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Stewart International Airport

New York Stewart International Airport – colloquially known as Stewart International Airport, is a public/military airport in Orange County, New York, United States. It is in the southern Hudson Valley, west of Newburgh, south of Kingston, and southwest of Poughkeepsie, approximately 60 mi north of Manhattan, New York City.

Stewart Airport is located within the towns of Newburgh and New Windsor. It is included in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021, in which it is categorized as a non-hub primary commercial service facility.

Overview
Developed in the 1930s as a military base to allow cadets at the nearby United States Military Academy at West Point to learn aviation, it has grown into a significant passenger airport for the mid-Hudson region and continues as a military airfield, housing the 105th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard and Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 452 (VMGR-452) of the United States Marine Corps Reserve. The airport was designated as an emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle.

After its closure as a U.S. Air Force base in the 1970s, an ambitious plan by Governor Nelson Rockefeller to expand and develop the airport led to a protracted struggle with local landowners that led to reforms in the state's eminent domain laws but no actual development of the land acquired. In 1981 the 52 American hostages held in Iran made their return to American soil at Stewart.

In 2000 the airport became the first U.S. commercial airport privatized when United Kingdom-based National Express was awarded a 99-year lease on the airport. After postponing its plans to change the facility's name after considerable local opposition, it sold the rights to the airport seven years later; the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey board voted to acquire the remaining 93 years of the lease and later awarded AFCO AvPorts the contract to operate the facility. The Port Authority rebranded the airport as New York Stewart International Airport in 2018 to emphasize its proximity to New York City.

Stewart Dairy Farm
In 1930 Thomas "Archie" Stewart, an early aviation enthusiast and descendant of prominent local dairy farmer Lachlan Stewart, convinced his uncle Samuel Stewart to donate "Stoney Lonesome", split between the towns of Newburgh and New Windsor, to the nearby city of Newburgh for use as an airport. With the city strapped for cash due to the Depression, however, it was unable to develop it in any way.

Stewart Airfield
In 1934 Douglas MacArthur, then superintendent of the United States Military Academy, proposed flight training cadets at the airport. The city sold the land to the military academy for one dollar. A small dirt airstrip was cleared and graded. One of the gates at USMA has been known as Stoney Lonesome Gate ever since.

During World War II many barracks and other buildings, which still stand, were built on the base. In January 2008, the Town of New Windsor received a $2.5 million grant from the state to demolish 30–40 buildings as part of the redevelopment of the former base. First Columbia, the developer, said that 20–30 could be retained and reused.

Stewart Air Force / Air National Guard Base

After the creation of the United States Air Force following World War II, the army airfield was converted to an air force base while still being used for training of cadets at West Point. Stewart became the home of Headquarters 1st Region Army Air Defense Command in 1966. It remained so until the deactivation of the Nike Hercules system at the end of 1974. The air force base was deactivated in 1970 and it officially remained unoccupied by the Air Force until 1983, when the 105th Airlift Wing (105 AW) and the 213th Engineer Installation Squadron (213 EIS) of the New York Air National Guard took up quarters. The Air National Guard unit has flown support missions not only for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan but also for humanitarian relief efforts.

This area of the airport, now called Stewart Air National Guard Base, was home to the Air Force C-5 Galaxy aircraft before being replaced by the newer and smaller C-17 Globemaster III in 2011. Stewart ANGB also hosted VMGR-452, a Marine Corps Reserve squadron flying the KC-130J, until 2022.

MTA Expansion plan
In the early 1970s, Governor Nelson Rockefeller's administration saw the potential for Stewart to support the metropolitan area. Its long runway made it particularly attractive for intercontinental service via supersonic transport (SST), then under development in the U.S. and elsewhere.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority was the first government body to try to convert it into the New York metropolitan area's fourth major airport. It tripled the airport's territory, extending its land well beyond its previous western boundary at Drury Lane, a two-lane rural road. The state government used its eminent domain powers to take 7,500 acres (30 km$2$) for terminals, runways and a buffer zone expanding the airport from Newburgh into neighboring towns of Montgomery and a small portion of Hamptonburgh. The land was bounded by I-84 to the north, Route 207 along the south and roughly by Rock Tavern and Maybrook in the west.

Local opposition
Area residents who were already fighting a large power plant proposal at nearby Storm King Mountain fiercely fought the expansion. They took the state to court, ultimately forcing the legislature to write and pass the New York State Eminent Domain Procedure Act, a sweeping overhaul of its existing law on the subject. In order to get the last holdouts off their land, state officials pledged that outside the proposed airport facilities, none of the land taken would ever be redeveloped, a promise that was to haunt them years later.

By the time the land was finally available, the 1973 oil crisis and the attendant increase in the price of jet fuel had forced airlines to cut back, and some of the airport's original backers began arguing it was no longer economically viable. US SST development was canceled in 1971, undercutting another argument for the project. Malcolm Wilson, Rockefeller's successor, put the project on hold; and his successor, Hugh Carey, ended it permanently in 1976.

New York State Department of Transportation ownership
In early 1981, the 52 U.S. hostages held at the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, returned to American soil at Stewart International following two weeks at U.S. bases in Germany and 444 days of captivity, ending the Iran hostage crisis. The route they took from Stewart International to West Point is marked today as "Freedom Road."

The next year the state transferred control from MTA to its own Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), with a mandate to improve and develop the airport. Three years later W.R. Grace became the first private tenant when it built a corporate jet hangar, and the following year an industrial park was built nearby. Finally, in 1990, commercial airline service began with American Airlines offering service with three daily round trips to both Chicago and Raleigh/Durham.

Continuing development issues
As the 1980s wore on, veterans of earlier battles over Stewart returned to start new ones. NYSDOT and the Stewart Airport Commission found themselves overseeing not only the airport but the acres of now-vacant land the state had acquired a decade before. After turning over management of most of the property to the state's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which was better equipped for the task, it still faced the problem of what to do with the land.

The region's needs had changed. With IBM and other large industrial concerns cutting workers and closing plants, and people leaving, a large swath of buildable land with few environmental problems was seen by many in the local business community as a goose's golden egg. It couldn't be a sprawling airport, but it could be something else, they thought.

But those people who remained or moved up from more crowded areas to the south had begun to enjoy the outdoor recreation possibilities the lands, referred to variously as the Stewart Properties or the buffer, offered. Mountain bikers, horses, dirt bikers, ATVers, and hikers had all begun to explore and create trails, and DEC's management opened up the area as a popular spot for local hunters and anglers. DEC had also released captured beavers on the properties, who built dams and created new wetlands.

One local hunter, Ben Kissam, formed the Stewart Park and Reserve Coalition (SPARC) in 1987 to oppose efforts to develop the lands. They and other environmentalists and conservationists argued that the whole area would be better off left as a park, pointing to the growing diversity of species on the lands and the state's original promise not to redevelop the area. They were joined, too, by some area residents who said that the existing air traffic, particularly the military C-5s, was noisy enough as it was.

Also generating a lot of noise was the continuing debate in Orange County about what to do with the land, with participants' choice of words ("buffer" vs. "properties") suggesting where they stood, and interpretations differing about just how much of the land was really meant to serve as a buffer.

The administration of Mario Cuomo tried several times to come up with a plan that would balance these interests, but failed. As one of its last acts, it started a renovation of the passenger terminal using a federal grant.

SWF had occasionally had scheduled air-taxi service, but in April 1990 American Airlines arrived with three Boeing 727-200 nonstops a day to Chicago and three more to its new hub in Raleigh–Durham. Nonstop flights to Dallas Fort/Worth were later added as well. Jet nonstops to Atlanta (Delta) and Pittsburgh (USAir) appeared in the next couple of years; Delta later added Cincinnati and USAir tried Baltimore.

Privatization
In 1994 George Pataki campaigned on improving efficiencies by privatizing money-losing state projects. Ronald Lauder, who had written a book about European successes in privatizations, suggested Stewart be privatized. Pataki created the New York State Council on Privatization and appointed Lauder its chair.

Federal law at the time required that all airports providing passenger service had to be owned by some public entity. With much support from the New York delegation, the United States Congress eventually passed legislation allowing five airports to be privatized as a pilot program, providing certain conditions, such as approval by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and by the carriers representing at least two-thirds of the airport's flights.

