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Журналістів не пустили на зустріч Волкера та Суркова щодо України

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У Мінську розпочалася зустріч спеціального представника США по Україні Курта Волкера та помічника президента Росії Владислава Суркова
Про це повідомляє у Twitter прес-служба МЗС Білорусі.
Зустріч Волкера та Суркова проходить у закритому режимі. Представники США та Росії обговорюватимуть врегулювання російсько-українського конфлікту.
Раніше Волкер заявив, що адміністрація Дональда Трампа може поставити Україні летальне озброєння та зазначив, що не вважає такий крок провокаційним.

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Millions swarm cities, towns along path of total solar eclipse

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The astronomical phenomenon on Monday will sweep across the U. S. from Salem, Ore., to Charleston, S. C.
Crowds gathered Monday in hundreds of cities, towns and parks from Oregon to South Carolina along the «path of totality» in anticipation of the Great American Eclipse’s astronomical march across the nation.
A partial version of the eclipse will begin on Oregon’s Pacific Coast at about 9 a.m. PT, with the total solar eclipse — the moon completely obscuring the sun — starting more than an hour later. The path of totality will roll across the nation with the main eclipse show wrapping up along coastal South Carolina before 3 p.m. ET.
The phenomenon will be brief — the total eclipse will last less than three minutes even in prime locations.
For most eclipse watchers, weather largely won’t be a problem, AccuWeather meteorologist Brian Thompson said.
«There is not a whole lot going on along the path of totality, » Thompson said. He said Oregon looked clear, that some «trouble spots» might pop up in Kansas and central Missouri, and there might be a few clouds along coastal South Carolina.
The picturesque town of Silverton, Ore., began to fill with eclipse-watchers several hours ahead of the celestial event. Susan Gurton was heading to the local high school for an eclipse viewing. The assistant director for education with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Va., has worked at several eclipses in the past.
«But this time my kids said ‘Can we just go?’ So this one I’m not working, » she said.
More: Solar eclipse 2017: Anticipation builds as millions pack prime viewing spots
More: Follow Monday’s eclipse with USA TODAY
In Weiser, Idaho, eclipse festival chairman Patrick Nauman said he expected 60,000 visitors for the eclipse. That’s about 10 times the town’s population. Sara Bronson, who grew up in Weiser, called the influx of tourists «spectacular.»
“I think it’s awesome, » she said. «It’s exactly what we’ve been wanting … to show off our community.»
NASA was livestreaming the eclipse from Jefferson City, Mo., and crowds were happy to see 7,500 pairs of eclipse glasses being given away. NASA experts were ready to explain what was going on overhead in real time.
«We’ll talk about Bailey beads (dots of light around the moon) and about the four different planets we should be able to see with the naked eye at peak totality, » NASA spokeswoman Debbie Lockhart said.
More: The procrastinator’s guide to viewing the solar eclipse
More: Eclipse weather forecast: Where will clouds mar your view of the sky spectacle?
In Anderson, S. C., Gregory McClain of Atlanta was setting up for the show with a party of nine people. The group of family and friends was set up at eclipse viewing hotspot Green Pond Landing 10 hours in advance of the total eclipse.
«My friend told me back in February about the eclipse, » McClain said, eyeing his group. «Everyone was like ‘We’re not gonna see no eclipse.’ Now look around!»
Partly cloudy skies greeted eclipse tourists in downtown Charleston, S. C., early Monday. People set up lawn chairs under shady trees and beach umbrellas in historic Marion Square as the heat index neared 100 degrees.
Taxi driver Santel Powell, who was busy shuttling visitors to and from the airport, said he’s seen license plates from states across the country. The lifetime Charleston resident said the city has been preparing for the big event for months.
Charleston is the last major city in the path of totality, and business is booming. Coastal towns such as Edisto Beach, located about an hour southwest of Charleston, also are riding the wave. A group of friends from Maryland rented a house there for the week just to watch the sun disappear.
«When we learned of the solar eclipse, the middle-age nerds among us were giddy with excitement, » said Allison Leaver of Silver Spring, Md. Added Jenny Kelley, also of Silver Spring: «It’s a long way to drive for two minutes of astronomical awesomeness.»
Contributing: Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY; Mike Reicher, The Tennessean, Ron Barnett, The Greenville (S. C.) News; Natalie Shaver, KTVB-TV in Idaho; Natalie Pate, Zach Urness and Capi Lynn, Salem, Ore., Statesman Journal; Wesley Johnson, Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader

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Новым госадвокатом Януковича стал защитник Пукача, осужденного за убийство Гонгадзе – СМИ

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Новым бесплатным государственным адвокатом беглого экс-президента Украины Виктора Януковича стал защитник бывшего…
Новым бесплатным государственным адвокатом беглого экс-президента Украины Виктора Януковича стал защитник бывшего чиновника МВД Алексея Пукача, осужденного к пожизненному тюремному заключению за убийство журналиста Георгия Гонгадзе, сообщают «Українські новини». Прошлый госадвокат Януковича Виталий Мешечек взял самоотвод.
Киевский региональный центр по предоставлению бесплатной вторичной правовой помощи назначил беглому экс-президенту Украины Виктору Януковичу, обвиняемому в государственной измене, нового бесплатного госадвоката Максима Герасько. Об этом «Українським новинам» сообщил информированный источник.
Герасько является также адвокатом бывшего начальника департамента внешнего наблюдения Министерства внутренних дел Алексея Пукача, осужденного к пожизненному тюремному заключению за убийство журналиста Георгия Гонгадзе.
28 марта коллегия Апелляционного суда Киева приняла решение, что уголовное производство по обвинению Януковича в государственной измене будет рассматривать Оболонский райсуд Киева.
6 июля адвокат Януковича Виталий Сердюк сообщил, что подал заявление о невозможности совершения правосудия в Оболонском райсуде Киева. Прокурор Главной военной прокуратуры Руслан Кравченко заявил, что в случае отказа от услуг своих адвокатов Янукович будет обеспечен государственной защитой. Киевский региональный центр по предоставлению бесплатной вторичной правовой помощи назначил беглому экс-президенту государственного адвоката Виталия Мешечека.
17 августа он заявил, что хочет отказаться от обязанностей защитника. Мешечек назвал уголовное производство «особо сложным» и заявил, что не может больше принимать участие в его судебном рассмотрении. Суд принял его самоотвод.
Украинский журналист Георгий Гонгадзе пропал 16 сентября 2000 года. В ноябре того же года в одном из лесов Киевской области было обнаружено тело Гонгадзе. В 2013 году за убийство журналиста к пожизненному лишению свободы был приговорен экс-генерал МВД Украины Алексей Пукач, задержанный в 2009 году. 6 января 2016 года Апелляционный суд Киева признал законным пожизненный приговор Пукачу.

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Chinese automaker sets sights on Jeep acquisition

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A Chinese automaker is interested in buying Jeep, an iconic American brand, from Fiat Chrysler in a move that likely would face political opposition.
A Chinese automaker is interested in buying Jeep, an iconic American brand, from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in a move that likely would face political opposition in the U. S. and create angst among workers.
Great Wall Motor told trade publication Automotive News it is «deeply interested, » in buying the Jeep brand and has «indirectly expressed interest.»
The acknowledgment comes amid broader speculation that brands once controlled by Chrysler as one of the Detroit Three automakers could end up with Chinese owners less than a decade after the company was bailed out by U. S. taxpayers.
It could also stir criticism over the U. S. economic relationship with China amid concerns about the balance of power in manufacturing and trade.
But Fiat Chrysler has been searching for a partner or buyer to enhance its chances of navigating a fiercely competitive global automotive industry that is requiring major investments to meet fuel economy standards and develop self-driving vehicles.
A deal for Jeep would leave the future of several other Fiat Chrysler brands in limbo, including the far-less-lucrative Dodge and Chrysler lineups.
«We are not wholly surprised that Great Wall is targeting what is arguably the strongest brand in FCA’s portfolio with little interest for the ‘other stuff, ‘» Evercore ISI analyst Arndt Ellinghorst said Monday in a note to investors.
A possible Jeep acquisition would be in line with Great Wall chairman Wang Jianjun’s goal, announced in February, of becoming the top specialty SUV producer by 2020.
Great Wall “has this intention, ” the public relations director for Great Wall’s Haval SUV brand, Zhao Lijia, told the Associated Press when asked about Jeep. An employee of the press office for the company headquarters, who would give only his surname, Zhang, told the AP, “Yes, we are interested in Jeep.”
Great Wall did not immediately respond to a USA TODAY request seeking comment.
Fiat Chrysler said no discussions have occurred with Great Wall and that it’s «fully committed» to carrying out a plan to deliver news products and profitability through 2018.
«Fiat Chrysler Automobiles confirmed that it has not been approached by Great Wall Motors in connection with the Jeep brand or any other matter relating to its business, » the company said in a statement.
Nevertheless, Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said earlier this year that the Jeep brand could be spun off into a standalone company. Marchionne also has been signaling that he is interested in discussions with other automakers about a sale of the company, partial sale or partnership of some kind for more than two years.
Follow Detroit Free Press business reporter Brent Snavely on Twitter @ BrentSnavely .

