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Add simplistic, transitional style to your bedroom with the Bliss collection. This impressive king size bed features solid pine construction, open storage and a slat-styled headboard. The soft color is perfect for a transitional palette.
For over 30 years, Progressive Furniture has worked meticulously to provide incredible values, first-rate construction and unsurpassed service. Part of the Sauder Woodworking family, the company started in 1985 and has grown into the trusted brand it is today. Their unique, stylish and functional designs are something you can be proud of and use for years to come.
Here at Homemakers, we've been making your house a home for more than 40 years and are now one of the largest showrooms in the state. We're happy to have friends like you shop with us, both in store and online! Explore the links below to learn more.
Please see above for the estimated time this product will be available in our facility. When placing your order, you may request a delivery date during the checkout process. The next steps in the delivery process depend on whether the order is being delivered within the state of Iowa, or outside the state of Iowa.
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Customers with delivery outside the state of Iowa may request a delivery date during the checkout process. This date is not guaranteed but we will try to get as close to this date as possible. Once the items leave our facility, the carrier will contact you within 5-10 business days to schedule your actual delivery date and time.
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With his new album, Strange Clouds, set to drop May 1 and the success of his first single by the same name, Bobby Ray recently released his latest single "So Good." The melodic song takes the Atlanta rapper back to his roots as an artist, a far cry from the tracks he has released in the past couple years.
"So Good" has revealed that, quite frankly, no one does pop rap quite like B.o.B., and his latest offering from his upcoming new album fits this description accurately. Ryan Tedder, who is the lead singer of One Republic, produced the track, which does not fail to live up to its hopeful name. The soaring track, backed by a melodic keyboard, is Bobby Ray's catchiest tune since his 2010 megahit "Airplanes" with Hayley Williams of Paramore. While the concept of a vacation fantasy with a potential mate is nothing new in hip-hop (Lupe Fiasco's "Paris,Tokyo" inevitably comes to mind), Bobby Ray's funky take on the theme renders this version simply enjoyable.
- Terrance Ross (Ticker)
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This posting is a departure from the issues pertaining to Northern Dogs.
The recent Pig Farm fires necessitate that immediate action be taken in order to put an end to the incredible suffering and excruciating pain that the Pigs endured.
Imagine yourself trapped inside a burning structure, unable to escape. Imagine the panic, imagine the searing hot smoke and flames filling your own lungs. Imagine that no one is there to make your rescue possible. Imagine yourself fighting to cram your too large body through the too small bars of your holding cell, imagine feeling the weight of your companions crushing you, your flesh tearing from sharp hooves clammering for escape, imagine the pitiful screams of pain from yourself and others around you. Are you terrified….you should be….would you wish this on any living creature….I surely pray to God that you would not.
It has been proven that pigs are highly intelligent creatures, even moreso than man's Best Friend, the dog.
Many of these pig farm operations DO NOT have in place proper sprinkler systems, smoke alarms or fire alarms. Perhaps considered too costly by some pig producers yet the government doles out funding to such operations.
It is bad enough what these intelligent sentient beings must endure , confined to crowded barns, steel birthing cells,
piglets never being allowed to venture from their steel enclosures; mothers barely able to move in what has been their
living quarters likely from birth.
Below is a link that will open your eyes and hopefully enable you to act in support of these tortured animals who through no fault of their own were burned alive. Additional links will provide more of the pictures which, for those with a conscience, will horrify you.
The pictures are very graphic and the explanations equally distubing.
PLEASE urge our government to carry out inspections of such pig farms to ensure safety measures are in place PRIOR to handing out their cheques!!!


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With deal in place, will San Diego mayor leave?
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Mayor Bob Filner kept his low profile Thursday amid speculation he will resign as part of the sexual harassment settlement negotiated by his lawyers and city officials. Meantime, the lawyer for the former Filner aide who sued the mayor said the deal doesn't resolve her lawsuit, a potential sticking point to approval by the City Council.
Details of the agreement struck Wednesday were kept private ahead of Friday's expected closed-door vote by the council on whether to accept the terms.
A person with knowledge of the negotiations said the main sticking points during the talks involved granting Filner indemnity in the lawsuit brought by his former communication's director, Irene McCormack Jackson, and paying his legal fees. The person was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
McCormack Jackson and her lawyer, Gloria Allred, participated in the first of three days of negotiations before a mediator but Allred said she never signed off on a settlement and doesn't know any details. She wants Filner to resign but doesn't believe he should have legal bills covered by the city and urged the council to reject the proposal if it includes that provision.
"There should be no payoff for Mayor Filner," she said.
At least 17 women have claimed Filner sexually harassed them, though only one lawsuit has been filed. All nine member of the City Council along with a laundry list of fellow Democrats including U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have called on Filner to quit.
Filner's lawyers issued a statement Thursday confirming the settlement but declined to provide details "due to the confidential nature of mediation and settlement discussions."
Francine Busby, chairwoman of the San Diego County Democratic Party, said voters will accept nothing short of resignation as part of a settlement.
"The voters are ready to get this behind them and move forward. It has to be resignation," she said.
Former city attorney Michael Aguirre said he expects that next week the political discussion will be about who will be the next mayor.
"I think it's pretty clear he's going to resign," he said.
Filner hasn't had any public events since returning to work this week following therapy for his behavior. He has acknowledged disrespecting and intimidating women but has denied any sexual harassment.
City Attorney Jan Goldsmith, who negotiated on the city's behalf, also has declined to comment about terms of the deal. Goldsmith previously presented the City Council with a resolution to not pay for Filner's defense and to countersue to distance the city from the scandal.
Steve Erie, a political science professor at the University of California, San Diego, said Filner's resignation obviously is part of the proposed resolution.
"He had to have Filner's scalp in order to compromise and handle Filner's fees," Erie said of Goldsmith.
Tony Krvaric, chairman of the San Diego County Republican Party, said voters may disapprove of the settlement if the city is stuck with high legal bills.
There's a middle ground where it's probably reasonable," he said. "We'll see who got the better of whom."
The sex scandal has plunged the city into political turmoil. A recall effort has started and organizers have gathered about 10 percent of the roughly 100,000 signatures needed to call an election. Meanwhile, women have continued coming forward and saying Filner made unwanted advances and inappropriate statements to them.
Dianne York, the latest of at least 17 accusers that include a great-grandmother and retired Navy rear admiral, said Filner placed his hand on her buttocks while she posed for a photo with him about three months ago. York said the incident took place after a meeting at his office. She said she reported it to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.
McCormack Jackson was the first woman to go public with harassment allegations against Filner, a twice-divorced, 70-year-old former congressman who took office last December. She claimed the mayor asked her to work without panties, demanded kisses, told her he wanted to see her naked and dragged her in a headlock while whispering in her ear.
Other accusers contend he groped, cornered and forcibly kissed them.
Should Filner resign, City Council President Todd Gloria would become acting mayor until a special election is held. Gloria and Councilman Kevin Faulconer were among those who attended the settlement talks.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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Gamma ray burst
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are flashes of gamma rays associated with extremely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They are the brightest electromagnetic events known to occur in the universe.[1] Bursts can last from ten milliseconds to several minutes. The initial burst is usually followed by a longer-lived "afterglow" emitted at longer wavelengths (X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, microwave and radio).[2]
Most observed GRBs are believed to consist of a narrow beam of intense radiation released during a supernova or hypernova as a rapidly rotating, high-mass star collapses to form a neutron star, quark star, or black hole. A subclass of GRBs (the "short" bursts) appear to originate from a different process – this may be due to the merger of binary neutron stars. The cause of the precursor burst observed in some of these short events may be due to the development of a resonance between the crust and core of such stars as a result of the massive tidal forces experienced in the seconds leading up to their collision, causing the entire crust of the star to shatter.[3]
The sources of most GRBs are billions of light years away from Earth, implying that the explosions are both extremely energetic (a typical burst releases as much energy in a few seconds as the Sun will in its entire 10-billion-year lifetime) and extremely rare (a few per galaxy per million years[4]). All observed GRBs have originated from outside the Milky Way galaxy, although a related class of phenomena, soft gamma repeater flares, are associated with magnetars within the Milky Way. It has been hypothesized that a gamma-ray burst in the Milky Way, pointing directly towards the Earth, could cause a mass extinction event.[5]
GRBs were first detected in 1967 by the Vela satellites, a series of satellites designed to detect covert nuclear weapons tests. Hundreds of theoretical models were proposed to explain these bursts in the years following their discovery, such as collisions between comets and neutron stars.[6] Little information was available to verify these models until the 1997 detection of the first X-ray and optical afterglows and direct measurement of their redshifts using optical spectroscopy, and thus their distances and energy outputs. These discoveries, and subsequent studies of the galaxies and supernovae associated with the bursts, clarified the distance and luminosity of GRBs. These facts definitively placed them in distant galaxies and also connected long GRBs with the explosion of massive stars, the only possible source for the energy outputs observed.
