Catch Up!

Trappist-1 b, c & d3 planets as the best places to look for life outside our solar system

pages 18 - 19

Facebook triples quarterly profits

Sales for the quarter reached $5.4 bNS, up from $3.5 bnS last year

7.8 magnitude quake devastates ecuador 13TH EDITION

may 20th / 16

Contents

Events

Biology

Geography

History

Business

Health

Technology

Astronomy

Random Fact

SECTION PAGES

4 - 5

6 - 7

8 - 9

10 - 11

12

14

16 - 17

18 - 19

Somewhere...

2Catch Up!

MYSTERY FILES: EPISODE 11LENONARDO DA VINCI

MAY 29TH - 7:00 PM US

4Catch Up!

May 20th / 2016 13th Edition Events

BEYONCÉ ANNOUNCES THE

FORMATION WORLD TOURBEYONCÉ announced THE FORMATION WORLD TOUR at February 7th of 2016 following her appearance during SuperBowl 50 located in Los Angeles, California. The highly-anticipated tour, promoted by Live Nation, presented by American Express and produced by Parkwood Entertainment, will kick off in North America on April 27 in Miami, Fla. at Marlins Park with 21 additional stadium dates lined up throughout the country including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Philadelphia, Dallas and more cities (all listed in the next page).

The European leg of THE FORMATION WORLD TOUR will start on June 28 in Sunderland, United Kingdom at Stadium of Light. Additional European stadium dates include London, Manchester, Zurich, Amsterdam, Paris, Milan, Stockholm, Frankfurt and more. A full list of tour dates and venues is below.

Tickets will go on sale starting Monday, Feb. 15 in Europe and Tuesday, Feb. 16 in North America (full on sale schedule provided at end of release). Beyhive members may purchase tickets in advance beginning Tuesday, Feb. 9 and Monday, Feb. 15 for shows going on sale on Feb. 22.

Tickets will go on sale starting Monday, Feb. 15 in Europe and Tuesday, Feb. 16 in North America

(full on sale schedule provided at end of release). Beyhive members may purchase tickets in advance beginning Tuesday, Feb. 9 and Monday, Feb. 15 for shows going on sale on Feb. 22.

True to her life’s work of always giving back, fans will be given the opportunity to participate in Beyoncé’s #BeyGOOD initiative supporting local United Way programs and the continued work surrounding the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. United Way of Genesee County has been at the forefront of distributing thousands of filtration pitchers, faucet mount filters, replacement cartridges and truckloads of water to underserved populations to address immediate needs in Flint Michigan. They are also partnering with the Community Foundation of Greater Flint.

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CATCH UP THIS FACT!! : Beyoncé’s real name is Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter.

As Beyoncé wants to present her fans with the best possible experience at the concerts, she has joined forces with THX® Ltd to provide the highest quality audio experience during THE FORMATION WORLD TOUR. THX has assessed, optimized and certified that the acoustic systems used at the concerts are without peer. With this association, concert-goers will get the best acoustic experience possible at any large-venue event.

THE FORMATION WORLD TOUR is BEYONCÉ’s first solo tour since her ambitious Mrs. Carter Show World Tour in 2013.

The sold-out tour spanning two years and five continents thrilled nearly two million fans and was hailed by critics worldwide. During the summer of 2014, BEYONCÉ and JAY Z launched the six-week ON THE RUN Tour, playing major stadiums in the US. They ended the tour in Paris, France in September 2014 with two additional dates that were filmed for an HBO Special that was nominated for an Emmy.

In addition to the Beyhive presale, American Express® Card Members will also have the opportunity to purchase tickets for the tour prior to the general on sale date.

“We’re proud to bring our Card Members around the world closer to Beyoncé – a global icon and an artist we know they love – with access to purchase tickets for her tour before the general public.”Walter Frye, Vice President, Global Experiential Marketing, American Express.

American Express Card Members can purchase tickets for Miami, Tampa, Dallas, San Diego, Los Angeles, Edmonton, Toronto, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore & Hershey beginning Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 12:00 p.m. local through Sunday, Feb. 14 at 5:00 p.m. local. American Express Card Members can purchase tickets for Atlanta, San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit and Pittsburgh beginning Monday, Feb. 15 (at 12:00 p.m. through Saturday, Feb. 20 at 5:00 p.m. local.

