NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory image of Perseus A, a supergiant galaxy in the center of a galaxy cluster, provides new insight into how the galaxy has grown by cannibalizing gas and other galaxies in the vicinity. For the first time astronomers see an X-ray shadow cast by a smaller galaxy as its gas is being stripped away by the enormous central galaxy.
The research was reported by Professor Andrew Fabian of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, England on June 7 at the 196th national meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Rochester, N.Y. Other members of the research team are Jeremy Sanders, Stefano Ettori, Steve Allen, Carolin Crawford, Kazushi Iwasawa and Roderick Johnstone of the Institute of Astronomy; Gregory Taylor of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, N.M.; and Patrick Ogle of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.
Perseus A, or NGC 1275, is in the center of a large galaxy cluster 320 million light years from Earth. The cluster, which contains thousands of galaxies and enough gas to make thousands more, is one of the largest gravitationally bound objects in the universe. Over the eons, Perseus A has accumulated hundreds of billions of stars to become one of the most massive known galaxies as gas and galaxies have been pulled inward by gravity.
The Chandra image shows a region of hot gas that extends over several hundred thousand light years. The gas in the outer portion of the cluster has a temperature of 70 million degrees. The cluster gas cools gradually and settles toward the center of the cluster. A galaxy with “only” about 20 billion stars is falling into Perseus A (located at two o’clock from the center of the image) and shows up as a small dark patch due to absorption of X-rays by cool gas in the infalling galaxy.
Another larger hole further out is thought to be due to a bubble of high energy particles ejected in an explosion from Perseus A hundreds of millions of years ago. These outbursts are presumably fueled by matter releasing tremendous quantities of energy as it falls into a giant black hole in the center, or nucleus of the galaxy.
Closer in, the effects of a more recent explosion show up as dark twin cavities, each large enough to contain a galaxy half the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy. These cavities, which have been detected at lower resolution by previous X-ray satellites, appear to be buoyant, magnetized bubbles of energetic particles. The Chandra image shows that the gas that has piled up in the brilliant rims has “cooled” to a temperature of 30 million degrees. A long spiral of hot gas appears to be winding inward around the cavities toward the center of the galaxy. Fabian and his colleagues propose that the cooling of gas in this spiral can lead to the formation of a spiral structure of stars that has been detected in optical images of the galaxy.
The observation was made on January 29, 2000 for 6.8 hours using the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS).
The Advanced CCD X-ray Spectrometer (ACIS) X-ray camera was developed for NASA by Pennsylvania State University, University Park, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program. TRW, Inc., Redondo Beach, Calif., is the prime contractor for the spacecraft. The Smithsonian’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.
Images associated with this release are available on the World Wide Web at
http://chandra.harvard.edu and http://chandra.nasa.gov
Samsung is one of the world leaders when it comes to making high-end smart phones. They are also one of the market leaders when it comes to making low-budget phones, but it is really the mid-range smartphone segment that Samsung often struggle. Now, their struggle seems to be over after they announced the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Ace. This is the new mid-range smartphone that will be making all competition look in dismay due to the incredible amount of features that it manages to include, even though this is a segment where the price is more important than the features.
The Samsung Galaxy Ace will be coming with a 3.5 inch touchscreen display that is going to be utilising the TFT display technology in order to bring out the images at a maximum resolution of 320 x 480 pixels. This should make the Samsung Galaxy Ace one of the best mid-range smartphones in the business today.
This not only compete with the phones in its segment, but also the other segment phones as well. This will primarily include the HTC Desire and the Motorola Milestone. The Samsung Galaxy Ace has plenty of advantages over these phones because it will be a full touch screen phone that has all the functionalities that you want. It will be starting with the incredible memory of 158 MB, which is available internally along with the phone. This is a memory that is going to be used for storing the small size files like the messages and documents.
However, if you need to store large files, then you can always rely on the memory card support that is provided by the phone for memory cards of up to 32 GB in size.
In addition to this, the Samsung Galaxy Ace is also going to come with a 2 GB complement the memory card that is provided along with the phone as part of the package, which only makes the phone extremely attractive in the eyes of the prospective buyer. The Samsung Galaxy Ace is going to be present with a five megapixel camera that is extremely good in terms of the clarity and also in terms of the features. This is due to the fact that this is the same camera that has been doing its job in the Samsung Galaxy S, which is as high end as a phone can get. This means that you will be getting options like the LED flash and autofocus, but you will not be getting the HD video recording option. Instead, the Samsung Galaxy Ace will be coming with only the QVGA video recording option, which is not bad considering the segment of the phone.
The Samsung Galaxy Ace will be available on monthly contract from various network providers like T-Mobile, Orange, O2 and the Three. They provide contracts starting from as low as £ 20 per month for this new Samsung phone, it is truly exciting in every way that you look at it.
