Tuesday, May 03, 2005

New asteroid belt and exoplanet snapshot

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars – An asteroid belt may have been found surrounding a star much like our own Sun. See article.
g Abodes – An international team of astronomers reports today confirmation of the discovery of a giant planet, approximately five times the mass of Jupiter, that is gravitationally bound to a young brown dwarf. This topic has spawned a yearlong discussion on the nature of this object, which started with the detection of a red object close to the brown dwarf. See article. For related stories, see: “Astronomers confirm the first image of a planet outside of our solar system" and “Yes, it IS the image of an exoplanet”.
g Life – An ancient enzyme in the brains of mammals acts as an innate nutritionist of sorts, guiding them to make healthy choices about what to eat, according to new work published in the April issue of Cell. See article.
g Intelligence – Empathy allows us to feel the emotions of others, to identify and understand their feelings and motives and see things from their perspective. How we generate empathy remains a subject of intense debate in cognitive science. Some scientists now believe they may have finally discovered its root. We're all essentially mind readers, they say. See article.

Read this blogger’s books

No comments: