circling a star with a far-flung stellar companion worlds that are part of "wide binary" systems are susceptible to violent and dramatic orbital disruptions, including outright ejection, the study found.

Such effects are generally limited to sprawling planetary systems with at least one distantly orbiting world, while more compact systems are relatively immune. This finding, which observational evidence supports, should help astronomers better understand the structure and evolution of across the galaxy, researchers said.

"The fact that planets observed within wide binaries tend to have more eccentric (or 'excited') orbits than those around isolated stars tells us that wide binaries do often disrupt planetary systems," lead author Nathan Kaib, of Northwestern University and the University of Toronto, told SPACE.com via email. []

"Thus, we believe most planetary systems are extended, with outer planets orbiting at tens of AU from their host stars," Kaib added. (One AU, or , equals the distance from Earth to the sun about 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers.)

The study was published today (Jan. 6) in the journal Nature and will be presented by Kaib at the 221st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, Calif., on Monday (Jan. 7).

Shifting stellar orbits

Two-star systems occur commonly throughout our galaxy; indeed, astronomers think the Milky Way harbors about as many binary systems as single stars. Recently, astronomers have begun discovering planets in binary systems, some of them with two suns in their skies, like Luke Skywalker's home planent in the "Star Wars" films.

Many double-star systems throughout the galaxy are , in which 1,000 AU or more separate the stellar companions on average.

The distance between stars in a wide binary often changes dramatically over time, however, since their orbits around a common center of mass can be far from circular.

"The stellar orbits of wide binaries are very sensitive to disturbances from other passing stars as well as the tidal field of the," Kaib said in a statement. "This causes their stellar orbits to constantly change their eccentricity, their degree of circularity. If a wide binary lasts long enough, it eventually will find itself with a very high orbital eccentricity at some point in its life.

Eccentric orbits bring the two stars quite close together from time to time, even if the wide binary has a large average separation distance. And these close encounters can wreak havoc on planetary systems, the researchers found after performing about 3,000 computer simulations.

In one set of runs, for example, the team added a wide-binary companion to our own solar system. In nearly half of the simulations, at least one giant planet Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune got booted out into space.

Signficant orbital disruption generally takes hundreds of millions or billions of years to manifest, Kaib and his colleagues calculated.

"Consequently, planets in these systems initially form and evolve as if they orbited an isolated star," Kaib said. "It is only much later that they begin to feel the effects of their companion star, which often times leads to disruption of the planetary system."

Shedding light on extrasolar systems

Such destabilization, which is more dramatic in wide binaries than in more tightly orbiting two-star systems, does not always take the form of planetary ejection. Often, exoplanets just get tugged from their orginal, near-circular orbits into more eccentric ones, the simulations showed.

The researchers also looked at orbital eccentricities of actual exoplanets. The team found that planets in wide binaries have more eccentric orbits than worlds that circle single stars, suggesting the computer models are on the money.

"The eccentric planetary orbits seen in these systems are essentially scars from past disruptions caused by the companion star," co-author Sean Raymond, of the University of Bordeaux and the National Center for Scientific Research in France, said in a statement.

The team's computer simulations further suggest that these disruptions generally happen only in planetary systems that extend at least 10 AU or so from the host star.

Taken together, the observational and modeling results imply that many extrasolar systems harbor distantly orbiting worlds, though such planets are tough for astronomers to detect at the moment, researchers said.

"Given that most planet-detection campaigns cannot detect planets beyond 5-10 AU from their host stars, our results provide new clues about the characteristics of planetary systems in a regime that is poorly constrained by current observations," Kaib told SPACE.com. "We believe that planets orbiting at distances of 10 AU or further from their host stars are common."

Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter or SPACE.com . We're also on and.

The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from two scientists who have been challenging the funding for the work.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia earlier this year threw out their lawsuit challenging federal funding for the research, which is used in pursuit of cures to deadly diseases. Opponents claimed the National Institutes of Health was violating the 1996 Dickey-Wicker law that prohibits taxpayer financing for work that harms an embryo.

Researchers hope one day to use stem cells in ways that cure spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease and other ailments.

