NASA‘s Hubble space telescope has identified the true color of a planet 63 light years away from Earth, a distant blue marble that, unlike our own planet, has torrential rainstorms of glass. HD 189733b, orbiting star HD 189733, would be seen by human eyes as a striking cobalt blue, the Hubble team says, ostensibly similar to Earth when viewed from space. However, in actual fact the exoplanet is one of a bizarre collection of “hot Jupiters” where temperatures can reach almost 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (over 1,000 degrees Celcius).
It’s that extreme temperature – caused by the planet’s very close orbit to the star – that gives HD 189733b what’s perhaps its most unusual feature: its storms of glass. The atmosphere is filled with silicate particles, NASA explains, and when they condense in the tremendously furious heat, they could rain down as tiny droplets of glass.
In fact, the potential glass storms could rage at up to 4,500 mph. It’s the silicate that gives the planet its distinctive color, with the droplets scattering more blue light than red in the visible spectrum.
Scientists have known about HD 189733b since it was first spotted in 2005, when the exoplanet’s unusual orbit was identified. Around 2.9m miles from its star, it is gravitationally locked and as such one side of the planet always faces it; the roughly 500 degree Fahrenheit difference between the bright and dark sides are what cause the violent winds.
HD 189733b is, unsurprisingly, not a candidate for supporting human life. However, the team responsible for figuring out its color believes that the same technique could be used again to spot planets more hospitable.
Frederic Pont, of the University of Exeter team in the UK who deduced the color, measured the changes in light before the planet passed behind the star, during that time, and then afterwards. “We saw the light becoming less bright in the blue but not in the green or red. Light was missing in the blue but not in the red when it was hidden” Pont said. “This means that the object that disappeared was blue.”
The same system could help identify planets similar to Earth, however, with the blue color being used as a useful telltale for water and atmospheric conditions, Pont says. NASA plans to deploy the TESS telescope in 2017 to further that search.
James Bond’s Lotus Esprit submarine, one of the most memorable cars from the 007 movie franchise, is going up for sale in September. The car, which saved Bond – as played by Roger Moore – from a murderous helicopter gunship in 1977′s The Spy Who Loved Me, will go under the hammer on September 8 at RM Auctions in London; it’s actually one of seven different cars created to film the surprise submarine transformation.
In the film, Bond – accompanied by KGB agent Major Anya Amasova – drives the Lotus into the sea to escape the helicopter attack, then fires a torpedo to blast it out of the skies. The film crew created or commissioned seven different variations for the sequence, as the wheels fold in, dive-plane pods emerge, and the car transforms into a waterproof (barring bullet holes) craft.
This particular car, however, is perhaps the most exciting: the actual submarine Lotus, made by Perry Submarines, which was in effect a fully functional mobile sub dressed up to look like the Esprit. The craft wasn’t waterproof, however, and so was piloted by a diver using battery-powered motors, with a top speed of around ten knots.
Unfortunately there was no provision for actually converting it back into a road-going vehicle, and so the scenes showing the Lotus emerging onto the beach were filmed with yet another car. That was pulled up on hidden tracks, out of the water.
RM Auctions hasn’t said what it expects the iconic Esprit to fetch at auction, though it could be considerable. Back in 2010, the same auction house held the sale of the Aston Martin DB5 that featured in Goldfinger, which eventually sold for £2.6m ($4m).
