Solar Eclipse and Meteor Shower to Launch 2011 Skywatching Season

The year 2011 promises to be a dazzling onefor skywatchers, and it hits the ground running with a partial solareclipse and meteor shower.

But those two sky spectacles are just thebeginning for 2011. Here are some of the more noteworthy sky events that willtake place over the next year. SPACE.com's Night Skycolumn will provide more extensive coverage of most of these events as theydraw closer. 

Jan. 4–Meteor shower, solareclipse and planets (oh my!):An action-packed day on the celestialcalendar.  First, theQuadrantid Meteor Showerreaches its peak during thepredawn hours. It's one of the best meteor displays of the year, with 50 to 100meteors per hour. Those living in Europe and western and central Asia shouldhave the best views.

As a bonus, those areas of the world will witness apartial eclipse of the sun on this same day.  The greatest part of the eclipse, where nearly 86 percent ofthe sun's diameter will be covered, occurs at sunrise over northeastern Sweden,along the Gulf of Bothnia, near the city of Skellefteå.Cities in Western Europe, including Oslo, London, Paris and Madrid, will alsoenjoy a sunrise eclipse.

Finally, Jupiterwill engage Uranusin thelast of a series of three conjunctions; there have been only six suchtripleconjunctionsbetween 1801 and 2200.The last was in 1983 and the next willcome during 2037-38.

March 15–Mercury and Jupiter drawclose: Like two ships passing in the twilight, Mercury and Jupitercomewithin 2 degrees of each other this evening. For comparison, your fist held atarm's length covers about 10 degrees of arc in the night sky.

Jupiter will be heading toward the sun, while Mercury ismoving away from the sun during this time. Immediately after sunset,concentrate on that part of the sky just above and to the left of where the sunhas just set. Using binoculars, sweep around this part of the sky to see brightJupiter sitting just below and to the left of theharder-to-spotMercury.

May (all month long):Fourof the five naked-eye planets will crowd together into what could be describedas a Great Celestial Summit Meeting.

Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter are contained within a10-degree span on May 1, shrinking to a minimum of less than 6 degrees on May12, then opening back up to 10 degrees on May 20.

Twice during May, three planets close to within nearly 2degrees of each other: Mercury-Venus-Jupiter (on May 11-12) andMercury-Venus-Mars (May 21).  And the crescent moon joins the array on May1 and again on May 30-31. 

June 1–A partial eclipse of thesun: The zone of visibility for this eclipse covers parts ofnortheast Asia, where the largest eclipse occurs over CheshskayaBay and the Bolshezemelskaya Tundra of farnorthwestern Russia. Here, the upper three-fifths of the midnight sun willappear bitten away. 

The eclipse will also be available to the northerntwo-thirds of Alaska (an early afternoon event), as well as northern andeastern portions of Canada, where viewers will see the eclipse during thecourse of their afternoon, as the sun slowly descends toward the west-northwesthorizon.

Greenland and Iceland are also within the eclipse zone,the latter getting a view just before the sun begins to set in their lateevening. The penumbral shadow quits the surface over the open waters of theAtlantic to the east of Newfoundland, as the sun passes out of sight.

June 15–A total eclipse of themoon:The Americas are pretty much shut out of this event, but almost theentire Eastern Hemisphere will be able see it. {Photos:The Total Lunar Eclipse of 2010}

At mid-eclipse, the moonpasses just north of the center of the Earth's shadow. As such, the duration oftotality is an unusually long 100 minutes, which is just seven minutes shy ofthe absolute maximum for a total lunar eclipse. In fact, over the last onehundred years, only three other eclipses have rivaled the duration of totalityof this eclipse: 1935, July 16 (101 minutes); 1982, July 6 (107 minutes), and2000, July 16 (107 minutes).  

Aug. 13–Perseidmeteor shower:More of a lowlight than a highlight; the annual summerperformance of the Perseid meteor showerwillbe severely hindered by the light of a full moon.

Oct. 8–Draconidmeteor shower:Many meteor experts are predicting a good chance that anoutburst of up to many hundreds of Draconid meteorswill take place. Unfortunately, like the Perseids, abright moon could severely hamper visibility.  The peak of the display isdue sometime between 16h and 21h UT, meaning that the best chances of seeingany enhanced activity from these very slow-moving meteors would be from EasternEurope and Asia.   

Nov. 10–Mars and bright star:A colorful conjunction takes place high in the predawn sky between theyellow-orange Marsand the bluish-white star Regulusin Leo, the Lion.  They are separated by 1.3 degrees, but they'll bewithin 2 degrees of each other for five days and within 5 degrees of each otherfor nearly three weeks, so they will be a rather long-enduring feature of themid-autumn morning sky.

