Two Winners in Record Powerball Jackpot

Winning tickets for the record Powerball jackpot worth more than $587 million were purchased in Arizona and Missouri.

Missouri Lottery official Susan Goedde confirmed to ABC News this morning that one of the winning tickets was purchased in the state, but they would not be announcing a town until later this morning.

Arizona lottery officials said they had no information on that state's winner or winners but would announce where it was sold during a news conference later in the day.

The winning numbers for the jackpot were 5, 23, 16, 22 and 29. The Powerball was 6.

The jackpot swelled to $587.5 million, according to Lottery official Sue Dooley. The two winners will split the jackpot each getting $293.75 million.

An additional 8,924,123 players won smaller prizes, according to Powerball's website.

"There were 58 winners of $1 million and there were eight winners of $2 million. So a total of $74 million," said Chuck Strutt, Director of the Multi-State Lottery Association.

In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

This is the 27th win for Missouri, ranking it second in the nation for lottery winners after Indiana, which has 38 wins. Arizona has had 10 Powerball jackpot wins in its history.

Hopeful players bought tickets at the rate of 131,000 every minute up until an hour before the deadline of 11 p.m. ET, according to lottery officials.

The jackpot had already rolled over 16 consecutive times without a winner. That fact, plus the doubling in price of a Powerball ticket, accounted for the unprecedented richness of the pot.

"Back in January, we moved Powerball from being a $1 game to $2," said Mary Neubauer, a spokeswoman at the game's headquarters in Iowa. "We thought at the time that this would mean bigger and faster-growing jackpots."

That proved true. The total, she said, began taking "huge jumps -- another $100 million since Saturday." It then jumped another $50 million.

The biggest Powerball pot on record until now -- $365 million -- was won in 2006 by eight Lincoln, Neb., co-workers.
As the latest pot swelled, lottery officials said they began getting phone calls from all around the world.

"When it gets this big," said Neubauer, "we get inquiries from Canada and Europe from people wanting to know if they can buy a ticket. They ask if they can FedEx us the money."

The answer she has to give them, she said, is: "Sorry, no. You have to buy a ticket in a member state from a licensed retail location."

About 80 percent of players don't choose their own Powerball number, opting instead for a computer-generated one.
Asked if there's anything a player can do to improve his or her odds of winning, Neubauer said there isn't -- apart from buying a ticket, of course.

Lottery officials put the odds of winning this Powerball pot at one in 175 million, meaning you'd have been 25 times more likely to win an Academy Award.

Skip Garibaldi, a professor of mathematics at Emory University in Atlanta, provided additional perspective: You are three times more likely to die from a falling coconut, he said; seven times more likely to die from fireworks, "and way more likely to die from flesh-eating bacteria" (115 fatalities a year) than you are to win the Powerball lottery.

Segueing, then, from death to life, Garibaldi noted that even the best physicians, equipped with the most up-to-date equipment, can't predict the timing of a child's birth with much accuracy.

"But let's suppose," he said, "that your doctor managed to predict the day, the hour, the minute and the second your baby would be born."

The doctor's uncanny prediction would be "at least 100 times" more likely than your winning.

Even though he knows the odds all too well, Garibaldi said he usually plays the lottery.

When it gets this big, I'll buy a couple of tickets," he said. "It's kind of exciting. You get this feeling of anticipation. You get to think about the fantasy."

So, did he buy two tickets this time?

"I couldn't," he told ABC News. "I'm in California" -- one of eight states that doesn't offer Powerball.

In case you were wondering, this Saturday's Powerball jackpot is starting at $40 million.

ABC News Radio contributed to this report.

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How do you solve a problem like North Korea?

WHAT would you do if you were invited by a repressive regime to advise it on one of its biggest internal problems - and hence help perpetuate the repression? That was the dilemma faced by a group of ecologists who were invited to North Korea to offer expertise on rebuilding its ruined environment (see "North Korea: What a terrible state to get into").

They went, and did what they could. It was the right thing to do. The regime may be atrocious, but what its people need above all else is humanitarian aid. Restoring forests is a step in that direction.

The fact that the regime was willing to ask for outside help is perhaps a sign of greater openness. By reciprocating, the scientists have put themselves in a position to forge depoliticised channels of communication, and hence build mutual trust and understanding. That is the surest way to peaceful change.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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Blasts kill 38 near Syria capital, second warplane downed

DAMASCUS: Simultaneous car bombings in a mostly Christian and Druze town near Damascus killed at least 38 people on Wednesday, as rebels downed a military aircraft for the second successive day.

The blasts occurred when explosives-packed cars were detonated at daybreak in a pro-regime neighbourhood of the town of Jaramana, residents, state media and a rights watchdog reported.

They were the fourth bomb attacks since August 28 to rock Jaramana, home to predominantly Christians and Druze, an influential minority whose faith is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Sectarian divides are a key factor in Syria's armed rebellion, with many in the Sunni Muslim majority frustrated at more than 40 years of Alawite-dominated rule.

The blast ripped through a central square of Jaramana, said the official SANA news agency.

There was a ball of fire at the end of a narrow lane, and the impact of the explosions brought walls down onto cars, crushing them and scattering debris over the ground. Pools of blood were seen in the middle of the street.

The death toll mounted as the morning wore on, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights giving tallies of 20, then 29 and finally at least 38. The interior ministry put the count at 34.

"Activists and residents in the town said most of the victims were killed when a suicide attacker blew up his car, just after an explosive device was used to blow up another car," said the Observatory.

SANA reported that "terrorists" blew up the two car bombs at the same time, as two separate explosive devices were set off without claiming any lives.

The Syrian uprising erupted in March 2011 with peaceful pro-democracy protests, inspired by the Arab Spring. It transformed into an armed insurgency when the government began a bloody crackdown on dissent.

The regime of President Bashar al-Assad, himself an Alawite, insists it is fighting foreign-backed "terrorists".

The failure of international diplomacy has enabled it to press on with its all-out military campaign to crush the rebellion, and the fighting has resulted in more than 40,000 deaths, according to the Observatory.

In the latest violence, an AFP correspondent on the Syria-Turkey border reported that rebel fighters shot down a fighter jet in the embattled northwest.

The warplane came down in a massive explosion, leaving behind a plume of smoke, the journalist said, reporting several kilometres away from where the jet was downed.

The aircraft was hit by a missile and crashed at Daret Ezza, said the Observatory, a Britain-based watchdog that relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground for its information.

It came a day after rebels downed an army helicopter for the first time with a newly acquired ground-to-air missile, in what the Observatory said had the potential to change the balance of military power in the conflict.

The gunship was on a strafing run near the besieged northwestern base of Sheikh Suleiman, the last garrison in government hands between Syria's second city and the Turkish border.

Little more than a week ago, the rebels seized tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery, 120-mm mortars and rocket launchers when they took the government forces' sprawling Base 46, about 12 kilometres west of Aleppo.

The rebels, a mix of military defectors and armed civilians, are vastly outgunned but analysts say they are now stretching thin the capabilities of Assad's war machine and its air supremacy by opening multiple fronts.

This was evident again on Tuesday, as rebels further tightened the noose around the key northern city of Aleppo, and violence across the country killed at least 132 people, 58 of them civilians, said the Observatory.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, regime warplanes carried out five raids in 15 minutes on Maaret al-Numan, a rebel-held town on the strategic Damascus-Aleppo highway.

Fighter jets also bombarded anti-regime town Daraya southwest of Damascus and the besieged, rebel-held neighbourhood of Khaldiyeh in the central city of Homs, dubbed by activists as "the capital of the revolution".

- AFP/fa

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Can you ditch your smartphone data plan for Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi is just about everywhere these days, so why do you still have to pay an arm and a leg for pricey 3G and 4G wireless data service from a carrier if you want to get online from your smartphone?

This is a very good question. Now that every smartphone on the market comes with Wi-Fi capability built-in, some frugal wireless customers are wondering whether they can subscribe to a voice-only service and use Wi-Fi instead of a costly data plan to access the Internet.

In this edition of Ask Maggie, I explain why the major carriers don't offer such a plan for their customers. And I offer some advice for getting around it. I also explain why carriers don't allow their basic feature phones and quick messaging devices, which don't require expensive data plans, to offer Wi-Fi. I'll give you a hint to my answer: It comes down to wireless carriers wanting to squeeze as much revenue out of their customers as possible.

Why can't I buy just the services I want?