American Express Card Members can purchase tickets for Beyoncé’s The Formation World Tour 2016 in the United Kingdom, Ireland, *France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, before the general public from 12:00 p.m. Tuesday, 9 Feb. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday, 13 Feb. (France pre-sale ends Friday, 12-Feb. @ 5pm). American Express Card Members can purchase tickets for Germany before the general public from 12:00 p.m. Monday, 15 Feb. to 5pm p.m. Friday, 19 Feb. local time.

6Catch Up!

BiologyMay 20th / 2016 13th Edition

HOW DID BIRDS GETTHEIR WINGS?

BACTERIA MAY PROVIDE A CLUEThe evolution of major novel traits – characteristics such as wings,

flowers, horns or limbs – has long been known to play a key role in allowing organisms to exploit new opportunities in their surroundings.

What’s still up for debate, though, is how these important augmentations come about from a genetic point of view.

New research from an international team of evolutionary biologists, led by the University of Oxford, has used bacteria to show that acquiring duplicate copies of genes can provide a ‘template’ allowing organisms to develop new attributes from redundant copies of existing genes.

Gene duplication has been proposed as playing a key role in innovation since the 1970s, but these findings add important empirical evidence to support this theory.

The study, which involved collaboration with researchers from the University of Zurich, is published in the journal PLOS Genetics.

Professor Craig MacLean, a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow in the Department of Zoology at Oxford University, said: ‘The appearance of novel traits, such as wings and flowers, has played a key role in the evolution of biological diversity. However, it is usually difficult to understand the actual genetic changes that drive these evolutionary innovations.

‘We have taken advantage of a simple bacterial model system, where bacteria evolve the ability to eat new food sources, to overcome this obstacle.’The researchers allowed 380 populations of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria to evolve novel metabolic traits such as the ability to degrade new sugars. This gave the researchers the opportunity to witness evolution happening in real-time.

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After 30 days of evolution, they sequenced the genomes of bacteria that had evolved novel metabolic traits. They found that mutations mainly affected genes involved in transcription and metabolism, and that novelty tended to evolve through mutations in pre-existing duplicated genes in the P. aeruginosa genome.

Duplication drives novelty because genetic redundancy provided by duplication allows bacteria to evolve new metabolic functions without compromising existing functions. These findings suggest that past duplication events might be important for future innovations.

Professor MacLean added: ‘The key insight of our study is that having redundant copies of genes provides bacteria with a template for evolving new traits without sacrificing existing traits. In other words, redundant genes allow bacteria to have their cake and eat it.

‘In higher organisms like animals and plants, duplicate genes arise from spontaneous duplication of existing genes. In contrast, bacteria tend to acquire duplicate genes from neighbouring bacterial cells through horizontal gene transfer, which is the bacterial equivalent of sex.

‘These findings provide important empirical evidence to support the role of gene duplication in evolutionary innovation, and they suggest that it may be possible to predict the ability of pathogenic bacteria to evolve clinically important traits, such as virulence and antibiotic resistance.’

CATCH UP THIS FACT!! : Velociraptos were clue in bird’s evolution, they also had feathers.

8Catch Up!

GeographyMay 20th / 2016 13th Edition

In Ecuador, a rEsort town torn apart by thE

EarthquakE

After 7.8 magnitude earthquake, one city close to epicentre still struggling to get to grips with devastation.

Pedernales, Ecuador - The citizens of Pedernales are used to living with tectonic activity, minor tremors rattling their homes from time to time.

With a population of around 50,000 people, the small resort city sits on Ecuador’s long Pacific coast.

Low-rise hotels, shops and houses

line wide streets that slope gradually down to the beach. Larger hotels jostle for position on the seafront.

But the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that shook Ecuador on Saturday April 16, has changed the city beyond recognition. It has been decades since an earthquake of such large magnitude hit this previously peaceful stretch of coast.

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Whole streets have been flattened, houses and shops lying in rubble. The buildings that are still standing lean out over the road at impossible angles.

In the city’s small main square, a huge crack runs down the centre of the church’s mosaic-covered wall.

Local people now truly understand the devastating power of the tectonic plates shifting beneath their feet.

“It was around 7pm when everything began to shake. Everything was falling around me, buildings crashing down on themselves. There were people running and dead bodies everywhere,” said one woman whose house was badly damaged in the earthquake.

Overwhelmed resources

Outside the city’s church, people whose homes had been destroyed hung around in small groups. They whiled away the hours chatting on wooden pews that had been carried out on to the street. A life-size figure of Christ, salvaged from the wreckage, lay looking up at the sky on a nearby bench.

Colonel Victor Arauz, director of DINASED - Ecuador’s national police agency leading the search for missing people - praised his country’s government for its fast response to the crisis that has creadted a really difficult environment for people.