Several of my relatives have now told me they felt "snubbed and offended" by my short notes. One aunt is particularly upset and said (via my mother) that my cards "clearly showed I don't care about people, and I should have written proper letters or sent nothing."

Was I wrong to think "some" card was better than no card at all? Also, how should I appease the aunt who is not speaking to me over this? -- HOLIDAY CARD WRITER, AKRON, OHIO

DEAR HOLIDAY CARD WRITER: I don't think you were wrong. As to appeasing your aunt, who appears to be one of those individuals who hang onto imagined slights and delivers her messages via other people, perhaps you should consider leaving her off your Christmas card list from now on for fear of offending her further. Some people are just not "pleasable," and your aunt may be one of them.

DEAR ABBY: My 20-year-old son, "P.J.," dresses in Army fatigues when he goes out. His clothes and boots -- including name patches -- make him look like a soldier. Because he seems so fascinated with the outfit, I asked him if he wants to consider joining the military. He said he's not interested, he just likes "the look."

I'm embarrassed when we're out together. Friends have commented, "I didn't know P.J. enlisted." My response is, "He's not in the military. He just likes to dress the part." When strangers have approached him and thanked him for his service and for protecting our country, he actually says, "You're welcome!"

When I try to talk to him about it, he gets angry and tells me to mind my own business. I feel he's representing himself as someone he's not. He does have a job. He buys his military gear online and at military shops.

How am I supposed to respond when people ask me obvious questions? Isn't it illegal to dress in Army attire when you're not affiliated with the military? -- MOM OF A CIVILIAN IN WEST VIRGINIA

DEAR MOM: I can see why you are embarrassed. You should be. What your son is doing may not be illegal, but it is dishonest.

When you are asked if he is in the military, you should continue to tell the truth. Because your son doesn't set people straight when he is thanked for his service, what he's doing is disrespectful, unethical and unfair to anyone who actually has served.

DEAR ABBY: I live in a small rural town with lots of nice neighbors. During the holidays, I receive a variety of delicious homemade gifts -- jams, cookies, breads and other specialties.

I am careful about my diet and consume no white flour or sugar. This means I must thank the person for the gifts, then figure out what to do with them. I hate throwing them out, and I don't know how to stop the practice. What's the best way to handle this annual dilemma? -- UNSURE IN NEW ENGLAND

DEAR UNSURE: If you work, consider bringing the goodies with you and sharing them with your co-workers. Or, donate them to a shelter or senior center where they might be enjoyed and appreciated.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

To order "How to Write Letters for All Occasions," send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby -- Letter Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. Shipping and handling are included in the price.

Fragility in the top order, the retirement of Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey from the middle order and injuries to the pace bowling unit mean there is plenty to ponder ahead of a tour to India and back-to-back Ashes series.

Clarke, ever the realist, was more than aware that any joy at the 3-0 triumph over Sri Lanka, which Australia secured at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday, had to be tempered by memory of the 1-0 defeat to South Africa that preceded it.

"It probably sums up where we are as a team," he told reporters after the five-wicket victory at the SCG.

"On our good days, we're very good and we can cut it with the best, the number one team in the world, South Africa.

"But on our poor days there's a lot of areas we need to improve, both individually and as a team, so I think what you've seen of the Australian cricket team this summer probably sums up where we're at.

"We're fighting to get better every day, that's the positive. I think we are improving slowly as a group but we know the next 12 months is huge for us.

"We've got a lot of tough cricket in conditions that are generally tough to play in, so we need to keep trying to get better."

The loss of Hussey, who retired after Sunday's victory, will probably be more keenly felt than that of Ponting, who had not been at the peak of his powers for a couple of years.

"I don't think someone will be able to come in and replace him," Clarke said of Hussey.

"He hasn't played as many tests as Ricky Ponting but for the time he's been here he's been unbelievable like Punter was his whole career.

"He's won a lot of games for Australia ... we'll never be able to replace him but what it does do is present an opportunity to somebody else."

Australia could conceivably start the first Ashes test at Trent Bridge in July with a top and middle order in which only Clarke and Phil Hughes have any experience of Ashes cricket.