In 1997 the state formally began, through the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), the process of soliciting bids for a 99-year lease on the airport and, potentially, the adjacent undeveloped lands as well, whatever bidders wanted. Efforts by SPARC, now headed by Kissam's widow Sandra, and other citizen activists to find out about who might be bidding and what they planned to do with Stewart were blocked by the state's invocation of a clause in its State Finance Law prohibiting disclosure of competitive bids prior to the award of the contract: an interpretation that survived a court challenge.

Two years later, after approval by the state's attorney general and comptroller as well as the FAA and the carriers, the contract was awarded to the UK-based National Express PLC, the only one of five bidders to have declined to present at a special forum organized a week prior to award, and also a company Lauder had praised in his book for its success with the UK's national bus service and subsequent acquisition of East Midlands Airport, leading to some suspicions that the state had always intended to give it the airport from the beginning. NEG (National Express Group) was prepared to pay $35 million for the lease, and after working out the details Pataki handed over a ceremonial key at the passenger terminal in late 2000.

The award also ended, for the most part, the controversy over whether to develop the properties or not. NEG was uninterested in the lands west of Drury Lane, and Pataki announced with the privatization deal that he was directing that ownership as well as management of 5,600 acres (22.4 km2) of the lands west of an envelope DOT retained around Drury for possible future development or disposal be transferred directly to DEC, which has since made that portion Stewart State Forest.

Stewart was one of the many regional airports to be used during the Emergency Ground Stop after the September 11th Attacks, taking in dozens of planes forced to land.

The Drury Lane exit
Simultaneously with the privatization, the state proceeded with long-held plans to build a new interchange on Interstate 84 at Drury Lane, which would also be widened. A four-lane east–west access road, International Boulevard, would also be created to better solve the airport's longstanding access problems (see below). Conveniently, the initial price tag, $35 million, was exactly the amount bid by National Express. The new exit, designated 5A, was opened in the fourth quarter of 2007. The new north–south route is now designated Route 747.

Another complication emerged due to the proximity of the Catskill Aqueduct of New York City's water supply system to the exit; a proposed widening of Drury between the interstate and Route 17K would have required that a bridge be built over the aqueduct to protect it from the vibrations associated with heavy trucks, adding to the cost of the whole project. An alternative emerged during a value-engineering study of simply rerouting Drury Lane to create another four-way intersection farther down 17K, which was ultimately done. Whether the properties along Drury lane could even be developed in any measure remains to be seen, as a good portion of that parcel is either wetlands or a 45 acre trapezoid-shaped Runway Protection Zone in which the FAA mandates that nothing be built – and the remainder is land considered by conservationists to be the best land in the properties. SPARC, the Orange County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs and the national Sierra Club filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that required environmental reviews were not done or done improperly; that action tied up the exit's construction for a while. In March 2005, an area slated for wetlands mitigation under the plans was found to harbor purple milkweed, a Species of Special Concern on the National Heritage Program's rare plant list. SPARC and its co-plaintiffs sought an injunction against further action such as the consideration of bids, yet that went ahead anyway.

The controversy was settled by a deal announced on November 21 of that year. SPARC accepted a compromise where in exchange for the construction of the exit and access road 1,700 acres (6.8 km2) of the remaining buffer lands would be added to the forest and restrictions would be imposed on development of the remaining 400 acres (1.6 km2) in the northeast corner of the properties, near the exit. In July 2006, the state formally transferred ownership of the state forest from DOT to DEC, ending the process of creating Stewart State Forest. Orange County was not thrilled with the state's decision to charge it $3.7 million for the area near the exit, saying that it was too much on top of the costs it would incur putting in infrastructure. DOT said it was just asking fair market value for the land.

NEG Management
NEG's marketing initiatives included several proposed new names for the airport to emphasize its proximity to the city. The last one, in 2006, which would have dropped the "Stewart" name entirely, met with local opposition and was ultimately dropped.

Stewart has a limited selection of flights available and is relatively uncrowded most of the day. Some tenants have moved into nearby former military buildings, but most remain as unoccupied as they were the day the base was closed. It has drawn some passengers from western Connecticut who might otherwise have flown out of Hartford. But most of the fliers within Stewart's catchment area have continued to prefer Albany International Airport, Newark or other metropolitan airports.

Delta pulled out of the airport shortly after the privatization announcement, ostensibly to better serve new routes it had won to Latin America, leaving it to codeshare partners Comair and ASA. Even one of the "tourist draws" for the airport evaporated in 2003 when the Concorde was retired. Its pilots had sometimes used the lengthy runway to practice touch-and-go landings.

NEG's dealings with the state were not as harmonious as they were initially represented; documents made public by SPARC after the privatization was completed showed that there were many lingering issues between the two parties even at that time and that NEG had in fact considered breaking the deal at one point (as it would later ultimately do). The company has gone through some local management shuffles as well, and the parent corporation's sale of East Midlands, considered the example it would follow with Stewart, was a cause for concern in the region.

While some local officials expressed disappointment, others saw NEG as getting out of the airport business entirely to concentrate on its core business in the bus and rail sectors. They hoped at first that another European company with experience running privatized airports would be interested, and industry analysts said the timing was good. Governor Eliot Spitzer promised area leaders that Stewart would be a top priority for his administration, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the New York area's three main airports, expressed interest in assuming NEG's obligations. Allegiant Air pulled out of Stewart in early 2007 but later returned and as of 2024 serves the airport. Both AirTran Airways and JetBlue announced plans for service from Stewart in 2007. AirTran, which had previously served Newburgh in 1995, was subsequently acquired by and merged into Southwest Airlines, which in turn currently does not serve the airport.

In 2005, the airport was used to transport emergency personnel and supplies to help the cleanup after the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Gulf Coast.

Port Authority takeover and end of privatization
On January 25, 2007, the Port Authority voted to buy the lease for Stewart. It took over operating control on November 1, 2007, after New Jersey's acting governor Richard Codey signed a bill the New Jersey Legislature had to pass, changing the law to allow the move. PANYNJ will pay NEG $78.5 million for the remaining 93 years on its lease. The day after the takeover, an opening ceremony was held in which New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer attended and the Port Authority flag was raised. It has set aside $500 million in its ten-year capital improvement plan to expand the airport.

The Port Authority sees Stewart as offering relief to those airports and (especially) Teterboro, estimating it could handle five times its present passenger volume. It will probably follow its standard procedure and contract the actual operations of the airport out.

Although 2006's bad numbers may have led NEG to pull out, Stewart's commercial service seemed to be on the rise. Shortly after taking over, PANYNJ reported that the airport's traffic for 2007 would be triple that of 2006. It was reported in January 2008 that Stewart had achieved its goal and had handled 970,000 passengers in 2007.

A 2007 plan envisioned changing Stewart's image over the next 20 years: major renovations such as a new terminal, a train station next to the new terminal connecting the airport to Metro North via a new spur from the Port Jervis Line, a 2000 ft extension of runway 16–34, new taxiways, and a major expansion of the cargo facilities. A new control tower has been built. In the fourth quarter of 2007 Interstate 84's new Drury Lane exit, NY Route 747, and International Boulevard opened.

In addition to commercial and passenger services, Stewart excels in many other areas not seen by the public. NEG had some success selling private helicopter shuttle service to midtown Manhattan's heliports to business travelers from Stewart at rates competitive with those offered from JFK Airport; it also remains a popular place to service corporate jets due to the large space available.

Cargo services are also part of the mix – FedEx Express maintains a large distribution presence just outside the airport, as does the U.S. Postal Service, whose main general-mail facility for the mid-Hudson region is not far away. Importers of plant and animal products also route their flights to Stewart and the USDA inspection facility for those is nearby, on Drury Lane.

With its long runway, Stewart bills itself as an "efficient diversion airport" for aircraft intending to land at one of the three major New York City airports (Newark, LaGuardia, and JFK), especially during bad weather. The largest such diversion occurred during the January 2018 blizzard, when a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 on a Frankfurt-JFK flight diverted to Stewart after JFK closed. While the airport's runways are sufficiently long to allow such a large aircraft to land and take off, the plane was so large it could not use any of the terminal building's gates. Passengers had to leave the plane using stairs, and were transported to New York City by bus.

American Airlines, which had served Stewart since 1990, ended American Eagle regional jet service to Chicago O'Hare International Airport on September 5, 2007. In 1991, American was operating up to five mainline departures a day nonstop to Chicago O'Hare with Boeing 727-200 jetliners.

In February 2008, the PA's new general manager, Diannae Ehler, said she had been discussing the possibility of foreign flights with a number of European carriers. She felt encouraged and hoped that by 2009 there could be regular passenger service between Stewart and some European destinations. AirTran Airways ended service to the airport that same year.

In September 2010, it was announced that Apple Vacations would begin non-stop charter service to Cancún. Flights are operated by Allegiant Air.

On August 20, 2013, Allegiant Air announced that it would be returning to Stewart with new flights to St. Petersburg/Clearwater after leaving the airport in 2007. Flights began on October 31, 2013.

In May 2015, the Port Authority announced it was considering changing the airport's name to "New York International Airport at Stewart Field." Its stated rationale was to give the airport "global status," to ensure that its name appears higher in Internet searches done by travelers abroad, in keeping with the business model followed by many low-cost European airlines of flying into less busy airports further from the cities they serve in order to keep expenses down. Many local residents were cool to the idea, since the Stewart family name has a long history with the airport and the PA had promised it would never change the name when it took over.

On December 5, 2016, General Manager Edmond Harrison announced that Norwegian Air Shuttle planned to set up a base at Stewart for flights to Europe using its Irish subsidiary. The destinations out of Stewart were Belfast–International, Bergen, Dublin, Edinburgh and Shannon. The first international flight departed for Edinburgh on June 15, 2017. On September 14, 2019, Norwegian Air Shuttle ended service.

By 2020, American Eagle had reduced service to one daily flight to Philadelphia. This flight was suspended on October 7, 2020, was resumed on January 5, 2021, then ended on September 30, 2021.

On June 9, 2022, Icelandic airline Play began a daily service to Keflavik with connections to other European destinations.

On May 12, 2023 Frontier Airlines announced that their Stewart to Orlando flights would be cut after July 2, 2023, meaning that their presence in the airport would be coming to an end after less than 2 years. Between October 2021 and July 2, 2023, Frontier had commenced and ended flights to Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Raleigh, and Tampa from SWF. This left Allegiant Air as the only airline in Stewart with domestic destinations.

On November 8, 2023 Breeze Airways announced year-round, twice-weekly service to Orlando, FL beginning February 15, 2024 and seasonal, twice-weekly service to Charleston, SC beginning May 10, 2024.

Facilities and operations
New York Stewart International Airport covers 1,552 acres (628 ha) at an elevation of 491 feet (150 m) above mean sea level. It has two asphalt runways and one helipad.

The east–west runway 9–27 is 11817 ft long by 150 ft wide, but the landing threshold at each end is displaced 2000 ft. Aircraft landing to the east have a landing distance available restriction, an additional 1000 ft reduction in length, making only 8817 ft usable for landing. Runway 27 has 9817 ft available for landing. The full length is available for takeoff in both directions. Runway 9 has an instrument landing system for category I and category II approaches and an ALSF2 approach lighting system. Runway 27 got an instrument landing system in recent years, but without any approach lighting landing minimums for this runway are higher.

The crosswind runway 16–34 is 6004 ft long by 150 ft wide and each end has GPS-based instrument approaches.

The helipad H1 is asphalt, 40 by 40 feet (12 x 12 m).

Statistics
For the 12-month period ending April 30, 2023 the airport had 37,133 aircraft operations, an average of 102 per day: 63% general aviation, 9% air taxi, 17% military, and 11% scheduled commercial. In April 2023, 54 aircraft were then based at this airport: 30 jet, 3 multi-engine, 9 military, 6 single-engine, and 6 helicopter.

Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 392,464 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 197,655 in 2009 and 201,684 in 2010.

Ground transportation
One of the biggest impediments to the use of Stewart by more airlines and passengers has been getting to it. The Drury Lane exit and the access road, International Boulevard, are intended to remedy this.

There have been plans to possibly implement a light rail connection along Broadway in Newburgh that could conceivably go out to Stewart from the ferry connection with the Metro-North passenger line across the Hudson River in Beacon. This project does not appear likely to happen any time soon. Currently, the only connection is via a shuttle bus.

In 2006, with construction of the Drury Lane exit underway, Senator Charles Schumer put his weight behind getting federal aid for another long-discussed access improvement: a rail link to the nearby Metro-North Port Jervis Line, to give passengers an express train trip from the airport into the city or Newark Airport via Secaucus Junction. This would entail acquiring property and laying new tracks, to link to the existing line somewhere near the Salisbury Mills station. NEG had had success with the similar Gatwick Express and Midland Mainline rail-air connections in its native Britain. While the federal government has approved the idea, the money has not yet been appropriated.

Bus transportation
Starting in June 2017, to support Norwegian's growth in making the airport a terminal for visitors to New York City, Coach USA began providing a bus service between the airport and Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan. This service operates under the name "Stewart Airport Express."

Accidents and incidents

 * On the morning of August 20, 1987, an Emery Worldwide (operating as Rosenbalm Aviation Flight 74) Douglas DC-8-63 collided with Airborne Express Flight 124, operated by a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31, on Runway 09/27 in fog. The Emery airplane landed without first receiving clearance while the Airborne Express plane, which had landed just prior to the DC-8, was taxiing on the runway. Both aircraft were repaired and returned to service.
 * In the early-morning hours of September 5, 1996, the pilots of Federal Express Flight 1406, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 from Memphis to Boston reported smoke in the cargo compartment and made an emergency landing at Stewart to fight the fire. All five crewmembers escaped with only minor injuries but, despite a prompt effort by the firefighting teams from the ANG base (which also handle the civilian airport's fire protection needs) the fire completely consumed the aircraft. Two years later, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) traced the source of the fire to an area where some flammables had been stored but could not pin down exactly which had combusted, and faulted the captain for failing to get full information on potentially hazardous materials being shipped.
 * Early on the morning of November 21, 2007, a single-engine Cirrus piloted by Brian Early of Wayne, Pennsylvania, got lost in the fog on its approach and crashed in the state forest. He had been dropping off his two passengers, a son and one of his friends, to visit friends of theirs at West Point for Thanksgiving. It took rescuers three hours to find the wreckage using the plane's transponder. Early was killed but the younger men survived.
 * A small aerobatic plane crashed at the airport August 28, 2015, killing the pilot, who was practicing stunts at Stewart for the two-day New York Air Show that was to be held there starting the following day. The two-seater single-engine fixed-wing Giles G-202, a homebuilt aircraft, assembled from a kit, was completing dramatic climbs and dives as a crowd of mostly journalists watched below. Around 2 p.m., as the pilot went into a dive followed by a steep corkscrew climb, part of the tail appeared to break off, witnesses said and photographs indicated. The plane then crossed the crowd line and spun over the heads of spectators, crashing in a wooded area behind the crowd. The pilot, the plane's only occupant, was identified as the plane's owner, Andrew Wright of Austin, Texas. The National Transportation Safety Board and the New York State Police were to investigate to determine the crash's probable cause, the state police and Federal Aviation Administration said. The NTSB determined that the resin bond between two parts had failed under stress after repeated aileron rolls. Examination of the bond between the horizontal stabilizer and the flange that attached it to the left side of the fuselage revealed that a portion had a poor bond, with the resin inadequately transferring between the two surfaces. The accident was compared to a similar event in France on the same type of aircraft. As a result of these accidents, the Giles' designer specified several new procedures for aircraft flight handling and inspection.
 * On August 21, 2018, a Gulfstream IV carrying musician Post Malone and 15 other people made a successful precautionary landing after two main tires blew during takeoff from Teterboro Airport. After circling Teterboro for nearly an hour, in hopes of making an emergency landing, the plane was diverted to Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport in western Massachusetts where it once again circled the airspace, burning fuel before its descent attempt in order to lighten the plane's weight. Once again, the plane was diverted to Stewart International Airport due to Stewart being equipped with longer runways, meaning pilots would not need to engage reverse thrusters or spoilers, thereby lessening the weight on the landing gear and the plane's remaining tires. Ultimately, the plane landed on Runway 9, which is nearly double the length of the longest runway at Teterboro Airport.

title: Stewart International Airport


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User talk:Ddoherty

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Welcome to Wikipedia. Although everyone is welcome to contribute to the encyclopedia, one or more of the external links you added do not comply with our guidelines for external links and have been removed. Wikipedia is not a collection of links; nor should it be used as a platform for advertising or promotion, and doing so is contrary to the goals of this project. Because Wikipedia uses nofollow tags, external links do not alter search engine rankings. If you feel the link should be added to the article, please discuss it on the article's talk page before reinserting it. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing constructively to this encyclopedia. Thank you. Materialscientist (talk) 22:07, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

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User talk:Sascha.leib~enwiki

Hello Sascha, welcome to Wikipedia. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian. You can learn more on the how to edit page. The naming conventions and manual of style pages are also useful. Feel free to experiment at the Sandbox. If you have any questions about the project then check out Help or add a question to the Village pump. Angela

Red Link Recovery
Hello. As a German-speaking WikiGnome, I'd like to solicit your help in testing a new tool. For a few years now, the Red Link Recovery Project has been using the Red Link Recovery Live tool to track down and fix unnecessarily red links in articles. Recently, the tool has been expanded to work on non-English Wikipedias. A small set of suggested fixes for red-links on the German-language Wikipedia have been prepared and I'm hoping to interest some German-language speakers (such as yourself) to work through them.

If you are interested, please visit http://toolserver.org/~tb/RLRL/quick.php?lang=de. Each time you refresh the page you'll be presented with three new suggested fixes. I'll be happy to answer any questions on the tools talk page. - TB (talk) 17:43, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

PGP-Key
Hello Sascha.leib, you tell us on your user-page that you have a PGP-key, but you don’t provide it. Could you please use a pgp-template with an ID-field (like Template:User PGP)? Also it would be great if you could send me your key-ID by wiki-mail or leave it on my talk-page. Thanks :-). --DaB. (talk) 20:21, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

Disambiguation link fixing one-day contest
I have decided to put on a mini-contest within the November 2013 monthly disambiguation contest, on Saturday, November 23 (UTC). I will personally give a $20 Amazon.com gift card to the disambiguator who fixes the most links on that server-day (see the project page for details on scoring points). Since we are not geared up to do an automated count for that day, at 00:00, 23 November 2013 (UTC) (which is 7:00 PM on November 22, EST), I'll take a screenshot of the project page leaderboard. I will presume that anyone who is not already listed on the leaderboard has precisely nine edits. At 01:00, 24 November 2013 (UTC) (8:00 PM on November 23, EST), I'll take a screenshot of the leaderboard at that time (the extra hour is to give the board time to update), and I will determine from that who our winner is. I will credit links fixed by turning a WP:DABCONCEPT page into an article, but you'll have to let me know me that you did so. Here's to a fun contest. Note that according to the Daily Disambig, we currently have under 256,000 disambiguation links to be fixed. If everyone in the disambiguation link fixers category were to fix 500 links, we would have them all done - so aim high! Cheers! bd2412 T 02:32, 18 November 2013 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

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User talk:Rjones

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User talk:Johnslittlebit

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User talk:Gisle~enwiki

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Wikipedia:WikiProject_Norway
Time for a WikiProject_Norway? -- Egil 14:32, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Image:Mccoy_Tyner_1973_gh.jpg
It is my pleasure to tell you that the McCoy Tyner image has been promoted to Featured Picture. Congratulations. Raven4x4x 09:01, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

 * Hi Gisle, just to let you know that your photo Image:Mccoy_Tyner_1973_gh.jpg is due to make an appearance as Pic of the Day on the 8th January. As this will be a weekend, it should also appear on the Main Page. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Picture of the day/January 8, 2006. -- Solipsist 08:07, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Region?
We need to review the terms used for various types of regions of Norway, esp. the current erroneous term "landscape", but also landsdel and tettsted. See for instance Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Norway. -- Egil 16:10, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Request
Hi Gisle,

My name is Fernanda Viégas and I have been studying Wikipedia for a while now (you can see a paper I published on the subject here). I would like to ask you a few questions about your activities as a Wikipedia photographer. I am fascinated by the pictorial side of Wikipedia and it would be great to hear about this community from one of its members. Would you be available for an email interview? Thanks, — Fernanda 00:22, 4 April 2006 (UTC)  | talk

 * Sure! But I just saw your note, so it may be too late? I don't check my talk page that often, so it is better to send me email (see http://folk.uio.no/gisle/cntctuk.html for address). - gisle h. 11:12, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Your edit to Kristian solmer vedel
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Wikimania 2010 could be coming to Stockholm!
I'm leaving you a note as you may be interested in this opportunity.

People from all six Nordic Wiki-communities (sv, no, nn, fi, da and is) are coordinating a bid for Wikimania 2010 in Stockholm. I'm sending you a message to let you know that this is occurring, and over the next few months we're looking for community support to make sure this happens! See the bid page on meta and if you like such an idea, please sign the "supporters" list at the bottom. Tack (or takk), and have a wonderful day! Mike H. Fierce! 11:03, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

Unreferenced BLPs
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Articles about yourself
Just to let you know, you can't make articles about yourself. - JC Talk to me My contributions 09:20, 10 December 2011 (UTC)

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User talk:Mark Squance

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Battle of Palmito Ranch

The Battle of Palmito Ranch, also known as the Battle of Palmito Hill, is considered by some criteria the final battle of the American Civil War. It was fought May 12 and 13, 1865, on the banks of the Rio Grande east of Brownsville, Texas, and a few miles from the seaport of Los Brazos de Santiago, at the southern tip of Texas. The battle took place more than a month after the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee to Union forces at Appomattox Court House, which had since been communicated to both commanders at Palmito. In the intervening weeks the Confederacy had collapsed entirely, so it could also be classified as a postwar action.

Union and Confederate forces in southern Texas had been observing an unofficial truce since the beginning of 1865, but Union Colonel Theodore H. Barrett, newly assigned to command an all-black unit and never having been involved in combat, ordered an attack on a Confederate camp near Fort Brown for unknown reasons. The Union attackers captured a few prisoners, but the following day the attack was repulsed near Palmito Ranch by Colonel John Salmon Ford, and the battle resulted in a Confederate victory. Union forces were surprised by artillery said to have been supplied by the French Army garrison occupying the up-river Mexican town of Matamoros.

Casualty estimates are not dependable, but Union Private John J. Williams of the 34th Indiana Infantry Regiment is believed to have been the last man killed during the engagement. He could then arguably be considered the last man killed in the American Civil War.

Background
After July 27, 1864, the Union Army withdrew most of the 6,500 troops deployed to the lower Rio Grande Valley, including Brownsville, which they had occupied since November 2, 1863. The Confederates were determined to protect their remaining ports, which were essential for cotton sales to Europe and the importation of supplies. The Mexicans across the border tended to side with the Confederates because of the lucrative cotton export trade. Beginning in early 1865, the rival armies in south Texas honored a gentlemen's agreement, as they saw no point in further hostilities between them.

Union Major General Lew Wallace proposed a negotiated end of hostilities in Texas to Confederate Brigadier General James E. Slaughter, and met with Slaughter and his subordinate Colonel Ford at Port Isabel on March 11–12, 1865. Despite Slaughter's and Ford's agreement that combat would prove tragic, Slaughter's superior, Confederate Maj. Gen. John G. Walker, rejected the ceasefire in a scathing exchange of letters with Wallace. Despite this, both sides honored a tacit agreement not to advance on the other without prior written notice.

A brigade of 1,900 Union troops commanded by Col. Robert B. Jones of the 34th Indiana Veteran Volunteer Infantry were on blockade duty at the Port of Brazos Santiago at the mouth of the present-day ship channel of the Port of Brownsville. The 400-man 34th Indiana was an experienced regiment that had served in the Vicksburg Campaign and was reorganized in December 1863 as a "Veteran" regiment, composed entirely of veterans from several other regiments whose original enlistments had expired. The 34th Indiana deployed to Los Brazos de Santiago on December 22, 1864, replacing the 91st Illinois Volunteer Infantry, which returned to New Orleans. The brigade also included the 87th and 62nd United States Colored Infantry Regiments ("United States Colored Troops", or U.S.C.T.) which had a combined strength of about 1,100. Shortly after Gen. Walker rejected the armistice proposal, Col. Jones resigned from the army to return to Indiana. He was replaced in the regiment by Lt. Col. Robert G. Morrison and at Los Brazos de Santiago by Colonel Theodore H. Barrett, commander of the 62nd U.S.C.T.

The 30-year-old Barrett had been an army officer since 1862, but he had yet to see combat. Anxious for higher rank, he volunteered for the newly raised "colored" regiments and was appointed in 1863 as colonel of the 1st Missouri Colored Infantry. In March 1864, the regiment became the 62nd U.S.C.T. Regiment. Barrett contracted malaria in Louisiana that summer, and while he was on convalescent leave, the 62nd was posted to Los Brazos de Santiago. He joined it there in February 1865.

Reasons for fighting
Historians still debate why this engagement at Palmito Ranch took place. Lee had surrendered to Grant in Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, triggering a series of formal surrenders in other places throughout the country. The Confederate and Union officers in Brownsville also knew that Lee had surrendered, effectively ending the war.

Soon after the battle, Barrett's detractors claimed he desired "a little battlefield glory before the war ended altogether." Others have suggested that Barrett needed horses for the 300 unmounted cavalrymen in his brigade and decided to take them from his enemy. Louis J. Schuler, in his 1960 pamphlet "The last battle in the War Between the States, May 13, 1865: Confederate Force of 300 defeats 1,700 Federals near Brownsville, Texas", asserts that Brig. Gen. Egbert B. Brown of the U.S. Volunteers had ordered the expedition to seize as contraband 2,000 bales of cotton stored in Brownsville and sell them for his own profit, but Brown was not even appointed to command at Brazos Santiago until later in May.

According to historian Jerry Thompson:
 * What was at stake was honor and money. With a stubborn reluctance to admit defeat, Ford asserted that the dignity and manhood of his men had to be defended. Having previously proclaimed that he would never capitulate to "a mongrel force of Abolitionists, Negroes, plundering Mexicans, and perfidious renegades"...Ford was not about to surrender to invading black troops.... Even more important was the large quantity of Richard King and Mifflin Kenedy's cotton stacked in Brownsville waiting to be sent across the river to Matamoros. If Ford did not hold off the invading Federal force, the cotton would be confiscated by the Yankees and thousands of dollars lost."

Battle
Union Lieutenant Colonel David Branson wanted to attack the Confederate encampments commanded by Ford at White and Palmito ranches near Fort Brown outside Brownsville. Branson's Union forces consisted of 250 men of the 62nd U.S.C.T. in eight companies and two companies of the (U.S.) 2nd Texas Cavalry Battalion. The 300-man 2nd Texas, like the earlier-formed 1st Texas Cavalry Regiment, was composed largely of Texans of Mexican origin who remained loyal to the United States. They moved from Brazos Santiago to the mainland. At first Branson's expedition was successful, capturing three prisoners and some supplies, although it failed to achieve the desired surprise. During the afternoon, Confederate forces under Captain William N. Robinson counterattacked with less than 100 cavalry, driving Branson back to White's Ranch, where the fighting stopped for the night. Both sides sent for reinforcements; Ford arrived with six French guns and the remainder of his cavalry force (for a total of 300 men), while Barrett came with 200 troops of the 34th Indiana in nine under-strength companies.

The next day, Barrett started advancing westward, passing a half-mile to the west of Palmito Ranch, with skirmishers from the 34th Indiana deployed in advance. Ford attacked Barrett's force as it was skirmishing with an advance Confederate force along the Rio Grande about 4 p.m. He sent a couple of companies with artillery to attack the Union right flank and the remainder of his force into a frontal attack. After some confusion and fierce fighting, the Union forces retreated toward Boca Chica. Barrett attempted to form a rearguard, but Confederate artillery prevented him from rallying a force sufficient enough to do so. During the retreat, which lasted until 14 May, 50 members of the 34th Indiana's rearguard company, 30 stragglers, and 20 of the dismounted cavalry were surrounded in a bend of the Rio Grande and captured. The battle is recorded as a Confederate victory.

Fighting in the battle involved Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic, and Native American troops. Reports of shots from the Mexican side, the sounding of a warning to the Confederates of the Union approach, the crossing of Imperial cavalry into Texas, and the participation by several among Ford's troops are unverified, despite many witnesses reporting shooting from the Mexican shore.

In Barrett's official report of August 10, 1865, he reported 115 Union casualties: one killed, nine wounded, and 105 captured. Confederate casualties were reported as five or six wounded, with none killed. Historian and Ford biographer Stephen B. Oates, however, concludes that Union deaths were much higher, probably around 30, many of whom drowned in the Rio Grande or were attacked by French border guards on the Mexican side. He likewise estimated Confederate casualties at approximately the same number.

Using court-martial testimony and post returns from Brazos Santiago, historian Jerry D. Thompson of Texas A&M International University determined that:
 * the 62nd U.S.C.T. incurred two killed and four wounded;
 * the 34th Indiana had one killed, one wounded, and 79 captured; and
 * the 2nd Texas Cavalry Battalion had one killed, seven wounded, and 22 captured,
 * totaling four killed, 12 wounded, and 101 captured.

Private John J. Williams of the 34th Indiana was the last fatality during the Battle at Palmito Ranch, likely making him the final combat death of the entire war.

Aftermath
President Jefferson Davis was captured and imprisoned on May 10, 1865, marking the effective end of the Confederate government. In addition, that day United States President Andrew Johnson declared "armed resistance ...virtually at an end." Historian James McPherson joins other historians in concluding that the war ended when the Confederate government ended.

Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith officially surrendered all Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department on June 2, 1865, except those under the command of Brigadier General Chief Stand Watie in the Indian Territory. Stand Watie, of the 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles, on June 23, 1865, became the last Confederate general to surrender his forces, in Doaksville, Indian Territory. On that same day, United States President Andrew Johnson ended the Union blockade of the Southern states.

Many senior Confederate commanders in Texas (including Smith, Walker, Slaughter, and Ford) and many troops with their equipment fled across the border to Mexico. Wanting to resist capture, they may also have intended to ally with French Imperial forces, or with Mexican forces under deposed President Benito Juárez.

The Military Division of the Southwest (after June 27 the Division of the Gulf), commanded by Maj. Gen. Phillip H. Sheridan, occupied Texas between June and August. Consisting of the IV Corps, XIII Corps, the African-American XXV Corps, and two 4,000-man cavalry divisions commanded by Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt and Maj. Gen. George A. Custer, it aggregated a 50,000-man force on the Gulf Coast and along the Rio Grande to pressure the French intervention in Mexico and garrison the Reconstruction Department of Texas.

In July 1865, Barrett proffered charges of disobedience of orders, neglect of duty, abandoning his colors, and conduct prejudicial to good order and military discipline against Morrison for actions in the battle, resulting in the latter's court martial. Confederate Col. Ford, who had returned from Mexico at the request of Union Gen. Frederick Steele to act as parole commissioner for disbanding Confederate forces, appeared as a defense witness and assisted in absolving Morrison of responsibility for the defeat at Palmito Ranch.

The history of this engagement provides accounts of the roles of Hispanic Confederate veterans and of the treatment by Confederates in South Texas of black prisoners of war. Hispanic Confederates served at Fort Brown in Brownsville and on the field of Palmito Ranch. Col. Santos Benavides, who was the highest-ranking Hispanic in either army, led between 100 and 150 Hispanic soldiers in the Brownsville Campaign in May 1865.

"Some of the Sixty-Second Colored Regiment were also taken [in the Battle of Palmito Ranch]. They had been led to believe that if captured they would either be shot or returned to slavery. They were agreeably surprised when they were paroled and permitted to depart with the white prisoners. Several of the prisoners were from Austin and vicinity. They were assured they would be treated as prisoners of war. There was no disposition to visit upon them a mean spirit of revenge."

When Colonel Ford surrendered his command following the campaign of Palmito Ranch, he urged his men to honor their paroles. He insisted that "The negro had a right to vote."

"Last battle of the Civil War"
Although officially most historians say this was the last land action fought between the North and the South, some sources suggest that the battle on May 19, 1865, of Hobdy's Bridge, located near Eufaula, Alabama, was the last skirmish between the two forces. Union records show that the last Northern soldier killed in combat during the war was Corporal John W. Skinner in this action. Three others were wounded, also from the same unit, Company C, 1st Florida U.S. Cavalry.

Historian Richard Gardiner stated in 2013 that on May 10, 1865:
 * A confrontation took place at Palmetto Ranch. There was no Confederacy in existence when the "battle" occurred. The ex-Confederates at Palmetto Ranch were aware that Lee had surrendered and that the war was over. What happened in Texas can only be understood as a "post-war" encounter between Federals and ex-Confederate "outlaws."

The Confederates won this engagement, but as there was no organized command structure, there has been controversy about the Union casualties. In 1896 these same men had their pensions cut, although this was quickly rectified by an appeal to the commissioner of pensions. The assistant secretary to the commissioner overturned the pension cut, legally ruling the men as the last Union casualties of the war.

On April 2, 1866, President Johnson declared the insurrection at an end, except in Texas. There a technicality concerning incomplete formation of a new state government prevented declaring the insurrection over. Johnson declared the insurrection at an end in Texas and throughout the United States on August 20, 1866.

Battlefield
The area has remained relatively unchanged, with the marshy, windswept prairies almost the same as they were in 1865. The site is more than 5400 acre in size, and was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1997. The area is indicated by a large highway marker telling the history of the engagement, installed on the "Boca Chica Highway" (Texas State Highway 4) near where Palmito Ranch originally stood. The Civil War Trust (a division of the American Battlefield Trust) and its partners have acquired and preserved 3 acres of the battlefield.

title: Battle of Palmito Ranch


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User talk:ToastyKen

Hello Ken, welcome to Wikipedia. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian. You can learn more on the how to edit page. The naming conventions and manual of style pages are also useful. Feel free to experiment at the Sandbox. If you have any questions about the project then check out Help or add a question to the Village pump. Angela

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Hi there, this is ForteTuba (SuggestBot's owner). I'm dropping a note to ask you how I might make it better. If you have any ideas, including but not limited to improving the suggestions, the way the suggestions are presented, and the way SuggestBot told you about the suggestions, that would be great. I want to release it as a general-purpose tool soon and the more feedback you can give, the better it will be. Thanks for the help. ForteTuba 20:20, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

IPU.png licensing.
Please consider licensing your invisible pink unicorn image under the GFDL. It was used in a userbox, but was removed because it's tagged as fairuse. -- Jeandré, 2006-01-20t19:28z

Battlestar Galactica (Re-image)
Battlestar Galactica forked into 3 versions now. Do you want to rekindle the title rename? Talk:Battlestar Galactica (2003). I like reimage as you suggested almost a year ago. --Supercoop 18:44, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

will you revert magic hour (photography)?
somebody barfed all over your redirect. 68.121.163.146 04:06, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

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Talk:Quark star

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Strange Matter
I can't decide whether strange stars deserve their own article, separate from strange matter. There is a Danish-language article on strange stars, so we get a nice interwiki link, and they make more sense if they link articles on the same things. But on the other hand, everything that one can say about a strange star is also something about strange matter, so we can't really remove the information from strange matter that I've moved here... Oh, I'll think about it later... -- Oliver P. 19:30 19 Jun 2003 (UTC)

It might be good to talk about Strange Matter/Quark Matter (I'd advocate the latter terminology) purely in terms of the physics of degenerate matter and the debate over it's plausibility (ie, does QCD allow the arrangement? Is the degeneracy pressure provided by the strong nuclear force strictly analogous to neutron or electron degeneracy pressure? Are exotic quark flavors required or implied by the theory?) and move the bulk of the astrophysical considerations to this writeup.

-Peter

Giant Hadron?

The star then becomes known as a "quark star" or "strange star", similar to a single gigantic hadron (but bound by gravity rather than the color force). The force of gravity may have much to do with the binding of such a star, but wouldn't the color force also contribute to the binding energy? -- User:Kryptid Nov 2006

 * I have to say, is this an entirely appropriate line to include in the introduction to this article? Surely stating that a quark star is like a giant hadron is akin to stating that a neutron star is like a giant atomic nucleus -- misleading and factually inaccurate.
 * Not being an expert, I'd move for a second opinion, but I think that line should be reworded. --InvaderXan (talk) 13:48, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

 * Giant Hardon!
 * I don't know about the rest of you(s) but my Giant Hardon defies gravity and is not bound by it.

 * Epic Typo for the Win.

 * "Some of these quarks may then become strange quarks and form strange matter. The star then becomes known as a "quark star" or "strange star", similar to a single gigantic hardon (but bound by gravity rather than the strong force)"

August 9,2011 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.32.66.91 (talk) 00:21, 10 August 2011 (UTC)

Answers

Hello to all above in this section on "Strange Matter". Quark matter is highly unstable except under very extreme conditions of high temperature and/or pressure. This instability might change radically, by the introduction of strange quarks, at least if the Bodmer-witten assumption turns out to hold true. Therefore it is important to discuss strange quark matter in relation to quark matter and it is also important to discuss strange stars in relation to quark stars. If the Bodmer-Witten hypothesis is wrong, quark and strange stars will always by hybrid stars and could only exist as a subgroup of neutron stars. The whole idea of writing a separate article on quark stars, apart from neutron stars, is the Bodmer-Witten assumption, that strange quark matter is stable at low temperatures and pressures.

I have rewritten part of the article now and supplied some vital information on the differences and similarities of quark stars and strange stars. It can still be improved - especially the discussion on the binding forces of the "giant hadron" (not misspelled! :) and certainly the section on the "characteristics" of these stars -, but I believe the basics are represented in the article as of now. RhinoMind (talk) 13:45, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

Quark Star
Shouldn't this article redirect to Quark Star or vice versa?

--User:Killroy

Quark non-strange star
Is it strictly necessary to have strange quarks? If not then "Strange star" requres splitting into a separate section. Zzzzzzzzzzz 03:22, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

 * See discussion under "Strange Matter" above. And my comment specifically :-) RhinoMind (talk) 13:39, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

Size of Quark Star composed of ultra relativistic material
Revised: The contents of a light containing star would be expected to be ultra relativistic. If the pressure P of ultra relativistic material is given as (rho)(c^2)/3 [where rho is the energy density], the total supporting energy or viral energy of this star would be ∫PdV = (Mc^2)/3, meaning a whopping 1/3 of the mass energy of the star would be used just to oppose the force of gravity. The gravitational binding energy of a gas star is about 1.1G(M^2)/R. Using the viral equation, if (Mc^2)/3 is equal to 1/2 of 1.1 G(M^2)/R, the radius R of this star equals 1.65GM/(c^2), or 0.82 the Schwarzschild radius. There is observational evidence that a large finite size star is contained in a black hole: Some super massive black holes have been observed spinning at about 1/10 RPM, which implies a star of very large radius. The existance of an about 0.82 Schwarschild radius star, instead of  a conventional black hole point singularity, would probably mean the end of the conventional big bang  model as coming from a point singularity. If 2  approximately equal  mass 0.82 Schwarzchild radius stars  merged the contents would be expected to be ejected  at the speed of light from the contact point. This model could explain where our inflationary universe came from. It could also explain a possible ancient explosion at the center of M87. 172.162.231.22 (talk) 22:29, 16 November 2013 (UTC)BG

 * Hello. What you are discussing here, has nothing to do with Quark Stars. If it is of any relevance at all, it would be on the talk page on black holes. I dont think it is even relevant there, as what you are writing about and searching for is an engaged discussion about your ideas about black holes and ultra relativistic stars, ie. something that could and should be discussed in a completely different fora than Wikipedia. If you need me to clarify specific details as to why this has nothing to do with Quark Stars, please post your questions below. Most of them however, will explain themselves to you, if you study the subject of Quark Stars on your own first. RhinoMind (talk) 00:10, 12 May 2014 (UTC)

Simply stated, by a Quark star do you mean a neutron star with some quark matter production in the core? If so, shouldn't there simultaneously be much larger radiation production that the star would not contain? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.162.3.65 (talk) 21:44, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

 * Is this a question to me? If so you need to use the ":" marks. Whoever the question was meant for, I believe I can answer it anyway: 1. Please read the article on what defines a Quark Star. 2. There is no particle reactions going on inside the quark matter, so there will be no production of light or other particles. Only when matter from the outside gets in contact with the qm, will there be some reactions and glitches will occur. Possibly gamma-glitches. 3. There will however be some residual heat radiating from the quark matter itself, just as well as from the degenerate neutron matter. The heat is caused by the supernova-process and is a manifestation of converted angular momentum and gravitational energy. Read about the Viral Theorem fx.. There is no differences from how ordinary neutron stars will behave in this respect. 4. Whatever happens inside the quark matter, it will all be hold together by gravity and will not dissolve, due to the incredibly strong forces of the neutron degenerate lattice surrounding it. RhinoMind (talk) 22:26, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

If neutrons in the core disintegrated collider results indicate that about 90% of the neutron mass should be converted to gamma rays (which would exit the star) and about 10% of the neutron mass should be converted to quark matter. Quark matter is mostly charged particles associated with high energy and should quickly recombine in a neutron star to form conventional nuclei. I don't see how quark matter could exist in a stable neutron star core in the way you describe. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.129.21.166 (talk) 23:55, 25 May 2014 (UTC)

 * Ah, I think I get your drift now? Yes, if the stellar core of the nova is small enough and light enough, it cannot resist the heavy radiation pressure bouncing back, when the neutron star/hybrid star (with quark matter core) is produced and the whole thing will disintegrate, just as you describes it. However, for a neutron star to be born in the first place, the core will be rather massive and the gravitational pressure will be exactly huge enough to resist the radiation pressure from the conversion-processes. It all depends on gravitation and mass (almost).

