The worlds largest telescope

About half the size of a football field and 21 stories tall, the largest optical telescope ever constructed will use almost 1,000 mirrors to hunt for exoplanets—and maybe even unlock the secrets of spacetime.

How to Capture the Cosmos

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1. Collect the Light

Starlight hits the 138-foot-wide parabolic PRIMARY MIRROR(view picture above)—an array of 984 hexagonal panels, each one 330 pounds, 4.8 feet in diameter and two inches thick. The panels are so heavy that gravity actually causes them to shift very slightly as the scope moves, so three actuators under each panel flex 10 times per second to keep the mirror properly aligned. The light bounces up to the 20-foot-wide MIRROR A.

2. Reflect It

MIRROR A reflects and inverts light through a hole in MIRROR C onto the 13.8-foot MIRROR B, which directs light up to the reflective surface of MIRROR C.

3. Sharpen It

MIRROR C is a thin two-millimeter glass shell stretched over 5,000 actuators that push or pull to reshape the mirror's surface 1,000 times per second. This rapid action performs so-called adaptive optics—realigning light distorted by the atmosphere into a sharp image. Astronomers calculate the correct setting for this mirror using bright reference stars [see "Calibrating a Giant Scope," below].

4. Send It to a Sensor

Once corrected by the adaptive optics system, the light hits MIRROR D, 8.9 feet in diameter, which moves up to 20 times per second to keep the reference star aligned against vibrations from wind hitting the structure. This mirror reflects the starlight to a DETECTOR, which houses a camera that captures images, and to instruments that astronomers use to measure such phenomena as the speed at which the universe is expanding.

Calibrating a Giant Scope

Atmospheric turbulence and airborne particles scatter starlight as it heads toward ground-based telescopes, so astronomers calibrate the European Extremely Large Telescope's optics using bright reference stars in the same field of view as the target object. The rippled light wave hits each pixel on MIRROR C at slightly different times. The adaptive optics system morphs the mirror's surface so that the light hits each pixel at the same time, creating a clear image. But if an object has no nearby stars, astronomers make their own reference stars: Five or six lasers, known as a laser guide-star system, excite sodium ions 56 miles up in the atmosphere to create artificial beacons.

How Do You Clean This Thing?

The E-ELT will collect nearly as much dust as it does starlight, but simply washing the mirror with water isn't an option because the cracks between each panel could allow moisture into the electronics. Instead, telescope cleaners will spray ultrapure, cooled carbon dioxide "snow" over the primary mirror. The CO2 binds to the dust particles as it falls onto the mirror's surface and, as it evaporates, takes most of the dust with it. With normal wear and tear, the mirrors will need a fresh coating of reflective material, most likely aluminum, every few years.

New surprising finds in Egypt

A series of surprising discoveries has been made at the foot of Egypt's famous Temple of Amun at Karnak, archaeologists say. The new finds include ancient ceremonial baths, a pharaoh's private entry ramp, and the remains of a massive wall built some 3,000 years ago to reinforce what was then the bank of the Nile River.

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A host of other artifacts, including hundreds of bronze coins, has also been found. Together the discoveries are causing experts to reconsider the history of the largest religious complex from ancient Egyptian times. Archaeologists are particularly intrigued by the discovery of the embankment wall, which they say is the first evidence that the Nile once ran alongside the temple. The elaborate shrine to the god Amun-Re covers about 200 acres (81 hectares) near the present-day city of Luxor and sits 650 feet (200 meters) from where the river runs today.

Archaeologists discovered portions of the embankment accidentally while building a new plaza and performing routine maintenance near the temple's facade. The other artifacts and features were unearthed in the process of excavating the wall.
"[The discovery of the wall] changes the landscape [of Luxor]," said Mansour Boraik, general supervisor of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Luxor.

Changing History

The sandstone wall measures roughly 23 feet (7 meters) tall and 8 feet (2.5 meters) wide, but it may have been even higher in antiquity, said Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence.
"This is the largest embankment ever built in any place in ancient Egypt," Hawass said.
"This embankment is very important because it protected the Temple [at] Karnak from the [annual] Nile flood."

The discovery of the wall also challenges conventional thinking about the temple's ancient facade, Boraik said. Previous theories about the facade and courtyard in front of temple were based on depictions found in private tombs dating back to the 18th dynasty (1550-1295 B.C.).

One depiction from the tomb of Neferhotep, an official from that period, depicted a large rectangular pool in front of the temple that was linked to the Nile by a canal. Archaeologists had first uncovered small parts of this wall in the 1970s but assumed it was the back wall of the pool, Boraik said. That theory held until January, when Egyptian archaeologists found a piece of the same wall several meters away, too far off to be part of the enclosed basin.
Now experts believe that the pool depicted in ancient drawings was backfilled in antiquity and that the temple was expanded on top of it, built to the edge of where the Nile flowed 3,000 years ago. "It means that the Nile was reaching the foot of Karnak in the time of the pharaohs," said Boraik. "It changes everything."

