“This is a normal, temperate exoplanet just like dozens we already know, but this is the first whose properties we can study in depth,” says Claire Moutou, who is part of the international team of 60 astronomers that made the discovery.

An artist's view of an exoplanet; not related in any way to the article

This discovery is absolutely mesmerizing, and it’s importance just can’t be overestimated.

“It is bound to become a Rosetta stone in exoplanet research. Corot-9b is the first exoplanet that really does resemble planets in our solar system,” adds lead author Hans Deeg. “It has the size of Jupiter and an orbit similar to that of Mercury.”

“Like our own giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, the planet is mostly made of hydrogen and helium,” says team member Tristan Guillot, “and it may contain up to 20 Earth masses of other elements, including water and rock at high temperatures and pressures.”

“Our analysis has provided more information on Corot-9b than for other exoplanets of the same type,” says co-author Didier Queloz. “It may open up a new field of research to understand the atmospheres of moderate- and low-temperature planets, and in particular a completely new window in our understanding of low-temperature chemistry.”

All in all, there have been than 400 exoplanets have been discovered so far, out of which 70 were found using this transit method. However, CoRoT is different and special, in that its distance from its host star is about 10 times larger than that of any other exoplanet. Also, unlike any other planet, it’s expected to have a temperate climate; it’s estimated that the temperatures vary from 160 degrees to -20 Celsius.

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So, it’s speculated that the LHC will go down for a year (buuu), but that won’t happen in the next 18-24 months at least (yaaay). In this time, their goal will be to deliver one inverse femtobarn of data to the experiments.

Here is the full update

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration lowered the camera, in an attempt to look deep in the underbelly of Antarctica’s ice; not long after that, a shrimp-like creature swam by and then “landed” on the cable. Scientists also picked up a tentacle that they believe can only come from a jellyfish - a pretty big one too.

“We were operating on the presumption that nothing’s there,” said NASA ice scientist Robert Bindschadler, who will be presenting the initial findings and a video at an American Geophysical Union meeting Wednesday. “It was a shrimp you’d enjoy having on your plate. We were just gaga over it,” he said of the 3-inch-long (76-millimeter, orange critter starring in their two-minute video.

The video forces experts to rethink what they previously believed about where evolved animals can survive in extreme environments; if they can live in this freezing underwater environment, why not on Europa, the frozen moon of Jupiter, or other such places?

“This is a first for the sub-glacial environment with that level of sophistication,” Ellis-Evans said. He said there have been findings somewhat similar, showing complex life in retreating ice shelves, but nothing quite directly under the ice like this.

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“This study shows just how widespread mercury pollution has become in our air, watersheds and many of our fish in freshwater streams,” said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

No matter how cool it sounds (and is, actually), Mercury is bad for you; really bad. This potent neurotoxin stacks up as you go up the food chain, so you’d expect big predator fish to have higher concentrations. It attacks especially the nervous systems of fetuses and children, but it’s effects are considerable on humans too.

The biggest cause of human mercury poisoning in the US is the consumption of fish and shellfish.

Picture source

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Employing the help of the Mini-SAR instrument (a lightweight, synthetic aperture radar), NASA managed to find more than 40 craters covered with ice. Despite the fact that the craters are relatively small, it’s estimated that there is about 600 million metric tons in that area.

“The emerging picture from the multiple measurements and resulting data of the instruments on lunar missions indicates that water creation, migration, deposition and retention are occurring on the moon,” said Paul Spudis, principal investigator of the Mini-SAR experiment at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. “The new discoveries show the moon is an even more interesting and attractive scientific, exploration and operational destination than people had previously thought.”

Get the full insight on NASA’s website

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The team of neuroscientists led by Lulu Chen and Christine Gall developed a novel visualization technique and found that everyday forms of learning stimulate the neuron receptors that keep the brain cells going at top gear. The receptors are activated by a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which facilitates the growth and differentiation of the connections, or synapses, responsible for communication among neurons.

“The findings confirm a critical relationship between learning and brain growth and point to ways we can amplify that relationship through possible future treatments,” says Chen, a graduate researcher in anatomy & neurobiology.

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Lions loved him so much they often repaired his car

He was born in India (British India at the moment) and from his early days you would have never guessed the life he’d live. After a number of jobs that included gold prospector, goat trader and safari hunter, he retired as a game warden in a remote part of Northern Kenya and dedicated pretty much all of his life to lions.

In 1956 he raised Elsa the lioness, who became the subject of Born Free. Elsa was the youngest of three orphaned lions. Adamson and his wife took care of them, sending the largest two to the Rotterdam zoo. However, when Elsa started to cause trouble, the Adamsons were given a choice: either integrate her in the wild in 3 months, or send her to a zoo. His wife opposed sending Elsa to a zoo, and thus a superhuman effort began. At the time, the task was considered borderline impossible, but that didn’t stop them from trying - and succeeding. With mixed feelings, a breaking heart, but most of all, free, Elsa went into the wild.

An affectionate hug from Elsa

After that, they went for a year to their house in England. Returning in Kenya, they hope to find Elsa; they do, and find her as the mother of three cubs, and she loves them as much as ever. His love for lions is touching and inspiring, and when you gain the trust and respect of Kenyan lions, there’s little else you can achieve in the world. This letter pretty much summarizes his love for the amazing predators:

“‘Naja’ is an excellent and selfless mother. Without her help, none of ‘Koretta’’s’ cubs would have survived… At one time I entertained the suspicion that ‘Blakatan’ was responsible for the loss of ‘Koretta’s’ first litter of four beautiful cubs and that he might have killed and eaten them and I thought seriously about getting rid of him but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. It was as well that I did so, as he has turned out to be a model and indulgent father, allowing the cubs to rough-house him, pull his tail and bite his ears.”

Lions weren't the only animals whose trust he'd earned...

Picture sources

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Named after astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, it follows a long tradition of naming elements after famous scientists; some of the latest in this line include Einsteinium (for Albert Einstein), Fermium (for nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi), and Curium (after Marie Curie and her husband Pierre).

NOTE: Today we implement what we’ve called ’shorties’ - just short news, without going into any details, but definitely interesting and worth noting. Any feedback is well appreciated

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