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On 9 January 1992, astronomers Alex Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced they had discovered the first two exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system, while working at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The two planets orbit a pulsar, a neutron star, 2,300 light-years away, in the constellation Virgo. We now know of the existence of nearly 6,000 exoplanets, but Poltergeist and Phobetor were the first to be confirmed. Rachel Naylor speaks to Alex Wolszczan.Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic' and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy's Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they've had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America's occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.(Photo: An artist's impression of the pulsar planet system discovered by Alex Wolszczan in 1992. Credit: NASA)
Building The World's Largest Animal Crossing Outside of LA There's a spot on Highway 101 in Agoura Hills, it's pretty inconspicuous. There's brown and green rolling hills on either side of the highway. Homes are sprinkled here and there. And then a small metal gate that leads off on a hiking trail. You probably wouldn't know it, but soon this spot will be the location of the world's largest animal crossing. This crossing will reconnect habitats that have been cut off from each other for three quarters of a century and it'll do it over a highway that is constantly buzzing with cars — 300,000 pass by this spot every single day. In this piece we're going on a geography voyage — from the north side of the highway to the south, and up the hills, above the highway, to get the real view. We'll start here — there's a big open space on the northern side of the highway. It's at the entrance to Liberty Canyon and where I meet Beth Pratt. To continue reading, go to sciencefriday.com. Over 5,000 Exoplanets Have Now Been Discovered In March, the NASA Exoplanet Archive logged the 5,000th confirmed planet outside of our solar system. This marks a huge advance since the first exoplanet discovery in 1992, when astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced the discovery of two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12. Now, the Archive contains confirmed sightings of planets in a wide range of shapes and sizes—from “hot Jupiters” to “super Earths”—but they still haven't found any solar systems just like our own. In many cases, all astronomers know about these distant planets is their size and how far away from their stars they orbit. The TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission currently in orbit may eventually add ten thousand more candidates to the lists of possible planets. The Nancy Grace Roman Space telescope and ESA's ARIEL mission, both planned for launch later this decade, could add thousands more. And the James Webb Space Telescope, currently undergoing commissioning, will attempt to characterize the atmospheres of some of the planets astronomers have already discovered. Astronomer Jessie Christiansen, the NASA Exoplanet Archive Project science lead, joins John Dankosky to talk about what we know about planets around distant suns, and how researchers are working to learn more about these far-off worlds. Scientists Release The First Fully Complete Human Genome Two decades ago, scientists announced they had sequenced the human genome. What you might not know is that there were gaps in that original sequence—about 8% was completely blank. Now, after a years-long global collaboration, scientists have finally released the first fully complete assembly of the human genome. Researchers believe these missing pieces might be the key to understanding how DNA varies between people. Six scientific papers on the topic were published in a special edition of the academic journal Science. Ira talks with Karen Miga and Adam Phillippy, co-founders of the Telomere to Telomere Consortium, an international effort that led to the assembly of this new fully complete human genome. Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.
