Our tally of strange, new worlds just reached 5,000.
Astronomers have added the 5,000th alien world to the NASA Exoplanet Archive, officials with the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California announced on Monday (March 21).
The milestone comes amid a surge of recent discoveries and the promise of more insights to come, as NASA’s $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope readies for planet-gazing operations in deep space.
“The 5,000-plus planets found so far include small, rocky worlds like Earth, gas giants many times larger than Jupiter, and ‘hot Jupiters’ in scorchingly close orbits around their stars,” JPL officials said in Monday’s statement.
“There are ‘super-Earths,’ which are possible rocky worlds bigger than our own, and ‘mini-Neptunes,’ smaller versions of our system’s Neptune,” JPL officials added. “Add to the mix planets orbiting two stars at once and planets stubbornly orbiting the collapsed remnants of dead stars.”
The NASA Exoplanet Archive is housed at the California Institute for Technology (Caltech). To be added to the catalog, planets must be independently confirmed by two different methods, and the work must be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
The first exoplanets were found in the early 1990s. While telescopes on the ground and in space have done well to get the count to 5,000 since then, Jessie Christiansen, science lead of the NASA Exoplanet Archive, stated on Caltech’s website that the worlds found to date are “mostly in this little bubble around our solar system, where they are easier to find.”
“Of the 5,000 exoplanets known, 4,900 are located within a few thousand light-years of us,” Christiansen added. “And think about the fact that we’re 30,000 light-years from the center of the galaxy; if you extrapolate from the little bubble around us, that means there are many more planets in our galaxy we haven’t found yet, as many as 100 to 200 billion. It’s mind-blowing.”
The first confirmed planetary discovery came in 1992, when astronomers Alex Wolszczan and Dale Frail published a paper in the journal Nature. They spotted two worlds orbiting a pulsar (a rapidly rotating, dense star corpse) by measuring subtle changes in the timing of the pulses as the light reached Earth.
Ground-based telescopes did the heavy lifting in those early years, and it took several more searches to finally uncover the first planet around a sun-like star in 1995. That world was not hospitable to life as we know it; it was a scorching-hot gas giant that whipped around its parent star in only four Earth days.
Astronomers found these worlds by spotting wobbles (back and forth gravitationally induced motions) of stars as planets tugged upon them. Larger worlds were easier to spot, as they induced bigger wobbles. To find more Earth-sized planets, astronomers said at the time, they would need to try something called the “transit” method. That would assess the light of a star and look for tiny fluctuations as a planet passed across the face.
Astronomer William Borucki helped realize that vision as the principal investigator of NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which launched in 2009 and exceeded its main mission by several years until it finally ran out of fuel in 2018. Kepler has racked up more than 2,700 planet discoveries to date, many of them Earth-sized or smaller worlds, and still has a database generating fresh finds to this day.
Many other instruments have joined the planet hunt since Kepler launched. On the ground, the HARPS spectrograph, which is part of the 11.8-foot (3.6-meter) telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, is an adept planet-hunter of its own.
By 2011 (eight years after first light), HARPS had discovered more than 150 exoplanets. While access has been restricted periodically in latter years due to the coronavirus pandemic, HARPS remains operational and continues to seek new worlds with high precision.
In space, numerous observatories also assist with the planet search, among them NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the NASA-European Space Agency (ESA) Hubble Space Telescope, and ESA’s Characterizing Exoplanet Satellite (CHEOPS). Several other huge telescopes under construction on the ground, including the Giant Magellan Telescope and the Extremely Large Telescope in Chile, are scheduled to come online later this decade, adding other powerful eyes to the ongoing search.
Webb will help enhance the tally of exoplanets by studying the atmospheres of several relatively nearby worlds in detail. While such work may focus largely on gas giants, scientists say Webb’s observations will be useful for a future generation of observatories with even more high-powered optics ready to see planets closer in size to Earth.
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Zarina Bibi has in recent weeks been forced to choose between food and her family’s education. The nurse lives on the outskirts of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, working two jobs to support her ageing parents and three younger siblings.
But she has been so squeezed by rising prices she had to withhold the money for a computer course for her 20-year-old brother. “I couldn’t afford to send him and also pay for our food for a month,” says Bibi.
She blames one person above all others: Imran Khan. His “years in power have seen many poor people simply becoming unable to afford anything other than food,” Bibi says of the country’s prime minister. “How will our people continue to live like this?”
Khan, Pakistan’s celebrity former cricket captain, came to power in 2018 as a populist, religious reformer promising to deliver welfare to the poor, stamp out corruption and end the boom-and-bust cycles that have plagued Pakistan’s economy for decades.
Yet Pakistan faces one of the worst inflation crises in Asia, with a basket of sensitive items such as food and fuel rising 15.1 per cent last week from a year earlier. Pollster Gallup says almost two-thirds of Pakistanis consider it the biggest problem facing the country, with living standards deteriorating. Such is the frustration that Khan’s political future is now in doubt.
The prime minister is due to face a no-confidence vote in parliament before the end of March — only the third in recent decades — after a motion filed by opposition parties to oust him and force elections. Earlier motions in 1989 and 2006 both failed.
During Khan’s four years in office he has struggled to meet the enormous expectations that accompanied his rise to power. He has been accused of economic mismanagement, using the spectre of anti-corruption to hound rivals and critics and impulsive policy U-turns that have undermined his agenda — repeatedly tussling with the IMF, for example. Almost half of Pakistanis have an unfavourable view of Khan’s performance, according to Gallup, compared to 36 per cent in favour.
There are also signs of tension between Khan and Pakistan’s powerful military, such as a recent stand-off over the appointment of a new intelligence head. Observers say military support was vital to Khan’s rise but the rift encouraged the opposition to launch its bid to topple him in the expectation that military leadership will not continue backing him. The military denies involvement in the process.
Yet the vote follows a clear historical pattern. No prime minister of Pakistan — a country that has swung between democracy and dictatorship — has ever completed a full term in office.
“It’s a mixture of the military being unhappy, the opposition being dealt with too confrontationally and the economy having collapsed in a major way,” says Bilal Gilani, Gallup Pakistan’s executive director. “But the larger issue is we don’t have a huge consensus on how to run Pakistan.”
Khan last year survived a “confidence” vote that he brought in response to unrest within his own party. But analysts are divided over his ability to fight off the opposition’s bid to oust him, given the deteriorating economic and political situation. His tight majority in the National Assembly is held together by a coalition. Several parliamentarians from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party have defected and the loyalties of his coalition partners are unclear.
