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- Written by: Dr. Tony Phillips
An international team of astronomers has caught a star in the act of devouring one of its planets.
BD+48 740, a red giant they observed using the 9.2-meter Hobby-Eberly Telescope at the McDonald Observatory in Texas, appears to have the fumes of a scorched planet in its atmosphere. This is consistent with a rocky world, recently destroyed.
Could the same thing happen to Earth?
Yes indeed, said Alex Wolszczan, a member of the research team from Penn State University: “A similar fate may await the inner planets in our solar system when the sun becomes a red giant some five billion years from now.”
Researchers who specialize in stellar evolution have long known that the inner planets are in danger.
The trouble starts in the distant future when the sun’s core runs out of hydrogen fuel for nuclear fusion.
To keep the fires burning, the sun will begin to fuse hydrogen outside the core, in a layer closer to the stellar surface. This will turn the sun into a red giant, at least 200 times wider than it is today. Mercury, Venus, Earth and possibly even Mars could be engulfed.
The fate of Earth is not a certainty, however.
Some researchers believe that Earth’s orbit might spiral outward, keeping the planet at a safe distance from the approaching inferno.
This could happen if solar winds carry away a significant fraction of the sun’s mass in the years leading up to the red giant phase.
On the other hand, the sun might expand so quickly that our planet has no chance to escape. Earth would get caught in the sun’s rapidly advancing atmosphere and spiral inward to oblivion.
Observations of red giant BD+48 740 lend credence to the second possibility.
“Our detailed spectroscopic analysis of BD+48 740 reveals that the red giant contains an abnormally high amount of lithium,” said Monika Adamow who led the study at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland.
Because lithium is easily destroyed in stars, finding lots of it in an old red giant is unexpected. The most likely source is a planet.
Wolszczan explained: “It is probable that the lithium production in BD+48 740 was triggered by a mass the size of a planet that spiraled into the star and heated up while the star was digesting it.”
The team found another piece of evidence, too. BD+48 740 has a gas giant planet 1.6 times bigger than Jupiter which has not yet been devoured.
The big planet has a highly elliptical orbit. In fact, it is the most elliptical orbit ever found for a planet around an older star. Its orbit, which almost surely started out circular, was probably altered by some catastrophic event--like its star having an inner planet for lunch.
One day, he said, our own solar system may end up the same way. In five billion years, the fried planet could be Earth.
The original research of Adamov et al may be found in their article “BD+48 740 – Li overabundant giant star with a planet. A case of recent engulfment?”
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A Clearlake man has been sentenced to 55 years to life in prison after being convicted of burglarizing two Clearlake homes in September 2009.
Judge Andrew Blum gave the lengthy sentence to Joseph Michael Girk, 47, on Friday, Oct. 19, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney John DeChaine, who prosecuted the case.
A jury convicted Girk on Aug. 10, finding him guilty of two counts of burglary and two additional felony counts for having committed thefts at both residences, according to DeChaine.
The sentence handed down Oct. 19 was reached under the guidelines of California’s “Three Strikes” law. DeChaine said Girk had at least two prior strike offenses at the time he committed these four new felonies.
Girk’s defense attorney, Barry Melton, told Lake County News that burglary is classified as a “serious and violent” offense under California’s present Three Strikes law.
Accordingly, the court noted that the upcoming ballot initiative – that would limit Three Strikes sentences in cases where the third strike is not classified as “serious and violent” – would not have affected sentencing in the Girk case, Melton said.
Citing Girk’s lengthy recidivist record, Melton said the court declined to exercise its discretion to impose a lesser sentence.
DeChaine presented evidence at trial that revealed Girk entered the two homes in September 2009 when the residents were not present. Once inside, Girk stole jewelry and other personal items.
Sgt. Dominic Ramirez of the Clearlake Police Department spearheaded the investigations into both burglaries, DeChaine said.
The prosecution also proved several special allegations against Girk, including that Girk had been convicted of three prior residential burglaries in 2001 and that he had served three separate prison sentences for a second degree burglary conviction in 1989, a receiving stolen property conviction in 1994 and the three residential burglaries in 2001.
The three prior residential burglaries also were to Lake County homes, DeChaine said.
Residential burglary is categorized as a “strike” in California and Girk now has been convicted of five such strike offenses, according to DeChaine.
The “Three Strikes” law requires that Girk will serve a minimum of 80 percent of the 55 years prior to becoming eligible for parole, DeChaine said.
If parole is then denied, DeChaine said Girk could spend the remainder of his life in prison.
