Large amount of water spotted in Saturn-sized exoplanet’s atmosphere
WASHINGTON: Astronomers have detected a large amount of water in the atmosphere of a hot, Saturn-mass exoplanet some 700 light-years away. The planet, known as WASP39b, has three times as much water as Saturn does, Nasa said on Thursday.
Though no planet like this resides in our solar system, WASP-39B can provide new insights into how and where planets form around a star, the researchers said. Located in the constellation Virgo, WASP-39B whips around a quiet, Sun-like star, called WASP-39, once every four days.
The exoplanet is currently positioned more than 20 times closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun. It is tidally locked, meaning it always shows the same face to its star. Using Nasa’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, the astronomers analysed the atmosphere of the ‘hot Saturn’ exoplanet and they captured the most complete spectrum of an exoplanet’s atmosphere possible with present-day technology. WASHINGTON: Scientists have built a self-aware, artificially intelligent (AI) Cyberslug — a virtual ocean predator that behaves a lot like the original fleshand-blood organism which it mimics.
The virtual creature reacts to food and responds to members of its own kind much like the actual animal, the sea slug Pleurobranchaea californica, does.
U n l i ke m o s t o t h e r A I e n t i t i e s, Cyberslug has a simple self-awareness, said Rhanor Gillette, professor at University of Illinois in the US.
“That is, it relates its motivation and memories to its perception of the external world, and it reacts to information on the basis of how that information makes it feel,” Gillette said.
Cyberslug knows when it is hungry, for example. It also has lear ned which other kinds of virtual sea slugs are yummy to eat and which are less desirable.
Sea slugs typically choose one of three responses when encountering another creature in the wild — to eat it, mate with it, or flee from it, Gillette said.
To make the right choice, they must be able sense their own internal state, get cues from their environment and remember past encounters.
“Their default response is avoidance, but hunger, sensation and lear ning together form their ‘appetitive state,’ and if that is high enough the sea slug will attack,” Gillette said.
“When P californica is super hungry, it will even attack a painful stimulus,” he said.
“When the animal is not hungry, it usually will avoid even an appetitive stimulus. This is a cost-benefit decision. Cyberslug behaves the same way,” he added.