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US stock indexes dip, following back-to-back down weeks

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U. S. stock indexes dipped in morning trading on Monday, ahead of what may be a calmer week for markets. Following back-to-back losses for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index the last two…
NEW YORK (AP) — U. S. stock indexes dipped in morning trading on Monday, ahead of what may be a calmer week for markets. Following back-to-back losses for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index the last two weeks, few market-moving events are approaching on the calendar, at least until central bankers from around the world gather in Wyoming at the end of the week.
KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 lost 3 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,423, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 32 points, or 0.1 percent, to 21,643. The Nasdaq composite fell 28 points, or 0.5 percent, to 6,188.
CALM CALENDAR: The beginning of this week may be slow for markets, with few high-profile events on the schedule. Earnings reporting season is almost over, and roughly 95 percent of companies in the S&P 500 have already said how much they earned during the spring quarter. Few major economic reports are on deck.
A calm week may be welcome, following a second straight, shaky week where the S&P 500 had its biggest one-day loss in three months. Worries about politics, both domestic and international, contributed to the nervousness. The S&P 500 has had two days in the last two weeks where it’s dropped by more than 1 percent. It’s had only four for the year so far, which is well below typical levels.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH: This week’s highlight will likely be a mountain gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for central bankers, economists and policy makers. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and European Central Bank head Mario Draghi are both expected to speak at the symposium, which begins Thursday and is hosted by the Fed’s regional bank in Kansas City.
Tremendous stimulus from central banks has been one of the main reasons for the stock market’s surge since the Great Recession. But the Federal Reserve is now slowly raising interest rates and preparing to pare back the vast trove of bonds that it bought following the 2008 financial crisis. Investors are wondering when the European Central Bank may follow suit.
Jackson Hole has been the site of market-moving news in the past, including in 2010 when former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke signaled the central bank may embark on another round of bond buying to shore up the economy.
KOREA DRILLS: One wild card for markets may lie in Asia, where U. S. and South Korean forces on Monday started their annual joint military exercises. Tensions are higher than usual with North Korea, and Pyongyang in the past has responded to the drills with weapons tests and a string of belligerent rhetoric.
MARKETS ABROAD: In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi index dipped 0.1 percent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.4 percent and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 0.4 percent.
In Europe, France’s CAC 40 fell 0.7 percent, Germany’s DAX lost 0.9 percent and the FTSE 100 in London slipped 0.2 percent.
BENCHED AGAIN: Stocks of athletic-gear companies sank a second straight day, and the 4.6 percent drop for Foot Locker was one of the largest losses among companies in the S&P 500.
Shares tumbled across the industry on Friday after both Foot Locker and Hibbett Sports said revenue fell last quarter. Under Armour’s Class A shares lost 3.9 percent Monday, Nike fell 2.7 percent and Hibbett Sports dipped 0.5 percent.
POWERED UP: Sempra Energy rose 1.2 percent after saying it will buy Texas power-transmission company Oncor for $9.45 billion in cash. The deal snatches Oncor away from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which last month said that it would buy the company for $9 billion.
YIELDS: Treasury yields fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note dipped to 2.19 percent from 2.20 percent late Friday. The two-year yield slipped to 1.30 percent from 1.31 percent, and the 30-year yield fell to 2.77 percent from 2.78 percent.
CURRENCIES: The dollar dipped to 108.79 Japanese yen from 109.26 yen late Friday. The euro rose to $1.1815 from $1.1760, and the British pound rose to $1.2902 from $1.2876.
COMMODITIES: Benchmark U. S. crude fell 73 cents to $47.93 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 97 cents to $51.75.
Natural gas rose 7 cents $2.96 per 1,000 cubic feet, heating oil fell 5 cents to $1.58 per gallon and wholesale gasoline lost 5 cents to $1.58 per gallon.
Gold rose $5.80 to $1,297.40 per ounce, silver rose 9 cents to $17.09 per ounce and copper gained 6 cents to $3.00 per pound.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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"Точка невозврата не пройдена". Порошенко рассказал, что может дестабилизировать Украину

