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For more than four hundred years, astronomers have used telescopes to study the great variety of stars in our galaxy.
Millions of distant suns have been cataloged. There are dwarf stars, giant stars, dead stars, exploding stars, binary stars; by now, you might suppose that every kind of star in the Milky Way had been seen.
That's why a recent discovery is so surprising.
Researchers using the Subaru telescope in Hawaii have found a star with spiral arms.
The name of the star is SAO 206462. It's a young star more than four hundred light years from Earth in the constellation Lupus, the wolf.
SAO 206462 attracted attention because it has a circumstellar disk – that is, a broad disk of dust and gas surrounding the star.
Researchers strongly suspected that new planets might be coalescing inside the disk, which is about twice as wide as the orbit of Pluto.
When they took a closer look at SAO 206462 they found not planets, but arms.
Astronomers have seen spiral arms before: they’re commonly found in pinwheel galaxies where hundreds of millions of stars spiral together around a common core. Finding a clear case of spiral arms around an individual star, however, is unprecedented.
The arms might be a sign that planets are forming within the disk.
“Detailed computer simulations have shown us that the gravitational pull of a planet inside a circumstellar disk can perturb gas and dust, creating spiral arms,” said Carol Grady, an astronomer with Eureka Scientific, Inc., who is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. “Now, for the first time, we're seeing these dynamical features.”
Grady revealed the image to colleagues on Oct. 19 at a meeting at Goddard entitled Signposts of Planets.
Theoretical models show that a single embedded planet may produce a spiral arm on each side of a disk.
The structures around SAO 206462, however, do not form a matched pair, suggesting the presence of two unseen worlds, one for each arm.
Grady's research is part of a five-year international study of newborn stars and planets using the giant 8.2 meter Subaru Telescope.
Operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Subaru scans the heavens from a perch almost 14,000 feet above sea level at the summit of the Hawaiian volcano Mauna Kea.
From there it has a crystal-clear view of innumerable young stars and their planet-forming disks throughout the Milky Way.
“What we're finding is that once these systems reach ages of a few million years – that’s young for a star – their disks begin to show all kinds of interesting shapes,” said John Wisniewski, a collaborator at the University of Washington in Seattle. “We’ve seen rings, divots, gaps – and now spiral features. Many of these structures could be caused by planets moving within the disks.”
However, it is not an open and shut case.
The research team cautions that processes unrelated to planets might give rise to these structures. Until more evidence is collected – or until the planets themselves are detected – they can’t be certain.
Whatever the cause of the arms, their reality is undeniable and the great catalog of stars has one more type. Stay tuned to science@nasa for future entries.
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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Seventeen-year-old Kya Hill's right arm was severed in the crash, which occurred inside the Napa County line on Highway 29, according to reports from the scene and the California Highway Patrol.
Hill was riding with her boyfriend, 22-year-old Samuel Weatherwax, also of Middletown, in his 2005 Dodge pickup when the crash occurred at about 6:55 p.m. Thursday, the CHP's Napa office reported.
The CHP report said Weatherwax was driving southbound on Highway 29 north of Tubbs Lane when the vehicle lost traction and left the roadway.
The pickup's right side hit a rock embankment on the highway's west edge. Hill's right arm – which was out the passenger window – also hit the embankment, the CHP said.
Weatherwax, who was uninjured, drove Hill back to the Middletown Fire Station, where Cal Fire paramedics tended to the girl until a REACH air ambulance few her from the station to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, according to the CHP report.
The CHP said the crash's cause is still under investigation.
In the wake of the crash and her injury, Hill – according to accounts shared by her friends – appears to be in good spirits, and is inspiring those around her.
A friend, CyCy Taylor, posted this message on Lake County News' Facebook page on Friday morning, which she said had been posted several hours earlier by Hill: “Hey guys!! I'm alive(: and now I'm left-handed because my arm got ripped off lol. Thank you everyone for the love and prayers!! And I get a fake arm(:.”
Readers and friends alike wished her a speedy recovery, and on Hill's Facebook page her attitude was cited as an inspiration.
Her friend Devin Negrete called her one of the strongest people he's ever met. “Her attitude through this whole thing is truly inspirational.”
Maria Gonzalez wrote that she learned a valuable lesson “from the most amazing person in the world last night” – which is not to dwell on what you don't have.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This Sunday, Nov. 6, Californians will be rolling back their clocks as daylight saving comes to an end.
Cal Fire and fire departments across the state are reminding residents to replace the batteries in all smoke alarms as well as their carbon monoxide alarm when they change their clocks.
“We recommend changing the batteries in your smoke alarms twice a year,” said acting State Fire Marshal Tonya Hoover of Cal Fire. “While you are spending a couple minutes to change the time on all your clocks, it’s so easy just to add an extra minute to ensure your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarm all have fresh, new batteries as well.”
According to the National Fire Protection Association, roughly two-thirds of home fire deaths occurred in homes without working smoke alarms.
Working smoke alarms increase the change of surviving a home fire by 50 percent.
For decades, firefighters have used the time change as a reminder for residents to change their smoke alarm batteries. This year, officials are adding carbon monoxide alarms to their message following a new state law requiring all single-family homes have a carbon monoxide alarm.
Cal Fire has the following tips on smoke alarms:
Test smoke alarms once a month.
Replace batteries in all smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms twice a year.
Don’t “borrow” or remove batteries from smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, even temporarily.
