Report writing (27/02/2015) Day 180
Today we have a 9am maths lecture in astro physics, after which i write up all my notes. I then head in for a seminar and hand in m problem sheets for the we...

By: Jake Ward

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Report writing (27/02/2015) Day 180 - Video

A star-gazing expert from the University of Surrey has spoken about next Friday's (March 20) total solar eclipse which will plunge Surrey and north-east Hampshire into darkness.

Astro-physics professor Mark Gieles has talked about the science and history behind the natural phenomenon.

He has worked as a research fellow at the European Southern Observatory in Chile and as a support astronomer on the Very Large Telescope at Cerro Paranal in the Atacama desert.

Prof Gieles explained how because of a "freak coincidence" the sun and moon occupy the same sized space in our sky.

The celestial anomaly is a result of the sun's diameter being 40x bigger than the moon, but the grey planet being situated 40x closer to the earth than our burning star.

When the moon covers the sun on its orbital path, that's when eclipses occur.

"If the moon was 10 times larger then we would have an eclipse every month," said Prof Gieles.

Eclipses still occur regularly but can be either full or partial depending on the orbiting moon's position from earth.

Its orbit is also tilted at five degrees in relation to earth so the moon's shadow will normally pass under or over.

The last total eclipse viewable from Great Britain happened in 1999 and before that in 1927!

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Total Solar Eclipse: University of Surrey astronomy expert provides fascinating insight

Fairfax, Va., February 9, 2014 - The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) commends the February 5, 2015, decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide coverage for annual lung cancer screening via low-dose CT screening for those at highest-risk for lung cancer.

The final Decision Memo for Screening for Lung Cancer with Low Dose Computed Tomography (LDCT) (CAG-00439N) details that there is sufficient evidence to warrant annual lung cancer screening for patients most at-risk for developing lung cancer. The Memo outlines the patient criteria for eligibility as follows: aged 55 to 77; showing no signs or symptoms of lung disease; a smoking history of at least 30 pack-years (one pack-year = smoking one pack per day for one year; one pack = 20 cigarettes); and a current smoker or someone who has quit smoking within the last 15 years.

"CMS has taken a bold step that can potentially reduce the lung cancer mortality of patients at highest risk for lung cancer by nearly 20 percent. We are grateful for the additional opportunities that annual screening provides us to save hundreds of thousands of lives from lung cancer," said ASTRO Chair Bruce G. Haffty, MD, FASTRO. "This year in the United States, it is estimated that nearly 230,000 men and women will be diagnosed with lung cancer, and that there will be more than 160,000 deaths from lung cancer, more deaths than from breast, colon and prostate cancers combined. This highly effective, annual screening is a critical and powerful tool that will enable us to diagnose patients earlier when treatments are most effective, and it will fortify our efforts to battle this destructive disease."

In addition to detailing the patient health status for annual screening, the final decision also enumerates specific facility criteria and requirements, and care steps prior to and following screening. Two valuable care steps include 1) a shared-decision making/smoking cessation counseling session between the physician and patient prior to the first screening, and 2) access to smoking cessation sessions available to current smokers - vital services that encourage current smokers to stop smoking, which directly impacts their treatment outcome. Distinct screening guidelines are also provided: administer CT dose index volume of 3 mGy or less for standard-sized patients (approximately 155 lbs.) with appropriate reductions for smaller patients and increases for larger patients; utilize a standardized lung nodule identification, classification and reporting system; and collection and submission of patient data to a CMS-approved registry for each LDCT screening test.

CMS's decision follows the United States Preventive Task Force's (USPSTF's) December 2013 recommendation that LDCT is a Grade B screening, and which reviewed the results of four randomized clinical trials, including the National Cancer Institute's National Lung Screening Trial, which included more than 50,000 asymptomatic adults aged 55 to 75 who had at least a 30 pack-year history and found a 16 percent reduction in lung cancer mortality for those who received annual screening and thus, earlier treatment.

###

ABOUT ASTRO

ASTRO is the premier radiation oncology society in the world, with nearly 11,000 members who are physicians, nurses, biologists, physicists, radiation therapists, dosimetrists and other health care professionals that specialize in treating patients with radiation therapies. As the leading organization in radiation oncology, the Society is dedicated to improving patient care through professional education and training, support for clinical practice and health policy standards, advancement of science and research, and advocacy. ASTRO publishes two medical journals, International Journal of Radiation Oncology * Biology * Physics and Practical Radiation Oncology; developed and maintains an extensive patient website, http://www.rtanswers.org; and created the Radiation Oncology Institute, a non-profit foundation to support research and education efforts around the world that enhance and confirm the critical role of radiation therapy in improving cancer treatment. To learn more about ASTRO, visit http://www.astro.org.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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ASTRO applauds CMS's decision to cover annual, LDCT screening for high-risk lung cancer patients

Fairfax, Va., February 23, 2015--Cancer patients with limited brain metastases (one to four tumors) who are 50 years old and younger should receive stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) without whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT), according to a study available online, open-access, and published in the March 15, 2015 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology * Biology * Physics (Red Journal), the official scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). For patients 50 years old and younger who received SRS alone, survival was improved by 13 percentage points when compared to those patients 50 years old and younger who received both SRS and WBRT.

This study, "Phase 3 Trials of Stereotactic Radiation Surgery With or Without Whole-Brain Radiation Therapy For 1 to 4 Brain Metastases: Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis," analyzed patient data from the three largest randomized clinical trials (RCT) of SRS and WBRT conducted to-date: the Asian trial (JROSG99-1) by Aoyama et al.[1], published in 2006; the North American trial (MDACC NCT00548756) by Chang et al.[2], published in 2009; and the European trial (EORTC 22952-26001) by Kocher et al.[3], published in 2011. A total of 364 patients from the three RCTs were evaluated for this meta-analysis. Of those 364 patients, 51 percent (186) were treated with SRS alone, and 49 percent (178) received both SRS and WBRT. Nineteen percent of patients (68) were 50 years old and younger, and 61 percent (19) of these patients had a single brain metastasis. Twenty percent of all patients (72) had local brain failure, which is the occurrence of progression of previously treated brain metastases; and 43 percent (156) experienced distant brain failure, which is the occurrence of new brain metastases in areas of the brain outside the primary tumor site(s).