New Discoveries

While excavating the embankment, archaeologists also discovered two public baths and a jar holding more than 300 coins dating to the era of Macedonian rule of Egypt, from the first to the fourth centuries B.C. One of the giant circular baths has been completely excavated, revealing an intricate mosaic tile floor and seating for 16 people. The other partially excavated bath has been found to have seats flanked by statuettes of dolphins. The baths were found just outside the wall, and experts believe they were built on the plateau of silt left behind after the Nile moved to the west. The jar of bronze coins, featuring the likenesses of Macedonian rulers Ptolemy I, II, and III, were discovered near the baths and are currently being cleaned to reveal their inscriptions. The baths may have served as purification sites where visitors could wash before entering the temple complex. Other experts suspect they may be the first signs of a much larger residential area that has yet to be explored. Archaeologists have also excavated a giant ramp leading up to the temple complex that is inscribed with the name of the pharaoh Taharka (or Taharqa), who ruled in the late seventh century B.C.

The ramp probably served as the ruler's personal landing area, extending directly into the Nile to allow the pharaoh to transfer directly from his boat to the temple. This raises the prospect that parts of ancient boats may also be buried in the former riverbed, including pieces of the gigantic ceremonial barges known to have carried images of the gods during religious processions, the archaeologists said. "Now that we know the Nile has moved to the west, it means something is waiting for future generations of archaeologists and Egyptologists to possibly recover," Johnson of the University of Chicago said. "It's a wonderful gift now that you realize there is something down there."

Sony Corp stocks baught by DIB

Mumbai: Dubai International Capital, owned by Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has made a "substantial investment" in Japanese electronics and entertainment firm Sony Corporation, the Dubai firm announced without giving the exact amount of investment. Dubai International Capital had said in July that it might buy stakes of up to $1.5 billion in one or two publicly listed companies in Japan. A $1.5 billion investment would be equivalent to 3 per cent stake in Sony, which has a market value of 5.52 trillion yen ($50.9 billion). Dubai International Capital's announcement follows a report by the Nikkei business daily about possible Chinese government investment in Tokyo market.

China's new sovereign wealth fund, which manages about $200 billion of foreign reserves, was likely to invest in Japanese stocks gave a brief boost to the yen and lifted Tokyo stocks, the report said. The investment could well be within five per cent as anyone buying more than five per cent of a listed company in Japan is required to report the stake to regulators within five business days. The announcement, however, boosted Sony shares which closed 4.6 per cent higher at 5,500 yen on Monday, outperforming the Tokyo stock market's electrical machinery index IELEC, which rose 1.95 per cent. Sony, which makes the PlayStation 3 game console and Bravia flat TVs, is in the final year of its three-year turnaround plan focussing on core operations such as the consumer electronics business. Tokyo-based Sony, already owned 52.6 per cent by foreign investors as of end-September, also reported a third quarter operating profit thanks to strong sales of PCs and digital cameras and a weaker yen.

Get ready for new TV era.

Since the first days of television, the method of beaming pictures into our living rooms hasn’t changed much. But on Feb. 17, 2009, television stations across the country will hit the off button on this time-tested technology and switch to new transmitters, sending computerized digital signals through the air. When the change comes, the estimated 30 million televisions that use traditional antennas will go to snow without a digital converter box. The cable industry is spending $200 million to educate customers, and Congress has set aside $1.5 billion to help subsidize the purchase of converter boxes.

Still, half of American viewers don’t know the storm is coming, according to a poll conducted last month by the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing. For the 1 in 5 American households that still use rabbit ears or antennas on the roof, “the day of reckoning is coming,” said Barry Umansky, a communications professor at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.

Not enough spectrum for all those signalsThe switch to all-digital television, and a similar switch in the wireless communications industry, is partly a repercussion of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when police and fire communications channels were clogged by too much traffic. The Federal Communications Commission first ordered the eventual transition in 1996, but Congress didn’t set a deadline until the the 9/11 Commission reported that first-responder systems needed a major upgrade.

The problem, said Umansky, a longtime broadcast industry lawyer, is that “America’s seemingly wide-open skies are chock full of radio signals, and there just aren’t enough frequencies for all the people who need to use them.” By taking back the analog frequencies, the government will “allow the nation’s airwaves to be used by firefighters, police and other first responders to help the nation when there might be a natural or manmade disaster,” said Todd Sedmak, communications director of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

iPhone in China?

News that Apple was talking with China’s largest mobile carrier, China Mobile, sent apple’s stock soaring 11.2% this afternoon [Tuesday]. An executive from China Mobile said that they had not made any concrete progress with Apple yet, but noted that both companies hope to bring the iPhone to the world’s largest developing market as soon as possible.

Many analysts say that the prospect of the iPhone entering the Chinese market yields endless possibilities for the company. The potential market size there is huge, and would be equivalent to another AT&T. The increase is stock price is probably warranted given the potential for Apple in the Chinese market, although many feel the large jump in share price wasn’t justified.