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Самое трудное — позади, считает гарант.
Украина пережила тяжелые испытания, но «откатить» ее обратно могут агрессия РФ и дестабилизационные действия политиков-популистов. Такое мнение президент Украины Петр Порошенко озвучил во время открытия обновленной областной детской больницы в Кропивницком.
«Я могу твердо сказать — самое трудное уже позади. Страна выдержала эти испытания. Украинский народ с честью продемонстрировал свою способность объединиться, противостоять агрессору и в условиях войны обеспечить эффективное развитие», — приводит цитату главы государства его пресс-служба.
Несмотря на это, Порошенко подчеркнул, что «точка невозврата» еще не пройдена, а вернуть Украину обратно могут по крайней мере две вещи.
«Откатить назад нас могут как спровоцированное Россией возобновление горячей фазы войны, так и действия политиков-популистов, которые дестабилизируя ситуацию внутри страны, способны свести на нет все наши усилия. Они готовы потерять все то, что люди выстрадали в течение последних лет», — сказал президент.
Порошенко подчеркнул, что действия по деморализации общества являются опасными.
Также украинский гарант отметил важность пенсионной реформы.
«Это главная позиция, как и после проведения осенью этого года пенсионной реформы, которая проводится ради справедливости. У кого больший стаж, то должен получать большие пенсии. Это нормально. Это правильно. Этому нет никакой альтернативы», — сказал он.
Напомним, ранее министр обороны Украины Степан Полторак заявлял о возможной российской агрессии против Украины и ЕС под видом проведения российско-белорусских военных учений «Запад — 2017» .
«Украина и мир имеют общее видение возможных перспектив проведения учений ВС РФ. Предстоящие учения «Запад — 2017″ являются чрезвычайно мощными. Они могут быть использованы, чтобы начать агрессию не только против Украины но и против любой страны Европы, которая имеет общую границу с Россией», — подчеркнул он.
Глава оборонного ведомства добавил, что Генеральный штаб ВСУ предусмотрел меры в случае угрозы вторжения российских войск во время учений «Запад 2017».

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米の喜劇俳優 ジェリー・ルイスさん死去

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アメリカで国民的な人気を誇った喜劇俳優で、 日本でも「底抜け」 シリーズというタイトルで公開された喜劇映画に多数出演して人気を博した、 ジェリー・ …
アメリカで国民的な人気を誇った喜劇俳優で、日本でも「底抜け」シリーズというタイトルで公開された喜劇映画に多数出演して人気を博した、ジェリー・ルイスさんが20日、老衰のため亡くなりました。91歳でした。 ルイスさんはアメリカ東部のニュージャージー州出身で、1950年代から60年代を中心に多数の喜劇映画に出演し、コミカルな演技で人気となり、アメリカ喜劇界の一時代を築きました。ルイスさんが出演した映画は、日本でも「底抜け」シリーズというタイトルで公開され人気を博しました。 ルイスさんは俳優活動以外に全身の筋肉が次第に衰えていく難病の「筋ジストロフィー」の患者を支援するため、40年以上にわたってテレビ番組を通じて多額の寄付を集めるなど、慈善活動にも力を入れました。 ロイター通信によりますと、ルイスさんは体調を崩して、ことし6月上旬から入院していたということですが、20日、老衰のためラスベガスの自宅で亡くなりました。91歳でした。 ホワイトハウスは声明を発表し、「ルイス氏は半世紀以上にわたって私たちを笑わせてくれた。最も偉大な芸人で人道主義者であり誇りに思う」と長年にわたって国民的な人気を誇ってきた喜劇俳優の死を悼みました。

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Total Solar Eclipse Offers Rare Chance to Understand the Sun’s Atmosphere

