A new planet that could potentially support human life has been discovered by UK scientists. Gliese 12 b is located just 40 light-years away from Earth and orbits its host star every 12.8 days. It is similar in size to Venus and has an estimated surface temperature of 42C, making it cooler than most of the 5,000 confirmed planets outside of our solar system. Dr. Richie Howard, Curator of Fossil Arthropods at the Natural History Museum, discusses a study on a prehistoric ‘Dune like’ worm that was found to be a predator hunting around 200 million years before the dinosaurs. This fossil worm, found in a Victorian quarry site in Herefordshire in the 1920s, has only recently been properly analyzed by scientists.
In other news, experts are predicting an ‘extreme’ hurricane season in the North Atlantic this year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts as many as 13 Atlantic hurricanes of category one or above between June and November. They also anticipate as many as seven major hurricanes of category three strength or higher, which would be significantly more than the usual number in a season. In addition to these weather events, scientists are using drones to validate walrus counts alongside satellite images from space. And individuals with commonly autocorrected names are fighting back against technology that often misinterprets their identities.
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