Dear Maggie,
I know that Verizon Wireless makes you get a data plan with any smartphone purchase. The question I have is, once your two-year contract expires can you drop the data plan and continue using your old smartphone on Verizon? The phone then would be used for voice and text. And I could get Internet access on Wi-Fi only. Is this possible? Can Verizon, or any other carrier, prevent a user from doing this?

Thanks,
Angel

Dear Angel,
The short answer to your question is that Verizon will not allow you to only subscribe to voice if you're using a smartphone. Unfortunately, the company requires that you sign up for data service, too. In fact, each of the four major wireless providers requires that you sign up for a data plan if you use a smartphone on their service, whether your device is fully paid for or not.

The reason for that is simple. These wireless providers don't make money on voice service anymore. The real money is in data. In fact, that's why you see AT&T and Verizon offering the unlimited talk and text messaging services for a flat rate while they charge more for different levels of data.

The truth is that some wireless subscribers would do just fine with a voice-only service on their smartphones, so long as they could still access Wi-Fi. And since Wi-Fi is available in so many places now, it probably wouldn't be that difficult for these folks. And it would save them a ton of money.

But that is the last thing that the major carriers want consumers to do. They need more of their subscribers to sign up for data plans. And they need those already with data plans to use more data so the subscribers can pay more money. It's the only way wireless operators will be able to increase revenue.

That said, all hope is not lost for people who really want to forgo a carrier data plan on their smartphones. There are ways to do this, but there are catches. Unfortunately for you, it's not really possible to do what you're asking on Verizon Wireless. But if you were to switch to a GSM carrier, such as AT&T or T-Mobile, you should be able to pull this off.

The reason why is that Verizon is a CDMA carrier. And this service does not use SIM cards in devices. So to activate a phone on Verizon's network, you need to tell the carrier to activate the device. That's not the case with a GSM phone. On an unlocked GSM phone, you can simply pop out the SIM card and put in a new SIM card to activate service.

You can do this to switch carriers or to get local access to a wireless network while traveling. It also allows you to pop in a SIM from your same carrier that is provisioned only for voice. For example, lots of people will sign up for a voice-only service with a basic feature phone or as part of a prepaid service on AT&T or T-Mobile and then put that SIM card into the smartphone. If you turn off the carrier data on your smartphone, your device will only use voice services. And your wireless carrier won't likely discover that the device you're using isn't a feature phone.

That said, there are instances in which a carrier finds out that a subscriber is using a smartphone on a service provisioned only for voice, and it then forces the customer to pay for a data plan.

While this work-around has worked for some consumers, it's getting a little trickier to pull off as more and more smartphones are now using microSIM cards instead of standard size SIMs. Regular SIM cards can be cut down to fit into a microSIM slot. But it's an extra step in the process.

This solution may work for you, but you likely won't be able to use your existing Verizon smartphone on AT&T or T-Mobile. (The one exception is if you have a "world" phone from Verizon that has already been unlocked. If it's unlocked and it is compatible with GSM networks, then you could use a SIM from one of these carriers.) Otherwise, you will have to pay for an unlocked smartphone at full price.

Another option for you is to sign up for a prepaid service that uses Verizon's 3G network. Some of them allow you to use Verizon devices, and then you can sign up for a voice service only. If voice-only services aren't available, you can get one that has very minimal data. For example, PagePlus is a prepaid carrier that uses Verizon's network and charges $29.95 a month for 1,200 voice minutes, 3,000 text messages and 250MB of data per month.

There are other prepaid services that use Verizon's network, so you'd have the same coverage that you have right now. Wal-Mart has the Straight Talk service, which uses both Verizon's and AT&T's networks. But unfortunately, you can't take your old Verizon phone to the Straight Talk service. Instead you have to buy a new device from the service.

If you're willing to ditch Verizon and any of the other major carriers, you could try a new service from Republic Wireless, which costs only $19.99 a month for unlimited talk, text, and data. The carrier buys and resells capacity from Sprint Nextel's network. But it also uses Wi-Fi networks. And because it uses Wi-Fi to carry the bulk of its data traffic, the company can offer such a low-cost service.

The company launched a beta version of its service about a year ago. But it was quickly so overwhelmed with users interested in the service that it had to shut down. It relaunched its beta service earlier this year. And starting next month, the service will be available to anyone.

The only catch is that, at least for now, it only supports one device, the Motorola Defy XT. That device is available for preorder now and costs $249 (plus $10 activation fee). Other smartphones will likely follow. And there's even a chance that eventually, customers will be able to bring their own smartphones to the service. But for now, it's just the Motorola Defy XT.