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The first total solar eclipse to cross the U. S. from coast to coast in 99 years is not only a must-see spectacle but also a valuable scientific opportunity
I love to be outdoors during solar eclipses, enjoying the universe appearing to darken around me while my research observations get under way. Long ago I used to suggest that people make a pinhole projector or even use cheese graters from their kitchens to watch these events. But in recent years the availability of partial-eclipse filters for only a dollar or so has made such advice obsolete. Now anyone can glance up at the sun through such a filter starting more than an hour prior to totality and see an apparent bite being taken out of the solar disk. During the last few minutes before totality, you will notice that the ambient light changes in quality, becoming eerie. Shadows sharpen because they result from a thin crescent of sunlight rather than the full disk of the sun. The air cools, and a wind stirs. Shadow bands may sweep rapidly over the ground.
With seconds to go, as the moon moves completely in front of the sun, just a few shafts of sunlight leak through valleys on the moon’s edge, reducing the sun to an arc of bright beads. These fade out until only one is left—so bright that it looks like the diamond on a ring, perhaps with a narrow, reddish rim to its sides and a whitish band all around the lunar silhouette. Then the diamond, too, disappears. You can and should drop your filters and look straight at what is left of the sun, a region of its atmosphere that had been hidden by the blue sky.
This is the inner and middle solar corona, the plume of plasma that flies out from the sun’s surface. It is about as bright as the full moon—a million times as faint as the everyday sun—and equally safe to look at with the naked eye. You first glimpse the corona as the band of the diamond ring, and then you see it in all its glory: a pearly white halo of gas that extends outward to several times the sun’s radius. If you are lucky, you might see a mighty eruption of plasma into interplanetary space.
But what, really, is the point of my trying to describe a total solar eclipse in words? It is so astonishingly moving and beautiful that nobody has ever described it adequately. People routinely come up to me after eclipses to say that they know how I had tried to convey the excitement but that I had nonetheless fallen short. Television and computer screens do not do it justice. Photographs flatten the dynamic range and lose the dazzling contrast. To be outdoors as the universe apparently darkens, gradually at first and then by an additional factor of 10,000 within seconds, is completely discombobulating. It conjures up primal fears of the sun being taken away.
I saw my first eclipse as a first-year college student, and I was hooked. Starting then, I have been all over the world to see 65 solar eclipses (including 33 total eclipses) . I look forward to my 66th on August 21, when the path of totality traverses from the U. S. West Coast to the East Coast for the first time since 1918.
And I do not catch these events just for the fun of it—eclipses offer scientists viewing conditions that routine observations cannot replicate. Although terrestrial telescopes can be equipped with a small metal cone or disk—making a so-called coronagraph—to blot out the sun on demand, their artificial eclipses are not as good as the real ones. The ambient air molecules leave the sky too blue and bright, even from pristine and high mountain sites. And space coronagraphs have to blot out not only the everyday solar disk but also a wide band around it, or else too much light would scatter inside the instrument. Furthermore, any telescope has a limited resolution and smears out incoming light a bit. Natural eclipses do not have this problem, because the “telescope” is, in effect, the entire Earth-moon system, with an exceptionally high resolution. We link our ground-based observations with spacecraft views to get a complete picture of the sun. Only in the crisp shadow of the moon are we able to see the inner and middle part of the corona in visible light.
It is in those inner expanses that we seek an answer to one of the most nagging puzzles in astrophysics: Why does the sun’s temperature increase as you move away from its surface? Usually things cool down as you retreat from a hot object, such as a campfire or a steam radiator. Within the sun, the temperature starts at 15 million degrees Celsius at the center and steadily falls as you move outward, dropping to 5,500 degrees C at the solar photosphere, the surface that emits sunlight into space. But then the trend reverses. The tenuous gas just above the visible surface climbs back up to over 10,000 degrees C and abruptly leaps to millions of degrees. Scientists still debate the details of how that occurs.
We have made tremendous observational and theoretical advances since I first described the science of the solar corona in Scientific American in 1973. A flotilla of spacecraft now monitor the sun in ultraviolet light and x-rays, which we cannot view from the ground, and researchers have developed sophisticated tools to link all our observations together. We know the outline of the solution of the coronal-heating problem—that it involves the sun’s magnetic field—but the details remain murky. And this is hardly the only problem that the corona presents to us. Observations during the upcoming eclipse should help tackle these questions.
Scientists already understand much about the solar corona. For one thing, it looks like a giant porcupine. It is drawn into fine streamers, some of which are wider at their base and come to a peak at higher altitudes, like pointy helmets. The shape they form varies with the sunspot cycle.
When spots proliferate, as in the years 2012 through 2014, streamers burst out even from latitudes as high as 30 degrees north and south so that the corona appears round overall. During sunspot minimum periods, such as the one we are in, the corona is squat, and the streamers we see are limited to regions nearer the sun’s equator, and thin, straight coronal plumes appear at the poles. From the open regions between streamers, a flow of charged particles called the solar wind escapes outward into the solar system at hundreds of kilometers per second, perhaps twice the rate of the solar wind from other regions. At the base of the corona, anchored to the solar photosphere, are small loops of gas, perhaps made up of multiple threads too fine for our current observations to discern. These coronal loops may pulse as waves bounce back and forth along or through them.
All this delicate intricacy is the product of the solar magnetic field, which arises from churning gas deep within the sun. What researchers do not know, however, is exactly how the dynamics of the magnetic field are responsible for the bizarrely high temperature of the corona. We know the magnetic field is involved because magnetic processes are not subject to the same thermodynamic restrictions that prevent energy from flowing by heat conduction from the hot surface to the even hotter corona.