Also known as the Galaxy, the new Samsung I7500 is the first Android-powered device manufactured and released by the Korea-based telecom giants. Following in the success of prior Android devices (i.e. HTC Magic and HTC G1), Samsung looks to cash in by teaming up with Google to come up with a powerful device with an impressive user interface. So, is this another iPhone killer in the making?
Design is Everything
It wouldn’t be surprising if people were to label the I7500 as an HTC Magic clone. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as the Magic actually has quite a stylish design. Both the sizable touch screen display (3.2 inches) and the handy QWERTY keypad are present in the I7500. Although the I7500′s design is quite similar to that of the HTC Magic, one can argue that this is actually the form factor of most Smartphones in the market today. After all, it has proven to be a successful design; so why change a good thing, right?
The dimensions of the Samsung I7500 are 115 x 56 x 11.9 mm and it weighs 119 grams.
Interface and Multimedia
The I7500 is equipped with version 1.5 of Google’s Android operating system which is also known as the Cupcake OS. It is pretty much the same with the OS used by the HTC Magic except for a few minor differences. One of these is the improvements made on the virtual QWERTY keypad which has become much easier to use. Because it is has a Google-powered OS, the I7500 is also capable of supporting a myriad of Google mobile applications such as Google Maps, Gmail, and Google Calendar, to name a few.
In terms of features, what sets the I7500 apart from the Magic is its 5-Megapixel camera with autofocus and geo-tagging features. Although this is in no way top of the line, it is much better than the Magic’s unimpressive 3.15-Megapixel camera. The I7500 also comes with a pre-installed multimedia player widget that will allow users to play music without opening the actual player. One problem with this device is that it is not able to play DivX movie files.
The Last Say
To be honest, the Samsung I7500 Galaxy is not really that impressive. It pretty much has the same features as the HTC Magic and does not have the cutting edge functionalities to wow the market. One would think that Samsung would be able to produce a more technologically advanced device than HTC which may have been one of the reasons why a lot of people have set very high expectations. Nonetheless, this is one of a few mobiles that have the Android OS, so that in itself should be enough reason for users to give this Smartphone a second look.
If you are looking to purchase the Samsung i7500, then Moby1 is well worth a visit. They compare mobile phone deals from a wide range of online retailers. They also Compare mobile broadband ensuring you are always connected.
I9000 Galaxy S is one of the ultra-slim, higher end smartphones by Samsung that comes packed with all the real nice features. The Galaxy l9000 S’s main feature is superb 4 inch AMOLED display too. Galaxy S is powered by faster 1GHz processor humming. It runs on highly customized operating system Android 2.1 includes new TouchWiz interface. The new Galaxy S n Wi-Fi wireless, decent battery, 5 megapixel camera with HD video recording capability, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS with A-GPS and3G connectivity.
Design
The Galaxy S looks stunning with its attractive exterior and convenient display. Some what looked like an older smartphone Samsung Spica. Samsung has maintained a minimalist design by incorporating some physical buttons. This phone is basically rectangular shape with corner tampered. It measures 122.4mm tall, 64.2mm wide and 9.9mm thick. I liked its ultra-slim profile. It weighs around 118grams.
The display is the key feature of the Galaxy S. The Galaxy has sported S wonderful 4inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display, which is the WVGA resolution of 480 × 800 pixels and color support 16Million. The screen is equipped with a built-in accelerometer that takes care of auto rotation of the user interface. It also sports proximity sensor that automatically locks the screen. The screen supports multi-gestures you pinch-to-zoom, double tap text input and staff. It has Swype onscreen virtual keyboard, which render typing experience. I do not have any dissatisfaction with onscreen keyboard and it’s really fun type on the keyboard. The Galaxy S looks solid and sturdy feel in the hand. The overall ergonomics of the phone is quite good. Sun screen clarity is OK.
The bottom of the screen, three buttons are present namely Menu, Back and home keys. How hard hit the home key, it will take you to the local search function. MicroSD card slot is currently under the battery cover. It supports up to 32GB. A camera lens is on the back. Lack of flash is real shame. Amount of hook is present on the left spine. A power and a screen lock button located on the right spine. A 3.5mm audio jack and a microUSB port is present at the top of the phone.
Interface
Samsung Galaxy S v2.1 running on Android mobile operating system with TouchWiz user interface. The interface is really eye-candy. I did not experience any delays whatsoever, thanks to fast 1GHz processor hummingbird. It has seven home screen and you have the option of customizing them meaning you can delete the extra screen at home or add additional screens. May 8 Samsung Widgets (Calendar, Weather, Yahoo Finance, dual, etc.). There are dedicated widgets for social networking sites checking status. Some widgets are dedicated news feeds and daily briefing. It comes packed with all Android widgets and live wallpaper. It also features a task manager to manage tasks efficiently. It has decent Table on social networking integration.
