A candidate planet outside our solar system was validated using data from the Habitable-zone Planet Finder Spectrograph, a Penn State-led near-infrared spectrograph recently installed on the 10m Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory in Texas CREDIT Ethan Tweedie Photography

 

Science Over the Edge

A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month

March/April 2020

In the News:

Astronomers Find Possible Habitable Planet -A signal originally detected by the Kepler spacecraft has been validated as an exoplanet using the Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF), an astronomical spectrograph built by a Penn State team and recently installed on the 10m Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory in Texas. The HPF provides the highest precision measurements to date of infrared signals from nearby low-mass stars, and astronomers used it to validate the candidate planet by excluding all possibilities of contaminating signals to very high level of probability. The details of the findings appear in the Astronomical Journal. The planet, called G 9-40b, is about twice the size of the Earth, but likely closer in size to Neptune, and orbits its low mass host star, an M dwarf star, only 100 light years from Earth. Kepler detected the planet by observing a dip in the host star's light as the planet crossed in front of--or transited--the star during its orbit, a trip completed every six Earth days. This signal was then validated using precision spectroscopic observations from the HPF, ruling out the possibility of a close stellar or substellar binary companion. Observations from other telescopes, including the 3.5m telescope at Apache Point Observatory and the 3m Shane Telescope at Lick Observatory, helped to confirm the identification. "G 9-40b is amongst the top twenty closest transiting planets known, which makes this discovery really exciting," said Guðmundur Stefánsson, lead author of the paper, and a former PhD student at Penn State who is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University. "Further, due to its large transit depth, G 9-40b is an excellent candidate exoplanet to study its atmospheric composition with future space telescopes." "The spectroscopic observations from HPF allowed us to place an upper bound of 12 Earth masses on the mass of the planet," said Caleb Cañas, a graduate student at Penn State and an author of the paper. "This demonstrates that a planet is causing the dips in light from the host star, rather than another astrophysical object such as a background star. We hope to obtain more observations with HPF to precisely measure its mass, which will allow us to constrain its bulk composition and differentiate between a predominantly rocky or gas-rich composition." "It is exciting to see this first result of the HPF survey coming out. HPF was built from the ground up to enable precision measurements to discover and confirm planets," said Larry Ramsey, emeritus professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State.

Archaeologists Receive Letter From Biblical Era - "And the Lord delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel, which took it on the second day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls therein..." -Joshua, 10:32 The Biblical Book of Joshua tells the story of the ancient Israelites' entry into the Promised Land after a 40-year sojourn in the desert. Now, a team of archaeologists led by Professor Yosef Garfinkel at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Archaeology and Professor Michael Hasel at Southern Adventist University in Tennessee, have opened a window onto the Canaanite society that inhabited the land during that era. In a study published last month in Levant, Garfinkel and his co-authors revealed, for the first time ever, extensive ruins of a Canaanite temple dating to the 12th century BCE that they uncovered in National Park Tel Lachish, a large Bronze Age-era settlement near the present-day Israeli city of Kiryat Gat. Lachish was one of the most important Canaanite cities in the Land of Israel during the Middle and late Bronze Ages; its people controlled large parts of the Judean lowlands. The city was built around 1800 BCE and later destroyed by the Egyptians around 1550 BCE. It was rebuilt and destroyed twice more, succumbing for good around 1150 BCE. The settlement is mentioned in both the Bible and in various Egyptian sources and was one of the few Canaanite cities to survive into the 12th century BCE. "This excavation has been breath-taking," shared Garfinkel. "Only once every 30 or 40 years do we get the chance to excavate a Canaanite temple in Israel. What we found sheds new light on ancient life in the region. It would be hard to overstate the importance of these findings." The layout of the temple is similar to other Canaanite temples in northern Israel, among them Nablus, Megiddo and Hazor. The front of the compound is marked by two columns and two towers leading to a large hall. The inner sanctum has four supporting columns and several unhewn "standing stones" that may have served as representations of temple gods. The Lachish temple is more square in shape and has several side rooms, typical of later temples including Solomon's Temple. Only time will tell what treasures still remain to be uncovered in the ancient city of Lachish.

The Earth Formed Much Faster Than Previously Thought - The precursor of our planet, the proto-Earth, formed within a time span of approximately five million years, shows a new study from the Centre for Star and Planet Formation (StarPlan) at the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen. On an astronomical scale, this is extremely fast, the researchers explain. If you compare the solar system's estimated 4.6 billion years of existence with a 24-hour period, the new results indicate that the proto-Earth formed in what corresponds to about a minute and a half. Thus, the results from StarPlan break with the traditional theory that the proto-Earth formed by random collisions between larger and larger planetary bodies throughout several tens of millions of years - equivalent to about 5-15 minutes out of the above-mentioned fictional 24 hours of formation. Instead, the new results support a more recent, alternative theory about the formation of planets through the accretion of cosmic dust. The study's lead author, Associate Professor Martin Schiller, explains it as follows: 'The other idea is that we start from dust, essentially. Millimetre-sized objects, all coming together, raining down on the growing body and making the planet in one go,' he says, adding: 'Not only is this implication of the rapid formation of the Earth interesting for our solar system. It is also interesting to assess how likely it is for planets to form somewhere else in the galaxy.'