Nov. 25–A partial eclipse of thesun:The earth's penumbral shadow brushes the southern and western portionof South Africa.  Greatest eclipse— nearly 91 percent of the sun'sdiameter covered as it reaches a magnitude of 0.905– occurs at a point in the Bellingshausen Sea along the west side of the AntarcticPeninsula. 

The shadow (just barely) manages to pass over Tasmania aswell as portions of New Zealand's South Island. In fact, the last contact ofthe shadow with Earth occurs just to the west of the South Island, in theTasman Sea.

Dec. 10–A total eclipse of themoon:The side of the Earth that is facing the moon during this event ischiefly the Pacific Ocean, with eastern and central Asia seeing this as anevening event, while for North Americans this is a pre-sunrise affair. 

From a spot in the Philippine Sea, south of Japan andeast of Taiwan, the moon will stand directly overhead during the middle of theeclipse. For those living in the Eastern Time Zone of the U.S. and Canada, themoon will have already dropped out of sight beyond the west-northwest horizonfor those living near and along the Atlantic Seaboard. 

Over the central U.S. and Canada, the moon will becomeprogressively immersed in the umbra as it approaches its setting; the fartherwest you go, the larger the obscuration before the moon goes out of sight. Thewestern U.S. and Canada will be able to see the total phase.

Dec. 13–Another low-light meteorshower:TheGeminid meteor shower,now ranked as the best ofthe annual meteor showers, has the misfortune of occurring during the time of awaning gibbous moon, which will pretty much squelch all but the brightestmeteors.

• Video– Meteor Shower, Solar Eclipse Kicks Off 2011 Skywatching Season
• Photos:The Total Solar Eclipse of 2010
• PromisingQuadrantid Meteor Shower to Peak Next Week

Joe Rao serves as aninstructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes aboutastronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also anon-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.

• Original Story:Solar Eclipse and Meteor Shower to Launch 2011 Skywatching Season

SPACE.comoffers rich and compelling content about space science, travel and exploration as well as astronomy, technology, business news and more. The site boasts a variety of popular features including ourspace image of the dayand otherspace pictures,space videos,Top 10s,Trivia,podcastsandAmazing Imagessubmitted by our users.Join our community, sign up for ourfree newslettersand register for ourRSS Feedstoday!

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Stem cell research breaks new ground in 2010

WASHINGTON (AFP)– Two US companies this year broke new ground by winning regulatory approval to start the first experiments using embryonic stem cells on humans suffering from spinal cord injury and blindness.

The potent but hotly debated cells can transform into nearly any cell in the human body, opening a path toward eliminating such ills as Parkinson's disease, paralysis, diabetes, heart disease, and maybe even the ravages of aging.

And more human experiments are on the way as scientists refine new methods to get around the controversy that surrounds embryonic stem cell research, which involves the destruction of early human life.

"After a decade of intense controversy, the field is finally ready to start proving itself and to actually start helping patients suffering from a range of horrific diseases," said Bob Lanza, chief scientist at Advanced Cell Technology.

His company was cleared in November by the US Food and Drug Administration to begin testing a therapy derived from embryonic stem cells to treat a rare form of blindness that strikes in childhood, known as Stargardt's disease.

Clinical trials are expected to start in the coming months, and results could be known within six weeks.

In October, Geron Corporation announced it had begun the first-ever test of human embryonic stem cells in a patient suffering from spinal cord injury. In all about a dozen patients are expected to participate in the year-long study.

The primary aim of both ACT's and Geron's studies is to gauge safety, not necessarily to restore mobility or vision.

The major concern with stem cell therapies is that the transforming cells could form tumors. But if the methods appear safe, both companies aim to expand their trials to wider populations in the hopes of eventually curing paralysis and blindness.

Twelve years ago, American scientist James Thomson's team isolated human embryonic stem cells for the first time, and the field has been cloaked in controversy ever since.

Former president George W. Bush outlawed federal funding for the research because it involves the disposal of human embryos, a ban that President Barack Obama reversed shortly after taking office in 2009.

But in August of this year, Judge Royce Lamberth blocked US government funding for embryonic stem cell research after ruling in favor of a coalition of groups, including several Christian organizations.

While the funding has since been permitted to go ahead pending appeal, the legal wrangling has left some scientists wary of the future.

"The on-again-off-again situation will only stall the progress of everyone?s work," said Tim Kamp, head of the University of Wisconsin's Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center, back in September.

To get around the problems associated with embryonic stem cell research, scientists in 2010 forged new paths toward creating induced pluripotent cells, which can transform into skin, blood or heart cells. Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent cells.

The field of induced pluripotent cells (iPS) faces its own challenges, as studies have shown they are less efficient and more unpredictable than embryonic cells.

But Canadian researchers described this year in the journal Nature their method of turning adult human skin cells into blood without manipulating them back into pluripotent cells, making the process more time efficient and potentially safer.

