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A team of astronomers have discovered a system of three Earth-like exoplanets orbiting a small star that is only 40 light-years away from Earth, that are considered good candidates for supporting life.

The star in question, an ultracool dwarf called TRAPPIST-1, is only a bit bigger than Jupiter, and only emits approximately one two-hundredths of the output of our Sun, making it too faint to see with the naked eye. The planets in question, however, orbit very close to the star, allowing them to gather enough light from the star to keep warm. Because of their extremely close orbits, the planets orbit TRAPPIST-1 extremely quickly: the innermost planet takes 1.5 Earth days for a single revolution, and the second planet’s year is only 2.4 days.
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Sometimes, if you’re not getting an answer to a question that you’re asking, perhaps it can help to change the question itself? This turns out to be a new approach to the Drake equation being made by two astronomers at the University of Rochester and University of Washington, to address a shortcoming in astronomy’s famous equation that has made it impossible to draw any firm conclusions from it.
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Between promising studies regarding the medical uses of cannabis and it’s obvious recreational use, the legitimization of marijuana for mainstream consumption appears to be a forgone conclusion, with four states already having decriminalized the drug, and many more eyeing similar legislation. But along with mainstream acceptance of a given substance also comes the pitfall of corporate meddling: cannabis, being a biological organism, runs the risk of having agriculture companies like Monsanto patenting the plant’s genes, a move that would allow them to have legal authority over who gets to grow the plant.
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One important aspect in the evolution of electronics is the continued miniaturization of our devices: we now have devices that can be kept in one’s pocket that are more powerful than the massive supercomputers from a mere thirty years ago. While the mobility of our electronic abacuses have allowed them to become more and more convenient, researchers are working to find ways to make them even more unobtrusive, including finding new ways to wear them simply as another layer of our own skin.
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