The discovery was made using NASA's(IBEX), a coffee-table-sized spacecraft that is studying the edge of the solar system.

"Many models have suggested the heliotail might look like this or like that, but we have had no observations," David McComas, IBEX principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Tex., said in a statement. "We always drew pictures where the tail of the solar system just trailed off the page, since we couldn't even speculate about what it really looked like." []

The heliotail is "a much larger structure with a much more interesting configuration" than scientists had previously predicted, McComas added during a news conference announcing the finding.

The heliotail is inflated by the solar wind of particles streaming off the sun, and the four-leaf clover shape is the result of fast solar wind shooting out near the sun's poles and slower wind flowing from near the sun's equator, researchers say. The finding is based on the first three years of IBEX's measurements of energetic neutral atoms.

In the interstellar boundary region, charged particles from the sun stream outward far beyond the planets toward the gas- and dust-filled space between stars. Collisions between these particles and interstellar material create fast-moving particles with no charge, known as energetic neutral atoms, or ENAs. Some of these particles speed inward toward the sun, where IBEX can detect them from its perch 200,000 miles (322,000 kilometers) above Earth.

"Scientists have always presumed that the heliosphere had a tail," Eric Christian, IBEX mission scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said during a Google+ Hangout announcing the finds. "But this is actually the first real data that we have to give us the shape of the tail."

Though IBEX data has given scientists an idea of the shape and structure of the heliotail, they say they have not been able to measure its length particularly well. They think it is probably evaporating over something like the 1000 times the distance between the Earth and the sun, McComas said.

The $169 million IBEX spacecraft, launched in 2008, was built for an initial two-year mission, which has since been extended. Early on in its mission, IBEX detected ENAs flowing toward the sun in an unexpected pattern: They were significantly enhanced in aon the edge of the solar system that scientists now think is a reflection of the solar wind, shot back toward the sun by a strong galactic magnetic field.

IBEX has made several other important discoveries throughout its mission. In 2010, the spacecraft turned its gaze back toward Earth and got the first-ever peek at the solar wind crashing into the . Last year, NASA announced that the spacecraft made its first detection of matter from outside the solar system,of hydrogen, oxygen and neon in the interstellar wind.

The new findings are detailed in the Astrophysical Journal.

Follow SPACE.com on Twitter . We're also on and . Original article on SPACE.com.

Sunday, July 14

Triglav Gorenjska 0 ND Gorica 1

Saturday, July 13

Koper 2 NK Krka 1

Olimpija Ljubljana 1 Rudar Velenje 2

Friday, July 12

Maribor 2 NK Zavrc 1

Standings P W D L F A Pts

1 Koper 1 1 0 0 2 1 3

1 Maribor 1 1 0 0 2 1 3

1 Rudar Velenje 1 1 0 0 2 1 3

-------------------------

4 ND Gorica 1 1 0 0 1 0 3

-------------------------

Domzale 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

MIK Celje 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

7 NK Krka 1 0 0 1 1 2 0

7 NK Zavrc 1 0 0 1 1 2 0

7 Olimpija Ljubljana 1 0 0 1 1 2 0

-------------------------

10 Triglav Gorenjska 1 0 0 1 0 1 0

1-3: Champions League preliminary round

4: Europa League depending on domestic cup

10: Relegation

Next Fixtures (GMT):

Saturday, July 13

MIK Celje v Domzale Postponed

A spokeswoman for the airline said the aircraft, which had turned back as a precautionary measure during a flight from Manchester in northwest England to Sanford in Florida, had suffered a "minor technical issue".

The plane will depart Manchester for Cancun at 0950am (0850 GMT) and Thomson's two other Dreamliners have also been fully tested and will fly from London's Gatwick airport to Sanford and to Palma on Sunday morning, the airline said.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Patrick Graham)

The move follows a claim that GSK staff allegedly handed doctors cash and other rewards for prescribing Botox treatment, which the British group sells in China under an agreement with patent-holder Allergan.