And a Harvard University scientist, Derrick Rossi, discovered a way to avoid risky genetic modification and instead use RNA molecules to reprogram adult human cells into pluripotent cells without altering the DNA.

Describing his peer-reviewed research published in September, Rossi said it was a"safe, efficient strategy... that has wide ranging applicability for basic research, disease modeling and regenerative medicine."

Lanza said the advances, while they still face rigorous testing, offer promise toward treating a host of diseases, and could one day eliminate the need for amputation of limbs, blood transfusions and transplants from strangers.

"Some time in the future, perhaps in the lifetime of most of your readers, you'll get in an accident and lose a kidney and they will take a skin cell and just grow you up a new organ," said Lanza."That field is just roaring ahead."

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"Eat'em" stratagem for lionfish invasion in Florida

MIAMI (Reuters)– Florida marine conservationists have come up with a simple recipe for fighting the invading lionfish that is gobbling up local reef life -- eat them.

The Key Largo-based REEF conservation organization has just released"The Lionfish Cookbook," a collection of 45 recipes which is the group's latest strategy to counter an invasion of the non-native reddish brown-striped fish in Florida waters.

"It's absolutely good eating -- a delicacy. It's delicately flavored white meat, very buttery," Lad Akins, director of special projects for Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF), told Reuters. He authored the cookbook along with a professional chef, Tricia Ferguson.

Red lionfish, a prickly predator armed with flaring venomous spines like a lion's mane that give them their name, are native to the South Pacific, Indian Ocean and Red Sea.

With few natural predators, they have been rapidly expanding in Caribbean and Atlantic waters, voraciously preying on local fish, shrimp and crab populations across the region and in Florida, which has world-famous coral reefs.

Some scientists are now listing the invasive lionfish species among the top 15 threats to global biodiversity.

While REEF has organized local fishing"derbies" to hunt the lionfish, including handling tips and tasting sessions, Akins said making humans the invading species' top predator was the best way to fight back against the threat it posed.

"Fishermen and divers realize it's a danger to our native marine life, through its predation. But there really aren't government funds to provide bounties or removal programs. So creating a demand for the fish, a market for the fish, is in effect a de facto bounty," he told Reuters.

U.S. government researchers believe the red lionfish was introduced into Florida waters during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 when an aquarium broke and at least six fish spilled into Miami's Biscayne Bay.

"CARIBBEAN'S NEW DELICACY"

The front section of the cookbook, which calls the lionfish"The Caribbean's New Delicacy," gives useful tips on collecting, handling and preparing the colorful species, as well as providing expert background on its ecological impact.

Akins says the fish, which lives among coral, can be netted, speared or caught by rod and reel, but he recommends handling them with puncture-proof gloves to avoid a painful prick from the mantle of venomous spines.

"They can be quick over a short distance, but they're not a free-swimming ocean fish like a tuna or a mackerel," he said.

Unlike the toxic Fugu pufferfish or blowfish, which is an expensive delicacy in Japan but requires careful expert preparation to avoid potentially fatal poisoning, Akins says lionfish meat is safe to eat and contains no venom.

"The venom is only in the spines. Cooking the fish would denature the venom, even if you left the spines on. It's simple enough just to cut the spines off," he said.

Akins said he hoped the cookbook could help create a commercial market for lionfish that would speed their eradication. But he wasn't sure whether the brightly colored invader would appear on the menus of Miami Beach eateries.

"It certainly is on the menu in many other countries -- the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Dominican Republic, Mexico," he said, adding that orders for the recipe book, which can be purchased online at www.reef.org, were coming in fast.

(Editing by Eric Beech)

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Ancient Israeli Fortress Yields Surprise: A Greek Vase

Decades after it was excavated, an ancient fortress in the heart ofTel Aviv, Israel, is offering new hints about its past, archaeologistsat Tel Aviv University say.

New findings suggest the fortress, Tel Qudadi, was establishedcenturies later than believed, and may have served as an intermediatestation fortrade shipstraveling between Egypt and Phoenicia.

"The secrets of this ancient fortress are only beginning to be revealed," said archaeologists Alexander Fantalkin and Oren Tal.

The researchers unearthed anamphora(a large jar used to transport oil or wine) from the Greek isle ofLesbos at the crumbling edifice. The find is the earliest known exampleto date of Lesbian ceramic work in the Mediterranean.

What remains a mystery, the researchers say, is how the Lesbianamphora arrived at Tel Qudadi in the first place. It may have comeaboard a Phoenician ship on a trading voyage around the Mediterranean.

While a single find cannot prove the existence of trade betweenancient Israel and Lesbos, the finding has implications forunderstanding trade routes between different parts of the Mediterranean.