Camera
The Galaxy S’s cameras are common despite it containing 5 megapixel camera. But it lacks Flash and a dedicated key. Absence of rules flash options of taking snaps in the dark conditions. The interface is not bad, which is similar to that of Samsung’s high-end phones. Easy to access and shooting scenes. It also features geotagging, blink detection, image stabilization, auto contrast, and smiles and face detection. It’s autofocus feature works pretty well. The image quality is not up to the standard 5 megapixel camera. There is a considerable amount of noise present the picture, although the image processing suppresses it. The images appeared a little under exposed.
Multimedia
The Music player is excellent. The TouchWiz is again the music player skin Galaxy S. You can adjust the songs based on current play lists, albums, all tracks, composers and artists. It has equalizer presets and facilitates you to find a track on Google or YouTube. Other features include eye-candy, check out the album and song scroll. The song and scene scrolling view is really nice. You receive FM Radio with RDS feature. FM radio reception capability is quite good. The audio quality is at its best. It has DNSe feature which boosts the songs immensely. The handset sounded impressively loud and clear. The noise levels are controlled to the limit. Frequency response and dynamic range is quite good.
Internet connectivity and
You can roam around the world using the phone, thanks to quad band GSM, GPRS, EDGE and dual band 3G. the local connectivity options including wireless n Wi-Fi, USB v2.0 and Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP. Bluetooth 3.0 is something new smartphones. Apart from its huge 16GB internal storage, it also accommodate upto 32GB of microSD card. A 3.5mm audio jack port of another plus point.
The web browser is excellent. Eclair web browser comes pre-installed on phones that offer nice web browsing experience. It provides three zoom options on the screen, dedicated buttons, double tap to zoom, and pinch-to-zoom. It supports reflow to the columns of text to get adjusted to the level of zoom. I were impressed with its minimalist user interface that allows you to open a new tab, tab swap, go forward, refresh the page and open the bookmarks. The final button reveals even more options (search the page, copy text, etc.). S Galaxy will have to wait to get the update to Flash. The lack of Flash support is paid by dedicated Youtube app.
Samsung Galaxy S can shoot 720p video, which is behind smartphones. It can shoot 1280 x 720 video at 30fps, much faster than the Sony Ericsson Vivaz at 24fps. The video quality is superb, the video is a sufficient amount of detail. It will even replace your HD camera. Awkwardly, I experienced the stuttering video.
Apps
The Galaxy S comes with a lot of apps onboard. Alldiko these apps include eBook, AllShare, Daily Briefing, records, Mini diary, Social Hub, Writing and Go, Voice Dialer, Google Voice Search, sketch memo, Image and Video editor, desk Home and Car Home etc.
Sophisticated GPS functionality to A-GPS onboard. It provides turn-by-turn navigation, the street view mode, update traffic, etc. Not surprisingly, Google Map software is the default map. You can install other navigation sofwares if you want enhanced navigation.
The essential features of the Galaxy are Tasks, Calendar, Notes, Stopwatch, Calculator, timer, vibrate mode, alarm clock, speaker phone, Organizer, text and multimedia messaging.
Performance
The call quality is excellent. I do not have this issue into consideration. Our callers sounded clear and natural without any distortion. Although calling the other end also without any problems. Speed dial feature is onboard. Speakerphone is also nice.
The Galaxy S is 1500mAh Lithium-Ion battery. In normal use, it keeps the phone alive for more than 2 days, which is quite wonderful to smartphones.
Science & Reason on Facebook: tinyurl.com Swift’s UV portrait of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) NASA’s Swift satellite has acquired the highest-resolution view of the neighboring spiral galaxy M31. Also known as the Andromeda Galaxy, M31 is the largest and closest such galaxy to our own. It’s more than 220000 light-years across and lies 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. Swift’s Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) acquired 330 images of M31 at wavelengths of 192.8, 224.6, and 260 nanometers. The images represent a total exposure time of 24 hours. Some 20000 ultraviolet sources are visible in the image, including M32, a small galaxy in orbit around M31. Dense clusters of hot, young, blue stars sparkle in the disk beyond the galaxy’s smooth, redder central bulge. Star clusters are especially plentiful along a ring about 150000 light-years across. — Please subscribe to Science & Reason: • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com • www.youtube.com — Swift Makes Best-ever Ultraviolet Portrait of Andromeda Galaxy In a break from its usual task of searching for distant cosmic explosions, NASA’s Swift satellite has acquired the highest-resolution view of a neighboring spiral galaxy ever attained in the ultraviolet. The galaxy, known as M31 in the constellation Andromeda, is the largest and closest spiral galaxy to our own. “Swift reveals about 20000 ultraviolet sources in M31, especially hot, young stars and dense star clusters,” said Stefan … Video Rating: 4 / 5
