bizarre shapes. It is also the raw material of dramatic phenomena such as champagne flow.
But ionized hydrogen also has an important astronomical role: it is an indicator of star-forming regions. Stars are born from collapsing gas clouds and therefore abundant in regions with copious amounts of gas, like RCW 34.
This makes the nebula particularly interesting to astronomers studying stellar birth and evolution.
Vast amounts of dust within the nebula block the view of the inner workings of the stellar nursery deeply embedded in these clouds.
RCW 34 is characterized by extremely high extinction, meaning that almost all of the visible light from this region is absorbed before it reaches Earth.
Despite hiding away from direct view, astronomers can use infrared telescopes, to peer through the dust and study the nest of embedded stars.
Looking behind the red color reveals that there are a lot of young stars in this region with masses only a fraction of that of the Sun. These seem to clump around older, more massive stars at the center, while only a few are distributed in the outskirts.
This distribution has led astronomers to believe that there have been different episodes of star formation within the cloud.
Three gigantic stars formed in the first event that then triggered the formation of the less massive stars in their vicinity.
The image above uses data from the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph instrument attached to the VLT, which were acquired as part of the ESO Cosmic Gems program.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A man accused of a fatal 2011 shooting took the stand in his own defense on Thursday as his trial nears its completion.
Daniel Ray Loyd, 53, of Nice, spent the morning and part of the afternoon on the stand in Judge Stephen Hedstrom's courtroom.
Loyd is on trial for the fatal shooting of 48-year-old Cindy Yvette Quiett of Upper Lake early on the morning of Sept. 13, 2011.
On that day, Loyd – who on Thursday admitted to selling drugs – went to Lucerne with plans to rob Patrick Ryden, according to the investigation. Loyd said he had given Ryden about $1,200 worth of methamphetamine to sell.
Although Loyd initially told investigators that he had planned to rob Ryden, he has since said he went instead to take back the drugs after Ryden refused to return his calls.
Loyd said he went to Lucerne and confronted Ryden, holding a gun to his head. During an ensuing struggle, Ryden pushed the gun away and Loyd shot Quiett in the stomach, which he said was an accident. She died later at Sutter Lakeside Hospital.
For several weeks prosecutor John DeChaine has presented evidence and testimony in the case, accompanied at court by sheriff's Det. John Drewrey, who arrested Loyd within hours of the shooting. Loyd has remained in custody since that time.
Loyd's attorney, David Markham, presented his defense on Thursday, with Loyd and sheriff's Deputy Nicole Costanza being the only witnesses he called.
DeChaine cross-examined Loyd at length about a letter the prosecution was seeking to enter into evidence.
In the letter – which Loyd admitted on the stand that he wrote on April 21 to a female friend who visits him in jail each week – he told the woman that she needed to contact other witnesses in the case to explain the felony murder theory to them and tell them that if they came to court to testify, he was going to prison for life.
At one point, the attorneys had a sidebar with Hedstrom, who had the jury briefly removed from the courtroom.
With the jury out of the court, Markham moved for a mistrial.
He said he had gone to great lengths to keep from the jury that Loyd was in custody.
Markham made the motion due to DeChaine's line of questioning about the letter, which mentioned Loyd's female friend making jail visits.
“It was just put out there for the jury,” said Markham, explaining that if someone is in custody for a crime, it tends to give charges more credibility.
Hedstrom noted that it already had been disclosed to the jury that Loyd has had several felony and misdemeanor convictions, and in the questioning the timing of the jail visits wasn't disclosed.
With Loyd's last conviction being in 2005, if it was known that the woman was visiting him over the last three and a half years, Markham was concerned that jurors would know he was in custody for the current charges.
DeChaine said he would be comfortable if the court admonished the jury to strike statements of concern that resulted from the questioning related to the letter. He said the indication of Loyd being in custody was not intentional, and the letter has been authenticated.
DeChaine also noted that before the last court break, there had been concern about correctional staff taking Loyd to the restroom while jurors were standing in the hallway. DeChaine said he heard Markham say not to worry about it, that they – meaning the jurors – already know about Loyd's custody status.
