Date archives "March 2019"

NASA has Googled the stars — and found new rocky planets in a ‘major discovery’

NASA and Google on Thursday announced what they called a “major discovery”: another solar system with eight planets.

Astronomers already knew about the star system, called Kepler-90, and seven of its planets. But by using new artificial-intelligence software developed by Google, researchers identified an eighth planet, Kepler-90i, lurking in old data.

Link: https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-google-kepler-new-planets-artificial-intelligence-2017-12

Bringing ‘Avatar’-like glowing plants to the real world

The 2009 film “Avatar” created a lush imaginary world, illuminated by magical, glowing plants. Now researchers are starting to bring this spellbinding vision to life to help reduce our dependence on artificial lighting. They report in ACS’ journal Nano Letters a way to infuse plants with the luminescence of fireflies.

Link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171213104604.htm