Gaza ceasefire efforts stepped up

Israel launched its military offensive against Gaza on 14 November, marking the latest eruption in a conflict with Palestinian militants which has raged between the two sides for years. The latest violence has left dozens of people dead, many of them civilians, and shows no sign of ending soon.

Here is a guide to what has happened so far and how the situation may evolve.

How did this start?

Israel's offensive on Gaza began with an air strike that killed the commander of Hamas's military wing, Ahmed Jabari, whom it accused of responsibility for "all terrorist activities against Israel from Gaza" over the past decade.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) subsequently announced the start of Operation Pillar of Defence, which it said was intended to protect Israeli civilians from rockets and mortars fired by militants in Gaza, as well as cripple Hamas's capability to launch attacks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation was launched because he could no longer "accept a situation in which Israeli citizens are threatened by the terror of rockets".

Israeli air strikes on what it said were rocket-storage sites and on Hamas facilities, and a surge in Palestinian rocket-fire into Israel, ensued.

Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2007, said Jabari's assassination had "opened the gates of hell".

Although Jabari's killing signalled the start of Israel's offensive, it was preceded by spates of deadly cross-border violence which saw Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas's Qassam Brigades, firing hundreds of rockets into southern Israel and the Israeli military shelling Gaza and carrying out air strikes.

What do both sides want?

The Israeli government has said Operation Pillar of Defence has two main goals - to protect Israeli civilians and "cripple the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza". Mr Netanyahu has insisted that he is not seeking to topple Hamas.

On 18 November, the prime minister announced that the IDF had attacked more than 1,000 "terrorist targets" and had achieved "significant hits on weapons aimed at Israeli citizens, as well as on those who use the weapons and those who dispatch them". Israel has said it is doing its utmost to avoid civilian casualties, although more than half of those killed in Gaza have been women and children, according to Hamas officials.

Israeli military sources say most of the Iranian-made Fajr-5 and M75 medium-range missiles which had been in the possession of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militant group were destroyed during the first few hours of the offensive. However, some have landed near Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and Israel has struggled to contain shorter-range rockets.

At the start of the offensive, Hamas's Deputy Foreign Minister Ghazi Hamad insisted it was not the aggressor and did not want to see the violence escalate. "We still say that we are the victims of the Occupation and we are the target," he said. But Mr Hamad also argued that Hamas had a right to defend its people and would respond to Israeli attacks, warning: "If Gaza is not safe, your towns will not be safe also."

Could there be an Israeli ground offensive?

Mr Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting on 18 November that Israel was "prepared for a significant expansion of the operation". He made no mention of the possibility of a ground offensive, but has said one cannot be ruled out. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak earlier said the Israeli military would "do everything that is necessary to achieve peace and quiet".

The Israeli government has approved the calling up of 75,000 army reservists in apparent preparation for a ground offensive. Some 31,000 have already been summoned. Several infantry and armoured brigades have already been deployed in the Negev desert, near Gaza. Veteran Israeli commanders say about 30,000 troops reportedly took part in the 2006 Lebanon war and 20,000 in Operation Cast Lead - Israel's offensive against Gaza in 2008-09.

Analysts say Israeli commanders believe the build-up will help deter Hamas, making it clear Israel's intentions are serious, but also making it possible to launch an offensive were Hamas to refuse a ceasefire.

Since the end of Operation Cast Lead, Hamas's military wing has been preparing for another ground offensive. It is believed to have about 10,000 active fighters and 20,000 in reserve. The group has also built bunkers, improved its military technology and acquired more sophisticated and powerful weapons. Although the Qassam Brigades lost its leader, its command and control capability is still functioning.

How has the international community responded?

US President Barack Obama said on 18 November that it was "preferable" that Israel did not launch a ground offensive on Gaza, but reiterated that he was "fully supportive of Israel's right to defend itself from missiles" despite mounting Palestinian civilian casualties. Mr Obama said rockets fired into Israel by Hamas had been the "precipitating event" in the conflict and had to be stopped. The US, he added, had been "actively working with all the parties in the region" to bring about a de-escalation of violence.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said Hamas bore "principal responsibility" for the current conflict but warned that a ground invasion would "lose Israel a lot of the international support and sympathy they have in this situation".

On 16 November, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said she was deeply concerned at the violence and deplored the loss of civilian lives. She said the rocket attacks were "totally unacceptable and must stop", but also said Israel had to ensure that its response was "proportionate".

