X-Ray Heartbeat May Reveal Smallest Black Hole Ever Found (SPACE.com)

Scientists may have found the smallest black hole yet by listening to its X-ray "heartbeat."

The black hole, if it truly exists, would weigh less than three times the mass of the sun, putting it near the theoretical minimum mass required for a black hole to be stable.

The researchers can't directly observe the black hole, but they measured a rise and fall in X-ray light coming from a binary star system in our Milky Way galaxy that they think signals the presence of a black hole.

Until now, this X-ray pattern, which is similar to a heartbeat registered on an electrocardiogram, has been seen in only one other black hole system. [Images: Black Holes of the Universe]

NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) spacecraft measured this X-ray heartbeat in a star system in the direction of the constellation Scorpius, at a distance somewhere between 16,000 and 65,000 light-years away (a light-year is the distance light travels in a single year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers).?

Researchers think the system, officially called IGR J17091-3624, includes one normal star with a companion black hole. Mass would stream off this normal star and fall toward the black hole, forming a flattened disk around it. As friction in the disk heats the gas to millions of degrees, the disk would emit high-energy X-rays that can be seen across the galaxy.

As changes occur inside the disk, cyclical variations can be seen in the X-rays streaming from it, which pulse in varied intensity like a heartbeat.

"We think that most of these patterns represent cycles of accumulation and ejection in an unstable disk, and we now see seven of them in IGR J17091," researcher Tomaso Belloni of the Brera Observatory in Merate, Italy, said in a statement. "Identifying these signatures in a second black hole system is very exciting."?

The astronomers recognized the signal from this system because of its similarity to another black hole system called GRS 1915+105 that pulses in much the same way. This other system contains a black hole that weighs about 14 times the sun's mass, which?sends out X-rays in highly structured patterns that last between seconds and hours.?

In comparison, the newly observed system has an X-ray heartbeat that pulses 20 times fainter than GRS 1915 and cycles back to the beginning of the pattern about eight times faster, in as little as 5 seconds.

"Just as the heart rate of a mouse is faster than an elephant's, the heartbeat signals from these black holes scale according to their masses," said Diego Altamirano, an astrophysicist at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and lead author of a paper reporting the findings in the Nov. 4 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.?

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter?@Spacedotcom?and on?Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20111216/sc_space/xrayheartbeatmayrevealsmallestblackholeeverfound

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Zynga falters in debut, sheds doubt on IPO market (Reuters)

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) ? Online games developer Zynga Inc scored badly as it went public on Friday, dashing hopes for the year's hottest tech IPO, as investors frowned on its over-reliance on Facebook, dimming growth prospects, and outsized control by CEO Mark Pincus.

Zynga's stock fell 5 percent below its $10 initial public offering price to close at $9.50 on Nasdaq on Friday, dealing losses to IPO buyers used to racking up gains on a stock's first day of trading.

Investors had eagerly awaited the IPO as a way to get a slice of Facebook's growth before the leading social networking website goes public, possibly in 2012. Zynga makes money on Facebook by selling virtual items such as jewelry and poker chips in its games such as "FarmVille" and "CityVille."

At least one analyst said on Friday that some investors may have been turned off by Chief Executive Mark Pincus' large voting stake and control over the company. He has a special class of shares that grants him 37 percent voting power even though his equity stake is much lower, and public shareholders will have less than 2 percent of votes.

"We believe that having a CEO/owner-controlled board is particularly dangerous for investors in young companies," said Cowen and Co analyst Doug Creutz.

Creutz, who has a neutral rating on the stock, added that history is full of examples of CEOs who have built young companies but cannot manage them when they mature.

Asked about his voting shares, Pincus told Reuters he decided to retain such huge control over Zynga because he believed from the start that he was the best person to lead the company.

"Investors who want to see the company deliver long-term value are going to be better served by the fact that I can continue to ensure the company keeps its focus on the long term and we don't let short-term swings and opportunities reduce that," he said in an interview.