Hedstrom denied the mistrial motion, explaining that he felt the reference to the in-custody visits was minuscule. “They may or may not have totally picked up on it,” he said of the jurors, calling the concern a “tempest in a teapot” and not something he saw as creating prejudice.
When the testimony reconvened before the jury, DeChaine read portions from Loyd's letter to his friend, which gave the phone number and address for the father of a witness as well as directions to his house. Loyd told the woman to get the word out to everyone about the felony murder issue.
“Why don't we just read the letter,” said Loyd, suggesting DeChaine was nitpicking it “and misleading the jury.”
Hedstrom stopped Loyd from saying anything further out of the direct line of questioning.
When DeChaine asked Loyd if he wanted the witnesses to not show up at court, Loyd replied, “I wanted them to understand the felony murder rule.” If they understood it, he said, “They wouldn't show up.”
Markham asked Loyd why he wanted the witnesses to understand the felony murder rule. He replied that he wanted them to know how harsh it is, and no matter if the killing was an accident or unintentional negligence, he was facing life in prison.
Next, Markham asked Loyd what he said to Ryden when he pulled the gun on him. “I told him to give me his s***,” said Loyd.
Loyd was asked to describe his state of mind on the day of the shooting, when he was speaking to Drewrey. He said he was overwhelmed with remorse, and had been up for 10 days straight without any sleep, having taken half a gram of methamphetamine each of those 10 days.
Markham then called Costanza – who had testified earlier in the trial as a prosecution witness – to the stand.
In her original report, Costanza said that in an interview Angel Dusty Spring – who originally had been taken into custody along with Loyd because she had been with him at the time of the shooting – told her that she knew who Loyd was going to meet that day but didn't know he had a gun.
After listening again to a recording of the interview, Costanza said she was uncertain if Spring had acknowledged knowing who Loyd was going to meet.
The defense then rested, and with DeChaine unable to contact a rebuttal witness, the court adjourned for the day, and is expected to complete witness testimony early Friday.
Closing arguments in the case are anticipated to take place on or before this coming Thursday.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Superior Court is seeking at least 30 applicants willing to serve as jurors and alternates on the 2015-16 Lake County Grand Jury panel.
The 19-person grand jury is selected from the different supervisorial districts in proportion to the population of each district.
The grand jury serves as the public’s “watchdog” by investigating and reporting upon the affairs of local government.
The term of service runs from July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2016, and may entail from 10 to 20 hours of work per week attending committee and general meetings, responding to citizens’ complaints, performing research, and investigating the operations of governmental agencies and allegations of wrongdoing by public officials or employees.
The court is looking for applicants in good health who are interested in community affairs, are objective, and are able to work cooperatively with others.
Experience in researching, interviewing, writing and editing, and/or auditing is desirable, and having a general knowledge of the responsibilities and functions of governmental and other public entities is helpful.
A grand juror must be a U.S. citizen, age 18 or older, speak English, be a resident of California and Lake County for at least one year prior to selection, and not hold an elected office or have any felony convictions.
Applications may be obtained online at www.lake.courts.ca.gov or by mailing a letter with a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the Grand Jury Coordinator, 255 N. Forbes, Fourth Floor, Lakeport, CA 95453.
Applications also are available at each Superior Court Clerk’s Office, located at 255 N. Forbes, Fourth Floor, in Lakeport, or at 7000 A South Center Drive in Clearlake.
Further information may be obtained by calling the grand jury coordinator at 707-263-2374, Extension 2282.
Applications must be received by June 19, 2015.
Personal interviews will be scheduled prior to final selection.
If you are interested, please apply, or if you know someone who may be, let them know of this opportunity.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – There is still work to do when it comes to keeping teen drivers safe on the roads.
The good news is that teen crashes have decreased. But, nearly two-thirds of those killed or injured in a teen driver crash are people other than the teen behind the wheel and summer continues to be the most dangerous time for young drivers.
In 2013 alone, 371,645 people were injured and 2,927 were killed in crashes that involved a teen driver.
This information can be found in a new report by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
This report ushers in at the beginning of the “100 Deadliest Days” of summer, the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day when teen crash fatalities historically climb.
The study analyzed police-reported crashes of driver aged 15-19, from 1994-2013 and found that:
· In the past 20 years, nonfatal injury crashes and fatal crashes of teen drivers decreased by 51 percent and 56 percent respectively. In comparison, all non-fatal and fatal crashes including those of teen drivers fell by 25 percent and 17 percent respectively.
· While the overall number of teen crashes are down, the majority of people killed (66 percent) and injured (67 percent) in crashes involving a teen driver are people other than the teen themselves
· Nearly 50 percent of those injured were in another vehicle; 17 percent were in the teen driver’s car; and 2 percent were either a pedestrian or bicyclist
· Nearly 30 percent of those killed were in another car, 27 percent were the teen’s passenger and 10 percent were either a pedestrian or bicyclist
· The U.S. government’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System shows that in 2013, an average of 220 teen drivers and passengers died in traffic crashes during each of the summer months, a 43 percent increase compared to the rest of the year.
“To help their teen drivers to be safe on the roads this summer parents can create a contract with their teen,” suggests Cynthia Harris, AAA Northern California spokesperson. “This contract could use the Graduated Driving laws as a guideline to include nighttime curfews, limitation on the number of passengers, and prohibiting the use of cell phones and other distractions. Parents can also ride with their teens to monitor their progress and to help them with new driving situations such as canyon or freeway driving.”
AAA has online resources to help parents coach teen through the learning-to-drive process and has sample parent teen driving contracts at www.TeenDriving.AAA.com .
The AAA StartSmart online program is helpful to parents to quickly become effective in-car coaches, make informed decisions about access to a vehicle and manage their teen’s overall driving privileges.
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – During a joint meeting Wednesday night, board members from the Upper Lake Union Elementary School District and the Upper Lake Union High School District voted unanimously to approve a final report on the feasibility of unifying the two districts.
That sets the stage for the two boards to hold separate meetings next month, at which time they will consider approving resolutions to unify.
About a dozen people – including parents and board members from the Lake County Office of Education – attended the Wednesday meeting, which ran just under an hour at the Upper Lake High School cafeteria.
The two boards first met last summer to discuss the possibility of unifying.
That initial meeting led to the boards holding five more joint meetings, beginning in January, to work through nine criteria that the California Department of Education mandates be considered as part of the unification process.
Those criteria address having an adequate number of pupils enrolled, district organization based on community identity, an equitable division of property and facilities, potential for segregation and discrimination, no substantial cost increases to the state, having a sound educational system in place, no significant increase in school housing costs, that unification is designed for purposes other than significantly increase property values, and that bringing the new district would be fiscally sound.
Analysis of those criteria carried out by Upper Lake High School Principal/Superintendent Patrick Iaccino, Upper Lake Elementary Principal/Superintendent Valerie Gardner, Lucerne Elementary Principal/Superintendent Mike Brown – whose district isn't taking part but which is a feeder school for the high school – along with the districts' business managers, makes up the report, which can be seen below.
The document concludes that the feasibility study “shows adequate justification to unify Upper Lake Union Elementary School District and Upper Lake Union High School District based on the analysis of the criteria.”
While there is only criterion not substantially met – the first, that the new district must have at least 1,501 students enrolled – Gardner reported during the meeting that the districts have been assured by a state Department of Education representative that the unification could still move forward, and that recent consolidations in other parts of the state also have involved small districts with total enrollment under that target number.
“The study goes on to show that both districts are financially sound and will continue to be so upon unification,” the study said, adding that the newly formed district won't result in a substantial increase in state costs.
Before discussing the feasibility report, the boards heard from several parents, most of whom indicated support for the proposed consolidation.
Angel Huntley said she supported it because she believed it would help the districts better use resources.
Kalyn Noble read from a list of questions she said she formulated after talking to parents and community members.
The questions included whether sports, music and arts, and foreign languages would be available if the districts combined; if older students would be available to mentor younger students; where liability would fall and would it cost less; whether parents who reach out for support would get it; and if students would be offered the resources they need.
“Will joining together as one make us stronger?” she asked, adding, “As we lose more and more students every year, maybe change is necessary.”
Jaleen White, who went through the Upper Lake school system, is guardian for her nephew, who is now a student in the middle school.
Her concern was that her nephew is having less opportunities as a student than she did, and she suggested that unification would help students get a better education, “which everything should lead to.”