On November 21, 2013, NASA released detailed data about one of the strongest gamma-ray bursts, designated GRB 130427A, that was observed on April 27, 2013.[7][8]
- 1 History
- 2 Classification
- 3 Energetics and beaming
- 4 Progenitors
- 5 Emission mechanisms
- 6 Rate of occurrence and potential effects on life on Earth
- 7 See also
- 8 Footnotes
- 9 Notes
- 10 Books
- 11 References
- 12 External links
Gamma-ray bursts were first observed in the late 1960s by the U.S. Vela satellites, which were built to detect gamma radiation pulses emitted by nuclear weapons tested in space. The United States suspected that the USSR might attempt to conduct secret nuclear tests after signing the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963. On July 2, 1967, at 14:19 UTC, the Vela 4 and Vela 3 satellites detected a flash of gamma radiation unlike any known nuclear weapons signature.[9] Uncertain what had happened but not considering the matter particularly urgent, the team at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, led by Ray Klebesadel, filed the data away for investigation. As additional Vela satellites were launched with better instruments, the Los Alamos team continued to find inexplicable gamma-ray bursts in their data. By analyzing the different arrival times of the bursts as detected by different satellites, the team was able to determine rough estimates for the sky positions of sixteen bursts[9] and definitively rule out a terrestrial or solar origin. The discovery was declassified and published in 1973 as an Astrophysical Journal article entitled "Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts of Cosmic Origin".[10]
Many theories were advanced to explain these bursts, most of which posited nearby sources within the Milky Way Galaxy. Little progress was made until the 1991 launch of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and its Burst and Transient Source Explorer (BATSE) instrument, an extremely sensitive gamma-ray detector. This instrument provided crucial data that showed the distribution of GRBs is isotropic—not biased towards any particular direction in space, such as toward the galactic plane or the galactic center.[11] Because of the flattened shape of the Milky Way Galaxy, if the sources were from within our own galaxy they would be strongly concentrated in or near the galactic plane. The absence of any such pattern in the case of GRBs provided strong evidence that gamma-ray bursts must come from beyond the Milky Way.[12][13][14][15] However, some Milky Way models are still consistent with an isotropic distribution.[12][16]
Counterpart objects as candidate sources
For decades after the discovery of GRBs, astronomers searched for a counterpart at other wavelengths: i.e., any astronomical object in positional coincidence with a recently observed burst. Astronomers considered many distinct classes of objects, including white dwarfs, pulsars, supernovae, globular clusters, quasars, Seyfert galaxies, and BL Lac objects.[17] All such searches were unsuccessful,[nb 1] and in a few cases particularly well-localized bursts (those whose positions were determined with what was then a high degree of accuracy) could be clearly shown to have no bright objects of any nature consistent with the position derived from the detecting satellites. This suggested an origin of either very faint stars or extremely distant galaxies.[18][19] Even the most accurate positions contained numerous faint stars and galaxies, and it was widely agreed that final resolution of the origins of cosmic gamma-ray bursts would require both new satellites and faster communication.[20]
Several models for the origin of gamma-ray bursts postulated[21] that the initial burst of gamma rays should be followed by slowly fading emission at longer wavelengths created by collisions between the burst ejecta and interstellar gas. This fading emission would be called the "afterglow." Early searches for this afterglow were unsuccessful, largely due to the difficulties in observing a burst's position at longer wavelengths immediately after the initial burst. The breakthrough came in February 1997 when the satellite BeppoSAX detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 970228[nb 2]) and when the X-ray camera was pointed towards the direction from which the burst had originated, it detected fading X-ray emission. The William Herschel Telescope identified a fading optical counterpart 20 hours after the burst.[22] Once the GRB faded, deep imaging was able to identify a faint, distant host galaxy at the location of the GRB as pinpointed by the optical afterglow.[23][24]
Because of the very faint luminosity of this galaxy, its exact distance was not measured for several years. Well before then, another major breakthrough occurred with the next event registered by BeppoSAX, GRB 970508. This event was localized within four hours of its discovery, allowing research teams to begin making observations much sooner than any previous burst. The spectrum of the object revealed a redshift of z = 0.835, placing the burst at a distance of roughly 6 billion light years from Earth.[25] This was the first accurate determination of the distance to a GRB, and together with the discovery of the host galaxy of 970228 proved that GRBs occur in extremely distant galaxies.[23][26] Within a few months, the controversy about the distance scale ended: GRBs were extragalactic events originating within faint galaxies at enormous distances. The following year, GRB 980425 was followed within a day by a coincident bright supernova (SN 1998bw), indicating a clear connection between GRBs and the deaths of very massive stars. This burst provided the first strong clue about the nature of the systems that produce GRBs.[27]
BeppoSAX functioned until 2002 and CGRO (with BATSE) was deorbited in 2000. However, the revolution in the study of gamma-ray bursts motivated the development of a number of additional instruments designed specifically to explore the nature of GRBs, especially in the earliest moments following the explosion. The first such mission, HETE-2,[28] launched in 2000 and functioned until 2006, providing most of the major discoveries during this period. One of the most successful space missions to date, Swift, was launched in 2004 and as of 2014 is still operational.[29][30] Swift is equipped with a very sensitive gamma ray detector as well as on-board X-ray and optical telescopes, which can be rapidly and automatically slewed to observe afterglow emission following a burst. More recently, the Fermi mission was launched carrying the Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor, which detects bursts at a rate of several hundred per year, some of which are bright enough to be observed at extremely high energies with Fermi's Large Area Telescope. Meanwhile, on the ground, numerous optical telescopes have been built or modified to incorporate robotic control software that responds immediately to signals sent through the Gamma-ray Burst Coordinates Network. This allows the telescopes to rapidly repoint towards a GRB, often within seconds of receiving the signal and while the gamma-ray emission itself is still ongoing.[31][32]
New developments over the past few years include the recognition of short gamma-ray bursts as a separate class (likely due to merging neutron stars and not associated with supernovae), the discovery of extended, erratic flaring activity at X-ray wavelengths lasting for many minutes after most GRBs, and the discovery of the most luminous (GRB 080319B) and the former most distant (GRB 090423) objects in the universe.[33][34] The most distant known GRB, GRB 090429B, is now the most distant known object in the universe.
While most astronomical transient sources have simple and consistent time structures (typically a rapid brightening followed by gradual fading, as in a nova or supernova), the light curves of gamma-ray bursts are extremely diverse and complex.[35] No two gamma-ray burst light curves are identical,[36] with large variation observed in almost every property: the duration of observable emission can vary from milliseconds to tens of minutes, there can be a single peak or several individual subpulses, and individual peaks can be symmetric or with fast brightening and very slow fading. Some bursts are preceded by a "precursor" event, a weak burst that is then followed (after seconds to minutes of no emission at all) by the much more intense "true" bursting episode.[37] The light curves of some events have extremely chaotic and complicated profiles with almost no discernible patterns.[20]
Although some light curves can be roughly reproduced using certain simplified models,[38] little progress has been made in understanding the full diversity observed. Many classification schemes have been proposed, but these are often based solely on differences in the appearance of light curves and may not always reflect a true physical difference in the progenitors of the explosions. However, plots of the distribution of the observed duration[nb 3] for a large number of gamma-ray bursts show a clear bimodality, suggesting the existence of two separate populations: a "short" population with an average duration of about 0.3 seconds and a "long" population with an average duration of about 30 seconds.[39] Both distributions are very broad with a significant overlap region in which the identity of a given event is not clear from duration alone. Additional classes beyond this two-tiered system have been proposed on both observational and theoretical grounds.[40][41][42][43]
Short gamma-ray bursts
Events with a duration of less than about two seconds are classified as short gamma-ray bursts. These account for about 30% of gamma-ray bursts, but until 2005, no afterglow had been successfully detected from any short event and little was known about their origins.[45] Since then, several dozen short gamma-ray burst afterglows have been detected and localized, several of which are associated with regions of little or no star formation, such as large elliptical galaxies and the central regions of large galaxy clusters.[46][47][48][49] This rules out a link to massive stars, confirming that short events are physically distinct from long events. In addition, there has been no association with supernovae.[50]
The true nature of these objects (or even whether the current classification scheme is accurate) remains unknown, although the leading hypothesis is that they originate from the mergers of binary neutron stars[51] or a neutron star with a black hole. The mean duration of these events of 0.2 seconds suggests a source of very small physical diameter in stellar terms: less than 0.2 light-seconds (about 37,000 miles—four times the Earth's diameter) This alone suggests a very compact object as the source. The observation of minutes to hours of X-ray flashes after a short gamma-ray burst is consistent with small particles of a primary object like a neutron star initially swallowed by a black hole in less than two seconds, followed by some hours of lesser energy events, as remaining fragments of tidally disrupted neutron star material (no longer neutronium) remain in orbit to spiral into the black hole, over a longer period of time.[45] A small fraction of short gamma-ray bursts are probably produced by giant flares from soft gamma repeaters in nearby galaxies.[52][53]
Long gamma-ray bursts
Most observed events (70%) have a duration of greater than two seconds and are classified as long gamma-ray bursts. Because these events constitute the majority of the population and because they tend to have the brightest afterglows, they have been studied in much greater detail than their short counterparts. Almost every well-studied long gamma-ray burst has been linked to a galaxy with rapid star formation, and in many cases to a core-collapse supernova as well, unambiguously associating long GRBs with the deaths of massive stars.[54] Long GRB afterglow observations, at high redshift, are also consistent with the GRB having originated in star-forming regions.[55]
Ultra-long gamma-ray bursts
These events are at the tail end of the long GRB duration distribution, lasting more than 10,000 seconds. They have been proposed to form a separate class, possibly the result of the collapse of a blue supergiant star.[56] Only a small number have been identified to date, their primary characteristic being their gamma ray emission duration. So far, the known and well established ultra long GRBs are GRB 091024A, GRB 101225A, and GRB 111209A.[57][58] A recent study,[59] on the other hand, shows that the existing evidence for a separate ultra-long GRB population with a new type of progenitor is inconclusive, and further multi-wavelength observations are needed to draw a firmer conclusion.
