Bad sleep 'dramatically' alters body

By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News  

A run of poor sleep can have a potentially profound effect on the internal workings of the human body, say UK researchers.

The activity of hundreds of genes was altered when people's sleep was cut to less than six hours a day for a week.
Writing in the journal PNAS, the researchers said the results helped explain how poor sleep damaged health.
Heart disease, diabetes, obesity and poor brain function have all been linked to substandard sleep.
What missing hours in bed actually does to alter health, however, is unknown.
So researchers at the University of Surrey analysed the blood of 26 people after they had had plenty of sleep, up to 10 hours each night for a week, and compared the results with samples after a week of fewer than six hours a night.
More than 700 genes were altered by the shift. Each contains the instructions for building a protein, so those that became more active produced more proteins - changing the chemistry of the body.

Egypt suspends Luxor balloon flights after deadly crash

Governor of Luxor, Ezzat Saad: "I would like to offer my condolences"

The Egyptian authorities have suspended all hot air balloon flights near Luxor and launched an investigation following the deaths of 19 tourists in a crash.

Hong Kong, Japanese, British, French and Hungarian nationals were among those killed on Tuesday morning.
A landing rope is reported to have got caught around a helium gas tube and severed it, after which a fire erupted and the balloon shot up into the air.
It then plunged some 300m (1,000ft) to the ground in a field west of the city.
The pilot and one passenger survived by jumping out of the basket.

Adele's 21 tops 2012 global album chart

Adele's chart-topping album 21 has topped the global albums chart for a second consecutive year.

The album, released in January 2011, sold 8.3 million copies last year, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said.
Overall music revenues were up 0.3% to $16.5bn (£10.9bn) - the first year of industry growth since 1999.
Paul Williams, the head of business analysis at Music Week, said the rise was "very significant".
"After many, many years of decline the graph is finally heading northwards again," he said.
"It underlines the efforts the music industry has been putting in and the results it's now getting in reinventing itself in the digital era."
The IFPI's annual Digital Music Report also showed that digital revenues grew by 9% last year and now account for 34% of total revenue.
Carly Rae Jepsen's hit Call Me Maybe was the best-selling single of 2012, with 12.5 million units sold globally.

Adele outsold her nearest rival, Taylor Swift's Red, by some three million copies.

Former X Factor contestants One Direction had the third and fourth best-selling albums around the world with their first two records Up All Night and Take Me Home, with 4.5 million and 4.4 million copies sold respectively.
There were two other British acts in the top 10 - Rod Stewart's Merry Christmas, Baby was at number seven and Grammy winners Mumford and Sons' Babel was at nine.
Gotye's mega-hit Somebody That I Used To Know was the second biggest-selling single globally, with 11.8 million purchases.

Amour bags hat-trick of London Critics Circle Film Awards

 

 Amour also stars French film actor Jean-Louis Trintignant

 

Bafta and Oscar-nominated film Amour has bagged a hat-trick of London Critics' Circle Film Awards, including film and screenplay of the year for writer and director Michael Haneke.

French screen veteran Emmanuelle Riva was named actress of the year for her turn as an elderly music teacher who is struck down by a stroke.
Berberian Sound Studio was named British film of the year.
A single award for Les Miserables went to Anne Hathaway as supporting actress.
Amour won the Palme D'Or in Cannes in May last year, and picked up a Golden Globe award last week. It has been nominated for five Oscars and four Baftas.
Joaquin Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who both star in The Master, won best actor and best supporting actor respectively.
British actress of the year went to Bafta Rising star nominee Andrea Riseborough for her turn as an IRA informant in Shadow Dancer. Toby Jones was named best British actor for Berberian Sound Studio.
Jones told the BBC: "I'm genuinely surprised, it's an extraordinary category - and to be compared with such brilliant actors and for the film to be compared to such massive budget films."

Quadruple helix DNA seen in human cells

A representation of the four-stranded structure (L) with fluorescent markers revealing its presence inside cells (R) 

Cambridge University scientists say they have seen four-stranded DNA at work in human cells for the first time.