The impact of age on treatment effectiveness revealed SRS alone yielded improved overall survival (OS) in patients 50 years old and younger. Patients 50 years old and younger who received SRS alone had a median survival of 13.6 months after treatment, a 65 percent improvement, as opposed to 8.2 months for patients 50 years old and younger who were treated with SRS plus WBRT. Patients >50 years old had a median survival of 10.1 months when treated with SRS alone, and 8.6 months for those who received SRS plus WBRT.

"We expected to see a survival advantage favoring combined therapy of SRS and WBRT. However, these data clearly demonstrate the benefit for SRS alone to improve survival for our younger patients with limited brain metastases," said lead author of the study Arjun Sahgal, MD, associate professor of radiation oncology and surgery at the University of Toronto, and a radiation oncologist at the Odette Cancer Centre of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. "Furthermore, it was previously thought that the positive effect of whole brain radiation in reducing the risk of distant brain relapse was generalizable for all patients. However, we did not observe this effect in patients 50 years and younger with limited brain metastases. In these patients, the same rate of distant brain failure was observed despite treatment with whole brain radiation. This result, together with our survival result, gave rise to the hypothesis that if patients are treated with whole brain radiation without realizing the benefits of improving distant brain control, then survival may be adversely affected. Therefore, our sub-group meta-analysis has swung the pendulum in favor of SRS alone as the standard of care. These findings also reinforce ASTRO's Choosing Wisely recommendation[4] that states that it may not be necessary to add WBRT to SRS, thus improving patients' quality of life and memory function."

###

In addition to being open-access (free to the public), Sahgal et al.'s paper is also available for SA-CME credit at http://www.astro.org/JournalCME.

Drs. Nils D. Arvold and Paul J. Catalano have reviewed Sahgal et al.'s research. Their editorial, "Local Therapies for Brain Metastases, Competing Risks, and Overall Survival," is also published in the March 15, 2015, issue of the Red Journal.

For a copy of the study manuscript and the editorial, contact ASTRO's Press Office at press@astro.org. For more information about the Red Journal, visit http://www.redjournal.org.

[1] Aoyama H, Shirato H, Tago M, et al. Stereotactic radiosurgery plus whole-brain radiation therapy vs stereotactic radiosurgery alone for treatment of bone metastases: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2006;295:2483-2491. [2] Chang EL, Wefel JS, Hess KR, et al. Neurocognition in patients with brain metastases treated with radiosurgery or radiosurgery plus whole-brain irradiation: a randomised controlled trial. Lancet Oncol 2009;10:1037-1044. [3] Kocher M, Soffietti R, Abacioglu U, et al. Adjuvant whole-brain radiotherapy versus observation after radiosurgery or surgical resection of one to three cerebral metastases: results of the EORTC 22952-26001 study. J Clin Oncol 2010;29:134-141. [4] ASTRO's Choosing Wisely List. ABIM Foundation. http://www.choosingwisely.org/doctor-patient-lists/american-society-for-radiation-oncology/

ABOUT ASTRO

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Improved survival for patients with brain mets who are 50 and younger and receive SRS alone

Fairfax, Va., March 4, 2015--The International Lymphoma Radiation Oncology Group (ILROG) has issued a guideline that outlines the use of 3-D computed tomography (CT)-based radiation therapy planning and volumetric image guidance to more effectively treat pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma and to reduce the radiation dose to normal tissue, thus decreasing the risk of late side effects. The guideline will be published in the March-April issue of Practical Radiation Oncology (PRO), the clinical practice journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

Historically, pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma patients were treated with the same chemotherapy and radiation regimens as adults with Hodgkin lymphoma, which potentially exposes their young, still-growing bodies to more treatment than necessary. Previous radiation therapy guidelines for pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma have focused on 2-D imaging and bony landmarks to define dose volumes for radiation therapy treatment, and treated large volumes of normal tissue in part because of uncertainty about which lymph node areas were involved.

The guideline, "Implementation of contemporary radiation therapy planning concepts for pediatric Hodgkin Lymphoma: Guidelines from the International Lymphoma Radiation Oncology Group," describes how to effectively use modern imaging and innovations and advances in radiation therapy planning technology to treat patients with pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma while decreasing the risk of late side effects, including second cancers and heart disease.

The authors describe methods for identifying target volumes for radiation therapy, and how to implement the concept of "involved site radiation therapy" to define radiation target volumes and limit dose to normal organs at risk. According to the guideline, accurate assessment of the extent and location of disease requires both contrast-enhanced CT as well as fluorodeoxyglucose-PET (FDG-PET). The document describes how the evaluation of response to chemotherapy influences the targeting of the lymphoma and the volume of normal tissue treated, by using recently developed capacity to fuse CT and FDG-PET images taken before and after chemotherapy to CT imaging taken for radiation therapy planning.

"The emergence of new imaging technologies, more accurate ways of delivering radiation therapy and more detailed patient selection criteria have made a significant change in our ability to customize treatment for many cancer patients," said David C. Hodgson, MD, associate professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto in Toronto, a radiation oncologist at Princess Margaret Hospital/University Health Network in Toronto and lead author of the guideline. "This guideline has the potential to reduce the radiation therapy breast dose by about 80 percent and the heart dose by about 65 percent for an adolescent girl with Hodgkin lymphoma. This shift in more personalized treatment planning tailored to the individual patient's disease will optimize risk-benefit considerations for our patients, and reduce the likelihood that they will suffer late effects from radiation therapy. We are also excited that these guidelines will be utilized in an upcoming Children's Oncology Group Study of involved-site radiation therapy for high-risk Hodgkin lymphoma patients and eagerly await the study's results."

###

For a copy of the study manuscript, contact ASTRO's Press Office at press@astro.org. For more information about PRO, visit http://www.practicalradonc.org.

ABOUT ASTRO

ASTRO is the premier radiation oncology society in the world, with nearly 11,000 members who are physicians, nurses, biologists, physicists, radiation therapists, dosimetrists and other health care professionals that specialize in treating patients with radiation therapies. As the leading organization in radiation oncology, the Society is dedicated to improving patient care through professional education and training, support for clinical practice and health policy standards, advancement of science and research, and advocacy. ASTRO publishes two medical journals, International Journal of Radiation Oncology * Biology * Physics and Practical Radiation Oncology; developed and maintains an extensive patient website, http://www.rtanswers.org; and created the Radiation Oncology Institute, a non-profit foundation to support research and education efforts around the world that enhance and confirm the critical role of radiation therapy in improving cancer treatment. To learn more about ASTRO, visit http://www.astro.org.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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ILROG issues treatment guidelines for pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma

IMAGE:This image shows the huge galaxy cluster MACS J1149+2223, whose light took over 5 billion years to reach us. view more

Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Rodney (John Hopkins University, USA) and the FrontierSN team; T. Treu (University of California Los Angeles, USA), P. Kelly (University of California Berkeley, USA) and the GLASS...

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have, for the first time, spotted four images of a distant exploding star. The images are arranged in a cross-shaped pattern by the powerful gravity of a foreground galaxy embedded in a massive cluster of galaxies. The supernova discovery paper will appear on 6 March 2015 in a special issue of Science celebrating the centenary of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.

Whilst looking closely at a massive elliptical galaxy and its associated galaxy cluster MACS J1149+2223 -- whose light took over 5 billion years to reach us -- astronomers have spotted a strange and rare sight. The huge mass of the galaxy and the cluster is bending the light from a much more distant supernova behind them and creating four separate images of it. The light has been magnified and distorted due to gravitational lensing [1] and as a result the images are arranged around the elliptical galaxy in a formation known as an Einstein cross.

Although astronomers have discovered dozens of multiply imaged galaxies and quasars, they have never before seen multiple images of a stellar explosion.

"It really threw me for a loop when I spotted the four images surrounding the galaxy -- it was a complete surprise," said Patrick Kelly of the University of California Berkeley, USA, a member of the Grism Lens Amplified Survey from Space (GLASS) collaboration and lead author on the supernova discovery paper. He discovered the supernova during a routine search of the GLASS team's data, finding what the GLASS group and the Frontier Fields Supernova team have been searching for since 2013 [2]. The teams are now working together to analyse the images of the supernova, whose light took over 9 billion years to reach us [3].

"The supernova appears about 20 times brighter than its natural brightness," explains the paper's co-author Jens Hjorth from the Dark Cosmology Centre, Denmark. "This is due to the combined effects of two overlapping lenses. The massive galaxy cluster focuses the supernova light along at least three separate paths, and then when one of those light paths happens to be precisely aligned with a single elliptical galaxy within the cluster, a secondary lensing effect occurs." The dark matter associated with the elliptical galaxy bends and refocuses the light into four more paths, generating the rare Einstein cross pattern the team observed.

This unique observation will help astronomers refine their estimates of the amount and distribution of dark matter in the lensing galaxy and cluster. There is more dark matter in the Universe than visible matter, but it is extremely elusive and is only known to exist via its gravitational effects on the visible Universe, so the lensing effects of a galaxy or galaxy cluster are a big clue to the amount of dark matter it contains.

When the four supernova images fade away as the explosion dies down, astronomers will have a rare chance to catch a rerun of the explosion. The supernova images do not arrive at the Earth at the same time because, for each image produced, the light takes a different route. Each route has a different layout of matter -- both dark and visible -- along its path. this causes bends in the road, and so for some routes the light takes longer to reach us than for others. Astronomers can use their model of how much dark matter is in the cluster, and where it is, to predict when the next image will appear as well as using the time delays they observe to make the mass models even more accurate [4].

"The four supernova images captured by Hubble appeared within a few days or weeks of each other and we found them after they had appeared," explains Steve Rodney of Johns Hopkins University, USA, leader of the Frontier Fields Supernova team. "But we think the supernova may have appeared in a single image some 20 years ago elsewhere in the cluster field, and, even more excitingly, it is expected to reappear once more in the next one to five years -- and at that time we hope to catch it in action."

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An explosive quartet

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Newswise Fairfax, Va., March 4, 2015The International Lymphoma Radiation Oncology Group (ILROG) has issued a guideline that outlines the use of 3-D computed tomography (CT)-based radiation therapy planning and volumetric image guidance to more effectively treat pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma and to reduce the radiation dose to normal tissue, thus decreasing the risk of late side effects. The guideline will be published in the March-April issue of Practical Radiation Oncology (PRO), the clinical practice journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

Historically, pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma patients were treated with the same chemotherapy and radiation regimens as adults with Hodgkin lymphoma, which potentially exposes their young, still-growing bodies to more treatment than necessary. Previous radiation therapy guidelines for pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma have focused on 2-D imaging and bony landmarks to define dose volumes for radiation therapy treatment, and treated large volumes of normal tissue in part because of uncertainty about which lymph node areas were involved.

The guideline, Implementation of contemporary radiation therapy planning concepts for pediatric Hodgkin Lymphoma: Guidelines from the International Lymphoma Radiation Oncology Group, describes how to effectively use modern imaging and innovations and advances in radiation therapy planning technology to treat patients with pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma while decreasing the risk of late side effects, including second cancers and heart disease.

The authors describe methods for identifying target volumes for radiation therapy, and how to implement the concept of involved site radiation therapy to define radiation target volumes and limit dose to normal organs at risk. According to the guideline, accurate assessment of the extent and location of disease requires both contrast-enhanced CT as well as fluorodeoxyglucose-PET (FDG-PET). The document describes how the evaluation of response to chemotherapy influences the targeting of the lymphoma and the volume of normal tissue treated, by using recently developed capacity to fuse CT and FDG-PET images taken before and after chemotherapy to CT imaging taken for radiation therapy planning.

The emergence of new imaging technologies, more accurate ways of delivering radiation therapy and more detailed patient selection criteria have made a significant change in our ability to customize treatment for many cancer patients, said David C. Hodgson, MD, associate professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto in Toronto, a radiation oncologist at Princess Margaret Hospital/University Health Network in Toronto and lead author of the guideline. This guideline has the potential to reduce the radiation therapy breast dose by about 80 percent and the heart dose by about 65 percent for an adolescent girl with Hodgkin lymphoma. This shift in more personalized treatment planning tailored to the individual patients disease will optimize risk-benefit considerations for our patients, and reduce the likelihood that they will suffer late effects from radiation therapy. We are also excited that these guidelines will be utilized in an upcoming Childrens Oncology Group Study of involved-site radiation therapy for high-risk Hodgkin lymphoma patients and eagerly await the studys results.

For a copy of the study manuscript, contact ASTROs Press Office at press@astro.org. For more information about PRO, visit http://www.practicalradonc.org.

ABOUT ASTRO ASTRO is the premier radiation oncology society in the world, with nearly 11,000 members who are physicians, nurses, biologists, physicists, radiation therapists, dosimetrists and other health care professionals that specialize in treating patients with radiation therapies. As the leading organization in radiation oncology, the Society is dedicated to improving patient care through professional education and training, support for clinical practice and health policy standards, advancement of science and research, and advocacy. ASTRO publishes two medical journals, International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics (www.redjournal.org) and Practical Radiation Oncology (www.practicalradonc.org); developed and maintains an extensive patient website, http://www.rtanswers.org; and created the Radiation Oncology Institute (www.roinstitute.org), a non-profit foundation to support research and education efforts around the world that enhance and confirm the critical role of radiation therapy in improving cancer treatment. To learn more about ASTRO, visit http://www.astro.org. ###

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International Lymphoma Radiation Oncology Group (ILROG) Issues Treatment Guidelines for Pediatric Hodgkin Lymphoma ...

Charlie Stetz came of age at the height of the Space Race. Like so many other kids of his generation, the possibilities of the Apollo missions of the 1960s transfixed him.

Often, at night, he would lie in the yard of his home in the Heights section of Wilkes-Barre, staring at the craters of the moon through the lens of his 40-milimeter sporting goods-store telescope.

It made him wonder about our place in the universe, the infinite possibilities.

All these years later, he still wonders, still searches. Only now, Stetzs toys are a bit more advanced.

Last year, the 69-year-old fulfilled a longtime goal of building an enclosed observatory on his Waverly Township, Lackawanna County, property, replacing an open-air deck Stetz constantly schlepped his equipment to and from.

It was a dream to have this. Its nice to finely get it, Stetz said as he gave a tour of the observatory on a recent day. My wife is the one who gave me the kick in the pants to do it. She was like, What are you waiting for?

Built for about $8,000, the 12-by-12-foot wood and siding structure has a metal roof that manually slides on wheels until it reveals the heavens above. The walls are high enough to keep out nearby light.

A 19-year-old Astro-Physics 6-inch refractor telescope takes up permanent space in the observatory theres no heat, but there is electricity and allows Stetz to see countless amazing things, from the red spot on Jupiter to the rings of Saturn to the Andromeda Galaxy millions of light years away. The telescope, which also cost about $8,000, connects to a computer that helps Stetz with coordinates and positioning, and to a Canon T2i camera that allows him to indulge his love of astrophotography.

Childhood fascination

Stetz was in his mid-teens when he bought his first telescope from a sporting goods store in Wilkes-Barre. It was still a few years from Neil Armstrongs walk on the moon, but the vast potential of space travel lit up his young mind.

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Area mans home observatory indulges his longtime fascination with space

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Newswise Fairfax, Va., February 23, 2015Cancer patients with limited brain metastases (one to four tumors) who are 50 years old should receive stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) without whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT), according to a study available online, open-access, and published in the March 15, 2015 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics (Red Journal), the official scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). For patients 50 years old who received SRS alone, survival was improved by 13 percentage points when compared to those patients 50 who received both SRS and WBRT.

This study, Phase 3 Trials of Stereotactic Radiation Surgery With or Without Whole-Brain Radiation Therapy For 1 to 4 Brain Metastases: Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis, analyzed patient data from the three largest randomized clinical trials (RCT) of SRS and WBRT conducted to-date: the Asian trial (JROSG99-1) by Aoyama et al.[1], published in 2006; the North American trial (MDACC NCT00548756) by Chang et al.[2], published in 2009; and the European trial (EORTC 22952-26001) by Kocher et al.[3], published in 2011. A total of 364 patients from the three RCTs were evaluated for this meta-analysis. Of those 364 patients, 51 percent (186) were treated with SRS alone, and 49 percent (178) received both SRS and WBRT. Nineteen percent of patients (68) were 50 years of age, and 61 percent (19) of these patients had a single brain metastasis. Twenty percent of all patients (72) had local brain failure, which is the occurrence of progression of previously treated brain metastases; and 43 percent (156) experienced distant brain failure, which is the occurrence of new brain metastases in areas of the brain outside the primary tumor site(s).

The impact of age on treatment effectiveness revealed SRS alone yielded improved overall survival (OS) in patients 50 years old and younger. Patients 50 years old who received SRS alone had a median survival of 13.6 months after treatment, a 65 percent improvement, as opposed to 8.2 months for patients 50 who were treated with SRS plus WBRT. Patients >50 years old had a median survival of 10.1 months when treated with SRS alone, and 8.6 months for those who received SRS plus WBRT.