However, there has been strong condemnation of Israel's actions from long-time Western allies in the region, notably Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia and Qatar. Egypt's President, Mohammed Mursi, said he would "not leave Gaza on its own", condemning what he called Israel's "blatant aggression against humanity". His Prime Minister, Hisham Qandil, travelled to Gaza on 16 November, where he pledged to work for a truce "to stop the aggression".

On 18 November, Arab foreign ministers gave their backing to the Egyptian peace effort and agreed to send a delegation to Gaza headed by the Arab League's Secretary General, Nabil al-Arabi. The ministers condemned what they described as Israeli "aggression" and expressed "complete discontent" with the UN Security Council's lack of action.

What are the prospects for a ceasefire?

An Israeli delegation travelled to Cairo on 18 November to discuss with Egyptian officials the possibility of a ceasefire. Israel's Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has said that "the first and absolute condition of any truce" is the end of Palestinian rocket-fire from Gaza. "We want a long-term arrangement," Mr Lieberman added. Past ceasefires between Israel and Hamas have been short-lived.

On 17 November, the Egyptians held talks with a Hamas delegation. A senior Hamas official said it wanted guarantees that "all acts of aggression and assassinations would stop". Another official said the group would seek assurances from the United States that it would be the "guaranteeing party". Hamas is also said to want an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza as part of any deal.

What does this mean for the Middle East peace process?

Hamas has not been part of any peace talks with Israel, and two decades of on-off negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank has failed to produce a permanent settlement. The latest round of direct negotiations broke down in 2010.

Even before the Israeli offensive on Gaza began, the two sides had rarely appeared further apart and the conflict more intractable. In January, several months of indirect "proximity talks" ended without any progress.

The Israeli and US governments have also been angered by PA President Mahmoud Abbas's plan to submit on 29 November a request to the UN General Assembly for Palestine to become a "non-member observer state". The Palestinians argue that this would strengthen their hand in peace talks. Israel and the US say the only way to achieve an independent state is through direct negotiations.

On 18 November, Mr Obama said if the situation in Gaza worsened, "the likelihood of us getting back on any kind of peace track that leads to a two-state solution is going to be pushed off way into the future".

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Ballmer says Microsoft Surface sales off to 'modest' start

Sales of Microsoft's new tablet are modest despite the fact that one model was sold out online for more than a week.

Speaking to French daily Le Parisien, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said sales "are starting modestly."

Ballmer claimed that sales were constrained by the limits of the sales channel, according to the report. The Surface tablet is only available at the Microsoft Store online and, in the U.S., at a few dozen brick-and-mortar stores.

But demand for the tablet through Microsoft's sales channels was apparently high enough to trigger a shortage of the $499 model online for more than a week, when it was listed as "out of stock".

Ballmer did not disclose sales numbers to the French newspaper.

The Microsoft CEO did mention that the Intel-based high-end version of the tablet is on the way.

The pricier 0.53-inch thick, two-pound version packs some pretty high-performance silicon: a 3rd Gen Intel "Ivy Bridge" Core i5 Processor with Intel HD Graphics 4000, 4GB of memory, and solid-state drives up to 128GB.

It will also sport a high-resolution 1,920x1,080 10.6-inch display.

Pricing for the Intel-based Microsoft Surface with Windows 8 Pro -- expected early next year -- has not been announced but Microsoft has said in the past that it would be priced in line with ultrabooks that have similar configurations.

Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment.

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Pictures of the day

Two leopards knock the spots off each other during an encounter at Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa. The female had already seen off a love rival to win the affections of the male, a formidable 90-kilogram predator named Kashane by locals. Photographer Rudi Hulshof, 35, witnessed the action as he led a group of tourists on a safari around the game reserve.

The crocodiles of Bazoule village in Burkina Faso, West Africa, are considered sacred by the people who live next to their watering hole, and they have such a close relationship that residents take it in turns to feed the potentially lethal beasts. Using a long stick to dangle a dead bird, locals are able to encourage a few of the crocodiles to stand up on two legs to grab their food. They have become so used to humans that some of the reptiles will even allow tourists to hold their tails. British IT manager, Gavin Chapman, 34, from London captured this sight while on holiday with his family.

This image shows the moment a gang of robbers made their escape on motorcycles through a shopping centre. Six people riding three motorbikes and carrying axes drove into Brent Cross Shopping Centre in north London at around 10.15am yesterday. Witnesses said they sped into the first floor area of the shopping centre and headed for the Fraser Hart jewellery store before smashing windows to get at the valuables on display. Photographer Rick Treister, 48, bravely managed to snap this picture on his cameraphone as the criminals made their escape. He says: It was unreal and like a dream. I just managed to get one picture as they sped towards me. It was like something out of a James Bond film.

A visitor walks within an installation titled Chairs, made of wooden chairs by Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata, during Abu Dhabi Art at Saadiyat island, off the coast of Abu Dhabi

Giant panda Fu Hu cuddles with his mother Yang Yang in their enclosure at the Vienna Schoenbrunn Zoo a day ahead of the long voyage of Fu Hu to Chengdu, China











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Oprah Calls Microsoft's Surface Tablet 'A Wowser!'

Look out iPad... Microsoft's Surface tablet just got a big thumbs up from Oprah, the queen of product endorsements. Putting the Surface on "Oprah's Favorite Things 2012" list could make all the difference for Microsoft's Surface tablet in its competition with Apple's much better known iPad and newer iPad mini during the holiday shopping season.

When Oprah Winfrey endorses your product, it's almost sure to fly off the shelves. Winfrey offered a major thumbs-up for the Microsoft Surface tablet  on her Web site that could give the product a holiday shopping boost.

The Microsoft Surface endorsement came as part of "Oprah's Favorite Things 2012," a feature on Oprah.com where the celebrity picks, plans, tests, touches, sniffs and snuggles thousands of items and picks her very favorites. The list will be featured in O's December issue, but the endorsement is getting attention online this week.
Under the header "Take One Tablet and Call Me in the Morning," Oprah writes, "The Surface, Microsoft's first tablet, feels like a Mercedes-Benz to me, people! The full-size keyboard built right into the cover makes work easy, the very smart kickstand makes watching a movie or Skyping a friend a delight, the less than a pound-and-a-half weight makes a great alternative to a laptop , and the many other features make it fun for work and play. Now, that's a wowser!"

Oprah Also Liked iPad
The iPad won similar honors from Oprah, landing on the Favorite Things list in 2010. Here's what Oprah said about Apple's product at the time: "Words cannot describe what I feel for this magnificent device . Thanks to my iPad, I now read about four newspapers a day. I write my column for 'O' magazine on the iPad way before the deadline because I love writing on it so much."
It's not clear if Oprah will scrap her iPad for a Microsoft Surface, or if she'll comment on the new iPad mini. But Microsoft has to be thrilled with the nod from the former talk show queen. When Oprah speaks, people listen.
Designed and engineered by Microsoft employees, Surface promises advances in industrial design. For example, Surface lets software take center stage by supporting a full-sized USB port and a 16:9 aspect ratio. Surface has edges angled at 22 degrees, which Microsoft said is a natural position for the tablet at rest or in active use. The idea is for the hardware to fade into the background and the software to stand out.

Microsoft's Industrial Design
Microsoft pointed to Surface design features like the casing, which is created using what's called VaporMG, a magnesium-based combination of material selection and process to mold metal and deposit particles that creates a finish similar to a luxury watch. By leveraging this approach, Microsoft said, Surface is thin and light yet also rigid and strong. The VaporMG approach also makes room for a built-in kickstand that makes it convenient to watch movies or take photos and videos with the Surface.
Using pressure-sensitive technology, Surface's Touch Cover senses keystrokes as gestures. That paves the way for faster touch typing than with an on-screen keyboard. Touch Cover clicks into Surface via a built-in magnetic connector. Microsoft also offers a 5mm-thin Type Cover that adds raised keys for a more traditional typing feel.
Microsoft will offer two models of Surface: one running an ARM processor  and Windows RT, and one with a third-generation Intel  Core i5 processor and Windows 8 Pro. Surface for Windows RT is available now, and the Windows 8 Pro model will be available in the first quarter of 2013.


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Scientists Move Closer to a Lasting Flu Vaccine

As this year’s flu season gathers steam, doctors and pharmacists have a fresh stock of vaccines to offer their patients. The vaccines usually provide strong protection against the virus, but only for a while. Vaccines for other diseases typically work for years or decades. Withthe flu, though, next fall it will be time to get another dose.