How Has The War In Ukraine Shaped The Global Energy Market? Russia's war on Ukraine sent shock waves through the global energy market. The United States and the United Kingdom stopped importing Russian oil and gas, and the European Union set a target of reducing their reliance on Russian fossil fuels by two thirds. In the short term some countries may start relying more on dirty fossil fuels like coal to cushion the economic impact of the shifting energy market. However, some experts believe the current political situation may inspire a lasting transition to clean energy. Guest host John Dankosky talks with Tim Revell, United States Deputy Editor at New Scientist about the changes to the global energy market and other top science news of the week, including the latest on the BA2 covid-19 variant, Orangutan slang, the winner of the prestigious Abel prize in mathematics, lettuce genetically modified to prevent bone loss, and robots who learned to peel bananas without crushing them. Why Climate Change May Bring More West Nile Virus To The U.S. Michael Keasling of Lakewood, Colorado, was an electrician who loved big trucks, fast cars, and Harley-Davidsons. He'd struggled with diabetes since he was a teenager, needing a kidney transplant from his sister to stay alive. He was already quite sick in August when he contracted West Nile virus after being bitten by an infected mosquito. Keasling spent three months in hospitals and rehab, then died on Nov. 11 at age 57 from complications of West Nile virus and diabetes, according to his mother, Karen Freeman. She said she misses him terribly."I don't think I can bear this," Freeman said shortly after he died. Spring rain, summer drought, and heat created ideal conditions for mosquitoes to spread the West Nile virus through Colorado last year, experts said. West Nile killed 11 people and caused 101 cases of neuroinvasive infections—those linked to serious illnesses such as meningitis or encephalitis—in Colorado in 2021, the highest numbers in 18 years. The rise in cases may be a sign of what's to come: As climate change brings more drought and pushes temperatures toward what is termed the “Goldilocks zone” for mosquitoes—not too hot, not too cold—scientists expect West Nile transmission to increase across the country. Read the rest at sciencefriday.com. Millions Of Iowa Chickens Infected With Deadly Strain Of Bird Flu Iowa and federal agriculture officials have confirmed a deadly strain of bird flu in a large commercial flock of egg-laying hens in northwest Iowa's Buena Vista County. It's the fourth case of bird flu in the state and the largest flock to date to be infected by this year's outbreak. Chloe Carson, a spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, said Friday that initial reports indicate there are approximately 5.3 million birds in the flock. Carson said the department won't have exact numbers for a few days. The numbers will be released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture once all the birds have been destroyed to prevent the disease from spreading. It's the second confirmed case of bird flu in Buena Vista County this year. The virus was confirmed in a commercial flock of nearly 50,000 turkeys in the county on March 6. The deadly strain was also confirmed in a flock of more than 915,000 commercial egg-laying hens in southwest Iowa's Taylor County on March 10 and a backyard flock of nearly 50 chickens and ducks in Pottawattamie County on March 1. Agriculture officials have cautioned producers and backyard flock owners to keep their birds away from wild birds that are migrating. They can carry the virus in their saliva or feces and show no signs of infection. Bird flu has been found in commercial and backyard flocks in 17 states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Iowa has about 56 million egg-laying chickens and is the top egg-producing state in the country. In the 2014-2015 bird flu outbreak, Iowa and Minnesota were hit the hardest. More than 50 million birds were killed in that outbreak, including nearly 33 million in Iowa. 5,000 Total Exoplanets Have Now Been Discovered This week, the NASA Exoplanet Archive logged the 5,000th confirmed planet outside of our solar system. This marks a huge advance since the first exoplanet discovery in 1992, when astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced the discovery of two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12. Now, the Archive contains confirmed sightings of planets in a wide range of shapes and sizes—from "hot Jupiters" to "super Earths"—but they still haven't found any solar systems just like our own. In many cases, all astronomers know about these distant planets is their size and how far away from their stars they orbit. The TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission currently in orbit may eventually add 10,000 more candidates to the lists of possible planets. The Nancy Grace Roman Space telescope and ESA's ARIEL mission, both planned for launch later this decade, could add thousands more. And the James Webb Space Telescope, currently undergoing commissioning, will attempt to characterize the atmospheres of some of the planets astronomers have already discovered. Astronomer Jessie Christiansen, the NASA Exoplanet Archive Project science lead, joins John Dankosky to talk about what we know about planets around distant suns, and how researchers are working to learn more about these far-off worlds.