We expected to see a survival advantage favoring combined therapy of SRS and WBRT. However, these data clearly demonstrate the benefit for SRS alone to improve survival for our younger patients with limited brain metastases, said lead author of the study Arjun Sahgal, MD, associate professor of radiation oncology and surgery at the University of Toronto, and a radiation oncologist at the Odette Cancer Centre of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. Furthermore, it was previously thought that the positive effect of whole brain radiation in reducing the risk of distant brain relapse was generalizable for all patients. However, we did not observe this effect in patients 50 years and younger with limited brain metastases. In these patients, the same rate of distant brain failure was observed despite treatment with whole brain radiation. This result, together with our survival result, gave rise to the hypothesis that if patients are treated with whole brain radiation without realizing the benefits of improving distant brain control, then survival may be adversely affected. Therefore, our sub-group meta-analysis has swung the pendulum in favor of SRS alone as the standard of care. These findings also reinforce ASTROs Choosing Wisely recommendation[4] that states that it may not be necessary to add WBRT to SRS, thus improving patients quality of life and memory function.

In addition to being open-access (free to the public), Sahgal et al.s paper is also available for SA-CME credit at http://www.astro.org/JournalCME.

Drs. Nils D. Arvold and Paul J. Catalano have reviewed Sahgal et al.s research. Their editorial, Local Therapies for Brain Metastases, Competing Risks, and Overall Survival, is also published in the March 15, 2015, issue of the Red Journal.

For a copy of the study manuscript and the editorial, contact ASTROs Press Office at press@astro.org. For more information about the Red Journal, visit http://www.redjournal.org.

[1] Aoyama H, Shirato H, Tago M, et al. Stereotactic radiosurgery plus whole-brain radiation therapy vs stereotactic radiosurgery alone for treatment of bone metastases: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2006;295:2483-2491. [2] Chang EL, Wefel JS, Hess KR, et al. Neurocognition in patients with brain metastases treated with radiosurgery or radiosurgery plus whole-brain irradiation: a randomised controlled trial. Lancet Oncol 2009;10:1037-1044. [3] Kocher M, Soffietti R, Abacioglu U, et al. Adjuvant whole-brain radiotherapy versus observation after radiosurgery or surgical resection of one to three cerebral metastases: results of the EORTC 22952-26001 study. J Clin Oncol 2010;29:134-141. [4] ASTROs Choosing Wisely List. ABIM Foundation. http://www.choosingwisely.org/doctor-patient-lists/american-society-for-radiation-oncology/

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Improved Survival for Patients with Brain Metastases Who Are less than or equal to 50 Years Old and Receive ...

By Blaine Friedlander Jr. February 28

In winters waning weeks, Venus and Jupiter continue to accentuate the night heavens, we change our clocks forward and we grab spring with no intention of letting go.

Check the west-southwestern heavens at dusk to spy the vivacious Venus and the dim Mars. In late February, the two planets met for a sweet cosmic waltz, but in March, they appear to separate. Venus approaches negative fourth magnitude (very bright) while Mars makes do at magnitude 1.3 (dim, hard to find in urban light pollution). With a clear sky, Mars looks like a red pinpoint.

A young, waxing crescent moon visits Mars on the evening of March 21, and on the next evening the crescent flirts with Venus.

Robust Jupiter ascends the evenings eastern sky. Find this gas giant at a -2.5 magnitude, very bright, in the constellation Cancer. The lion in the constellation Leo appears to stare at the planet. By the Ides of March, find it south around 10:30 p.m.

The waxing gibbous moon drops by the dazzling Jupiter on March 2, days before the moon itself becomes full on March 5.

Catch the ringed Saturn rising after midnight in the east-southeast now, hanging out near a gang of constellations, Scorpius, Ophiuchus and Libra. Its a zero magnitude object, bright enough that it can be seen under urban skies. The waning moon loiters near Saturn before dawn on March 12. On that morning, the reddish star below them is Antares.

We adjust our clocks to Daylight Saving Time at 2 a.m. March 8. Spring forward, moving the clock ahead one hour.

Winter is almost over. Spring is weeks away. The vernal equinox brings springs official arrival on March 20 at 6:45 p.m.

Also on March 20 the day a new moon the North Atlantic and the Arctic waters get a short total eclipse. We wont see it here, but Slooh.com will carry it live. Totality will start seconds after 5:44 a.m. and end at 5:47 a.m., according to Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory. For details, visit http://www.eclipsewise.com.

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Skywatch: Venus and Jupiter continue to accentuate the night heavens

Tickets have arrived (06/02/2015) Day 159
Today started with a particles physics lecture. Which was the last one, and from next week it is onto the astro physics.After that i wrote up my lecture note...

By: Jake Ward

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Tickets have arrived (06/02/2015) Day 159 - Video

Latest: Ireland presses for membership of the European Southern Observatory

Welcome to the website of the Astronomical Science Group of Ireland (ASGI). The ASGI was founded in 1974 to encourage collaboration in astronomy and astrophysics between research groups from Ireland and Northern Ireland. Consisting of a number of affiliated universities and other organisations, the group is one of the oldest cross-border bodies on the island of Ireland.

The Irish astrophysics community is small but active, conducting research in areas such as stellar physics, solar system science, galactic physics, cosmology, high-energy astrophysics, extra-solar planets, and solar physics. Our researchers use scientific instruments onEuropean Space Agency (ESA)andNASAmissions, and at a variety of ground-based observatories. Primary objectives of the community are to join theEuropean Southern Observatory (ESO)and to build an advanced low-frequency radio telescope calledLOFARin Ireland.

Public outreach is a major part of astrophysics research, and there are many links here to events happening all over the island of Ireland as well as information on how to contact scientists about giving talks at events and in schools.

The website is currently recovering from a severe server crash an online form enabling you to be added to the ASGI membership/mailing list will be added in due course. For now, please send requests to Ray Butler.

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Astronomical Science Group of Ireland | Research ...

Astros Physics - Greenlight Trailer
Astro #39;s Physics is a fun and exciting platformer game with 360 degree gravity where the force of gravity is based on the mass of the planet.