She added, “A lot of people are discussing leaving Upper Lake,” and looking at Lakeport and Kelseyville. White said her nephew wants to leave the district “because he wants to be challenged academically.”
Janine Fernandez, another former student who now has a child in eighth grade, told the boards, “Being one district, there would be a smoother transition from one school to the next, all the way through.”
Board discusses feasibility report
During a brief discussion of the feasibility report, Upper Lake Elementary Board member Don Meri asked about the study's statement that students would remain at current school sites. He asked if that wasn't a decision that the new board for the unified district would determine.
Specifically, Meri asked if eighth graders might be moved to the high school.
Iaccino said it was a good question, and he said in his nine years in his job one of the greatest fears he's encountered relates to moving seventh and eighth graders to the high school.
He said he has had that discussion with his board because, when looking at facilities in general and the best way to serve students, it's important to look at all the options.
In such a situation, seventh and eighth graders can have access to high school courses. However, Iaccino said, “To me, that's more a community issue,” and it's a long process to go through, including a lot of work at the negotiation table.
Iaccino said it's an option. “I would tell the community, don't ever take the options away from yourselves.”
During the discussion, Upper Lake High Board member Rich Swaney said the discussion of unification arose as the district tried to think outside of the box because its current business model wasn't working.
Meri pointed out of that model, “It used to work.”
Swaney said things are different from when he was a child, and the community isn't stagnant. He said the school system wasn't at the top of its game now.
Gardner emphasized that the unification doesn't change where children go, and that they don't need new facilities or a move of students to make the unification happen.
“It's really clear that there is nothing different,” she said.
Upper Lake High Board President Keith Austin pointed to the need to develop better plans for articulation between the lower and higher grades.
Gardner said when she thinks of articulation, it's not just about academics. It also is about common professional development for teachers, and for addressing bullying and improving social skills.
She said it's a tiered approach, with every single grade level building on each other all the way through.
The boards voted unanimously to approve the feasibility report before taking up the discussion of the amended unification timeline, which it also approved.
The timeline calls for the Upper Lake Union Elementary School Board to hold a meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 3, at the middle school to consider approving a resolution to unify and the criteria report.
The following week, at 6 p.m. June 10, the Upper Lake High School Union High School Board will meet to consider its own version of the documents.
If those resolutions are approved by the two boards, the resolutions would be submitted to the Lake County Office of Education by July.
Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg must vet the documents before submitting them to the Lake County Board of Education, which – sitting jointly as the Committee on School District Organization – must hold its own public hearing process on the unification proposal this summer.
The resolutions, reports and recommendations must then be submitted to the State Board of Education.
While officials have been aiming at being on the state board's September agenda, Gardner told Lake County News following the Wednesday meeting that the unification may not make the state board agenda until November.
However, she said that isn't expected to impact Falkenberg's appointment of an interim board by December, with the new unified district expected to come into being in the 2016-17 school year.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Over the weekend police arrested a Clearlake man for driving under the influence after he crashed through a fence and hit two children with his vehicle.
Thomas Mark Nordahl, 30, was arrested at the scene of the crash Sunday evening, according to a report from Sgt. Nick Bennett.
Just before 9 p.m. Sunday Clearlake Police Officer Trevor Franklin was dispatched to the 14000 block of Uhl Avenue on a report of a vehicle crash, Bennett said.
When he arrived Franklin saw that a vehicle had crashed through a chain-link fence and struck two young girls, ages 8 and 10, who had been playing in the front yard of a residence, according to Bennett.
Bennett said both children were transported to medical facilities for treatment, where it was determined that neither sustained life-threatening injuries.
Witnesses at the scene stated just prior to the crash that the vehicle that struck the children had been driving in the area at a high rate of speed and in a reckless manner, Bennett said.
Nordahl, who Bennett said was still present at the scene of the crash, subsequently was arrested for driving under the influence of drugs, child endangerment, reckless driving with injury, driving with a suspended license and violation of Post Release Community Supervision, which relates to his state parole.
Bennett said the Clearlake Police Department is forwarding a report on the incident that seeks charges against Nordahl to the Lake County District Attorney's Office for review.
Nordahl remained in custody on Thursday at the Lake County Jail due to the parole violation, based on jail records.