In Myanmar, Obama Lauds Courage Of Aung San Suu Kyi - KPLR 11

(CNN) ? Barack Obama met with Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi at her home in Myanmar on Monday, lauding her ?courage and determination? during a historic visit to the once repressive and secretive country.

The first sitting U.S. president to visit Myanmar, Obama urged its leaders, who have embarked on a series of far-reaching political and economic reforms since 2011, not to extinguish the ?flickers of progress that we have seen.?

Obama said that his visit to the lakeside villa where the pro-democracy icon spent years under house arrest marked a new chapter between the two countries.

?Here, through so many difficult years, is where she has displayed such unbreakable courage and determination,? Obama told reporters, while standing side by side with his fellow Nobel peace laureate. ?It is here where she showed that human freedom and human dignity cannot be denied.?

The country, which is also known as Burma, was ruled by military leaders until early 2011 and for decades was politically and economically cut off from the rest of the world.

Suu Kyi repeated her warnings that Burma?s opening up would be difficult.

?The most difficult time in any transition is when we think success is in sight, then we have to be very careful that we are not lured by a mirage of success and that we are working toward its genuine success for our people and friendship between our two countries,? she said.

Before meeting Suu Kyi, Obama spent an hour with Myanmar?s President Thein Sein, whose reform drive has seen the release of hundreds of political prisoners and steps to open up the country?s economy.

Obama said the democratic and economic reforms begun by the president could lead to ?incredible development opportunities.? Thein Sein, who wore a long purple sarong and white shirt, told Obama he was committed to strengthening bilateral relations.

In a departure from usual protocol, Obama referred to the country as Myanmar. The name Myanmar was introduced by the former military regime 23 years ago and is preferred by the country?s current leaders, but the Obama administration has largely stuck to British colonial name of Burma that is also used by Suu Kyi and democracy activists.

As well as meeting Thein Sein and Suu Kyi, Obama delivered a speech at the University of Yangon, where he urged the country to continue with its ?remarkable journey.?

?The flickers of progress that we have seen must not be extinguished,? Obama said. ?Reforms launched from the top of society must meet the aspirations of citizens who form its foundation.?

?Obama fever? has gripped Yangon, with the street from the airport lined with crowds waving the stars and stripes, taking pictures and craning for a glimpse of the president.

Obama?s image also featured on T-shirts and mugs for sale in city stores.

On the eve of his Myanmar trip, Obama insisted that the visit was ?not an endorsement of the Burmese government.?

?This is an acknowledgment that there is a process under way inside that country that even a year and a half, two years ago, nobody foresaw,? Obama told reporters in Thailand on Sunday, the first stop on his Asia trip. He added that the country was moving ?in a better direction.?

Western governments have responded to Myanmar?s progressive efforts by easing sanctions that targeted the military regime. On Friday, the U.S. eased restrictions on imports of most goods from Burma.

But the country has also witnessed bouts of turmoil in recent months. Violence between Rohingya Muslims and local Buddhists broke out in the western state of Rakhine.

During the latest eruption of tensions, the United Nations said at least 89 people were killed in two weeks, and 110,000 were displaced.

Obama urged Myanmar to use its ?diversity as a strength, not a weakness.?

?I believe deeply that this country can transcend its differences, and that every human being within these borders is a part of your nation?s story.?

He met briefly with representatives of civil society organizations, including an advocate for Burma?s Rohingya population.

However, some aid organizations are questioning whether now is the right time for Obama to add legitimacy to Thein Sein?s government.

Burmese exile leaders and human rights advocates have expressed concerns that the visit is too soon, and may not yield the additional reforms that a presidential visit can deliver if it happens at the right time.
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By Katie Hunt, Josh Levs, Holly Yan, Gabriella Schwarz, Paula Hancocks and Dan Rivers contributed to this report.

for CNN
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Source: http://kplr11.com/2012/11/19/in-myanmar-obama-lauds-courage-of-aung-san-suu-kyi/

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Who am I? Dozens of people live as 'John Doe'

For the John Does walking among us, their lives are mysteries to society and to themselves. These seemingly invisible citizens can't answer the simple questions, "What's your name?" or "Where are you from?" They are blank slates.

They aren't eligible for health insurance, can't pay rent or get a driver's license. They can't get a job or apply for unemployment benefits.

