As far as impressing your doable new boss goes, discovering a planet on day three of your internship at NASA is up there.
That is what came about to 17-365 days-primitive Wolf Cukier whereas helping out on the recount agency within the US.
He used to be checking photos from its enormous-energy satellite when he seen something strange.
It changed into out to be a new planet, 1,300 light years far flung from Earth. News simply confirmed by NASA.
Wolf, who is now relieve at excessive college in Scarsdale, Unique York, has been talking to Radio 1 Newsbeat about his unparalleled discovery.
He explains that he landed the two-month placement with NASA’s Goddard Region Flight Center when college finished last summer season.
His job? To seem recordsdata beamed relieve by potential of their Transiting Exoplanet Discover about Satellite (TESS) – a recount telescope that looks for planets start air of our solar system.
“I used to be looking out to search out a planet that orbits two stars,” he explains.
He needed to survey adjustments within the brightness of any stars that could well maybe presumably suggest the shadow of a planet passing in entrance.
So simply three days in, when most of us would gathered be making the tea, he used to be having a eye at a solar system many light years far flung from ours and seen something blocking off the sunshine of two stars.
That used to be when he flagged it.
“I took it to my mentor, we regarded on the information from the stars and seen two extra dips in light, so we started doing prognosis to eye if it in point of fact will almost certainly be a planet.”
Image copyright NASA’s Goddard Region Flight Center
Image caption An illustration displaying what scientists dangle the planet could well maybe eye like
His finding used to be ample to salvage other scientists eager. And additional inspection revealed a planet that’s nearly 6.9 times as immense as Earth. It be title? TOI 1338 b.
Now now not very catchy but Wolf says he wasn’t requested to help with that.
“I don’t salvage to title the planet. My brother had the root of calling it Wolftopia but I dangle TOI 1338 b is ample.”
TOI 1338 b is never any longer simply any planet though, it is far a circumbinary planet. That as soon as in some time plot it is orbiting around two stars, reasonably than the in fashion one.
Followers of Well-known particular person Wars could well maybe expend that Luke Skywalker’s fictional home, Tatooine, used to be a circumbinary planet. This comparison is never any longer misplaced on Wolf, who parts out that he is that in point of fact wearing a Well-known particular person Wars t-shirt on the present time.
“It be very very like Tatooine, as a minimum how the stars would seem within the sky,” he says. “So, it can well maybe maybe furthermore get dangle of a double sundown.”
But unlike Tatooine this planet is never any longer liveable. Wolf explains that it is more doubtless to be extremely hot and presumably would now not get dangle of a solid floor.
Image copyright NASA’s Goddard Region Flight Center
Image caption Well-known particular person Wars followers expend present off – the brand new planet orbits two stars like Luke Skywalker’s fictional home, Tatooine
So does his discovery mean he is assured a job at NASA one day?
“I’ve no view about NASA’s hiring practices but it surely can’t damage! It be an even thing to get dangle of on my CV,” he says.
He provides that the recount agency has been “impressed” by what he finished on his internship though.
“My mentor has been very supportive and angry. I dangle NASA is taken aback with the amount of attention this has been getting.”
As of late, he wears his NASA fleece with pride (over the Well-known particular person Wars t-shirt after all). Now now not a present from the agency to reward him for his achievements, he explains, but bought with a low cost within the employee shop.
Rate it though, as consistent with Wolf it is far a “good jacket.”
Image copyright NASA’s Goddard Region Flight Center
Image caption Wolf spotted a pattern which urged a planet used to be continually passing in entrance of two stars
The baby undoubtedly has a future in recount in his sights. After graduating excessive college he wishes to head to college.
“As soon as I’m there I’m planning to search physics and astrophysics,” he says. “From there, a career in recount study is appealing.”
But for now it is relieve to normality for Wolf though he has a chunk of of extra notoriety amongst his excessive college chums.
“I’ve had extra congratulations over the last four days, than I’ve had over the last couple of years mixed. All individuals is incredibly angry. It be a surreal trip.”
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