Regularly vacuum or dust smoke and carbon monoxide alarms to keep them working properly.
Replace smoke alarms every 10 years.
Don’t paint over smoke or carbon monoxide alarms.
Practice family fire drills so everyone knows what to do if the smoke alarm goes off.
Find more information visit the Cal Fire Web site at www.fire.ca.gov.
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NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected signs of icy bodies raining down in an alien solar system.
The downpour resembles our own solar system several billion years ago during a period known as the “Late Heavy Bombardment,” which may have brought water and other life-forming ingredients to Earth.
“We believe we have direct evidence for an ongoing Late Heavy Bombardment in the nearby star system Eta Corvi, occurring about the same time as in our solar system,” said Carey Lisse, senior research scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., and lead author of a paper detailing the findings to appear in the Astrophysical Journal.
During the Late Heavy Bombardment, comets and other frosty objects from the outer solar system pummeled the inner planets. The barrage scarred our Moon and produced large amounts of dust.
Spitzer has spotted a band of dust around Eta Corvi that strongly matches the contents of an obliterated giant comet, probably destroyed by a collision with a planet or some other large body.
The dust is located close enough to Eta Corvi that Earth-like worlds could exist in the collision zone, suggesting that planets like our own might be involved. The Eta Corvi system is approximately one billion years old, which researchers think is about the right age for such a hailstorm.
Astronomers used Spitzer's infrared detectors to analyze the light coming from the dust around Eta Corvi. Curiously, the light signature emitted by the dust around Eta Corvi resembles the Almahata Sitta meteorite, which fell to Earth in fragments across Sudan in 2008.
The similarities between the meteorite and the object obliterated in Eta Corvi imply a common birthplace in their respective solar systems.
A second, more massive ring of colder dust located at the far edge of the Eta Corvi system seems like the proper environment for a reservoir of cometary bodies.
This bright ring, discovered in 2005, matches the size of a similar region in our own solar system, known as the Kuiper Belt, where icy and rocky leftovers from planet formation linger.
The comets of Eta Corvi and the Almahata Sitta meteorite may have each originated in the Kuiper Belts of their respective star systems.
About 4 billion years ago, not long after our solar system formed, scientists think the Kuiper Belt was disturbed by a migration of Jupiter and Saturn.
This jarring shift in the solar system's gravitational balance scattered the icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt, flinging the vast majority into interstellar space and producing cold dust in the belt.
Some Kuiper Belt objects, however, were set on inward paths that crossed the orbits of Earth and other rocky planets.
The resulting bombardment of comets lasted until 3.8 billion years ago. After comets hit the side of the Moon that faces Earth, magma seeped out of the lunar crust, eventually cooling into dark “seas.”
Everyone has seen them: Those seas form the distinctive face of the “Man in the Moon.” Comets also struck Earth or incinerated in the atmosphere, and are thought to have deposited water and carbon on our planet. This period of impacts might have helped life form by delivering its crucial ingredients.
“We think the Eta Corvi system should be studied in detail to learn more about the rain of impacting comets and other objects that may have started life on our own planet,” Lisse said.
For more information about Spitzer and Eta Corvi, visit http://spitzer.caltech.edu/ and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer.
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It is entirely possible that your legal instruments do not adequately address the needs of all your loved ones, particularly your adult children.
These documents focus on protecting your needs during your disability. Adjustments are needed if you want to protect persons such as your adult children who are no longer your legal responsibility.
Let us consider some scenarios that might present a hardship to the loved ones of a disabled person.
First, consider a parent whose adult child lives at home and take cares of the parent.
If the parent were hospitalized or placed into a skilled nursing home would that child still be allowed to live at home while the parent was away and unable to manage her own affairs? Would anybody else in the family object to the child staying? Who will pay the utility bills incurred by the child?
If the parent's plan is that the parent's resources are to assist the adult child then the parent's power of attorney and trust (as relevant) should specifically authorize the same. Otherwise that child may find himself in an impossible situation and be forced to leave the area; even if the parent might prefer the child stay at the home and be close at hand.
Next, consider a parent with a special needs child who lives independently in his or her own home.
The special needs child may still depend on the parent for supplemental financial assistance, personal care, and advocacy regarding to maintain SSI and Medi-Cal benefits.
What will happen to the child if the parent were to become disabled? Will the parent's resources still supplement the child's benefits? Will the parent's resources be made available to pay for an advocate to represent the child before the Social Services Department?
Now, consider a parent supporting an adult child at college. Will the child be forced to withdraw from college because the parent's money becomes unavailable to pay tuition, room and board? If the child withdraws from college prior to obtaining a degree then will he or she be able to make a living without further parental support?
Finally, consider a parent who moves into a skilled nursing home and obtains Medi-Cal coverage. How important is it to the family to preserve the parent's home for the surviving children after the parent dies? Does the parent's power of attorney or living trust authorize the gifting of the home prior to the parent's death in order to save the home from Medi-Cal estate recovery claims after the deaths of the parent and his or her spouse?
For reasons like the ones discussed above, it is important that you review with an attorney the provisions in your power of attorney and trust documents that pertain to disability planning to see whether these provisions adequately protect your family in the way that you like.
It is better to correct any inadequacies now rather than have your family encounter nasty surprises later when it becomes much more difficult to try to correct.
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 55 First St., Lakeport, California. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at
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