Melton said Girk has requested that an appeal from the judgment and sentencing be filed on his behalf.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The District Attorney’s Office has identified the man shot to death by a California Highway Patrol officer during a fight near Lower Lake on Wednesday.
District Attorney Don Anderson, whose office is leading the investigation into the incident, said 52-year-old Ronald Walter Ossenberg of Southern California died after being shot once by the CHP officer during the confrontation along Highway 29.
Anderson did not release the female officer’s name, which he said he is prohibited from doing under the Peace Officers Bill of Rights.
Lake County News offered Ossenberg’s family the chance to comment for this story, but they declined.
Anderson said Ossenberg had a lengthy history of criminal offenses, including crimes of violence against police officers, domestic violence and drug offenses, and was a registered sex offender. By Friday, Ossenberg’s information no longer appeared on the California Megan’s Law Web site.
In addition, Anderson told Lake County News that Ossenberg had felony warrants for his arrest at the time of the confrontation.
Ossenberg is alleged to have stolen a 2010 Toyota Camry from a Fullerton car lot on or about Oct. 15, Anderson said. At the time, Ossenberg was homeless and had recently been released from the Orange County Jail.
Anderson said it’s believed that Ossenberg drove the stolen vehicle up Highway 1, stopping in San Luis Obispo County where is fled from State Park Police.
He later was known to be in San Francisco, where he stole a woman’s backpack on the Golden Gate Bridge, Anderson said.
Ossenberg then came to Lake County, where he had previously vacationed with his parents, according to Anderson.
At 2 p.m. Wednesday a CHP officer stopped to check on a vehicle located on the northbound shoulder of Highway 29, just south of C Street and south of Lower Lake, Anderson said.
The CHP officer discovered Ossenberg sitting inside the vehicle. Anderson said the officer had Ossenberg exit the vehicle for an investigation into driving under the influence of alcohol.
When the officer was running a computer check on Ossenberg, he attacked her, choking her and throwing her to the ground, Anderson said.
Anderson said Ossenberg then jumped on the officer and attempted to remove her gun from its holster.
While Ossenberg and the officer struggled for the gun, Anderson said a Good Samaritan stopped to assist the officer. That individual ran toward the officer, which distracted Ossenberg.
With Ossenberg distracted, the officer was able to gain control of the firearm and discharge one round into Ossenberg, Anderson said.
Ossenberg got into the Camry and drove northbound across Highway 29, crashing through a fence into a vineyard. Anderson said the CHP officer rendered aid to Ossenberg until medical units arrived.
Anderson said Ossenberg succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Hidden Valley Lake resident Susanne La Faver told Lake County News that she was driving from her south county home to Sacramento on Wednesday when she passed the officer and Ossenberg on the side of the road.
“The female officer was in a wide stance, prepared. The man's car was parked way off the road. I thought it strange. They were facing each other,” she said.
Ossenberg at that point was out of the Camry which he had allegedly stolen – and which he’d parked along the side of Highway 29 – and facing off with the officer, according to La Faver.
The officer and Ossenberg were standing parallel to the car, with La Faver recalling the officer standing to the north and Ossenberg to the south.
The car was quite a ways off the highway. “That’s what I thought was unusual. It wasn’t as if he ran off the road. It was parked,” said La Faver.
La Faver said the officer’s vehicle was on the edge of the road with lights flashing.
She said the officer looked “professional and solid,” noting “she was clearly in charge.”
La Faver added, “The suspect just stood there looking at her.”
As she reached the intersection of Highway 53 and Highway 29, “every siren in Lake County went off. I prayed for the safety of the officer and the man facing her. And also, the first responders,” La Faver said.
Pursuant to the Lake County Law Enforcement Fatal Incident Protocol, the Lake County District Attorney Investigation Division is conducting the investigation into the incident along with the CHP Critical Incident Investigation Team, Anderson said.
Anderson said several officers and investigators from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the Clearlake Police Department assisted with the investigation.
Anderson said his Friday update was not the final report on the shooting, which he said will be under investigation for several months to come.
The last fatal shooting involving a local CHP officer in Lake County occurred in October 2006, when a CHP officer shot a suspect who had led officers on a high speed chase from Colusa County to Clearlake Oaks. The suspect was fatally shot after he attempted to run over a CHP sergeant.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Lake County has had a welcome helping of rain this week, and with it came rainbows.
Timothy Moen captured this portion of a rainbow on Monday, during showers that followed the fall’s first heavy rain.
He was looking east southeast from Riviera West when he took the photograph.
Moen said that while it was not a full rainbow, it was “very sharply etched and vibrant.”
He said he was glad he was waiting for it, as he knew “there would be something.”