Shane Watson is the other more experienced batsman likely to play a part but his test season was wrecked by injury and his status further clouded by the continuing debate over whether he is an all-rounder or just a top order batsman.

Before the double-header against England, Australia will first embark on the always tricky trip to India to face a team desperate to show that last year's humiliating 4-0 defeat Down Under was an aberration.

Although Australia's batsmen saw off Sri Lanka's pop-gun pace attack easily enough, the way they struggled sometimes against spinner Rangana Herath did not augur well for the four-test series in February and March.

"It will be really tough, especially in the second innings in the subcontinent, where it is generally very tough to play spin bowling," said Clarke.

"I think we're improving. There are areas we need to continually get better at.

"Spin bowling is probably one of those areas. In a couple of months time we're going to be faced with conditions that do spin a lot so there's no better place to get better than in the subcontinent."

MCGRATH COMPARISONS

The pace bowling department is in ruder health after test returns for 2009 ICC Cricketer of the Year Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc as well as the emergence of another new talent in Jackson Bird.

Bird was named Man of the Match for the Sydney test and has earned comparisons with Glenn McGrath after taking 11 wickets at an average of 16.18 in his first two tests.

Those comparisons may be premature but the 26-year-old did not look out of place on the test stage and joins young guns Pat Cummins and James Pattinson, who both missed the Sri Lanka series through injury, as a genuine contenders for a test place.

Clarke backed his pace bowlers by naming four against Sri Lanka in the final test and they vindicated his decision by bowling out the tourists twice.

"I'm really happy with the way we finished this summer in regard to the test format and I was really proud of the boys the way we fought it out against the number one test side in the world," said Clarke.

"I think we can take a lot from that series and I think we've shown a lot of improvement this series." (Editing by Peter Rutherford)

Who: Erskine Bowles, Co-Founder of the Campaign to Fix the DebtRobert Greifeld, CEO of NASDAQ OMXMaya MacGuineas, Head of the Campaign to Fix the Debt

What:Press conference for Campaign to Fix the Debt on its continued push for our elected leaders to come to a comprehensive debt agreement.

When:Tuesday, January 8, 2013, 1:30 p.m. ET

Where:NASDAQ MarketSite4 Times Square (corner of 43rd Street & Broadway)New York, NY 10036

The Campaign to Fix the Debt is a non-partisan movement to put America on a better fiscal and economic path that has been at the heart of the ongoing national debate about the federal debt and deficit. We come from a range of social, economic and political perspectives, around the common belief that America's growing federal debt threatens our future and that we must address it. The Campaign will mobilize key communities - including leaders from business, government, and policy - and people all across America who want to see elected officials step up to solve our nation's fiscal challenges.

For more information about the Campaign to Fix the Debt please visit .

SOURCE The Campaign to Fix the Debt

China's Huawei, the world's second largest telecommunications equipment maker, says neither it nor its partner, a private company registered in Hong Kong, ultimately provided the HP products to the telecom, Mobile Telecommunication Co of Iran, known as MCI. Nevertheless, the incident provides new evidence of how Chinese companies have been willing to help Iran evade trade sanctions.

The proposed deal also raises new questions about Shenzhen-based Huawei, which recently was criticized by the U.S. House Intelligence Committee for failing to "provide evidence to support its claims that it complies with all international sanctions or U.S. export laws."

At least 13 pages of the proposal to MCI, which involved expanding its subscriber billing system, were marked "Huawei confidential" and carried the company's logo, according to documents seen by Reuters. In a statement to Reuters, Huawei called it a "bidding document" and said one of its "major local partners," Skycom Tech Co Ltd, had submitted it to MCI.

The statement went on to say, "Huawei's business in Iran is in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations including those of the U.N., U.S. and E.U. This commitment has been carried out and followed strictly by our company. Further, we also require our partners to follow the same commitment and strictly abide by the relevant laws and regulations."