 * You are touching a very central issue in relation to stars in general here. A stars life is a balance between gravitational collapse and outward radiation pressure. If one of these opposing forces wins, the star will disintegrate. This holds true for all stars. A life in the balance :-) RhinoMind (talk) 00:34, 16 August 2014 (UTC)

I don't think a star of ultra relativistic matter collapses even if its smaller than the Schwarzschild radius. This is because ultra relativistic pressure (like other pressures) increases as the inverse of R-cubed. The pressure increases faster than gravitational forces or gravitational potential energy108.46.17.166 (talk) 21:14, 13 July 2015 (UTC)BG.

The section on 'Strange stars'
As of now, the section on Strange Stars does not describe what a strange star is. RhinoMind (talk) 23:44, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I have done some preliminary work by explaining what quark and strange stars are in the new "Creation" section. The "Strange Star" section still needs to be rewritten. RhinoMind (talk) 04:16, 15 March 2014 (UTC)

 * I believe I have cleared up this problem by now. From now on, the article calls for an elaboration on the characteristics of quark stars and strange stars specifically. RhinoMind (talk) 23:27, 13 April 2014 (UTC)

Dark matter
I cut this paragraph from the article:

"It is speculated and subject to scientific investigation if (strange) quark matter once formed, might in fact be stable under zero external pressure (ie. in interstellar space). Nuggets of (strange) quark matter is thus one of several candidates for the theoretical and unknown dark matter, featured in many cosmological theories."

I think it first and foremost belongs to the article on quark matter and strange quark matter respectively. It can be fitted in here as well, but it would need a solid explanation on how quark stars contribute with nuggets. They would indeed do if they exist in the first place, but it would need an explanation. RhinoMind (talk) 01:59, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

On the section: "Other theorized quark formations"
The presence of this section needs a good explanation. The quark states discussed here, is more related to neutron stars, than quark stars. The various quark states might form at the core of neutron stars, under the extreme pressure and temperature, but they are not equivalent to what we know as quark matter.

The section at hand, has been discussed for various reasons previously. For the sake of structure and readability, I have collected these comments and discussions below.

RhinoMind (talk) 13:20, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

Theorized Quark Formations
This section should be deleted. First of all, to requote the Pentaquark page, there is "overwhelming evidence that the claimed pentaquarks do not exist". The idea of 4, 5, and 6 quark hadrons has been discarded by the particle physics community. But this is besides the point, theoretical hadrons have nothing to do with structure of a quark star. It would be more appropriate to reference Quark-gluon plasma. Pulu (talk) 05:54, 27 August 2012 (UTC)

I also think that this section is not relevant. Mi Tatara Buela (talk) 14:40, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

Classification
All Strange stars are Quark stars. But, not all Quark stars are Strange stars. Other Quark Stars. Strange Exotic States and Compact Stars http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0608317 Thanks, CarpD 1/07/06
 * Jaffe 1977, suggested a four-quark state with strangeness (qs qs
 * H-dibaryon, a six-quark state with equal numbers of up-, down-, and strange quarks (uuddss)
 * bound multi-quark systems with heavy quarks QQ qq
 * pentaquark states were first proposed with a charm anti-quark (qqqs c ), 1987
 * pentaquark state with an antistrange quark & four light quarks consisting of up- and down-quarks only (qqqq s )
 * light pentaquarks are grouped within an antidecuplet, the lightest candidate, Ө+ (big epsilon)
 * can also be described by the diquark model of Jaffe and Wilczek (QCD)
 * Ө++ (big epsilon) & antiparticle Ө --
 * doubly strange pentaquark (sssdd u ), memeber of the light pentaquark antidecuplet
 * charmed pentaquark Өc(3100) (uudd c ) state was detected by the H1 collaboration

 * Almost all of the particles suggested here contain strange quarks, and thus do not support your assertion.--Cherlin (talk) 21:40, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

 * almost is not the same as all - so it does support his assertion, since atleast one is not strange. 76.66.197.2 (talk) 06:51, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

 * Hello. You are right. As strange quark matter is a specific subgroup under quark matter, so are strange stars a subgroup under quark stars. The quark matter that might theoretically form in the core of neutron stars, can be very exotic and show a high degree of diversity though. Charm quark matter have also been discussed in the literature fx..

 * As the article is now here in 2014, I can see that this issue is no longer a problem? RhinoMind (talk) 23:24, 13 April 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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quark star = electroweak star / black hole = strong force star
Be more analytical about that! It's fundamentally important! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.84.212.42 (talk) 01:49, 11 April 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Quark star


text:
Mummichog

The mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) is a small killifish found along the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada. Also known as Atlantic killifish, mummies, gudgeons, and mud minnows, these fish inhabit brackish and coastal waters including estuaries and salt marshes. The species is noted for its hardiness and ability to tolerate highly variable salinity, temperature fluctuations from 6 to 35 C, very low oxygen levels (down to 1 mg/L), and heavily polluted ecosystems. As a result, the mummichog is a popular research subject in embryological, physiological, and toxicological studies. It is also the first fish ever sent to space, aboard Skylab in 1973.

Taxonomy
The genus name Fundulus comes from fundus, meaning bottom, from the fish's habit of swimming near muddy bottoms. The species name heteroclitus means irregular or unusual. The type specimen was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1766, from near Charleston, South Carolina. Other scientific names now considered synonyms for this species include Cobitis heteroclita, Fundulus fasciatus, Fundulus pisculentus, and Fundulus nigrofasciatus. The mummichog belongs to the order Cyprinodontiformes, and the family Fundulidae. There are two subspecies: F. h. heteroclitus (Linnaeus, 1766), in the south and F. h. macrolepidotus (Walbaum, 1792) in the north. As F. mudfish this species was designated the type species of Fundulus when Lacépède created the genus in 1803.

The name mummichog is derived from a Narragansett term meaning "going in crowds", which reflects the mummichog's strong shoaling tendency. Colloquial names include mummy, killie, kelley, chub, salt water minnow, mud minnow, mud dabbler, marsh minnow, brackish water chub, gudgeon, and common killifish. Some of these terms may lead to confusion: the term minnow should be reserved for species of the family Cyprinidae, the mudminnows are members of the family Umbridae, and the name gudgeon is used for various bottom-dwelling species of cyprinid, eleotrid, and ptereleotrid fishes, none of which belongs to the same family as the fundulid mummichog.

Description
The body of the mummichog is elongate but thick, with a deep caudal peduncle. Usual length is 7.5 to 9 cm but a maximum length of up to 15 cm is possible. The mouth is upturned and the lower jaw protrudes when the mouth is closed. Pectoral and tail fins are round. Mummichogs have 10–13 dorsal fin rays, 9–12 anal fin rays and 16–20 pectoral fin rays. Males have larger dorsal and anal fins than females. There is no lateral line on the body, but lateral line pores are present on the head. The colour is variable (and may even change in shade within the same individual when placed near different backgrounds) but is generally olive-brown or olive-green. There can be vertical bars on the sides that are thin, wavy, and silvery. Colors are more intense in males during the reproductive season, as they become dark olive-green on the back, steel-blue on the sides with about 15 silvery bars, and yellow or orange-yellow on the underside; the dorsal fin is mottled and a small eyespot may be present near the rear edge. Females tend to be paler, without bars or the intense yellow on the belly, and their dorsal fin is uniformly coloured.

Adults of the two subspecies can be distinguished based on slight morphological and genomic differences. Further, eggs of the northern subspecies have filaments (adhesive chorionic fibrils) that eggs of the southern subspecies lack. While the northern subspecies deposits eggs in the sand, the southern subspecies often deposits eggs inside empty mussel shells.

