Using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have detected two rocky alien worlds orbiting a nearby M dwarf star known as HD 260655. The newly found exoplanets are larger and at least two times more massive than the Earth, writes Tomasz Nowakowski of Phys.org.
TESS is conducting a survey of about 200,000 of the brightest stars near the sun with the aim of searching for transiting exoplanets. So far, it has identified over 5,600 candidate exoplanets...
Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has sold roughly US$8.5 billion worth of shares in the electric car maker, just days after he agreed to buy Twitter.
The sale has led to speculation that it will help to finance his planned $44-billion buyout of the social media platform, the BBC reports.
Twitter's board agreed on Monday to accept a takeover offer from Musk.
Shares in Tesla fell sharply earlier this week, amid speculation that Musk would sell part...
A new genetic study involving more than 2,000 dogs and 200,000 survey answers from dog owners has revealed that a dog's breed is a poor predictor of behaviour on its own, reports Phys.org.
The first-of-its-kind, peer-reviewed study – conducted by professors, students, and researchers at University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School – is set to appear this month in the journal Science.
The major findings go against the popular beliefs that breed plays a role in how aggressive,...
Facebook stopped losing users as 2022 got under way, even as its owner reported its slowest revenue growth in a decade.
The number of daily active Facebook users grew to 1.96 billion in the first three months of the year, parent company Meta reported on Wednesday.
That marked a turnaround from last year, when the social network reported a decline in users for the first time. The drop wiped billions from the firm's market value, the BBC...
The high efficiency, light weight and flexibility of the latest solar cell technology means photovoltaics could provide all the power needed for an extended mission to Mars, or even a permanent settlement there, according to a new analysis by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley.
Most scientists and engineers who have thought about the logistics of living on the surface of the Red Planet have assumed that nuclear power is the best alternative, in large part...
The war in Ukraine is set to cause the "largest commodity shock" since the 1970s, the World Bank has warned.
In a new forecast, it said disruption caused by the conflict would contribute to huge price rises for goods ranging from natural gas to wheat and cotton.
The increase in prices "is starting to have very large economic and humanitarian effects," senior economist Peter Nagle, a co-author of the report, told the BBC.
"Households across the world...
In recent years, the golden word in precious metals has been palladium.
A crucial component in automobile catalytic converters and in emerging hydrogen fuel cell technology, the demand for this rare silvery white transition metal continues to outstrip supply, driving its price per ounce far above gold and silver.
Palladium and other rare, costly precious metals such as platinum, iridium, and ruthenium, are also crucial in chemical transformations, specifically transition metal catalysis, which has become an...
Russia has halted gas supply to Poland, Reuters reported early Wednesday, quoting data from the European Union network of gas transmission operators.
Polish state natural gas company PGNiG had on Tuesday said Russia would stop sending gas to the country. PGNiG relies on Russian gas giant Gazprom for the majority of its imports, the BBC reports.
Russian energy firm Gazprom had justified the suspension of supply under new payment rules announced on March 31, which says that “unfriendly...
The board of Twitter has agreed to an $44-billion takeover offer from Elon Musk.
Musk, who made the surprise bid less than two weeks ago, said Twitter had "tremendous potential" that he would unlock, the BBC reports.
He also called for a series of changes from relaxing its content restrictions to eradicating fake accounts.
The firm initially rebuffed Musk's bid, but it will now ask shareholders to vote to approve the deal.
Musk is the world's richest man,...
A Japanese woman officially certified as the world's oldest person has died at age 119.
Kane Tanaka was born in 1903, the same year as George Orwell, at a time when Japan was emerging as a global power, the BBC reports.
She got married a century ago, and had four children. She spent her later years in a Japanese care home, where she enjoyed board games and chocolate.
With her death, the world's oldest person is now...