In October, Reuters reported that another Iranian partner of Huawei last year tried to sell embargoed American antenna equipment to Iran's second largest mobile operator, MTN Irancell, in a deal the buyer ultimately rejected. The U.S. antenna manufacturer, CommScope Inc, has an agreement with Huawei in which the Chinese firm can use its products in Huawei systems, according to a CommScope spokesman. He added that his company strives to comply fully with all U.S. laws and sanctions.

Huawei has a similar partnership with HP. In a statement, the Palo Alto, Calif., company said, "HP has an extensive control system in place to ensure our partners and resellers comply with all legal and regulatory requirements involving system security, global trade and customer privacy and the company's relationship with Huawei is no different."

The statement added, "HP's distribution contract terms prohibit the sale of HP products into Iran and require compliance with U.S. and other applicable export laws."

Washington has banned the export of computer equipment to Iran for years. The sanctions are designed to deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons; Iran says its nuclear program is aimed purely at producing domestic energy.

CLOSE LINKS

Huawei and its Iranian partner, Skycom, appear to have very close ties.

An Iranian job recruitment site called Irantalent.com describes Skycom as "a leading telecom solution provider" and goes on to list details that are identical to the way Huawei describes itself on its U.S. website: employee-owned, selling "solutions" used by "45 of the world's top 50 telecom operators" and serving "one-third of the world's population."

On LinkedIn.com, several telecom workers list having worked at "Huawei-skycom" on their resumes. A former Skycom employee said the two companies shared the same headquarters in China. And an Iranian telecom manager who has visited Skycom's office in Tehran said, "Everybody carries Huawei badges."

A Hong Kong accountant whose firm is listed in Skycom registration records as its corporate secretary said Friday he would check with the company to see if anyone would answer questions. Reuters did not hear back.

The proposal to MCI, dated October 2010, would have doubled the capacity of MCI's billing system for prepaid customers. The proposal noted that MCI was "growing fast" and that its current system, provided by Huawei, had "exceeded the system capacity" to handle 20 million prepaid subscribers.

"In order to keep serving (MCI) with high quality, we provide this expansion proposal to support 40M subscribers," the proposal states on a page marked "HUAWEI Confidential."

The proposal makes clear that HP computer servers were an integral part of the "Hardware Installation Design" of the expansion project. Tables listing equipment for MCI facilities at a new site in Tehran and in the city of Shiraz repeatedly reference HP servers under the heading, "Minicomputer Model."

The documents seen by Reuters also include a portion of an equipment price list that carries Huawei's logo and are stamped "SKYCOM IRAN OFFICE." The pages list prices for HP servers, disk arrays and switches, including those that already are "existing" and others that need to be added. The total proposed project price came to 19.9 million euros, including a "one time special discount."

The proposed new HP equipment, which totaled 1.3 million euros, included one server, 20 disk arrays, 22 switches and software. The existing HP equipment included 22 servers, 8 disk arrays and 13 switches, with accompanying prices.

Asked who had provided the existing HP equipment to MCI, Vic Guyang, a Huawei spokesman, said it wasn't Huawei. "We would like to add that the existing hardware equipment belongs to the customer. Huawei does not have information on, or the authority to check the source of the customer's equipment."

Officials with MCI did not respond to requests for comment.

In a series of stories this year, Reuters has documented how China has become a backdoor for Iran to obtain embargoed U.S. computer equipment. In March and April, Reuters reported that China's ZTE Corp, a Huawei competitor, had sold or agreed to sell millions of dollars worth of U.S. computer gear, including HP equipment, to Telecommunication Co of Iran, the country's largest telecommunications firm, and a unit of the consortium that controls TCI.

The articles sparked investigations by the U.S. Commerce Department, the Justice Department and some of the U.S. tech companies. ZTE says it is cooperating with the federal probes.

TCI is the parent company of MCI.

(Additional reporting by Grace Li and Chyen Yee Lee in Hong Kong and Marcus George in Dubai; Edited by Simon Robinson)

A Marion Animal Hospital veterinarian said Wednesday it's "unbelievable" that the cat dubbed Fortunate has just a couple of pulled muscles and a possible parasitic infection.

The cat was spotted in a Rochester, Mass., tree on Christmas Eve. Several rescue attempts failed before firefighters cut the branch it was perched on Sunday. Cat shelter founder Pam Robinson finally trapped the skittish feline on Tuesday.

Robinson tells The Standard Times (http://bit.ly/Wngz47 ) she will keep the cat for a few weeks so it can regain weight before putting it up for adoption.

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Information from: The (New Bedford, Mass.) Standard-Times, http://www.southcoasttoday.com

"Christmas launch!" wroteofficials with NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, which oversees the agency's balloon research program, in a Twitter post yesterday. "BLAST launched today from McMurdo Station, Antarctica."

This is the fifth and final mission for BLAST, short for the , and mission designers hope it will reveal why so few stars are born in our galaxy.

On Dec. 12, BLAST was still in one of the two giant Payload Assembly Buildings at the LDB facility, a short distance from the U.S. research center McMurdo Station. Principal investigator Mark Devlin of the University of Pennsylvania and a group of graduate students were mounting a giant sunshade on the telescope, to ensure that the ultra-cold detectors won't heat up during the flight.

"The detectors are cooled to 0.3 degrees aboven absolute zero, using liquid helium," said Devlin. "If they were any warmer, they wouldn't be able to register the faint submillimeter radiation of cold interstellar dust clouds at just 30 degrees above absolute zero."

Star mystery

After test flights in 2003 in New Mexico and in 2005 in Sweden, BLAST's third flight, in 2006 from , was a "mind-boggling" success, Devlin said. The instrument revealed beyond doubt that in most distant galaxies, new stars are born at a prolific rate. By measuring the star formation rate in galaxies more than 7 billion light-years away, the researchers determined that over half of the stars in the uuniverse were born within the first 5 billion years after the Big Bang.

"But there's an unsolved problem," added co-principal investifator Barth Netterfield of the University of Toronto, Canada, who was assisting the BLAST team with the launch preparations. "BLAST found lots of so-called dark cores in our own dense clouds of cold dust that are supposed to be stars-in-the-making. Based on the number of dark cores, you would expect our galaxy to spawn dozens of new stars each year on average. Yet, the galactic star formation rate is only some four solar masses per year."

So why is thein our Milky Way so low? Astronomers can think of two ways in which a dense cloud of dust is prevented from further contracting into a star: turbulence in the dust, or the collapse-impeding effects of magnetic fields. On its new mission, BLAST should find out which process is to blame. []

The idea is straightforward: magnetic fields tend to align electrically charged, elongated dust particles. If dust particles have a preferred orientation, they will slightly polarize the submillimeter radiation from the cloud. Using polarimeters, BLAST can detect if the radiation is indeed polarized, and if it is, determine the direction of the magnetic field. "If there's no polarization present," said Netterfield, "turbulence must be the reason" why so few dark cores collapse into new stars.

Final mission?

In 2010, on its fourth mission, BLAST was already equipped with polarimeters. However, accdording to Devlin, "that flight did not do so well because of a melted filter. We have some data, but we know we can do better."

Luckily, repeating a balloon-borne experiment is much easier and much cheaper than re-launching a scientific satellite. After each flight, most of the payload is recovered and can be used again. In particular, the BLAST camera with its sensitive and expensive detectors has been recovered every single time.

BLAST's fifth flight will probably last between 12 and 14 days. While Devlin, Netterfield and their colleagues are celebrating Christmans and New Year's Eve, the 4,000-pound (1800 kilograms) stratospheric telescope will observe selected star-forming regions in the constellations Vela and Lupus.

And if senior graduate student Tristan Matthews of Northwestern University Illinois has his way, this may not be BLAST's final mission after all. Depending on the results and the recovery success of the current flight, Matthews hopes to fly BLAST in its present configuration for a sixth time, in the Arctic. "That would give us access to a well-studied and nearby star-forming region in Taurus," he said.

Meanwhile, Devlin has received a $5 million grant from NASA over a period of five years to develop a larger version of BLAST, with a 2.5-meter mirror, as compared to the current 1.8-meter aperture. That would vastly increase the number of stellar nurseries that could be studied. "We could fly SuperBLAST in 2016 or so," he said.