Based on Friday's closing share price, the value of Pincus' holdings fell to $1.05 billion from $1.1 billion at the IPO price.

Friday's flop stunned investors who had expected a strong showing because the company is profitable, unlike other recent high profile Internet IPOs such as Groupon and Pandora.

"I was stunned when I saw this. This is a disaster for them. The way you're supposed to price deals is to give investors a 15 percent IPO discount to compensate them for the risk of backing a relatively new company," said Dan Niles, chief investment officer of AlphaOne Capital Partners, who did not buy shares.

"It makes me wonder about the underlying health of the market. IPOs like this can change the whole tenor of the market," he added.

Investors said Zynga's stock performance could hurt other private companies in the pipeline such as Yelp and even Facebook. Some investors regard Zynga's IPO as a proxy for Facebook, because 95 percent of its $828 million in revenue in the past nine months comes from Mark Zuckerberg's social network.

"Now we have an exciting IPO and people don't want it and that's a big concern for when Facebook comes out," said Jeff Sica, president and chief investment officer of SICA Wealth Management.

The cooling off in the IPO markets could hurt Facebook's estimated $100 billion valuation, BGC analyst Colin Gillis said.

Zynga's reliance on the platform was supposed to attract investors looking to bet on Facebook's growth. With Facebook's IPO expected to be at least several months away, Zynga is one of the few indirect ways to bet on the website's future.

Facebook takes a 30 percent cut of the revenue Zynga derives from the social network, which features more than 222 million monthly active Zynga users.

Zynga CEO Pincus said he was looking beyond the share price drop and said the company went public at the right time.

"We're going to focus on the products and business results we deliver in the next four to eight quarters and hope the stock market values and appreciates that as they see us deliver it," he said.

In San Francisco, hundreds of employees got to work early to watch Pincus ring the bell to open Nasdaq trading and wore T-shirts saying "I love play" featuring the ZNGA trading symbol printed on the sleeves. Cinnamon buns and hot cocoa were served before the ceremony.

CONCERNS WEIGH

The company, which competes with Electronic Arts, sold 100 million shares of Class A common stock at $10 per share in the IPO, roughly 11 percent of its shares on a diluted basis, at the top end of the $8.50 to $10 indicative range.

The IPO values Zynga at $8.9 billion. In November, the company had been valued at roughly $14 billion, according to an internal estimate in a regulatory filing.

But that lowered valuation may still have been too rich for some, said Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia.

Zynga's near $9 billion valuation is less than videogame maker Activision Blizzard Inc's $13.6 billion and higher than Electronic Arts Inc's $6.7 billion. In the last four quarters, Activision and Electronic Arts generated more revenue than Zynga.

Analysts and investors have also expressed concern over how it profits from less than 3 percent of its players who buy items in its free games.

Plus, its reliance on Facebook appears unhealthy to investors who want to see Zynga diversify its revenue sources. Pincus on Friday said the company's 13 million daily users of its mobile games is a good start, and doesn't trail its daily users on Facebook as much as people assume. Zynga had 50.5 million daily users on Facebook on Friday, according to AppData, a website which tracks Facebook applications.

Yet Zynga's growth rate of bookings - the money it makes up front when users buy items, is slowing - which most analysts said is a red flag and could hurt Zynga's future revenue.

Zynga is the second online games company selling virtual items to slip in its trading debut this week. On Wednesday, Nexon Co shares fell following its $1.2 billion IPO, which was Japan's biggest offering this year.

At $1 billion in proceeds, Zynga's IPO is still the largest from a U.S. Internet company since Google Inc raised $1.9 billion in 2004.

(Reporting By Liana B. Baker in New York and Alistair Barr in San Francisco)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/videogames/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111216/bs_nm/us_zynga

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Democrats Have Nothing to Fear from Gingrich Candidacy (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | According to the most recent Gallup poll, Newt Gingrich is the frontrunner in the Republican nomination for president. And it is not only voters who are starting to take seriously the thought of Gingrich as the Republican nominee for president. The possibility of Gingrich as the Republican standard bearer has reached the level where Politico reports that some of Newt's biggest critics within the party are for the time being quiet for fear of possibly damaging their potential nominee. All of which should make Democrats giddy.