By: Tent-Maker Games

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Astros Physics - Greenlight Trailer - Video

Fabio Iocco, Miguel Pato, Gianfranco Bertone

(Submitted on 12 Feb 2015)

The ubiquitous presence of dark matter in the universe is today a central tenet in modern cosmology and astrophysics. Ranging from the smallest galaxies to the observable universe, the evidence for dark matter is compelling in dwarfs, spiral galaxies, galaxy clusters as well as at cosmological scales. However, it has been historically difficult to pin down the dark matter contribution to the total mass density in the Milky Way, particularly in the innermost regions of the Galaxy and in the solar neighbourhood. Here we present an up-to-date compilation of Milky Way rotation curve measurements, and compare it with state-of-the-art baryonic mass distribution models.

We show that current data strongly disfavour baryons as the sole contribution to the galactic mass budget, even inside the solar circle. Our findings demonstrate the existence of dark matter in the inner Galaxy while making no assumptions on its distribution. We anticipate that this result will compel new model-independent constraints on the dark matter local density and profile, thus reducing uncertainties on direct and indirect dark matter searches, and will shed new light on the structure and evolution of the Galaxy.

Comments: First submitted version of letter published in Nature Physics on Febuary 9, 2015: this http URL

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex); High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)

Journal reference: Nature Physics 3237 (2015)

DOI: 10.1038/nphys3237

Cite as: arXiv:1502.03821 [astro-ph.GA] (or arXiv:1502.03821v1 [astro-ph.GA] for this version)

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Evidence for dark matter in the inner Milky Way

Life is strong and fragile. Its a paradox Its both things, like quantum physics: Its a particle and a wave at the same time. It all exists all together. -Joan Jett

Weve reached the end of yet another weekhereatStarts With A Bang,which means its time to take a look back at everything weve covered. It also means its time foryou to catch up on any of the (amazing) articles you missed, which includes:

Im so excited by what weve taken a look at so far not only this week but in all of 2015, and you continue to respond with some incredibly thought-provoking material. Lets dive in to the best of it on this edition of ourComments of the Week!

Images credit: NASA / GSFC, created at https://imgflip.com/gifgenerator.

From Hank Roberts on (interestingly) viewing the Moon: So DSCOVR is going to be at the L1 Lagrange Point 1.5 million kilometers (932,000 miles) sunward from Earth.andThe average distance to the Moon is 384403 km (238,857 miles) So anyone know the quality of the camera on DSCOVR? Field of view? How often will we see Earth and Moon in that field of view?

As beautiful as the animationabove is, you have to realize that even this isnt animage of the Moon or of the Moon-and-Earth, but rather a computer simulation that was constructed based on the mosaic of the Moon that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) was able to construct usingthousands of unique images.

Image credit: NASA / WMAP, via http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/mission/observatory_l2.html.

What weve got as far DSCOVR goes the deep space climate observatory isnot something thats going to be observing the Moon and the Earth, but rather something thats going to be at the L1 Lagrange Point (above), in between the Earth and Sun, in order toobserve the Sun. L1 is particularly useful because it gives us an uninterruptedview of the Sun, and places us in between the Sun and the Earth.In particular, its designed to be an early warning system for intense ion fluxes headed towards Earth, giving us 15-to-60 minutes of lead time to prepare in the event of a potentially catastrophic solar storm. Have a look at the NASA video itself:

Image credit: 2013 Constantinos Emmanoulidis, 2014 Miloslav Druckmller, via http://www.zam.fme.vutbr.cz/~druck/Eclipse/Ecl2013g/TSE_2013wa_ed/0-info.htm.

From Ragtag Media on a super-short solar eclipse: Cool. Thanks.

The rest is here:

Comments of the Week #48: From gravitational waves to seeing black holes [Starts With A Bang]

Lucille Le Corre, Vishnu Reddy, Juan A. Sanchez, Tasha Dunn, Edward A. Cloutis, Matthew R.M. Izawa, Paul Mann, Andreas Nathues

(Submitted on 11 Feb 2015)

The detection of olivine on Vesta is interesting because it may provide critical insights into planetary differentiation early in our Solar System's history. Ground-based and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of asteroid (4) Vesta have suggested the presence of olivine on the surface. These observations were reinforced by the discovery of olivine-rich HED meteorites from Vesta in recent years. However, analysis of data from NASA's Dawn spacecraft has shown that this olivine-bearing unit is actually impact melt in the ejecta of Oppia crater.

The lack of widespread mantle olivine, exposed during the formation of the 19 km deep Rheasilvia basin on Vesta's South Pole, further complicated this picture. Ammannito et al., (2013a) reported the discovery of local scale olivine-rich units in the form of excavated material from the mantle using the Visible and InfraRed spectrometer (VIR) on Dawn. Here we explore alternative sources for the olivine in the northern hemisphere of Vesta by reanalyzing the data from the VIR instrument using laboratory spectral measurements of meteorites. We suggest that these olivine exposures could be explained by the delivery of olivine-rich exogenic material. Based on our spectral band parameters analysis, the lack of correlation between the location of these olivine-rich terrains and possible mantle-excavating events, and supported by observations of HED meteorites, we propose that a probable source for olivine seen in the northern hemisphere are remnants of impactors made of olivine-rich meteorites. Best match suggests these units are HED material mixed with either ordinary chondrites, or with some olivine-dominated meteorites such as R-chondrites.