The latest allegations against GSK, which is already under investigation by Chinese police for unspecified "economic crimes", were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper said internal documents and email showed GSK's China sales staff were also apparently instructed to use their personal email addresses to discuss marketing strategies related to Botox.

A GSK spokesman in London said the company believed the new allegations over Botox came from the same source who previously made claims over corruption in China - claims which GSK said earlier it had investigated and found to be without foundation.

"Nevertheless, we are investigating these new claims. However, our inquiries to date have found no evidence of bribery or corruption in relation to our sales and marketing of therapeutic Botox in China," the spokesman said.

"GSK has some of the toughest compliance procedures in the sector. We are proud of our high standards and operate in accordance with them."

The Wall Street Journal said emails and documents it had seen also discussed a marketing strategy for Botox that targeted 48 doctors and planned to reward them with either a percentage of the cash value of the prescription, or educational credits, based on the number of prescriptions the doctors made.

The strategy was called "Vasily", after the Russian World War II sniper Vasily Zaytsev.

"We have investigated the specific claim on the so-called Vasily program. Our investigation has found that while the proposal didn't contain anything untoward, the program was never implemented," the company spokesman said.

GSK is responsible for therapeutic sales of Botox in China - for example, to treat facial spasms - rather than its use as a cosmetic treatment to remove wrinkles.

The allegations come as police in the south-central Chinese city of Changsha investigate high-level Chinese staff at GSK on suspicion of economic crimes. It is not clear if the Changsha investigation is related to any of the allegations.

GSK, Merck and other foreign and domestic drugmakers are also being investigated by China's top economic planning agency on cost and pricing issues, as foreign firms come under pressure from Beijing over possible price-fixing.

China is an increasingly important market for international pharmaceutical companies, which are relying on growth in emerging markets to offset slower sales in Western markets where many former blockbuster drugs have lost patent protection.

IMS Health, which tracks pharmaceutical industry trends, expects China to overtake Japan as the world's second-biggest drugs market behind the United States by 2016.

(Reporting by Kazunori Takada and Ben Hirschler; Editing by Stephen Coates and Louise Heavens)

The first player taken in the 2009 NFL draft, Stafford already holds franchise single-season records for passing yards, touchdowns, completions and attempts.

Just 25 years old he could become the franchise's all-time passing leader this season if he tosses for at least 2,903 yards, which would surpass Bobby Layne's mark of 15,710.

"I just want to thank the Ford family and the Lions organization for entrusting me to lead this team into the future at least the next five years, hopefully more than that," Stafford told reporters after signing his deal. "I'm just happy that I'm going to be here for another five (years) getting this team going in the right direction.

"I promise you nobody's going to work harder than me to get this team going in the right direction winning games and going to the playoffs multiple years in a row. That's the plan."

While Stafford has demonstrated that he owns one of the NFL's best arms joining Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Dan Marino as the only quarterbacks to throw for 5,000 yards in a single campaign, he has yet to demonstrate he can take the Lions to the next level after going 4-12 last season.

Stafford threw for 41 touchdown passes and 5,038 yards in 2011, but took a step backwards last year, throwing for just 20 touchdowns while being intercepted 17 times.

Lions president Tom Lewand, however, is convinced Stafford is the franchise quarterback the team has long coveted.

"He (Stafford) has that work ethic, he's got the personality, he's got the leadership characteristics," said Lewand. "Those are the kinds of things that make him the worker that he is. He cares passionately about this football team, about his teammates, about winning, and he's come to care as passionately about this community."

(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto, editing by Gene Cherry)

Theunearthed athat chronicled the series of errors that led to the near-organ removal on a living patient at St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, N.Y., in 2009.

"The patient did not suffer a cardiopulmonary arrest (as documented) and did not have irreversible brain damage," the HHS report concluded. "The patient did not meet criteria for withdrawal of care."

