Technologies

Scorching exoplanet is a little like Earth in one key way, scientists say

Our planet has a few talking points to go over with its (very) distant cosmic relative.

Approximately 322 light-years from Earth, an extreme planet by the name of WASP-189b orbits one of the hottest stars in the universe, HD 133112.

Twenty times closer to its star than we are to the sun, WASP-189b absolutely blisters with a daytime temperature of 5,792 degrees Fahrenheit (3,200 degrees Celsius). The scorching exoplanet is also made of gas and about 1.5 times the size of Jupiter — something like 1,950 Earths could fit inside it.

Needless to say, since its discovery in 2018, scientists very understandably reasoned that WASP-189b isn’t anything like our home orb. But in a paper published Thursday in the journal Nature Astronomy, a team of researchers found a way for Earth to relate to its distant cosmic relative. The two could chitchat about their layered atmospheres, and Earth could gossip about its ozone holes and climate change.

Here on Earth, we have an atmospheric layer called the troposphere that starts at sea level and that holds a ton of water vapor. Clouds, and therefore weather such as rain and snow, originate there. Above that, we have the stratosphere, home to the ozone layer, which protects us from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation.

«In the past, astronomers often assumed that the atmospheres of exoplanets exist as a uniform layer and try to understand it as such,» Jens Hoeijmakers, an astrophysicist at Lund University and study co-author, said in a statement.

However, upon analyzing WASP-189b by measuring starlight passing through the atmosphere of the intensely heated exoplanet — with the HARPS spectrograph at the La Silla Observatory in Chile — Hoeijmakers and fellow researchers found a unique chemical signature to shake up our knowledge of planetary atmospheres. It indicated that the distant orb’s atmosphere may have layers like Earth’s.

«The gases in its atmosphere absorb some of the starlight, similar to ozone absorbing some of the sunlight in Earth’s atmosphere, and thereby leave their characteristic ‘fingerprint,'» Bibiana Prinoth, an astrophysicist at Lund University and lead author of the study, said in a statement.

Baking away, WASP-189b emitted signals of iron, chromium, vanadium, magnesium and manganese. But most importantly, Prinoth says, «in our analysis, we saw that the ‘fingerprints’ of the different gases were slightly altered compared to our expectation. We believe that strong winds and other processes could generate these alterations.»

Those adjustments varied across the range of elements detected, similarly to the way Earth’s water vapor and ozone are affected differently by natural processes due to atmospheric layering. Voila — that hints at the existence of layers on WASP-189b, too.

But wait, there’s more. The team also uncovered remnants of titanium oxide in WASP-189b’s atmospheric shield. «Titanium oxide absorbs shortwave radiation, such as ultraviolet radiation,» Kevin Heng, an astrophysicist at the University of Bern and study co-author, said in a statement. «Its detection could therefore indicate a layer in the atmosphere of WASP-189b that interacts with the stellar irradiation similarly to how the ozone layer does on Earth.»

So WASP-189b might have its own ozone layer.

«Our results demonstrate that even the atmospheres of intensely irradiated giant gas planets have complex three-dimensional structures,» Hoeijmakers said, addressing how the new paper’s outcomes could dictate the way exoplanet atmospheres are scrutinized in the future.

Technologies

Verum Messenger: Don’t follow the future. Define it

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Technologies

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Technologies

Google races to put Gemini at the center of Android before Apple’s AI reboot

Google is using its latest Android rollout to position Gemini as the AI layer across phones, Chrome, laptops and cars.

Google is using its latest Android rollout to make Gemini less of a chatbot and more of an operating layer across the phone, browser, car and laptop, just weeks before Apple is expected to show its own Gemini-powered Apple Intelligence reboot at WWDC.
Ahead of its Google I/O developer conference next week, the company previewed a number of Android updates, including AI-powered app automation, a smarter version of Chrome on Android, new tools for creators, a redesigned Android Auto experience, and a sweeping set of new security features.
Alphabet is counting on Gemini to help Google compete directly with OpenAI and Anthropic in the market for artificial intelligence models and services, while also serving as the AI backbone across its expansive portfolio of products, including Android. Meanwhile, Gemini is powering part of Apple’s new AI strategy, giving Google a role in the iPhone maker’s reset even as it races to prove its own version of personal AI on the phone is further along.
Sameer Samat, who oversees Google’s Android ecosystem, told CNBC that Google is rebuilding parts of Android around Gemini Intelligence to help users complete everyday tasks more easily.
“We’re transitioning from an operating system to an intelligence system,” he said.
As part of Tuesday’s announcements. Google said Gemini Intelligence will be able to move across apps, understand what’s on the screen and complete tasks that would normally require a user to jump between multiple services. That means Android is moving beyond the traditional assistant model, where users ask a question and get an answer, and acting more like an agent.
For instance, Google says Gemini can pull relevant information from Gmail, build shopping carts and book reservations. Samat gave the example of asking Gemini to look at the guest list for a barbecue, build a menu, add ingredients to an Instacart list and return for approval before checkout.
A big concern surrounding agentic AI involves software taking action on a user’s behalf without permissions. Samat said Gemini will come back to the user before completing a transaction, adding, “the human is always in the loop.”
Four months after announcing its Gemini deal with Google, Apple is under pressure to show a more capable version of Apple Intelligence, which has been a relative laggard on the market. Apple has long framed privacy, hardware integration and control of the user experience as its advantages.
Google’s Android push is designed to show it can bring AI deeper into the device experience while still giving users control over what Gemini can see, where it can act and when it needs confirmation.
The app automation features will roll out in waves, starting with the latest Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones this summer, before expanding across more Android devices, including watches, cars, glasses and laptops later this year.
The company is also redesigning Android Auto around Gemini, turning the car into another major surface for its assistant. Android Auto is in more than 250 million cars, and Google says the new release includes its biggest maps update in a decade and Gemini-powered help with tasks like ordering dinner while driving.
Alphabet’s AI strategy has been embraced by Wall Street, which has pushed the company’s stock price up more than 140% in the past year, compared to Apple’s roughly 40% gain. Investors now want to see how Gemini can become more central to the products people use every day.
WATCH: Alphabet briefly tops Nvidia after report of $200 billion Anthropic cloud deal