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Jupiter May Have Destroyed Early Planets And Paved The Way For Earth

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Composite image of Earth next to Jupiter. (Credit: NASA)

NASAs Kepler spacecraft has, to date, enabled astronomers to discover over 1,000 planets outside of our solar system. But theres a funny thing about the solar systems astronomers discovered they dont look much like ours at all. Most of them have larger, super-Earths planets smaller than Neptune but bigger than Earth located very close to the Sun.

Our solar system, by contrast, doesnt. Why?

Research conducted by astronomer Gregory Laughlin and astronomer/Forbes 30 Under 30 list member Konstantin Batygin suggest that the responsibility may lie with the planets Jupiter and Saturn.

In a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the two astronomers suggest that in the early life of the solar system, Jupiter traveled much closer to the Sun than it is now close to 140 million miles away before reversing course and finding itself in its present orbit about 483 million miles from the Sun thanks to its gravitational interaction between the two gas giants.

Given Jupiters massive size, its strong gravity may have taken its toll on any super-Earths that existed in the early years of the Solar System by literally shifting their orbits so that they fell into the Sun.

In this scenario, the Solar Systems terrestrial planets formed from gas-starved mass-depleted debris that remained, the authors wrote in the paper.

All of this fits beautifully with other recent developments in understanding how the solar system evolved, while filling in some gaps, Batygin said in a statement.

The idea that Jupiter and Saturn once traveled closer to the Sun isnt original to this paper. Called the Grand Tack scenario, it was developed in part by a research group in 2001 and later revived again in 2011 to explain some of what astronomers were learning about the early Solar System. (Astronomer Kevin Walsh has a great page of resources about this theory that you can explore here.) For this research, Laughlin & Batygin ran computer simultations involving the Grand Tack scenario to see how it would impact the Solar System if, like most Solar Systems outside of ours, super-Earths had formed near the Sun.

Its the same thing we worry about if satellites were to be destroyed in low-Earth orbit. Their fragments would start smashing into other satellites and youd risk a chain reaction of collisions. Our work indicates that Jupiter would have created just such a collisional cascade in the inner solar system, Laughlin explained in a press release.

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Jupiter May Have Destroyed Early Planets And Paved The Way For Earth

Muse play rarities and new tracks during UK Psycho tour

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PanARMENIAN.Net - Muse's intimate UK Psycho tour rolled into their hometurf of Exeter - delighting fans with another smattering of favourites, rarities and new material, Gigwise reports.

The band grew up and formed in the nearby town of Teignmouth, so it was a delight for fans to see Muse get back to their roots and tear into the campaign for upcoming seventh album Drones in the relatively intimate setting of Exeter's Great Hall.

Among the rarities performed were fan favourite b-sides 'Agitated' and 'Futurism', as well as the seldom-seen classic Showbiz single 'Muscle Museum' - which the band haven't played live since 2007.

Again, the bad only performed two tracks from Drones - launch single 'Psycho' and the epic rocker of 'Reapers'. Their tour continues with remaining shows in Manchester and Brighton.

Muse played: Psycho Muscle Museum Futurism Bliss Plug In Baby Interlude Hysteria Stockholm Syndrome Agitated Starlight Supermassive Black Hole Uprising Reapers Encore: Map of the Problematique Time Is Running Out Knights of Cydonia

Muse release Drones on 8 June.

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Muse play rarities and new tracks during UK Psycho tour

Tokyo men stay one step ahead in style

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Tokyo men stay one step ahead in style

(AFP) / 22 March 2015

From sharp futurism to wool-and-denim casuals, the finale of Tokyo Fashion Week put the spotlight largely on menswear, aiming to promote the most dynamic area of Japanese clothes design.

A model displaying a creation from the "Sulvam" label by Japanese designer Teppei Fujita during Tokyo Fashion Week's 2015-16 autumn/winter collection in Tokyo. AFP

Tokyo: Feminine glamour may turn the most heads at fashion weeks in New York or Paris, but in Tokyo it is the style-conscious men who set the sartorial trends.

From sharp futurism to wool-and-denim casuals, the finale of Tokyo Fashion Week put the spotlight largely on menswear, aiming to promote the most dynamic area of Japanese clothes design.

What happens here is probably the future of mens fashion, said Antonio Cristaudo from Pitti Immagine, a collection of fashion industry events in Italy.

Theres individuality, they want to be different, he told AFP. Its important for all the fashion world to see whats happening in Japan.

Such innovation is nowhere more evident than on the streets of Tokyo, from the vintage and skater styles of Ura-Hara to the slick suits of the Marunouchi business district.

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Tokyo men stay one step ahead in style

Tokyo men stay one step ahead in style at Fashion Week

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A model displays a creation from Japanese designer Teppei Fujita's 2015-16 Autumn/Winter collection during Tokyo Fashion Week on March 21, 2015. AFP PHOTO/Toru Yamanaka

From sharp futurism to wool-and-denim casuals, the finale of Tokyo Fashion Week put the spotlight largely on menswear, aiming to promote the most dynamic area of Japanese clothes design.

"What happens here is probably the future of men's fashion," said Antonio Cristaudo from Pitti Immagine, a collection of fashion industry events in Italy.

"There's individuality, they want to be different," he told AFP. "It's important for all the fashion world to see what's happening in Japan."