The mysterious amphora, along with other new discoveries about theancient fortress, is causing researchers to reassess the site'stimeline.

Earlier theories of Tel Qudadi's history suggested the fortress wasestablished at the behest ofKing Solomonduring the 10th century B.C.,to protect against sea raids.

The new findings indicate the fortress was built later: the late 8thcentury B.C. or early 7th century B.C. This would mean Tel Qudadi wasnot established by the Israelite Kingdom but instead was part of theAssyrian empire,a powerful civilization centered in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq),which ruled Israel in the late 8th century B.C. and most of the 7thcentury B.C.

The research presents the possibility that Tel Qudadi was an important station along themaritime routebetween Egypt and Phoenicia, the Mediterranean kingdom where Syria, Lebanon and Israel are now located.

These findings are detailed in a recent issue of the journalPalestine Exploration Quarterly and BABESH: Annual Papers onMediterranean Archaeology.

• The 7 Most Mysterious Archaeological Discoveries on Earth
• History's Most Overlooked Mysteries
• Top 10 Ancient Capitals

You can followLiveScienceon Twitter @livescience.

• Original Story:Ancient Israeli Fortress Yields Surprise: A Greek Vase

LiveScience.comchronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our sciencevideos,Trivia&QuizzesandTop 10s.Join our communityto debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for freenewsletters, register forRSS feedsand get cool gadgets at theLiveScience Store.

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Political Leanings Revealed by the Eyes

It may be time to take the phrase"political viewpoint" literally. A new study suggests that liberals are more likely than conservatives to follow other people's eye movements.

People normally respond to"gaze cues," or the direction thatanother person is looking, by glancing to see what caught that person's attention. The new study, to be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Attention, Perception&Psychophysics, finds that liberals respond much more strongly to such cues than conservatives. The finding is the latest in a series of clues that liberals and conservatives may be subtly different on a biological level, said study researcher Michael Dodd, a psychologist at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

"Across a variety of tasks, we are beginning to find a consistent pattern whereconservatives are more responsive to threat/disgust, more responsive to angry faces, and less sensitive to gaze cues than liberals," Dodd wrote in an e-mail to LiveScience."Liberals, on the other hand, are proving to be more responsive to positive/appetitive stimuli, more responsive to happy faces, and more sensitive to gazes."

Eyes on the prize

In the current study, 72 undergraduate students sat at a computer screen displaying a drawing of a face. The volunteers were instructed to keep their eyes on the face, but were told that the face was irrelevant.

Initially, the face had no pupils, but shortly after the experiment began, pupils appeared and started moving left or right. Just after that, a target image showed up on either the left or right side of the screen, unrelated to the angle of the pupils. The volunteers' job was to press the spacebar key the instant they saw the target image appear.

Despite being told to ignore the face, the participants were generally 10 to 15 milliseconds faster at responding to the target if the pupils appeared to be looking at the spot where the target image would appear. That's a standard result and not so surprising, Dodd said. But when the researchers divided the students by their political beliefs, they found that liberals responded 20 milliseconds more quickly to gaze cues than didconservatives, who didn't show any indication that the face's gaze affected them.

Autonomy and influence

There are several possible explanations for the result, Dodd said. One possibility is that liberals are more empathetic and thus more responsive to others. Another theory is that conservatives arebetter at following instructionsand were thus more likely to listen when the researchers said to ignore the face.

Dodd and his colleagues believe that a more likely explanation is that conservatives value personal autonomy more than liberals, making them less likely to be influenced by others.

The results are correlational, meaning there's no way to know whether your tendency to pay attention to others influences your political beliefs or whether political beliefs change behavior.

"Both possibilities exist," Dodd said."I do tend to think that it is more likely that basic cognitive biases influence how you process the world, making you more or less likely to seek out liberal or conservative ideals."

The researchers are now analyzing data from a similar study done on a more diverse sample of volunteers. Nebraska leans conservative, Dodd said, so it remains to be seen whether the results will hold for areas that skew liberal.

"I think the important thing to take from this line of research is that it is another piece of evidence thatbiology can influence political temperament," Dodd said."I don't think it is the sole influence, but it is another important piece of the puzzle that should not be ignored."

• Rising Rancor: One Nation, Divisible By Politics
• 7 Ways the Mind and Body Change With Age
• Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind

You can followLiveScienceSenior Writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas

• Original Story:Political Leanings Revealed by the Eyes

LiveScience.comchronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our sciencevideos,Trivia&QuizzesandTop 10s.Join our communityto debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for freenewsletters, register forRSS feedsand get cool gadgets at theLiveScience Store.

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UN chief warns world failing on climate

CANCUN, Mexico (AFP)– UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned the world was missing its last chance to control climate change, appealing to nations at talks in Mexico to ramp up progress.

