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Breakout EDU Time‘ 13 SEP 2018
New solar system found to have 7 Earth-size planets By ASHLEY YEAGER
Astronomers have just identified a nearby solar system hosting seven Earth-sized planets. Most intriguing: Three planets that orbit its central star known as TRAPPIST-1 may even be within a habitable zone. That means they fall within a region that could support life as we know it. As such, these newfound worlds are good sites to focus a search for alien life. TRAPPIST-1’s big planetary family also hints that many more cousins of Earth may exist than astronomers had thought. “It’s rather stunning that the system has so many Earth-sized planets,” says Drake Deming. He’s an astronomer at the University of Maryland in College Park. It seems like every stable spot where a planet could be, there is an Earth-sized one. And that, he adds, “bodes well for finding habitable planets.” Astrophysicist Michal Gillon works at the University of Li`ege in Belgium. He was part of a team that last year announced they had found three Earth-sized planets around TRAPPIST-1. This dwarf star is only about the size of Jupiter. It’s also much cooler than the sun. And it’s a relative neighbor to Earth, a mere 39 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. Follow-up observations with the Spitzer Space Telescope and additional telescopes on the ground now show that what first had appeared to be a third planet is actually a quartet of Earth-sized ones. Three of these may be habitable. If those planets have Earthlike atmospheres, their surfaces may even host oceans of liquid water. Or at
least that’s what Gillon and his colleagues reported online February 22 in Nature. Their data also offer signs of a seventh, outermost planet. How they spotted the new worlds All seven planets were detected by watching how their star dims as each passes or transits in front of it. Scientists measured how much of the star’s light each transit blocked from Earth’s view. Knowing how big a planet would have to be to do that, the astronomer calculated that all seven must have roughly the same radius as Earth. Those dips in starlight also showed how fast the planets orbit their star: The innermost one makes a round trip in 1.5 Earth days. The outermost one takes roughly 20 days. The planets’ masses range from about half to 1.5 times that of Earth. To figure that out, the researchers looked at the way the six inner planets tug on each other. The mass and size data then allowed the team to calculate the planets’ densities. All of this suggested that the inner six are rocky, as Earth is. The length of each planet’s day how quickly it spins on its axis may sync with its sun’s orbit. That would make the innermost planet’s day 1.5 Earth days long and the outermost one’s 20 Earth days long. That would be like Earth rotating once in 365 days instead of in 24 hours. Such a spin would keep the same side of a planet facing its star all the time (much as one side of our moon always faces Earth). This would give each of TRAPPIST-1’s planets permanent day sides and night sides. Astronomers feared that would make the planets too hot on the day side and too cold on the night side to be habitable. But if they have Earthlike atmospheres, three of the planets would still be warm enough all over to have liquid water. And that’s one requirement for a so-called livable “Goldilocks” zone an environment that’s not too hot or cold to sup-
port life. This solar system’s seventh planet probably is icy, Gillon says, perhaps like Jupiter’s moon Europa. “We are on the right angle to see this system and its Earth-sized planets,” notes Deming, who was not involved in the study. “For every system we see, there are dozens more that we don’t.” Stars like TRAPPIST-1 with Earth-sized planets are probably not rare, he now suspects. If they were, it could have taken many more observations to find some. In fact, the pilot project by Gillon’s group to study ultracool dwarf stars spotted one quickly. That this star had all of these Earth-size exoplanets suggests that it may be quite normal for such stars to harbor planets similar to Earth. Studying the atmospheres of such planets could reveal if they have life. One thing to look for: the gases methane and oxygen. Astronomers can look for those atmospheres (if they exist) with the Hubble Space Telescope or its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (which is due to launch in 2018). Deming is cautious, however, about how easy it will be to probe for details of planetary atmospheres. The light from ultracool dwarf stars can vary, he notes. And it can be hard to understand how the planets’ atmospheres might behave. Didier Queloz is a bit more optimistic. He’s an astronomer at the University of Cambridge, in England, and one of the new study’s authors. “We have no idea what these planets look like now. They could be wet or dry. We just don’t know,” he says. “But for the first time since the first exoplanet was discovered 25 years ago, we may be able to answer the question about life beyond our solar system.”
Breakout EDU Times 13 SEP 2018
Reuters
International Moose Count Underway By BOB O’BOBSTON
The UN-sponsored International Moose Census got off to a flying start today with hopes for an increase in the worldwide moose population compared to last year’s disapointing figures. Among the traditional early reporters were Egypt, returning figures of six moose, a twenty percent increase on 2011’s figures of five, and Uruguay whose moose population remains stable at eleven. According to Robbie McRobson, head of the UN Moose Preservation Council, worldwide moose numbers are expected to grow markedly on last year due to the traditional moose strongholds of Canada and the United States, with the larger developing moose ecologies also poised to make gains. The largest percentagege increase in moose will likely come from China’’, says McRobson, The Chinese government has invested heavily in moose infrastructure over the past decade, and their committment to macrofauna is beginning to pay dividends’’. Since 2004 China has expanded moose pasture from 1.5% of arable land to nearly 3.648% and moose numbers are expected to rise to 60,000 making China a net moose exporter for the first time. This is good news for neighbouring Mongolia, a barren moose-wasteland whose inhabitents nonetheless have an insatiable desire for the creatures. The increase in Beijing-Ulanbataar trade is anticipated to relieve pressure on the relatively strained Russian suppliers, but increase Mongolia’s imbalance of trade with its larger neighbour. Historically the only competitor
to China in the far eastern moose markets has been Singapore but the tiny island nation is set to report a net loss, expecting a decrease of more than five percent on last year’s 50,000 moose counted. The head of Singapore’s Agency for Agriculture, JingFeng Lau, explained to an incredulous Singaporean parliament yesterday that bad weather had contributed to this season’s poor showing, most notably when a cargo of 150 moose were swept out into the Indian ocean in a monsoon. Yet again the global demand for moose will be met largely by the US and Canada. The recession-hit States is taking comfort in its moose growth figures with gross production expected to break 700,000 and net exports to grow by 2%. The worldwide dominance of Canada shows no signs of abating though with this year’s moose population expected to match last year’s record figures of one hundred million billion. Europe’s rise as an international moose power will slow slightly this year as a response to the European Union’s move towards standardising the European moose. Stringent quality controls are holding back the development of the eastern european populations compared to last year when they contributed significantly to europe’s strong growth figures. Norway, which is not an EU member but has observer status, strengthed in numbers relative to the Euro area with numbers of Norweigian moose, known locally as elk’’ expected to rise for the tenth consecutive year, particularly thanks to a strong showing in the last quarter. As moose season reaches its close, researchers world wide are turning to science in an attempt to boost next year’s figures. NASA stunned the scientific community today with the announcment of their discovery that the moon is significantly smaller than previously believed. This conclusion, which is the conclusion of a tenyear collaborative project, will have profound implications for the moose community as the gravitational field is now known to be of the right strength to support moose in orbit. According to John Johnson, head of the NASA Moon Sizing Experi-
2 ment the first delivery of moose into low moon orbit could be achieved as early as the third quarter of next year. The technology to nurture moose in space is available now’’, he said, ’’all that is needed is political will’’.
Granny wins World Wrestling Championship By ROY MCROYSTON
Records were smashed in Nicaragua’s World Wrestling Championship last night as 78-year-old Maud Johnson, grandmother of five, became the first woman for fifty-six years, and the oldest competitor ever, to claim the gold medal. She walked away with her million dollar share of the prize money, runner up Tommy Thompson from Nigeria taking half a million, and third place New Zealander John Smith receiving a warm handshake from the umpire. Having started the tournament a rank outsider she began to impress in her second match when she took US number three Ron Ronson by surprise and subdued him in twenty seconds with her unique move that has been dubbed "Maud’s Death Grip". The injection of a new wrestling style into the tournament was welcomed by spectators and Johnson’s pre- and post-match breakdances have proved entertaining to fans. However, she was still not expected to win in round three last Wednesday, facing off against title-holder Paulo "SpineSnapper" Lutti, of Vatican City. Underdog Johnson was soon showing her worth with stamina and agility easily matching last year’s winner. Lutti’s experience paid off initially as he took the first two rounds, but as Johnson became more confident her superior strength came to the fore and she clawed back two rounds to take the contest into a decider. By this time Lutti’s body language indicated that he already felt overawed by the pretender to his crown, and the newcomer took advantage of this to engage a mutual headlock which she
Breakout EDU Times 13 SEP 2018 held for three hours until the Vatican man retired from exhaustion. The next seven matches were barely a contest as the news of Johnson’s supremacy overawed all her opponents who became too indimidated to fight properly. Nigerian Tommy Thompson is also a relative newcomer to the wrestling scene, but with his 210lb frame he was expected to fare well against Johnson who weighs in at only 90lb. However Johnson’s lithe and slender, some would say scrawny, figure belies her agility and strength which she demonstrated by holding Thompson above her head several times during the bout and throwing
him into the crowd once. With the scores tied at 2-2 time ran out and the contest went to a panel of judges to be assessed. They awarded Thompson a C grade whilst Johnson received an A, becoming the first grandmother to ever win the title. The new champion explained her success as the result of a strict training regimen instituted by her coach and grandson five-year-old Sammy Johnson. "I’ve been drinking ten raw eggs for breakfast every morning, sprinting fifty miles a day and carrying my daughter’s car to the end of the road and back whenever I felt my arthritis was OK" she said. Sammy added "I always knew she could do
3 it. She’s my grandma.". The youngster is also her manager and has reportedly arranged sponsorship deals which will dwarf her one million dollar prize fund. Her new contract with headband designer Nike alone is set to earn her fourteen billion dollars over the next year. She will also be promoting Tupperware, Halliburton, the Republic of Macedonia, and Gala Bingo. Her continued participation in the sport is not assured as she wants to spend more time on her bungeejumping business, and knitting. Everyone here at the World Championships, however, hopes for her return.