Dutch astronomy writer Govert Schilling visited McMurdo Station and the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station as a selected member of the U.S. National Science Foundation's 2012/2013 media visit program.Follow SPACE.com on Twitter . We're also onand.

As "the other grandparents" who are given a golden opportunity to bond with their seldom-seen grandchildren, Billy and Bette work double-time, well aware that it's not just the juvenile characters they have to entertain, but also the paying audiences who could count on both of them for a good laugh back in the day.

That they manage to pull their weight even when the achingly formulaic plotting threatens to drag them under is a testament to their "let's-put-on-a-show" spirit. The end result should appeal to audiences, including bonding grandparents and grandkids, looking for a little undemanding holiday cheer.

Crystal is Artie Decker, who has just lost his longtime gig as "De Voice of the Fresno Grizzlies" when the minor-league baseball team decided to upgrade the outfit with the sort of talent that knows its way around a Facebook page or a Twitter account.

Already despondent, he's not exactly jumping up and down over the news that he and his wife Diane (Midler) have been recruited to babysit their daughter Alice's (Marisa Tomei) three kids when she and her tech-geek husband Phil (Tom Everett Scott) get a last-minute opportunity to have some out-of-town alone time.

As expected, uptight Alice's no-sugar-allowed helicopter parenting clashes mightily with Artie and Diane's old-school approach to child-rearing, not to mention the fact that Phil has programmed his smart home to be intuitive within an inch of its inhabitants' lives.

Also as expected are the resulting gags built around technologically challenged Artie. Fortunately, old pro Crystal comes armed with an arsenal of rim-shot-ready rejoinders that hit the mark more than they miss.

While his character has been given more of an emotional arc than Midler's (unsurprising, since the genesis of "Parental Guidance" came from a newly minted grandparenting experience in producer Crystal's life), it's still nice to see Midler strutting her stuff in her first onscreen comedy role in years.

And Tomei is always a welcome presence, even when she's saddled with what's essentially a one-note character for most of the film.

It would have been nice if director Andy Fickman ("Race to Witch Mountain") and husband-and-wife screenwriters Lisa Addario and Joe Syracuse ("Surf's Up") could have mined some fresher stuff from this frequently played ballgame, but at least when you've got Crystal calling the shots, you can still count on the occasional change-up.

"Parental Guidance," a 20th Century Fox release, is rated PG for some rude humor. 104 minutes.

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Motion Picture Association of America rating definition for PG: Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

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www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/barbra-streisand-bette-midler-janis-404362

www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/concert-sandy-relief-concert-review-401440

The widely-expected decision brought the total number of lost regular season games to 625, or 50.8 percent of the season, the NHL said in a brief statement.

With no talks scheduled between the two sides, who have not met face-to-face since December 13 when negotiations involving U.S. federal mediators failed to kickstart the process, hopes of salvaging a season were fading quickly.

The NHL, which normally runs an 82-game regular season, has previously said teams would need to play at least 48 games to forge a legitimate season. That meant a new deal must be reached by mid-January to ensure the Stanley Cup playoffs end in June.

Key sticking points in the dispute, which began when the NHL locked out players in September, revolved around the length of a new contract, rules governing term limits on contracts and the transition rules to help teams get under the salary cap.

There were also a handful of smaller issues yet to be agreed upon, most notably the continued participation of NHL players in the Olympics and rules governing drug testing.

The NHL's latest move came as players were casting ballots on whether or not to give their executive board the authority to file a disclaimer of interest, which would essentially dissolve the union and allow individual players to file anti-trust lawsuits against the league.

Confronted with yet another showdown between billionaire owners and millionaire athletes, the NHL and its players are once again testing the loyalty of sponsors, business partners and fans suffering from lockout fatigue.

The labor dispute is the third in a short span to rock a professional North American sports league following lockouts in the National Football League and National Basketball Association last year.

It is also the NHL's fourth work stoppage in 20 years and first since a lockout forced cancelation of the entire 2004-05 season.

When a labor dispute led the NHL to run a 48-game campaign for the 1994-95 season, an agreement with players was reached by January 11 and the season opened on January 20.

(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Larry Fine)