WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 10, 2023--

Experts have discovered a fluffy “alien” planet where it rains sand in stunning new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope. The bizarre-looking planet is officially known as exoplanet WASP-107b and has a cloud of silicate sand that exists high within its atmosphere giving it its strange fluffy appearance. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been responsible for some astounding findings since it was launched in 2021, including a mysterious galaxy shaped like a question mark. Now, observations made by the telescope have been used by experts who have been able to determine the atmospheric composition of the exoplanet that was pictured. A team of European astronomers found that water vapour, sulfur dioxide and silicate sand clouds existed in the exoplanet’s diverse atmosphere. The exoplanet WASP-107b is one of the lowest-density planets that astronomers are aware of. To put it into context, it is the same size as Jupiter, but has just 12 per cent of Jupiter’s mass. Thanks to its low density, it has allowed scientists to take a deeper look into the planet’s atmosphere, exploring 50 times deeper than would be possible with denser planets. The discovery of sulfur dioxide was a surprise because the host star it orbits only emits a small amount of high-energy light photons. But, its low-density atmosphere allows the photons to penetrate WASP-107b’s atmosphere where the chemical reaction that creates sulfur dioxide can occur. They also discovered that it essentially rains sand on the exoplanet due to the presence of clouds high in the atmosphere made up of fine silicate particles. Experts believe the clouds of sand form in the same way as rain does on Earth as the droplets continually fall and condense back into cloud form. The lead author of the study, Leen Decin from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, explained: “JWST is revolutionizing exoplanet characterisation, providing unprecedented insights at remarkable speed.” She added: “The discovery of clouds of sand, water, and sulfur dioxide on this fluffy exoplanet… is a pivotal milestone. It reshapes our understanding of planetary formation and evolution, shedding new light on our own solar system.” How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

In a scathing letter sent to key federal agencies, Senator Ron Wyden called for multiple investigations of Microsoft

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 21, 2023--

PewDiePie rates lavish home tour videos of famed YouTubers in new video series

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Elon Musk has taken part in a training session with former UFC champion Georges St-Pierre ahead of a potential bout with Mark Zuckerberg. The two tech billionaires agreed to a fight last month after Mr Musk accused the Meta chief of ripping off Twitter with a new platform called Threads. “Up for a cage match,” the Twitter owner wrote, to which Mr Zuckerberg replied: “Send me location.” Both men have since sparred with podcaster and jiu jitsu enthusiast Lex Fridman, who joined Mr Musk on Monday in his first training session with Mr St-Pierre. The Canadian fighter is considered to be one of the greatest ever mixed martial artists, winning titles in two weight divisions before retiring in 2019. They were also joined by John Danaher, a grappling coach who is among the best regarded trainers in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and has coached a number of world champions. “Had a great training session with Elon Musk, Georges St-Pierre, and John Danaher last night,” Mr Fridman tweeted. “Everything about this was epic!” Mr Musk replied: “Really fun!” The obvious conclusion is that I need a *lot* more training.” Prior to proposing the fight, Mr Musk claimed to “almost never work out”, while the Facebook founder has been practising jiu-jitsu since 2022. Earlier this year, Mr Zuckerberg competed in a martial arts tournament, winning “some medals” in his weight class. His potential opponent holds a height and weight advantage over him, however Mr Musk is also 13 years older than his tech rival. Following his training session with the SpaceX and Tesla boss, Mr Fridman said he was “extremely impressed” with his “strength, power, and skill, on the feet and on the ground”. Mr Fridman shared photos of his sparring session with Mr Musk, however no video of his training has yet emerged. UFC trainer Javier Mendez recently predicted that Mr Zuckerberg would win the fight, given his apparent fitness and experience. “The big advantage Zuckerberg has over Elon is that he’s actively training and he’s more of a dog right now, because he entered a jiu-jitsu tournament, so that tells me a lot about him,” he said. “All things considered, Zuckerberg is way ahead of Musk, but you won’t really know until you see what Musk possesses... I would want Musk to think about ways to prevent takedowns. But you can’t avoid a takedown just by trying to avoid it; you have to avoid it by striking.” No date or venue has been set for the fight. Read More Twitter to stop TweetDeck access for unverified users How Elon Musk finally broke Twitter – and why it might just be the start Twitter rival Bluesky halts sign-ups after huge surge in demand Elon Musk confirms cage fight with Mark Zuckerberg

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 15, 2023--

If you think a bread box or plastic bag is the answer, you're not rising to the occasion.

Investors wanted Nvidia to keep AI mania going and the Fed to stick to the script. But all that wasn’t enough to drive correction fears away.

By Tyrone Siu and Farah Master HONG KONG (Reuters) -Torrential rain deluged Hong Kong on Friday leading to widespread flooding