Trending on Monday - July 18 2011

1.    NASA Probe to Uncover Secrets of Brightest Asteroid Vesta
2.    Queen Latifah: “Gay is the New Black”
3.    Google surge highlights tech rally
4.    CIA Bin Laden Hunter 'John' Identified From White House Photos  
5.    Miracle of the Day - Supernatural Supply


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NASA Probe to Uncover Secrets of Brightest Asteroid Vesta

The asteroid Vesta may be the brightest asteroid in the solar system, but it remains shrouded in mystery.

When NASA's Dawn probe enters into orbit around Vesta on July 15 — the first spacecraft to visit the 330-mile-wide (530-kilometer) protoplanet — it promises to shed light on the many enigmas of the second-largest body in the asteroid belt.

NASA launched the $466 million Dawn mission in 2007, with Vesta as the first (but not last) stop. The Dawn probe is also expected to visit Ceres, the largest asteroid in the solar system, but only after unlocking the secrets of Vesta. Here's a look at the main questions astronomers hope the probe will help solve:

Why is Vesta so bright?

Vesta is the brightest asteroid, with a surface about three times as bright as Earth's moon, "and why it is so bright is the No. 1 mystery of Vesta," planetary scientist Christopher Russell, principal investigator for NASA's Dawn spacecraft, told SPACE.com.

When one looks at the most reflective celestial bodies in our solar system, Venus is the most reflective planet because of its clouds, and the sixth-largest Saturn moon Enceladus is the most reflective body overall because of its snow, "but Vesta doesn't have an atmosphere or snow," Russell noted. "Hopefully when Dawn inspects Vesta's surface, we'll get an answer."

 

Does Vesta have a magnetic field?

One potential explanation for Vesta's brightness is that it possesses a strong magnetic field. This could help shield it from electrically charged particles driven by the solar wind that would normally darken the asteroid over time, Russell said.

Unfortunately, Dawn does not have a magnetometer to probe Vesta for magnetic fields. Still, Russell does not think Vesta has a strong magnetic field, and suspects there is another reason why the asteroid is so reflective and bright.

"Personally, I think the answer is that Vesta has a lot of white crystals or other material on its surface," he said.

Where are other asteroids resembling Vesta?

There seem to be very few asteroids that resemble Vesta, but there should be far more.

The outermost layers of Vesta are made up mostly of basaltic rock — the same type found in much of the Earth's crust. There are asteroids called "vestoids" that, judging by their orbits, researchers suspect were once part of Vesta before they got blasted off by a cosmic impact. A few other basaltic asteroids have been discovered relatively recently as well, such as one named Magnya in the outer part of the main asteroid belt.

Still, theories of asteroid formation have suggested that more than half of all asteroids should be made largely of either basalt or another common mineral on Earth, olivine, and approximately 99 percent of these predicted asteroids are missing.

"There may have been other asteroids like Vesta that met a bad fate," Russell said. "It could be that Vesta was born when Jupiter hadn't formed yet, when forming bodies like Vesta was relatively easy."

Many of these Vesta-like asteroids might later have disappeared when Saturn and Jupiter shifted their orbits, with the gravitational pulls of these giant planets pulverizing Vesta's siblings against each other or slinging them at Earth and the rest of the inner solar system. Vesta may have simply been lucky to be very nearly the sole survivor.

What is the dark spot near Vesta's equator?

A series of photos recently captured by Dawn revealed a strange dark spot on Vestaabout 60 miles (97 km) wide near the asteroid's equator, moving from left to right across the field of view as the asteroid rotated.

Researchers suspect this blotch might be a crater.

"We'd like craters on Vesta for a variety of reasons," Russell said. "The number, size and distribution of craters on Vesta would give us some idea of how old the surface is, as impacts need time to accumulate. Craters also serve as digging tools, revealing what's beneath Vesta's surface."

"We'll know very soon now," he added.





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Queen Latifah: “Gay is the New Black”

Out of the “is he/she or isn’t he/she” celebrities, Queen Latifah is often mentioned as among the possibly closeted.

Rumors about Latifah’s sexuality have swirled ever since she hit it big, and intensified when she played a lesbian in the popular mid-90's film Set It Off. The rapper turned actress has also long been suspected of having a relationship with her trainer, Jeanette Jenkins.

