Universe's dimmest known objects are found
PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. space agency officials say the Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered the dimmest known star-like objects in the universe.
The record goes to twin brown dwarfs, or "failed" stars, each of which shines with only one-millionth the light of our sun, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.
Astronomers previously thought the faint image was that of just one brown dwarf. But when the Spitzer Space Telescope observed the object in infrared mode, it measured the extreme faintness and low temperature for the first time. That data revealed the brown dwarf was, in fact, twins.
"Both of these objects are the first to break the barrier of one-millionth the total light-emitting power of the sun," said Adam Burgasser of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Brown dwarfs are compact balls of gas floating freely in space, but they are too cool and lightweight to be stars, yet too warm and massive to be planets, NASA said. The newly identified brown dwarfs are located about 17 light-years from Earth, toward the constellation Antlia.
The Spitzer Space Telescope is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The discovery is reported in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
FDA orders bowel cleanser safety warnings
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it will add a "Boxed Warning" to prescription oral sodium phosphate products Visicol and OsmoPrep.
The FDA said the action is being taken to warn consumers about the risk of acute phosphate nephropathy -- a type of serious kidney injury. Patients routinely take sodium phosphate products to cleanse their bowels before a colonoscopy or other medical procedures.
The FDA also voiced concern about risks associated with the use of similar over-the-count products, such as Fleet Phospho-soda, when they are used at higher doses for bowel cleansing. But officials said data does not indicate a risk of kidney injury when those OTC products are used at lower doses for laxative use.
"Though rare, (there are) serious adverse events associated with the use of oral sodium phosphates -- both prescription and over-the-counter products," said Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. "In some cases, these serious adverse events occurred in patients with no pre-existing health factors that would have put them at risk for developing kidney injury.
"We cannot rule out, however, that some of these patients were dehydrated prior to ingestion of OSP products or they did not drink sufficient fluids after ingesting OSP products," Woodcock added.
Webb space telescope mirror to be tested
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Dec. 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency says the first of 18 mirror segments of its James Webb Space Telescope has arrived at the Marshall Space Flight Center.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said each segment will be tested to make sure it will survive the extreme temperatures it will encounter in space.
The cryogenic testing will take place in a helium cooled vacuum chamber, chilling the mirrors from room temperature to minus 414 degrees Fahrenheit, NASA said. While each mirror changes temperature, engineers will measure its structural stability.
The James Webb Space Telescope will be a large, infrared-optimized space telescope and the premier observatory of the next decade, NASA said. It will have a large mirror, 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter that will consist of 18 segments, each about 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) in size.
NASA said the completed primary mirror will be more than 2 1/2 times larger than the diameter of the Hubble Space Telescope's primary mirror.
The James Webb Space Telescope is to be launched in 2013 and will be positioned about 1 million miles from Earth.
Video game improves seniors' mental skills
CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Dec. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they've found playing a strategic video game can improve the mental skills of adults in their 60s and 70s.
University of Illinois psychology professor Arthur Kramer, an author of the research, said the findings from the first such study of older adults are the first to show pronounced effects on cognitive skills not directly related to skills learned in the video game.
After testing several video games, the researchers selected "Rise of Nations," which gives gamers points for building cities and feeding and employing their people, maintaining an adequate military and expanding their territory.
The researchers found, overall, video game training improved participants' performance on several tests. As a group, the gamers became significantly better and faster at switching between tasks compared with a comparison group. Their working memory, as reflected in the tests, also was significantly improved and their reasoning ability was enhanced.
To a lesser extent, their short-term memory of visual cues was better than that of their peers, as was their ability to identify rotated objects.
But the scientists said the video-game training had no effect on ability to recall a list of words in order, numeration ability or ability to inhibit certain responses.
The study that included postdoctoral researcher Chandramallika Basak appears in the journal Psychology & Aging.