Many of them suffer from mental illnesses that render them unable to remember who they are. Scans of their fingerprints lead to no matches, indicating that they do not have criminal records. Their faces do not appear in databases for missing people.

In February, a man was brought to a Fort Worth, Texas, hospital with a cranial bleed. He did not know his name or remember any details from his life. He was admitted under the name "Bobby Jones," but only answered to "Smiley." They have guesstimated his age to be about 76. He can speak, but rarely answers questions. He is paranoid and no longer able to walk.

"I just keep thinking he was somebody's little baby once and you think about how much you love your children and what happened to his parents? Where have they gone?" wondered Kathleen Evans, the inpatient case manager for Fort Worth's JPS Health Network where Smiley was a patient.

The caretakers know that Smiley has been on the streets and in shelters in the Fort Worth area for about 20 years. He has no police record, proven by the lack of a fingerprint match. The hospital has been paying $24,000 every three months for his care, but Evans sees no other choice.

"We couldn't put him out on the streets," she said firmly. "I can't lay him out on the sidewalk. He's a human being and you have to send him to a safe place and the street would not be safe for him."

Smiley is now in a nursing home. Evans and the hospital tried every known avenue to search for his identity.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), working under the U.S. Department of Justice, has several databases, but does not currently have one that includes the living unidentified. But after being presented with a number of cases of living unidentified, they are developing a new database that they hope to launch by the end of this year.

"The traditional system is in dealing with unidentified deceased, but we know there are unidentified living," NamUs spokesman Todd Matthews told ABCNews.com. "We have to include the missing. They're missing from somewhere."

Matthews does not have an exact count on the number of cases, but NamUs is aware of "dozens" of men and women living without identities. He believes there are many more cases out there that have not been reported because hospitals and authorities don't know what to do with them.

"I think people have seen this as a homeless person and they've just fallen ill, but that's not always the case," Matthews said. "I think we're really going to have people to focus on this and see how many are out there."

"It's a real problem," he said.

Benjaman Kyle can tell you how big and bewildering the problem is. Kyle is a working, productive member of society, whose lack of identity is a daily struggle. He made up the name Benjamin Kyle just so he would have a name.

In August 2004, he was found naked, unresponsive and covered with fire ant bites behind a Burger King Dumpster in Richmond Hill, Ga. When he awoke in a hospital, he was confused.

"I had no idea who I was. I couldn't remember," Kyle told ABCNews.com. "I had no idea how I got there."

Dozens of People Live as John Doe, Not Knowing Who They Are

The hospital called him "BK unknown" since he was found behind a Burger King. He felt strongly that his first name was Benjaman, but could not remember his last name. When pressed by the hospital for a last name, he picked Kyle?the first name he could think of that started with a "k."

Fingerprints and searches in both national and international databases turned up no matches for Kyle. He has been fingerprinted more than five times by the FBI with no luck.

"A police officer in Georgia told me once that it means one of two things?either I've never committed a crime or I'm so good at it that I never got caught," he said with a laugh.

Despite maintaining a sense of humor, there is sadness and frustrations beneath the surface.

"I'm not in any of the databases that they can search," he said. "Basically, I don't exist. I'm a walking, talking person who is invisible to all the bureaucracy."

There are a few bits and pieces of his life that Kyle remembers.

He believes his birthday is Aug. 29, 1948, making him 64 years old. He remembers that date because it is exactly 10 years before Michael Jackson's birth date. He also thinks he was born in Indianapolis and recalls sitting in the library at the University of Colorado at some point.

Kyle has two scars on his elbow and no tattoos or piercings. He has been diagnosed with amnesia and does not know if whatever unknown events that led up to him ending up behind the Dumpster caused him to lose his memory.

John Wikstrom, 21, made a documentary about Kyle and found himself personally frustrated with how few resources there are for the living unidentified.

"People who are unidentified, there's nothing they can do. There's absolutely nothing," Wikstrom told ABCNews.com. "It's incredibly frustrating. It makes you want to appeal to the highest possible authority and figure out if someone can get him out of this mess. Someone has to be able to do something."

When making his film, Wikstrom was struck by how normal Kyle is, a typical functioning and productive member of society.

"He's witty and articulate. Talking to him, it's shocking and I think one of the more sobering facts when relating to him is because he's so relatable," he said. "He has a family somewhere, even if it's not an immediate family. This isn't just some strange, distant icicle of a man. This guy is fun, which is again, a very strange concept."