There may be more flawed presidential candidates in the modern era than the thrice-married, Freddie Mac historian with a six-figure Tiffany account who brought us the government shutdown. But one is hard pressed to think of anyone in recent memory who combines Gingrich's personal and political foibles.

Yet, leave it to the Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Although everyone from liberal icon Barney Frank to conservative provocateur Ann Coulter are claiming a Newt candidacy would be a boon for the Democrats, yet according to an article in the Washington Post, some Democrats are beginning to fret at the possibility of facing off against Gingrich in the general election, fearing that unlike Romney, Gingrich would both excite the Republican base and appeal to Hispanics. To these Democrats I say: Relax. Let's look at each of these claims.

It is certainly clear, as evidenced by his inability to climb in the polls despite unarguably steady performances in the debates, that Mitt Romney has some real difficulty in exciting the base of his party. However, the Republican base is already pumped up at the prospect of beating the man many perceive as the socialist-in-chief. In fact, it is the Democrats who have much more of a reason to worry about their base, since many on the liberal leaning side of the party have been disappointed in everything from Obama's failure to close Guantanamo to his stepping up the war in Afghanistan to what is perceived as multiple cave-ins to the Republicans on the budget. There is nothing short of resurrecting Ronald Reagan more likely to drive this wing of the Democrat party to the polls than a Gingrich candidacy.

Neither should Democrats be concerned about Newt's outreach to Hispanics. In the last debate he suggested that some illegal immigrants who have been in this country for a long time should be given some legal status. But the only reason his proposal sounds remotely reasonable is the red meat the rest of the GOP field is throwing out on this issue. Indeed, when it comes time for the campaign, Newt will be stuck with the Republican platform on immigration and hemmed in on this issue in the same way as John McCain, who was even more outside the Republican mainstream on immigration but could not benefit electorally from his position.

By many accounts, it was Newt who saved the last Democratic presidency. History just might repeat itself.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/democrats/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111214/pl_ac/10621779_democrats_have_nothing_to_fear_from_gingrich_candidacy

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Santo elected to Hall of Fame by veterans panel

FILE - In this 1971 file photo, Chicago Cubs infielder Ron Santo is shown in Scottsdale, Ariz. Santo has been elected to the baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. The Hall announced the voting results Monday, Dec. 5, 2011, at the winter meetings in Dallas. (AP Photo/Robert H. Houston, File)

FILE - In this 1971 file photo, Chicago Cubs infielder Ron Santo is shown in Scottsdale, Ariz. Santo has been elected to the baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. The Hall announced the voting results Monday, Dec. 5, 2011, at the winter meetings in Dallas. (AP Photo/Robert H. Houston, File)

FILE - This July 3, 1974 file photo shows Chicago White Sox' Ron Santo kneeling before a game in Chicago. Santo has been elected to the baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. The Hall announced the voting results Monday, Dec. 5, 2011, at the winter meetings in Dallas. (AP Photo/Fred Jewell, File)

FILE - This April 5, 2002, file photo, shows former Chicago Cubs third baseman Ron Santo throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before the Cubs home opener in Chicago. Santo has been elected to the baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. The Hall announced the voting results Monday, Dec. 5, 2011, at the winter meetings in Dallas. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

FILE - This Feb. 19, 2007, file photo, former Chicago Cubs great and longtime WGN radio announcer Ron Santo during a spring training baseball workout in Mesa, Ariz. Santo has been elected to the baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. The Hall announced the voting results Monday, Dec. 5, 2011, at the winter meetings in Dallas. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)

DALLAS (AP) ? Ron Santo was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame on Monday, chosen by the Veterans Committee nearly a year to the day after the Chicago Cubs third baseman died hoping for this honor.

Santo breezed in with 15 votes from the 16-member panel. It took 75 percent ? 12 votes ? to get chosen.