“In the history of vaccinology, it’s the only one we update year to year,” said Gary J. Nabel, the director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

That has been the case ever since the flu vaccine was introduced in the 1950s. But a flurry of recent studies on the virus has brought some hope for a change. Dr. Nabel and other flu experts foresee a time when seasonal flu shots are a thing of the past, replaced by long-lasting vaccines.

“That’s the goal: two shots when you’re young, and then boosters later in life. That’s where we’d like to go,” Dr. Nabel said. He predicted that scientists would reach that goal before long — “in our lifetime, for sure, unless you’re 90 years old,” he said.

Such a vaccine would be a great help in the fight against seasonal flu outbreaks, which kill an estimated 500,000 people a year. But in a review to be published in the journalInfluenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, Sarah Gilbert ofOxford University argues that they could potentially have an even greater benefit.

Periodically, a radically new type of flu has evolved and rapidly spread around the world. A pandemic in 1918 is estimated to have killed 50 million people.

With current technology, scientists would not have a vaccine for a new pandemic strain until the outbreak was well under way. An effective universal flu vaccine would already be able to fight it.

“Universal vaccination with universal vaccines would put an end to the threat of global disaster that pandemic influenza can cause,” Dr. Gilbert wrote.

Vaccines work by enhancing the protection the immune system already provides. In the battle against the flu, two sets of immune cells do most of the work.

One set, called B cells, makes antibodies that can latch onto free-floating viruses. Burdened by these antibodies, the viruses cannot enter cells.

Once flu viruses get into cells, the body resorts to a second line of defense. Infected cells gather some of the virus proteins and stick them on their surface. Immune cells known as T cells crawl past, and if their receptors latch onto the virus proteins, they recognize that the cell is infected; the T cells then release molecules that rip open the cells and kill them.

This defense mechanism works fairly well, allowing many people to fight off the virus without ever feeling sick. But it also has a built-in flaw: The immune system has to encounter a particular kind of flu virus to develop an effective response against it.

It takes time for B cells to develop tightfitting antibodies. T cells also need time to adjust their biochemistry to make receptors that can lock quickly onto a particular flu protein. While the immune system educates itself, an unfamiliar flu virus can explode into full-blown disease.

Today’s flu vaccines protect people from the virus by letting them make antibodies in advance. The vaccine contains fragments from the tip of a protein on the surface of the virus, called hemagglutinin. B cells that encounter the vaccine fragments learn how to make antibodies against them. When vaccinated people become infected, the B cells can quickly unleash their antibodies against the viruses.

Unfortunately, a traditional flu vaccine can protect against only flu viruses with a matching hemagglutinin protein. If a virus evolves a different shape, the antibodies cannot latch on, and it escapes destruction.

Influenza’s relentless evolution forces scientists to reconfigure the vaccine every year. A few months before flu season, they have to guess which strains will be dominant. Vaccine producers then combine protein fragments from those strains to create a new vaccine.

Scientists have long wondered whether they could escape this evolutionary cycle with a vaccine that could work against any type of influenza. This so-called universal flu vaccine would have to attack a part of the virus that changes little from year to year.

Dr. Gilbert and her colleagues at Oxford are trying to build a T cell-based vaccine that could find such a target. When T cells learn to recognize proteins from one kind of virus, the scientists have found, they can attack many other kinds. It appears that the flu proteins that infected cells select to put on display evolve very little.

The scientists are testing a vaccine that prepares T cells to mount a strong attack against flu viruses. They engineered a virus that can infect cells but cannot replicate. As a result, infected cells put proteins on display, but people who receive the vaccine do not get sick.

In a clinical trial reported this summer, the scientists found that people who received the vaccine developed a strong response from their T cells. “We can bring them up to much higher levels with a single injection,” said Dr. Gilbert, the lead author of the study.

Once the scientists had vaccinated 11 subjects, they exposed them to the flu. Meanwhile, they also exposed 11 unvaccinated volunteers. Two vaccinated people became ill, while five unvaccinated ones did.

While the Oxford researchers focus on T cell vaccines, others are developing vaccines that can generate antibodies that are effective against many flu viruses — or perhaps all of them.

The first hint that such antibodies exist emerged in 1993. Japanese researchers infected mice with the flu virus H1N1. They extracted antibodies from the mice and injected them into other mice. The animals that received the antibodies turned out to be protected against a different kind of flu, H2N2. In hindsight, that discovery was hugely important. But at the time no one made much of it.