Asad Umar, Pakistan’s planning minister and a Khan loyalist, argues that the no-confidence motion is an opportunistic move by the opposition designed to take advantage of surging global commodity prices — a factor outside the government’s control — to force elections when domestic inflation is high.
“They know that . . . ‘If not now, we’ll never be able to stop Imran Khan.’ They cannot afford to have the government complete its term and go into a normal election cycle,” he adds. “Once he defeats this no confidence motion, he’ll emerge much stronger than he was before.”
But Nafisa Shah, a parliamentarian from the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, says Khan’s “poor handling of the economy and flip-flopping on the IMF have made him very unpopular”. She says this was indicative of his chaotic rule: “He screams and shouts . . . His style is very anti-political, very Trumpian.
“Imran Khan has destroyed political culture, weakened parliament and institutions,” she adds.
Economic pain
Pakistan’s economic and political instability is an extreme example of the pressures felt through the developing world as global inflation accelerates, something only accentuated by the surge in energy and food prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Across the Arabian Sea in Sri Lanka, for example, protesters are also calling on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government to resign as it too struggles with double-digit price increases and hovers close to default.
But Pakistan’s economic problems go back decades. With a population of 220mn, the country has more people than western Europe combined, with a median age of 23. Yet both the pace of growth and the value of exports have trended lower in recent years. Low productivity and a dependence on imports has hampered job creation and triggered repeated balance-of-payments crises.
“Whenever we have growth, even the semblance of growth . . . we run into a current account deficit issue,” says Miftah Ismail, a former finance minister and member of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N party. “Our imports shoot through the roof and our exports don’t increase at the same pace, and so therefore we run out of dollars.”
Khan, better remembered internationally for his cricketing career and jet set lifestyle, underwent a religious awakening and devoted himself to domestic politics, campaigning against the alleged corruption of Pakistan’s political dynasties and its support for Nato’s war in Afghanistan.
“Khan captured Pakistan’s middle class moment,” says Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistan ambassador to the UN and US. He found support among students and upwardly mobile Pakistanis who “want a greater share of global power”, she adds.
Khan was, however, trapped by the same economic cycles he had vowed to end. He negotiated a $6bn loan package with the IMF in 2019, only to suspend the programme. His government this year revived the scheme, passing a series of politically contentious reforms to boost revenues and strengthen central bank independence.
Yet in February the government reintroduced fuel subsidies, saying it was needed to help hard-hit Pakistanis. But analysts say this could undermine the IMF programme weeks after it restarted. Financial data company MSCI late last year downgraded Pakistan from an emerging to frontier market.
Analysts also say Khan has proved impulsive as a leader. Like many populists he uses inflammatory rhetoric to mobilise his base and discredit critics. And while his anti-corruption drive resulted in the arrest of several rival politicians, few were convicted. Although his government blames inflation, the erosion in living standards for low-income Pakistanis who voted for Khan has been a bitter disappointment.
“I voted for Imran Khan in 2018 but that was the biggest mistake of my life,” says Hidayat Khan, a taxi driver in Islamabad who migrated to the capital from Pakistan’s rural north-west. “In the last three years, everything has become more expensive. The worst part is that the government refuses to believe that they are at fault.”
Mohammed Sohail, chief executive at brokerage Topline Securities, says Pakistan’s turbulent politics has been a persistent drag on investment. “Over the last three or four years the situation has been constantly deteriorating,” he says. “The biggest risk is the political risk . . . This has been a major factor affecting the economy.”
Since the tabling of the no-confidence motion, Khan has gone on the offensive, holding several large rallies across the country in which he vowed to “go after” opponents such as former president Asif Ali Zardari of the PPP and Shahbaz Sharif, leader of the PML-N. Sharif’s brother and former prime minister Nawaz has been exiled in London for more than two years after failing to return to the country following temporary medical release from a Pakistan prison, where he was jailed on corruption charges.
“Some of the criticisms we’ve faced from our own followers is that the accountability drive has not delivered the results that were expected. So [we’re] refocusing,” Umar, the planning minister, says. Zardari and Sharif “are symbols of a system, which runs from the top and goes all the way down”. Both deny wrongdoing and dismiss allegations of corruption as politically motivated.
Khan’s image as a pious crusader against the excesses of his predecessors continues to carry appeal. Mohammad Bilal, a 22-year-old motorcycle mechanic in Pakistan’s port hub Karachi, is feeling the pinch of inflation but still supports the prime minister. “His collar is clean,” Bilal says, using an Urdu idiom for Khan’s personal integrity and tugging at his own grey shirt collar as he speaks. “He’s a good Muslim and an ambassador of Islam.”
Friends in Moscow and Beijing
In February, Khan travelled to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin on what turned out to be the day Russia’s president launched his invasion of Ukraine. “What a time I have come — so much excitement,” a beaming Khan was filmed saying as he disembarked his plane the night before.
The prime minister has insisted he will remain neutral on the conflict. This has not only inflamed political rivals at home, who have urged him to distance himself from Putin, but strained ties with Pakistan’s traditional western allies. The prime minister attacked the UK, EU member states and others at a rally this month after they publicly urged Pakistan to condemn Russia. “Are we your slaves?” he asked. “Whatever you say, we will do?”
Khan’s supporters say his reluctance to get dragged into “blocs” was vindicated by the failed western campaign in Afghanistan, with Nato’s chaotic 2021 retreat after the Taliban seized power. “Pakistan’s position is very clear and simple. We’re not willing to take sides in an international dispute,” Umar says. “[Khan] for the last 20 years, even when overwhelming public opinion was against his views, has always stood for peace.”
Khan’s government argues it is rebalancing an overreliance on the west in order to secure the country’s long-term interests. It is, for example, close to finalising a deal for a Russian-built gas pipeline to transport fuel from the southern coast to the north, which authorities argue is vital to securing long-term energy security.
It is also deepening military ties with China, which is already investing tens of billions of dollars as part of its Belt and Road scheme. Khan this month posed in a newly delivered Chinese-made J-10C fighter jet near Islamabad, part of a pipeline of advanced weaponry, including frigates, stepping up their years-old military relationship.
Critics say Khan’s tense relationship with the west risks damaging the country’s long-term economic interests. Pakistan’s exports to the EU, where it enjoys tariff-free privileges under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus programme, are worth more than $6bn a year, according to the European Commission, compared with less than half a billion dollars to Russia. Analysts say further disputes with the EU could jeopardise those trade perks, which are subject to regular review.
Azeema Cheema, a director at policy-focused Verso Consulting in Islamabad, says that the country “is going to be pushed inadvertently into getting closer” to Russia and China. “What enables it as a factor is that you have a prime minister whose rhetoric is very anti-western,” she says.