Comments: 62 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables; Icarus, Available online 30 January 2015, ISSN 0019-1035, this http URL

Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Geophysics (physics.geo-ph)

DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2015.01.018

Cite as: arXiv:1502.03189 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:1502.03189v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)

Submission history

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Exploring Exogenic Sources for the Olivine on Asteroid (4) Vesta

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Transcript for Gas Prices Pumping Higher

Okay. It is Monday February 9 the markets in New York are open and a big number this morning two dollars twenty cents. Kathleen a state which. Even though may seem low it's actually up thirteen cents over the past two weeks all according to a new lumber Saturday. No this price hike is the first rise in gas prices on nine month slide. Well when I'm Dan Butler in new York and America the minute joints you've got to the possible month big question is not a listing this change is the party over. Ordering in retail expert at mad Lexus cars big and fast just like his breakfast Yahoo! finance is Jack MacKey mister MacKey happy Monday morning to you. And happy in my video my friends are faced a we've seen it when prices go up a little bit there what's going on there is it over means we now start stockpiling. Yeah I got done good enormous hole in my back yard filled with gas just. A little bit. We're probably a few bombs away from me just opium rogue warrior future where real this wrongly earth looking for gas. But the price has gone up more than 10% and bats while crude prices all underneath there Murray got to take bubble improved refining and come up with gas. Those prices are 20% higher so look for gas prices to catch up pretty fast to what crude is doing and that's really count what striding things. Again it doesn't feel like much after the decline we've had decided starts to matter in our 10% moves down resembled. What this gas at that because if you look at the actual portion of that rise that is it sustained increase then. Well in its traders play both sides of these things and so Croat Ed drops over 50% gas prices. Lagging that as they do to the downside. But it it's really going to be a fundamental issue and so we're trying to find a fair price for crude. It doesn't seem at least economically speaking demand for crude oil as a base substance hasn't fallen as far as the price has. So I would guess that approval kind of settled somewhere in the seventy's that's my guess. Other gases were. Vary all over the place. But I would think that we shouldn't expect much more we certainly aren't old anymore by the trading face in terms of falling gas prices I would expect them to inch at least a little bit higher. If not just rocket straight back to where we work. OK well let's talk about that the because if we artists are paying more at the pump house in effect are spending in other areas in the overall economy. But I united dads you know we haven't really seen exactly where that money's gone anyway summit's gone to people's savings. Some of it has gone into the higher end retail. But people are more complicated that may economists would have you think economics is a social science no matter what they try to convince you about its. Astro physics high math probability issues and so no one really knows what the savings wouldn't so positive affect consumers. You can't really tell for sure because we didn't see the bang for the buck going to places like Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's or the other motor type of establishments you would have expected to see more spending out of it anyway so it's not really clear but I do know that we bought or sold a lot of gas guzzlers last year. Val make things interesting for those buyers. Yeah wasn't asked about that means is they're going to be kind of lagged effect on and the next year to buy those that have gone out there and bought those vehicles those suvs and trucks may not necessarily get the best bang for the buck. Now they're not you know and again at CA I wish they. Were older than they ever had been more than a decade old and so a lot of times when you upgrade your track after that long a period your fuel efficiency. Goes up so much anyway just truck vs truck. That that's going to be part of an ever driving a truck Cassel still be cheaper because your car simply more efficient. But if you're one of as many Americans who decided you know what I'm gonna get rid of this little Ford tours are gonna buy me something with some muscle on it. 500 horse powers and four wheel drive and spoilers and whatnot. Also you're going to be paying quite a bit for gas and it's Americans as being Americans we saw those gas prices going lower and we're not inspected on gas price counseling. Type of vehicles. Those folks are gonna space a little bit of a spending crunch million dollars drive last I don't think it one's gonna go bankrupt over gas if you actually look at it in terms of your average expense per year its way under 5%. That the average American of the discretionary income goes towards gasoline so its not a deal breaker one way or the other right and you've always got your bike right meek and always rise. You can always walking into a public transit can do all kinds of different things. You can maybe turn off the eternal flame that people have put up in their backyard you don't need one of those refinery empires. It you're all that stuff that we have in the days cheap gas. The options of bounce our what do they look I think yup market just in general that's doctor Philip Moore lower this morning at what what's the big force behind that. Rally in the Dow at a huge week last week and is one of the biggest amounts. And all in for 2015 so far going into today the Dow Jones Industrial Average had gained a total. One point. On. So OI guess profit taking maybe this morning diverted points and area antlers about it. Both my gains while I album. You know it it's a lot of noise out their base that we're still barter earnings. I don't think the market is. Doing much to remember we were up 30% in 2013 another 1415%. Last year some consolidation makes sense even if it's not fun why are going through it. And I would expect us to kind of be in this trading range for what little while longer at least play as long as you're sitting shotgun with us for appreciate that mr. Max Yahoo! finance Jeff bank's commitment is there due to brother. Of course you can keep up with electric here on abcnews.com. Election a big number I'm Dan Cutler.

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Watch: Gas Prices Pumping Higher

Reviewed on PC

Gravity Ghost is one of the oddest and most relaxing space adventures Ive ever embarked upon. While its view of the cosmos is grounded in science you learn plenty about slingshot trajectories and astro-geometry its really brought to life by a vibrant sense of spirituality. Physics and mysticism combine in an experience thats both funny and sad, eccentric and poignant, soothing and frequently baffling. Even though the challenge remains slight throughout and it never really makes the most of its most promising mechanics, I found Gravity Ghost a delightful curiosity throughout.

Before heading through the space gate, where things get surreal very quickly, a little context is useful. You play as a young girl who has died in an unspecified incident and been reincarnated among the stars. The visuals have a charming roughness to them you can see individual, textured brushstrokes and when combined with the simple, cartoon character design and its joyful use of colour, it feels like playing a game illustrated by a child. Is this the dead girl coming to terms with what has happened to her? I think thats the intention, and I found it strangely moving. Yes, Gravity Ghost initially seems a bit silly, but crucially its never flippant; it never loses sight of its underlying narrative about how this girl died.

Her moving story is pieced together by journeying from planet to planet, solving simple but novel physics-based puzzles, and illuminating constellations. No matter where you are in the cosmos the challenge is always the same: you must collect a tiny star located somewhere in the level, usually orbiting another planet to unlock a door which leads to the next system. This is complicated by the intrusion of gravity, which makes leaping from planetoid to planetoid manageable, but less than straightforward.