“By and large, people just said, ‘This is an oddity — so what?’ ” said Ian Wilson of the Scripps Research Institute.

Scientists did not appreciate its importance for more than 15 years, until Dr. Wilson and other researchers began isolating the antibodies that provided this kind of broad protection and showed how they worked.

The new antibodies turn out to attack different parts of the flu virus from the ones produced by today’s vaccines. Today’s vaccines cause B cells to make antibodies that clamp onto a broad region of the tip of the hemagglutinin protein. Recently, Dr. Wilson and his colleagues discovered a new antibody with a slender tendril. It can snake into a groove in the hemagglutinin tip.

Dr. Wilson and his colleagues found that this tendriled antibody can attach to a wide range of flu viruses. The results hint that the groove — which flu viruses use to attach to host cells — cannot work if its shape changes much.

The antibody is also impressively powerful, the scientists found. They infected mice with a lethal dose of the flu and then, after three days, injected the new antibody into them. The antibody stopped the virus so effectively that the mice recovered.

The hemagglutinin groove is not the only promising target for antibodies. Dr. Wilson and other scientists are discovering antibodies that attack the base of the protein. Influenza viruses can be broadly categorized into three types — A, B and C. Until now, scientists have found only antibodies that attack different versions of influenza A. Dr. Wilson and colleagues at Scripps and the Crucell Vaccine Institute in the Netherlands recently found a stem-attacking antibody that blocks influenzas A and B.

“The whole field is invigorated,” Dr. Wilson said. “It’s a great time.”

Building on these discoveries, Dr. Nabel and other scientists have recently developed vaccines that generate some of the new antibodies in humans. Now they are trying to figure out how to get the body to make a lot of the antibodies.

“Once you have an antibody that has all the properties you desire, how do you coax the immune system to make that?” Dr. Nabel said. “That’s the classic problem in immunology.”

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Windows 8 - more than the sum of its parts?

Rather than producing killer gadgets, is Microsoft's strength its unified ecosystem?

On Friday I pondered why you'd want to spend $559 on a new Microsoft Surface RT tablet when it only runs Windows RT -- supporting the tile-based Modern UI interface (pictured above) and tablet-style apps. The question is not whether the Surface RT is a slick device. The question is whether it really offers any advantage over the established Apple and Android competitors which enjoy more mature app stores and wider ecosystems of accessories. Personally I'm more interested in Microsoft's Surface Pro and third-party Windows 8 tablets, which offer the best of both worlds with access to Modern UI and traditional desktop applications.

It's likely the success of Windows 8 tablets and smartphones hinges on people's acceptance of Windows 8 on the desktop. 

You might ask the same question about Windows Phone 8 smartphones such as Nokia's Lumia 920. As slick as it is, Windows Phone 8 will struggle to win people away from the Android and Apple flagship handsets. Apart from choice, what exactly do these Windows 8 gadgets bring to the party that make it worth turning your back on both Apple and Google?

The clear response from the pro-Microsoft crowd was that tight integration with the Windows ecosystem is the Surface RT's strength. Cross-platform gaming and integration with the Xbox 360 platform will grab some people's attention, while others might be tempted by the streaming music service. The big attraction for many seems to be Office compatibility along with the flexibility of USB and micro-SD ports. Initially I dismissed the pre-installed Office RT as an advantage because both Apple and Google offer Office alternatives. I'm happy enough to use Windows 7 but personally I stay as far away from Microsoft Office as I can.

But the truth is that many people don't want to use these Office-like alternatives. They live in an Office-centric world, whether it be for work or study, and want a tablet experience which "just works" rather than needing to shift their documents in and out of iCloud or Google Apps. They also want a seamless experience when jumping between desktop and mobile devices, something which can still be hit and miss in the Apple and Google ecosystems.

Ecosystems is the key word here, as it's at the heart of the battle between the technology giants. Once you're an Apple user, for example, it's easier to keep using Apple products and services because they all play nicely together. The more Apple or Android gear you own, the more sense it makes to keep buying the same gear. Unfortunately for Microsoft it's arrived late to the handheld ecosystem party. A lot of people have already sworn their allegiance to Apple or Android even if they still use Windows on the desktop. If this sounds like you, it's quite reasonable to ask why you'd want to embrace the Surface RT rather than an iPad or Android contender.

