Discovering A New Earth 430 Light Years Away
It took billions of years and the perfect conditions for our Earth to grow and form. Now, those same conditions can be seen in space, shaping a similar planet. Ivanhoe explains this exciting space discovery.
Far, far away, something amazing is brewing in space. Swirling around a giant star similar to our sun, astrophysicists have spotted the very early stages of a planet taking shape.
"What we think we're seeing is the actual formation of a planet -- terrestrial planet -- a rocky planet like the Earth, around the star," Carey Lisse, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., told Ivanhoe.
The Earth-like planet is about 430 light years away or 2.5x1015 miles from Earth. It's inside a huge dust belt -- bigger than our asteroid belt -- with enough dusty material to build a planet. "The material is forming at just the same distance, or close to the same distance where the Earth formed from the sun," Dr. Lisse says.
To find the planet, astronomers used images captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope. It looks for infrared light or heat radiating from the dusty materials. The images also confirm the rocky fragments forming the new planet are similar to materials found in the Earth's crust and core.
"So, the body that's going to form -- the planet that's going to form -- isn't going to be this gas giant with incredibly thick atmosphere," explains Dr. Lisse. It's going to be a rocky planet like Mars or Venus or the Earth."
There's also an outer ice belt circling the young planet, making it more likely that water could reach the new planet's surface … and maybe even life; but don't wait around for signs of life. The planet still needs another 100 million years before it's completely formed.
Astronomers say the star the new planet is spinning around is between ten and 16 million years old, which is the perfect age for forming Earth-like planets.
ABOUT THE SPITZER TELESCOPE: The Spitzer Space Telescope was launched on 25 August 2003. Spitzer detects the infrared energy radiated by objects in space. Most of this infrared radiation is blocked by the Earth's atmosphere and cannot be observed from the ground. Spitzer allows us to peer into regions of space that are hidden from optical telescopes.
Many areas of space are filled with vast, dense clouds of gas and dust that block our view. Infrared light, however can penetrate these clouds, allowing us to peer into regions of star formation, the centers of galaxies, and into newly forming planetary systems. Infrared also brings us information about the cooler objects in space, such as smaller stars which are too dim to be detected by their visible light, extrasolar planets, and giant molecular clouds. Also, many molecules in space, including organic molecules, have their unique signatures in the infrared.
WHAT IS INFRARED LIGHT? Infrared radiation is an invisible form of light that we usually detect as heat, like the sun shining on our face, or the warmth of a campfire. It has all the same properties as visible light: for example, it can be focused and reflected. The only difference is that it has a longer wavelength, which means we can't see it with the naked eye. Light is made of tiny particles called photons, and the wavelength tells us how fast those particles are vibrating. The shorter the wavelength, the faster the particles are moving. Shorter light waves look blue, and longer ones look red.
The wavelength of infrared light is so long that we can't see it at all. Any warm object gives off infrared radiation. By checking in the infrared spectrum, engineers can find heat leaks in buildings, doctors can find hidden tumors in the body, and biologists can locate diseased plants in a forest. Astronomers use infrared imaging to detect warm dust around new stars that are not yet "hot" enough to emit visible light.
The American Astronomical Society and the American Geophysical Union contributed to the information contained in the video portion of this report.
Eight months later, during the party held after graduation, the girls all receive a picture sent to their phones: a hooded figure holding the bloody wrench Garret used to kill Megan. As the girls become increasingly worried, Chugs reveals that after the incident, Garrett has been seeing a therapist and has developed a weird sense of humor. Jessica takes lead and insists it is merely a prank by him and they continue with the party. Megan's sister Maggie also arrives, wanting to honor her sister's memory by attending the party. Chugs leaves the party to go to her therapist appointment. While she is there, not knowing that her therapist was killed, lies down and drinks champagne. As she tilts her head back to let the champagne flow down her throat, the killer appears and shoves the bottle down her throat before slitting it with the lug wrench, which now has blades attached to it.
upstairs and they try to run, but are attacked by Andy. Telling Ellie to flee Cassidy hits Andy with a lamp and tries to escape but, while trying to help Maggie out of the burning house, is attacked by the recovered Andy, who leaves her dangling from a hole in the floor. As Andy prepares to finish Cassidy off Ellie appears and blasts him with Mrs. Crenshaw's shotgun. With Andy dead Ellie pulls Cassidy back up and the two save Maggie before fleeing from the house.
After the seminar, saying "yes" to a homeless man's requests only leaves Carl stranded in Elysian Park with his phone battery dead, no money, and his gas tank empty. Disillusioned, he hikes to a gas station, cursing himself for being so credulous and gullible. But at the gas station he meets Allison (Zooey Deschanel), an eccentric young woman who is refueling her scooter. She gives him a hair-raising ride back to his car, and spontaneously kisses him before she rides off.
At the end of the movie, Carl and Allison are seen donating a truckload of clothes to a local homeless shelter. Cutting to the scene of the "Yes!" seminar, Bundley is seen walking onstage to several hundred naked audience members. It is implied that the participants have said "Yes!" to donating their clothes to charity.
John returns to Resistance headquarters located aboard a nuclear submarine and tells General Ashdown (Michael Ironside), the current leader, of his discovery. Meanwhile, the Resistance has discovered a radio frequency believed to be capable of shutting down Skynet machines. They plan to launch an offensive against the Skynet base in San Francisco in four days, in response to an intercepted "kill list" indicating that Skynet plans to kill the Resistance's command staff in four days' time. John learns that his own name is second on the list, following Kyle Reese. The Resistance leaders are unaware of Kyle's importance to Skynet, but John knows that it is because Kyle will later become his father (see The Terminator). John meets with his officer Barnes (Common) and wife Kate (Bryce Dallas Howard) and sends radio broadcasts to Resistance members and surviving civilians around the world.
