DT e-Paper 24 February 2017

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DT 8 World FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2017 Seven Earth-like planets discovered • Reuters, Florida Astronomers have found a nearby solar system with seven Earth-sized planets, three of which circle their parent star at the right distance for liquid surface water, bolstering the prospect of discovering extraterrestrial life, research published on Wednesday showed. The star, known as TRAPPIST-1, is a small, dim celestial body in the constellation Aquarius. It is located about 40 light years away from Earth, close by astronomical standards, but about 44 million years away at the average cruising speed of a commercial passenger jet. Researchers said the proximity of the system, combined with the proportionally large size of its planets compared to the small star, make it a good target for follow-up studies. They hope to scan the planets’ atmospheres for possible chemical fingerprints of life. “The discovery gives us a hint that finding a second Earth is not just a matter of if, but when,” Nasa 7 EARTH-LIKE PLANETS DISCOVERED IN A SINGLE SOLAR SYSTEM The Trappist-1 solar system 39 light years from our own solar system Dwarf star has only 10% of the mass of the Sun Relative sizes The moons of Jupiter Distances not to scale Length of orbit (days) Jupiter chief scientist Thomas Zurbuchen said at a news conference on Wednesday. The discovery, published in this week’s issue of the journal Nature, builds on previous research showing three planets circling TRAP- PIST-1. They are among more than 3,500 planets discovered beyond the solar system, or exoplanets. Researchers have focused on finding Earth-sized rocky planets with the right temperatures so that b 1 1.51 2.42 4.04 6.06 9.1 12.35 inc. 1 2 Io c d Presence of water possible in certain zones Police confront banned anti-police protest in Paris Europa A young man runs away from tear gas launched by riot police during a protest of students in Paris, on February 23 AFP • Reuters, Paris Hundreds of high-school students protested in Paris over police use of force on Thursday, blocking the entrances to a dozen schools before heading to a banned street rally where riot police turned out in large numbers. The protest was the latest of several, many in northern suburbs of Paris, since a 22-year-old black man was allegedly raped with a police baton during a February 2 arrest in an area north of the capital where large numbers of immigrants live. It comes two months before a presidential election where far-right leader Marine Le Pen, leader of the anti-immigrant National Front party, is tipped to win the first round but lose the runoff that takes place on May 7. g Earth The Paris school authority said more than 10 schools were affected by youths who piled up rubbish bins and other objects at the entrance gates; but it had had no reports of violence at the premises. Social media networks, however, showed signs of skirmishes on the fringes of what appeared to be a largely peaceful rally in the Place de la Nation square in the east of the capital, where riot police in protective gear advanced on groups of mostly-hooded youths in sidestreet confrontations. A helicopter flew overhead. The Paris police department had warned people to stay away from a protest, saying it was not authorised and that there was a risk of violent groups causing trouble, as had happened over the last three weeks. • 2 e f g Ganymede Callisto h Temperatures are low enough to allow for the possibility of water in its liquid state 2.5 million times the distance between the Earth and the Sun A probe like the Voyager 1 would take 700,000 years to reach the Trappist-1 system The planets were detected by observing changes in the colour specturm of the star in that system The Trappist-1 solar system resembles the moons of Jupiter The sizes of the planets and their relative orbits are equivalent Source: Nature, CNRS water, if any exists, would be liquid, a condition believed to be necessary for life. The diameter of TRAPPIST-1 is about 8 percent of the sun’s size. That makes its Earth-sized planets appear large as they parade past. From the vantage point of telescopes on Earth, the planets’ motions regularly block out bits of the star’s light. Scientists determined the system’s architecture by studying these dips. China again dismisses reports of military patrols in Afghanistan • Reuters, Beijing China’s defence ministry on Thursday dismissed reports Chinese military vehicles were patrolling inside Afghanistan, saying the two countries were only carrying out counter-terrorism operations along their common border. This month, the Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst think-tank said in a report on its website that Chinese troops were on Afghan soil conducting joint patrols with their Afghan counterparts. That followed a similar report in an Indian media outlet in November. Defence ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said Chinese public security departments had counter-terrorism cooperation along the China-Afghanistan border. China and Afghanistan share a 76km stretch of border in a remote, mountainous corner of central Asia. China has long been concerned that instability in Afghanistan could spill over into the violence-prone Xinjiang region in china’s far west, home to the Muslim Uighur people, where hundreds of people have died in recent years in unrest blamed by China on Islamist militants. China has also worked with Pakistan and the United States to broker peace talks to end Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgency. • Because TRAPPIST-1 is so small and cool, its so-called “habitable zone” is very close to the star. Three planets are properly positioned for liquid water, Gillon said. “They form a very compact system,” Gillon told reporters on Tuesday. “They could have some liquid water and maybe life.” Even if the planets do not have life now, it could evolve. TRAPPIST-1 is at least 500 million years old, but has an estimated lifespan of 10 trillion years. The sun, by comparison, is about halfway through its estimated 10-billion-year life. In a few billion years, when the sun has run out of fuel and the solar system has ceased to exist, TRAPPIST-1 will still be an infant star, astronomer Ignas Snellen, with the Netherlands’ Leiden Observatory, wrote in a related essay in Nature. “It burns hydrogen so slowly that it will live for another 10 trillion years,” he wrote, “which is arguably enough time for life to evolve.” • Rise in Eastern Europeans leaving UK since Brexit • AFP, London Migrants from eight Eastern European countries are increasingly leaving Britain after the Brexit vote but the number arriving from Bulgaria and Romania has jumped, official data released on Thursday showed. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also showed that in the year ending in September 2016, net migration – the number of people who moved to Britain minus the number who left – was 273,000. The number of people from these countries leaving Britain rose by 12,000 to an estimated 39,000. The total number that arrived from other parts of the EU was 268,000 people over the 12-month period, compared to 284,000 in the year to June. In comparison, Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees registered a total of 846,000 arrivals among EU citizens in 2015. • Activists protest potential changes by the Trump administration in defence of transgender student rights, in Washington, DC, on February 22 REUTERS Trump rolls back protections for transgender students • Tribune Desk The Trump administration has withdrawn a piece of federal guidance requiring transgender students to have unfettered access to bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity, in a move that could embolden many schools to restrict trans rights. In doing so, the administration has signalled that it does not necessarily interpret current federal civil rights protections as prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity. With the move, President Donald Trump – who indicated during his campaign that he might protect LGBT rights – has sided with social conservatives on a key issue at the center of a broader cultural battle between conservatives and liberals. By lifting federal guidelines issued by the Obama administration – interpreting Title IX, the federal law banning sex discrimination in schools, to include gender identity – the Trump administration is leaving it up to states and school districts to decide whether students should have access to bathrooms that do not reflect their biological sex. The decision comes after a reported disagreement over the language between Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a major opponent of the LGTB rights movement, and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who is said to support LGBT rights and had to sign off on the move. Wednesday’s decision reverses memos issued by the Obama administration during the past two years saying that prohibiting transgender students from using facilities that reflect with their gender identity violates federal anti-discrimination laws. •
World Telangana CM spends state cash on lavish temple gifts • AFP, New Delhi The head of India’s newest state is facing condemnation after spending $750,000 in public money on gold temple offerings to thank the gods for realising his long-held ambition. Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao campaigned for decades for the creation of Telangana state in the south of India and had promised to donate gold to a local temple if he succeeded. On Wednesday he flew to a popular Hindu temple in a chartered plane and presented a lotus-shaped necklace weighing nearly 15kg and a 5-kg collar as priests chanted vedic hymns. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an official in the Rao’s office confirmed the donation and said it was “from the government of Telangana and its people”. Social media users laid into Rao, who has been criticised in the past Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao, centre left, carrying lavish offerings for a temple in Tirumala AFP over his lavish use of public funds. “Rao is a great CM. Never hesitates to put his hand in the State treasury for meeting personal needs. The dictionary word is theft,” said one Twitter user. “Instead of offering kg’s of gold to temples and seeking miracles please do something on the ground” posted another. Rao faced criticism last year when it emerged the state had funded a $7.3m official residence, fitted with bullet-proof offices and bathrooms and a movie hall. Telangana split off from Andhra Pradesh in 2014 after a long campaign for a separate state, with its champions arguing the region had been neglected by successive state governments. • Bomb kills eight in Pakistan • Reuters, Lahore A bomb blast in an upscale shopping centre in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore killed at least eight people and wounded 20 on Thursday, officials said, the latest in a surge of violence that has shaken the country. Security forces cordoned off the residential neighbourhood, also home to banks and coffee shops, rescue officials said, after what one bank worker said was a “frightening” explosion. “We left the building and saw that the motor-bikes parked outside were on fire and all the windows in the surrounding buildings were shattered,” Mohammad Khurram said. Punjab police spokesman Nayab Haider said the explosion was caused by a “planted bomb” that was either time- or remotely detonated. No one was allowed to leave or enter the area because the bomber was suspected to be at large, officials said. Reports of a second explosion turned out to be a tyre blowout that 9 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2017 DT A soldier stands guard at the scene of a blast in Lahore on February 23 REUTERS caused panic due to the tense atmosphere in the city, a government official said. Pakistan has been struck by a wave of militant attacks in recent weeks, killing at least 130 people across the country and leaving hundreds wounded. The worst of the attacks was at a Sufi shrine in southern Sindh province that killed 90 people. Thursday’s bombing was the second attack in Lahore in two weeks. A suicide bombing on February 13 killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 80 at a protest near the provincial assembly. • Police confront protesters refusing to evacuate the main opposition camp against the Dakota Access oil pipeline REUTERS Under deadline pressure, Dakota pipeline protesters leave camp • AFP, Chicago After nearly a year of occupying North Dakota prairie land to block the route of a controversial oil pipeline, many of the camp’s holdouts finally marched out Wednesday to meet an evacuation deadline. Some 10 activists who had remained after the 2000 GMT deadline passed were arrested, according to the North Dakota Joint Information Centre. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to revive the pipeline project. After the final permit was issued, construction on Dakota Access began almost immediately. Native Americans and their supporters began leaving the federal land – which was occupied by a population that swelled into the thousands at times – singing traditional songs and banging drums. Many opposed to the pipeline say it threatens the drinking water of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. The pipeline’s operator, Energy Transfer Partners, insists it is safe, with high-tech systems in place to prevent environmental catastrophe. State and tribal authorities planned to begin coordinated efforts to clean up the camp, removing garbage, structures, vehicles and other debris, in anticipation of seasonal flooding in the area. Campers burned some structures on their way out of the camp, in what they said were ceremonial rituals. •
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DT e-Paper 24 February 2017

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