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NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and ESA’s (European Space Agency) XMM-Newton telescope are showing that fierce winds from a supermassive black hole blow outward in all directions – a phenomenon that had been suspected, but difficult to prove until now.
This discovery has given astronomers their first opportunity to measure the strength of these ultra-fast winds and prove they are powerful enough to inhibit the host galaxy’s ability to make new stars.
“We know black holes in the centers of galaxies can feed on matter, and this process can produce winds. This is thought to regulate the growth of the galaxies,” said Fiona Harrison of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, Calif.
“Knowing the speed, shape and size of the winds, we can now figure out how powerful they are,” said Harrison, the principal investigator of NuSTAR and a co-author on a new paper about these results appearing in the journal Science.
Supermassive black holes blast matter into their host galaxies, with X-ray-emitting winds traveling at up to one-third the speed of light.
In the new study, astronomers determined PDS 456, an extremely bright black hole known as a quasar more than 2 billion light-years away, sustains winds that carry more energy every second than is emitted by more than a trillion suns.
“Now we know quasar winds significantly contribute to mass loss in a galaxy, driving out its supply of gas, which is fuel for star formation,” said the study’s lead author Emanuele Nardini of Keele University in England.
NuSTAR and XMM-Newton simultaneously observed PDS 456 on five separate occasions in 2013 and 2014.
The space telescopes complement each other by observing different parts of the X-ray light spectrum: XMM-Newton views low-energy and NuSTAR views high-energy.
Previous XMM-Newton observations had identified black hole winds blowing toward us, but could not determine whether the winds also blew in all directions. XMM-Newton had detected iron atoms, which are carried by the winds along with other matter, only directly in front of the black hole, where they block X-rays.
Combining higher-energy X-ray data from NuSTAR with observations from XMM-Newton, scientists were able to find signatures of iron scattered from the sides, proving the winds emanate from the black hole not in a beam, but in a nearly spherical fashion.
“This is a great example of the synergy between XMM-Newton and NuSTAR,” said Norbert Schartel, XMM-Newton project scientist at ESA. “The complementarity of these two X-ray observatories is enabling us to unveil previously hidden details about the powerful side of the universe.”
With the shape and extent of the winds known, the researchers could then determine the strength of the winds and the degree to which they can inhibit the formation of new stars.
Astronomers think supermassive black holes and their home galaxies evolve together and regulate each other's growth.
Evidence for this comes in part from observations of the central bulges of galaxies – the more massive the central bulge, the larger the supermassive black hole.
This latest report demonstrates a supermassive black hole and its high-speed winds greatly affect the host galaxy.
As the black hole bulks up in size, its winds push vast amounts of matter outward through the galaxy, which ultimately stops new stars from forming.
Because PDS 456 is relatively close, by cosmic standards, it is bright and can be studied in detail. This black hole gives astronomers a unique look into a distant era of our universe, around 10 billion years ago, when supermassive black holes and their raging winds were more common and possibly shaped galaxies as we see them today.
“For an astronomer, studying PDS 456 is like a paleontologist being given a living dinosaur to study,” said study co-author Daniel Stern of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. “We are able to investigate the physics of these important systems with a level of detail not possible for those found at more typical distances, during the 'Age of Quasars.'”
NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by Caltech and managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
For more information, visit www.nasa.gov/nustar and www.nustar.caltech.edu/ .
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A fire on Saturday afternoon did significant damage to a Clearlake home.
The fire, which according to radio reports was dispatched at around 1 p.m., burned a home at the corner of Blue Gum Street and Walnut Avenue, according to Lake County Fire Protection District Battalion Chief Charlie Diener.
Diener said the stick-built home was about half-involved by the time firefighters arrived.
“We were able to stop the advance of the fire pretty much where it was when we got there,” he said.
While the home wasn't destroyed, he said it had smoke and water damage throughout.
One person was at home at the time, and got out safely. Diener said no injuries were reported.
Lake County Fire and Cal Fire sent units to the incident, Diener said.
