Five Roman-Era Shipwrecks Found Off Italy

A team of archaeologists has discovered a trove of five Roman-era shipwrecks deep under the sea off a small Mediterranean island.

The find of well-preserved ships, made possible by sonar technology and the use of remotely operated vehicles, includes cargo of largely intact clay vases and pots transporting wine, olive oil, fish sauce and other goods.

Resting untouched between 330 to 490 feet underwater near the small island of Ventotene, which lies 30 miles off the Italian coast halfway between Rome and Naples, the ships date from the 1st century B.C. to the 5th century A.D.

From their cargo, archaeologists from the U.S. group AURORA Trust and Italy's Ministry of Culture, established that the vessels were transporting goods from Italy, Spain and north Africa.

They were probably heading for safe anchorage, but then sunk during a storm.

"Ventotene is a small island in the open sea. It was on major trade routes and was both a safe haven and a danger to shipping," Timmy Gambin, head of archaeology for the Aurora Trust, told Discovery News.

discovery.com

A little girl

A little girl is trying to knock down the sumo fighter Taiichiro Tashima.
PS: I hope her mother didn't make her do this.

World's Largest Telescope Acts Like Big Bucket

A new telescope scheduled to be inaugurated this week on Spain's Canary Islands holds the title as the world's largest, but contenders are gathering in the wings.

The Gran Telescopio Canarias, or GTC for short, has 10.4 meters (34 feet) of mirrors for collecting faint light from distant objects.

"Basically, a telescope mirror functions like a bucket in the rain: The larger the bucket, the faster you collect water," said Michael Richer, an astronomer with Mexico's Instituto de Astronomia Ensenada, who serves as a scientific advisor for the GTC.

"Larger telescopes allow you to collect light faster. This permits the observation of fainter sources -- either because they're farther away or because they're intrinsically fainter -- or more detailed observations that require more precise manipulation of the light," Richer told Discovery News.

GTC tops the 10-meter (32.8-foot) Keck Telescopes on Hawaii's Mauna Kea and folds new teams of astronomers into a heated quest for knowledge about how the universe formed and what it contains. The $180 million GTC is owned Spain, Mexico and the University of Florida.

"When you're a partner in your own telescope, you have a competitive advantage," said Stan Dermott, chairman of the astronomy department at the University of Florida.

discovery.com

Sarkozy hospitalized after jogging scare

PARIS, France (CNN) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy became faint while jogging late Sunday morning and was taken to a hospital, the presidential office said.

He did not lose consciousness, and initial tests showed nothing abnormal, said a statement released by the president's office. His heart will be monitored until Monday morning, which is standard procedure in such cases, the statement said.

In the meantime, according to the statement, he is resting and keeping in touch with his advisers.

Sarkozy, 54, had been jogging with bodyguards for about 45 minutes near the Elysee Palace, the official residence of the president, when he fell ill, the statement said. After being seen by the Elysee doctor, Sarkozy was taken by helicopter to the military hospital Val-de-Grace.

No further announcement was expected until morning, the statement said.

Sarkozy exercises regularly and is an avid jogger. Earlier this month, he was photographed jogging through Central Park in New York during his trip to the United States.

cnn.com

Magnetic Field On Bright Star Vega

Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing the first detection of a magnetic field on the star Vega, one of the brightest stars in the sky. Using the high-sensitivity NARVAL spectropolarimeter installed at the Bernard-Lyot telescope (Pic du Midi Observatory, France), a team of astronomers [1] detected the effect of a magnetic field (known as the Zeeman effect) in the light emitted by Vega.

Vega is a famous star among amateur and professional astronomers. Located at only 25 light years from Earth in the Lyra constellation, it is the fifth brightest star in the sky. It has been used as a reference star for brightness comparisons. Vega is twice as massive as the Sun and has only one tenth its age. Because it is both bright and nearby, Vega has been often studied but it is still revealing new aspects when it is observed with more powerful instruments.

Vega rotates in less than a day, while the Sun's rotation period is 27 days. The intense centrifugal force induced by this rapid rotation flattens its poles and generates temperature variations of more than 1000 degrees Celsius between the polar (warmer) and the equatorial regions of its surface. Vega is also surrounded by a disk of dust, in which the inhomogeneities suggest the presence of planets.

This time, astronomers analyzed the polarization of light emitted by Vega [2] and detected a weak magnetic field at its surface. This is really not a big surprise because one knows that the charged particle motions inside stars can generate magnetic fields, and this is how solar and terrestrial magnetic fields are produced. However, for more massive stars than the Sun, such as Vega, theoretical models cannot predict the intensity and the structure of the magnetic field, so that astronomers had no clue to the strength of the signal they were looking for. After many unsuccessful attempts in past decades, both the high sensitivity of NARVAL and the full dedication of an observing campaign to Vega have made this first detection possible.

The strength of Vega magnetic field is about 50 micro-tesla, which is close to that of the mean field on Earth and on the Sun. This first observational constraint opens the way to in-depth theoretical studies about the origin of magnetic fields in massive stars. This detection also suggests that magnetic fields exist but have not been detected yet on many stars like Vega, but farther and more difficult to observe. Astronomers believe that this discovery will be a key step in understanding stellar magnetic fields and their influence on stellar evolution. As for Vega, it is now the prototype of a new class of magnetic stars and will definitely continue fascinating astronomers for years.

[1] The team includes F. Lignières, P. Petit, T. Böhm, and M. Aurière (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Toulouse-Tarbes, CNRS/Université de Toulouse, France).

[2] Radiation is not only characterized by its wavelength and its intensity, but also by its polarization state. The polarization state of waves, including light waves, describes the orientation of their vibrations. A light wave can either be non-polarized, linearly or circularly polarized depending on the orientation of the electric field as the wave travels. In particular, the polarization state of radiation gives information about the presence of a magnetic field in the medium where the radiation was emitted. Hence, polarization data allow astronomers to study stellar magnetic fields.

sciencedaily.com

Premier League - Crouch set for Spurs move

Portsmouth manager Paul Hart has revealed he has accepted a bid from Spurs for striker Peter Crouch.

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp has been looking to reunite Crouch with his former Portsmouth strike partner Jermain Deofe and it now looks as though he has succeeded with a bid of around £10million.

Hart, who last week signed a two-and-a-half year deal to remain with the south coast club, claimed it was a result of a bid to balance the books following a period of unrealistic spending under Redknapp.

"Obviously I'm disappointed to see Peter leave, but given the severe financial restraints in place here we had no choice but to accept an offer from Tottenham," he told the Daily Mirror.

"I think people need to realise that Pompey have been punching above their weight and could no longer sustain the level of spending that has gone on here over the last three years."

PA Sport

Jordan: 2yr wait for split

JORDAN expected her 3½-year marriage to Peter Andre to end for TWO YEARS before it collapsed, she has revealed.
She said that she had not wept since the split in May because "I did all my crying while I was married".

Jordan, 31, real name Katie Price, said: "It was a fairytale. I was in love and it ended, but you've got to get on."

She said she and Aussie singer Peter, 36, were working things through for kids Harvey, seven, Junior, four, and Princess Tiaamii, two.