“In reality, dealing with the aftermath of an earthquake is incredibly complex. But the immediate response by the government has been crucial in starting to get this city back to normal as fast as possible,” he said.

Long-term provisions

More than a week after the earthquake struck, the challenge now for authorities is to find long-term shelter for the thousands of survivors and others who are still to be found.

Displaced people were still lining the main roads into town days after the quake. Their homes destroyed, whole families clustered under tarpaulins in makeshift camps. With nowhere else to go, they held out cardboard signs scrawled upon with pleas for water or help.

“The authorities should be doing a lot more. We haven’t seen any officials from the mayor’s office. I’m not saying that they’re not helping others, but their hands are full inside the city,” said Isabel Rosada, sitting outside her family’s crude shelter on the main road into the destroyed town.

Cost of damage

As the national death toll climbs past 600, Ecuador’s government has estimated that the cost of the damage will rise between $2-3bn.

The disaster has struck as plunging oil revenues continue to batter the country’s economy. According to figures from the World Bank, annual GDP growth was already slowing significantly year on year before the quake hit.

Ecuador’s President, Rafael Correa, has announced temporary tax hikes, the sale of some state assets and a potential international bond issue to pay for reconstruction.

Back in Pedernales, the city’s mayor is confident that they can begin to rebuild in the coming months: “People here are very disheartened and scared. but we will recover and rebuilt everything” said Alcivar.

CATCH UP THIS FACT!! : Pedernales is the place were the name Ecuador was born.

10Catch Up!

HistoryMay 20th / 2016 13th Edition

Today in history...Massacre in

the Great TempleThe Massacre in the Great Temple of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan was an episode in the Spanish conquest of Mexico which began on 20 May 1520.

While Hernán Cortés was in Tenochtitlan, he heard about other Spaniards arriving on the coast – Pánfilo de Narváez had come from Cuba with orders to arrest him – and Cortés was forced to leave the city to fight them. During his absence,

Moctezuma asked deputy governor Pedro de Alvarado for permission to celebrate Toxcatl (an Aztec festivity in honor of Tezcatlipoca, one of their main gods). But after the festivities had started, Alvarado interrupted the celebration, killing almost everyone present at the festival, men, women, and children alike. The few who managed to escape the massacre climbing over the walls proceeded to inform the community of the treacherous Spaniards’ atrocity.

The Spanish version of the incident claims the conquistadors intervened to prevent a ritual of human sacrifice in the Templo Mayor; the Aztec version says the Spaniards were enticed into action by the gold the Aztecs were wearing, prompting an Aztec rebellion against the orders of Moctezuma. While differing so on Alvarado’s specific motive, they say that the celebrants were unarmed and that the massacre was without warning and unprovoked.

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The Aztec account of the incident

Here it is told how the Spaniards killed, they murdered the Mexicans who were celebrating the Fiesta of Huitzilopochtli in the place they called The Patio of the Gods.

At this time, when everyone was enjoying the celebration, when everyone was already dancing, when everyone was already singing, when song was linked to song and the songs roared like waves, in that precise moment the Spaniards determined to kill people. They came into the patio, armed for battle.

They came to close the exits, the steps, the entrances [to the patio]: The Gate of the Eagle in the smallest palace, The Gate of the Canestalk and the Gate of the Snake of Mirrors. And when they had closed them, no one could get out anywhere.

Once they had done this, they entered the Sacred Patio to kill people. They came on foot, carrying swords and wooden and metal shields. Immediately, they surrounded those who danced, then rushed to the place where the drums were played. They attacked the man who was drumming and cut off both his arms. Then they cut off his head [with such a force] that it flew off, falling far away.

At that moment, they then attacked all the people, stabbing them, spearing them, wounding them with their swords. They struck some from behind, who fell instantly to the ground with their entrails hanging out [of their bodies]. They cut off the heads of some and smashed the heads of others into little pieces.

The blood of the warriors ran like water as they ran, forming pools, which widened, as the smell of blood and entrails fouled the air.

The Spaniards’ account of the incident

Cortes wanted to entirely understand the cause of the Indians’ rebellion. He interrogated them [the Spaniards] altogether. Some said it was caused by the message sent by Narváez, others because the people wanted to toss the Spaniards out of Mexico [Tenochtitlan], which had been planned as soon as the ships had arrived, because while they were fighting they shouted “Get out!” at them. Others said it was to liberate Moctezuma, for they fought saying, “Free our god and King if you don’t want to die!” Still others said it was to steal the gold, silver, and jewels that the Spaniards had, because they heard the Indians say, “Here you shall leave the gold that you have taken!” Again, some

said it was to keep the Tlaxcalans and other mortal enemies out of Mexico. Finally, many believed that taking their idols as gods, they had given themselves to the devil.

