Tag: science

bb8s:

A strange lonely planet found without a star

An international team of astronomers has discovered an exotic young planet that is not orbiting a star. This free-floating planet, dubbed PSO J318.5-22, is just 80 light-years away from Earth and has a mass only six times that of Jupiter. The planet formed a mere 12 million years ago, a newborn in planet lifetimes.

“We have never before seen an object free-floating in space that that looks like this. It has all the characteristics of young planets found around other stars, but it is drifting out there all alone,” explained team leader Dr. Michael Liu of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “I had often wondered if such solitary objects exist, and now we know they do.”

The discovery paper of PSO J318.5-22 is being published by Astrophysical Journal Letters and is available at http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.0457.
Image: Artist’s conception of PSO J318.5-22. Credit: MPIA/V. Ch. Quetz

wowthing:

micdotcom:

Brain scans reveal what dogs really think of us

 Thanks to recent developments in brain imaging technology, we’re starting to get a better picture of the happenings inside the canine cranium.

That’s right — scientists are actually studying the brains of dogs. And what the studies show is welcome news for all dog owners: Not only do dogs seem to love us back, they actually see us as their family. It turns out that dogs rely on humans more than they do their own kind for affection, protection and everything in between.

What dogs are physically wired to notice about humans  | Follow micdotcom

i am really on the verge of tears because i love dogs so much oh my god

fyeahscienceteachers:

shychemist:

gnossienne:

Forty years ago, a vast molten cavity known as the Darvaza crater – nicknamed the “door to hell” – opened up in the desert of north Turkmenistan, and has been burning ever since. Now, Canadian explorer George Kourounis has became the first to make the descent into the fiery pit to look for signs of life (x)

“We did find some bacteria living at the bottom that are very comfortable living in those high temperatures, and the most important thing was that they were not found in any of the surrounding soil outside of the crater,” he says. “Outside of our solar system, there are planets that do resemble the conditions inside this pit, and [knowing that] can help us expand the number of places where we can confidently start looking for life outside of our solar system.”

DUDE.

For teaching: geology, exobiology

Source: theguardian.com