STELLAR FLARE 10 BILLION TIMES MORE POWERFUL THAN SOLAR FLARES FOUND Indian remanded to custody in Sirisena assassination plot US border deal does not ‘thrill’ Trump but govt shutdown unlikely
WASHINGTON DC: Scientists say they have discovered a stellar flare 10 billion times more powerful than the solar flares, a discovery that could unlock decades-old mysteries of the origin and evolution of the Sun and its planets.
Using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii, the scientists study the birth of nearby stars as a means of understanding the history of the solar system.
The flare is thought to be caused by a disruption in an intense magnetic field actively funnelling material onto a young, growing star as it gains mass from its surroundings, researchers said.
The event occurred in one of the nearest star-forming regions to the Earth, the Orion Nebula, and lasted for only a few hours, they said.
"A discovery of this magnitude could have only happened in Hawaii," said Steve Mairs, astronomer and lead investigator of the team that discovered the stellar flare.
"Observing flares around the youngest stars is new ter- ritory and it is giving us key insights into the physical conditions of these systems," Mairs said in a statement.
"This is one of the ways we are working towards answering people's most enduring questions about space, time, and the universe that surrounds us," he said. COLOMBO: An Indian national arrested for possible links to an alleged plot to assassinate Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena was on Wednesday further remanded in custody until February 27.
Marceli Thomas was arrested in October following a complaint by Namal Kumara, a police informant, who had alleged a plot to assassinate Sirisena and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the former top defence ministry bureaucrat and brother of ex-president Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Kumara also claimed that the senior police officer in charge of the police's counter terrorism division Nalaka Silva had masterminded the plot. Silva has since been interdicted and questioned extensively by the police CID.
The police maintained although no details had emerged on the alleged plot to kill Sirisena, Silva had been arrested for plotting the murder of a police officer.
Thomas, said to be from Kerala, appeared before a court on Wednesday.
Sirisena in late October sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe triggering an unprecedented constitutional crisis which lasted nearly two months.
The alleged assassination plot and Wickremesinghe government's go slow on the investigation was cited by Sirisena as one of the reasons for his sacking of Wickremesinghe. WASHINGTON DC: US President Donald Trump has said he was not "thrilled" by a border security deal reached by a bipartisan group of lawmakers but appeared to express openness to the agreement to avert another government shutdown, suggesting that he will find sources of money for his controversial border wall other than Congress.
Democrats and Republicans have struck a deal to offer USD 1.375 billion for 88.5 kilometers of new barriers along the southern border, as well as other border security measures to avert another crippling government shutdown over Trump's wall along the Us-mexico border.
The funding offer is far less than the USD 5.7 billion Trump demanded late last year when he triggered a record partial government shutdown that lasted 35 days. Building a wall along the Us-mexico border is a campaign promise of the 72-year-old Republican President.
Trump said that he is looking at getting USD 23 billion for border security from various sources. Will be getting almost USD 23 BILLION for Border Security. Regardless of Wall money, it is being built as we speak! Trump tweeted as the lawmakers entered into the agreement to prevent another government shutdown after February 15.