A daredevil high-wire walk across the Grand Canyon, with no safety net or harness, has set a new world record, with so-called “King of the High Wire” Nick Wallenda taking almost 23 minutes to cross the 1,400 foot wide chasm. Broadcast live on Sunday, the stunt saw Wallenda risk a 1,500 foot plummet as he
Hollywood heavyweights are at war with a bike lane, though the movie industry isn’t anti-cyclist, only at the color the path has been painted. The lane – which runs a 12-block length of Historic Core, California – was painted lurid green less than two years ago, The Hollywood Reporter writes, in the process allegedly ruining
It’s not quite humans as fleshy batteries, Matrix-style, but Vodafone’s latest attempt to coax talktime out of its users is pretty close. The carrier has put together a number of prototype sleeping bags – just in time for festival season – it’s calling “Recharge Bags” that convert your body heat while sleeping into electricity for
As monstrously over-the-top supercars go, anything from Italian marque Pagani is going to pretty much count, but seldom do they get quite as extreme as the new Zonda Revolucion. Revealed this week, the carbon fiber beast is probably about as close to an F1 car as most (obscenely rich) people could afford, borrowing liberally from
Solve a puzzle: become a god. That’s the treat video game designer Peter Molyneux has revealed is at the end of the Curiosity mobile game, which a UK teenager won over the weekend and found that he would be the all-powerful deity in upcoming title Godus. In addition to getting unknown powers in the new game, winner Bryan Henderson will get “a small piece” of each transaction made in Godus.
Exactly how that will work is unclear at this stage; all Molyneux has said is that Henderson’s prize will be “life-changing in any measurable way.” It’s not something the 18-year-old has had much time to consider, however; he told Wired that he had only registered for the game around an hour before he won it.
That may well prove galling to those who have been hammering away at Curiosity for the past six months or so, since Molyneux first released the app. Billed as a combination of a game, musical tool, and social experiment. Players “chipped away” at the 25bn sub-cubes in the game, racing to the center and the final cube that would win them the mysterious prize.
Curiosity – winner’s video:
It’s not the only unusual aspect of Godus’ path to market. Molyneux’s studio, 22cans, used Kickstarter to raise more than £526,000 ($797,000) to develop the game, billed as “an innovative reinvention of Populous” where players first must develop their status as a god before venturing into multiplayer battles.
Those battles will now have to contend with Bryan Henderson potentially getting involved, as the over-arching god all players must defer to. The exact breadth of Henderson’s abilities in Godus – not to mention the input he will have on the game’s rules in the first place – has not been detailed yet, but the winner’s video above (shown initially to Henderson when he completed Curiosity, and then released publicly) suggests he will work alongside 22cans to shape the “moral” playing field.
Godus itself is still without a firm release date, though it’s expected to still be several months before it hits shelves. Meanwhile, 22cans has promised other “experiments” in the intervening period, while Curiosity is still available to download and, according to the app description at least, still has more to be revealed even after the core puzzle has been completed.
When you’re arguably the best-known astronaut ever to spend a stretch on the International Space Station, what better way to commemorate your ending tenure than recording David Bowie’s Space Oddity while in orbit? Commander Chris Hadfield, who returns to Earth along with Thomas H. Marshburn and Roman Romanenko late on Monday, May 13, recorded his own version of the classic from the ISS, complete with lingering views of Earth and almost as much lens-flare as a Star Trek reboot.
Hadfield recorded the vocals and guitar track on the space station, with his son Evan – who has been managing his father’s social media accounts while the astronaut is in orbit – producing the video. The musical accompaniment was arranged and recorded on Earth too; after less than a day, the video already has more than half a million views on YouTube.
Although the ISS has always been used as an outreach platform to engage students and others with space exploration, Hadfield has arguably made the niche his own during his six month stay. His use of social media like Facebook and Twitter, posting photos of Earth and the view from the space station, as well as answering science questions such as what happens to wet cloths when rung out in zero-gravity, have already made him a celebrity.
Part of that process has involved giving those back on Earth a view of their planet seldom seen. Equipped with a high-powered camera, and taking advantage of Google+ Hangouts and other opportunities to reach larger audiences, the astronaut has made building enthusiasm about NASA and its work just as important as the more traditional scientific experiments and maintenance undertaken onboard the fifteen year old station.
As for Bowie himself, he posted the video on his official Facebook page, and pointed out that Emm Gryner – who arranged the piano part for Hadfield’s recording – was in fact part of the official Bowie live band in 1999-2000. “I was mostly blown away by how pure and earnest Chris’ singing is on this track” Gryner writes of the collaboration, “like weightlessness and his voice agreed to agree.”