But the truth is that many people are yet to take the plunge on a smartphone or tablet and thus still haven't aligned themselves with Apple or Android. If they're not particularly tech-savvy they may simply use Windows on the desktop, perhaps more out of necessity than any passion for technology. These people are ripe for the picking, assuming Apple or Android evangelists don't convert them first. Tight compatibility with the Microsoft ecosystem may also win some people away from their Android and Apple gadgets, although that's a tougher challenge.

Windows 8 on the desktop will present a steep learning curve for some people and amazingly Microsoft isn't going out of its way to make it any easier. But once people become familiar with Modern UI on the desktop then Windows tablets and smartphones may seem the logical choice offering zero learning curve.

If Modern UI and interoperability really are Microsoft's killer feature then it needs to do a great job of conveying that in a cross-promotional blitz. It should also make the desktop transition as smooth as possible, rather than risk alienating people by forcing Modern UI down their throat. Users who resent Modern UI on their PC are unlikely to want it on a tablet or smartphone.

It's likely the success of Windows 8 tablets and smartphones hinges on people's acceptance of Windows 8 on the desktop. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft gets this one right.

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Silent Hill's only Revelation is that it's terrible

X-ray probe catches a bright blast from Milky Way's colossal black hole

These are the first, focused high-energy X-ray views of the area surrounding the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, called Sagittarius A*. The three images on the right side show Sagittarius A* before, during and after an X-ray flare that was spotted in July.

For years, astronomers have known about the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, but these pictures from NASA's NuSTAR telescope show a rare view of the usually sleeping giant gobbling down a cosmic snack.

"We got lucky to have captured an outburst from the black hole during our observing campaign," Caltech's Fiona Harrison, the $165 million mission's principal investigator, said today in a NASA news release. "These data will help us better understand the gentle giant at the heart of our galaxy and why it sometimes flares up for a few hours and then returns to slumber."

NuSTAR, also known as the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, is an X-ray observatory that was launched in June to study high-energy phenomena such as the tumult that takes place around black holes. Sagittarius A*, which is 4 million times as massive as our sun, is one of the prime targets for observation.

Supermassive black holes like Sagittarius A* commonly form at the center of big galaxies: In fact, they may be an essential piece of the galaxy formation puzzle, and some of them can get pretty violent. Our galaxy's black hole is uncommonly quiet, however, and that's probably a good thing. Only occasionally does matter from the surrounding area fall into its grip. As that matter is sucked into the singularity, it heats up and emits a blast of radiation.

NuSTAR happened to be in the right place at the right time to observe Sagittarius A* for two days in July, along with other observatories. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory was watching for lower-energy X-rays, while the Keck Observatory on Hawaii's Mauna Kea was taking infrared images.

During the observations, a bright X-ray flash flared up. The emissions were given off by matter that was heated up to about 180 million degrees Fahrenheit (100 mllion degrees Celsius), NASA said. The high-energy readings are being compared with the images in other wavelengths to deepen astronomers' understanding of how black holes gobble up matter and grow.

"Astronomers have long speculated that the black hole's snacking should produce copious hard X-rays, but NuSTAR is the first telescope with sufficient sensitivity to actually detect them," Columbia University's Chuck Hailey, a member of the mission science team, said in today's statement.

Get ready for a gluttonous orgy
NuSTAR and other black-hole watchers are getting set to watch Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A* for short, go into full gobble mode next year: A huge cloud of dust and gas known as G2 is approaching the black hole, and when it gets close enough, gravitational forces will start pulling material in and heating it up. If July's event was a snack, G2's close encounter will be a gluttonous orgy.

Just this week, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California released a supercomputer simulation showing how the cloud will be disrupted as it passes by Sgr A*. That simulation suggests that the close encounter will last several months, and that G2 will be totally gone in less than a decade.

"It will just sort of break up into some sort of incoherent structure," Peter Anninos, a computational physicist at Livermore Lab, said in a news release. "Much of it will join the rest of the hot accretion disk around the black hole, or just fall and get captured by the black hole. It will lose a lot of energy, but not all of it. It will become so diffuse that it's unlikely that any remnant of the gas will continue on its orbital track."

Check out this Web page for QuickTime animations showing what scientists think will happen to the cloud, and stay tuned for updates on the dietary preferences of our galaxy's not-always-sleeping giant.

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