- Giant hail has hit the US state of Nebraska, leaving vehicles and homes damaged. Severe weather has been sweeping the Mid-Western states, with tornado warnings in south-west Iowa and north-west Missouri. Meanwhile, boats have been used to rescue residents cut off by flash floods.
Â
- Scientists have discovered the first of a “theoretical” class of stars which were first proposed in 1975 by physicist Kip Thorne and astronomer Anna Zytkow. Thorne-Zytkow objects (TZOs) are hybrids of red supergiant and neutron stars that superficially resemble normal red supergiants, such as Betelguese in the constellation Orion. They differ, however, in their distinct chemical signatures that result from unique activity in their stellar interiors.
Â
- A team of engineers have developed a bike that balances by itself, which they say could allow people to learn how to ride a bike in an afternoon. The bike, aimed at 3-8 year olds, has a special front wheel that uses gyroscopic technology to keep riders upright, even if they lose their balance. The inventors – a group of cycling fanatics – have started a Kick starter campaign on the internet to get more funding to develop the bike.
Â
- Researchers have found two new planets orbiting around one of the oldest stars near Sun called Kapteyn and one of them may support life. Dr Guillem Anglada-Escude, from QMUL’s School of Physics and Astronomy said it was astounding finding those planets orbiting Kapteyn’s star, although previous data did show some moderate excess of variability, so they were looking for very short period planets when the new signals showed up loud and clear. The planet Kapetyn b is at least five times as massive as the Earth and it orbits the star every 48 days making it warm enough for liquid water to be present on its surface and the second planet, Kapteyn c is a more massive and quite different; its year lasts for 121 days and astronomers think it’s too cold to support liquid water.
Â
- Australian researchers at Curtin University have reportedly released an audio recording of an underwater sound that could possibly be related to the mystery of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. Researchers at the university have been studying records from underwater listening devices, including those meant to monitor for signs of underwater nuclear explosions, in an effort to help find the missing plane. University’s Centre for Marine Science and Technology member, Alec Duncan said that they have detected one signal that could be related to the crash. He added that at the moment the sound appears to be inconsistent with other data about the aircraft position.