In an emphatic address to the 194-nation talks, the UN chief highlighted studies by scientists who say the world has a limited gateway to cut carbon emissions or risk irreversible damage to the planet.

"I'm deeply concerned that our efforts so far have been insufficient, that despite the evidence and many years of negotiation we are still not rising to the challenge," Ban said as the two-week talks entered the final four days.

"Business as usual cannot be tolerated," he said."Cancun must represent a breakthrough."

"The world, particularly the poor and vulnerable, cannot afford the luxury of waiting for the perfect agreement," Ban said, adding:"Every country can and must do more."

Host Mexico has encouraged nations to look for building blocks to an eventual climate accord, hoping to undo some of the damage from last year's Copenhagen summit, which disappointed many environmentalists.

To the surprise of some of the hardened negotiators, the talks have appeared to bear fruit with a compromise eyed on one of the key stumbling blocks -- verification of nations' promises to fight climate change.

China climbed down from its past refusal on verification after India drafted a compromise under which all countries responsible for more than one percent of emissions would submit to verification but not face"punitive consequences."

"It does represent progress," US lead negotiator Todd Stern said.

The draft is"definitely not adequate yet, but it's a step in the right direction. If we can keep moving a few more steps, we might actually get there," Stern said.

But Stern warned that another dispute remained"very tough" -- on the future of the Kyoto Protocol.

With few expecting a new full-fledged treaty anytime soon, the European Union has led calls to extend the Kyoto Protocol past the end of 2012, when requirements under the landmark 1997 agreement are set to expire.

The EU position has triggered protests from Japan. It says Kyoto is unfair by not involving the two top polluters -- China, which has no requirements as a developing country, and the United States, which rejected the treaty in 2001.

"It is absolutely imperative that we deliver something, something substantial," EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said."To come out of Cancun with nothing is simply not an option."

Even if countries carry out pledges they have already made, they are off track to meet the goal agreed in Copenhagen to check rising temperatures at two degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels.

"There is a giant gap. We need to acknowledge and commit to close that," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental group.

The US Congress looks unlikely to approve any restrictions on carbon emissions after the Republican Party's victory. President Barack Obama's administration, however, has pledged to meet its Copenhagen target of cutting emissions by 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.

The Cancun conference is also making progress on how rich nations can help in reducing emissions from deforestation in developing nations -- known to negotiators as REDD.

The loss of trees accounts each year for 12 to 25 percent of the carbon emissions due to the loss of vegetation that counteracts the gas.

Activists and negotiators from several Latin American nations have pressed against a deal out of suspicion over calls to set up a market, in which nations would offer forest aid in return for credit to meet their climate goals.

Thousands of activists and Mexican peasants, holding rainbow flags and playing drums and flutes, marched in central Cancun, many of them to reject the REDD deal.

"REDD is a false solution because you are creating a market on our forests, you are not protecting our Mother Earth," said US activist Kari Fulton.

"We are standing here to say that we want protection and to be respected," she said.

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Seattle Genetics to submit lymphoma drug to FDA

LOS ANGELES (Reuters)– A pivotal trial of Seattle Genetics' experimental cancer-targeting antibody for patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma found that more than a third of them achieved complete remission of their cancer.

The company also said it now expects to submit the drug, brentuximab vedotin, to U.S. regulators in the first quarter of next year for patients with either Hodgkin's lymphoma or anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) who have stopped responding to other therapies. The company had previously said a submission would occur in the first half of 2011.

"Our goal would be to submit in the first quarter, have an accelerated review and be on the market in 2011," Seattle Genetics' Chief Executive Clay Siegall told Reuters in a telephone interview.

The trial did not compare brentuximab vedotin with another drug, but the complete remission rate for similar patients tends to be in the single digits, he said.

The company is developing the lymphoma drug with Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co, which is discussing with European regulators a possible first-half 2011 submission.

Seattle Genetics had said in September that 75 percent of the trial's 102 patients had remissions or tumor shrinkage of at least 50 percent. The trial involved patients who had stopped responding to standard treatments for the lymphatic cancer.

The full results -- presented on Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology in Orlando, Florida -- included some sort of tumor reduction in 94 percent of patients.

Brentuximab vedotin links a tumor-targeting antibody to a cancer-killing chemotherapy drug with the goal of limiting side effects. It is designed to home in on an antigen expressed in Hodgkin's lymphoma, several types of T-cell lymphoma and other hematologic malignancies.

Patients in the trial responded to the drug for a median of 29 weeks, according to an independent review. Among patients achieving remission, the median duration of response had not yet been reached at a median follow-up of around one year.

Seattle Genetics said serious side effects seen in the trial included neutropenia, or low levels of white blood cells, (20 percent of patients), peripheral sensory neuropathy (8 percent), low platelet count (8 percent) and anemia (6 percent).

Siegall estimated that there are close to 8,000 patients in the United States with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin's lymphoma and ALCL.

Full results from a mid-stage trial of brentuximab vedotin in ALCL patients are scheduled for presentation at the hematology conference on Tuesday. Top-line results, reported by Seattle Genetics in October, showed that 86 percent of trial patients responded to the antibody drug.

The company is also studying the drug as an initial treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma and as a maintenance therapy.

Leerink Swann has estimated 2015 sales of brentuximab vedotin at around$302 million.

(Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

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SpaceX Tests Private Rocket for Dec. 7 Space Capsule Launch

Thisstory was updated at 3:48 p.m. ET.

Arocket built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX performed an engine testtoday (Dec. 4), just days ahead of its planned launch to send a new commercialspace capsule on its maiden voyage next week.

The engines of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket ignited at 10:50 a.m. EST (1550GMT) for a brief 2-second test firing of the booster's first stage engines atthe Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Theresults of the so-called static fire test, performed while the rocket wassecured to its launch pad, are being analyzed and a preliminary review suggeststhat things went according to plan, SpaceX officials said.

"We willcontinue to review data, but today's static fire appears to be a success," SpaceXofficials said in a statement.

Thetest was part of final checkouts ahead of the Falcon 9 rocket's planned Dec. 7launch of SpaceX's firstDragonspace capsule– a gumdrop-shaped spacecraft designed to make round tripflights to low-Earth orbit.

SpaceXinitially attempted a static fire test earlier today at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430GMT), but aborted the test at the T-1.9 seconds mark due to low pressure in thegas generator of one of the rocket's nine Merlin engines. Another previousengine test on Friday (Dec. 3) was also aborted after one of the enginesexperiencedelevated chamber pressure.

TheHawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX, short for Space Exploration Technologies, wasfounded bymillionaireElon Musk, co-founder of the PayPal online payment system and CEO of Teslaelectric car company.

Theengine test is a vital check for the Falcon 9 rocket before its scheduledlaunch next week. The rocket will carry SpaceX's Dragon space capsule intolow-Earth orbit for the spacecraft's first test flight. {Photosfrom first Falcon 9 rocket launch}

Thecompany's Dragon capsule will separate from the rocket's second stage and makemultiple orbits of the Earth during the test flight, demonstrating itsoperational communications, navigation and maneuvering abilities.

Thespaceship will then re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and land in the PacificOcean a few hours later. The full duration of the test flight is expected tolast approximately four hours, SpaceX officials have said.

Ifsuccessful, SpaceX will be the first commercial company to launch andre-entera spacecraft from low-Earth orbit.

TheDec. 7 launch window extends from 9:03 a.m. EST (1403 GMT) to 12:22 p.m. EST(1720 GMT). If needed, launch opportunities are also available on Dec. 8 andDec. 9 within the same window, NASA officials have said.

SpaceXhas a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to provide its Dragon spacecraft for cargoflights to the International Space Station following the retirement of theagency's space shuttle fleet. SpaceX plans to fly at least 12 unmanned missionsto deliver supplies to the space station with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragoncapsule.

SpaceXalso hopes to win a contract to one day ferry astronauts to the station as well– though the Dragon capsule is not yet man-rated to carry human passengers intospace.

Nextweek's test flight will also be the first mission by any company under NASA'sCommercial Orbital Transportation (COTS) program, which is designed to advancethe development of private vehicles capable of carrying cargo and crew to theInternational Space Station.

• Top10 Fantasy Spaceships Becoming Reality
• Photos:SpaceX's Dragon Space Capsule
• SpaceXReceives FAA License to Return Private Spaceships From Earth Orbit

Youcan follow SPACE.com Staff Writer Denise Chow on Twitter@denisechow.

• Original Story:SpaceX Tests Private Rocket for Dec. 7 Space Capsule Launch

SPACE.comoffers rich and compelling content about space science, travel and exploration as well as astronomy, technology, business news and more. The site boasts a variety of popular features including ourspace image of the dayand otherspace pictures,space videos,Top 10s,Trivia,podcastsandAmazing Imagessubmitted by our users.Join our community, sign up for ourfree newslettersand register for ourRSS Feedstoday!

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New BP challenge to spill size could affect fine

WASHINGTON– BP is mounting a new challenge to the U.S. government's estimates of how much oil flowed from the runaway well deep below the Gulf of Mexico, an argument that could reduce by billions of dollars the federal pollution fines it faces for the largest offshore oil spill in history.

BP's lawyers are arguing that the government overstated the spill by 20 to 50 percent, staffers working for the presidential oil spill commission said Friday. In a 10-page document obtained by The Associated Press, BP says the government's spill estimate of 206 million gallons is"overstated by a significant amount"and the company said any consensus around that number is premature and inaccurate.

The company submitted the document to the commission, the Justice Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"They rely on incomplete or inaccurate information, rest in large part on assumptions that have not been validated, and are subject to far greater uncertainties than have been acknowledged,"BP wrote."BP fully intends to present its own estimate as soon as the information is available to get the science right."

In a statement Friday, the company said the government's estimates failed to account for equipment that could obstruct the flow of oil and gas, such as the blowout preventer, making its numbers"highly unreliable."

BP's request could save it as much as $10.5 billion or as little as $1.1 billion, depending on factors such as whether the government concludes that BP acted negligently. For context, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's entire federal budget for 2010 was $10.3 billion. President Barack Obama has said he wants Congress to set aside some of the money BP pays for fines for the Gulf's coastal restoration. Louisiana lawmakers are pushing legislation that would require at least 80 percent of the civil and criminal penalties charged to BP, and possibly other companies, to be returned to the Gulf Coast.

William K. Reilly, co-chairman of the presidential commission, expressed amazement at BP's case Friday. Reilly headed the Environmental Protection Agency under President George H.W. Bush.

"They are going to argue that it is 50 percent less"than the government's total? Reilly asked."Wow."

Under the Clean Water Act, the oil giant— which owned and operated the well— faces fines of up to $1,100 for each barrel of oil spilled. If BP were found to have committed gross negligence or willful misconduct, the fine could be up to $4,300 per barrel.

That means that based on the government's estimate of 206 million gallons, BP could face civil fines alone of between $5.4 billion and $21.1 billion.

"They are going to argue it was less,"said Priya Aiyar, the commission's deputy chief counsel."BP has not offered its own numbers yet, but BP has told us that it thinks the government's numbers are too high and thinks the actual flow rate can be actually 20 to 50 percent lower."

Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., a member of the House energy panel that is investigating the spill, said in a statement Friday to the AP that BP has done whatever it could to avoid revealing the true flow rate of the spill.

"With billions of dollars at stake, it is no surprise that they are now litigating the very numbers which they sought to impede,"Markey said."The government engaged independent scientists and multiple techniques to arrive at their estimate. Additional independent peer-reviewed studies have corroborated their estimate. BP has a high bar to meet to overturn this estimate."

BP's argument could be bolstered by the federal government's missteps in coming up with a final estimate for the spill's volume. The Obama administration has offered nearly 10 estimates of how much oil flowed from the BP well, coming up with a refined conclusion late last month of 206 million gallons, which is likely its last.

Internal documents released late Friday under the Freedom of Information Act show that the White House was intimately involved in deciding how scientific information was portrayed to the public, particularly when it came to the August 4 release of a document that showed where the spilled oil had gone. The five-page report, which was touted by Carol Browner, the president's energy adviser, on morning talk shows and at White House press briefing showed that half the oil was gone— either from evaporation, burning, skimming or recovery at the well head.

The 3,500 pages of documents reveal that the administration wanted the oil budget to show its efforts to respond to the disaster were working, despite objections from top EPA officials, including Administrator Lisa Jackson, over how some of the data was presented.

An earlier version of the press release issued with the paper said that 33 percent of the oil released was captured or mitigated by recovery efforts.

A final version, changed hours before its release, said"the vast majority"of the spilled oil was addressed by recovery efforts or had naturally dispersed or evaporated.

That morning, Browner appeared on national television saying that an initial assessment by federal showed"more than three-quarters of the oil is gone."

In an e-mail sent later that morning addressed to Browner's assistant, Heather Zichal, NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco finds fault with the White House's interpretation of the report's numbers and attribution of the report solely to NOAA. The report was drafted by several agencies.

"I'm concerned to hear the oil budget report is being portrayed as saying that 75 percent of the oil is gone and that this is a NOAA report,"Lubchenco writes."Please help make sure that both errors are corrected."The White House acknowledged Browner had misspoke.

Lubchenco explains it was only accurate to say half the oil was gone.

___

Associated Press writers Seth Borenstein and Matthew Daly in Washington and Harry R. Weber in New Orleans contributed to this report.

___

Online:

National Oil Spill Commission:http://www.oilspillcommission.gov

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Singapore in tough environmental balancing act

SINGAPORE (AFP)– Singapore prides itself on being a clean and green city but a booming economy and a high-consumption lifestyle have made it one of the world's biggest carbon polluters per person.

As a major United Nations summit is being held in Mexico to find ways of curbing the carbon emissions blamed for global warming, Singapore's environmental balancing act poses challenging questions for the rest of Asia and the world.

Singapore's green credentials are in many ways very strong and it is establishing itself as a regional renewable energy hub.