Tidal disruption events
This new class of GRB-like events was first discovered through the detection of GRB 110328A by the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission on 28 March 2011. This event had a gamma-ray duration of about 2 days, much longer than even ultra-long GRBs, and was detected in X-rays for many months. It occurred at the center of a small elliptical galaxy at redshift z = 0.3534. There is an ongoing debate as to whether the explosion was the result of stellar collapse or a tidal disruption event accompanied by a relativistic jet, although the latter explanation has become widely favoured.
A tidal disruption event of this sort is when a star interacts with a supermassive black hole shredding the star, and in some cases creating a relativistic jet which produces bright emission of gamma ray radiation. The event GRB 110328A (also denoted Swift J1644+57) was initially argued to be produced by the disruption of main sequence star by a black hole of several million times the mass of the Sun,[60][61][62] although it has subsequently been argued that the disruption of a white dwarf by a black hole of mass about 10 thousand times the Sun may be more likely.[63]
Energetics and beaming
Gamma-ray bursts are very bright as observed from Earth despite their typically immense distances. An average long GRB has a bolometric flux comparable to a bright star of our galaxy despite a distance of billions of light years (compared to a few tens of light years for most visible stars). Most of this energy is released in gamma rays, although some GRBs have extremely luminous optical counterparts as well. GRB 080319B, for example, was accompanied by an optical counterpart that peaked at a visible magnitude of 5.8,[64] comparable to that of the dimmest naked-eye stars despite the burst's distance of 7.5 billion light years. This combination of brightness and distance implies an extremely energetic source. Assuming the gamma-ray explosion to be spherical, the energy output of GRB 080319B would be within a factor of two of the rest-mass energy of the Sun (the energy which would be released were the Sun to be converted entirely into radiation).[33]
No known process in the Universe can produce this much energy in such a short time. Rather, gamma-ray bursts are thought to be highly focused explosions, with most of the explosion energy collimated into a narrow jet traveling at speeds exceeding 99.995% of the speed of light.[65][66] The approximate angular width of the jet (that is, the degree of spread of the beam) can be estimated directly by observing the achromatic "jet breaks" in afterglow light curves: a time after which the slowly decaying afterglow begins to fade rapidly as the jet slows and can no longer beam its radiation as effectively.[67][68] Observations suggest significant variation in the jet angle from between 2 and 20 degrees.[69]
Because their energy is strongly focused, the gamma rays emitted by most bursts are expected to miss the Earth and never be detected. When a gamma-ray burst is pointed towards Earth, the focusing of its energy along a relatively narrow beam causes the burst to appear much brighter than it would have been were its energy emitted spherically. When this effect is taken into account, typical gamma-ray bursts are observed to have a true energy release of about 1044 J, or about 1/2000 of a Solar mass (M☉) energy equivalent[69]—which is still many times the mass-energy equivalent of the Earth (about 5.5 × 1041 J). This is comparable to the energy released in a bright type Ib/c supernova and within the range of theoretical models. Very bright supernovae have been observed to accompany several of the nearest GRBs.[27] Additional support for focusing of the output of GRBs has come from observations of strong asymmetries in the spectra of nearby type Ic supernova[70] and from radio observations taken long after bursts when their jets are no longer relativistic.[71]
Short (time duration) GRBs appear to come from a lower-redshift (i.e. less distant) population and are less luminous than long GRBs.[72] The degree of beaming in short bursts has not been accurately measured, but as a population they are likely less collimated than long GRBs[73] or possibly not collimated at all in some cases.[74]
Because of the immense distances of most gamma-ray burst sources from Earth, identification of the progenitors, the systems that produce these explosions, is particularly challenging. The association of some long GRBs with supernovae and the fact that their host galaxies are rapidly star-forming offer very strong evidence that long gamma-ray bursts are associated with massive stars. The most widely accepted mechanism for the origin of long-duration GRBs is the collapsar model,[75] in which the core of an extremely massive, low-metallicity, rapidly rotating star collapses into a black hole in the final stages of its evolution. Matter near the star's core rains down towards the center and swirls into a high-density accretion disk. The infall of this material into a black hole drives a pair of relativistic jets out along the rotational axis, which pummel through the stellar envelope and eventually break through the stellar surface and radiate as gamma rays. Some alternative models replace the black hole with a newly formed magnetar,[76] although most other aspects of the model (the collapse of the core of a massive star and the formation of relativistic jets) are the same.
The closest analogs within the Milky Way galaxy of the stars producing long gamma-ray bursts are likely the Wolf–Rayet stars, extremely hot and massive stars which have shed most or all of their hydrogen due to radiation pressure. Eta Carinae and WR 104 have been cited as possible future gamma-ray burst progenitors.[77] It is unclear if any star in the Milky Way has the appropriate characteristics to produce a gamma-ray burst.[78]
The massive-star model probably does not explain all types of gamma-ray burst. There is strong evidence that some short-duration gamma-ray bursts occur in systems with no star formation and where no massive stars are present, such as elliptical galaxies and galaxy halos.[72] The favored theory for the origin of most short gamma-ray bursts is the merger of a binary system consisting of two neutron stars. According to this model, the two stars in a binary slowly spiral towards each other due to the release of energy via gravitational radiation[79][80] until the neutron stars suddenly rip each other apart due to tidal forces and collapse into a single black hole. The infall of matter into the new black hole produces an accretion disk and releases a burst of energy, analogous to the collapsar model. Numerous other models have also been proposed to explain short gamma-ray bursts, including the merger of a neutron star and a black hole, the accretion-induced collapse of a neutron star, or the evaporation of primordial black holes.[81][82][83][84]
An alternative explanation proposed by Friedwardt Winterberg is that in the course of a gravitational collapse and in reaching the event horizon of a black hole, all matter disintegrates into a burst of gamma radiation.[85]
Emission mechanisms
The means by which gamma-ray bursts convert energy into radiation remains poorly understood, and as of 2010 there was still no generally accepted model for how this process occurs.[86] Any successful model of GRB emission must explain the physical process for generating gamma-ray emission that matches the observed diversity of light curves, spectra, and other characteristics.[87] Particularly challenging is the need to explain the very high efficiencies that are inferred from some explosions: some gamma-ray bursts may convert as much as half (or more) of the explosion energy into gamma-rays.[88] Recent observations of the bright optical counterpart of GRB 080319B, whose light curve was correlated with the gamma-ray light curve,[64] has suggested that inverse Compton may be the dominant process in some events. In this model, pre-existing low-energy photons are scattered by relativistic electrons within the explosion, augmenting their energy by a large factor and transforming them into gamma-rays.[89]
The nature of the longer-wavelength afterglow emission (ranging from X-ray through radio) that follows gamma-ray bursts is better understood. Any energy released by the explosion not radiated away in the burst itself takes the form of matter or energy moving outward at nearly the speed of light. As this matter collides with the surrounding interstellar gas, it creates a relativistic shock wave that then propagates forward into interstellar space. A second shock wave, the reverse shock, may propagate back into the ejected matter. Extremely energetic electrons within the shock wave are accelerated by strong local magnetic fields and radiate as synchrotron emission across most of the electromagnetic spectrum.[90][91] This model has generally been successful in modeling the behavior of many observed afterglows at late times (generally, hours to days after the explosion), although there are difficulties explaining all features of the afterglow very shortly after the gamma-ray burst has occurred.[92]
Rate of occurrence and potential effects on life on Earth
All GRBs observed to date have occurred well outside the Milky Way galaxy and have been harmless to Earth. However, if a GRB were to occur within the Milky Way, and its emission were beamed straight towards Earth, the effects could be devastating for the planet. Currently, orbiting satellites detect on average approximately one GRB per day. The closest observed GRB as of March 2014 was GRB 980425, located 40Mpc[93] (130 million light years) away in a (z=0.0085) SBc-type dwarf galaxy.[94] GRB 980425 was far less energetic than the average GRB and was associated with the Type Ib supernova SN 1998bw.[95]
Estimating the exact rate at which GRBs occur is difficult, but for a galaxy of approximately the same size as the Milky Way, the expected rate (for long-duration GRBs) is about one burst every 100,000 to 1,000,000 years.[96] Only a small percentage of these would be beamed towards Earth. Estimates of rate of occurrence of short-duration GRBs are even more uncertain because of the unknown degree of collimation, but are probably comparable.[97]
Since GRBs are thought to involve beamed emission along two jets in opposing directions, only planets in the path of these jets would be subjected to the high energy gamma radiation.[98]
Depending on its distance from Earth, a GRB and its Deinococcus radiodurans. These bacteria can endure 2,000 times more radiation than humans. Life surviving an initial onslaught, including those located on the side of the earth facing away from the burst, would have to contend with the potentially lethal after-effect of the depletion of the atmosphere's protective ozone layer by the burst.[99]
Hypothetical effects of gamma-ray bursts in the past
GRBs close enough to affect life in some way might occur once every five million years or so – around a thousand times since life on Earth began.[100]
The major Ordovician–Silurian extinction event of 450 million years ago may have been caused by a GRB. The late Ordovician species of trilobite that spent some of its life in the plankton layer near the ocean surface was much harder hit than deep-water dwellers, which tended to stay put within quite restricted areas. Usually it is the more widely spread species that fare better in extinction, and hence this unusual pattern could be explained by a GRB, which would probably devastate creatures living on land and near the ocean surface, but leave deep-sea creatures relatively unharmed.[5]
A case has been made that the cause of the carbon 14 (and Be 10) spike in 774 or 775 was the result of a short GRB.
