Seven Alien 'Earths' Found Orbiting Nearby Star

The Earth-size worlds orbit a star just 39 light-years away, and most may have the right conditions to host liquid water on their surfaces.

ILLUSTRATION BY M. KORNMESSER, SPACEENGINE.ORG/ESO

Seven rocky planets orbiting a nearby star may be roughly the size of Earth and could even be right for water—and maybe life—to adorn their surfaces, researchers announced Wednesday.

The planets, which circle a star called TRAPPIST-1 just 39 light-years away, are tucked together so tightly that they routinely spangle each others’ skies, sometimes appearing as shimmering crescents and at other times as orbs nearly twice as large as the full moon.

“The spectacle would be beautiful,” says the University of Cambridge’s Amaury Triaud, coauthor of a study describing the otherworldly heptad that appears in the journal Nature.

The TRAPPIST-1 system is now tied with several others that have seven planets for the greatest number of planets in a stellar system other than our own (which has eight, not counting dwarf planets like Pluto). The system’s existence suggests that Earth-size planets are much more plentiful than previously imagined.

And now, it’s among the best neighborhoods to study for signs of life beyond Earth: The relative sizes of the planets and star, plus the system’s proximity, mean that plucking the signatures of living, breathing organisms from the planet’s atmospheres could be within reach.

We Are Wired To Be Outside

Science is demonstrating what we intuitively know: Nature makes us happy.

A young man dives into McDonald Creek at Glacier National Park in Montana. "The frontal lobe, the part of our brain that's hyper-engaged in modern life, deactivates a little when you are outside," says author Florence Williams. 

PHOTOGRAPH BY COREY ARNOLD, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE

When we first see Elizabeth Bennett, in the 2005 film of Pride and Prejudice, she is walking through a field, surrounded by birdsong and trees. Nature, for Jane Austen’s heroines, is always a source of solace and inspiration. And as Florence Williams shows in her new book, The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, modern technology is now revealing what goes on in our brains when we step outdoors—and why nature is so good for us. [Read Williams's National Geographic story "This Is Your Brain on Nature."]

When National Geographic caught up with Williams by phone in Washington, D.C., she explained why even a house plant can make us feel good, why the practice of “forest bathing” is now supported by the Japanese government, and how trees can lower the murder rate in our cities.

COURTESY W.W. NORTON

The Mappiness project was developed in the U.K. by a happiness researcher called George MacKerron. It’s a brilliant idea, which tries to capture in real time what people are doing and how it makes them feel. I downloaded this app onto my phone and used it for about a year. The way it works is, it pings you at random times a couple of times a day and gives you a list of options. Are you driving, doing childcare, cooking, hanging out with friends? Are you outside or inside and how are you feeling? Like, “I feel happy, not so happy.”

At the end of the year I got my data, which showed how I was spending my time and which activities made me feel a certain way. I try to spend a lot of time outside, make an effort to exercise. But I was shocked at how few times the app caught me doing those things; and how often it caught me doing things that didn’t give me a lot of satisfaction. Things like commuting or doing chores.

Why do dogs sleep so much?

If it seems like your dog sleeps a lot, that's because he does. (Photo: Norbert Beri/Shutterstock)

What's your dog doing right now? Unless it's dinnertime, there's a good chance he's sleeping. As every dog owner knows, dogs sleep a lot.

In fact, according to the American Kennel Club, dogs spend 12 to 14 hours of every 24-hour cycle sleeping. To break it down even more, they spend 50 percent of their time dozing, 30 percent awake but just lying around, and the remaining 20 percent actually being active. And you thought you were a couch potato sometimes!

How much sleep your dog needs depends on several different factors:

A Frog That Freezes and Thaws, Plus More Ways Animals Cope With Cold

Wild creatures don't have the luxury of curling up under the covers—here's how they make it through winter.

When cold weather arrives, the Arctic fox grows into its winter coat—lighter fur that helps it blend into the snow. PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM MURPHY, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE

Our winter survival skills often involve staying indoors with plenty of blankets, cocoa, and mindless TV at the ready.

But wild animals don't have that luxury—they have to tough it out in the cold. That made Weird Animal Question of the Week wonder: “What are some cool ways animals stay safe and warm in winter?” (See some incredible pictures of winter wildlife.)

Praying Mantis Looks Like a Flower—And Now We Know Why

The mantis orchid of Southeast Asia evolved in a way that's completely unique to insects.

An adult male Malaysian orchid mantis perches atop a female.

 
PHOTOGRAPH BY LIFE ON WHITE, ALAMY

When is an orchid not an orchid? When it's a female orchid praying mantis, a Southeast Asian insect that masquerades as a flower to attract prey.

With petal-like legs and a yellow or whitish pink color, females share little resemblance to males, which are about half the size and sport a dull, greenish brown color.

Pearl Harbor survivor remembers: ‘All hell broke loose’

Edward Waszkiewicz, 95, is a Pearl Harbor survivor who lives inOxnard. He went to the 50th anniversary 25 years ago with his family.(Photo: JUAN CARLO/THE STAR)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt called Dec. 7, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy.” The attack on Pearl Harbor led to the U.S. involvement in World War II.

Sitting inside his home today where he lives with a caregiver, Waszkiewicz, now 95 years old, recalled some of the details of his time in the Navy.

Waszkiewicz, born in 1921, wanted to join the military at age 17 but had to wait until 1939 when he turned 18.

Joining the Navy was a chance to see the world, but it was also a way to help his Polish immigrant parents, who owned a farm in Michigan but were having financial difficulties.

His first assignment was aboard the carrier USS Enterprise. He eventually was assigned to Pearl Harbor to work with the firefighting group.

Ed Waszkiewicz, shown in a photo taken around 1939. He survived the attack on Pearl Harbor. (Photo: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

On the morning of Dec. 7, Waszkiewicz was on duty, driving a firetruck to the dock where the oil tanker USS Neosho was pumping gasoline and other fuel into Ford Island fuel tanks.

He looked up to see three planes swooping down on the southern side of the island. From where he was standing, he first thought they were U.S. planes — until they started dropping bombs.

The island shook when the first bomb hit. Another plane started machine-gunning the dock. When the battleship USS Arizona was hit, about 200 yards away, Waszkiewicz had a full view.

“The explosion was so violent," he recalled. "I thought the end of the world was coming. Pieces of the ship fell everywhere.”

Waszkiewicz had jumped into the water to avoid being hit by the second plane’s machine gun. He ended up getting back on the dock, got back into his truck and drove back to the firehouse. He went out again with the fire crew and began fighting the fires ignited by explosives.

Waszkiewicz also witnessed the USS Shaw and USS Oklahoma being bombed, and he saw the USS Oklahoma roll over on its side.

Overpaid Oil CEOs for Top Diplomat?

Reuters is reporting that Donald Trump is considering ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson and former ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond for the post of Secretary of State.

As someone who's been analyzing CEO pay for more than 20 years, I feel like I know these guys.  So I couldn't resist pulling out excerpts from two of our annual "Executive Excess" reports in which Raymond and Tillerson played starring roles. First, in 2006, our report zeroed in on the CEOs who were profiting from the war in Iraq. Lee Raymond, as the outgoing CEO of ExxonMobil, was cashing in bigtime on war-related oil price volatility, something he readily admitted he had no control over. While ordinary Americans were feeling "pain at the pump," high oil prices had sent the value of his pay package soaring. Here's the timely excerpt:

Lee Raymond, ExxonMobil CEO, 1999-2005:

In 2005, ExxonMobil collected $36 billion in profit, the grandest annual profit total ever recorded anywhere. Last November, called before Congress to explain the rising gas prices that appear to have fueled these record profits, ExxonMobil's Lee Raymond explained that rising prices reflect global supply and demand, nothing more.

"We are all," Raymond assured Congress, "in this together, everywhere in the world."

We're all in this together, except Raymond. As ExxonMobil CEO in 2005, his basic salary alone ran 63 times the average paycheck in the oil industry. Raymond's $4 million salary last year amounted to a weekly take-home of $83,333.

Orcas may replace polar bears as top predator. Here's where

Researchers say melting sea ice in Hudson Bay continues to stir a dramatic shift in the food chain, with killer whales eating their way to the top of the predator list.

"We are seeing a lot more killer whale activity in Hudson Bay and they are a top predator," Steven Ferguson, researcher with Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the University of Manitoba told CBC. "They are really a magnificent, interesting predator - highly efficient."

Mass Psychology predicted crude oil bottom 2016

One thing you should never do is listen to fools who scream that the world is going to end or a market is going to continue crashing forever. Some markets are more manipulated than others; there are no such things as free markets today. So you need to accept that and move on. Watch the Video towards the end of this article, where the brain surgeons go on to predict that oil could now hit $10.00 a barrel.  What is interesting is that in most cases these same naysayers were stating that oil would continue soaring higher when it was trading over $100.00

Solar Storms heading for earth-could disrupt life as you know it

Solar storms

If solar storms as intense as the ones recorded in the last 200 years strike now, it could wreak total havoc as we are now 100 times more dependent on technology than we were back then.  Regarding cycles, we are fast entering a period in which a massive storm could strike.  The following excerpts illustrate that this threat is very real and what could potentially take place if a strong solar storm were to hit the earth now.

Solar storms take place when the sun’s surface erupts and spews radiation or electrically charged particles toward Earth. The more frequent minor storms may cause some radio interference and create the Northern Lights spectacle known as the aurora borealis. But every few decades can see a huge solar storm that releases the energy of 1 billion hydrogen bombs.

What will humans look like in 100 years?

We can evolve bacteria, plants and animals — futurist Juan Enriquez asks: Is it ethical to evolve the human body? In a visionary talk that ranges from medieval prosthetics to present day neuroengineering and genetics, Enriquez sorts out the ethics associated with evolving humans and imagines the ways we'll have to transform our own bodies if we hope to explore and live in places other than Earth.

How climate change is transforming the Arctic’s underwater soundscape

A male ribbon seal at the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve in Alaska (Photo: Josh London/NOAA)

Oceanographer Kate Stafford uses underwater microphones (called hydrophones) to record the daily sounds of the chilly, chilly waters off the coast of Alaska. For years, she and her team at the University of Washington have been studying the sounds of the Arctic Sea in hopes to better understand the lives of the animals that call this place home.

World's Largest Cluster of Sinkholes Discovered

Forty-nine sinkholes were found in China by researchers, who say the features have more secrets to tell.

Watch: These newly discovered natural sinkholes in China contain primitive forests and giant flying squirrels.