“The prospect of economic collaboration [with Russia] is real,” says Najmuddin Shaikh, a former Pakistan ambassador to the US. “But we have to recognise the reality of where our economic and trade interests lie.”
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has so far exacerbated Pakistan’s economic pain. The country is an important buyer of wheat from Russia and Ukraine but with the onset of the war it has been forced to search for more-expensive alternatives.
Hasan Askari Rizvi, a former chief minister of Punjab and political commentator, says Khan faces his biggest political test to date. Rizvi argues that even if Khan survives it will become harder for the prime minister to secure the parliamentary backing needed to advance his agenda during the remaining year of his term.
“His ability to take new initiatives would have been weakened,” he says. “Pakistan is already in an election framework.”
A man walks past a logo of Alibaba Group at its office building in Beijing, China August 9, 2021. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
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March 22 (Reuters) – Alibaba raised its share buyback programme to $25 billion on Tuesday, the largest ever repurchase plan by the e-commerce giant, to prop up its battered shares as it fights off regulatory scrutiny and concerns about slowing growth.
The plan comes amid a tech stock rally in the past few days after Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said that Beijing will roll out more measures to boost the economy as well as favourable policy steps for capital markets. read more
This is the second time Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has expanded its buyback programme in a year. It had hiked the programme from $10 billion to $15 billion last August.
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Shares of the company (9988.HK) have cratered more than 50% in the past year.
“The upsized share buyback underscores our confidence in Alibaba’s long-term, sustainable growth potential and value creation,” Deputy Chief Financial Officer Toby Xu said.
“Alibaba’s stock price does not fairly reflect the company’s value given our robust financial health and expansion plans.”
Alibaba’s shares rose 4.8% in Hong Kong after the news. In the United States, its shares closed down 4.3% on Monday.
Alibaba’s buyback decision makes sense given how Beijing’s measures against monopolistic behaviour and the “disorderly expansion of capital” will limit its opportunities for new investments, said Rukim Kuang, founder of Beijing-based Lens Company Research.
“Internet giants will start to re-focus on their main business in the future. As a result, it’s not necessary for companies like Alibaba to keep such large amounts of cash on their books,” he added.
Alibaba said it had $75 billion in cash, cash equivalent and short term investments as of end-December.
The company has been under pressure since late 2020 when its billionaire founder, Jack Ma, publicly criticised China’s regulatory system.
Authorities subsequently halted the planned blockbuster IPO of its financial arm Ant Group and slapped Alibaba with a record $2.8 billion fine for anti-competitive behaviour, triggering a long slide in its shares.
Growing competition from rivals, slowing consumption, and a maturing e-commerce market have also hit its performance.
In its last earnings release, Alibaba posted a 10% year-on-year revenue growth, its slowest quarter since going public in 2014 and the first time growth fell below 20%. read more
The company is currently preparing to layoff tens of thousands of staffers, Reuters reported in March. read more
Alibaba said it had re-purchased about $9.2 billion of its U.S.-listed shares as of March 18 under its previously announced programme, which was slated to last until the end of this year.
The current $25 billion programme will be effective for a two-year period through March 2024.
Alibaba named Weijian Shan, the executive chairman of investment group PAG, as an independent director to its board, and said Borje Ekholm, the CEO of Ericsson (ERICb.ST), will retire from Alibaba’s board on March 31.
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Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru and Josh Horwitz and Jason Xue in Shanghai; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Himani Sarkar
The wife of a former Manchester United player says she spent years hating her lavish Cheshire lifestyle but felt unable to complain because ‘rich people aren’t supposed to have problems’.
Danielle Gibson, 36, was raised by a single mother in a tenth floor flat in Wythenshawe, Manchester, and met her footballer husband Darron when she was a teenager.
But after being catapulted into a life of fortune and fame, mother-of-two Danielle claims she ‘didn’t feel thankful or grateful of any of it’ and wanted to return to a simpler life.
Speaking at an event marking International Women’s Day in Manchester, Danielle admitted she felt she had ‘no right to complain’ while living in a ‘big house in Bowdon’ with two kids in private school.
‘It still feels tricky sat here in my designer outfit saying this, but I want to be honest and say that there have been years and years where I didn’t feel thankful or grateful of any of it – I just wanted to be Danielle from Wythenshawe’, she said, according to the Manchester Evening News.
Danielle Gibson, 36, pictured in 2013, says she spent years hating her lavish Cheshire lifestyle but felt unable to complain because ‘rich people aren’t supposed to have problems’
Therapist Danielle was raised by a single mother in a tenth floor flat in Wythenshawe, Manchester, and met her footballer husband Darron when she was a teenager. She is pictured with her husband in 2011
Trained psychotherapist Danielle grew up in a working class home in south Manchester, recalling watching her mother ‘struggling up and down the stairs with shopping bags’ as a child.
Irish-born footballer Darron made his football debut with Manchester United in 2005 and joined Everton in January 2012 where reportedly earned a wage of £35,000 per week.
Danielle met Darron at the age of 16 and after tying the knot in 2013, she was plunged into a world of swanky events, designer outfits and travelling around the globe.
However shortly after her husband joined Everton, the midfielder tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during a match in Dublin and was forced to undergo surgery.
Danielle now plans to launch her own psychotherapy business and says that while it was a ‘relief’ when her husband retired last year, she is a ‘very proud wife for everything that he has achieved in his career’
Danielle, who was pregnant with her second child at the time, recalled the horror of watching her husband face a potentially career-ending injury on live television with no ability to help.
She says the injury was so bad they would later have to shave his thigh muscle and create two new ligaments behind his knee.
As he recovered, Darron would spend the majority of his day confined to bed, having to sleep downstairs in a metal cast and spent the next 12 months with Danielle helping him wash and go to the toilet.
In the years following his injury, Danielle says her husband continued to face various ailments, surgeries and long recovery periods – and couldn’t help but read the swathe of nasty comments about his proneness to injury.
She said she couldn’t help thinking about friends’ husbands who worked as builders or in a call centre, and said she envied how they could live a normal life.
‘I didn’t feel like I could tell anyone how difficult life was feeling. So I put up and shut up’, she said.
In September 2015, Darron was banned from driving for 20 months and sentenced to a 12-month community order after pleading guilty to drink-driving, careless driving and failing to stop at the scene of an accident after he crashed into three cyclists.
Irish-born footballer Darron made his football debut with Manchester United in 2005 and joined Everton in In January 2012
Danielle and her husband are pictured arriving for the world premiere of Amazon Prime Video’s Rooney in February
In July 2017, Darron joined Sunderland which meant moving away from the family home – leaving Danielle feeling increasingly overwhelmed as the mum to two young children.