Yet, if all Asians emulated Singaporeans' modern and often luxurious lifestyles, greenhouse gas emissions would spike alarmingly.

"If everyone in the world enjoyed the same level of consumption as the average Singaporean, we would need three planets to meet the demands placed on our resources," World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) spokesman Chris Chaplin said.

Singapore was last month listed by the British global risk advisory firm Maplecroft as the world's seventh largest carbon dioxide (CO2) emitter relative to its population size.

Ahead of it were only the United Arab Emirates, Australia, the United States, Canada, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia.

Maplecroft's index was calculated by evaluating annual CO2 emissions from energy use, emissions per capita and cumulative emissions of a country over more than a century -- 1900 to 2006.

"The lack of'clean' energy sources coupled with the growth in Singapore?s economy and the increasing use of cars as well as electronic appliances such as air-conditioners contribute to Singapore's emissions," Maplecroft said in a statement to AFP.

Despite a punishing auto levy and road charges, the number of motor vehicles on its roads reached 925,518 in 2009, up more than 27 percent in five years, with private cars making up 60 percent of the total, official figures show.

In a separate list, the WWF ranked Singapore 21st in the world in terms of ecological footprint, or the demand for resources per person, ahead of such countries as Germany, France and Britain.

WWF's calculation covered not only emissions -- the biggest component of humanity's carbon footprint -- but also demand placed by people on arable land, fishing grounds, forest and grazing land worldwide.

Singapore authorities insist, however, that that the country has had no choice but to rely on imported fossil fuel to power its rapid industrialisation.

The trade-reliant economy, valued at 200 billion US dollars in 2009, is tipped to expand by a massive 15 percent this year.

With a land area smaller than that of New York City, Singapore has no space among its five million citizens for wind farms, while it is devoid of hydro and geothermal power sources.

"We are dependent on fossil fuels because our small size severely limits our ability to switch to alternative energies," the National Environment Agency (NEA) said in a statement to AFP.

It said Maplecroft's index neither reflected Singapore's efforts to reduce its carbon emissions nor took into account its unique circumstances.

"As a small city-state, the use of per capita emissions inflates our carbon emissions," it said, noting that overall, Singapore accounts for less than 0.2 percent of global emissions.

Nevertheless, the government said it was committed to the fight against climate change and was taking steps to reduce the growth of its emissions, including switching from oil to natural gas to produce electricity.

Singapore is investing heavily in clean energy technologies -- it has allocated 770 million dollars to develop innovative energy solutions -- and is building a liquefied natural gas terminal that will be ready by 2013.

This will allow access to gas sources beyond neighbouring Indonesia and Malaysia.

It is also pushing its people to do more recycling, doubling its already expansive rail network by 2020 and testing electric vehicles for commercial use.

In another positive move, Singapore has offered itself as a"living laboratory" where global energy firms can develop and test new technologies before mass production.

Norway's Renewable Energy Corp (REC) opened one of the world's biggest solar technology manufacturing facilities in Singapore in November, a project costing nearly two billion dollars.

Vestas, a Danish manufacturer of wind turbines, already has a global research and development centre in the city-state.

"Singapore has been very wise in the way they are approaching this," REC's chief executive Ole Enger said."They have made Singapore a global hub for renewable energy."

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Torrential rains leave 25 dead in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela– Dozens of Venezuelans left homeless by torrential rains can remain at the presidential palace until the government finds them new homes, President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday as the death toll from flooding and mudslides reached 25.

Venezuela's leader also visited a hillside slum in western Caracas, where he called on people to leave their homes to avoid the potential risks posed by more heavy rains.

"They told me that you did not want to leave until Chavez came. Well, here I am,"Chavez told residents of Antimano.

Authorities confirmed four more deaths in Caracas on Wednesday, bringing the toll from rain-triggered flooding and mudslides to at least 25. About 5,000 people have lost their homes, prompting Chavez to urge people in high-risk areas to move to government shelters until the rains subside.

Chavez told dozens of flood victims at the presidential palace that they could remain there until they had new homes.

Chavez, a former paratroop commander, also told displaced Venezuelans at one shelter that he would order buildings inside Tiuna Fort— the nation's military nerve center— to be vacated if necessary so the homeless could live their temporarily.

Defense Minister Carlos Mata Figueroa said more than 33,000 people had been moved to 259 shelters as a precaution.

The government has declared a"state of emergency"in the capital and three states: Miranda, Vargas and Falcon. Officials say heavy rains have continued past the usual end of the region's wet season.

Venezuela's state oil company said operations at the Amuay oil refinery in Falcon, which had been suspended due to a power failure Monday, had resumed. Some units at the adjacent Cardon refinery, which had also been halted, remain inoperative, it said.

The company said the problems have not affected oil exports, which are the lifeblood of Venezuela's economy.

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