18-Hour Year Planet On Edge Of Destruction - Astronomers from the University of Warwick have observed an exoplanet orbiting a star in just over 18 hours, the shortest orbital period ever observed for a planet of its type. It means that a single year for this hot Jupiter - a gas giant similar in size and composition to Jupiter in our own solar system - passes in less than a day of Earth time. The planet NGTS-10b was discovered around 1000 light years away from Earth as part of the Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS), an exoplanet survey based in Chile that aims to discover planets down to the size of Neptune using the transit method. This involves observing stars for a telltale dip in brightness that indicates that a planet has passed in front of it. Lead author Dr James McCormac from the University of Warwick Department of Physics said: "We're excited to announce the discovery of NGTS-10b, an extremely short period Jupiter-sized planet orbiting a star not too dissimilar from our Sun. We are also pleased that NGTS continues to push the boundaries in ground-based transiting exoplanet science through the discovery of rare classes of exoplanets. "Although in theory hot Jupiters with short orbital periods (less than 24 hours) are the easiest to detect due to their large size and frequent transits, they have proven to be extremely rare. Of the hundreds of hot Jupiters currently known there are only seven that have an orbital period of less than one day." Massive planets typically form far away from the star and then migrate either through interactions with the disc while the planet is still forming, or from interactions with additional planets much further out later in their life. The astronomers plan to apply for time to get high-precision measurements of NGTS-10b, and to continue observing it over the next decade to determine whether this planet will remain in this orbit for some time to come - or will spiral into the star to its death.

Brain Cells Protect Muscles From Wasting Away - While many of us worry about proteins aggregating in our brains as we age and potentially causing Alzheimer's disease or other types of neurodegeneration, we may not realize that some of the same proteins are aggregating in our muscles, setting us up for muscle atrophy in old age. University of California, Berkeley, scientists have now found brain cells that help clean up these tangles and prolong life -- at least in worms (Caenorhabditis elegans) and possibly mice. This could lead to drugs that improve muscle health or extend a healthy human lifespan. The research team's most recent discovery, published Jan. 24 in the journal Science, is that a mere four glial cells in the worm's brain control the stress response in cells throughout its body and increase the worm's lifespan by 75%. That was a surprise, since glial cells are often dismissed as mere support cells for the neurons that do the brain's real work, like learning and memory. This finding follows a 2013 study in which the UC Berkeley group reported that neurons help regulate the stress response in peripheral cells, though in a different way than glial cells, and lengthen a worm's life by about 25%. In mice, boosting neuronal regulation increases lifespan by about 10%. Together, these results paint a picture of the brain's two-pronged approach to keeping the body's cells healthy. When the brain senses a stressful environment -- invading bacteria or viruses, for example -- a subset of neurons sends electrical signals to peripheral cells to get them mobilized to respond to the stress, such as through breaking up tangles, boosting protein production and mobilizing stored fat. But because electrical signals produce only a short-lived response, the glial cells kick in to send out a long-lasting hormone, so far unidentified, that maintains a long-term, anti-stress response. "We have been discovering that if we turn on these responses in the brain, they communicate to the periphery to protect the whole organism from the age onset decline that naturally happens. It rewires their metabolism, it also protects against protein aggregation," said Andrew Dillin, UC Berkeley professor of molecular and cell biology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator. As a result of the new study, "We think that glia are going to be more important than neurons." While the roundworm C. elegans is a long way evolutionarily from humans, the fact that glial cells seem to have a similar effect in mice suggests that the same may be true of humans. If so, it may lead to drugs that combat muscle wasting and obesity and perhaps increase a healthy lifespan. "If you look at humans with sarcopenia or at older mice and humans, they have protein aggregates in their muscle," Dillin said. "If we can find this hormone, perhaps it can keep muscle mass higher in older people. There is a huge opportunity here."

 

Science Quote of the Month - "IIf you believe in science, like I do, you believe that there are certain laws that are always obeyed." - Stephen Hawking

 

What's New at the Museum:

Big Snakes - What's the biggest snake in the world? People have argued about this for years. Part of the problem is the definition of the word "large." Do you mean the longest or the heaviest? Are we talking about the largest single specimen ever found or an average for the species? Do you consider unconfirmed reports, or only rely on double-checked evidence? >Full Story

Mysterious Picture of the Month - What is this?

Ask the Curator:

DNA vs GENES - I would like to know the difference between DNA and genes. - Kamini

DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. It is a double-stranded, helical nucleic acid molecule that encodes information hereditary information for almost all living organisms. A gene is one section of the DNA that controls a specific function or characteristic.

