Blindfolda beeandit’llstillbeabletorecognisea
familiarobjectbytouchalone. That’s the finding
ofexperimentscarriedoutby scientists at Queen
MaryUniversityLondon.Thescientists trained
groupsofbeestospotwhether small spheres or
cubescontaineda tastysugar solution. When the
lightswerethenswitchedoffand the bees could
onlyfeeltheshapes,theywere still able to
identifytheonesthatheldthesugar. The
experiment also worked in reverse, so that bees
trained to locate the sugar by touch could also
spot the correct container in the light. These
findings suggest that certain insects are capable
of constructing mental images of objects, a skill
only previously seen in humans, apes, monkeys,
dolphins and certain species of fish.DISCOVERIES
EXOPLANETS
Inferno planet rains iron
If the world’s astronomers ever came
together and held a competition to
name the most metal planet, chances are
WASP-76b would be the clear winner.
It’s a planet with an atmosphere so
extreme, that it rains molten iron.
The gas giant exoplanet is located
390 light-years away from Earth, in the
constellation Pisces. It was observed
using a new instrument – dubbed
ESPRESSO – built by a team at the
University of Geneva and fitted to the
Very Large Telescope (VLT), based at the
European Southern Observatory (ESO).
WASP-76b is tidally locked, meaning it
takes as long to rotate around its axis as
it does to go around its parent star. This
results in the planet only ever showing
one side to the star, leaving its colder
night side in perpetual darkness, much
like our Moon. This gives it an ultra-hot
day side with temperatures regularly
reaching 2,400°C, which is high enough
to vaporise metals. Strong winds rage
across the planet’s surface and carry
the iron vapour over to the much cooler
night side, where it condenses into iron
droplets and falls as rain.
“We thought very early on, that we
could use the instrument not only
to discover new planets, but also to
characterise those that are already
known. However, until 2018, we didn’t
realise how powerful ESPRESSO really
was,” said Francesco Pepe, professor of
astronomy at the University of Geneva.
ESPRESSO was built by the astronomy
department at the University of Geneva,
with help from teams in Portugal, Italy,
Switzerland and Spain. Originally
designed to hunt Earth-like planets
around Sun-like stars, the instrument
has proven to be much more versatile
than first anticipated.
“Thanks to this technology, we have
a completely new way of tracing the
climate of the most extreme exoplanets,”
said the University of Geneva’s Prof
David Ehrenreich, who led the
study. “One could say this planet gets
rainy in the evening, except that it
rains iron.”WHEN A BEE CAN’T SEE, THE BUMBLE MAKES DO WITH A FUMBLE
Going to extremes
WASP-76b isn’t the only exoplanet that is
completely different from the eight planets
in our Solar System. Here are five more
impressively bizarre extrasolar objects:Tr E S -2B
If WASP-76b is the most metal planet, then
TrES-2b must surely be the most goth.
Identified in 2011 by the Transatlantic
Exoplanet Survey, it’s the darkest
exoplanet ever discovered, reflecting less
than 1 per cent of all light, less than coal.55 CANCRI E
The top prize for most bling goes to 55
Canceri e. It’s about twice the size of Earth,
40 light-years away in the constellation
Cancer. Roughly one-third of the planet’s
mass is estimated to be made up of carbon.
And with current temperature and pressure
estimations, scientists think it’s likely much
of the carbon is in diamond form. Fancy.GLIESE 436 B
And now for something truly weird: this
exoplanet, just 30 light-years away in the
constellation Leo, is thought to be covered
in ‘burning ice’. Even though its surface
temperature is a blistering 440°C, powerful
gravitational forces squeeze the surface so
tightly that it remains solid.PSR B1620-26B
Nicknamed Methuselah, at 12.7 billion years
old, PSR B1620-26b is one of the oldest
known exoplanets, 12,400 light-years away
in the constellation Scorpius. For context,
the Universe is around 13.7 billion years old,
and the Solar System 4.6 billion years old.Tr E S - 4B
At more than 250,000km across, or 1.
times the diameter of Jupiter, TrES-4b is
one of the largest exoplanets discovered so
far. It was spotted 1,400 light-years away in
the constellation Hercules by the
Transatlantic Exoplanet Survey in 2006.Artist’s impression
of the iron rain on
WASP-76b