Photo sparks hunt for Earhart aircraft
WOODINVILLE, Wash., April 17 (UPI) -- A Washington state forensic examiner says he's contributing his expertise to a $2 million search for the missing aircraft of aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart.
The search, to be launched this summer by the Delaware-based International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, is driven by what Jeff Glickman said he sees in a grainy, black-and-white photo taken a few months after Earhart's disappearance by a British civil-service officer surveying a tiny Pacific Ocean atoll for a possible settlement.
A small black object in the photo could be the upside-down landing gear of the Lockheed Electra aircraft Earhart was piloting when she and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared while nearing the completion of an intended round-the-world flight, Glickman said.
"This was an important piece of American history," he told The Seattle Times. "She was a true pioneer who had a tremendous amount of courage."
Glickman, 51, is a forensic examiner who analyzes photographs or other visual images, usually for clients such as law firms, scientific organizations or commercial customers.
He says computer-enhanced images of the 1937 photograph strongly suggest objects in the photo include four aircraft parts: a landing-gear wheel, a fender, a gear and strut.
The expedition this summer will map the ocean floor around the atoll and send unmanned equipment down to inspect whatever is found, researchers said.
Hubble captures dramatic image of nebula
GREENBELT, Md., April 17 (UPI) -- A new photo from the Hubble Space Telescope has captured a panoramic view of a nearby nebula, revealing a bright heart of massive stars, astronomers say.
The photo released Tuesday is a mosaic, one of the largest ever built from Hubble images, of a region knows as 30 Doradus, the brightest star-forming region in our galactic neighborhood and home to the most massive stars ever seen, a release from the European Space Agency/Hubble Information Center said.
The image is being released in celebration of the 22nd anniversary of the Hubble telescope, launched April 24, 1990.
The nebula, 170,000 light years from Earth, is close enough that Hubble can resolve individual stars, giving important information about stars' birth and evolution, astronomers said.
They said 30 Doradus is a star-forming factory, churning out stars at a furious pace over millions of years.
The Hubble image shows star clusters of various ages, from about 2 million to about 25 million years old, they said.
Shuttle flies over nation's capital
WASHINGTON, April 17 (UPI) -- Washington was treated to the sight of a space shuttle flying overhead as the orbiter Discovery was carried atop a 747 jet heading for its retirement home.
Crowds watched as the shuttle was carried over the nation's capital before landing at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, from where it will head to its new home in a Dulles-area annex of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.
The much publicized event prompted the Mid-Atlantic AAA to caution motorists: "Don't let anyone or anything -- even a space shuttle overhead -- distract you'' and "For safe shuttle-spotting, pull off the road and park your car."
A similar flyover of a 747 carrying the shuttle Enterprise is planned for the New York City area next week, and there may be a repeat for the Endeavor in Los Angeles this fall, as both those shuttles head for museums in those cities, the Los Angeles Times reported.
A ceremony Thursday at the Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center annex of the at the National Air and Space Museum will feature Discovery crew members and space pioneer John Glenn, who returned to space in 1998 aboard the Discovery at age 77.
Ancient statue that of female gladiator?
HAMBURG, Germany, April 17 (UPI) -- A 2,000-year-old bronze statue in a German museum may be that of a female gladiator, and a victorious one at that, researchers suggest.
If true, the statue would constitute only the second visual depiction of a female gladiator known to exist, scientists at the University of Granada in Spain said.
The statue in a Hamburg museum depicts a topless woman, wearing only a loincloth and holding aloft what researcher Alfonso Manas said he believes is a sica, a short curved sword of a type used by gladiators.
The gesture with the sword is a "salute to the people, to the crowd," Manas said, as done by gladiators who have been victorious in a fight.
The "precise real-life" details of the statue suggest the depiction is of an actual person, a real woman who fought, Manas told LiveScience, although where the statue was discovered is not known.
Females gladiators were banned by Emperor Septimius Severus in A.D. 200 A.D. with only about a dozen references to them found in surviving ancient writings, researchers said.
The only other known depiction of female gladiators is a carved relief from the site of Halicarnassus, now in the British Museum, that shows a pair of them fighting, they said.