Any of these things would have been enough to cause the rebellion, not to mention all of them together. But the principal one was that a few days after Cortes left to confront Narváez, it became time for a festival the Mexicas wanted to celebrate in their traditional way. . . . They begged Pedro de Alvarado to give them his permission, so [the Spaniards] wouldn’t think that they planned to kill them. Alvarado provided that there were no sacrifices, no people killed.

More than 600 gentlemen and several lords gathered in the yard of the largest temple; some said there were more than a thousand there. They made a lot of noise with their drums, shells, bugles, and hendidos, which sounded like a loud whistle. Preparing their festival, they were naked, but covered with precious stones, pearls, necklaces, belts, bracelets, many jewels of gold, silver, and mother-of-pearl, wearing very rich feathers on their heads. They performed a dance called the mazeualiztli, which is called that because it is a holiday from work [symbolized by the word for farmer, macehaulli]. . . . They laid mats in the patio of the temple and played drums on them.

CATCH UP THIS FACT!! : The opera Montezuma of Vivaldi is set in Tenochtitlán.

12Catch Up!

BusinessMay 20th / 2016 13th Edition

triples quarterly profitsShares have jumped after reporting a tripling of first

quarter profits from a year earlier to $1.51bnAdvertising revenues rose to $5.2bn, with more than 80% coming from mobile.

Facebook’s focus on live video attracted new advertisers, while sales on existing services also grew.

Mark Zuckerberg also requested that a new class of stock should be issued, so he can donate money

from his shares to charity while the control of the firm he founded.The company said the move would “encourage Mr Zuckerberg to remain in an active leadership role at Facebook”.

The results exceeded Wall Street’s already sky-high expectations, and Facebook shares rose by more than 9% in after-hours trading.

Going mobile

Sales for the quarter reached $5.4bn, up from $3.5bn last year.The increased focus on mobile advertising seems to have paid off, rising to 82% of the company’s revenues for the first quarter of 2016, up from 73% during the same period last year.Total monthly active users (MAU) increased 15% from a year earlier to 1.65 billion, beating analysts’ expectations.And each user earned the company more money, an average of $3.32 against $2.50 last year.

With Apple’s iffy results yesterday, and the now-broken-record of Twitter continuing to struggle, it’s Facebook taking the hopes of the tech world on its shoulders, and flourishing.

Wall Street is extremely tough on the world’s biggest social network, a company which suffers from its own success. Even when Facebook warns about an Achilles heel, it seems to overcome it.

Remember when investors were worried about the transition to mobile? Well, it made $5.2bn from advertising in the last quarter - 82% of that was from mobile users. Some Achilles heel.

I’d been hoping we’d learn a little about the early sales of the Oculus Rift, the virtual reality headset which went on sale towards the end of the quarter.

Sadly Facebook chose not to share specific figures on that.

On a call with investors, Facebook said it intended to continue buying other companies that could be useful to their business develpement, but only those offering services that could be “ubiquitous”.

Facebook has invested heavily in other firms - for example, in 2012 it paid $1billion for the popular photo-sharing site Instagram.

Analysis: Dave Lee, BBC USA technology reporter

Reading soooo much get’s you hungRy ...doesn’t it?

well...what about one of these made

just foR you

Reading soooo much get’s you hungRy ...doesn’t it?

well...what about one of these made

just foR you

14Catch Up!

HealthMay 20th / 2016 13th Edition

youth-boosting foods

better than Botox 10Forget dumping your paycheck on anti-aging creams and injectables. The Fountain of Youth can be found in your kitchen.

In his new book, “The Age Fix: A Leading Plastic Surgeon Reveals How to Really Look 10 Years Younger” (Grand Central Life & Style, out now), Dr. Anthony Youn devotes an entire chapter to diet.

Martha StewartPhoto: Jared Siskin/PMC“The foods you choose can affect the development of wrinkles, skin-

tightness and elasticity, and even how likely you are to get a sunburn,” Youn, who’s based in Michigan, tells The Post.“Making changes in your diet can wipe years off your face,” says Youn.

It’s worked for Martha Stewart, still luminous at 74. “Everything we do affects how we age. And food is one of the most powerful — and fundamental — tools we have,” Stewart tells The Post.