Hypothetical effects of gamma-ray bursts in the future
The greatest danger is believed to come from Wolf–Rayet stars, regarded by astronomers as likely GRB candidates. When such stars transition to supernovae, they may emit intense beams of gamma rays, and if Earth were to lie in the beam zone, devastating effects may occur. Gamma rays would not penetrate Earth's atmosphere to impact the surface directly, but they would chemically damage the stratosphere.[5]
For example, if WR 104, at a distance of 8,000 light-years were to hit Earth with a burst of 10 seconds duration, its gamma rays could deplete about 25 percent of the world's ozone layer. This would result in mass extinction, food chain depletion, and starvation. The side of Earth facing the GRB would receive potentially lethal radiation exposure, which can cause radiation sickness in the short term, and in the long term result in serious impacts to life due to ozone layer depletion.[5]
Effects after exposure to the gamma-ray burst on Earth's atmosphere
Longer-term, gamma ray energy may cause chemical reactions involving oxygen and nitrogen molecules which may create nitrogen oxide then nitrogen dioxide gas, causing photochemical smog. The GRB may produce enough of the gas to cover the sky and darken it. Gas would prevent sunlight from reaching Earth's surface, producing a "cosmic winter" effect - a similar situation to an impact winter, but not caused by an impact. GRB-produced gas could also even further deplete the ozone layer.
See also
- Fast radio burst
- Gamma-ray astronomy
- Gamma-ray Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
- List of gamma-ray bursts
- Stellar evolution
- Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes
- ^ A notable exception is the 5 March event of 1979, an extremely bright burst that was successfully localized to supernova remnant N49 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This event is now interpreted as a magnetar giant flare, more related to SGR flares than "true" gamma-ray bursts.
- ^ GRBs are named after the date on which they are discovered: the first two digits being the year, followed by the two-digit month and two-digit day and a letter with the order they were detected during that day. The letter 'A' is appended to the name for the first burst identified, 'B' for the second, and so on. For bursts before the year 2010 this letter was only appended if more than one burst occurred that day.
- ^ The duration of a burst is typically measured by T90, the duration of the period which 90 percent of the burst's energy is emitted. Recently some otherwise "short" GRBs have been shown to be followed by a second, much longer emission episode that when included in the burst light curve results in T90 durations of up to several minutes: these events are only short in the literal sense when this component is excluded.
- ^ "Gamma Rays". NASA.
- ^ Vedrenne & Atteia 2009
- ^ Tsang, David and Read, Jocelyn S. and Hinderer, Tanja and Piro, Anthony L. and Bondarescu, Ruxandra (2012). "Resonant Shattering of Neutron Star Crust". Physical Review Letters 108. p. 5.
- ^ Podsiadlowski 2004
- ^ a b c d Melott 2004
- ^ Hurley 2003
- ^ Staff (November 21, 2013). "NASA Sees 'Watershed' Cosmic Blast in Unique Detail".
- ^ Borenstein, Seth (November 21, 2013). Monster' cosmic blast zipped harmlessly by Earth"'".
- ^ a b Schilling 2002, p.12–16
- ^ Klebesadel R.W., Strong I.B., and Olson R.A. (1973). "Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts of Cosmic Origin". Astrophysical Journal Letters 182: L85.
- ^ Meegan 1992
- ^ a b Vedrenne & Atteia 2009, p. 16–40
- ^ Schilling 2002, p.36–37
- ^ Paczyński 1999, p. 6
- ^ Piran 1992
- ^ Lamb 1995
- ^ Hurley 1986, p. 33
- ^ Pedersen 1987
- ^ Hurley 1992
- ^ a b Fishman & Meegan 1995
- ^ Paczynski 1993
- ^ van Paradijs 1997
- ^ a b Vedrenne & Atteia 2009, p. 90 – 93
- ^ Schilling 2002, p. 102
- ^ Reichart 1995
- ^ Schilling 2002, p. 118–123
- ^ a b Galama 1998
- ^ Ricker 2003
- ^ McCray 2008
- ^ Gehrels 2004
- ^ Akerlof 2003
- ^ Akerlof 1999
- ^ a b Bloom 2009
- ^ Reddy 2009
- ^ Katz 2002, p. 37
- ^ Marani 1997
- ^ Lazatti 2005
- ^ Simić 2005
- ^ Kouveliotou 1994
- ^ Horvath 1998
- ^ Hakkila 2003
- ^ Chattopadhyay 2007
- ^ Virgili 2009
- ^ "Hubble captures infrared glow of a kilonova blast". Image Gallery. ESA/Hubble. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
- ^ a b In a Flash NASA Helps Solve 35-year-old Cosmic Mystery. NASA (2005-10-05) The 30% figure is given here, as well as afterglow discussion.
- ^ Bloom 2006
- ^ Hjorth 2005
- ^ Berger 2007
- ^ Gehrels 2005
- ^ Zhang 2009
- ^ Nakar 2007
- ^ Frederiks 2008
- ^ Hurley 2005
- ^ Woosley & Bloom 2006
- ^ Pontzen et al 2010
- ^ Gendre, B.; Stratta, G.; Atteia, J. L.; Basa, S.; Boër, M.; Coward, D. M.; Cutini, S.; d'Elia, V.; Howell, E. J; Klotz, A.; Piro, L. (2013). "The Ultra-Long Gamma-Ray Burst 111209A: The Collapse of a Blue Supergiant?". The Astrophysical Journal 766: 30.
- ^ Boer, Michel; Gendre, Bruce; Stratta, Giulia (2013). "Are Ultra-long Gamma-Ray Bursts different?". arXiv:1310.4944 [astro-ph.HE].
- ^ Virgili, F. J.; Mundell, C. G.; Pal'Shin, V.; Guidorzi, C.; Margutti, R.; Melandri, A.; Harrison, R.; Kobayashi, S.; Chornock, R.; Henden, A.; Updike, A. C.; Cenko, S. B.; Tanvir, N. R.; Steele, I. A.; Cucchiara, A.; Gomboc, A.; Levan, A.; Cano, Z.; Mottram, C. J.; Clay, N. R.; Bersier, D.; Kopač, D.; Japelj, J.; Filippenko, A. V.; Li, W.; Svinkin, D.; Golenetskii, S.; Hartmann, D. H.; Milne, P. A. et al. (2013). "Grb 091024A and the Nature of Ultra-Long Gamma-Ray Bursts". The Astrophysical Journal 778: 54.
- ^ Zhang, Bin-Bin; Zhang, Bing; Murase, Kohta; Connaughton, Valerie; Briggs, Michael S. (2013). "How Long does a Burst Burst?". The Astrophysical Journal 787: 66.
- ^ Science Daily 2011
- ^ Levan 2011
- ^ Bloom 2011
- ^ Krolick & Piran 11
- ^ a b Racusin 2008
- ^ Rykoff 2009
- ^ Abdo 2009
- ^ Sari 1999
- ^ Burrows 2006
- ^ a b Frail 2001
- ^ Mazzali 2005
- ^ Frail 2000
- ^ a b Prochaska 2006
- ^ Watson 2006
- ^ Grupe 2006
- ^ MacFadyen 1999
- ^ Metzger 2007
- ^ Plait 2008
- ^ Stanek 2006
- ^ Abbott 2007
- ^ Kochanek 1993
- ^ Vietri 1998
- ^ MacFadyen 2006
- ^ Blinnikov 1984
- ^ Cline 1996
- ^ Winterberg, Friedwardt (2001 Aug 29). "Gamma-Ray Bursters and Lorentzian Relativity". Z. Naturforsch 56a: 889–892.
- ^ Stern 2007
- ^ Fishman, G. 1995
- ^ Fan & Piran 2006
- ^ Wozniak 2009
- ^ Meszaros 1997
- ^ Sari 1998
- ^ Nousek 2006
- ^ Soderberg, A. M.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Berger, E.; Fox, D. W.; Sako, M.; Frail, D. A.; Gal-Yam, A.; Moon, D. S.; Cenko, S. B.; Yost, S. A.; Phillips, M. M.; Persson, S. E.; Freedman, W. L.; Wyatt, P.; Jayawardhana, R.; Paulson, D. (2004). "The sub-energetic γ-ray burst GRB 031203 as a cosmic analogue to the nearby GRB 980425". Nature 430 (7000): 648–650.
- ^ Le Floc'h, E.; Charmandaris, V.; Gordon, K.; Forrest, W. J.; Brandl, B.; Schaerer, D.; Dessauges-Zavadsky, M.; Armus, L. (2011). "The first Infrared study of the close environment of a long Gamma-Ray Burst". arXiv:1111.1234 [astro-ph.CO].
