Peanut Butter News

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(CNN) — Imagine a star so luminous that it would burn the Earth up if it were anywhere near, a star that outshines the sun as much as the sun outshines the moon. A monster even in the abyss of space.

The star is not some scientist’s celestial dream. Astronomers used a Very Large Telescope — the instrument’s official name — to detect the most massive star discovered to date. In scientific lingo, it’s a “hypergiant.”

Led by Paul Crowther, professor of astrophysics at England’s University of Sheffield, the team of astronomers studied two young clusters of stars, NGC 3603 and RMC 136a.

Full Story at news.Yahoo.com

SAN FERNANDO, Mexico – Hurricane Alex ripped off roofs, flooded streets and forced thousands of people to flee coastal fishing villages as it pushed into northern Mexico.

The Atlantic season’s first hurricane largely spared nearby Texas, which had prepared for a possible direct hit. While it spawned two tornadoes and caused 1,000 people to evacuated low-lying areas there, state officials reported no injuries or major damages.

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New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) — Tropical Storm Alex — the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season this year — formed in the Caribbean on Saturday as BP continued to battle a massive oil spill in the Gulf.

Alex had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph) and was about 250 miles away from Chetumal, Mexico. It was moving toward Belize and over the Yucatan Peninsula.

It was not clear whether the storm could hit the part of the Gulf affected by the massive oil spill that has been gushing since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers.

Full Story at msnbc.com

MONROE, Ohio – A six-story statue of Jesus Christ was struck by lightning and burned to the ground, leaving only a blackened steel skeleton and pieces of foam that were scooped up by curious onlookers Tuesday.

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London, England (CNN) — European countries extended their airspace restrictions on Saturday, choking international air travel and stranding thousands of passengers, as an Icelandic volcano continued to spew ash into the atmosphere.

Airspace over the United Kingdom and Belgium will be closed until Saturday night, according to the British air traffic control provider NATS and the Brussels Airport.

British Airways canceled all flights to and from London for all of Saturday. Several flights from North America due to arrive at British destinations Friday night were headed to Scotland instead, the airline said.

Full Story at  msnbc.com

LONDON – The European air navigation agency says air traffic disruptions because the volcanic ash cloud will last at least another day.

Eurocontrol said in a statement that it expected only about 11,000 flights in European airspace Friday, compared with about 28,000 normally. On Thursday, there were 20,334 flights, it said.

The cloud’s impact, it said, “will continue for at least the next 24 hours.”

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(CNN) — Emergency management officials will fan out across North Carolina on Monday to survey the damage from severe storms that lashed the state Sunday evening.

Residents reported as many as eight tornadoes touching down –overturning mobile homes, ripping out trees and plunging neighborhoods into darkness.

Full Story at CNN.com

(CNN) — The mid-Atlantic region continued digging out Monday from the weekend’s record blizzard, but snow-weary residents learned of a new winter storm due in the area on Tuesday.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning, with predictions of another 10 to 20 inches of snow, for northern Virginia and eastern Maryland, including the District of Columbia, beginning Tuesday afternoon and continuing through Wednesday.

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(CNN) — Punxsutawney Phil, America’s most famous rodent prognosticator, saw his shadow Tuesday, signaling six more weeks of winter.

Phil emerged from his ceremonial tree stump at Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania, to a cheering crowd that had waited in the cold for his annual prediction.

It is the 99th time that Phil — in his various incarnations — has seen his shadow, according to groundhog.org, the official Web site of the groundhog club in Punxsutawney, about 75 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, in western Pennsylvania.

Full Story at CNN.com

CNN) — A 6.5-magnitude earthquake has struck off the shore of Northern California, leaving thousands of households without power.

The quake, which ran about 13.5 miles deep, hit offshore at 4:27 p.m. (7:27 p.m. ET) Saturday, about 33 miles from the coastal city of Eureka, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Full Story at CNN.com

(CNN) — The search for two missing hikers on Oregon’s Mount Hood has moved from a search operation into a recovery operation, authorities said Wednesday.

“It was our hope that we might get a window today to take a last look,” Clackamas County, Oregon, Sheriff Craig Roberts told reporters. “Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened.”

Anthony Vietti, 24; Luke Gullberg, 26; and Katie Nolan, 29, set out about 1 a.m. Friday on what was to have been a fairly easy “semi-technical” hike in which they would have descended the south side of the mountain, Sheriff’s Deputy Scott Meyers has said.

Gullberg was found dead Saturday from hypothermia.

Full Story at CNN.com

(CNN) — Hurricane Ida moved into the southern Gulf of Mexico Sunday, prompting a declaration of emergency in Louisiana and concern along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The storm regained hurricane intensity overnight Saturday, becoming a Category 2 hurricane, but forecasters said it is expected to weaken as it moves north. Ida drenched Nicaragua after making landfall last week as a Category 1 hurricane, then weakened to a tropical storm before resuming strength.

In El Salvador, at least 91 people died in flooding and mudslides, according to the government, but a low-pressure system out of the Pacific — not Hurricane Ida — triggered the disaster, forecaster Robby Berg of the National Hurricane Center said Sunday.