The famous "molecule of life", which carries our genetic code, is more familiar to us as a double helix.
But researchers tell the journal Nature Chemistry that the "quadruple helix" is also present in our cells, and in ways that might possibly relate to cancer.
They suggest that control of the structures could provide novel ways to fight the disease.
"The existence of these structures may be loaded when the cell has a certain genotype or a certain dysfunctional state," said Prof Shankar Balasubramanian from Cambridge's department of chemistry.
"We need to prove that; but if that is the case, targeting them with synthetic molecules could be an interesting way of selectively targeting those cells that have this dysfunction," he told BBC News.
Tag and track It will be exactly 60 years ago in February that James Watson and Francis Crick famously burst into the pub next to their Cambridge laboratory to announce the discovery of the "secret of life".
What they had actually done was describe the way in which two long chemical chains wound up around each other to encode the information cells need to build and maintain our bodies.
Today, the pair's modern counterparts in the university city continue to work on DNA's complexities.
Balasubramanian's group has been pursuing a four-stranded version of the molecule that scientists have produced in the test tube now for a number of years.
It is called the G-quadruplex. The "G" refers to guanine, one of the four chemical groups, or "bases", that hold DNA together and which encode our genetic information (the others being adenine, cytosine, and thymine).

UN report Torture in Afghan prisons is widespread

BBC's Quentin Somerville said the report details use of electric shock to extract confessions.

The United Nations says torture in Afghan prisons continues to be widespread despite its recommendations in a similar report in 2011.

More than half of the 635 detainees interviewed by UN investigators said they had been ill-treated or tortured.
The Afghan government says the claims are exaggerated, the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says.
Nato's force in Afghanistan, Isaf, has suspended the transfer of detainees to facilities named in the report.
The report, by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama), focused on detainees in facilities run by both national and local police forces and the intelligence services, the NDS, between October 2011 and October 2012.
Impunity charge It identified 14 methods of torture and ill-treatment practices, including beatings, a threat of execution and sexual abuse. Some were given electric shocks to extract confessions or obtain information.

Mali conflict French troops enter Diabaly

 

France says it will not leave until the whole of northern Mali is recaptured

A column of French and Malian troops has entered the key central Malian town of Diabaly, without resistance from militant Islamists, officials say.

About 30 armoured vehicles carrying some 200 French and Malian soldiers moved into the town, said an AFP reporter with the soldiers.
The Islamists fled the town on Friday after it was hit by French airstrikes.
France launched its military action in Mali more than a week ago to end the Islamist control of northern Mali.
France has sent some 2,000 troops to help Malian forces fight the militants, some of whom are linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
It has called on West African countries to speed up the deployment of a regional force of more than 3,000.

An Islamist group in Nigeria, says it carried out an attack last week which killed two Nigerian troops as they prepared to deploy to Mali.

Ansaru said it targeted the troops because the Nigerian military was joining efforts to "demolish the Islamic empire of Mali".

US shoots down Death Star superlaser petition

 
The White House response dashed the hopes of Star Wars fans

The White House has rejected a petition to build a Death Star - a huge battle-station armed with a superlaser as seen in the Star Wars films.

In a playful response, a senior US government official said the Obama administration "does not support blowing up planets".
The official also said the cost - about $850 quadrillion - was too high.
More than 34,000 people had signed the petition, saying the project would spur job creation and strengthen defence.
They also wanted the government to begin construction by 2016.
The White House is obliged to respond to all petitions that gain more than 25,000 signatures.
'Force be with us!'

China's landslide death toll rises to 46 - state media

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 A number of people remain missing after the landslide struck on Friday

At least 46 people, including children, are now known to have been killed by a landslide in China's southern Yunnan province, state media report.

The bodies of the last two missing residents of the Gaopo village, Yunnan province, were found in the morning, Xinhua news agency says.
The landslide hit the village at about 08:20 local time on Friday (23:00 GMT Thursday), burying 16 houses.

Greek parliament passes new tax increases

 

Austerity measures have triggered mass protests in recent months

The Greek parliament has approved a series of unpopular tax rises aimed at boosting revenue in line with Athens' commitments to international creditors.

The measures, approved overnight, introduce a new top tax rate of 42% for Greeks earning more than 42,000 euros (£34,700; $56,000) a year.
Corporate rates also go up and the tax base now includes low-earning farmers.
Greece has been kept solvent by huge rescue loans from its EU partners and the IMF since May 2010.
The Conservative-led government insists the new measures, designed to raise up to 2.3bn euros this year, are fair.

French soldier killed and hostage feared dead in Somalia

 

Denis Allex was filmed last year by his captors

 

A French soldier has been killed in Somalia during a failed operation to free a hostage who is also believed to have died, the defence minister said.

Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters in Paris that a second soldier was missing after the operation.
A battle erupted with al-Shabab militants after commandos swooped on the town of Bulo Marer overnight.
The raid came hours after French troops intervened in the west African state of Mali.
France was "engaged in a merciless fight against terrorism wherever it is found", Mr Le Drian said.
It seems likely that the operation was linked to the intervention in Mali, the BBC's Hugh Schofield reports from Paris.
The French government knew well the intervention would have dangerous implications for the nine French hostages being held across northern Africa, our correspondent says.
Bodies Mr Le Drian said "all the indications" were that hostage Denis Allex, kidnapped in Somalia in July 2009, had been killed by his captors during the operation.
But al-Shabab said Mr Allex, an agent of France's DGSE intelligence service, was not in the area and was unharmed.

China's one-child policy impact analysed

 

Researchers have analysed the long-term effect of growing up alone

People growing up under China's one-child policy are less trusting, more risk averse and more pessimistic, a study concludes.

An Australian team of researchers compared people who were born just before the policy was introduced with those born after.
They used economic games and surveys to assess the participants' behavioural and personality traits.
The findings are published in the journal Science.
The lead author of the study Professor Lisa Cameron, from Monash University in Victoria, told the BBC's Science in Action programme: "We found that people born under the one-child policy were significantly less trusting and less trustworthy, significantly less likely to take risks and less competitive than those who were born before.
"We also conducted personality surveys and we found that those born under the one-child policy were less conscientious, slightly more neurotic and significantly more pessimistic than those born before."
However, another scientist from the University of Oxford said that the team was making a very strong claim and the differences between the two groups might not be solely down to the policy.
Money games
China's population-control policy was introduced in 1979, and it restricts couples in urban areas to have only one child.

US troops will end 'most' Afghanistan combat this spring

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President Obama said US troops would adopt a "fundamentally different" mission

US troops in Afghanistan will end "most" combat operations this spring, US President Barack Obama and Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai have agreed.

American forces are expected to switch to a support role, slightly earlier than originally scheduled, as Afghan troops take the security lead.
The two leaders also backed the holding of talks between the Afghan government and Taliban leaders in Doha, Qatar.
Most of the 66,000 US troops in Afghanistan are due to leave in 2014.
"Starting this spring, our troops will have a different mission - training, advising, assisting Afghan forces," Mr Obama said in remarks at the White House on Friday, as Mr Karzai stood alongside.

"It will be a historic moment and another step toward full Afghan sovereignty."

The presidents also agreed that the US would hand over custody of prisoners to the Afghan government, a step Mr Karzai said was critical for his country's sovereignty.
The transition of US troops to a support role by this spring would be several months earlier than the mid-2013 deadline agreed at a Nato summit in Chicago last year.
Mr Obama said American forces could remain in Afghanistan in that support role beyond 2014.
But this would only be at the invitation of the Afghan government and under an agreement guaranteeing US troops immunity from Afghan law.

Beijing air pollution soars to hazard level

 

The air smells of coal dust and car fumes

Air pollution in the Chinese capital Beijing has reached levels judged as hazardous to human health.

Readings from both official and unofficial monitoring stations suggested that Saturday's pollution has soared past danger levels outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The air tastes of coal dust and car fumes, two of the main sources of pollution, says a BBC correspondent.
Economic growth has left air quality in many cities notoriously poor.
A heavy smog has smothered Beijing for many days, says the BBC's Damian Grammaticas, in the capital.
By Saturday afternoon it was so thick you could see just a few hundred metres in the city centre, our correspondent says, with tower blocks vanishing into the greyness.
Hazy view Even indoors the air looked hazy, he says.

US troops will end 'most' Afghanistan combat this spring

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Obama and Karzai news conference at White House

US troops in Afghanistan will end "most" combat operations this spring, US President Barack Obama and Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai have said.

They said US troops were expected to switch to a support role, slightly earlier than originally scheduled, as Afghan forces take the security lead.
The two leaders also backed the holding of talks in Doha, Qatar, between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
Most of the 66,000 US troops in Afghanistan are due to leave in 2014.
"Starting this spring, our troops will have a different mission - training, advising, assisting Afghan forces," Mr Obama said in remarks at White House, as Mr Karzai stood alongside. "It will be an historic moment and another step toward full Afghan sovereignty."
The transition of US troops to a support role by this spring would be a little earlier than the mid-2013 deadline agreed at a Nato summit in Chicago last year.
A joint statement issued by the leaders during Friday's meeting raised the possibility that some troops could stay after the end of the next year, but did not discuss numbers.
Mr Karzai and Mr Obama committed to crafting a bilateral security agreement "as soon as possible" and "discussed the possibility of a post-2014 US presence that is sustainable, that supports a capable and effective Afghan National Security Force, and that continues to pressure the remnants of al-Qaeda and its affiliates".

