Crater Drilling Declared Major Success

USGS Release

"Following three months of around-the-clock work, the Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater Deep Drilling Project successfully completed its operations, extracting more than a mile long segment of rocks and sediments from the Earth. On Dec. 4, the drill bit reached a final depth of 5,795 ft (1.1 miles, 1.77 kilometers) within the structure of the crater.
The impact crater was formed about 35 million years ago when a rock from space struck the Earth at hypersonic speed. Scientists have only recently begun to explore the consequences from that distant event and learn how it has greatly affected the population living in southeastern Virginia today."

"Spinning black hole leaves dent in space-time"

SpaceRef - Your Space Reference:

"MIT scientists and colleagues have found a black hole that has chiseled a remarkably stable indentation in the fabric of space and time, like a dimple in one's favorite spot on the sofa.
The finding may help scientists measure a black hole's mass and how it spins, two long-sought measurements, by virtue of the extent of this indentation. Using NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, the team saw identical patterns in the X-ray light emitted near the black hole nine years apart, as captured in archived data from 1996 and in a new, unprecedented 550-hour observation from 2005.
Black hole regions are notoriously chaotic, generating light at a range of frequencies. Similarities seen nine years apart imply something very fundamental is producing a pair of observed frequencies, namely the warping of space and time predicted by Einstein but rarely seen in such detail. "

"Feds back plan to save Sound's salmon"

TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA:

"The Bush administration has tentatively endorsed a 10-year, $1.2 billion plan developed by a coalition of local groups to rebuild dwindling chinook salmon runs along Puget Sound.
After a six-month internal review, the National Marine Fisheries Service is seeking public comment on the recovery plan that covers 14 watersheds along the Sound, including the Nisqually and Puyallup rivers."

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory Looks Back at Earth

SpaceRef - Your Space Reference

"In an unusual observation, a team of scientists has scanned the northern polar region of Earth with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The results show that the aurora borealis, or 'northern lights,' also dance in X-ray light, creating changing bright arcs of X-ray energy above the Earth's surface. "