Hadfield and the rest of the Expedition 35 team officially handed over command of the ISS to Expedition 36 on Sunday, May 12, led by Commander Pavel Vinogradov. NASA will be live-streaming the return process from 3:30pm ET on Monday.
Of everything we could’ve said after driving Renault’s bonkers Twizy EV, “fast” probably wouldn’t have been included. Turns out, we just needed to wait for the Renault Sport F1 team to breathe some guts into it, and come up with the “improbable and spectacular” (and that’s in Renault’s own words!) Twizy Renault Sport F1 Concept, capable of the same 0-62mph speed as the company’s highest-performing road car.
Transplanted from Renault’s F1 cars is the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), which temporarily provides a massive boost in power. In the case of the Twizy concept, it increases horsepower sixfold, to almost 100 BHP, giving it the same acceleration as a Mégane Renaultsport 265.
Normally, the Twizy Renault Sport F1 Concept trundles along on the regular car’s 17 HP motor, but when the KERS system is activated, a second motor – which has been gathering up kinetic energy created during braking – kicks in for up to 13 seconds, pushing total power output to 97 HP. Clever synchronization – using the drive gears from an F1 V8 engine – harnesses the two motors together.
Since a normal Twizy doesn’t typically build up sufficient decelerative power to fully juice the KERS up, the F1 and Renault Sport teams came up with a fudge that can temporarily suck energy from the regular motor. In “boost mode”, triggered by a button on the F1-style steering wheel, a rotary control can adjust how much KERS is charged with from the regular drive system; two paddles, when pulled simultaneously, squirt out that energy and send the car hurtling down the road.
Meanwhile, the moon-buggy external looks have been made even more bizarre with the addition of race car wheels, a front splitter, side pods, a rear wing, and a diffuser. Sadly, Renault shows no inclination to actually sell the Twizy Renault Sport F1 Concept, instead using it as an eye-catching proof of concept to highlight its KERS technology.
April 1st is upon us, and that can only mean one thing: pranks, gags, and joke products of dubious comedic value, as the tech world tries to make you crack a smile. Whether you love it or loath it, April Fools is inescapable, so join us as we run through 2013′s cons and let us know which – if any – convinced you, and which you thought were actually funny.
Nokia has cooked up a range of Lumia-colored touchscreen microwaves, the Nokia 5AM-TH1N6 Constellation, promising a mythical 5,000W to cook food in seconds and an integrated camera to share snapshots on Facebook. “More models, including a mini variant targeted towards people with small appetites, and a 10-inch variant aimed at no one in particular, are also planned” the company teases, a coy splash of April snark for those demanding a Nokia tablet.
Samsung has gone green for April 1st, with its new SMART Eco Trees idea: scented “S Buds” with over-the-air fragrance; the promise of CO2 to O2 conversion; and S-eeds for SMART Sharing. The Korean company says you can also climb them, and they’ll come in a range of colors.
Google is always good for an April prank or three, and the company has a few different fakes this year. Google Nose aims to bring scent to search, whereby a range of “expertly curated Knowledge Panels pair images, descriptions, and aromas” as well as links to what people also sniffed.
Gmail Blue, meanwhile, has apparently been six years in the making, as Google’s email team faces the challenge of “how do we completely redesign and recreate something, while keeping it exactly the same?” The result is a whole lot of blue, quite literally:
The Gmail team isn’t the only one to get in on the prank action. Google Maps unveiled Treasure Maps, a pirate-themed redesign with hidden treasure and hand-drawn landmarks, while YouTube revealed it had in fact all been an eight year experiment to find the best-ever video, and would be shutting down to allow judges time to sift through the millions of uploads. You’ll have to wait until 2023 to find out which it is, though, with YouTube promising to delete every other clip.
Twitter, meanwhile, finally came up with a way to monetize its users’ tweets: charge them for vowels. Twttr, so the company claimed, would demand $5 a month if you wanted to include A, E, I, O, or U in any of your messages; however, Y would remain free.
April Fools is usually a good source of hardware mock-ups, and IKEA has led the way with a flat-packed lawnmower, the GRÄSSAX. The compact lawn-chewer promises all the frustration of IKEA furniture, though we can actually see some gardeners envying the £39 ($59) rechargeable mower and demanding it be made real.
That – if past performance is anything to go by – could happen with ThinkGeek’s Play-Doh 3D Printer, a $49.99 kid’s toy that runs from an iPad app and can create up to 5-inch cubed 3D models from the squishy dough. It’s only a fake at this point, but in previous years ThinkGeek has used April Fools to gage interest in more offbeat products, and then subsequently put them into production, so we have our fingers crossed that the Play-Doh 3D Printer will go the same way.
Less appealing is the Virgin Atlantic glass-bottomed plane, something guaranteed to give nervous flyers palpitations while crossing the pond. If you don’t like being reminded of broad expanses of water under your feet, Virgin says it’s also starting a domestic service to Scotland.
Flying isn’t the only transport-themed con today; BMW has a royal-baby themed entrant, in the shape of the P.R.A.M. (Postnatal Royal Auto Mobile), complete with two- or four-wheel drive and flagpoles for suitably heralding the Duchess of Cambridge’s incoming child.
Elsewhere, Sony has apparently realized that the internet loves cats, and so has a fake line of pet audio tech including these fetching Cat Cans. Part of the so-called “Animalia” line, the range also includes 4K TVs for dogs and speakers for hamsters.
Google’s Glass has provided the inspiration for UK newspaper The Guardian’s tease, Guardian Goggles, a set of wearable displays that can call up the publication’s reviews and columns depending on where you’re looking. Known for its liberal slant, The Guardian promises to blank out right-wing commentary from rival papers and warn shoppers if their purchases aren’t ethically sound.
They’re not the only head-worn gag. Lomography has whipped up LomoGoggles, analog-style vision that promises to remove any digital objects – such as your iPad – from your field of vision, returning you to the halcyon days where film was king and “touchscreen” described how you might fondle a room divider.
The Toshiba SHIBASPHERE (or TOSHIBASPHERE) will have you flashing back to fond memories of the Okama Gamesphere, South Park’s take on the console wars of the past couple of decades. With Toshiba’s SHIBASPHERE, you’ll be able to play games like Let’s Travel – waiting in lines for airplanes! Pet the Dog – a first-person simulation of dogs and the fur you love! Contract Negotiations – office-room madness! You’ll also find a SHIBADOME for your head – fully enclosed 3D helmet excellence, the SHIBASUIT – a full-body spandex suit for HD motion detection, and the SHIBATOTE – basically a bowling ball bag for your SHIBASPHERE.
The Sphero PEACEKEEPER is the same device you loved back when it was a tiny handheld moving machine – now it’s ready for war. With the PEACEKEEPER you’ve got a 3-foot in diameter beast weighing in at 150 pounds. Run over the neighbor’s dog with ease!
With SwiftKey Tilt you’ll never again wonder what it’d feel like to use your whole body to type a word. The best part about this fool? You can actually use it – it’s a real product! Have a peek at Android Community to find out more.
With the iBUYPOWER Revolt XXL, you’ll have the largest computer on the block. You’ll never again wonder – wow, what would it be like to have so much computing power that I’ll have to take out a loan to have enough electricity to keep it on? This computer is so extremely massive that it’s large enough to fit the original Revolt inside – yes, please!
You can now watch the YouTube awards for Best Video as it will be live for the next 12 years – they’ll need that much time to read the descriptions of all videos that’ve been uploaded to YouTube over the past 8 years. At the time of this posting, these two folks have been reading nominees for over two hours straight.
So, did any of today’s pranks tickle you, or have you had enough of fake news? Spotted anything new worth including? Let us know in the comments.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