John demands that Ashdown delay the attack so that he can rescue Kyle and the other prisoners, but Ashdown refuses and relieves John of his command. However, John's soldiers remain loyal to him and obey his command not to attack the Skynet base. Meanwhile, Marcus enters the base and interfaces with the computer, disabling the perimeter defenses and allowing John to infiltrate the cell block and release the human prisoners. The Resistance's disabling signal is revealed to be a ruse, and the command submarine with the Resistance leaders aboard is destroyed by a Hunter-Killer.
Now trapped in the store's pet rodent display case, G-Force meets Hurley (Jon Favreau), a gluttonous guinea pig, Bucky (Steve Buscemi) an irascible hamster and three sycophantic mice. Although Blaster and Juarez manage to get themselves sold to a family with plans to return to extract their comrades, Speckles' own attempt to escape by playing dead ends disastrously when he is thrown into and apparently crushed in a garbage truck. Meanwhile, Mooch manages to return to Ben to tell him where his mammalian agents are, but Darwin escapes (with Hurley, who is convinced that Darwin is his brother, tagging along) before he can arrive to collect them.
walking being, which, combined with a localized bombardment of orbital debris, soon overpowers the police forces gathered at the mansion. Darwin manages to persuade Speckles that his new family is with the rest of the team and Ben, who had taken them all in. Speckles consents, and tries to shut it down, but realizes that it has gone too far. However, Darwin uses the computer virus on his PDA to take it down.
threat and nobody knows whom to trust. Gina and Cydney swap personal stories, and Cydney tells Gina about Rocky, a former lover who murdered a neighbor's dog and displayed the corpse while the two were having sex and threatened to kill her if she ever told. Eventually the two couples spy a police helicopter arresting Cleo and Kale, and a search of Kale's bag reveals a Dentyne Ice box full of human teeth. Gina and Cydney reveal that each thought that the others were the killers, and the group continues to the beach.
Meanwhile, Nick, having been saved by his titanium skull plate and hiding in the air pocket under the kayak, wakes up in the cave and goes to save Gina. Nick attacks Rocky, splitting his hand in half with a hatchet. Meanwhile, Cydney flags down a police helicopter. After nearly killing Rocky with the killer's .45 pistol, Gina jumps in the way of a police sniper and convinces Nick to drop the weapon, and the two embrace. Cydney sees Nick and Gina together and decides she will not go to prison for Rocky. She realizes how much she has changed for the worse, calling him, "The guy that fucked up my life." Cyndey informs the cops that the real killer is Cliff, and points out that he’s going for the gun while Nick and Gina have their backs to him. A sniper sees this and shoots Cliff in the forehead, killing him. It is unknown whether Cydney herself was arrested.
In the present day, two years after the events of the previous film, Optimus is seen leading NEST, a military organization consisting of human troops and his own team of Autobots (including newcomers Arcee, Chromia, Elita One, Sideswipe, Jolt, and the twins Skids and Mudflap) aimed at killing the remaining Decepticons on Earth. While on a mission in Shanghai, Optimus and his team destroy Decepticons Sideways and Demolishor, being given a warning by the latter that "The Fallen will rise again". Back in the United States, Sam Witwicky finds a splinter of the destroyed AllSpark, and upon contact the splinter fills his mind with Cybertronian symbols. Deeming it dangerous, Sam gives the AllSpark splinter to his girlfriend Mikaela Banes for safe keeping, and leaves her and Bumblebee behind to go off to college. Upon arrival, Sam meets his college roommate Leo Spitz, who runs an alien conspiracy website, and Alice, a co-ed who makes sexual advances on him. Back home, Decepticon Wheelie tries to steal the shard, only to get captured by Mikaela. After having a mental breakdown, uncontrollably writing in Cybertronian language, Sam calls Mikaela, who immediately leaves to get to him.
The military arrives with the Autobots, but so do the Decepticons, and a battle arises. During the fight, Decepticon Devastator is formed and unearths the Sun Harvester from inside one of the pyramids before being destroyed by the US military with the help of agent Simmons. Jetfire arrives and destroys Mixmaster, but is mortally wounded by Scorponok. The Air Force carpet bomb the Decepticons, but Megatron breaks through the offensive and kills Sam. In a vision, Sam meets with the other Primes, who tell him that the Matrix of Leadership is not found but earned, which Sam has done, and send him back, effectively reviving him. The Matrix is reassembled from the dust, and Sam uses it to revive Optimus. The Fallen then steals the Matrix and activates the Sun Harvester. In his final moments, Jetfire volunteers his parts and spark to Optimus. With enhanced capabilities, Optimus destroys the Sun Harvester and takes on Megatron and The Fallen, killing the latter. Sam then finally reciprocates Mikaela's love as Megatron and Starscream retreat and vow that their fight is not finished.
Hearing about spectators deaths on the news, Nick and Lori begin doing research, and learn about the disasters that occurred in the previous three films (the explosion of Flight 180, highway pile-up of Route 23, and roller coaster derailment in McKinley, Pennsylvania) and discover that the survivors (who were saved by premonitions) began dying in a series of improbable accidents shortly afterwards. Nick and Lori realize that they must race against time to save the survivors while trying to cheat Death once more.
Doug. With no clue as to what transpired and little time to spare, the trio must retrace their hazy steps and all their bad decisions in order to figure out where things went wrong and hopefully get Doug back to L.A. in time to walk down the aisle.
Press [Enter] during a single player game to pop up the dialog box. Type in a code from the list below to get the desired effect and then hit [Enter] again. If done correctly, you'll see the "Cheat Enabled!" message flashing on the screen. Otherwise, it means you're doing something wrong and the code is not enabled. Try again. Here are the effects along with the base codes:
Hidden items