Shortly after joining Sunderland for a reported £35,000 per week, Darron was caught on video camera in a hotel bar branding his team ‘s***’ – with the infamous rant featuring in the opening episode of recent Netflix docu-series ‘Sunderland ‘Till I Die’.
Less than a year later, Sunderland terminated Darron’s contract as he pleaded guilty to drink-driving – something Danielle believes to be a turning point for the couple.
The midfielder was found to be three times over the limit after clipping a taxi and then driving on for several miles before crashing his Mercedes 4×4 into several parked cars while on his way to Sunderland’s training ground on St Patrick’s Day in March 2018.
Darron received a community service order, but Danielle says the incident ‘ultimately saved [her] family’ by inspiring her to spend the past five years training as a therapist.
She said that after years of important decisions being placed in the hands of managers and agents, she wanted to take back control of her life.
After qualifying as a therapist, Danielle has spent the past year working with female prison inmates carrying a life sentence and helping people to address substance abuse issues.
She plans to launch her own psychotherapy business The Heard Hub in September and says that while it was a ‘relief’ when her husband retired last year, she is a ‘very proud wife for everything that he has achieved in his career.’
The 2022 NHL trade deadline has passed. Some teams got better. Some teams didn’t. One team might have made both the best and worst trades of the deadline by itself.
Here’s a look at the winners and losers of the 2022 deadline, from the players who controlled their fate to the teams that took fate into their own hands. A full 32-team report card will arrive later this week.
Wyshynski: The Avalanche took their swing at acquiring Claude Giroux from the Philadelphia Flyers, but he had other plans. So rather than go all in for another top six guy, the Avs smartly addressed a couple of their smaller but glaring needs.
I’ve been screaming since the offseason that the Avalanche had to address their lack of veteran forward depth, having lost a few key players in the past year. They did that and more by acquiring Artturi Lehkonen from the Montreal Canadiens at a steep cost — prospect Justin Barron was likely part of the Giroux package — but with 50% salary retention. The Sharks retained 50% on Andrew Cogliano, who hopefully has some fourth-line contribution left in his tank. Nico Sturm brings more physicality than Tyson Jost.
Meanwhile, they pulled off a great trade in snagging defenseman Josh Manson for the Ducks, who addresses a lack of physicality and defensive zone play that will be vital against the crashing forecheckers from Calgary and (maybe) Vegas. Manson also didn’t cost what Ben Chiarot did for Florida. The rich got richer at the trade deadline. These are the types of moves one looks back on fondly during a championship parade.
Shilton: If general manager Jim Nill truly believed Dallas could win a Stanley Cup this season, then not trading John Klingberg and/or not making any notable moves before the deadline would be understandable. But the Stars are not built for that type of success this season (especially not with Miro Heiskanen out indefinitely with mononucleosis). So why is Klingberg, a pending unrestricted free agent who has been publicly sour about the lack of a new contract and would fetch a solid-to-good return on the trade market, still with the team?
We witnessed some serious returns for other rental defensemen. Mark Giordano pulled two second-rounders and a third out of Toronto. Ben Chiarot drew a first-rounder from Florida. So did Hampus Lindholm from Boston. There were options that Nill could have exercised to improve Dallas for the future. Now Klingberg is probably going to walk for nothing and keeping him won’t, in all likelihood, change the Stars’ fate this season.
Shilton: Unlike the GM in Dallas, the new GM in Anaheim knows what he doesn’t want — and it’s pending UFAs.
To top off the deadline, Verbeek grabbed Evgenii Dadonov and another second-round selection from Vegas — assuming the trade actually goes through, after an issue was found involving his no-trade clause.
That’s quite a haul for the Ducks. It not only sets them up in future drafts, but it makes room for Verbeek to get a look at more players Anaheim already has in its ranks. That will be crucial to decisions made moving forward as he guides the Ducks out of this rebuild and back toward playoff contention.
Loser: Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon
Wyshynski: The Golden Knights’ salary cap had been an absolute mess well before they added Jack Eichel‘s $10 million hit this season. They’ve been living on the edge, making specious cap-impacted deals for the past few offseasons, costing them good players and better teammates.
That cap management hindered their ability to add reinforcements at the deadline or seek to shore up their goaltending. Instead, they were forced to trade winger Evgenii Dadonov to the Ducks to open $3.375 million in salary-cap space, hoping it will help them bring back some of their injured stars as they hang on to a playoff berth for dear life.
But wait! In a twist that could only happen to the Golden Knights during this hellish stretch of the season, the trade is being disputed by the National Hockey League Players’ Association, as Anaheim might have been on Dadonov’s limited no-trade list. Sources told ESPN that the Golden Knights claim that no-trade clause wasn’t disclosed by the Senators when they traded Dadonov to Vegas last offseason. There also are questions about whether Dadonov and his agent submitted a list before this season. Now, it’s an NHLPA and NHL entanglement that has put the trade in limbo.
If it does eventually go through, consider this asset management: The Golden Knights traded a 2022 third-round pick and defenseman Nick Holden for Dadonov last summer in a deal that didn’t make a ton of sense at the time given their cap crunch. Now they’ve traded him to the Ducks along with their choice of a 2023 or 2024 second-round pick. So that’s a second, a third and an NHL defenseman for 62 games of Dadonov. It’s not a first, second and third for Tomas Tatar in 2018, but it’s still bewildering.
If the Dadonov trade doesn’t go through? Now they have a disgruntled player who is still taking up $5 million in cap space.
Wyshynski: The Bruins won the Hampus Lindholm derby with a massive offering to the Ducks, trading them a 2022 first-round pick and second-round picks in 2023 and 2024 along with defenseman Urho Vaakanainen in the multiple-asset deal. Then they signed him to an eight-year, $52 million deal with a no-movement clause through 2026-27.
Lindholm is not the player he once was, but he is still better than anything the Bruins have had on their left side since they let Torey Krug walk. They could pair him with Charlie McAvoy or have him anchor his own unit. Whatever the case, GM Don Sweeney finally landed the defenseman the Bruins have been chasing.
Shilton: Yes, the Maple Leafs landed Mark Giordano to bolster the blue line. That was a priority. But Toronto did nothing to improve its lackluster goaltending situation, although it wasn’t for complete lack of trying.
On Sunday, GM Kyle Dubas did sign Finnish netminder Harri Sateri — fresh from an Olympic gold-medal win — to a one-year deal. Per NHL rules, though, Toronto had to place Sateri on waivers in order to add him to the roster. Arizona, of course, claimed Sateri, leaving the Leafs no better off. And Dubas didn’t complete any transactions to add another goaltender before the deadline.
So, Toronto is where it is. Beleaguered goalie Petr Mrazek also was placed on waivers on Sunday, which Dubas clarified was for cap-related purposes, and Mrazek cleared, so he’s still around. That doesn’t help the Leafs much, though. Mrazek has allowed four or more goals in each of his past four starts (1-2-1), and he was recently usurped by rookie Erik Kallgren. It appears Kallgren (who is 2-1-1 with a .930 SV%) will have to continue carrying the load for now, at least until Jack Campbell is up and running.
Toronto’s starter has been sidelined by a rib injury, but he returned to the ice this week. Can Campbell attain his previous form and be the top-end goalie he was early in the season? The Leafs can only cross their fingers and hope.
Shilton: After 24 hours of wheeling and dealing, the Kraken now hold 34 picks in the next three entry drafts. That’s … a lot of choices. It should translate into a whole lot of fun for Seattle’s scouting staff, which will basically be building this franchise from the ground up with its recommendations (both in draftable players and trade candidates). Talk about having an impact!
Wyshynski: One questions the philosophy of GM Lou Lamoriello at their own peril, but … seriously?
The Islanders have been one the biggest disappointments of the season. Lamoriello’s response at the deadline was not only not to move a single player from this roster, but to extend forwards Cal Clutterbuck and Zach Parise in new contract deals. There were no takers for goalie Semyon Varlamov, or any of the forwards with term? Maybe these end up being summertime moves. For now, the Islanders’ deadline paralysis was as baffling as their season’s been.
Wyshynski: The temptation was no doubt there to really push hard for someone like J.T. Miller of the Vancouver Canucks, a former Ranger who would have been an ideal acquisition at the deadline. Instead, the Rangers and GM Chris Drury made a series of smart smaller moves that could add up to something positive come playoff time. They traded for Panthers winger Frank Vatrano, Jets forward Andrew Copp, Canucks forward Tyler Motte and Flyers defenseman Justin Braun.
Copp was a coup. He cost a bit — a 2022 second-rounder that could become a first and another 2022 second-rounder — but he’s one of those players that can be effective down the lineup or playing up with the skilled stars, as was the case with the Jets this season. Braun, meanwhile, is a win-at-all-costs defensive defenseman with 100 games of playoff experience, something in short order on their blue line.
Shilton: The inaction from GM Tom Fitzgerald here is a head-scratcher. The Devils aren’t in the playoff hunt this season so they had some pieces that could have been moved, like Pavel Zacha or P.K. Subban or even Damon Severson, and yet, New Jersey did nothing.
Now, you might argue it’s better to complete no trades than to make a bad move. That’s true. Fitzgerald noted on Monday he wasn’t going to trade a player like Severson just because he’s got one year left on his deal, for example, when Severson is helping New Jersey win games now. It’s just that the Devils aren’t collecting victories that often, and the choice to stand pat is different when you’re a perennial contender or up against the salary cap or have already acquired a boatload of future draft choices. That’s not what the Devils have been up to, either.
As it is, New Jersey will enter the final stretch of this season near the bottom of their division and having made no strides in any direction. Fitzgerald may well like his team. Maybe he just has a lot of patience. But in his results-oriented business, patience only stretches so far, for so long.
Shilton: Everything’s coming up Flower!
Monday couldn’t have played out much better for Fleury. He put his time in with Chicago — a place the veteran clearly enjoyed playing — and now gets to reunite with old teammate Bill Guerin in Minnesota and chase another Stanley Cup. At 37 years old, those opportunities are increasingly rare. While Fleury had some control over a new landing spot, the fact Minnesota is a contending team that could make room (by trading Kaapo Kahkonen), satisfy the Blackhawks in return (with a conditional first-round pick) and offer a fellow veteran goalie (in Cam Talbot) to pair Fleury with … it seems like a great match.
There’s no pressure for Fleury to carry the load immediately, he can ease into the role and figure out getting his family settled if needed. Minnesota has needed a spark to help it climb out of a recent funk, too. Given Fleury’s reputation as the league’s most beloved teammate, this deal was a pretty big winner for the Wild, too.
Loser: Other big-name trades
Wyshynski: We had some players like Sharks center Tomas Hertl and Stars center Joe Pavelski that re-signed with their teams — and another in Filip Forsberg that appears on his way to doing so with Nashville. We had other players like Brock Boeser and J.T. Miller of the Vancouver Canucks and Jakob Chychrun of the Arizona Coyotes that are likely summertime moves.
Then we had players like Phil Kessel, Braden Holtby, Tyler Bertuzzi, Paul Stastny and Jeff Petry that were rumored to be on the move but never moved. There was some star power at the deadline in Fleury and Giroux. But for the most part, the flat salary cap meant a lot more singles than home run swings.
Winner: Player empowerment
Wyshynski: If there’s one takeaway from the 2022 NHL trade deadline, it’s how much player empowerment played a key role. Claude Giroux had a full no-movement clause. According to veteran Philadelphia reporter Anthony SanFilippo, Giroux wanted to leverage that into a guarantee that the Flyers would bring him back in the offseason, agreeing to expand his trade options. Reportedly, they wouldn’t, so he didn’t and would only go to Florida, taking away any leverage from Philly. (Please note that GM Chuck Fletcher and Giroux’s agent Pat Brisson both deny this was the case.)
Marc-Andre Fleury agreed to join the Chicago Blackhawks when they gave him their word that he would have approval over any trade they’d make with him, despite not having a no-move clause. He was presented with a chance to play for former teammate and Minnesota GM Bill Guerin, and he accepted. Seattle captain Mark Giordano had modified trade protection and the team’s backing to choose his next destination, and he ultimately chose to play for the Maple Leafs.
This didn’t make for the most thrilling trade deadline, but was certainly a moment where veteran players gladly controlled the narrative.
Shilton: Brett Kulak and Derick Brassard were the best Edmonton could do, eh? It really felt like this team deserved more.
The Oilers have worked hard to turn a corner in recent weeks. After losing six of eight, Edmonton responded with five straight wins where they scored four or more goals in each. More notably, the Oilers goaltending seems to be (somewhat) stabilized and they’re back to sitting third in the Pacific.
So, why did GM Ken Holland do so little to reward his group for their efforts? McDavid and Draisaitl are in their prime, right in front of you. And there are clear indications of buy-in throughout the lineup to gain ground and maybe make a push in the crowded Western Conference field. It just seems like a missed opportunity by Holland to let the deadline pass and not capitalize on the momentum Edmonton has generated.
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2:24
Check out the unconventional but hilarious locations in which Kevin Weekes broke NHL trades throughout the week.