Scientists have two main ideas for how the sun’s magnetic field could transfer some of its energy into the corona to heat it up. One way is through extremely tiny solar flares. These explosions occur when the magnetic field undergoes an abrupt change in its configuration, within seconds. When you map out the field at the sun’s surface, you occasionally see the north and south polarities in sunspot regions become jumbled. This condition puts the magnetic field under enormous stress, and to relieve it, the two polarities suddenly connect in a new way, emitting tremendous amounts of stored energy. Such a reconnection heats the corona locally to 10 million degrees C or higher, gives off a bright flash, and sometimes ejects plasma into space. The flare can zap spacecraft orbiting Earth and could pose a serious risk to astronauts journeying to Mars.
The flares we observe are too intermittent to explain the baseline temperature of the solar atmosphere, but might explosions too small to detect individually also wrack the corona? James Klimchuk of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has especially championed the idea of such nanoflares. Millions of small explosions going off in the corona every second, each with a billionth as much energy as a large flare, would keep it broiling hot.
The main competing set of theories is that oscillations in the magnetic field heat the corona. Vibrating loops in the lower corona could shake the surrounding gas, thereby raising its temperature. These waves could take multiple forms. Scientists have ruled out sound waves, driven by gas pressure, but Alfvén waves, driven by magnetism or by a hybrid of the two, called magnetoacoustic waves, are still viable. Could magnetic waves of some kind be enough to raise the coronal temperature to millions of degrees?
In principle, researchers should be able to distinguish between the nanoflare and wave mechanisms by measuring oscillations of coronal gas. Fluctuations with periods from about 10 seconds to minutes would betray the passage of standard Alfvén waves along coronal loops. Observations of vibrations of the sun’s surface using a technique known as helioseismology suggest that the sun is capable of triggering such waves. Although its strongest oscillations occur with a comparatively languid period of about five minutes, those are only one type among many undulations that the surface undergoes.
Eclipse observations could be crucial to measuring fluctuations in coronal loops. The logistic advantages of observing from Earth allow us to use equipment that has higher temporal resolution than exists on any current spacecraft. My team uses rapid-readout charge-coupled devices (CCDs) that capture images numerous times a second. By comparison, the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly cameras on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) have been taking observations through several of their range of 10 filters every 12 seconds, and the Solar Ultraviolet Imager on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s new Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-16) has a 10-second cadence at best for its six filters.
What we have found so far extends the realm of possibilities. Some oscillations may have periods shorter than one second, matching a theoretical prediction of a special mode of Alfvén waves that travels along the surfaces of loops rather than through their interiors. But our data are scanty: only a few minutes of such high-cadence observations from a pair of prior total solar eclipses. This year we will be using our complicated CCD apparatus, with filters of astonishingly pure color, to isolate the hot coronal gas to search for the time spectrum of waves again. We hope that our results will help researchers choose between the different theories of coronal heating or even lead them to the conclusion that several mechanisms are at work simultaneously. In the active regions above sunspots, the conditions for flaring are auspicious, and waves are comparatively weak. In quiet regions, however, we may have either waves on small loops or trillions of nanoflares all the time.
Scientists have devised some tricks for making the most of the exceptional opportunities eclipses offer. Eclipse observations enable us to scrutinize the shape of the corona in high spatial and temporal resolution. Our ground-based eclipse images show detail about eight times finer in each dimension than the best space coronagraph. Eclipses do have the downside of being brief and intermittent, but we compensate by melding data sets from separate eclipses and from different sites during a single eclipse.
For instance, by observing eclipses over the full 11-year solar-activity cycle, we follow changes in the degree of roundness of the corona, which reflects the distribution of streamers at various latitudes, and compare them with other measures of solar activity. I work with astronomer Vojtech Rušin of the Slovak Academy of Sciences on such studies. Although the corona is visible during an eclipse for only a few minutes from any given site, we can combine observations from multiple sites to ascertain changes in coronal streamers and plumes over the hours it takes the moon’s shadow to traverse Earth. During the August 21 eclipse, we may even get continuous coast-to-coast observations with viewings from citizen scientists.
A further reason to combine multiple eclipse images is to capture the huge range of brightness in the corona. From individual images taken over many exposures, we can pick out the properly exposed pieces and merge a dozen of them at a time. The widely acknowledged expert in this computer-imaging work is Miloslav Druckmüller, a computer scientist at the Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic. Given that the corona is about 1,000 times brighter just outside the edge of the sun than it is only one solar radius farther out, we must select the best-exposed parts from dozens of different images and assemble them. Using such composite images from past total eclipses—seen most recently in Indonesia, Svalbard, Gabon, Australia, and elsewhere—my team has measured velocities in coronal streamers, polar plumes, and mass ejections. We hope to add significantly to these observations in August.
Another trick is to exploit the gradual encroachment of the lunar silhouette during an eclipse. As sunspot regions are covered or uncovered by the edge of the moon, telescopes might see abrupt changes in the sun’s brightness, allowing us to pinpoint details. To get the very highest spatial resolution this year, my team is collaborating with Dale Gary of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Tim Bastian of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Tom Kuiper of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to use radio telescopes to measure changes in the radio radiation from whatever active sunspot regions may be visible at various frequencies as the moon covers the sun. Even though these telescopes are outside the path of totality, about 70 percent of the solar disk will still be covered by each of them. We will get the highest-resolution radio observations with the Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array in California, with its 13 linked radio telescopes that will take continuous observations of the sun at hundreds of frequencies from 2.5 to 18 gigahertz. Lower-resolution images from the Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope, also in California, will improve image quality by filling in the background. We should be able to match the exact positions of brightening in coronal loops, as seen at these radio wavelengths, with the spots that glow in the ultraviolet or in x-rays from spacecraft, and thereby learn how the loops are heated.