Santo was a nine-time All-Star, hit 342 home runs and won five Gold Gloves. He was a Cubs broadcaster for two decades, beloved by his fans eagerly rooting for his favorite team on the air.

Jim Kaat was second with 10 votes, Gil Hodges and Minnie Minoso each drew nine and Tony Oliva got eight on the 10-person Golden Era ballot. Buzzie Bavasi, Ken Boyer, Charlie Finley, Allie Reynolds and Luis Tiant each received under three votes.

Santo joined former Cubs teammates Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ferguson Jenkins in the Hall. That famed quartet did most everything at Wrigley Field through the 1960s and early 1970s except reach the World Series.

"It's really exciting because so many years that we had parties over to his house in spring training saying this is the year, I'd tell him this is the year you're going in the baseball Hall of Fame," Williams, a member of the voting panel, said at the baseball winter meetings.

"With Ernie, myself and Fergie, those players he played with ... to hear this kind of news today that he's inducted in the baseball Hall of Fame is really gratifying because so many times that we talked about it, it's a place he wanted to be," he said. "I'm really, really thrilled for him and his family. The one thing, of course, is he's not here to enjoy it, but his family will."

A star while playing with diabetes, a disease that eventually cost him both legs below the knees, Santo died Dec. 3, 2010, from complications of bladder cancer at age 70.

Santo will be inducted into Cooperstown on July 22, along with any players elected by members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Jan. 9. Bernie Williams joins Jack Morris, Barry Larkin and others on that ballot.

Santo never came close to election during his 15 times on the BBWAA ballot, peaking at 43 percent ? far short of the needed 75 percent in his last year of eligibility in 1998.

He had gotten closer in previous elections by the Veterans Committee. The panel has been revamped several times in the last decade, aimed at giving a better look at deserving candidates.

"I kept thinking that he would get in then, then, then and finally he got in, but it's a little too late for him to be there," said another veterans panel member, Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson. "It's hard to figure out why he hasn't gotten in sooner."

"He's just a terrific guy, he's baseball through and through, he's done a lot for the game of baseball in his career, and he's been though a lot of hardships physically and he was just a terrific player," he said. "He certainly belongs in the Hall of Fame. A long time coming. No one knows the reason he didn't get in when the writers were voting, but this process we have has been the fairest, I think."

Santo is the 15th third baseman in the Hall, including three from the Negro Leagues. He was a career .277 hitter and hit at least 30 homers every season from 1964-67.

Santo made his debut at 20 with the Cubs in 1960 and played his whole career with them until finishing with the crosstown White Sox in 1974.

Like Banks, Santo never got to play in a World Series. They came close in 1969, overtaken in the stretch by a New York Mets team managed by Hodges, the former Brooklyn star first baseman.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-05-BBO-Hall-of-Fame/id-c04e035e2aae41c8a626e2d53662fdd0

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Hidden mountains make up Antarctica's true terrain

Chelsea White, contributor

BEDMAP-main.jpg(Image: British Antarctic Survey/BEDMAP consortium)

Antarctica is hiding something. It may look like a fairly flat, snow-covered wasteland, but the BEDMAP project has pulled back the ice sheet to reveal the mountainous bed topography of the continent underneath.

Only one per cent of this concealed rock makes its way to the surface of the frozen terrain. Although some of these mountains are as tall as the European Alps, reaching 3000 metres above sea level, they're still obscured by 1000 metres of ice.

The highest elevations are marked in this image in red and black and the lowest are shown in dark blue. The light blue area shows the extent of the continental shelf.

Using radar to map the landscape, scientists at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have pooled data from decades of polar expeditions to create the most accurate and detailed map of 'the white continent' ever made.

Radar travels easily through ice, so in order to chart the terrain, planes flying above the ice send microwave pulses through the upper sheet and record the echoes that reach the plane when it bounces off the underlying rock. This gives a clear picture of the shape of the hidden landscape and also reveals the depth of the ice cover.

"It's like you've brought the whole thing now into sharp focus," Hamish Pritchard of the BAS told BBC News.

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