- ^ Kippen, R.M.; Briggs, M. S.; Kommers, J. M.; Kouveliotou, C.; Hurley, K.; Robinson, C. R.; Van Paradijs, J.; Hartmann, D. H.; Galama, T. J.; Vreeswijk, P. M. (October 1998). "On the Association of Gamma-Ray Bursts with Supernovae". The Astrophysical Journal 506 (1): L27–L30.
- ^ "'"Gamma-ray burst 'hit Earth in 8th Century. Rebecca Morelle. BBC. 2013-01-21. Retrieved January 21, 2013.
- ^ Guetta and Piran 2006
- ^ Welsh, Jennifer (2011-07-10). "Can gamma-ray bursts destroy life on Earth?". MSN. Retrieved October 27, 2011.
- ^ "Death from across the galaxy". World-science.net. Retrieved 2012-12-30.
- ^ New Scientist print edition, 15 December 2001, p 10). John Scalo and Craig Wheeler of the University of Texas at Austin
- Vedrenne, G and Atteia, J.-L. (2009). Gamma-Ray Bursts: The brightest explosions in the Universe.
- Chryssa Kouveliotou, Stanford E. Woosley, Ralph A. M. J., ed. (2012). Gamma-ray bursts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Abbott, B. et al. (2007). "Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with 39 Gamma-Ray Bursts Using Data from the Second, Third, and Fourth LIGO Runs".
- Abdo, A.A. et al. (2009). "Fermi Observations of High-Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from GRB 080916C".
- Akerlof, C. et al. (1999). "Observation of contemporaneous optical radiation from a gamma-ray burst".
- Akerlof, C. et al. (2003). "The ROTSE-III Robotic Telescope System".
- Atwood, W.B.; Fermi/LAT Collaboration (2009). "The Large Area Telescope on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Mission". arXiv:0902.1089 [astro-ph].
- Ball, J.A. (1995). "Gamma-Ray Bursts: The ETI Hypothesis".
- Barthelmy, S.D. et al. (2005). "The Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on the SWIFT Midex Mission".
- Berger, E. et al. (2007). "Galaxy Clusters Associated with Short GRBs. I. The Fields of GRBs 050709, 050724, 050911, and 051221a".
- Blinnikov, S. et al. (1984). "Exploding Neutron Stars in Close Binaries".
- Bloom, J.S. et al. (2006). "Closing in on a Short-Hard Burst Progenitor: Constraints from Early-Time Optical Imaging and Spectroscopy of a Possible Host Galaxy of GRB 050509b".
- Bloom, J.S. et al. (2009). "Observations of the Naked-Eye GRB 080319B: Implications of Nature's Brightest Explosion".
- Bloom, J. S.; et al. (2011). "A Possible Relativistic Jetted Outburst from a Massive Black Hole Fed by a Tidally Disrupted Star".
- Burrows, D.N. et al. (2006). "Jet Breaks in Short Gamma-Ray Bursts. II. The Collimated Afterglow of GRB 051221A".
- Cline, D.B. (1996). "Primordial black-hole evaporation and the quark–gluon phase transition".
- Chattopadhyay, T. et al. (2007). "Statistical Evidence for Three Classes of Gamma-Ray Bursts".
- Ejzak, L.M. et al. (2007). "Terrestrial Consequences of Spectral and Temporal Variability in Ionizing Photon Events".
- Fan, Y. and Piran, T. (2006). "Gamma-ray burst efficiency and possible physical processes shaping the early afterglow".
- Fishman, C.J. and Meegan, C.A. (1995). "Gamma-Ray Bursts".
- Fishman, G.J. (1995). "Gamma-Ray Bursts: An Overview".
- Frail, D.A. et al. (2001). "Beaming in Gamma-Ray Bursts: Evidence for a Standard Energy Reservoir".
- Frail, D.A. et al. (2000). "A 450 Day Light Curve of the Radio Afterglow of GRB 970508: Fireball Calorimetry".
- Frederiks, D. et al. (2008). Galassi, Palmer, and Fenimore, ed. "American Institute of Physics Conference Series" 1000. pp. 271–275.
- Frontera, F. and Piro, L. (1998). Proceedings of Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Afterglow Era. Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series.
- Galama, T.J. et al. (1998). "An unusual supernova in the error box of the gamma-ray burst of 25 April 1998".
- Garner, R. (2008). "NASA's Swift Catches Farthest Ever Gamma-Ray Burst".
- Gehrels, N. et al. (2004). "The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission".
- Gehrels, N. et al. (2005). "A short gamma-ray burst apparently associated with an elliptical galaxy at redshift z=0.225".
- Grupe, D. et al. (2006). "Jet Breaks in Short Gamma-Ray Bursts. I: The Uncollimated Afterglow of GRB 050724".
- Guetta, D. and Piran, T. (2006). "The BATSE-Swift luminosity and redshift distributions of short-duration GRBs".
- Hakkila, J. et al. (2003). "How Sample Completeness Affects Gamma-Ray Burst Classification".
- Horvath, I. (1998). "A Third Class of Gamma-Ray Bursts?".
- Hjorth, J. et al. (2005). "GRB 050509B: Constraints on Short Gamma-Ray Burst Models".
- Hurley, K., Cline, T. and Epstein, R. (1986). Liang, E.P. and Petrosian, V., ed. "
- Hurley, K. (1992). "Gamma-Ray Bursts – Receding from Our Grasp".
- Hurley, K. (2003). Ricker, G.R. and Vanderspek, R.K., ed. "Gamma-Ray Burst and Afterglow Astronomy, 2001: A Workshop Celebrating the First Year of the HETE Mission".
- Hurley, K. et al. (2005). "An exceptionally bright flare from SGR 1806–20 and the origins of short-duration gamma-ray bursts".
- Katz, J.I. (2002). The Biggest Bangs.
- Klebesadel, R. et al. (1973). "Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts of Cosmic Origin".
- Kochanek, C.S. and Piran, T. (1993). "Gravitational Waves and Gamma-Ray Bursts".
- Kouveliotou, C. et al. (1993). "Identification of two classes of gamma-ray bursts".
- Lamb, D.Q. (1995). "The Distance Scale to Gamma-Ray Bursts".
- Lazzati, D. (2005). "Precursor activity in bright, long BATSE gamma-ray bursts".
- Krolik J. and Piran T., (2011). "Swift J1644+57: A White Dwarf Tidally Disrupted by a 10^4 M_{odot} Black Hole?".
- Levan, A. J.; et al. (2011). "An Extremely Luminous Panchromatic Outburst from the Nucleus of a Distant Galaxy".
- MacFadyen, A.I. and Woosley, S. (1999). "Collapsars: Gamma-Ray Bursts and Explosions in "Failed Supernovae"".
- MacFadyen, A.I. (2006). "Late flares from GRBs — Clues about the Central Engine".
- Marani, G.F. et al. (1997). "On Similarities among GRBs".
- Mazzali, P.A. et al. (2005). "An Asymmetric Energetic Type Ic Supernova Viewed Off-Axis, and a Link to Gamma Ray Bursts".
- "The Annihilating Effects of Space Travel". The University of Sydney. 2012.
- Meegan, C.A. et al. (1992). "Spatial distribution of gamma-ray bursts observed by BATSE".
- Melott, A.L. et al. (2004). "Did a gamma-ray burst initiate the late Ordovician mass extinction?".
- Meszaros, P. and Rees, M.J. (1997). "Optical and Long-Wavelength Afterglow from Gamma-Ray Bursts".
- Metzger, B. et al. (2007). "
- Mukherjee, S. et al. (1998). "Three Types of Gamma-Ray Bursts".
- Nakar, E. (2007). "Short-hard gamma-ray bursts".
- McCray, Richard et al. "Report of the 2008 Senior Review of the Astrophysics Division Operating Missions".
- "Very Large Array Detects Radio Emission From Gamma-Ray Burst" (Press release).
- Nousek, J.A. et al. (2006). "Evidence for a Canonical Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow Light Curve in the Swift XRT Data".
- Paczyński, B. and Rhoads, J.E. (1993). "Radio Transients from Gamma-Ray Bursters".
- Paczyński, B. (1995). "How Far Away Are Gamma-Ray Bursters?".
- Paczyński, B. (1999). M. Livio, N. Panagia, K. Sahu, ed. "Supernovae and Gamma-Ray Bursts: The Greatest Explosions Since the Big Bang".
- Pedersen, H. et al. (1986). Liang, Edison P.; Petrosian, Vahé, ed. "
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- Piran, T. (1992). "The implications of the Compton (GRO) observations for cosmological gamma-ray bursts".
- Piran, T. (1997). Bahcall, J.N. and Ostriker, J., ed. "Unsolved Problems in Astrophysics". p. 343.
- Podsiadlowski, Ph. et al. (2004). "The Rates of Hypernovae and Gamma-Ray Bursts: Implications for Their Progenitors".
- Pontzen, A. "et al." (2010). "The nature of HI absorbers in GRB afterglows: clues from hydrodynamic simulations".
- Prochaska, J.X. et al. (2006). "The Galaxy Hosts and Large-Scale Environments of Short-Hard Gamma-Ray Bursts".
- Racusin, J.L. et al. (2008). "Broadband observations of the naked-eye gamma-ray burst GRB080319B".
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- Ricker, G.R. and Vanderspek, R.K. (2003). Ricker, G.R. and Vanderspek, R.K., ed. "Gamma-Ray Burst and Afterglow Astronomy 2001: A Workshop Celebrating the First Year of the HETE Mission". American Institute of Physics Conference Series 662. pp. 3–16.