Just like in Mario Galaxy, when youre close to a sizeable chunk of mass, youre drawn towards it and can land on its surface. But thats where the similarities end, as Gravity Ghost expects you to take more daring leaps into the black stuff. It's much less daunting than it sounds because of the lack of a "death" situation, and I felt encouraged to experiment with the invisible forces, determined by the layout of orbiting bodies in a given level, push and pull you around the screen. Youre not entirely at the mercy of gravity, however; you can resist and sometimes even break away from the gravity of a nearby planet, and drift freely in space until snared by another rock.

But even as I solved puzzle after puzzle, I never felt like I truly understood how best to exploit this invisible force and turn it to my advantage. Collecting space debris makes the girls hair grow which I assume is supposed to function as some kind of aid, giving form to the invisible forces at work and while it was useful to see the trajectory I had been on, I found it next to useless when plotting my next course.

Special abilities are soon introduced to give you more control while drifting through space, and they do make getting around a bit easier. By the end, youre able to hover briefly in the air, adopt a super-dense form, and dash left or right all of which allow you to deviate from a set orbit. The pacing of these abilities is well-judged, too, with each one being introduced once Id was comfortable with the last. Yet no matter how many abilities I gained, I never got rid of the feeling that I was wrestling with gravity. Maybe thats how its supposed to feel, like its this great force that can never be truly tamed, but it also felt like I was never really improving, either. Right until the end, I found trial-and-error and patience were just as valuable as my newfound abilities.

What's strange is that Gravity Ghosts lays groundwork for more complexity and different types of puzzles, yet never capitalizes on it. For instance, you can cycle through different unlockable outfits to transform planets into lush jungle worlds, balls of unset lava, or a number of things in between, each with their own gravitational properties.. Initially, I assumed it was going to be how you tame gravity, so I began experimenting, creating fire planets, which make you jump a little higher, and crystal planets, which are superdense and warp the fabric of space around them and slow you down. But I soon realised it didnt really matter. Barring a few exceptions, most levels can be solved without any terraforming whatsoever. Its a shame, since its presented as a substantial mechanic, and is used to uncover more about the girls past, but in terms of the individual level design it feels oddly inessential.

That said, it rarely hindered my enjoyment, since this is the kind of puzzle where the idea of challenge seems incidental; its much more concerned with wrapping a sad tale in a distinctive, weirdly pleasurable sensory experience. In short, Gravity Ghost wants you to enjoy the act of feeding lettuce to a giant space rabbit, rather than make that into a challenge.

And when it comes to mood, Gravity Ghost truly excels. The music is superb, with piano and synth working in tandem to create a score that is both stirring and emotive; the art is vibrant and stimulating, yet its soft and friendly style prevent it from ever feeling garish. The voice acting is downright bizarre, too, with the delivery ranging from what sounds like archive recordings to the kind of intense bounciness you would expect from Saturday-morning cartoons. It feels like an episode of Adventure Times rerouted through the final act of 2001: A Space Odyssey; one minute youre learning about optics from a giant owl while fixing a lighthouse next to a black hole, the next youre uncovering more of about its buried, earth-bound story about this girl and her tragic death. Its amusing and odd, but also stark and poignant.

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Gravity Ghost

Volume rendering of the entropy distribution in a 3D magnetorotational core-collapse supernova simulation, about 200 ms after core bounce. (Msta et al., SXS Collaboration, read more and see Christian Ott's blog post) "Race tracks" followed by a pair of two unequal mass black holes with misaligned spins. The orbits are precessing. The two black holes have formed a common horizon, which is shown as a third surface around the two individucal horizons. (SXS Collaboration, learn more) 3D structure of the remnant accretion disk of a black-holeneutron-star merger color-coded for outgoing neutrino luminosity (Deaton et al., SXS Collaboration, read more) Volume rendering of the specific entropy distribution in a 3D GR core-collapse supernova simulation. The blue outer layer indicates the expanding shock front. (Ott et al. 2013, SXS Collaboration, read more) Black hole horizon appearing in a 3D full-GR simulation of the collapse of a very massive star by Ott et al. 2011 Read more Vertex and Tendex fields describing outgoing gravitational waves from a black hole horizon Read more Specific entropy distribution in the equatorial plane of a rapidly spinning, non-axisymmetric proto-neutron star, formed in a 3D GR collapse simulation by Ott et al. 2007 Read more Temperature and electron fraction (Y_e) in an accretion disk formed by the merger of a neutron-star and a black hole. (Deaton et al. 2013, SXS Collaboration, read more) Two black holes formed in the collapse and fragmentation of a cosmological supermassive star. (Reisswig et al. 2013, SXS Collaboration, read more)

TAPIR is part of the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy at Caltech. We are located in the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics.

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absorption line spectrum A spectrum showing dark lines at some narrow color regions (wavelengths). The lines are formed by atoms absorbing light, which lifts their electrons to higher orbits.

accretion Accumulation of dust and gas onto larger bodies such as stars, planets and moons.

accretion disk A relatively flat sheet of gas and dust surrounding a newborn star, a black hole, or any massive object growing in size by attracting material.

active galactic nuclei (AGN) A class of galaxies which spew massive amounts of energy from their centers, far more than ordinary galaxies. Many astronomers believe supermassive black holes may lie at the center of these galaxies and power their explosive energy output.

angular momentum A quantity obtained by multiplying the mass of an orbiting body by its velocity and the radius of its orbit. According to the conservation laws of physics, the angular momentum of any orbiting body must remain constant at all points in the orbit, i.e., it cannot be created or destroyed. If the orbit is elliptical the radius will vary. Since the mass is constant, the velocity changes. Thus planets in elliptical orbits travel faster at perihelion and more slowly at aphelion. A spinning body also possesses spin angular momentum.

apastron The point of greatest separation between two stars which are in orbit around each other. See binary stars. Opposite of periastron.

aphelion The point in its orbit where a planet is farthest from the Sun. Opposite of perihelion.

apoapsis The point in an orbit when the two objects are farthest apart. Special names are given to this orbital point for commonly used systems: see apastron, aphelion, and apogee.

apogee The point in its orbit where an Earth satellite is farthest from the Earth. Opposite of perigee.

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Imagine the Universe! Dictionary - NASA