Smiths Aerospace provides the Boeing X-45C J-UCAS Mission Management system with enhanced capabilities for the network centric battlespace. (Photo: Business Wire)

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British astronomers today (June 24th) saw the first images from an ambitious new programme of discovery, the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS). The survey will scour the sky with the world's most powerful infrared survey camera (WFCAM) to find some of the dimmest and most distant objects in the Universe. UKIDSS will reach at least twenty times deeper than the largest current survey conducted at this wavelength. Infrared light can be used to study objects that are not hot enough to show up in visible light, such as failed stars in our own Galaxy, as well as objects like distant quasars that are so far away that the expansion of the Universe has shifted their light into the infrared spectrum. UKIDSS will help to solve existing astronomical conundrums, such as when galaxies and quasars first lit up, and will certainly also discover new phenomena, because of the large area and depth.

First image from the survey, of M51the Whirlpool Galaxy.  This colour composite was made by combining images taken with the three JHK near-infra-red filters from just one of the four detectors in WFCAM.  (Data processing by Mike Irwin, Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit). Credit:  Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit.

WFCAM, the Wide Field Camera, was built at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UKATC) in Edinburgh, and is mounted on the UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii. The new images confirm the power of the camera. The strength of WFCAM comes from the large field of view, equivalent to imaging the full moon in a single exposure, made possible because the camera contains four of the largest available new-generation infrared detectors.

"WFCAM is enormously powerful. We will have surpassed the size of the current best survey after just 2 weeks, and our plan is a survey 100 times greater. It's about exploring new territory, and we hope to discover new phenomena. In the US they have had tremendous success with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey at visible wavelengths. Now we urgently need a new detailed survey to complement Sloan beyond the visible, in the infrared." said Steve Warren, UKIDSS Survey Scientist from Imperial College.

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LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 23, 2005--A rare Mansoor portrait sculpture of an 18th dynasty Amarna Princess (ca 1363-1364 B.C.) goes live on eBay, the world's largest online marketplace, June 23rd at 10 AM P.S.T.

A rare portrait 4 inch pink limestone sculpture of an 18th dynasty Amarna Princess from 1364 B.C, she is the sister of King Tut and possibly the sister he married. From the Mansoor Amarna collection, it is being offered on eBay for $195,000 starting June 23rd at www.ebay.com/princess . The piece has been examined by leading experts, including Howard Carter's (King Tut Discovery) own chemist, Alfred Lucas, and found to be genuine. This is the first time in more than 50 years it has been offered on the market. (Photo: Business Wire)

Previews of the piece are now viewable at www.ebay.com/princess . The beautiful, delicately carved pink limestone head was last sold more than 50 years ago by the legendary M.A. Mansoor, to a private collector, who owned it till his death several years ago. The only other known pieces are on display in museums or held in private collections.

The exquisitely carved princess is descended from the most famous royal family known in ancient Egypt. Her father was history's first monotheist, Akhenaten, the heretic pharaoh, - while her mother was Queen Nefertiti, the world renowned beauty.

This Princess was a sister to the most remarkable pharaoh of all time, Tutankhamun (King Tut), and possibly, the one he married, Ankh-es-en-paten.

This princess head is in nearly perfect condition, the facial features and entire head are unblemished, the neck with a break, but repaired. The head is a complete sculpture unto itself, it was made in antiquity as a finished piece in the manner of a stopper to be inserted into the body of a statue.

Mr. M.A. Mansoor, admired and respected for his indisputable reputation and professional integrity, sold ten pink limestone sculptures from his Amarna Art collection to King Farouk of Egypt prior to World War II.

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