The magnetic field of the photosphere is well studied, but that of the corona is much less so. To rectify that issue, Ed DeLuca of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Harvard University graduate student Jenna Samra, working with solar scientists Leon Golub of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center and Philip Judge of the High Altitude Observatory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., plan to follow the eclipse from an NCAR Gulfstream V aircraft. From their perch above the bulk of the infrared-absorbing atmosphere, they will be able to measure the strength of infrared spectral lines, hoping to find ones that are magnetically sensitive.
If successful, they plan to fly again during a later eclipse with polarization filters added to measure the coronal magnetic field. By separating out light waves with different orientations, polarization measurements help us to identify the different components of the corona. The inner middle part of the corona that we see with our eyes during a total eclipse comes from highly ionized gas scattering ordinary sunlight toward us. This scattering polarizes the light, and the motion of electrons caused by this process smears out the dark lines that otherwise intrude in the sun’s rainbow spectrum. Farther out in the corona, nearer the orbit of Mercury, dust in interplanetary space bounces light toward us but does not polarize it or wipe out the ordinary solar spectrum. Others preparing to study polarization at this year’s eclipse include Nat Gopalswamy of NASA’s Goddard Center, Judge and Steven Tomczyk, both at the High Altitude Observatory, and Padma Yanamandra-Fisher of the Space Science Institute. After the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope being built on Maui starts observing in 2018, one of its instruments should eventually be able to measure the coronal magnetic field directly by studying the polarization of infrared spectral lines. And when NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launches in 2018, it will fly through the solar corona and help unravel the uncertainties in coronal heating.
All in all, the observing effort during this eclipse will be truly enormous, and I have only scratched the surface here. NASA has funded 11 proposals, six for coronal studies and five related to the response of Earth’s atmosphere to the dramatic eclipse cooling, a topic on which I have been working with Marcos Peñaloza-Murillo of the University of the Andes in Venezuela. Another major U. S. research group using eclipses to study the corona is led by Shadia Habbal of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy. Her team, which she calls the Solar Wind Sherpas, will image the corona through filters chosen to map plasmas of different temperatures. Habbal’s new NASA grant supports the enhancement of the group’s recently designed dual-channel imaging spectrograph, which was successfully tested in 2015. A variety of observations from the ground and from space will provide the most comprehensive study of the infrared corona, its spectrum and its polarization acquired to date.
My group has had the benefit of international collaborations during the 33 total solar eclipses that I have observed from sites around the world. Now it is time for us to repay the hospitality. We expect the high-quality imaging and analysis of Serge Koutchmy of the Institute of Astrophysics of Paris and his colleagues to contribute to the study of the August eclipse. At my own team’s sites, we will be joined by our colleagues from Australia, Slovakia, Greece, Japan, China, Iran, and elsewhere.
Citizen scientists will also have plenty of opportunities to contribute to researchers’ eclipse efforts. I am involved in the Eclipse Megamovie Project, which is based at the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, and headed by Laura Peticolas. People will be able to send in images through a Google interface for archiving and assembly into continent-spanning movies, which will be available to citizen scientists for viewing and analysis. In a similar vein, Matt Penn of the National Solar Observatory has organized the Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse (Citizen CATE) Experiment, a continent-spanning collaboration of about 70 sites with identical small telescopes and CCD detectors.
One unusual experiment this August has nothing to do with the corona; indeed, the corona will get in our way. Arthur Eddington famously tested Einstein’s general theory of relativity at an eclipse in 1919. He looked for signs that the sun’s mass was bending the light of distant stars behind it, an effect that is actually caused by the relativistic warping of spacetime. I have spent decades telling people that we have better things to do at a total eclipse than repeat this experiment. After all, physicists have more precise ways to test relativity theory nowadays. But it turns out that new observing capabilities may make the investigation at this year’s eclipse a useful one—or at least interesting.
Retired California physicist Don Bruns will carry out such observations. He has intricate plans for calibrating his telescope by measuring many nighttime star images. An earlier attempt to use observations taken with digital single-lens-reflex (DSLR) cameras at the 2006 eclipse by Jean-Luc Dighaye of Belgium—which Carlton Pennypacker of U. C. Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and I tried to help analyze—failed, but that was with the large pixels of commercial DSLRs. We hope that the smaller pixels and precise calibration of an astronomical CCD detector will succeed. Bradley Schaefer of Louisiana State University has argued that modern imagers have enough resolution and sensitivity to exceed the accuracy of past tests, and he will also try to observe the effect. Because of a just released catalog created by the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft, we now know the positions of stars with extremely high precision, so we could look for any deflection caused by the sun with fewer calibrations at the telescope.
The August 21 eclipse will begin at sunrise in the Pacific Ocean. Totality hits the U. S. mainland in Oregon, with partial phases visible throughout the U. S., Canada and Mexico and farther south into South America. After leaving South Carolina near Charleston some 90 minutes later, the total eclipse will end at sunset over the Atlantic, with partial phases visible from northwestern Africa and western Europe.
Assuming the weather cooperates, scientists and the general public should be impressed and even overwhelmed. Combining ground-based eclipse results with the observations from satellites in the visible, ultraviolet, x-ray and radio parts of the spectrum will provide the most complete view of the solar atmosphere ever seen.
Whatever we conclude for the sun will also apply to the billions and trillions of stars like the sun that we cannot see in the same detail. Some might find it disconcerting that the sun, arguably the best studied of all celestial objects, is so incompletely understood. But I see the lingering questions as a wonderful excuse to share one of the greatest experiences in nature.
As for me, decades ago I was so busy photographing during totality that I barely had time to look up to see it. But now, with computer automation, I can enjoy a few seconds to savor the eclipse while cameras click away and electronic sensors upload their data to computers. I look forward to the view of my 66th solar eclipse from Oregon. Those who are as dazzled as I am can think ahead to the 2019 and 2020 eclipses in Chile and Argentina and the 2024 total solar eclipse that will sweep across the eastern U. S. from Texas to Maine. And a 2023 annular eclipse will show partial phases over North and South America.

© Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/total-solar-eclipse-offers-rare-chance-to-understand-the-sun-rsquo-s-atmosphere/
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US-South Korea war games, in pictures

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21 Aug 2017 Every year the US and South Korea stage joint military drills in South Korea, which last ten days. Officially…
21 Aug 2017
Every year the US and South Korea stage joint military drills in South Korea, which last ten days. Officially called ‘Ulchi Freedom Guardian’, the exercises involve about 25,000 US troops and 50,000 South Koreans and mainly use computer simulations.
However the drills — dubbed the war games — come just days after President Trump and North Korea exchanged heated warlike rhetoric in the wake of North Korea’s two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month.
On Sunday North Korea’s state newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, said that the joint exercise “is the most explicit expression of hostility against us, and no one can guarantee that the exercise won’ t evolve into actual fighting.”
But what do the war games involve? Here, emergency service members and volunteers take part in a mock hostage situation during an anti-terror drill in Goyang.
© Telegraph Media Group Limited 2017

© Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/21/us-south-korea-war-games-pictures/
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Появились кадры из Марселя, где авто въехало в остановки с людьми

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В понедельник во французском Марселе автомобиль врезался в две автобусные остановки в разных районах города. Погибла женщина, еще один человек получил ранения и был госпитализирован.
Вскоре после ЧП сотрудники правоохранительных органов задержали по подозрению в причастности к происшествию 35-летнего мужчину, он помещен под стражу. О его мотивах не сообщается.
По данным СМИ, мужчина страдал психическими расстройствами .
К настоящему времени информации о том, что делом о ЧП занялись антитеррористические подразделения, не поступало. Следствие ведет местная полиция.

© Source: http://rian.com.ua/video/20170821/1026952714.html
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