Such innovation is nowhere more evident than on the streets of Tokyo, from the vintage and skater styles of Ura-Hara to the slick suits of the Marunouchi business district.

With sharp tailoring and eye-catching accessories, from hats and bags to shiny shoes, the get-up of Tokyo gents is striking to the first-time visitor.

"The menswear is just so much more exciting than womenswear here," said Misha Janette, an American fashion journalist based in Tokyo, who suggested the tendency for women to cover up meant their clothes could be "a bit shapeless."

For the men, meanwhile, "it's ok to do your hair, be into fashion, use skincare," Janette said. "They like to be proper in Japan."

Although Tokyo's dandies shine at home and start trends that travel abroad, the success of Japan's own designers has been limited overseas.

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Tokyo men stay one step ahead in style at Fashion Week

Brunch Hate Reads: NYC Kids Choose Multi-Million Dollar Apartments For Their Parents

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We here at Brunch Hate Reads have seen every permutation of terrible in the weekend pages of the NY Times, from the hungover futurism consultants who are so over Brooklyn to the 22-year-old creative souls just trying to find a multi-million dollar place to hang their giant portraits of themselves. We've definitely seen some shit in our daybut we're happy to report we haven't become jaded by all the mason jar trend pieces. As we learned from a piece today, we still have the capacity for dumb-struck awe at their ability to hold up a mirror to modern New York and only notice 1% of the reflection.

This one really is a doozy.

Before we go any further, you should get yourself a glass of champagne and read the PSA below.

PSA: The NY Times has a weakness for self-parodying trend-baiting, masochistic Millennial obsessing, and the perverse lifestyles of the filthy rich. If a reporter with the Real Estate, Style or Weekend sections approaches you about a story, just smile gently and run in the opposite direction. No one is forcing you to become representative of everything that everyone hates about New Yorkers.

The NY Times Presents: Brunch Hate Reads is proud to bring you the story of .1%ers who have trained their children to help them buy multi-million real estate around NYC. "In New York, teens and preteens are becoming savvy connoisseurs of real estate," the Times writes.

No, they are not. There is nothing savvy about being able to functionally use a website.

Here are a few real sentences from the article:

Still, for a lark the couple strolled over to check out their sons find, which, in addition to the pool and an expansive terrace, had bedazzling views of the Hudson and the Palisades. We looked at each other and said, This is unbelievable, Mrs. van Merkensteijn recalled. The idea that you could own a place like this in New York City was amazing.

Skye came along to the closing a few months later.

"They choose where they and their parents are going to have dinner or where theyre going to go on vacation," Stuart Moss, an associate broker at Corcoran, told the Times. "So why shouldnt it extend to where theyre going to spend several million dollars for a residence?" Maybe because (follow us with this one) they are... children? I know this sounds crazy, but maybe children shouldn't be responsible for millions of dollars and major household decisions? We know rich people live entirely different lives than everyone else, but mixing money & kids generally hasn't worked out in the past.

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Brunch Hate Reads: NYC Kids Choose Multi-Million Dollar Apartments For Their Parents

Orbital Insight Raised $8.7 Million To Use AI To Analyze Satellite Data

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Satellite tracking of development at Olympic stadium in China. (Credit: Digitalglobe/Orbital Insight)

Orbital Insight, a company that provides data analytics of satellite imagery, announced this week that it had closed an $8.7 million Series A round led by Sequoia. Bloomberg Beta, Google Ventures, citizen.vc and Lux Capital also participated in the round. Sequoia partner Bill Coughran of Sequoia will be joining the board of Orbital Insight as part of the deal.

Orbital Insight was founded by Dr. James Crawford, an artificial intelligence researcher and entrepreneur who has experience building intelligent systems for NASA and other organizations. He was also previously the Engineering Director of Google Books, an experience that helped lead to the idea for his new company.

What this company really is is a Google Books like pipeline that is, an automated AI pipeline designed for understanding and processing satellite imaging at scale, Crawford explained to me.

The past few years have seen an explosion of satellite imaging companies. Older companies like DigitalGlobe continue to put up satellites and produce reams of detailed data. However, theyve been joined by a number of startups such as Planet Labs, Skybox and more who are putting up a myriad number of satellites.

The result of this influx is that between the various companies watching the planet from above, its possible to see changes being made in particular parts of the globe over time, and to track and monitor those changes. Those changes, in turn, can be used to inform decision makers and investors about the status of the economy, agriculture production, and more.

To analyze these images, Orbital Insight has developed machine learning programs that can be taught to find and analyze data points of interest. During its seed phase, for instance, the company used a human to tag cars in parking lots while the program observed it. After a few hundred tags, the program learns to identify cars in other parking lot images without the human being involved.

This wasnt an idle exercise, either. Once Orbital Insights deep learning program learned how to count cars, the company was able to determine a mathematical relationship between the number of cars in parking lots of retail stores in a quarter to the stores revenues that quarter. That type of information is definitely valuable to investors. But for the company, its a proof of concept that will allow it to pursue other kinds of data.

This funding round is geared towards utilizing satellite images to find other sources of useful data. One project, for example, is examining the shadows of buildings in China over time. Using those shadows and a little trigonometry, the company aims to be able to figure out the rate of construction in China to see if its speeding up or slowing down.

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Orbital Insight Raised $8.7 Million To Use AI To Analyze Satellite Data


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