- Reichart, Daniel E. (1998). "The Redshift of GRB 970508".
- Rykoff, E. et al. (2009). "Looking Into the Fireball: ROTSE-III and Swift Observations of Early GRB Afterglows".
- Sari, R; Piran, T; Narayan, R (1998). "Spectra and Light Curves of Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows".
- Sari, R; Piran, T; Halpern, J.P (1999). "Jets in Gamma-Ray Bursts".
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- "Gamma-Ray Flash Came from Star Being Eaten by Massive Black Hole". Science Daily web site.
- Simić, S. et al. (2005). Bulik, T., Rudak, B, and Madejski, G., ed. "Astrophysical Sources of High Energy Particles and Radiation". American Institute of Physics Conference Series 801. pp. 139–140.
- Stanek, K.Z. et al. (2006). "Protecting Life in the Milky Way: Metals Keep the GRBs Away".
- Stern, Boris E. and Poutanen, Juri (2004). "Gamma-ray bursts from synchrotron self-Compton emission".
- Thorsett, S.E. (1995). "Terrestrial implications of cosmological gamma-ray burst models".
- "TNG caught the farthest GRB observed ever".
- van Paradijs, J. et al. (1997). "Transient optical emission from the error box of the gamma-ray burst of 28 February 1997".
- Vedrenne, G and Atteia, J.-L. (2009). Gamma-Ray Bursts: The brightest explosions in the Universe.
- Vietri, M. and Stella, L. (1998). "A Gamma-Ray Burst Model with Small Baryon Contamination".
- Virgili, F.J., Liang, E.-W. and Zhang, B. (2009). "Low-luminosity gamma-ray bursts as a distinct GRB population: a firmer case from multiple criteria constraints".
- Wanjek, Christopher (4 June 2005). "Explosions in Space May Have Initiated Ancient Extinction on Earth".
- Watson, D. et al. (2006). "Are short γ-ray bursts collimated? GRB 050709, a flare but no break".
- Woosley, S.E. and Bloom, J.S. (2006). "The Supernova Gamma-Ray Burst Connection".
- Wozniak, P.R. et al. (2009). "Gamma-Ray Burst at the Extreme: The Naked-Eye Burst GRB 080319B".
- Zhang, B.; et al. (2009). "Discerning the physical origins of cosmological gamma-ray bursts based on multiple observational criteria: the cases of z = 6.7 GRB 080913, z = 8.2 GRB 090423, and some short/hard GRBs".
External links
- GRB Mission Sites
Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission:
- Official NASA Swift Homepage
- UK Swift Science Data Centre
- Swift Mission Operations Center at Penn State
- HETE-2: High Energy Transient Explorer (Wiki entry)
- INTEGRAL: INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (Wiki entry)
- BATSE: Burst and Transient Source Explorer
- Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Wiki entry)
- AGILE: Astro-rivelatore Gamma a Immagini Leggero (Wiki entry)
- EXIST: Energetic X-ray Survey Telescope
- GRB Follow-up Programs
- The Gamma-ray bursts Coordinates Network (GCN) (Wiki entry)
- BOOTES: Burst Observer and Optical Transient Exploring System (Wiki entry)
- GROND: Gamma-Ray Burst Optical Near-infrared Detector (Wiki entry)
- KAIT: The Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (Wiki entry)
- MASTER: Mobile Astronomical System of the Telescope-Robots
- PAIRITEL: Peters Automated Infrared Imaging Telescope
- PROMPT: Panchromatic Robotic Optical Monitoring and Polarimetry Telescopes (Wiki entry)
- RAPTOR: Rapid Telescopes for Optical Response
- ROTSE: Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (Wiki entry)
- REM: Rapid Eye Mount


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Listen to today's episode of StarDate on the web the same day it airs in high-quality streaming audio without any extra ads or announcements. Choose a $8 one-month pass, or listen every day for a year for just $30.
You are here
As befits its name, Cetus, the whale or sea monster, is one of the largest constellations in the sky. It glides across the southern sky on November evenings.
Despite its size, though, Cetus isn't prominent, because like most autumn constellations, it lacks brilliant stars. Still, Cetus does boast one of the brightest red-giant stars in the heavens.
The star is known as Menkar or Alpha Ceti, and it shines in the whale's head. A good star map can help you find the star and the rest of the constellation.
Menkar is about 250 light-years from Earth, so the light you see from the star tonight actually left its surface shortly before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.Menkar was once a main-sequence star, so it generated energy as the Sun does — by converting hydrogen into helium in its core. But the star burned up the hydrogen in its core, so it had to burn hydrogen in a thin layer around the core. This caused the star to expand. Since an expanding gas cools, Menkar's surface temperature dropped. So the star turned yellow, then orange, and then finally red. Today, the star is a red giant — a star that's so large that if it were to take the Sun's place in our own solar system, it would engulf the planet Mercury.
And in fact, Menkar gives us a preview of the Sun's distant future. In several billion years, the Sun's core will run out of hydrogen, and our star will slowly expand until it becomes a red giant — just like Menkar.
Script by Ken Croswell, Copyright 2012
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Three Crimson tallied double-digit kills in Harvard's 3-2 loss at Cornell (Gil Talbot).
ITHACA, N.Y. – The Harvard women's volleyball team went to five sets for a seventh time in 2011 but came away on the wrong end of a 3-2 decision at Cornell on Saturday.
Three Crimson (11-11, 4-8 Ivy League) recorded double-digit kills on the evening with Taylor Docter's 16 leading the way. Docter also notched 16 digs, giving the junior her second double-double of the year. Sandra Lynne Fryhofer and Teresa Skelly finished the match with 13 kills apiece while Natalie Doyle recorded her seventh double-double with 19 assists and 15 digs. Christine Wu and Kelsey Beck led the defensive efforts with 21 digs and 18 digs, respectively.
Harvard got off to a quick start by taking a 3-0 lead but found itself tied with the Big Red (5-19, 3-9 Ivy League) at 13 midway through the first set. The Crimson never trailed, however, after a 3-0 spurt put the team on top 19-16. A block by Docter and Fryhofer earned set point, 25-21.
Cornell took the second set by a score of 25-17 and edged the Crimson, 25-22, in the third. Harvard led 15-13 after a Kristen Casey kill but the Big Red outscored the visitor 12-7 down the stretch.
Harvard fought its way back into the match with a 25-23 victory in the fourth. Cornell held a 12-9 advantage at the midway point before a block by Caroline Walters and Fryhofer evened the frame at 12. Trailing 22-21, the Crimson scored three straight points for a 24-22 margin and took set point on a Skelly kill.
The fifth set came down to the wire as the two teams found themselves tied at 10 in the race to 15. Cornell took a 13-10 advantage with three consecutive kills but a pair of kills by Fryhofer helped the Crimson pull to within one, 14-13. Cornell took match point on the ensuing serve, however, 15-13.
Kelly Marble and Janel Forte led the Cornell attack with 19 kills and 18 kills, respectively. Meagan Tatum added 16 kills while Madeline Przybyl turned in 11.
The Crimson will conclude its 2011 schedule with a pair of matches at the Malkin Athletic Center Nov. 11-12. Harvard will first take to the court against Yale on Friday at 7 p.m. and will celebrate Senior Night on Saturday versus Brown at 5 p.m.


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Hi, I wonder what is the correct display ratio for ST Low / Medium video modes. The goal is to use correct ratio in screenshots / videos.
You can easily help by measuring the actual size of the 320x200 screen on your monitor.
My monitor is 16/10, and the image is slightly distorted, even in 4/3 mode, because it wrongly advertises it is a 16/9 monitor, while it is actually a bit taller. Anyway.
So on my distorted monitor, when I measure the 320x200 screen (without borders), 50 Hz, I get:
Width = 326 mm
Height = 217 mm
Display ratio = 326 / 217 = 1,502
What about your monitor?
I consider that the standard ratio is the one obtained on a normal 4/3 cathodic TV. It should be pretty constant (I hope).
I remember that the Atari color monitor has a button to adjust the height of the image. I fear that people used much that button, and got a distorted image most of the time. It would mean there is no standard display ratio...


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As discussed in the first and second articles of this series, optimizing teller schedules is an assured means of controlling branch operating expenses.
However, one of the key elements for controlling branch operating expenses is identifying the percentage of nonvolume time (nonprocessing hours) and "excess waiting for work" time that occurs in the teller operations and using that information to identify periods of overstaffing.
Without implementing an automated transaction analysis and scheduling system, it's difficult to achieve a dramatic reduction in excess waiting for work time. Nevertheless, through observation and evaluation, determined and savvy managers can identify problems and implement improvements in their branches.
Volume vs. nonvolume
The total nonvolume hours for each employee in the organization are defined as the difference between paid hours and qualifying processing hours. Credit unions that lack proactive, optimized scheduling programs encourage tellers to find work during slow times.
However, the amount of time tellers spend during these slower periods (nonvolume time) often isn't measured and, most importantly, can be very costly for an institution.
|This chart represents the difference in nonvolume hours between three groups in the FMSI Workforce Utilization Study.
The FMSI Teller Workforce Utilization Study offers several measures financial institutions can take to reduce nonvolume time and improve workforce utilization.