Here, Youn shares 10 foods that will help you turn back the clock.

1. EggsThey’re packed with collagen-boosting protein and vitamin A to keep your skin tight and plump

3. Tomato Paste 4. Dark Chocolate

5. Blueberries 6. Sweet Potatoes

7. Green Tea 8. Shrimp

9. Papaya 10. Oysters

They’re packed with zinc, a mineral that can improve skin’s rejuvenation rate and boost cell growth and repair.

2. Quinoa

A way to get a dose of lycopene, which has good anti-inflammatory benefits, contributes to skin aging.

It’s packed with flavonols that can fight sun spots and increase blood flow for a dewy, sun-kissed glow.

A cup of this dark-hued fruit provides a shot of vitamin C, which promotes collagen elasticity.

Is packed with selenium, a mineral that protects your skin from radical damage and diminishes wrinkles.

It has way more anti-aging anti-oxidants than black coffee, while still giving you a caffeine boost.

Shrimp are rich in vitamin E, which can reverse skin damage and scarring.

Is packed with vitamins E and C and beta carotene, which prevent wrinkles and protect your skin.

They’re more than an aphrodisiac. They’re also one of the best sources of skin-rejuvenating zinc.

15

Catch Up! thisrandom

fact

Pteronophobiathe Fear of being tickled by feathers

Kids usually loves to be tickled, especially if it is a form of affection by their parents or siblings. Tickling makes one laugh and when they laugh, their happy hormones or endorphins are released thus they learn to love being tickled. But there are people who absolutely hate being tickled, especially if they were tickled by feathers and this is called pteronophobia.

Persons with this fear might have experienced being tied down or pinned by a bully and tickled until he or she felt out of breath and subsequently associated being tickled with being unable to breath.For others, they could just not stand being tickled because of an exaggerated bodily response thus they fear it.Being “tickled to death” is also a term that may be a trigger for this fear because some are scared that they can literally die if they are tickled to hard thus they avoid it at all costs.

People with this fear usually avoid bodily contact and they may be introverts. They would rather be alone that in a room full of kids for instance who are rowdy and may tickle each other for fun. They may also fear the sight of feathers because it gives them the ‘tingles’ and associate it with being tickled.

I just wanted to try something differentwhen doing a massage to my wife, I thought she was really into the character when she

started to scream the hell out of her, I keeped chasing her and trying to tickle her with the

feather... until she got a heart attack

16Catch Up!

TechnologyMay 20th / 2016 13th Edition

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 ProTHE PHONE THAT SCORED 98% IN

PRICE-PRODUCT REFFLECTION

TechnologyMay 20th / 2016 13th Edition

16

Xiaomi had a relatively quiet second half of 2015 with no major device launches. It almost seemed as if the company had forgotten about India.

It was something that Hugo Barra spent some time explaining, in his own emotionally charged manner, during the launch event yesterday. But things are changing, for the better.

Xiaomi has finally launched the Redmi Note 3 in India and will follow it up with the Mi 5 next month. I have been using the Redmi Note 3 as my primary smartphone for over a week and here’s my review.

The Redmi Note 3 Xiaomi is launching in India is different from the one that was launched in China last year. It is the Snapdragon 650 version, which is in every manner better than the Mediatek Helio X10 variant it had launched in China. In fact, many call the new Snapdragon variant the Redmi Note 3 Pro. But more on that in a bit.

1717

Design

With the Redmi Note 3, Xiaomi too joins the club of affordably priced handsets with a metal body. A quick look around the handset shows that the improvement in materials was definitely the focus point. Visual flourishes have been kept to a minimum and it’s quite apparent that the design team was mostly focused on the upcoming Mi5 rather than the Redmi Note 3.

Software

Like all Mi devices, the Redmi Note 3 too is running MIUI. In its 7th iteration, MIUI 7 is a refined affair that combines the simplicity of the iOS UI paradigm with the power of Android while throwing out any semblance of Material Design out the window.

It is rather unfortunate that for a brand new phone running on a brand new chipset, the core OS is decidedly old with no visibility in sight for an update. There is a case to be made for the stability of Android 5.1 and to their credit, Xiaomi keeps adding fresh features and security patches via updates but the benefits brought upon by Android 6.0 can’t be discounted either and we hope to see the update sooner rather than later.

