Eideard

By peering into the distance with the biggest and best telescopes in the world, astronomers have managed to glimpse exploding stars, galaxies and other glowing cosmic beacons as they appeared just hundreds of millions of years after the big bang. They are so far away that their light is only now reaching Earth, even though it was emitted more than 13 billion years ago.

Astronomers have been able to identify those objects in the early universe because their bright glow has remained visible even after a long, universe-spanning journey. But spotting the raw materials from which the first cosmic structures formed—the gas produced as the infant universe expanded and cooled in the first few minutes after the big bang—has not been possible. That material is not itself luminous, and everywhere astronomers have looked they have found not the primordial light-element gases hydrogen, helium and lithium from the big bang but rather material polluted by heavier elements, which form only in stellar interiors and in cataclysms such as supernovae.

Now a group of researchers reports identifying the first known pockets of pristine gas, two relics of those first minutes of the universe’s existence. The team found a pair of gas clouds that contain no detectable heavy elements whatsoever by looking at distant quasars and the intervening material they illuminate. Quasars are bright objects powered by a ravenous black hole, and the spectral quality of their light reveals what it passed through on its way to Earth, in much the same way that the lamp of a projector casts the colors of film onto a screen…

But the new study shows that some nooks of the universe remained pristine long after stars had begun to spew heavy elements. “They have looked for these special corners of the universe, where things just haven’t been polluted yet,” says Massachusetts Institute of Technology astronomer Rob Simcoe, who did not contribute to the new study. “Everyplace else that we’ve looked in these environments, we do find these heavy elements.”

The pristine quality of the gas clouds begs the question: Why did heavy elements, which should already have been relatively abundant two billion years after the big bang, fail to reach the gas clouds? There are two possibilities, Simcoe says. “Is it the case that there are no heavy elements there or that there are some, but they haven’t mixed into the clouds that they see?” he asks. In some sense, he adds, it is a surprise that gas from the dawn of the universe, unsullied by heavy elements, has escaped detection for so long. “It takes a while for these elements to be fused, and it takes even longer to leak into their surroundings,” Simcoe says. “There must be other regions of the universe that are like this.”

The search continues. Of course.

If you have questions and scientific curiosity – you must.

A massive star is caught fleeing its former companion, careening through space behind a brilliant yellow arc of gas and dust, in this exquisite new image from NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer telescope.

Named Zeta Ophiuchi, the bright blue star in the image’s center is about 20 times more massive than our sun. Were it not shrouded by dust, it would be one of the brightest stars in the sky — yet long ago, it orbited an even more massive star.

When that star exploded in a supernova, Zeta Ophiuchi took off like a shot. When WISE caught it, Zeta Ophiuchi was flying at 54,000 miles per hour.

As it plows through space, the star’s powerful winds shove gas and dust out of its way into a bow shock, much like a boat’s prow displaces water. Although this bright arc is hidden in visible light, matter in the shock is so compressed that it heats up and glows in wavelengths visible to WISE’s infrared eyes.

RTFA about its projected life and death. A stunning photo.

Where’s the bloody coal lorry?

The Queen requested a poverty grant to help heat her palaces, but was refused because government ministers feared it would cause a public relations backlash…

In an effort to cut the royal household’s soaring electricity and gas bills, a senior aide wrote to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2004 to ask if the Queen would be eligible for a handout from a £60m energy-saving fund.

The cost of utilities doubled in 2004 and the aide said the £1m bill for the royal palaces was “untenable”. He also complained that the £15m government grant to maintain the Queen’s palaces was inadequate…

In an email sent to the palace, it was explained that the handouts were aimed at schools, hospitals, councils and housing associations for heating programmes that benefited low-income families.

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman declined to comment on the disclosures.

Why am I never surprised over the unmitigated gall of the very wealthy – especially those with inherited wealth.

And I guess being a Queen sort of makes you the ultimate trustfunder, eh?

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

People who were rattled by the Sept. 9 San Bruno disaster and want to find out if there are potentially explosive pipelines under their neighborhoods have a tough task of sleuthing ahead of them. Most of the information is out there, if they hunt and push hard enough – but that information reveals only so much.

Databases, maps and help lines are available through national and state agencies as well as Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the main supplier of natural gas in Northern California. But there are too many kinds of gas lines from too many companies, and too many security concerns, for any one person to get locations easily, experts and public officials say.

“Everyone is asking where these pipelines are, and the answers aren’t easy to get,” said Mindy Spatt, spokeswoman for The Utility Reform Network, a consumer organization. “Customers can’t wait years or months for that information. We need a better system…”

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, California has 122,217 miles of liquid and petroleum pipelines crisscrossing its towns, fields and mountains. To find out where these are, the central source of information is the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration’s national map of major pipelines. The map gives a general idea of where the lines are, but it doesn’t show detail street by street…

In the Bay Area, the most recent high-profile accident involving gas pipelines was in 2004, when a backhoe operator punctured a high-pressure gasoline pipeline in Walnut Creek owned by Kinder Morgan. The explosion killed five construction workers.

We haven’t an accident of this size in a few years in New Mexico. We’ve only just avoided a couple, though, including a gas leak recently reported in the heart of Albuquerque associated with roadwork – that went unrepaired for a few weeks.

None of which engenders a lot of confidence.

The earth could be hit by a wave of violent space weather as early as Tuesday after a massive explosion of the sun, scientists have warned.

The solar fireworks at the weekend were recorded by several satellites, including Nasa’s new Solar Dynamics Observatory which watched its shock wave rippling outwards.

Astronomers from all over the world witnessed the huge flare above a giant sunspot the size of the Earth, which they linked to an even larger eruption across the surface of Sun.

The explosion was aimed directly towards Earth, which then sent a “solar tsunami” racing 93 million miles across space.

Images from the SDO hint at a shock wave travelling from the flare into space, the New Scientist reported.

Experts said the wave of supercharged gas will likely reach the Earth on Tuesday, when it will buffet the natural magnetic shield protecting Earth…

It remains unclear, however, how much damage this latest eruption will cause the world’s communication tools.

We might see the Aurora Borealis at lower latitudes.

You might not even have access to the musings of the eideard.com crew [gasp!].

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

France and Kazakhstan have signed energy and business deals worth $6 billion during a visit to Astana by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Kazakhstan also agreed to allow French military supplies to pass through on their way to Afghanistan…

The biggest deal was signed between Total and GDF Suez and Kazakh state energy firm Kazmunaigaz to develop the Khvalynskoye Caspian Sea gas field…

The business deals come despite criticisms from rights groups that Kazakhstan flouts basic democratic rights.

Despite the criticism of its rights record, Kazakhstan is set to become the first former Soviet republic to chair the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe – an intergovernmental trans-Atlantic security and democracy body.

Mr Sarkozy gave his backing to Kazakhstan’s chairmanship, saying “it is a choice for peace”.

He said he had raised his concerns over human rights in Kazakhstan with Mr Nazarbayev…

“The best way to resolve problems, and there are problems and I have talked to the president, is not necessarily to come and give lessons,” said Mr Sarkozy in a news conference with Mr Nazarbayev.

Over a half-century of political activism, the sort of “help” I received from single-issue activists on any particular issue – sometimes brought as many problems as solutions. That never meant they weren’t welcome. They simply required as much negotiation as dealing with the “opposition”. Sometimes.

I guess that’s why diplomacy offends probably as many people as it may apparently benefit. At least at the beginning.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

More than two million people living on the banks of Lake Kivu in central Africa are at risk of being asphyxiated by gases building up beneath its surface, scientists have warned.

It is estimated that the lake, which straddles the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, now contains 300 cubic kilometres of carbon dioxide and 60 cubic kilometres of methane that have bubbled into the Kivu from volcanic vents. The gases are trapped in layers 80 metres below the lake’s surface by the intense water pressures there. However, researchers have warned that geological or volcanic events could disturb these waters and release the gases.

The impact would be devastating, as was demonstrated on 21 August 1986 at Lake Nyos in Cameroon, in West Africa. Its waters were saturated with carbon dioxide and a major disturbance – most probably a landslide – caused a huge cloud of carbon dioxide to bubble up from its depths and to pour down the valleys that lead from the crater lake.

Carbon dioxide is denser than air, so that the 50mph cloud hugged the ground and smothered everything in its path. Some 1,700 people were suffocated.

“The lake was essentially like a bottle of beer that had been shaken up,” said Professor George Kling, of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at Michigan University. “When you opened it, carbon dioxide bubbled up, and the beer frothed over. A glassful is OK. A lakeful is deadly.”

Kling has since turned his attention to Lake Kivu, which is more than 3,000 times the size of Nyos and contains more than 350 times as much gas. More worrying is the fact that the shores of Kivu are much more heavily populated. About two million people live there, including the 250,000 citizens of the city of Goma.

Mount Nyiragongo, near Goma, erupted in 2002 and lava streamed from it into Lake Kivu for several days. On this occasion there was no disturbance of the lake’s deep layers of gas and no deadly outpouring of carbon dioxide or methane. However, Kling has warned – in the journal Nature this month – that in the event of another eruption the region may not be so lucky again.

Sometimes, nature can be scarier than human beings. True – not very often.

Sounds like a good reason to move.

Like early adopter utilities in California, Texas and Florida, Maryland’s largest utility will soon be rolling out smart grid technology, right in Charm City. Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), a subsidiary of Constellation Energy, announced Monday that it plans to deploy 2 million smart meters for all of its customers. The rollout will cost an estimated $500 million over five years, but could save BGE’s customers $2.6 billion.

BGE has only filed its smart meter plan with the state regulator — the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) — but the utility asked the commission to move quickly on its proposal so that it can also apply for federal smart grid stimulus funds for the project. BGE hopes to get a $200 million grant from DOE stimulus funds, and will file for the funds by August (the deadline for proposals), hoping to receive them by October.

While the program will cost $500 million to deploy and will partly be paid for with rate hikes of up to $1.24 per month for electric customers and $1.52 for gas customers, BGE says savings will be higher than costs by a ratio of 3 to 1. That data comes from BGE’s pilot smart meter trials, which involved 3,000 homes between July and November of 2008. In those trials, BGE found that customers reduced their energy consumption by up to 37 percent during peak electricity periods, and saved $100 on their energy bills.

I imagine replacing your existing electric meter with the new variety shouldn’t be more difficult for your meter reader than it was to replace our old original with a wifi-equipped version a couple years back. The critters only plug-in like a giant glass toadstool fuse – yank out the old and shove the new one into place.

Took longer for the meter dude to walk from his truck around to the back of the house and back – than it took to actually change out the meter. Of course, I don’t now what’s required after that; but, I’d hope it can be accomplished from electricity central station.

President Barack Obama’s budget outline has called for eliminating substantial tax breaks and increasing fees for the oil and natural gas industry, while boosting funding for cleaner fuel development.

Obama has made transforming the way Americans use energy a priority for his presidency. He has pledged to double U.S. renewable energy production in three years and wants 10 percent of electricity to come from clean energy sources by 2012.

His budget includes more than $50 million in increased funding for the Interior Department to conduct environmental studies to assess alternative energy resources and bolster clean energy development.

Obama’s plan, which must still be approved by Congress, would levy an excise tax on Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas, raising $5.3 billion in revenue from 2011 to 2019.

This new 13 percent tax on all oil and gas production in the Gulf would only affect those companies that are currently not paying any royalties due to a loophole, said an Interior Department official. The official said producers who already pay royalties will receive a tax credit.

Oil industry execs, lobbyists and their tame politicians are already whining about the proposals. When will these thugs realize that American voters are tired of being screwed by the Oil Patch Boys?

Experts said the slow digestive system of cows makes them a key producer of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that gets far less public attention than carbon dioxide.

In a bid to understand the impact of the wind produced by cows on global warming, scientists collected gas from their stomachs in plastic tanks attached to their backs.

The Argentine researchers discovered methane from cows accounts for more than 30 per cent of the country’s total greenhouse emissions…

Scientists are now carrying out trials of new diets designed to improve cows’s digestion and hopefully reduce global warming. Silvia Valtorta, of the National Council of Scientific and Technical Investigations, said that by feeding cows clover and alfalfa instead of grain “you can reduce methane emissions by 25 percent”.

I can think of a few politicians who might advance the cause of science with one of these tanks plugged into their whatchmacallit.