NEW: Black holes

Farthest monster black hole found.

Astronomers have discovered the most distant "supermassive" black hole known to science. The black hole is a whopping 13 billion light-years away, so far that we see it as it was a mere 690 million years after the Big Bang.

It has about 800 million times the mass of our Sun, it managed to grow to a surprisingly large size in just a short time after the origin of the Universe. The newly discovered black hole is busily devouring material at the centre of a galaxy - marking it out as a so-called quasar.

Matter, such as gas, falling onto the black hole will form an ultra-hot mass of material orbiting around it. 

"Quasars are among the brightest and most distant known celestial objects and are crucial to understanding the early Universe," said  Bram Venemans of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany.
This quasar is interesting because it comes from a time when the Universe was just 5% of its current age. At this time, the cosmos was beginning to emerge from a period known as the dark ages - just before the first stars appeared.

"Gathering all this mass in under 690 million years is an enormous challenge for theories of supermassive black hole growth," said  Eduardo Bañados, from the Carnegie Institution for Science.

Prior to this discovery, the record-holder for the furthest known quasar existed when the Universe was about 800 million years old. The discovery of a massive black hole so early on may provide key clues on conditions that abounded when the Universe was young.

"This finding shows that a process obviously existed in the early Universe to make this monster," Dr Bañados explained.
"What that process is? Well, that will keep theorists very busy." 

 http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42252235

NEW: California is burning

California wildfires: Flames seen from space.

Six large wildfires, and other smaller blazes have erupted since Monday, ther are about 500 buildings have been destroyed. Satellite imagery taken on December 5 shows how the fires took hold - driven by extreme weather, including low humidity, high winds and parched ground.

About 5,700 firefighters have been battling the brushfires, officials said on Thursday, with many drafted in from neighbouring states to help.

The Thomas fire in Ventura County to the north of Los Angeles remains the largest fire and spread as far as the Pacific coast. It consumed 180 square miles (466 sq km) since it broke out on Monday, and destroyed more than 430 buildings.

Creek Fire: Another blaze north of Los Angeles, the Creek fire, is 20% under control and covers some 15,323 acres.

Rye Fire: The Rye Fire threatened more than 5,000 homes and structures northwest of Los Angeles near Santa Clarita. It consumed thousands of acres and triggered evacuations of homes and schools.
The fire authorities say it is now 25% under control.

Skirball Fire: In the rich Los Angeles enclave of Bel Air, firefighters were seen removing artwork from luxury homes on Wednesday as the Skirball Fire raged. It has forced hundreds of residents in the wooded hills to evacuate and charred more than 475 acres.

Lilac Fire: North of San Diego, another blaze spread from 10 acres to 4,100 acres in just a few hours. It destroyed 20 structures and prompted evacuations and road closures.

Californian authorities have issued a purple alert - the highest level warning - amid what it called "extremely critical fire weather." 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42278027

NEWS

MARC BARTRA INJURED AFTER EXPLOSION NEAR BORUSSIA DORTMUND'S TEAM BUS

Borussia Dortmund's team bus was damaged and a player was injured following three explosions near the vehicle while it was on its way to Tuesday's Champions League game at home to AS Monaco.The match, a quarter-final first leg, was called off and rescheduled for Wednesday."According to what is currently known, the windows of the bus were (entirely or partly) smashed and one person was injured,". The police said the incident happened in Hoechsten, located outside the city. "It is not yet possible to say exactly what the explosion was or exactly where something exploded," said the statement.

Dortmund said defender and Spanish international Marc Bartra had been taken to hospital. "The bus has been damaged in two places. One person has been injured and is in the hospital. At this point we will inform as soon as we know more."

Fortunately, the incident was just a scare and Marc Bartra only broke an arm because of the impact of the broken glasses. Is currently in hospital where he is awaiting surgery.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/04/11/marc-bartra-injured-explosion-near-borussia-dortmunds-team-bus/ 

NEWS

TERROR IN THE UK: RECENT ATTACKS

The deadly suicide bombing in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people and injured 59 others at an Ariana Grande concert Monday night is one of several terror attacks that have taken place in the U.K. in recent years.

The British people have endured politically-motivated attacks, attacks by right-wing extremists and attacks by Islamic extremists over the last few decades. It isn't the first attack of the UK, another attacks have happened in the past few years 

-April 1999: David Copeland bombings  

David Copeland was convicted in 2000 of killing three people and injuring 139 others after perpetrating a series of nail-bombing attacks that took place across the month of April 1999, according to reports by BBC News

-July 7, 2005: London Underground attack

Four suicide bombers armed with explosives attacked civilians traveling on London Underground trains. More than 50 people were killed and hundreds of others were injured.

-May 22, 2013: Murder of Lee Rigby

Two Islamic extremists  murdered Lee Rigby, a British soldier and veteran of the Afghanistan War, just outside an army barrack, telling eyewitnesses the killing was "as an eye for an eye ... because Muslims are dying by British soldiers every day".

-Dec. 5, 2015: Leytonstone knife attack

Shortly after the Paris attacks in November of 2015, a 29-year-old man, Muhaydin Mire, was  arrested for attempted murder after trying to stab people in the Leytonstone metro station with a knife.

-March 22, 2017: Westminster Bridge attack

Three people were killed, including a police officer, and at least 29 people were hospitalized following an attack in London that took place earlier this year. The attack began when a driver struck pedestrians and three police officers on Westminster Bridge.

-May 23, 2017: Manchester suicide bombing

ISIS claimed responsibility for the deadly explosion at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, Monday evening. Twenty-two people died and 59 others were injured in the attack.

The attacker died at the scene after using an improvised explosive device.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/terror-uk-timeline-recent-attacks/story?id=47579860

NASA FOUND A NEW SOLAR SYSTEM.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star. Three of these planets are firmly located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water.

At about 40 light-years (235 trillion miles) from Earth, the system of planets is relatively close to us, in the constellation Aquarius. Because they are located outside of our solar system, these planets are scientifically known as exoplanets.

This exoplanet system is called TRAPPIST-1, named for The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile. In May 2016, researchers using TRAPPIST announced they had discovered three planets in the system. After they confirmed the existence of two of these planets and discovered five additional ones, increasing the number of known planets in the system to seven.

The new results were published Wednesday in the journal Nature, and announced at a news briefing at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Using Spitzer data, the team precisely measured the sizes of the seven planets and developed first estimates of the masses of six of them, allowing their density to be estimated.

"The seven wonders of TRAPPIST-1 are the first Earth-size planets that have been found orbiting this kind of star," said Michael Gillon, lead author of the paper and the principal investigator of the TRAPPIST exoplanet survey at the University of Liege, Belgium. "It is also the best target yet for studying the atmospheres of potentially habitable, Earth-size worlds."

In contrast to our sun, the TRAPPIST-1 star – classified as an ultra-cool dwarf – is so cool that liquid water could survive on planets orbiting very close to it, closer than is possible on planets in our solar system. All seven of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary orbits are closer to their host star than Mercury is to our sun. The planets also are very close to each other.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-telescope-reveals-largest-batch-of-earth-size-habitable-zone-planets-around