D-Wave Systems Breaks the 1000 Qubit Quantum Computing Barrier.

D-Wave Systems Inc., the world's first quantum computing company, today announced that it has broken the 1000 qubit barrier, developing a processor about double the size of D-Wave’s previous generation and far exceeding the number of qubits ever developed by D-Wave or any other quantum effort. This is a major technological and scientific achievement that will allow significantly more complex computational problems to be solved than was possible on any previous quantum computer.

D-Wave’s quantum computer runs a quantum annealing algorithm to find the lowest points, corresponding to optimal or near optimal solutions, in a virtual “energy landscape.” Every additional qubit doubles the search space of the processor. At 1000 qubits, the new processor considers 21000 possibilities simultaneously, a search space which dwarfs the 2512 possibilities available to the 512-qubit D-Wave Two. ‪In fact, the new search space contains far more possibilities than there are ‪particles in the observable universe.

Full story at http://www.dwavesys.com/press-releases/d-wave-systems-breaks-1000-qubit-quantum-computing-barrier

Hawker Hunter, a single-seat jet, and is thought to have come down on the A27, where it hit cars as it crashed.

The Hawker Hunter aircraft crashed onto the A27 outside Brighton at around 1.20pm on Saturday, hitting several cars as it came down, according to a statement from Sussex Police.
The South East Coast Ambulance Service said: "SECAMB confirm 7 fatalities from the crash at the Shoreham air show today. Thoughts are with the families and loved ones."
The pilot of the Hawker Hunter jet is in a critical condition in hospital after the crash that left seven people dead, West Sussex Police have said. And it is possible that the bodies of more victims will be found as the search of the scene continues.
Superintendent Jane Derrick of Sussex Police said: "Sadly we believe that seven people have lost their lives today when the jet crashed.
The classic Daimler Limousine, believed to be owned by a wedding car firm, had been travelling along the road when the incident happened.
"As far as we are aware all those who sadly lost their lives were on the road, and it was nobody within the air show perimeter on the actual airport.
This was the sixth disaster at a UK air show in the last seven years. Six fatalities have occurred in those incidents, including one in 2007 at the Shoreham event.

The Bright Spots of Ceres

The closer we get to Ceres, the more intriguing the distant dwarf planet becomes. New images of Ceres from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft provide more clues about its mysterious bright spots, and also reveal a pyramid-shaped peak towering over a relatively flat landscape.

“The surface of Ceres has revealed many interesting and unique features. For example, icy moons in the outer solar system have craters with central pits, but on Ceres central pits in large craters are much more common. These and other features will allow us to understand the inner structure of Ceres that we cannot sense directly," said Carol Raymond, deputy principal investigator for the Dawn mission, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Dawn has been studying the dwarf planet in detail from its second mapping orbit, which is 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) above Ceres. A new view of its intriguing bright spots, located in a crater about 55 miles (90 kilometers) across, shows even more small spots in the crater than were previously visible.

At least eight spots can be seen next to the largest bright area, which scientists think is approximately 6 miles (9 kilometers) wide. A highly reflective material is responsible for these spots -- ice and salt are leading possibilities, but scientists are considering other options, too.

Dawn's visible and infrared mapping spectrometer allows scientists to identify specific minerals present on Ceres by looking at how light is reflected. Each mineral reflects the range of visible and infrared-light wavelengths in a unique way, and this signature helps scientists determine the components of Ceres. So, as the spacecraft continues to send back more images and data, scientists will learn more about the mystery bright spots.

In addition to the bright spots, the latest images also show a mountain with steep slopes protruding from a relatively smooth area of the dwarf planet’s surface. The structure rises about 3 miles (5 kilometers) above the surface.

Ceres also has numerous craters of varying sizes, many of which have central peaks. There is ample evidence of past activity on the surface, including flows, landslides and collapsed structures. It seems that Ceres shows more remnants of activity than the protoplanet Vesta, which Dawn studied intensively for 14 months in 2011 and 2012.

Dawn is the first mission to visit a dwarf planet, and the first to orbit two distinct targets in our solar system. It arrived at Ceres, the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, on March 6, 2015.

Dawn will remain in its current altitude until June 30, continuing to take images and spectra of Ceres in orbits of about three days each. It then will move into its next orbit at an altitude of 900 miles (1,450 kilometers), arriving in early August.
   For more information about the Dawn mission, visit:

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov

Elizabeth Landau
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

In October 2013 Berghaus athlete Mick Fowler and his climbing partner, Paul Ramsden, succeeded in making the first ascent of Kishtwar Kailash in the Indian Himalaya.

Located in the remote Kishtwar region, it took the team 8 days just to reach basecamp. This hazardous stretch of road was part of the
Mick Fowler and Paul Ramsden have made the first ascent of Kishtwar Kailash (6451m) in the Indian Himalaya.The pair reached the summit by a route on its 1500m southwest face, with mixed climbing up to Scottish VI.