Those methods include:
• Re-evaluating all teller nonvolume tasks. Consider streamlining or reallocating to teller supervisors some of the teller line ancillary responsibilities that may be taking too much time.
Workforce Utilization Terminology
Terms you will encounter in this article:
• Workforce utilization: A percentage achieved by dividing the total number of teller processing hours by their payroll hours.
• Processing hours: The time in which a teller performs at least one member-facing transaction, measured in 15-minute increments rather than payroll hours. If a teller performs a transaction at 8:09, for example, and then does not process another transaction until 9:57, only 0.5 hours would qualify as processing hours, even though two payroll hours passed.
• Excess waiting for work time: Those periods when too many tellers are scheduled to work for the transaction flow coming through the branch (also referred as nonvolume time and idle time).
• Transactions per hour: Total transaction volume as reported by the core processor, divided by total number of processing hours.
• Labor cost per transaction: Average labor expense per transaction. This metric does not include overhead and other nonpayroll expenses in its calculation.
Focus especially on those tasks that keep tellers away from their primary role of providing front-line transactional service to lobby and drive-through accountholders.
• Hiring more part-time tellers. Using part-time staff is an excellent workforce utilization strategy during peak-volume periods.
The reduction in administrative tasks due to having part-time staff creates a high workforce utilization percentage (90%, on average).
• Incorporating workforce optimization scheduling practices. Hold managers accountable for scheduling the right mix of full- and part-time tellers based on their branches' specific traffic flow needs.
Branch traffic flow needs can be derived from the core processing system's historic transaction volume data. Give managers the technological tools for scheduling to need.
When branches are properly staffed, the result is higher productivity, better workforce utilization percentages, and minimized excess waiting for work time.
Proper staffing through detailed workforce analysis also helps pinpoint areas where coaching and additional training will bring even greater productivity improvements.
W. MICHAEL SCOTT is CEO of Financial Management Solutions Inc. in Atlanta. Contact him at 877-887-3022.


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Artistic alchemy by John Picacio
To see the work of science fiction and fantasy artist John Picacio is to witness alchemy.
Picacio transmutes pencil drawings and acrylic colors with image scanners and mouse clicks to create darkly luminescent illustrations. His lavish book covers swirl out from the shelves like nebulae, housing dynamic, dreamlike characters that herald tales of swords, screams and circuitry.
Such is the illustrative science of this self-proclaimed hybrid artist — an immersion in the traditional, tweaked with the technological.
"If Rembrandt or da Vinci were living right now, you'd be hard-pressed to convince me that they wouldn't be using a Mac, that they wouldn't be using digital tools to express their best ideas," Picacio says from his home studio just outside downtown. "I'm not saying they would have disregarded traditional materials. But these guys were all about exploring and pushing the envelope of ideas and communication. They would not have rejected those materials. They would have embraced them."
Fans, publishers and award committees have embraced Picacio's rich mix of pencils and Photoshop for at least a decade now. The San Antonio native has long been a brilliant star in science fiction and fantasy illustration, having won the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, several Chesley Awards and two International Horror Guild Awards.
And by the time you read this, Picacio may have just won his first Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist, an honor on par with the Oscar for excellence in the field of science fiction and fantasy. The Hugos will be announced today at the 68th World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne, Australia. This marks Picacio's sixth consecutive best pro artist nomination.
Then there's Picacio's latest major project — an illustrated 2012 calendar for George R.R. Martin's fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire." If Picacio's depictions of medieval warriors and dragons don't make fantasy fans want to clear wall space for the upcoming calendar, chances are next year's HBO series based on the Martin novels will.
Such prestigious honors and projects don't surprise Picacio's good friend Lou Anders.
"I think about every two years (Picacio) goes through an evolution and hits the next plateau," says Anders, editorial director of the science fiction and fantasy imprint Pyr from Prometheus Books.
Picacio has crafted nearly 20 covers for Pyr, most recently some riveting monochromatic work for the "Age of Misrule" and "The Dark Age" books by Mark Chadbourn. Anders singles out a towering green giant with vine-like horns on the first "Age of Misrule" book "World's End" as an arresting example of how Picacio's covers hook readers.
Yet for all the eye-catching imagery in a Picacio cover, Anders says his real strength lies in how he gets to the heart of what a book is about and represents its intent instead of a specific scene.
"I also think he's wonderful at taking the tropes and the iconography of science fiction and presenting it in a way that is mature and contemporary and accessible and 21st century," he says. "I think he is as far from the kind of clichéd, lurid paperback covers that are associated with science fiction's youth as it's possible to get."
Ironic, considering Picacio has done work for those very talents who rose to fame during those younger days of science fiction, such as Frederik Pohl, Hal Clement and Robert Silverberg.
But if there's one venerable scribe most associated with Picacio's work, it's a science fiction/fantasy alchemist in his own right, Michael Moorcock.
Moorcock, who splits his time between Europe and Texas, is perhaps best known for creating the albino antihero Elric of Melniboné. Picacio has illustrated several covers plus interior art for Moorcock's works. He recently added to that with covers and interior art for Del Rey's omnibus volumes of the "Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melniboné."
Of the many depictions of the wiry liege with a soul-eating sword, Picacio's especially resonates with Moorcock buffs for its up-to-date, realistic look, says Del Rey editor-in-chief Betsy Mitchell.
"(Picacio) takes his assignments very seriously," Mitchell says. "He does his research on the character that he's being asked to draw and really invests a lot of emotion and his own personal feeling about the characters into the art. And as a result the artwork speaks. It has its own emotional language, really."
Staring at a giant poster of his "Elric: The Stealer of Souls" cover in his studio, Picacio says, "I think the best work is when you take it personally. And I took this guy very personally."
No doubt because of his personal and professional connection to Moorcock. A University of Texas at Austin grad with a background in architecture, Picacio got his first professional work illustrating and designing the 30th anniversary edition of Moorcock's "Behold the Man" in 1996.
"Just for that alone he'd be a huge influence," Picacio says, adding that Moorcock has long championed the best values of the fantasy field.
Picacio now does that with "Missions Unknown", a blog he co-founded with web designer Paul Vaughn and horror author Sanford Allen, a former Express-News staff writer, more than a year ago. "Missions Unknown" highlights science fiction, fantasy and horror works in San Antonio. (Full disclosure: I've contributed a handful of items to the blog.)
"There's a lot out there, and there's a lot more being created and made in this town than you might know," Picacio says. "And there's an actual scene percolating here . . . So we want to identify that scene and hopefully spark imaginations and spark initiative."
That nurturing aspect has really hit home with Picacio's introduction to parenthood; he and his wife, Traci, welcomed their first child, Samantha, in July.
"I think I know big changes are coming," Picacio says with a smile.
He means his new family, but the remark might as well pertain to his new accolades, new art and spotting new talents. In any case, trust this artsy alchemist to turn that next challenge into gold.


text: Breastfeeding Support and Programs Choosing to Breastfeed Our lactation specialists hand-picked the following resources to provide you with more information on the benefits of breastfeeding. We encourage you to sign up for our breastfeeding class or support groups for more info. Breastmilk is the Best Milk How Milk is Made How to Breastfeed Our lactation specialists hand-picked the following resources to provide you with more information on the benefits of breastfeeding. We encourage you to sign up for our breastfeeding class or support groups for more info. Getting started Importance of Skin to Skin Contact Overview: Breastfeeding Your Baby La Leche League International Strategies to Relieve Engorgement Reverse Pressure Softening Hand Expression and Pumping Videos Lactation Training (In English and Spanish) Returning to Work: breastfeeding at work, childcare considerations, introducing a bottle, breast milk expression Traveling While Breastfeeding: special considerations when traveling with your baby Breast Pumps If you need to pump while you are in the hospital, Bridgeport Hospital has high-grade electric pumps available, which include a kit and handheld breast pump that you can take home. You may also rent breast pumps at several area locations. Check with your insurance carrier to confirm if your policy covers the rental or purchase cost. Click the links of popular breast pump manufacturers below to learn more. Medela Ameda Whittlestone Bailey Classes As a nursing mom, you may have questions and concerns along the way: How do I know if my baby is getting enough milk? How do I fit breastfeeding into my lifestyle? What are different breastfeeding positions? How do I begin weaning? Bridgeport Hospital offers the following breastfeeding support groups and classes tailored to help you and your baby: Breastfeeding Basics for Expectant Moms This informative class will help parents gain the knowledge and skills necessary to have a rewarding breastfeeding relationship. Included: benefits of breastfeeding, establishing and maintaining milk supply, latch-on and positioning techniques, how to know if baby is getting enough, trouble-shooting, debunking myths and fitting breastfeeding into your busy lifestyle. The class is taught by an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Audience Mom & Support Person Class Size 10 people Day(s) Offered twice monthly – once during the day and once in the evening Duration 1 1/2 hours Location The Birthplace at Bridgeport Hospital or 5520 Park Avenue, Trumbull Registration for all classes is required. For more information, please call 1-888-357-2396. Support Group for Mothers Adjusting to motherhood and the new norm can be challenging. Bridgeport Hospital's Support Group for Mother's provides a safe and non-judgmental place for mothers to express their concerns, ask questions and resolve some of their anxieties related to motherhood. Facilitated by a certified lactation consultant, group participants will have an opportunity to share their thoughts and concerns. As mother's support one another, a sense of community is established and women are empowered to overcome their challenges. Audience Mothers with children 1 year old and younger, and expectant mothers Group Size Up to 20 people Day(s) First and third Wednesday of every month, 10 am – noon (unless otherwise noted) Duration 2 hours Location 5520 Park Ave., 2nd Floor, Trumbull, CT 06611 Registration is not required; all walk-ins are welcomed.