Hace 30 años se descubrieron los primeros planetas fuera de nuestro Sistema solar. Los astrónomos estadounidenses Alex Wolszczan y Dale Frail informaron del hallazgo de dos cuerpos celestes alrededor de un pulsar, de una estrella de neutrones. Tres años después, los suizos Michel Mayor y Didier Queloz descubrieron un planeta alrededor de una estrella parecida a nuestro Sol, un hallazgo que les valió el Nobel y que supuso el pistoletazo de salida para la caza de estos objetos celestes. Tres décadas después se ha confirmado la existencia de 4.900 exoplanetas en unos 3.700 sistemas solares. Un número que puede aumentar considerablemente cuando entre estén operativos el telescopio espacial James Webb, de viaje hacia su punto de destino, y la misión europea PLATO, cuyo lanzamiento está previsto para finales de 2026. Ambos con una importante participación española. Hemos entrevistado a J. Miguel Mas Hesse, responsable del Departamento de Astrofísica del Centro de Astrobiología y coinvestigador principal de la misión. Escuchar audio
The first exoplanet was discovered in 1992 by Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail. Less than 30 years after this initial discovery that won the Nobel Prize in Physics, more than 4000 exoplanets have been confirmed (NASA). These planets, while unique, have some similarities in mass and size, and potentially other features, to Earth. While we aren't able to take a sample from the surface of these planets, that doesn't mean we're limited to simply guessing at their composition. Associate Professor of Physics and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto Scarborough, Dr. Diana Valencia walks us through how we can infer the composition of rocky planets without actually having sampled the planet's surface. This research is laying the groundwork for more in-depth studies on processes that have shaped exoplanets, how they may be similar to Earth's, and whether similar planetary evolution implies finding extraterrestrial life. Primary readings discussed: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-abstract/499/1/932/5899063
Los primeros exoplanetas fueron descubiertos hace apenas unos 30 años atrás, pero la búsqueda de estos múltiples mundos se remonta varios siglos atrás. En este episodio les contamos de algunos astrónomos como William Stephen Jacob o Peter van de Kamp, quienes creyeron encontrar exoplanetas mucho antes de que fuera posible. Y por supuesto hablamos de los primeros cazadores de planetas exitosos: Aleksander Wolszczan y Dale Frail que encontraron 3 planetas alrededor de un púlsar, y Michel Mayor y Didier Queloz que encontraron el primer exoplaneta orbitando una estrella parecida al Sol.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/jugodeciencia)
Der erste Planet eines anderen Sterns den wir entdeckt haben, umkreiste einen toten Stern und war selbst auch eher geisterhaft. Trotzdem haben die "Pulsarplaneten" die Astronomie enorm beeinflusst. Warum, das hört ihr heute im Sternengeschichten-Podcasts.
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss exoplanets. Astronomers have speculated about the existence of planets beyond our solar system for centuries. Although strenuous efforts were made to find such planets orbiting distant stars, it was not until the 1990s that instruments became sophisticated enough to detect such remote objects. In 1992 Dale Frail and Aleksander Wolszczan discovered the first confirmed exoplanets: two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12. Since then, astronomers have discovered more than 900 exoplanets, and are able to reach increasingly sophisticated conclusions about what they look like - and whether they might be able to support life. Recent data from experiments such as NASA's space telescope Kepler indicates that such planets may be far more common than previously suspected. With: Carolin Crawford Gresham Professor of Astronomy and a member of the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge Don Pollacco Professor of Astronomy at the University of Warwick Suzanne Aigrain Lecturer in Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College. Producer: Thomas Morris.
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss exoplanets. Astronomers have speculated about the existence of planets beyond our solar system for centuries. Although strenuous efforts were made to find such planets orbiting distant stars, it was not until the 1990s that instruments became sophisticated enough to detect such remote objects. In 1992 Dale Frail and Aleksander Wolszczan discovered the first confirmed exoplanets: two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12. Since then, astronomers have discovered more than 900 exoplanets, and are able to reach increasingly sophisticated conclusions about what they look like - and whether they might be able to support life. Recent data from experiments such as NASA's space telescope Kepler indicates that such planets may be far more common than previously suspected. With: Carolin Crawford Gresham Professor of Astronomy and a member of the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge Don Pollacco Professor of Astronomy at the University of Warwick Suzanne Aigrain Lecturer in Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College. Producer: Thomas Morris.
New Mexico Journey: Dale Frail of the Very Large Array Radio TelescopeLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices