Knowledge Update

​Ontario, Sep 15 (IANS) Earth and other planetary objects formed in the early years of the Solar System share similar chemical origins, suggests a new finding.

Neodymium-142 (142Nd) is one of seven isotopes found in the chemical element neodymium which is widely distributed in the Earth's crust and most commonly used for magnets in commercial products like microphones and in-ear headphones.

In 2005, a small variation in 142Nd was detected between chondrites, which are stony meteorites, considered essential building blocks of the Earth and terrestrial rocks. 

These results were widely interpreted as an early differentiation of the interior of the Earth (including the crust and mantle) and these chondrites within the first 30 million years of its history.

The new results published by the journal Nature from Bouvier and Boyet showed that these differences in 142Nd were in fact already present during the growth of Earth and not introduced later, as was previously believed.

"How the Earth was formed and what type of planetary materials were part of that formation are issues that have puzzled generations of scientists. And these new isotopic measurements of meteorites provide exciting answers to these questions about our origins and what made the Earth so special," said Audrey Bouvier, Cosmochemist at the Western University. 

By using vastly improved measurement techniques, Bouvier and his colleague deduced that different meteoritical objects found in the Solar System incorporated the elements neodymium (Nd) and samarium (Sm) but with slightly different isotopic compositions. 

These variations in stable isotopes also show that the Solar System was not uniform during its earliest times and materials formed from previous generations of stars were incorporated in various proportions into the building blocks of planets.

Tokyo, Sep 15 (IANS) Astronomers have found signs of a giant icy planet growing around TW Hydrae, one of the closest young stars to Earth.

Based on the distance from the central star and the distribution of tiny dust grains, the baby planet is thought to be an icy giant, similar to Uranus and Neptune in our solar system. 

"Combined with the orbit size and the brightness of TW Hydrae, the planet would be an giant icy planet like Neptune," said lead researcher Takashi Tsukagoshi at Ibaraki University, Japan.

This result, to be published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters, is another step towards understanding the origins of various types of planets.

TW Hydrae is one of the most favourable targets for investigating planet formation.

Past observations have shown that TW Hydrae is surrounded by a disk made of tiny dust particles. This disk is the site of planet formation. 

Recent Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations revealed multiple gaps in the disk. Some theoretical studies suggest that the gaps are evidence of planet formation.

The team observed the disk around TW Hydrae with ALMA in two radio frequencies. Since the ratio of the radio intensities in different frequencies depends on the size of the dust grains, researchers can estimate the size of dust grains. 

The ratio indicates that smaller, micrometer-sized, dust particles dominate and larger dust particles are absent in the most prominent gap with a radius of 22 astronomical units.

Theoretical studies have predicted that a gap in the disk is created by a massive planet, and that gravitational interaction and friction between gas and dust particles push the larger dust out from the gap, while the smaller particles remain in the gap. 

The current observation results match these theoretical predictions.

Researchers believe that the planet is probably a little more massive than Neptune.

Seoul, Sep 12 (IANS) Samsung Electronics on Monday said it has agreed to sell its printer business unit to US personal-computer maker HP. While the deal size has not been divulged, industry watchers put the figure at $1.05 billion.

​New York, Sep 14 (IANS) Facebook-owned instant messaging platform WhatsApp in its latest update to its iOS app now allows users to use Apple's digital assistant Siri to send messages and make voice calls, a media report said.

San Francisco, Sep 14 (IANS) In a move that could revolutionise transportation, Uber on Wednesday announced the launching of its first self-driving car service.

"Today, we're excited to announce that the world's first self-driving Ubers are now on the road in the Steel City (of Pittsburgh)," the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

​London, Sep 14 (IANS) In a bid to address the challenges faced by digital news stakeholders, the European Commission on Wednesday unveiled new proposals to protect the copyright of news organisations, web publishers, authors and others.

​Munich, Sep 14 (IANS) German automaker BMW Group reported on Tuesday that it has achieved best-ever August sales. According to a statement of BMW Group, a total of 165,431 vehicles were delivered to customers around the world in August, an increase of 5.7 per cent year on year, Xinhua news agency reported. As a result, a total of 1,508,659 vehicles have been sold since the beginning of 2016, up by 5.5 per cent compared to the same period in 2015, marking the first time ever to have sold over one and a half million vehicles in the first eight months of a year. The Bavarian company has sold 329,972 vehicles so far this year in the Chinese mainland, the biggest market in Asia, representing a year-on-year increase of 9.4 per cent. "Sales are increasing across the range and our electrified models are proving extremely popular. We've already sold more alternative drive vehicles this year than in the whole of 2015," Ian Robertson, member of the board of management responsible for sales and marketing, said.

New Delhi, Sep 14 (IANS) Domestic mobile manufacturer Videocon smartphone recently introduced a panic button app with its newly launched smartphone Videocon Cube 3 to get help in any emergency. The app named 'SOS-Be Safe' comes with highly responsive and ingenious features including alert, walk with me, and reach on time. The users can click these features from their smartphone status bar and set security preferences like time, distance and contacts. "With smartphones impacting our lives in many ways, emergency response system or panic button is certainly the need of the hour. We are confident that 'SOS-Be Safe' app will assist smartphone users during different kind of emergency situations," said Akshay Dhoot, Head - Technology and Innovation, Videocon in a statement. The new app also makes the best use of GPS and provides a map view of nearby police stations and hospitals for any critical situation.

​San Francisco, Sep 14 (IANS) Tech giant Apple on Wednesday announced that Swift Playgrounds, a new iPad app that makes learning to code easy and fun for everyone, is now available on the App Store.

​New York, Sep 14 (IANS) Facebook and Twitter have joined a network of more than 30 international media companies and organisations in an effort to filter out fake news stories and to improve the quality of information found online.