Wikstrom has posted the documentary, "Finding Benjaman," online and recently launched a website dedicated to discovering Kyle's true identity.

Following the documentary's release, Kyle was able to get a special Florida state identification card, but still doesn't have a birth certificate or Social Security number. He has been told that due to the presumption that he was given a Social Security number at some point, he cannot get another one.

After hearing his story, a Florida restaurant gave him a job in the kitchen and a landowner is allowing him to live in a shed on his property. The restaurant owner is paying Kyle out-of-pocket because without any information, he can't be on the official payroll.

Kyle believes he may have worked in a restaurant in the past because once he was in the kitchen, he discovered that he knew how to work the machines and fix a broken stove.

Kyle acknowledges the naysayers who may accuse him of faking his condition, but insists there would be no reason to do so.

"You'll find a lot of people who say it's all bogus, that I'm faking it for whatever reason, but one thing's for sure?I'm not getting rich out of it," Kyle said. "I'm 64. I'm trying to get on with my life as best as I can. I figure I've got 10 more years to live considering my social and economic bracket. I can't make any long terms plans other than try to get along mostly day to day."

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dozens-people-live-john-doe-193319683--abc-news-topstories.html

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Israel strike kills 11 in Gaza, including children

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) ? An Israeli missile ripped through a two-story home in a residential area of Gaza City on Sunday, killing at least 11 civilians, including four young children and an 81-year-old woman, in the single deadliest attack of Israel's offensive against Islamic militants.

A similar scene unfolded elsewhere in the city early Monday, when an airstrike leveled two houses belonging to a single family, killing two children and two adults and injuring 42 people, including children, said Gaza heath official Ashraf al-Kidra. Rescue workers were frantically searching for 12 to 15 members of the Azzam family under the rubble.

While the airstrikes relentlessly targeted militant rocket operations, Israeli gunboats unleashed a steady tattoo of heavy machine gun fire and shells at militant facilities on Gaza's coastal road.

The bloodshed was likely to raise pressure on Israel to end the fighting, even as it pledged to intensify the offensive by striking the homes of wanted militants. High numbers of civilian casualties in an offensive four years ago led to fierce criticism and condemnation of Israel.

In all, 81 Palestinians, half of them 37 civilians, have been killed in the five-day onslaught and 720 have been wounded. Three Israeli civilians have died from Palestinian rocket fire and dozens have been wounded..

President Barack Obama said he was in touch with players across the region in hopes of halting the fighting, while also warning of the risks of Israel expanding its air assault into a ground war.

"We're going to have to see what kind of progress we can make in the next 24, 36, 48 hours," Obama said during a visit in Thailand.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon urged the two warring parties to achieve an immediate cease-fire. He said he was heading to the region to appeal personally for an end to the violence, but no date was given in the U.N. statement for his arrival.

On the ground, there were no signs of any letup in the fighting as Israel announced it was widening the offensive to target the military commanders of the ruling Hamas group.

The Israeli military carried out dozens of airstrikes throughout the day, and naval forces bombarded targets along Gaza's Mediterranean coast. Many of the attacks focused on homes where militant leaders or weapons were believed to be hidden.

Palestinian militants continued to barrage Israel with rockets, firing more than 100 on Sunday, and setting off air raid sirens across the southern part of the country. Some 40 rockets were intercepted by Israel's U.S.-financed "Iron Dome" rocket-defense system, including two that targeted the metropolis of Tel Aviv. At least 10 Israelis were wounded by shrapnel.

Israel's decision to step up its attacks in Gaza marked a new and risky phase of the operation, given the likelihood of civilian casualties in the densely populated territory of 1.6 million Palestinians. Israel launched the offensive Wednesday in what it said was an effort to end months of intensifying rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

In the day's deadliest violence, the Israeli navy fired at a home where it said a top wanted militant was hiding. The missile struck the home of the Daloo family in Gaza City, reducing the structure to rubble.

Frantic rescuers, bolstered by bulldozers, pulled the limp bodies of children from the ruins of the house, including a toddler and a 5-year-old, as survivors and bystanders screamed in grief. Later, the bodies of the children were laid out in the morgue of Gaza City's Shifa Hospital.

Among the 11 dead were four small children and five women, including an 81-year-old, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said.