DNA is arranged like a twisted ladder with the up and down rails composed of sugar molecules and phosphate molecules connected to rungs made of either adenine and thymine or guanine and cytosine. One section of rail and a half rung is called a nucleotide and each nucleotide can be connected with others to make both sides of the ladder and to make the ladder longer. Because the half rungs (called bases) can be either adenine, thymine, guanine or cytosine, there are four different types of nucleotides. The order of the nucleotides on the ladder is important as this is how information is encoded into the DNA. It is not unlike the zeros and ones that encode information for computer program.

A group of consecutive nucleotides on the ladder that composes the instructions necessary to make one protein is called a gene. The protein molecule that the gene makes may control characteristics like a person's eye color, hair color, etc. On average a gene includes 3000 nucleotides, but for some simple proteins only a few dozen may be needed. Not all DNA nucleotides are part of a gene. There are lengthy intergenic regions in between most genes that either have no function or a regulatory function the scientists are only yet beginning to understand.

Humans are believed to have about 20,000 - 25,000 genes. More than ninety-nine percent of these genes are shared by all humans with only less than a percent involved in giving us all those traits that make use individuals. (In fact chimps, our closet biological relatives, have the 96% of the same DNA we do). Human DNA is also split up into unconnected sections called chromosomes. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes. A child gets one half of each pair from their mother and the other half from their father which is why a child might have their father's wide set eyes, but their mother's eye color. Chromosome number 23 is known as the sex chromosome because females carry two X types and males carry one Y and one X.

The DNA in a gene is divided up into two components. A "non-coding" section that simply indicates whether the gene is "on" or "off" (sometimes referred to the gene being "expressed" or not) and a "coding" section which contains the instructions to build the protein. The DNA does not build the protein itself but transcribes the information to RNA (Ribonucleic acid) to do the work. RNA looks and acts a lot like DNA, but is made up of only one half of the twisted ladder and uses a few alternate materials. In a few cases gene may not make a protein at all, but just RNA which is then used in another part of the protein synthesis operation.

Every cell in our body carries a copy of our DNA and parts of that DNA are very specific to each person, which is why it has become as important as fingerprinting to establish identity. Just a few cells left behind at a crime scene through a strand of hair can be enough to let police positively identify someone as the perpetrator. DNA can also predict if a person will get certain disease. For example, Tay-Sachs, which is a fatal disease often afflicting Eastern European Jews, has been shown to be the result a mutated and non-functioning HEXA gene. Other genes may not directly cause a disease, but increase the likelihood of a person getting ill. For example, researchers have shown that people with a nonfunctioning CREB gene are at an increased risk for anxiety and alcoholism.

The DNA actually looks like a super-tiny thread and is impossible to see without the use of an electron microscope. Typically it is curled up on itself so it can fit inside a microscopic cell. If you were to uncurl the DNA in a single cell, however, it would stretch out to about three feet in length and contain three billion base pairs.

 

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In History:

Kellogg's New Cornflakes - On March 7th in 1897, Dr. John Kellogg served the world's first cornflakes to his patients at a sanitarium in Battle Creek, Mich. These original cornflakes were unlike the familiar commercial breakfast cereal we see today. Dr. Kellogg's version was ab unsweetened addition to the diets of his patients, who suffered from a variety of sicknesses. Dr. Kellogg believed many illnesses could be cured by a strict vegetarian diet and exercise. It was his brother, Will Keith Kellogg, who in 1906, added sugar to the recipe and began marketing them as a commercial breakfast food. Dr. Kellogg was angered by this and sued to keep the Kellogg name off of the product.

 

In the Sky:

The Lyrid Meteor Shower - The Lyrid meteor shower will be active from April 16th to April 25th, peaking around April 22nd. The best time to see the meteors will be whenever the shower's radiant point - in the constellation Hercules - is above the horizon. The shower is likely produce its best displays shortly before dawn, when its radiant point is highest.

 

Observed:

Might the Loch Ness Monster Be A Giant Eel? - According to researchers from New Zealand , the animals behind reports of the fabled Loch Ness Monster might well be giant eels. The scientists have attempted to catalogue all living species there by checking DNA from loch water samples. As a result the researchers have eliminated as a possibility many of large creatures that might have been behind the reports of a monster. Prof Neil Gemmell, from New Zealand's University of Otago. remarked: "People love a mystery, we've used science to add another chapter to Loch Ness' mystique. We can't find any evidence of a creature that's remotely related to that in our environmental-DNA sequence data. So, sorry, I don't think the plesiosaur idea holds up based on the data that we have obtained." He also said, "There is also no catfish DNA in Loch Ness based on our sampling. We can't find any evidence of sturgeon either." His conclusion? "There is a very significant amount of eel DNA. Eels are very plentiful in Loch Ness, with eel DNA found at pretty much every location sampled - there are a lot of them. So - are they giant eels? Well, our data doesn't reveal their size, but the sheer quantity of the material says that we can't discount the possibility that there may be giant eels in Loch Ness."

LGM:

Zeep and Meep are on a well deserved vacation. In their place we feature highlights from their past adventures.

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