Wyshynski: There’s nothing general managers hate more at the NHL trade deadline than juicy details of deals that didn’t happen leaking out to the media.
The Maple Leafs were engaged in trade talks that involved Marc-Andre Fleury. News and notes about those talks were reported by TSN.
“I’ve never had that in our time here, where conversations on something that didn’t happen are out a day later,” said Toronto GM Kyle Dubas, referring to Chicago GM Kyle Davidson. “We rely on other teams to keep that confidential, so it’s disappointing.”
Wyshynski: There isn’t a team that made a move that I loved and a move that I loathed more than the Panthers did at the trade deadline.
Acquiring Claude Giroux is an absolute coup — a veteran leader with loads of playoff experience, top-line production and lineup versatility. On top of it all, a star that’s dreamed about winning a Stanley Cup for so long that his pillow has etchings on it. Did they luck out by only having to give up Owen Tippett, a conditional first-rounder in 2024 (!) and a third-rounder in 2023, because Giroux — for whatever his reasons — would only play for the Panthers? Absolutely, but that’s hockey: How do you think the Rangers ended up with Artemi Panarin and Adam Fox?
I also liked the trade for defenseman Robert Hagg too.
Unfortunately, I did not like that move they made for another defenseman: Ben Chiarot.
I’ve been told incessantly by Montreal fans that the analytics don’t properly tell the story of Chiarot this season. The Panthers had better hope so because, based on the numbers, that story was written by Stephen King. Even if you believe Chiarot can reclaim what made him a solid defender before this season — and without a functional Shea Weber next to him, that’s not likely — this was an overpayment. Like, a torrid housing market level of overpayment. They gave up a conditional first-rounder (top-10 protected in 2022, unprotected in 2024 if necessary) at a deadline where players like Josh Manson, Mark Giordano and Rickard Rakell moved without a first-rounder being sent the other way. Quinnipiac’s Ty Smilanic isn’t a bad prospect, either, and he was included in the deal. You could argue this is around the same price that Tampa Bay paid for David Savard last deadline. You could also argue that Savard is a better player, or at least was having a superior season.
Again, a lot to like and not to like from Florida at the deadline. But you can’t say they weren’t aggressive, and maybe that pays off in their first playoff round series win since 1996.
A large new study found that people who recovered from Covid-19 within the past year are 40% more likely to receive a new diagnosis of diabetes compared to those who weren’t infected.
The increased risk translates into 1% of people who have had Covid-19 developing diabetes who otherwise wouldn’t have, the study’s author says, resulting in potentially millions of new cases world-wide.
Most of the people with diabetes in the study, published online Mondayin the journal Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, were diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, not Type 1. Some researchers say Covid-19 could also be triggering an entirely new type of diabetes in which certain cells mistakenly start to raise, rather than lower, blood sugar.
The study adds to evidence showing an increased post-Covid-19 risk of cardiometabolic conditions, such as diabetes as well as heart and kidney complications. Normally when people think of long-term Covid-19 symptoms, they think of problems such as cognitive issues, fatigue or shortness of breath. But scientists say there are likely different types of long Covid, and one appears to be defined by cardiometabolic problems that arise after Covid-19. So far, the World Health Organization estimates there have been more than 464 million cases of Covid-19, so even small percentages of those people developing long-term complications would be significant.
New studies offer clues about who might be more susceptible to long Covid, a term for lingering Covid-19 symptoms. WSJ breaks down the science of long Covid and the state of treatment. Illustration: Jacob Reynolds for The Wall Street Journal
“We’re finding out more and more that it’s not only respiratory problems or brain fog or only fatigue,” says
Ziyad Al-Aly,
chief of research and development at the VA St. Louis Health Care System and a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, who led the study. “There are heart manifestations, and clearly diabetes and kidney manifestations.”
Dr. Al-Aly’s group has recently published studies on those broader risks. One showed a higher risk of developing heart problems, including stroke and heart attack, in people who have had Covid-19 than in people who haven’t. Another showed post-Covid-19 patients were more likely to have declines in kidney function or kidney damage as much as six months after infection when compared to patients who hadn’t had Covid-19.
The researchers found only an association between Covid-19 and cardiometabolic conditions, without proving a cause. Some doctors say that new diagnoses of Type 2 diabetes and heart conditions could be influenced by weight gain or decreased activity during the pandemic, although lifestyle changes wouldn’t necessarily explain an increase specifically in people who have had Covid-19.
In the new diabetes study, Dr. Al-Alyand co-researchers analyzed the records of 181,000 Covid-19 patients in the Veterans Health Administration system who were diagnosed with Covid-19 within the past year and compared them tomore than eight million people who didn’t have Covid-19. The VA study didn’t look at diabetes cases by vaccination status.
“When you look at the data on a national scale it’s clearly happening even in people who have no risk factors or very little risk factors,” Dr. Al-Aly said, adding that new diagnoses are happening even in young adults with a healthy weight and no previous history of high blood sugar.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you or someone you know dealt with diabetic symptoms after a Covid-19 infection, and what was that experience? Join the conversation below.
Maren Laughlin, a program director at the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, said the study was very well done. Its main limitation, she noted, is that VA patients generally tend to be older and sicker and include more males than the broader population.
It hasn’t been determined why a Covid-19 infection might be leading to new cases of diabetes. One possibility is that the virus might damage the pancreas’s ability to secrete insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar. Another theory is that the strong immune response to Covid-19 generates an inflammatory cascade that results in low-grade inflammation, which interferes with insulin secretion and sensitivity.
All types of diabetes share the symptom of high blood sugars, but they are distinct conditions. Type 2 is the most common, and can be associated with diet and exercise. Typically in Type 2, people become resistant to the hormone insulin, which regulates blood sugar. The pancreas struggles to keep up with the body’s increased demand for insulin, leading to higher blood-sugar levels.
Type 1, by contrast, is an autoimmune disease in which the body destroys pancreatic cells that produce insulin. Other types of diabetes include gestational diabetes, which can develop in pregnant women.
In a March study in the journal Diabetologia, German researchers found that people who had Covid-19 had a roughly 28% increased risk of a new Type 2 diagnosis compared to those who had an acute upper-respiratory infection that wasn’t Covid-19. The researchers compared data from more than 35,000 Covid-19 patients to an equal number of people with infections that weren’t Covid-19. They didn’t find an increased risk for other types of diabetes.
And a February JAMA Network Open study found that people who tested positive for Covid-19 had roughly a two times greater risk of a new Type 2 diagnosis one to five months after their infection compared to those who tested negative for the virus. About 7% of hospitalized adults with Covid-19 received new diabetes diagnoses within five months, compared to 3.6% of adults without Covid-19.
There are many challenges in interpreting the data, says
Jason Block,
an internal-medicine physician and associate professor at Harvard Medical School who is senior author of the JAMA study. Many people hadn’t been to see a doctor for a while during the pandemic, so they might have had diabetes without knowing it. In addition, steroids—a commonly used medication for severe Covid-19 patients—can temporarily increase blood sugar and might also trigger diabetes in patients at risk for the condition.
There are several possible biological reasons why a diabetes diagnosis might follow a Covid-19 infection. Research has indicated that the virus can infect and damage beta cells in the pancreas so that they produce less insulin.
In one study, researchers found that when they added the coronavirus to beta cell samples, genetic changes occurred in the cells that significantly reduced their ability to make insulin. Instead, to the researchers’ surprise, the cells did something unusual: They started making a different hormone, glucagon,whose function is to increase blood-glucose levels.
“The beta cells lost their cell identity and turned into a different type of cell,” says
Shuibing Chen,
director of the diabetes program at Weill Cornell Medicine in Manhattan, who led the study.
Dr. Chen says Covid-19 infection appears to be triggering a new type of diabetes that isn’t Type 1 or Type 2. Dr. Chen says her team is studying treatments specifically for Covid-19 patients newly diagnosed with diabetes to see whether they can block the process by which the cells might change.
“It reduced their viability pretty quickly and reduced their ability to secrete insulin in less than a day,” says
Peter Jackson,
a professor in the microbiology and immunology department at Stanford University School of Medicine, and senior author on the study. “It’s a strong effect.”
LONDON, March 21 (Reuters) – Australia’s decision to ban exports of alumina to Russia tightens further the raw materials squeeze on Russian aluminium giant Rusal . read more
The company’s four million tonnes of smelter capacity each year processes eight million tonnes of alumina, which sits between bauxite and refined metal in the aluminium production chain.
Rusal’s domestic alumina plants accounted for only 37% of its smelter needs last year. The balance was imported. The top two suppliers were Ukraine, where Russia’s invasion has closed Rusal’s Nikolaev refinery, and Australia.
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The company said it is “currently evaluating” the loss of its number two raw material supplier but the market has already reacted to the potential resulting loss of Russian metal.
London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month aluminium jumped more than 5% at its opening to $3,554 per tonne on Monday morning and was last trading around $3,545.
Russia’s imports of alumina in 2021
RAW MATERIALS SQUEEZE
Rusal has so far escaped direct Western sanctions thanks to the deal that was done to lift U.S. sanctions in 2019. Rusal’s oligarch owner Oleg Deripaska remained blacklisted but Rusal was excluded after he reduced his controlling stake in the EN+ holding company.
That may just have changed, though.
The Australian government’s ban, expedited to stop a Russian-bound alumina shipment leaving this week, doesn’t explicitly name Rusal but it is a de-facto sanction on the company that dominates Russian aluminium production.
The status of Rusal’s 20% stake in the QAL refinery in Queensland is highly moot since it now can’t export its offtake share and its partner Rio Tinto (RIO.L) is committed to disengaging from all Russian joint ventures. read more
Rio has already suspended a tolling arrangement with Rusal’s Aughinish alumina refinery in Ireland, forcing the Russian producer to redirect bauxite shipments from its Guinea mines.
Such self-sanctioning limits Rusal’s room for manoeuvre in terms of replacing lost Australian feed.
The sea-borne alumina market is dominated by Rio Tinto, U.S. producer Alcoa (AA.N) and Norway’s Hydro . All three have said they will reduce exposure to Russia or, in the case of Hydro, not enter into new contracts with Russian entities.
The biggest question mark of all hangs over the Irish refinery, Rusal’s largest overseas alumina plant with production last year of 1.9 million tonnes.
Only a quarter of its output flowed to Russia in 2021, meaning there is plenty of potential to redirect shipments from Europe to Russia.
The Irish government is understandably keen to keep Aughinish operating but the European Union is already extending sanctions into the metals arena with a ban on Russian steel imports and will have no doubt noted Australia’s upping of the sanctions ante.
With or without its Irish lifeline, however, Rusal is facing a raw materials squeeze.
China may be its answer but China has itself been importing significant amounts of alumina in recent years to keep up with demand.
Even assuming the political will to supply Rusal with alumina, the market incentive may not be there, given expectations of rising domestic alumina demand as Chinese smelters lift output after an easing of power controls.
ALUMINIUM SQUEEZE
The aluminium price’s reaction to news of the Australian ban tells you how concerned it is about the potential loss of Russian metal production.
As the Australian Foreign Ministry helpfully pointed out in its statement, “aluminium is a global input across the auto, aerospace, packaging, machinery and construction sectors”.
Which is a real problem if the West is losing access to Rusal’s four million tonnes of annual production.
The aluminium supply chain was already creaking. Power-efficiency constraints have turned China, the world’s largest producer, into a net importer of unwrought aluminium to feed its massive downstream products sector.
Production at Europe’s power-hungry smelters has been falling due to high energy prices, a phenomenon that has only gotten worse since Russia launched on Feb. 24 what it calls a “special military operation” to disarm and “denazify” Ukraine.
Visible aluminium stocks have been sliding steadily for over a year to plug the supply-chain gaps. Total LME inventory stands at 704,850 tonnes, the lowest level since 2007.
The global aluminium market is tight, the Western European market particularly so, both because of the recent smelter cuts and its dependence on Russian supply.
Europe accounted for 41% of Rusal’s sales last year and disruption to Russian shipments will only widen the region’s existing supply deficit.
Moreover, Rusal is a critical supplier of “green” – low-carbon – aluminium from its hydro-powered Siberian smelters.
While global aluminium trade flows may eventually adjust in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, automakers keen to use only the greenest metal in their next-generation electric vehicles may find a far more challenging supply landscape.
TIGHTENING THE SANCTIONS SCREW
The complexity of Rusal’s raw material supply web was exposed back in 2018 when U.S. sanctions set off a chain reaction that spanned Ireland, Guinea and Australia and ended with European car companies lobbying the European Commission to intercede with the United States.
Those U.S. sanctions were a bolt from the blue.
This time around the effect has so far been more incremental as supply, logistics and financing avenues dwindle due to self-sanctioning.
The Australian government’s move to add alumina to the sanctions list marks a significant escalation in this process.
Critical for Rusal and aluminium market alike is whether other countries follow suit.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.
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Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.
Yesterday, Epic launched the next season of Fortnite, and announced that for the following two weeks all the money it makes from in-game purchases in the popular battle royale will be donated to charities supporting humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. Now, just 24 hours later, and with 13 days remaining, Epic has revealed that it has already raised an eye-popping $36 million.
In a blog posted yesterday on Epic’s official news page, the company announced its plans to donate proceeds from all “real-money” purchases made in Fortnite between March 20 through April 3. According to Epic, this includes the purchasing of V-Buck packs and cosmetic packs sold for real money. Epic says proceeds from retail in-store purchases of V-Buck cards will also be included, but only for those redeemed in-game during the two-week window. Xbox is also donating all proceeds made in the Xbox version of Fortnite for the next two weeks too.
What’s wild is that Epic also explained that it will be donating the funds it earns as quickly as it can and won’t be waiting for the “actual funds to come in from our platform and payment partners” as this process can take a long time. Instead, Epic will send the funds to the charities only days after the “transactions are reported.”
According to Epic, all the money earned will be donated to a selection of organizations, which includes Direct Relief, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the World Food Program. Epic says it will add more charities in the weeks to come.
The latest season of Fornite Chapter 3 went live yesterday, bringing in some big changes and new characters to the free-to-play online shooter. One of the biggest tweaks was the removal of building, one of the game’s now-defining features, from some modes of online play. There are also some new parkour features and Dr. Strange from Marvel is hanging out here alongside Jonesy, that weird cat man, and God’s ultimate sin: Peely.
Rihanna — who is pregnant and expecting her first child with boyfriend A$AP Rocky — donned a huge diamond ring on that finger while shopping for baby clothes at Kitson in Los Angeles on Monday.
In addition to her sparkling accessory — a Sloan Solitaire ring from Briony Raymond — the Fenty Beauty mogul, 34, wore a fitted Grave Digger T-shirt that just fit over her growing baby bump.
Rihanna also rocked a pair of low-rise jeans, furry stilettos and a maroon-and-yellow trucker hat that notably read, “Sex is safer than smoking.”
The Fenty Beauty mogul wore the sparkler with a relatively casual outfit. BACKGRIDHere is a closer look at Rihanna’s Sloan Solitaire ring designed by Briony Raymond.
Rihanna, a noted fan of the “Real Housewives” franchise, also spoke about the Bravo moms she admires.
“Heather Dubrow is so chic while being a mom. Just love the way that she just allows her kids to be who they are. And that’s really inspiring to me,” Rihanna explained.
Rihanna and A$AP Rocky announced that they were going to be parents in January. Getty Images
She continued, “But Teresa [Giudice] from ‘Jersey’ does not play about her kids. She will flatten you about those kids. And that resonates with me a lot.”
Though Rihanna and A$AP Rocky, 33, have yet to announce an engagement, the “Umbrella” singer told Kanye West in a 2010 feature for Interview magazine that she always dreamed of raising a family with a spouse by her side.
The singer recently joked to Elle that she is going to be a “psycho” mother once her bundle of joy arrives. Getty Images for Fenty Beauty by
“I definitely think a child deserves both parents. It would be selfish of me, because of my pride and independence to say, ‘Oh, I just want a sperm donor, because I can do it myself,’” the Barbados native said at the time.
“I can do it myself, but that’s not fair. I don’t know if I’ll be married or anything. But however the father is in the child’s life, he’s going to be in the child’s entire life.”
A$AP Rocky and Rihanna went public with their romance in November 2020. Getty Images for Gucci
Rihanna added that she’d be able to “handle” any situation that came her way, “but in a perfect book, there would be marriage and kids.”
Rihanna revealed her pregnancy in January with paparazzi pics of her and A$AP Rocky taking a stroll in Harlem. She and the “Praise the Lord” MC have been dating since early 2020. They went public with their romance in November of that same year.
The latest addition of 65 exoplanets to the NASA Exoplanet Archive contributed to the scientific milestone marked on Monday. This archive is the home to exoplanet discoveries from peer-reviewed scientific papers that have been confirmed using multiple methods of detecting the planets.
“It’s not just a number,” said Jessie Christiansen, science lead for the archive and a research scientist with the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, in a statement. “Each one of them is a new world, a brand-new planet. I get excited about every one because we don’t know anything about them.”
We’re currently living in a golden age of exoplanet discovery. Although the existence of planets outside of our solar system had been previously proposed and certainly depicted in science fiction, these worlds were only first discovered in the 1990s.
The diversity of exoplanets represent populations of planets unlike anything found in our solar system. They include rocky worlds larger than Earth called super-Earths, mini-Neptunes bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, and scorching hot Jupiters that dwarf our solar system’s largest planet and closely orbit their host stars.
Scientists have also found planets that orbit more than one star and even some around the remnants of dead stars called white dwarfs.
So far, of the confirmed exoplanets, 30% are gas giants, 31% are super-Earths, and 35% are Neptune-like. Just 4% are terrestrial, or rocky planets like Earth or Mars.
When Christiansen was a graduate student in the early 2000s, there were only about 100 known exoplanets.
“That’s partly why I wanted to go into the field — because it was brand new and so exciting that people were finding planets around other stars,” Christiansen said in a question and answer session shared by Caltech. “Now, exoplanets are almost ordinary. My colleague David Ciardi (chief scientist for the NASA Exoplanet Archive) pointed out the other day that half of the people alive have never lived in a world where we didn’t know about exoplanets.”
Kepler helped scientists discover about two-thirds of the 5,000 confirmed planets, Christiansen said.
In the new batch of 65 planets, many are super-Earth and sub-Neptune planets, along with some hot Jupiter-size planets. There are also two Earth-size planets, but they’re about 620 degrees Fahrenheit (327 degrees Celsius), so more like “hot rocks” than habitable planets, Christiansen said.
She also noted that one is a system with five planets orbiting a small, cool red dwarf star — not unlike the TRAPPIST-1 system, where a similar star hosts seven rocky planets.
Space observatories joining the hunt
New telescopes will only increase the potential for exoplanet discovery. The James Webb Space Telescope, launched in December, will be able to peer through the atmospheres of exoplanets.
The Webb telescope is poised to study the TRAPPIST system in detail.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will launch in 2027 and aid in the search for exoplanets with a variety of techniques. The European Space Agency’s ARIEL mission, launching in 2029, will study exoplanet atmospheres.
Although scientists have confirmed more than 5,000 exoplanets, there are likely hundreds of billions of them across the Milky Way galaxy.
“Of the 5,000 exoplanets known, 4,900 are located within a few thousand light-years of us, Christiansen said. “And think about the fact that we’re 30,000 light-years from the center of the galaxy; if you extrapolate from the little bubble around us, that means there are many more planets in our galaxy we haven’t found yet, as many as 100 to 200 billion. It’s mind-blowing.”