According to the report, doctors had inaccurately diagnosed Burns with irreversible brain damage and ignored nurses who'd noticed signs that Burns was improving: She curled her toes when touched, flared her nostrils and moved her mouth and tongue. She was also breathing on her own even though she was on a respirator.

Burns, who was 41 at the time, was initially found unresponsive and surrounded by empty bottles of Xanax, Benadryl, a muscle relaxant and an anti-inflammatory drug on Oct.16, 2009, according to the report. She was hypothermic and had a weak pulse, but she was alive.

In the St. Josephs emergency room, doctors performed toxicology tests and determined Burns was suffering from a multidrug overdose, according to the report. She was unresponsive and put on a ventilator.

Poison control specialists recommended using activated charcoal to stop Burns' body from absorbing the drugs, but it never happened, according to the report. Doctors couldn't get the tubes into her body. As a result, the HHS report concluded, it's possible Burns continued to absorb the pills she'd ingested, but doctors never did more toxicology testing to find out.

Soon, Burns was having seizures, but subsequent head CT scans on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18 appeared normal.

Still, the EEG brain scans indicated "poor prognosis" on Oct. 18, so doctors planned to "wait and see" whether Burns would improve over the next few days, they told HHS investigators in August 2010, according to the report. That same day, however, doctors told the family that Burns' brain damage was irreversible and that she'd undergone "cardiorespiratory arrest."

The family made the decision to take Burns off life support and donate her organs the next day.

Although Burns opened her eyes at the last minute, saving herself from the organ harvest procedure, she committed suicide in 2011. The family never sued, and family members told the Syracuse Post-Standard that Burns was too depressed to be upset about what happened to her at St. Joseph's.

Hospital officials eventually concluded it's possible that the drugs resulted in the unresponsive state doctors mistook for irreversible brain damage, according to the HHS document.

Drug overdoses can mimic brain death, but American Academy of Neurology guidelines should keep doctors from failing to recognize the difference, said Dr. Eelco Wijdicks, a member of the American Academy of Neurology who was the senior author on its list of guidelines for determining brain death. Wijdicks did not treat Burns and said he could not comment on her case.

The hospital determined that it had followed protocols, according to its reviews sent to the state Department of Health. HHS disagreed, and said the investigation of Burns' near death was inadequate. St. Joseph's didn't conduct a review until the state Department of Health asked it to nearly five months after the near-organ removal.

"It consisted of a one-page document that was labeled 'File Notes: (Patient A),'" HHS officials wrote of the St. Joseph's review. "The document contained a reference to 'perception differences' but lacked any analysis or resolution of the issue."

Still, the nightmare is "exceedingly rare," Wijdicks said. The American Academy of Neurology guidelines consist of about 25 tests for doctors to perform to be absolutely sure a patient won't get better, he said.

"When that is done, there should be no errors made," Wijdicks said.

St. Joseph's CEO Kathryn Ruscitto released a statement as a result of the Post-Standard story, saying that the hospital is not discussing the case at the family's request.

"Things are never as simple as one newspaper article might make them seem," she said.

Ruscitto said the hospital had made changes over the past four years and continued to improve.

"St. Joseph's provides compassionate care to more than 2,000 people every day throughout our system," she said. "Anytime something doesn't go right, we take it extremely seriously."

It was a mother's nightmare and a kid's fantasy come true. Hundreds of children on Tuesday jumped into a 75-by-150-foot mud pit as part of the 26th annual Mud Day at a park in the Detroit suburb of Westland.

Events included wheelbarrow races and a game of limbo.

A panel of judges selected a king and queen, based on their creative uses of mud.

Emily Cunningham of Riverview was chosen Queen of Mud.

A crown was placed atop the 8-year-old's head, which was caked in mud and adorned with leaves and a stick. She says, "It's fun getting mud all over you."

And after it was over, the Western Wayne Hazmat team was there to hose off the kids.

Exports fell by 3.1 percent compared with a year earlier and imports contracted by 0.7 percent, customs data showed Wednesday. Both were below forecasts of growth in the low single digits.