Apple iPhone 5 unveiled with taller screen and 4G

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Apple has unveiled a taller, 4G-enabled iPhone at an event in San Francisco.

The device's new size allows it to display an extra row of app icons on its home screen.
The firm said it was 18% thinner and 20% lighter than the iPhone 4S. However, it does not feature an NFC (near field communication) chip to allow it to make touchless payments.
Apple said the handset would work on Everything Everywhere's (EE) 4G LTE network in the UK.
The news is likely to give EE - which runs the local Orange and T-Mobile services - an advantage against its rivals which will not launch the higher-speed data service until 2013.
"I think it's obviously what the other networks feared would happen," said Matthew Howett, a telecoms analyst at Ovum.
"The question will be how many non-EE customers make the switch."
Apple said the handset would ship on 21 September.
Faster speeds The new screen offers a 16:9 ratio, matching that of widescreen televisions.
But its 4in (10.2cm) size remains smaller than rival displays used by Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, LG, HTC and Sony's flagship models.
Phil Schiller - Apple's vice president of worldwide marketing, who unveiled the device - said existing apps would be shown with black borders until developers updated their products.

From sketch to smartphone - how HTC drew inspiration from a shoe

It is arguably technology's toughest design challenge.

How do you create a device that packs in all the hi-tech features an unforgiving public demands, but without sacrificing a sense of style and good looks?
As HTC attempts to claw back lost ground in the smartphone market, the BBC was given an exclusive look at what usually remains under lock and key - the early design concept sketches of a new smartphone.
Scott Croyle is the company's vice president of design, responsible for taking the very first scribbles and turning them into products that will compete with the likes of Apple, Nokia, LG, Sony, Samsung and Motorola - all of which have made smartphone announcements over recent weeks.

In the early stages of designing its latest phone, HTC's inspiration sparked from a somewhat unlikely place: a shoe.
"When you're designing a shoe, you have a very different mindset than when you're designing a phone," Mr Croyle said, speaking after the launch of the new handsets - neither of which look like a shoe.
Doodling sportswear is a particular speciality of Mr Croyle and team. Prior to being acquired by HTC, his company, One and Co, boasted Nike as one of its clients - so he said it seemed like a good place it start.
"When you start a sketch session, sitting down with the team, you can kinda get stumped.
"You're sketching for a while and you might sketch a car, or you might doodle a shoe... it's as you're doodling and messing around the page that all of a sudden an idea comes across."
The next challenge, of course, is to make sure that the design is feasible.

Samsung estimates record profits on smartphone sales

 

The success of its smartphones has been a key driver of Samsung's growth in recent years

Samsung Electronics has said it expects to make a record profit for the quarter to the end of December, powered by growing sales of its smartphones.

It has estimated an operating profit of 8.8 trillion won ($8.3bn; £5.1bn) for the quarter, a 90% jump from the same period a year earlier.
That would make it the fifth quarter in a row of record profits for Samsung.
The success of its Galaxy smartphones helped Samsung overtake Nokia as the world's biggest phone maker last year.
Analysts said that given the popularity of its smartphones, the South Korean firm was likely to see its profits grow further in the coming months.
"Not only are their smartphone sales growing, they have also learned how to make a good profit on those sales," James Rooney, chairman of Market Force Company, an advisory firm based in Seoul, told the BBC.
"Given these factors, this streak of record breaking quarters is likely to continue for a while," he added.
'Momentum may slow' One of the key drivers of Samsung's smartphone sales in recent months has been its Galaxy S3 model.

Cheap smartphones global market grows

 

Nokia sold 9.3 million units of its Asha handset

Asha, the Symbian budget smartphone from Nokia, is outselling its premium handset offering, the Windows-run Lumia, by over two to one.

The firm's quarterly results, published on Thursday, revealed the total number of both Asha and Lumia devices sold in the last three months of 2012 was 14 million. Only 4.4 million were Lumias.
There have also been rumours that Apple may offer a lower-priced iPhone model.
Reports that a senior Apple executive denied this have been withdrawn.
"We forecast that by 2016, 31% of the global overall handset market will be low-end smartphone," Ian Fogg, principal analyst at IHS, told the BBC.
"An entry-level smartphone is very different from a high-end smartphone," he said.
"Smaller, cheaper devices have processors from two or three years ago, they have small screens with low resolution, and weaker cameras. They can all do email and the web but gaming and browsing is a much better experience on the higher end phones."

