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

Facebook Brings Back Local Job Listings: How to Apply

One of Facebook’s most practical features from 2022 is being revived by Meta.

On the hunt for work? A Local Jobs search is being rolled out by Meta to make it easier for people in the US to discover and apply for nearby work directly on Facebook. The feature is inside Facebook Marketplace, Groups and Pages, Meta said last week, letting employers post openings and job seekers filter roles by distance, category or employment type.

You can apply or message employers directly through Facebook Messenger, while employers can publish job listings with just a few taps — similar to how you would post items for sale on Marketplace.

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Facebook offered a Jobs feature before discontinuing it in 2022, pushing business hiring toward its other platforms. Its return suggests Meta is attempting to expand Facebook’s usefulness beyond social networking and to position it once again as a hub for community-driven opportunities.

«We’ve always been about connecting with people, whether through shared interests or key life events,» the press release states. «Now, if you’re looking for entry-level, trade and service industry employment in your community, Facebook can help you connect with local people and small businesses who are hiring.»

How to get started with Local Jobs on Facebook

According to Meta, Local Jobs will appear as a dedicated section in Facebook Marketplace starting this week. If you’re 18 or older, you can:

Tap the Marketplace tab on the Facebook app or website.
Select Jobs to browse available positions nearby.
Use filters for job type, category and distance.
Tap Apply or message the employer directly via Messenger.

Businesses and page admins can post jobs by creating a new listing in Marketplace or from their Facebook Page. Listings can include job details, pay range, and scheduling information and will appear in local searches automatically.

The Local Jobs feature is rolling out across the US now, with Meta saying it plans to expand it in the months ahead.

Technologies

Tesla Has a New Range of Affordable Electric Cars: How Much They Cost

The new, stripped-back versions of the Model Y and Model 3 have a more affordable starting price.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 22 #598

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 22, No. 598.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one — I definitely have at least two of these in my house. Some of the answers are a bit tough to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Catch all.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: A mess of items.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

BATE, LICE, SLUM, CAPE, HOLE, CARE, BARE, THEN, SLAM, SAMBA, BACK

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

TAPE, COIN, PENCIL, BATTERY, SHOELACE, THUMBTACK

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is JUNKDRAWER. To find it, look for the J that’s five letters down on the far-left row, and wind down, over and then up.

Quick tips for Strands

#1: To get more clue words, see if you can tweak the words you’ve already found, by adding an «S» or other variants. And if you find a word like WILL, see if other letters are close enough to help you make SILL, or BILL.

#2: Once you get one theme word, look at the puzzle to see if you can spot other related words.

#3: If you’ve been given the letters for a theme word, but can’t figure it out, guess three more clue words, and the puzzle will light up each letter in order, revealing the word.