China's economic growth has slowed this year and is expected to fall further due to weak global demand and an effort by the Chinese central bank to cool a credit boom.

"The export sector is faring very badly. It does suggest overall growth momentum is going to be weaker than we initially expected," said Societe General economist Wei Yao.

New communist leaders who took power last year say they want to pursue slower, more self-sustaining growth based on domestic consumption, reducing reliance on trade and investment. But some analysts say the latest slowdown might be so deep they could be forced to temporarily reverse course and boost lending or government spending to stimulate growth.

A decline in Chinese economic activity could have global repercussions, denting revenues for suppliers of commodities and industrial components such as Australia, Brazil and Southeast Asia. Lower Chinese demand already has depressed global prices for iron ore, copper and other raw materials, cooling an economic boom for exporters.

The ruling party's growth target this year is 7.5 percent, down by almost half from 2007's staggering growth rate of 14.2 percent. Some analysts have suggested growth might dip below 7 percent in coming months dangerously low by Chinese standards.

Some private sector forecasters cut their growth outlook for the year, though to still robust levels above 7 percent, after a credit crunch hit China's financial markets last month. That came as the central bank tried to rein in a lending boom regulators worry could spiral out of control.

"The most likely outcome, in our view, is the Chinese economy going through a period of sluggish growth and adjustment," said UBS economist Tao Wang in a report this week.

Communist leaders have promised to promote private businesses that generate most of China's new jobs and wealth but have yet to make major changes.

Retail sales have fallen short of official forecasts and a HSBC Corp. survey of manufacturers showed activity contracted in June for a second month.

Still, Chinese leaders are unlikely to back away from efforts to overhaul the country's growth model, said Societe Generale's Yao.

"The plan is still to induce some short-term pain in exchange for long-term sustainability," said Yao. "That is still the most sensible choice, but sure, they need to make some marginal adjustments to make sure the economy doesn't slow too fast."

Analysts expected China to report slower growth in trade due to a crackdown on misreporting of data by exporters as a way to evade currency controls and bring extra money into the country. But even with that taken into account, Wednesday's figures were below forecasts for exports to rise by up to 3.5 percent and imports to grow by up to 1.5 percent.

June's export growth was down from May's year-on-year gain of 13.5 percent and import growth was down from 8.2 percent.

China's politically sensitive global trade surplus contracted by 12.4 percent compared with a year earlier to $27.1 billion. Exports were $174.3 billion while imports were $147.2 billion.

Growth in exports to the United States, China's biggest foreign market, fell to 1.8 percent from May's 3.5 percent. Exports to the 27-nation European Union contracted 3.9 percent.

The trade surplus with the U.S. contracted by 15.5 percent from a year earlier to $17.5 billion, but still one of this year's highest levels. The surplus with Europe shrank 20.3 percent to $10.2 billion.

___

General Administration of Customs of China: www.customs.gov.cn

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Bonkers, right? All that violence, all that weird stuff with feet, organizing a 140-character army from his million-plus followers — you would have thought this reporter stepped on Baldwin's dog or, considering Baldwin's past, . But Stark, whose beat seems to revolve around  and , just reported that Hilaria Baldwin had been busy tweeting next to her husband from inside the Cathedral of St. John the Divine during the otherwise very for the Sopranos actor on Thursday morning.  

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"Hilaria posted tweets at 9.53am, 10.17am and 11.09am," . If you look on Hilaria Baldwin's , some of the tweets Stark cites actually show that they were posted after the funeral let out, around 1 p.m. This is the 10:17 a.m. tweet Stark cites, presumably the one that led launched the homophobic rant: 

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So that sort of looks like Baldwin is somewhat right. But when you've got a history ofaltercation, angryfor your daughter, a racial  for a photographer, and Twitterwith the likes of Dean Skelos, well, let's just say nobody wins in a Twitter war about Twitter, and sometimes it's best to leave the attention on those resting in peace.