I'm sorry that it's so complicated to get the service you actually want. I'm hoping that some readers out there can also contribute their thoughts on this topic and share their experiences as well. So be sure to check back here for the reader comments. Good luck!

Wi-Fi-enabled feature phones?

Dear Maggie,
Dear Maggie,
I just read your article on "Back to cell phone basics: Buying a non-smartphone." My husband and I are looking to get new phones but we don't want to get caught up in the smartphone mania, mostly because of the high cost of the data plans. Are there any non-smartphones out there that can allow access to local Wi-Fi without requiring a data plan? We are currently with Verizon and like their service. We have also thought of just buying
iPod Touches, but don't like the idea of carrying around two devices.

Thank you for any advice you may have,
Deborah

Dear Deborah,
Unfortunately, Verizon doesn't sell any Wi-Fi-enabled feature phones. In fact, you will be hard pressed to find any quick messaging or feature phones that include Wi-Fi. Wireless operators would likely tell you that these phones don't include Wi-Fi because it's too expensive to add the Wi-Fi chip. And customers who want these devices are usually cost-conscious.

But I doubt that is the reason. Verizon and the other major carriers make more money from data services than they do voice services. And they want as many customers as possible using data services. Right now, they don't require customers with these "basic" phones to have a data plan even though the phones are able to access the Internet.

If the carriers allowed these devices to have Wi-Fi built in, then many customers, such as yourself, might opt out of the data plan and instead use Wi-Fi when it's available. This would eat into the carriers' revenue stream too much.

What this means for you is that you could follow the advice in my first question and try to get a smartphone, which will have Wi-Fi, at full price and use a SIM card for a voice-only service. Or you could get a separate Wi-Fi device. The iPod Touch as well as some smaller tablets like the
iPad Mini,
Nexus 7, or the Kindle Fire are good alternatives. But as you mentioned, it does mean you'll be carrying around two devices, one to access the Internet when you're on Wi-Fi and the other to take phone calls.

I'm sorry I don't have better news for you. Good luck!

Ask Maggie is an advice column that answers readers' wireless and broadband questions. The column now appears twice a week on CNET offering readers a double dosage of Ask Maggie's advice. If you have a question, I'd love to hear from you. Please send me an e-mail at maggie dot reardon at cbs dot com. And please put "Ask Maggie" in the subject header. You can also follow me on Facebook on my Ask Maggie page.

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Pictures: Falcon Massacre Uncovered in India

Photograph courtesy Conservation India

A young boy can sell bundles of fresh Amur falcons (pictured) for less than five dollars. Still, when multiplied by the thousands of falcons hunters can catch in a day, the practice can be a considerable financial boon to these groups.

Since discovering the extent of Amur hunting in Nagaland this fall, Conservation India has taken the issue to the local Indian authorities.

"They have taken it very well. They've not been defensive," Sreenivasan said.

"You're not dealing with national property, you're dealing with international property, which helped us put pressure on [them]." (Related: "Asia's Wildlife Trade.")

According to Conservation India, the same day the group filed their report with the government, a fresh order banning Amur hunting was issued. Local officials also began meeting with village leaders, seizing traps and confiscating birds. The national government has also requested an end to the hunting.

Much remains to be done, but because the hunt is so regional, Sreenivasan hopes it can eventually be contained and stamped out. Authorities there, he said, are planning a more thorough investigation next year, with officials observing, patrolling, and enforcing the law.

"This is part of India where there is some amount of acceptance on traditional bush hunting," he added. "But at some point, you draw the line."

(Related: "Bush-Meat Ban Would Devastate Africa's Animals, Poor?")

Published November 27, 2012

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Study Finds Most Pork Contaminated

Nov 27, 2012 6:24pm

A sample of raw pork products from supermarkets around the United States found that yersinia enterocolitica, a lesser-known food-borne pathogen, was present in 69 percent of the products tested, according to a study released today by Consumer Reports.

The  bacteria  infects more than 100,000 Americans a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but  for every case that is confirmed with a laboratory test, about 120 more cases escape diagnosis. Symptoms can include fever, cramps and bloody diarrhea.

For its sample, Consumer Reports included the same pork products millions of Americans buy every day at their supermarkets. The study included 148 pork chops and 50 ground pork samples from around the United States.

In the samples tested, 69 percent tested positive for yersinia and 11 percent for enterococcus, which can indicate fecal contamination that can lead to urinary-tract infections. Salmonella and listeria, the more well-known bacterium, registered at 4 percent and 3 percent, respectively.

“The results were concerning,”  Urvashi Rangan, one of the authors of the report, told ABCNews.com. “It’s hard to say that there was no problem.  It shows that there needs to be better hygiene at animal plants. Yersinia wasn’t even being monitored for.”

In a written statement, the Pork Producer’s Council questioned the methods used by Consumer Reports, saying the number of samples tested, 198, did  ”not provide a nationally informative estimate of the true prevalence of the cited bacteria on meat.”

Despite the findings, Rangan said  it’s good to know that the bacteria can be killed by cooking the pork properly and by being vigilant about cross-contamination.

Pork cuts should be cooked to 145 degrees, while ground pork needs to reach a temperature of 160 degrees to kill the bacteria.

“Anything that touches raw meat should go into the dishwasher before touching anything else,” Rangan said. ”Juices from raw meat that touch the counter should be washed with hot soapy water.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture  said the findings “affirm that companies are meeting the established guidelines for protecting the public’s health.

“USDA will remain vigilant against emerging and evolving threats to the safety of America’s supply of meat, poultry and processed egg products, and we will continue to work with the industry to ensure companies are following food safety procedures in addition to looking for new ways to strengthen the protection of public health,” the department said in a statement.

ABC News’ Dr. Anita Chu contributed reporting. 

SHOWS: Good Morning America World News

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Lake life survives in total isolation for 3000 years

It is seven times as salty as the sea, pitch dark and 13 degrees below freezing. Lake Vida in East Antarctica has been buried for 2800 years under 20 metres of ice, but teems with life.

The discovery of strange, abundant bacteria in a completely sealed, icebound lake strengthens the possibility that extraterrestrial life might exist on planets such as Mars and moons such as Jupiter's Europa.

"Lake Vida is a model of what happens when you try to freeze a lake solid, and this is the same fate that any lakes on Mars would have gone through as the planet turned colder from a watery past," says Peter Doran of the University of Illinois, Chicago. He is co-leader of a team working in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica where Vida is situated. "Any Martian water bodies that did form would have gone through this Vida stage before freezing solid, entombing the evidence of the past ecosystem."

The Vida bacteria, brought to the surface in cores drilled 27 metres down, belong to previously unknown species. They probably survive by metabolising the abundant quantities of hydrogen and oxides of nitrogen that Vida's salty, oxygen-free water has been found to contain.

Co-research leader Alison Murray of the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, is now investigating this further by growing some of the extracted cells in the lab. "We can use these cultivated organisms to better understand the physical or chemical extremes they can tolerate that might be relevant to other icy worlds such as Europa," she says.

Surprise composition

Murray and her colleagues were surprised to find so much hydrogen, nitrous oxide and carbon in the water. They speculate that these substances might originate from reactions between salt and nitrogen-containing minerals in the surrounding rock. Over the centuries, bacteria denied sunlight may have evolved to be completely reliant on these substances for energy. "I think the unusual conditions found in the lake have likely played a significant role in shaping the diversity and capabilities of life we found," she says.

But the existence of life in Lake Vida does not necessarily increase the likelihood that life exists in much older, deeper lakes under investigation in Antarctica, most notably Vostok and Ellsworth, which are 3 kilometres down and have been isolated for millions rather than thousands of years.

"It doesn't give us clues about whether there's life in Vostok or Ellsworth, but it says that under these super-salty conditions, life does OK," says Martin Siegert of the University of Bristol, UK, and leader of an expedition to Ellsworth which set off on 25 November. "We'll be drilling down 3 kilometres into the lake," he says.

Journal reference: PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1208607190

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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Singapore stocks close mixed

SINGAPORE : Stocks in Singapore closed mixed on Tuesday after the eurozone and International Monetary Fund agreed to unlock 43.7 billion euros (US$56 billion) in loans to Greece.

The Straits Times Index rose 7.41 points or 0.25 per cent to end at 3,011.91.

Volume was 2.85 billion shares.

In the broader market, losers led gainers 201 to 180.

Among banks, UOB rose 1.16 per cent to S$18.26, DBS climbed 1.36 per cent to S$14.17, while OCBC added 0.66 per cent to end at S$9.21.

As for other stocks, Global Logistic Properties was up 3.1 per cent at S$2.63, while Olam International fell 6.0 per cent to S$1.56 after research firm Muddy Waters released a 133-page report stating that the commodities firm faces a "significant risk" of default.

- CNA/ms

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Ericsson sues Samsung for patent infringement

Ericsson has filed a suit against Samsung for patent infringement.

The Swedish telecommunications equipment maker said on Tuesday that it launched the lawsuit after the two companies were unable to reach an agreement about renewing patent licensing deals.

Samsung previously licensed Ericsson's patents in 2001 and renewed terms in 2007, but licenses have now expired. According to Ericsson, Samsung refused to renew the licensing agreements for its patents on FRAND terms. FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms are used by industry groups to set standards for technology and products, and are aimed at encouraging competitiveness without allowing rights holders to abuse their position, and create a setting for patent holders to receive royalties.

No licensing deal was forthcoming "despite two years of negotiations", Ericsson said in a statement, so the company decided it "must take action to support a crucial system for technology sharing that has helped create today's mass market communications industry." Consequently, Ericsson decided to take legal action, filing a compliant in the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

The two firms' dispute involves unnamed patents owned by Ericsson that it says are "essential" to several telecommunications and networking standards used in a number of Samsung's products. In addition, Ericsson says that other patented inventions, frequently used in wireless and consumer products, are involved in the dispute.

To date, the telecom network equipment maker has signed over 100 licensing agreements with other firms in the industry.
The Swedish firm currently owns over 30,000 patents worldwide.

"By the end of 2012 there will be approximately 6.6 billion mobile subscriptions in the world. The sharing of technology in the telecom industry is one of the main drivers behind this development. The telecom ecosystem builds on fair and reasonable terms that have created an attractive global mass market for mobility and broadband with Ericsson as a main contributor," Kasim Alfalahi, Chief Intellectual Property Officer at Ericsson, said.

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Space Pictures This Week: Space "Horse," Mars Rover, More

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  High Horse

  Photograph by Greg Parker, Your Shot
  

  The Horsehead Nebula rears its pretty head in a November 17 photograph submitted to National Geographic's Your Shot photo community.

  Taken from the New Forest Observatory in the United Kingdom, the image shows how the nebula's horse head is part of a larger cloud of dust. Situated about 1,500 light-years away, the Horsehead Nebula is visible only because its obscuring dust is silhouetted against another, brighter nebula, according to NASA.

  (See "'Soccer Ball' Nebula Discovered by Amateur Astronomer.")

  Published November 26, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Green Lit

  Photograph by Jeremy La Zelle, My Shot
  

  Green curtains of aurora stretch over the sky in the Alaska Arctic in a picture submitted to National Geographic's My Shot on November 17.

  "The constantly changing kaleidoscope of colors are reminiscent of a fireworks display—but without sound," photographer Jeremy La Zelle wrote with his submission.

  "All we hear is the quiet peaceful sounds of a freezing Alaska night."

  (See "Aurora Pictures: Best Fall Photos of Northern Lights.")

  Published November 26, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Martian Vista

  Image courtesy Caltech/NASA
  

  NASA's Curiosity rover snapped this picture after moving 83 feet (25 meters) eastward on November 18—the 102nd Martian day, or sol, of its mission to study whether life once existed on Mars.

  The view shows Yellowknife Bay, part of the Glenelg area of the Gale Crater, which is located near the base of a three-mile-high (five-kilometer-high) mountain rich with layered sediment deposits laid down over hundreds of millions of years.

  (Read more about the Gale Crater.)

  Published November 26, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Gilded Mountains

  Image courtesy ESA

  The sands of the Sahara appear like golden brush strokes around the Tibesti Mountains in a March 2012 satellite image recently released by the European Space Agency.

  Located in Chad and Libya, the mountains' highest peak is Emi Koussi-pictured above as a circular structure in the lower-right portion of the dark area.

  Lava flows can be seen extending from the westernmost volcano, Toussidé.

  (See volcano pictures.)

  Published November 26, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Photograph by Quang Nguyen Luong and F. Motte, Herschel SPIRE/ESA

  Published November 26, 2012

  
  

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