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Representative example
Borrowing £7,500 at a representative APR of 13.9%, annual interest rate (fixed) 13.9%, 59 monthly payments of £170.88 followed by 1 payment of £180.88, total cost of credit is £2,762.80, total amount payable is £10,262.80.
Borrowing £7,500 at a representative APR of 13.9%, annual interest rate (fixed) 13.9%, 59 monthly payments of £170.88 followed by 1 payment of £180.88, total cost of credit is £2,762.80, total amount payable is £10,262.80.
* Calls may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes. Please refrain from providing credit/debit card information on these calls. If you do so it is at your own risk.
** plus VAT where applicable
AA Cars works closely with thousands of UK used car dealers to bring you one of the largest selections of Toyota Auris cars on the market. You can also browse Toyota dealers to find a second hand car close to you today. All used Toyota Auris on the AA Cars website come with free 12 months breakdown cover.
The Corolla may still be going strong elsewhere, but in Europe the perennial mid-range family Toyota was replaced by the Auris in 2006. While it could be said that few were troubled by this, the Auris does take up where the Corolla left off, in many ways bettering it. Mixing the firm reliability, excellent safety and calm, assured drive of the Corolla with enviable efficiency - best displayed in the Hybrid (74mpg), but equally impressive in the 1.4 diesel (58mpg) - and plenty of space, the Auris is a car which seriously competes with the leading family hatchbacks on the market.
First going on sale in 2007, the Auris is a competent family hatchback which, despite facing stiff competition from the class leaders (such as the VW Golf), manages to stand out as a practical and affordable option.As the replacement for the Toyota Corolla - the most popular car of all time - the shoes the Auris has to fill are sizeable. With a comfortable interior, reliable engine and affordable run costs however, it is every part the people's car the Corolla was.
Now into its second generation, the Auris is at the forefront of Toyota's drive towards promoting and integrating hybrid technology. Released in 2013, the Auris Hybrid boasts a 1.8 litre petrol engine and claims returns of 72.4mpg (although reports have claimed this figure is optimistic), and tax-dodging emissions of 85g/km.
Other engine options include a 98bhp 1.3 litre petrol, a 130bhp 1.6 litre petrol, and an 89bhp 1.4 litre diesel, of which the larger petrol option offers the most exciting and powerful drive. Despite being the most powerful, it is still relatively conservative compare to some of its rivals. The 12 seconds it takes to hit 60mph from standstill in the smaller petrol, despite not sounding particularly quick, is acceleration enough for the urban requirements of the Auris. The Hybrid fares a bit better, offering a sprint of just over ten seconds and a top speed of 112mph.
On the road the Auris is surprisingly nimble and agile, and boasts very accurate handling and good weighting. The more you push it the more the cracks start to show, but given that it's not a particularly performance-minded car this shouldn't worry too many drivers. Suspension and ride isn't quite as good as its contemporaries, but at conservative speeds it is smooth and comfortable.
The Auris' interior is arguably one of its best features and is finished to a high standard with solid, quality materials and a pleasantly practical mix of usability, looks and comfort. Four adults can travel with ease in its airy cabin, while the 354 litres of boot space makes it easily capable of carrying a good amount of luggage, too. The driver's seat is a bit flat and hard, but this shouldn't be too much of a problem unless you're in it for a number of hours; when anything is likely to be uncomfortable.
Affordable and reliable but flawed, the Auris is far from being the best in its class, but there are few genuine negatives, just a few points where it could do better.
The Toyota Auris was first released in 2007 and since then has been a constant sight on UK roads.
With only two generations, choice in the Auris is relatively narrow. Here are a few of the different trim levels and their features to consider.
Body coloured electric, heated mirrors, LED daytime running lights, follow me home lighting system, Vehicle Stability Control 15" steel wheels, air con, radio/CD system with USB and MP3 connectivity.
16" alloy wheels, rear parking camera, LED daytime running lights, follow me home lighting system, chrome exterior detailing, Toyota Touch multimedia system with Bluetooth and MP3 connectivity, radio/CD player, titanium silver dashboard inlay.
16" alloy wheels, keyless entry, Intelligent Parking Assist, rain-sensing wipers, dusk-sensing headlamps, rear privacy glass, electrically retractable mirrors, LED daytime running lights, dual zone air con, heated front seats, auto dimming rear view mirror.
16" alloy wheels, rear privacy glass, sport grille, rear parking camera, LED daytime running lights, follow me home lighting system, carbon dashboard inlay, Toyota Touch multimedia with MP3 connectivity, radio/CD player, Bluetooth connectivity.


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Lookout Colorado: Children at risk in taxpayer supported facilities?
Worth reading today is an unnerving report from Independence Institute's Todd Shepherd that asserts registered sex offenders could be living with or near state-sanctioned providers of child care.
Shepherd posted his report for the Independence Investigates website earlier today.
He's been working on the piece for more than a year, and discovered that it could be possible that as many as 25 sex offenders could be living in or near the taxpayer-subsidized facilities.
Beyond his findings, which I'll not poach here (so click on the link and read them there), I find another aspect of this story compelling.
Shepherd's journey toward publication broke from the expected. He's put it up unfinished.
After a geo-coding expert did the work of matching a database of the addresses of registered sex offenders with a database containing the more than 4,000 addresses of those who provide child care for the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program, Shepherd intended to confirm – address by address – what was actually going on.
Instead, he's published an incomplete report, declined to name names, and turned over his findings to Human Services.
"I wanted to go out and check with shoe leather," Shepherd told me. "There was just this one house and it scared the hell out of us."


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Polar bears have captivated humans since the beginning of recorded time. Writings dating back to 57 A.D. in ancient Rome describe flooded amphitheatres where polar bears and seals were pitted against each other (not much of a fight, as it turns out). Kings of ancient Egypt and early Norway were the first to keep polar bears captive, and the fascination with them has held through the centuries [source: Polar Bears International]. A terrifying version of the animal inexplicably shows up on a tropical island in the TV series "Lost." Ad campaigns all over the world feature polar bears to sell everything from bottled water to transportation systems to soda.
Polar bears' shocking whiteness, ferocity and sheer size make them icons of purity and power. Males can grow up to 10 feet tall and weigh up to 1,700 pounds. A single bear can take on a 2,500-pound walrus, and hang onto the massive catch with 2-inch claws. They walk hundreds of miles across ice sheets every winter, following their prey.
In the Arctic, polar bears are at the top of the food chain, and it's not just because of their size. They're so well-adapted to their environment that they experience no change in body temperature at -34 degrees Fahrenheit (-37 Celsius). However, the incredible survival mechanisms that let them thrive in frigid winters may prove to be their undoing. Because of global warming, winters are getting less cold and polar bears are dying. Scientists project that if climate trends continue, polar bears could be extinct by 2050 [source: Polar Bears International].
What's life like for an animal that needs such extreme cold to survive? Let's head to the Arctic and see how polar bears live on the ice.


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Just Simply Machines course is a complete set of "hands-on" lessons centered around a single conceptual unit of instruction. Included in the course are; course syllabus, assessment menu, grading guide, student pages, teacher pages, safety guidelines and helps, student assessments, and teacher assessments.
Intermediate is recommended for 3rd-8th grade teachers.
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David Villa is the host of Auto Dealer Live, founder and CEO of iPD, and a published motivational speaker. He specializes his training in the arenas of sales, leadership, and team building. In addition to the radio show, Villa also has a magazine titled Dealer Solutions Magazine, one of the fastest growing magazines in the automotive industry, devoted to solving dealership problems through quality proof and content.
Tommy Elwell is a Florida native, born and raised in the Tampa Bay area. He's been a top producer in sales for over 10 years, with 8 of those years working at iPD. He thrives at helping dealers get to the next level and enjoys the success that comes with the relationships he builds.
David Cribbs began his career in 1989 selling new Toyotas and has found success in the automotive industry ever since. Cribbs joined Imperial Press Direct as a Corporate Trainer in 2014 and soon began serving as a co-host of Auto Dealer Live. In 2015, David shifted gears and moved on to pursue a career in luxury home sales. He continues to find success in his new career, but still has a strong passion for the automotive industry.
Interested in being a guest on Auto Dealer Live? Click HERE
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text: Veggie Romance is the place for vegan singles, vegetarian singles, vegetarian dating, friendships, finding pen pals and generally networking with the vegetarian, vegan and environmentally aware community. Whether your diet is fruitarian, vegetarian, vegan, raw food or macrobiotic, you'll find likeminded veggie singles here. Network & connect with other vegetarian & vegan singles today. No subscription fees, totally, genuinely free.


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IndyCar Series 2005
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IndyCar Series 2005 lets you compete from Pole Day to Bump Day as one of 33 racers. You'll race an entire season that takes you from the Indianapolis 500 to other IndyCar Series tracks, including the Texas Motor Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, Pikes Peak International Raceway, and the new Twin Ring Motegi Speedway in Japan. Now you can practice your driving skills in an updated Masterclass training mode, and then compete online against 11 other players.
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