Microsoft to turn off Windows Messenger on 15 March

 

Microsoft has been steadily bringing Skype and Live Messenger closer together

Microsoft is switching off its Windows Live Messenger service on 15 March.

On that date Messenger log-ins will no longer work and users must turn to Skype, said Microsoft in an email sent to all Messenger users.
The email also encouraged users to update to Skype and familiarise themselves with the service before the switch-off.
The service switch is a consequence of Microsoft's acquisition of Skype in October 2011 for $8.5bn (£5.3bn).
In November 2012, Microsoft announced that it was switching off Live Messenger in early 2013 but gave no firm date. At the same time, Microsoft made it possible for Messenger users to talk to and swap messages with contacts via Skype.

Snake clings to Qantas plane's wing during flight

Wind speed trapped the python against the side of the engine

For excitement it may not have matched the Samuel L Jackson film, Snakes On A Plane, but passengers on a Qantas flight watched with fascination as one snake fought out its own drama.

A 10ft (3m) scrub python was battling to retain its grip on the wing as a plane made its way between the Australian town of Cairns and Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.
It held on the whole 1hr 50 min flight.
But on arrival in Port Moresby, ground crew found the snake had died.
Passengers first became aware of the reptile 20 minutes after take-off. A woman pointed out the python to fellow passengers and cabin crew.
At first only its head was visible, but as it tried to manoeuvre itself back to safety, its whole body was exposed. Time and again it tried to pull itself back into the shelter of the wing, but the wind was relentless.
The wind speed was 250mph (400km/h) and the temperature -12C.

Jimmy Savile scandal: Report reveals decades of abuse

 

Children as young as eight were abused by Jimmy Savile, a report detailing 50 years of allegations has revealed.

The Met Police and NSPCC outlined offences at 13 hospitals, including Great Ormond Street in London and Wheatfields Hospice in Leeds.
Some 214 crimes were recorded across 28 police force areas, including 34 of rape or penetration, the report said.
The CPS apologised for missing the opportunity to prosecute Savile in 2009, while he was still alive.
Police said the victims' accounts painted a "compelling picture of widespread sexual abuse by a predatory sex offender", and Cdr Peter Spindler, who is leading the investigation, said Savile had "groomed the nation".
And the NSPCC said Savile was one of the most prolific sex offenders in its 129-year history.
'Sincere apology' The former BBC presenter of Top Of The Pops and Jim'll Fix It, who also worked as a Radio 1 DJ and received a knighthood in 1990, died aged 84 in October 2011 - a year before the allegations emerged in an ITV documentary.
Revelations that Savile had sexually abused children prompted hundreds of victims to come forward, including those who said they were attacked on BBC premises and a number of other institutions.

NSPCC director of child protection advice and awareness Peter Watt said: "The sheer scale of Savile's abuse over six decades simply beggars belief.
"He is without doubt one of the most prolific sex offenders we have ever come across and every number represents a victim that will never get justice now he is dead."
The Giving Victims a Voice report set out the findings of Operation Yewtree, which launched three months ago to investigate the Savile abuse claims.

Rebels 'take control of key north Syria airbase'

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Footage purportedly showed rebels at the airbase 
Rebel are reported to have taken control of a strategic military airbase in north-western Syria after weeks of fierce fighting with government forces.

Online videos appeared to show rebels celebrating inside Taftanaz airport, alongside tanks and helicopters.
Helicopters based there have been used to attack rebel-held areas.
Meanwhile, talks in Geneva between the UN envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, and senior US and Russian diplomats ended without a breakthrough.

Mr Brahimi had wanted to discuss with the US Deputy Secretary of State, William Burns, and Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, how to implement the plan proposed by the Action Group for Syria in June, which called for an immediate cessation of violence and the establishment of a transitional government.
A joint statement read by Mr Brahimi after Friday's meeting stated that all sides had stressed there could be no military solution to the conflict, and underscored the necessity to reach a political solution.

Responding to a question, he said: "If you are asking whether there is a solution around the corner, I'm not sure that is the case."

Dreamliner plane review ordered by US regulators

US regulators have ordered a review of the 787 Dream liner plane after a series of incidents put a question mark over the safety of Boeing's flagship plane.