The mummichog is very similar to the banded killifish, Fundulus diaphanus, and indeed the two species have been known to interbreed. The two species may overlap in their choice of habitat, but in general the banded killifish is more commonly found in freshwater, which is not the case for the mummichog. The banded killifish tends to have thin dark bars on a light side, whereas in the mummichog the bars are thin and light on a dark side. Internally, the banded killifish has 4–7 gill rakers, as opposed to 8–12 in the mummichog.

Distribution and habitat
This species ranges along the Atlantic coast of North America, from Gaspé Peninsula, Anticosti Island and Port au Port Bay in the north to northeastern Florida in the south. It is present on Sable Island, 175 km southeast of the closest point of mainland Nova Scotia in the Atlantic Ocean. The approximate geographical division between the two subspecies lies in New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia.

Introduced populations have become established on the Atlantic coast of Portugal and southwestern Spain, starting in the 1970s  and some have now reached the western Mediterranean basin. There may also be introduced populations in Hawaii and the Philippines. As bait fish, mummichogs are sometimes released in freshwater habitats, where they can survive, and there have been reports of individuals in New Hampshire ponds, as well as the upper Ohio River and Beaver River.

The mummichog is a common fish in coastal habitats such as salt marshes, muddy creeks, tidal channels, brackish estuaries, eelgrass or cordgrass beds, and sheltered shorelines. It can be found within coastal rivers but seldom beyond the head of tide. A few landlocked populations may exist in freshwater lakes close to shore, for example on Digby Neck, Nova Scotia.

Diet
Mummichogs are agastric omnivores. Analyses of their gut contents have found diatoms, amphipods and other crustaceans, molluscs, fish eggs (including their own species), very small fish, insect larvae, and bits of eelgrass.

Physiology
This fish is well known for its ability to withstand a variety of environmental conditions. They can survive temperatures between 6 and(-); even within the same tidal cycle they can tolerate rapid temperature changes from 15 to(-). They are able to survive this vast temperature range by altering their metabolic rates at high and low temperatures. This is partly achieved by varying the isoenzyme of the lactate dehydrogenase (Ldh-B) enzyme expressed in warm or cold waters. These two versions of the enzyme allow for faster catalytic function and metabolism depending on if the fish is in northern, colder waters or southern, warmer waters. Based on genetic studies, the enzymes serum esterase (SERE) and malate dehydrogenase (MDH) also appear to play an important role in mummichog temperature control.

They are also among fish species most tolerant of salinity changes (euryhaline). Mummichog larvae can grow in salinities ranging from 0.4 to 100 parts per thousand, the latter being about three times the normal salinity of seawater. Adult mummichogs tolerate low oxygen levels down to 1 mg/L, at which they resort to aquatic surface respiration (breathing in the surface layer of water, richer in oxygen because of contact with air) to survive. They can even survive for a few hours in moist air outside of water, breathing air directly.

Populations have developed resistance to methylmercury, kepone, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyl, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. One study has looked at the genomic variation exhibited by mummichogs populations living in Newark Bay, New Bedford Harbor, and the Elizabeth River (Virginia) (in some areas heavily polluted with polychlorinated biphenyls and creosote, a complex mixture containing dioxin-like chemicals) and has found that about 20% of their genes were modified as compared to populations living in clean sites.

Behavior
Mummichogs live in dense shoals that can include several hundred individuals.

During cold winter months in the northern parts of their range, mummichogs move to upstream tidal pools, where they burrow into the mud at depths up to 20 cm to overwinter. They can also bury themselves in mud if they are caught in a drying tidal pool between spring tides. Alternatively, they can travel short distances on land to get back to the sea.

In the laboratory, mummichogs have yielded clear examples of free-running circadian rhythms, in both body colour and swimming activity. For the latter, clear rhythms were obtained in single individuals as well as in groups of 5 or 25 individuals. Evidence of free-running semi-lunar rhythms have also been obtained in mummichogs: in constant laboratory conditions, egg production peaked every 14.8 days for up to 5 months.

Reproduction
Spawning takes place from spring through fall. In the southernmost populations, up to eight spawnings are possible in a season. Spawning takes place most often at high tide and when the moon is new or full. Maximal spawning occurs when high spring tides coincide with night, though spawning during the day remains possible.

During courtship, males may pursue females, and females may attract males by turning on their sides near the bottom and flicking their tails. A male and female may swim together for a while, after which the male crowds the female against a rock or a plant and clasps her: the male's larger dorsal and anal fins curve around the female's body. Fingerlike projections that develop on the male's scales behind and below the dorsal fin may help the male maintain contact with the female. The pair quivers vigorously and eggs and sperm are released.

The eggs are pale yellow, about 2 mm in diameter, and strongly adhesive. During a spawning event, a female can deposit up to 740 eggs in separate clutches of 10 to 300 eggs at a time. The eggs adhere to plants, algal mats, empty mussel shells, sand, or mud at sites that are reached by water only at high spring tides. Eggs therefore develop while exposed to moist air, and they hatch when the next high spring tides reach them. The eggs cannot hatch in air, nor can they do so in moving water; hatching is initiated by a lack of oxygen, something that can happen in the boundary layer of relatively still water surrounding the metabolically active egg at high tide, but not in air or in moving water.

As opposed to their northern counterparts, the southern subspecies have eggs that lack filaments (adhesive chorionic fibrils) and they often deposit those eggs inside empty mussel shells. The two subspecies are also distinguished based on slight morphological and genomic differences.

Most mummichogs become sexually mature when two years old, around 3.8 cm in length. Normal lifespan is four years.

Parasites
Mummichogs are hosts to a parasitic fluke, Homalometron pallidum, which has a complex lifecycle involving the aquatic snail, Ecrobia truncata. Other parasite species reported in mummichogs include 10 protozoans, eight trematodes, one nematode, two acanthocephalans, and two crustaceans. A study in New Jersey found that mummichogs heavily infested with the digenean gill parasite Ascocotyle phagicola, spent more time near the surface and exhibited conspicuous behaviors such as jerking, an example of a parasite affecting the behavior of its host in a way beneficial to the parasite, as conspicuous behaviors near the surface make the fish more likely to be noticed by predatory wading birds, the next host in the parasite's life cycle.

Interest to humans
Mummichogs readily eat mosquito larvae and attempts have been made to use them as biocontrol agents of mosquito populations.

Fishing
Mummichogs are sold as bait in sport fisheries for marine species such as summer flounder and bluefish, or even sometimes for freshwater species. They are the most popular baitfish species in the Northeast of America and traditionally when used as bait they were lip hooked and then dressed with a piece of squid.

Scientific utility
Mummichogs are considered an important environmental model organism because of their ability to tolerate various extremes of chemical (pollution, etc.) and physical (temperature, salinity, oxygen, etc.) conditions. They are relatively abundant in nature and can be easily captured, transported and reared in laboratory facilities. They are commonly used in scientific studies of stress biology, thermal physiology and toxicology, and have also been studied in the contexts of evolutionary biology, developmental biology, endocrinology, cancer biology, and chronobiology (study of circadian rhythms). With the successful sequencing and assembly of the full killifish genome, they serve as a premier scientific model for studying biochemical and physiological responses to varying environmental conditions.

Their remarkable ability to tolerate various extremes of temperature and salinity has made them popular subjects in scientific studies of toxicology. For decades the killifish has been a useful laboratory model for toxicological studies that include exposures to single chemicals, chemical mixtures, and complex contaminated media. It is sometimes the only fish species found in severely polluted and oxygen-deprived waterways, such as the Elizabeth River in Virginia and, in New Jersey, the Hackensack River and the Arthur Kill. A 2008 Virginia Institute of Marine Science report stated that 38% of mummichogs from Elizabeth River had cancerous lesions, and "more than half had pre-cancerous lesions. That was largely due to high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons".

Killifish eggs are used in developmental studies and when teaching embryology because the eyes, the beating heart, and the different stages of ontogenesis can be easily examined. Embryos are also extremely durable and easy to manipulate in the laboratory.

Mummichogs were the first fish sent to space. In 1973 a couple of them were flown in a plastic bag aquarium aboard Skylab, during the Skylab 3 mission. In the absence of gravity the fish at first exhibited an unusual swimming behavior: they constantly pitched forward and therefore described tight circles. However, by day 22 of the mission they swam normally. Fifty eggs at an advanced stage of development had also been taken on board, and 48 of them hatched during the flight. The hatchlings swam normally. More experiments with mummichogs in space followed as part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and as part of a biological package aboard the Bion 3/Kosmos 782 satellite.

title: Mummichog