Diener said the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
He said the family of four who lives at the home was displaced due to the fire, and are receiving assistance from Red Cross.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The mother of two men on trial for a 2013 home invasion robbery and shooting in Clearlake Oaks was the last witness to take the stand during the defense's final day of testimony on Friday.
Dion Andre Davis II, 27, and his half-brother, Gregory Pierre Elarms, 30, both of San Francisco, are on trial for the home invasion on June 26, 2013, at the home of Ronnie and Janeane Bogner, whose adult son was shot during the incident.
Charges against Davis and Elarms include robbery, burglary, assault with a firearm on Jacob Bogner and on Lt. Tim Celli of the Clearlake Police Department, car theft, theft, vandalism and conspiracy, with Davis – the alleged shooter of Bogner – also charged with attempted murder. Their trial began late last month.
Elarms' attorney, Doug Ferguson, called Shunae Morgan as the first witness during the Friday afternoon session.
Morgan and Elarms have a 5-year-old young daughter together, and lived together on and off in the same San Francisco neighborhood where they grew up. She's studying business and management at City College and has her cosmetology license, with hopes of having her own business.
During questioning, Morgan explained that she saw Elarms on a daily basis in 2013, and that in June of that year he was working on an apartment complex renovation project around the corner from her home.
She said she would have known if he missed work, and he came home every night. Ferguson asked if she would have been upset if Elarms hadn't come home. Morgan laughed. “That's an understatement.”
She explained that they have children – the daughter they share as well as Elarms' older son from another relationship – and not being on a schedule “messes up the program.” Morgan said he took the children to school in the morning.
Under Anderson's cross-examination, Morgan said she and Elarms split time about 50-50 between her home and his; he and his son also lived with his mother, Regina McGee, at her home a short walk away.
Davis wasn't living at McGee's home at the time, and Morgan said she wasn't sure where he was. “I would just see him from time to time,” noting that “Uncle Dion” would show up and play with the children.
Morgan said that Elarms was still taking the children to school even during the summer break, as the school had a summer program. She estimated that Elarms worked from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and she was at school until 3 p.m.
She said she was sure Elarms was following his usual routine on June 26, 2013, and that he was preparing birthday parties for the children.
McGee took the stand next.
“I know this may be hard for you,” said Ferguson.
“Extremely,” McGee replied, noting Elarms is her eldest son.
McGee works for the city of San Francisco doing maintenance scheduling for SFO Airport. She studied criminal justice, received a bachelor's degree in 2012 and also is a minister at a Baptist church in Daly City.
She said she recalled seeing Elarms during the last week of June 2013, explaining that at that time she saw him every day.
Ferguson showed her a ticket for a car parked on her street. It was for a gray Chevrolet Malibu belonging to Davis. She and Davis had an argument and so at that time he wasn't living at her home, but he was there daily.
During questioning she estimated Elarms was staying there 90 percent of the time, compared to the 50-percent estimate Morgan had given.
Anderson asked if Davis had at any point rented a Chevy Malibu; that was the kind of rental car that the suspects were driving when they were being pursued by Clearlake Police. McGee said she didn't know.
McGee remembered her son stressing about the back-to-back birthday parties for his children, and his concerns about getting them gifts and having the money to do it.
Anderson also asked McGee about Jenaya Jelinek, who was at the wheel of the rented Malibu when police took her into custody on the day of the home invasion.
Jelinek, who had no prior criminal history according to the prosecution, pleaded out to second degree burglary last year and testified in the early days of the trial.
Jelinek and Davis were longtime friends, and also were described in the Friday testimony as being in a relationship. They were frequently at McGee's home when Davis was staying there in 2012, with Jelinek sometimes staying overnight in violation of McGee's rules.
After he was done with cross-examining McGee, Anderson asked the court to let him make McGee his witness, which retired Placer County Judge James Garbolino gave him permission to do.
Anderson then continued his questioning, asking her about her knowledge of where Elarms was working in June 2013. She was aware of the renovation project but didn't know when it stopped.
Davis' attorney, Bill Conwell, asked McGee if her memory was clear about the summer of 2013. “About some things,” she said, explaining she had memories of Elarms planning his children's birthday parties. “He makes stuff happen for his kids.”
Ferguson asked if Elarms was “somewhere else” at the start of July 2013. She said he may have spent the night out.
Ferguson then brought up the fact that Elarms had been incarcerated at about that point. She said she didn't recall, as she remembered him being around on July 1, which is his son's birthday.
When she was excused from the stand, she asked if she could hug her two sons. The judge said to wait until the session was over.
During a break following McGee's testimony, after the jury had been briefly excused, the judge and attorneys discussed working on a stipulation that Elarms had been arrested on July 1, 2013, and was in the San Francisco Jail on a matter unrelated to the home invasion.
After the break, Ferguson told the court he wanted to bring both Morgan and McGee back for further questioning.
Back briefly on the stand, Morgan said she recalled Elarms being taken into custody and remaining there until February 2014. However, she thought he was arrested after his son's birthday.
Ferguson asked McGee about Elarms being in custody, and she also thought it was after her grandson's birthday, as she remembered him being at the party. She said she was sure Elarms was in San Francisco the last week of June 2013.
Anderson asked her how long Elarms was in custody. She couldn't recall. He said Elarms was in custody through February 2014, but McGee said she didn't know the dates of his incarceration.
“You keep trying to catch me,” she said.
In followup questioning Ferguson asked her, “Is this whole process difficult for you?”
“It's very difficult,” she said.
He asked if, as a minister, she answered to a higher power. She said yes. He then asked if she would lie for her son. She said no. “I'm on the side of right.”
When Ferguson asked her if she would lie before God, she said no.
The defense rested, and Anderson said he would have a short rebuttal that he would offer when court resumes next Wednesday.
In addition to Anderson's rebuttal, Garbolino told the jurors they could expect counsel's final arguments on Wednesday, when the case resumes at 9 a.m.
“We're getting down to the last phase of the case,” Garbolino said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
The state Board of Forestry and Fire Protection will be holding several public hearings across California to hear feedback on proposed maps of the State Responsibility Area, or SRA.
The hearings are part of the board’s deliberative process in adopting changes to the SRA.
California Public Resources Code 4125 requires the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to classify all lands in California to determine financial responsibility for preventing and suppressing wildfires.
The new plan would add 4,729 acres to the SRA statewide.
In Lake County, the proposed changes would add 253 acres to the SRA in the Upper Lake area.
The schedule is as follows:
Redding City Council Chambers
777 Cypress Ave., Redding
Feb. 26 – 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
San Diego DGS Building
1350 Front St., San Diego
Feb. 27 – 1 to 6:30 p.m.
Natural Resources Auditorium
1416 Ninth St., Sacramento
March 4 – 9:30 a.m.
For more information on the hearings and proposed changes visit http://bofdata.fire.ca.gov/board_committees/resource_protection_committee// .
When a provider dies, his or her surviving spouse – or registered domestic partner – and/or minor children can soon find themselves without the necessary resources to maintain themselves in their accustomed manner of living.
Under California law these persons have entitlements regarding a place to live, the use of certain personal property and a family allowance. (Note: A dependent parent and an adult child may sometimes be given a family allowance.) Let’s discuss.
The surviving spouse or registered domestic partner and minor children are immediately entitled to retain possession of the family home, clothing, appliances, household furniture, the decedent’s vehicle and tools. Initially no court involvement is required.
Such immediate rights last until 60 days after the filing of the inventory and appraisal, unless that time frame is modified by court order on good cause.
These rights apply even if these family members are not beneficiaries under the decedent’s will. Thus, a disinherited widow has these rights.
Once the inventory and appraisal is filed, the surviving spouse and minor children may then petition the probate court for a family allowance, set aside of exempt property, and/or a probate homestead. Let’s examine.
First, the surviving spouse and minor children are entitled to petition for a family allowance from the estate necessary to maintain themselves in their accustomed manner of living through the conclusion of probate, in a solvent estate, or up to one year from the date of the decedent’s death, in an insolvent estate.
Once granted, the family allowance is often retroactive to the decedent’s date of death. If the surviving spouse remarries or the minor children become adults, however, then the allowance terminates because their eligibility has ceased, even if the probate continues.
The family allowance is a charge against the decedent’s entire estate, including any community property jointly owned with the surviving spouse; thus, the surviving spouse’s share of any community property can be used to pay the family allowance, on a proportionate basis.
It must be paid as soon as funds become available. This can sometimes mean selling assets to create available cash.
Second, to avoid dispossession after the immediate right to possession expires, the surviving spouse and minor children may petition the court to allow them to retain possession of the household furniture, appliances and family car until the probate is concluded.
Such continued possession, however, is entirely discretionary with the probate court, and involves a facts and circumstance analysis.
Third, the surviving spouse and minor children may petition the court to create one probate homestead.
Unlike the family allowance and the set aside of exempt property, the probate homestead can continue past the close of the probate estate, sometimes for many years.
In the case of a surviving spouse, the probate homestead may last for the remainder of his or her life, so long as he or she does not remarry.
For minor children, the probate homestead terminates upon reaching adulthood.
The application of these rules in the context of a specific probate can become complicated and contentious as interested third parties – such as creditors and beneficiaries – become involved.
The decedent’s will may even expressly force the surviving spouse to elect between inheriting gifts under the will (and receiving such gifts at the end of probate) or asserting these protections contrary to the will and foregoing such gifts.
If granted, a probate homestead does not have to involve the existing family home. The court will apply the following factors to select a residence: (1) The decedent’s intentions; (2) the creditor’s rights; and (3) the interests of other beneficiaries under the will.
These rules are more complicated than can be discussed in this article.
Well drafted wills say whether a family allowance and homestead should be granted. Planning ahead can protect surviving loved ones.
Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, California. Fordham can be reached by e-mail at
NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution has completed the first of five deep-dip maneuvers designed to gather measurements closer to the lower end of the Martian upper atmosphere.
“During normal science mapping, we make measurements between an altitude of about 93 miles and 3,853 miles above the surface,” said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder. “During the deep-dip campaigns, we lower the lowest altitude in the orbit, known as periapsis, to about 78 miles which allows us to take measurements throughout the entire upper atmosphere.”
The 16 miles altitude difference may not seem like much, but it allows scientists to make measurements down to the top of the lower atmosphere. At these lower altitudes, the atmospheric densities are more than ten times what they are at 93 miles.
“We are interested in the connections that run from the lower atmosphere to the upper atmosphere and then to escape to space,” said Jakosky. “We are measuring all of the relevant regions and the connections between them.”
The first deep dip campaign ran from Feb. 10 to 18. The first three days of this campaign were used to lower the periapsis. Each of the five campaigns lasts for five days allowing the spacecraft to observe for roughly 20 orbits. Since the planet rotates under the spacecraft, the 20 orbits allow sampling of different longitudes spaced around the planet, providing close to global coverage.
This month's deep dip maneuvers began when team engineers fired the rocket motors in three separate burns to lower the periapsis. The engineers did not want to do one big burn, to ensure that they didn't end up too deep in the atmosphere. So, they “walked” the spacecraft down gently in several smaller steps.
“Although we changed the altitude of the spacecraft, we actually aimed at a certain atmospheric density,” said Jakosky. “We wanted to go as deep as we can without putting the spacecraft or instruments at risk.”
Even though the atmosphere at these altitudes is very tenuous, it is thick enough to cause a noticeable drag on the spacecraft. Going to too high an atmospheric density could cause too much drag and heating due to friction that could damage spacecraft and instruments.
At the end of the campaign, two maneuvers were conducted to return MAVEN to normal science operation altitudes. Science data returned from the deep dip will be analyzed over the coming weeks. The science team will combine the results with what the spacecraft has seen during its regular mapping to get a better picture of the entire atmosphere and of the processes affecting it.
One of the major goals of the MAVEN mission is to understand how gas from the atmosphere escapes to space, and how this has affected the planet's climate history through time. In being lost to space, gas is removed from the top of the upper atmosphere. But it is the thicker lower atmosphere that controls the climate. MAVEN is studying the entire region from the top of the upper atmosphere all the way down to the lower atmosphere so that the connections between these regions can be understood.