Whispers about Latifah’s personal life are intensifying now that the character she plays in Single Ladies has a minor gay subplot:

    On Single Ladies, her character discusses the pros and cons of sexual anonymity, saying initially that network executives backed away from her fictional talk show. But later in the episode she returns to Val with a scheme to pretend they’re in a relationship because she’s now discovered that “gay is the new black.” The character reveals, “Being gay is fabulous…I have six new Facebook fan pages. And for every sponsor that falls out, I’ve gotten two more.”

While the question of Latifah’s sexuality is often posed, it shouldn’t override her amazing work. Coming out is a personal decision, and Latifah’s personal life is her own business. Still, a role model like Latifah would be great for gay and lesbian teens struggling with their own coming out issues. Do you think Queen Latifah is gay?


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Google surge highlights tech rally

Technology stocks edged higher Friday, buoyed by surging shares of Google Inc. after the Internet powerhouse surpassed Wall Street’s earnings projections.
Google GOOG +12.94%  shares soared about 12% to $592.30 in early trading, after the company posted a 36% jump in earnings.

“We believe the Google investment thesis will continue to improve from here,” Barclays Capital analyst Anthony DiClemente said in a note. “In his first quarter as chief executive officer, Larry Page confidently presided over a 2Q where underlying trends in core search showed both pricing and unit acceleration.”

Other Internet shares also rose, with Yahoo Inc. YHOO +0.48%  up 2%, eBay Inc EBAY +1.10%   gaining 2% and AOL Inc. AOL +1.19%   moving up 1.4%.

Those gains set the tone for a sector-wide advance, as the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP +0.60%  added 0.8% to 2,783. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index MSH +0.61%  also gained 0.8%.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index SOX +0.10%  was mostly flat, as some chip makers, Advanced Micro Devices AMD +0.08%  , Texas Instruments TXN +0.15%   and Nvidia Corp NVDA +0.07% , slipped.


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CIA Bin Laden Hunter 'John' Identified From White House Photos

The New York Observer reports that the man who hunted Osama bin Laden has been identified.

The mystery started to unravel after the AP wrote a story about the man on July 5, noting that he was "hidden from view, standing just outside the frame of that now-famous photograph" of President Obama's national security team watching the raid that took down the 9/11 mastermind.

According to the Observer, John Young, a writer for Cryptome.org noted a man's yellow tie in that photo, then matched that tie with one worn by a man whose full face is revealed in other photos released by the White House.

From there, the Observer sought to put a name to the face and wrestled with the question about whether to publish it if they did. The piece is a classic detective story -- read the whole thing.

Fox News quotes former CIA operations officer Charles Faddis, who contends that revealing the man's identity "is a real serious matter."

"It's not entertainment, some people may think it is, but it's not ... There are real people out there that are going to be killed because of this."

"I implore you, do not publish this man's name," former deputy director of central intelligence John McLaughlin told the Observer.

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Miracle of the Day - Supernatural Supply

"Praise God for his miracle provision. I just want to share what God is doing for me on another dimension. Ive been going through some severe satanic attacks,because I pray for people with hard cases and God always shows up. Not to brag,but people have gotten healed of Cancer,MS,people have gotten cars given to them,jobs they could not get on their own. Salvation from DrugsAlcohol,etc. I have been fired from my job,due to a lie that I was rude to a customer,when in fact,customers wrote in about me and my excellent customer service skills, and they are christians who I still call,and they call me and we pray together. God has been paying my rent,lights,gas,medical bills,food,phone. I only get 356.00 a month from unemployment benefits two-months after I was fired. Check this out,my rent is 350.00 alone,but God has stretched my finances when I began to support the needy elderly Jews,and poor children who have no foodshelter and other ministries totaling more than I have for myself. God paid a 1,250. hospital bill without welfare,and I cannot even get public assistance. I find money in my dressers,pockets,my family sends me money and I have never told them that I am unemployed,but God touches their heart. I am like the widow-woman, I pays tithes & offerings unto the Lord,yet my bills are paid without borrowing money,and I know that Phillipians 419 is working in my life because I stretched out on faith and obedience to the Lord and he has never let me down. I could go on,but this I am sure this will allow you to believe God,that he is a man that cannot lie. Do not give up,you are on the brink of a MIRACLE. i do street evangelism,yet I am ordained by God and man, but I do it for
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