More than a dozen homes of Hamas commanders or families linked to Hamas were struck on Sunday. Though most were empty ? their inhabitants having fled to shelter ? at least three had families in them. Al-Kidra said 20 of 27 people killed Sunday were civilians, mostly women and children.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said that "the Israeli people will pay the price" for the killing of civilians.

Israel sought to place the blame on militants, saying they were intentionally operating in places inhabited by civilians. The military has released videos and images of what it says are militants firing rockets from mosques, schools and public buildings.

"Hamas is using the Gaza population as human shields," said Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the chief Israeli spokesman. "They are exploiting crowded residential urban areas."

He acknowledged, however, that it was not clear whether the militant targeted in Sunday's attack was killed, despite earlier claims of success. "I still don't know what became of him," Mordechai told Channel 10 TV.

The prospect of mounting civilian casualties could quickly change the momentum of Israel's operation. Israel launched the offensive on Wednesday with a lightning airstrike that killed Hamas' military chief. Since then, it has carried out a blistering campaign of more than 1,200 airstrikes, targeting suspected rocket storage and launching sites.

Israel also struck two high-rise buildings housing media outlets, damaging the top-floor offices of the Hamas TV station, Al Aqsa, and a Lebanese-based broadcaster, Al Quds TV, seen as sympathetic to the Islamists. Six Palestinian journalists were wounded, including one who lost a leg, the Gaza press association said.

Foreign broadcasters, including British, German and Italian TV outlets, also had offices in the buildings.

Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman, said the strikes targeted Hamas communications equipment on the rooftops. She accused the group of using journalists for cover.

Israeli officials expressed readiness to take the offensive even further with a ground invasion of Gaza. Israel has mobilized thousands of forces and columns of armored vehicles along the border ahead of a possible incursion.

"The Israeli military is prepared to significantly expand the operation," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting.

The threats come at an important crossroads ? with a fateful choice between further escalation or agreeing to a cease-fire with Hamas. Israel and the West consider Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007, to be a terrorist group.

Obama and British Foreign Secretary William Hague cautioned against a potential Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.

Obama blamed Palestinian militants for starting the round of fighting by raining rockets onto Israel and said the U.S. supported Israel's right to protect itself. "Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory," Obama said.

Hague also said Hamas "bears principal responsibility" for initiating the violence, but made clear the diplomatic risks of an Israeli escalation. "A ground invasion is much more difficult for the international community to sympathize with or support," he said.

A ground operation would carry grave risks, given the likelihood of heavy casualties on both sides. The Israeli offensive into Gaza four years ago left hundreds of civilians dead, drawing fierce international condemnation and war crimes accusations.

Israel says its intelligence and technology have been perfected since then to minimize civilian casualties. But Gaza's crowded urban landscape makes it all but impossible to avoid them altogether, as Sunday's attack in Gaza City illustrated.

"In this case, you can't avoid collateral damage if they position the rockets in densely populated areas, in mosques, school yards," said Israeli Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon. "We shouldn't be blamed for the outcome."

Avihai Mandelblit, a recently retired chief advocate general in the Israeli military, said that from a legal perspective, "there's no immunity to anyone if you put weapons inside of civilian infrastructure."

But he acknowledged the sight of dead civilians could create a public relations debacle for Israel. "As more civilians will get hurt, the legitimacy clock is going to click faster to end this operation," he said.

Obama said he had been in touch with Netanyahu as well as the leaders of Egypt and Turkey as international attempts to broker a cease-fire continued. Egypt, which often serves as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, has taken a leading role in the efforts.

Israeli TV stations said an Israeli envoy traveled to Cairo on Sunday, and was returning to Israel with details of cease-fire proposals. Channel 2 TV, citing American diplomats, said Netanyahu's personal envoy, Yitzhak Molcho, would be headed to Washington in the coming days.

Hamas officials said their supreme leader, Khaled Meshaal, also held talks with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, and that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was to visit Gaza on Tuesday.

Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers remain far apart on any terms for a halt to the bloodshed.

Hamas is linking a truce deal to a complete lifting of the border blockade on Gaza imposed since Islamists seized the territory by force. Hamas also seeks Israeli guarantees to halt targeted killings of its leaders and military commanders. Israeli officials reject such demands.

They say they are not interested in a "time-out," and want firm guarantees that militant rocket fire into Israel will end. Past cease-fires have been short lived.

___

Federman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press Writer Lauren E. Bohn in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://enews.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20121118/f5fdeff8-8bac-43c6-8d2f-9750c62dc2e8

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Is Taylor Swift Hit "All Too Well" About Jake Gyllenhaal?

Taylor Swift doesn't like to reveal who her songs are about, but a source close to the singer-songwriter claims that one track from Red is definitely about Jake Gyllenhaal. According to Us Weekly, the song "All Too Well," in which Swift gets nostalgic about a failed relationship, was written about her 2010 romance with the actor.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/did-taylor-swift-write-all-too-well-about-jake-gyllenhaal/1-a-502968?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Adid-taylor-swift-write-all-too-well-about-jake-gyllenhaal-502968

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Alien Worlds: Exoplanets in Pictures

Astronomers have discovered more than 850 planets orbiting other stars. These exoplanets are found using a variety of techniques, but most are indirect?we see the effect of the planet on its host star, but we don?t see the planet itself.

However, a very few handful have actually been directly detected?small sparks of light visible next to the brilliant spotlights of their stars. On this page are pictures all the exoplanets we?ve been able to see so far, including other solar systems, and some planets caught in motion as they orbit their parent stars.

The first-ever direct picture of an exoplanet came in 2005. Well, kinda: The planet was seen in 2004 but astronomers had to wait a year to confirm it wasn?t a background star or galaxy. The planet is called 2MASSWJ1207334-3932b, or 2M1207b for short, and is about 230 light years from Earth. In this image, taken in infrared light using the European Southern Observatory?s Very Large Telescope, the planet is the dull red spot near its much brighter parent star. Or ?star,? I should say: That brighter object is a brown dwarf, something more massive than a planet but not really a full-fledged star, either. Still, the planet itself is about five times the mass of Jupiter, placing it firmly in the planetary mass range, and securing its place in history as the first exoplanet ever directly detected.

Photo by NASA,?ESA, P. Kalas, J. Graham, E. Chiang, E. Kite (University of California, Berkeley), M. Clampin (NASA?Goddard Space Flight Center), M. Fitzgerald (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), and K. Stapelfeldt and J. Krist (NASA?Jet Propulsion Laboratory).

Fomalhaut is a star only about 25 light years from us, making it our galactic next-door neighbor. It?s pretty bright, easily visible to the naked eye, and in fact is the 18^th brightest star in the night sky. In this Hubble Space Telescope image, the overwhelming light from the star has been blocked out, revealing that it?s surrounded by a huge ring of dust 36 billion kilometers across. It?s the Eye of Sauron!

Just inside that ring is a tiny spark of light, first seen in 2004. It was observed again in 2006, making it clear it was actually orbiting Fomalhaut, and was formally announced as a planet in 2008. However, it?s somewhat controversial: Subsequent observations show it may actually be a clump of dust, like a cosmic dust bunny, and not a planet at all. Another group of researchers thinks there actually is a planet in there surrounded by the cloud of dust. At the moment, its status as a planet is not confirmed. I include it here for historical sake, since it was the first exoplanet announced around an actual star, and may yet turn out to be a planet.

Photo by Paul Kalas, U.C.-Berkeley.

This picture is a composite of two observations of Fomalhaut using Hubble, showing the purported planet?s motion over two years. These images indicate that whatever it is?planet or dust cloud?it?s really there and not some camera artifact.

The First Exosolar System

Photo by Gemini Observatory.

HR8799 is a star a bit more massive than the Sun, and far younger, about 60 million years old. While it may not be as photogenic as Fomalhaut, it more than makes up for it in this image from the Gemini Observatory, because we see not one but three planets orbiting it. This is the first portrait of an exosolar system! It was announced at the same time as the Fomalhaut candidate, too, giving this system a tie as the first ever seen orbiting a Sun-like star.

The planets, labeled b, c, and d, are about 7, 10, and 10 times the mass of Jupiter, respectively, and orbit their star at 68, 38, and 24 times the distance of the Earth from the Sun.?It?s possible planets c and d are massive enough to qualify as brown dwarfs (an intermediate object between stars and planets), but it?s still unclear.

If you don?t want include possible brown dwarfs as planets, that?s OK, because the HR8799 system still counts as a bona fide solar system, though. How? Because of the next picture.

Photo by NRC-HIA, Christian Marois, and the W.M. Keck Observatory.

These images, taken in July 2010 using the monster ten-meter Keck II telescope in Hawaii, show HR8799 has a fourth companion! HR8799e is about seven times the mass of Jupiter, clearly making it a planet. It orbits the star about 2.2 billion kilometers out?about the same distance as Uranus from the Sun.

Photo by NASA, ESA, and R. Soummer (STScI).

Fate can be funny sometimes. HR8799 was observed using Hubble in 1998, but no planets were found. Once planets were discovered to be near the star in 2008, astronomers went back to the Hubble images and used more sophisticated analysis techniques developed over the previous decade to look more carefully. Sure enough, there they were. So in a sense, this is the first image ever taken of exoplanets around a Sun-like star. We just didn?t know it!

Photo by Gemini Observatory.

One of the clearest images of an exoplanet shows the prosaically named star 1RXS J160929.1-210524 and its planet, which has about eight times the mass of Jupiter. One reason it?s so easy to spot the planet is that it?s very far from its star: It orbits a whopping 50 billion kilometers (30 billion miles) out?roughly ten times farther out than Neptune orbits the Sun! Current models of how planets form around stars have a very tough time putting a planet this massive that far out. It?s possible an encounter with a more massive planet too close to the star to see tossed this one out to its current distance.

Observations of the nearby star Beta Pictoris in the 1980s showed it had a thick disk of material orbiting it, but it wasn?t until November 2008 that the detection of a planet was confirmed. This image, taken in 2003 using the Very Large Telescope, shows the planet very close to the star, just above it and to the left (special techniques were used to prevent the far brighter starlight from overexposing the camera). The disk, which we see edge-on, is obvious. The planet?s orbit is roughly the same size as Saturn?s, and takes 15 years to orbit the star.

This image is amazing: It?s two superposed pictures showing the Beta Pictoris planet as it was seen in 2003 and 2009, during which time it had actually moved from one side of the star to the other! This made it easier to nail down the size and shape of the planet?s orbit (which is drawn in to give you some scale). Interestingly, a picture taken in 2008 didn?t show the planet: From our vantage point it was too close to the star to see.

An Exoplanet's Baby Picture

Photo by Kraus and Ireland.

This image is admittedly a bit odd. The picture on the left is of the very young star LkCa-15, and was taken in the far infrared, well outside what the human eye can detect. At that wavelength (850 microns, if you?re curious, and for comparison the human eye can only see out to a wavelength about 0.8 microns) the star is essentially invisible, but you can see a ring-shaped disk of dust surrounding the star. This dust is indicative of a newly-forming planetary system.

On the right are observations made using the Keck telescope in Hawaii. They are in the near infrared, much closer to what the eye can see. The star?s position is labeled, and you can see a swoosh of material colored red around a blue blob (the colors aren?t real; they?ve been added to make this easier to see). The simplest explanation is that the blue blob is actually a planet or a proto-planet?still in the act of forming?about six times more massive than Jupiter. The red streamer is dusty material swirling around the planet. The planet, if that?s what it is, orbits inside the inner edge of the bigger disk, and its gravity may be what?s carving out the big inner hole in the disk. This artist?s illustration should help make this clear.

If this pans out, it will be the first ever direct image taken of a baby planet as it?s still forming.

Photo by NAOJ/Subaru/J. Carson (College of Charleston)/T. Currie (University Toronto).

Kappa Andromedae is a massive star about 50 light years away and easily visible to the unaided eye. It?s young, perhaps 30 million years old, and this image, taken using the Japanese Subaru telescope, shows it has ? something orbiting it. Discovered in early 2012, it?s an object that has a mass just about 13 times that of Jupiter. That puts it very, very close to the upper limit of what a planet is, and at the lower end of it being a brown dwarf, a sort-of failed star. We can?t say for sure if it?s a planet or not.

When they?re this young, planets glow due to the heat of their formation, and they cool with time. A more massive planet glows brighter, so knowing the age of the system is critical to knowing the mass of the planet. If the star system is a bit younger, the object may have less mass than estimated, and be a true planet. One model indicates this may be the case, but we just can?t be completely positive. In a sense, that makes this object even more important: It?s a test of our methods. Even if it turns out to be more like a brown dwarf, it will have helped us refine our models which will make future planet hunting more accurate.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=085eaaa57456a2ce0052af8a77a3b22f

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Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze, Jr. Name Son Rocky James

Sarah Michelle Gellar "had a baby boy last week in Los Angeles," her rep tells PEOPLE.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/MAsKKxOnVI0/

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