Newly Discovered Giant Planet Slingshots around its Star

Three times the mass of Jupiter, a first-of-its-kind planet swings around its star on bizarre path. Astronomers have discovered a planet three times the mass of Jupiter that travels on a long, egg-shaped path around its star. If this planet were somehow placed into our own solar system, it would swing from within our asteroid belt to out beyond Neptune. Other giant planets with highly elliptical orbits have been found around other stars, but none of those worlds were located at the very outer reaches of their star systems like this one.

“This planet is unlike the planets in our solar system, but more than that, it is unlike any other exoplanets we have discovered so far,” says Sarah Blunt, a Caltech graduate student and first author on the new study publishing in The Astronomical J...

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Cancer cells’ Immune Weak Spot revealed

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Scientists have found a vulnerability in cancer cells that could make them more susceptible to being destroyed by the immune system, according to a new report in eLife. The discovery could make it possible to circumvent the resistance starting to be seen with a new generation of immunotherapy treatments called checkpoint inhibitors.

Scientists have been heralding immunotherapy treatments as breakthroughs in cancer research as they have prolonged life in some people with previously untreatable cancers. However, not everyone responds to immunotherapy and recent studies suggest that some cancers are able to escape the effects of checkpoint inhibitor drugs...

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The Dark side of Extrasolar planets share surprisingly Similar Temperatures

Schematic of clouds on the night side of a hot Jupiter exoplanet. The underlying atmosphere is over 800 C, hot enough to vaporize rocks. Atmospheric motion from the deep atmosphere or from the hotter dayside bring the rock vapour to cooler regions, where it condenses into clouds, and possibly rains down into the atmosphere below. These clouds of condensed rock block outgoing thermal radiation, making the planet’s nightside appear relatively cool from space.

New study suggests that the nightsides of hot Jupiters share clouds made of minerals...

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Energy-efficient power electronics: Gallium oxide power Transistors with record values

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Gallium oxide chip with transistor structures and structures for measurement purposes, manufactured at FBH using projection lithography. | ©FBH/schurian.com

Engineers have now achieved a breakthrough with transistors based on gallium oxide (beta-Ga2O3). The newly developed beta-Ga2O3-MOSFETs (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor) provide a high breakdown voltage combined with high current conductivity. With a breakdown voltage of 1.8 kilovolts and a record power figure of merit of 155 megawatts per square centimeter, they achieve unique performance figures close to the theoretical material limit of gallium oxide.

Powerful electronic components are indispensable for future communications, for the digital transformation of society and for artificial intelligence applic...

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