Performance

The Redmi Note 3 is the first device to be powered by a Snapdragon 650 chipset and the company did a good job of highlighting the abilities of the chip at the launch event. Over the last few quarters, Qualcomm has had more misses than hits with their releases due to varying factors including thermal throttling, heating issues or even plane old poor performance, so we were quite cautious in our enthusiasm for their latest. We needn’t have worried though as it appears that the chipset giant has a winner on their hands.

Display

The phone is equipped with a 5.5 inch 1080p display. The LCD unit is fairly well saturated though the colors don’t really pop out like on some of the competitor’s devices. We quite like the toned down, natural looking colors but it is possible to increase the contrast and dynamic range of the display using various software tweaks included onboard.

Camera

You get access to a 16MP sensor with phase detection autofocus, f2.0 aperture, a dual tone LED flash and the ability to capture 1080p video. The front shooter has a 5MP sensor. The camera looses performance when there is low light.

Connectivity

Connectivity options on the Redmi Note 3 include 4G LTE with VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac/b/g/n (2.4 / 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and GLONASS. Of this, the VoLTE support is perhaps most striking given that the upcoming Reliance Jio network and infact even the likes of Airtel will transition to it. The phone supports 4G on both the SIM slots and also across bands 3,5,40 and 41. I live in an area with a particularly poor cellular network and despite that, the phone managed to latch on to a 4G signal more often than its competition.

Battery life

If we just had one word to describe the battery life of the Redmi Note 3, it would probably be epic or similar. An enormous 4050 mAh battery has been stuffed inside that svelte 8.65mm thin shell with no appreciable weight penalty. Add to it the frugal chipset and you’re looking at a phone that can last you two full days under regular use. Even with heavy usage, you’ll be pressed to deplete the battery by the end of day. It has the first generation Quick Charge technology built into it which’ll expedite the charging process to a degree.

18Catch Up!

AstronomyMay 20th / 2016 13th Edition

THREE PLANETS FOUND ORBITING NEARBY STAR

Astronomers have discovered three planets orbiting the habitable zone of an ultra-cool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth.

The discovery, reported today in Nature, is the first evidence supporting the hypothesis that these very low-mass and low-temperature stars should have Earth-sized or smaller planets orbiting them.

The planets, which are the size of Venus and Earth, are currently the best places to look for life outside our solar system, said the team of researchers led by astronomer Michaël Gillon, from the University of Liege in Belgium.

“Systems around these tiny stars are the only places where we can detect life on an Earth-sized exoplanet with our current technology,” Gillon said. “So if we want to find life elsewhere in the universe, this is where we should start to look.”

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Discovery ‘pushes limits’ of equipment

While astronomical theory suggests these ultra-cool, low mass stars would have Earth-sized planets orbiting them, astronomer Simon O’Toole from the Australian Astronomical Observatory said finding them was far from easy.

“That’s one of the neat parts of the project; that they basically stare at all the stars like this for as long as they can, then trying to find the transits, the dimming in brightness, and then try to find it periodically,” O’Toole, who was not involved in the study, said.

The researchers used a small 60-centimeter telescope to monitor the brightness of TRAPPIST-1 every 1.2 minutes for 245 hours over 62 nights.

The small telescope picked up the periodic dimming of the star, which suggested planets were passing in front of it and blocking some of its light.

The research team then used three much larger telescopes in India, Chile and Hawaii to confirm that these were indeed planets orbiting the star. “It’s a phenomenal measurement … it’s really, really challenging, they’re pushing the limits of their equipment,” O’Toole said.

The presence of such relatively large planets so close to such a small sun suggests that their formation happens very differently to the manner in which the planets in our own solar system formed around our much larger sun, Gillon said.

Planets could be habitable

The star, TRAPPIST-1, is about the size of Jupiter but is one thousand times dimmer than our Sun and shines in the much cooler infrared part of the light spectrum.

Orbiting it are three planets; two orbiting within 1.1 to 1.5 per cent of the distance between the Earth and the Sun and passing in front of the star every one to two days.

These planets may should have temperatures quite similar to Venus.

A third planet was found further out from the star but its orbit is less well-characterised, with researchers estimating that it passes in front of the star anywhere from every four to 72 days, wich is really short compared to the Earth’s 365 days.

This distance puts the third planet in the middle of the so-called “Goldilocks Zone” of habitability, which means it could have a temperature range similar to that found on Earth, Gillon said.

CATCH UP THIS FACT!! : The scientific name of Trappist-1 is “2MASS J23062928-0502285”

The question about moving to another planet won’t

be Where anymore...

... but When

The question about moving to another planet won’t

be Where anymore...

... but When

Catch Up!