The review by the Federal Aviation Administration will look at the design and manufacture of the planes. It is not clear whether the planes in the air at the moment will be grounded. An electrical fire, a brake problem, a fuel spill and cracks in the cockpit's windshield have affected Dreamliner flights in the past week."We are absolutely confident in the reliability and performance of the 787," Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel said. "We are working with the FAA and our customers to ensure we thoroughly understand any introductory issues that arise. "While we take each issue seriously, nothing we've seen in service causes us to doubt the capabilities of the airplane."
The Boeing 787 Dream liner is one of the most advanced aero planes ever created. Much of it is made from very strong, light carbon-fiber composite material

Read More....

Rebels 'take control of key north Syria airbase'

 

One video purportedly showed rebels driving armoured vehicles at Taftanaz'

Rebels are reported to have taken control of a strategic military airbase in north-western Syria after days of fierce fighting with government forces.
Opposition activists said the Free Syrian Army (FSA) was in full control of Taftanaz airport. Videos purportedly showed fighters inside the facility.
Helicopters based there have been used to attack rebel-held areas.
Meanwhile, top US and Russian officials are attending talks in Geneva with the UN envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi.
They were expected to discuss how to advance a peace plan proposed by world powers in June, but the BBC's Imogen Foulkes says a diplomatic breakthrough is unlikely.
Ammunition store Hundreds of FSA fighters - led by the jihadist groups al-Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham and the Islamic Vanguard - have besieged Taftanaz Military Airport in Idlib province since early November.
Helicopters based at the sprawling facility, which lies near the motorway between the capital Damascus and the second city of Aleppo, have been used to bomb rebel-held areas in the north and deliver vital supplies to government forces struggling to halt rebel advances.
Rebel fighters broke into the airbase on Wednesday night after days of fighting, and by Thursday had seized control of more than half of it.

Colossal tail trails dying star

The tail measures a massive 13 light years in lengthA distant star that hurtles through space at extraordinary speeds has a huge, comet-like tail trailing in its wake, astronomers say. The appendage, which measures a colossal 13 light years in length, was spotted by Nasa's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (Galex) space telescope. The researchers said that nothing like it had ever been spotted around a star. They believe the star, known as Mira, will help them to study what happens as stars meet their demise. Mark Seibert, a co-author of the paper, which was published in the journal Nature, and a scientist at the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, said: "This is an utterly new phenomenon to us, and we are still in the process of understanding the physics involved." Racing through space Mira (also called Mira A) has captivated astronomers for more than 400 years. It sits about 350 light-years from Earth in a constellation known as Cetus, and is accompanied in orbit by a smaller secondary star, called Mira B, forming a binary system. Billions of years ago, Mira would have been much like our Sun, but as it now enters its death-throes it has swollen into a type of star known as a red giant. As it races through space at 130km/s (80 miles per second) it sheds vast amounts of material.

Stars born in galactic wilderness

Baby stars have been discovered spawning in the otherwise barren outskirts of a galaxy.

The finding has surprised astronomers because the galactic periphery was assumed to lack high concentrations of ingredients needed to form stars.
The stars can be seen in a new image of the Southern Pinwheel galaxy, or M83, obtained by a Nasa space telescope and a ground-based observatory.
They are forming more than 100,000 light-years from M83's bustling centre.
Nasa's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (Galex) satellite spotted bright features in the long "arms" of the galaxy - coloured red in the image - which astronomers think are large clusters of stars.

"Every little pixel we see probably represents hundreds to thousands of stars. But we view them as a single blob," said Mark Seibert from the Carnegie Observatories in California.

Galaxy crash sparks large spiral

 

  The ultraviolet range that Galex can see in revealed a wealth of new stars at the galaxy's outer reaches

Astronomers have spotted the largest known spiral galaxy - by accident.

A team was looking through data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (Galex) satellite for star-forming regions around a galaxy called NGC 6872.
But they were shocked to see a vast swathe of ultraviolet light from young stars, indicating that the galaxy is actually big enough to accommodate five of our Milky Way galaxies within it.
The find was reported at the American Astronomical Society meeting in the US.
NGC 6872, a galaxy about 212 million light-years away in the constellation Pavo, was already known to be among the largest spiral galaxies.
Near it sits a lens-shaped or lenticular galaxy called IC 4970, which appears to have crashed through the spiral in recent astronomical times.