In 1992, radio astronomers announced the discovery of planets around a pulsar. These pulsar planets are believed to have formed from the unusual remnants of the supernova that produced the pulsar, in a second round of planet formation. Otherwise they may be the remaining rocky cores of gas giants that survived the supernova and then decayed into their current orbits.
On October 6, 1995, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the University of Geneva announced the first definitive detection of an exoplanet orbiting an ordinary main-sequence star (51 Pegasi). This discovery, made at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence, started the modern era of exoplanetary discovery. Technological advances, most notably in high-resolution spectroscopy, led to the quick detection of many new exoplanets. These advances allowed astronomers to detect exoplanets indirectly by measuring their gravitational influence on the motion of their parent stars. Additional extrasolar planets were eventually detected by watching occultations when a star becomes dimmer as an orbiting planet passed in front of it.
In May 2016 NASA announced the discovery of 1,284 exoplanets which brought the total number of exoplanets to over 3,000.
Extrasolar planets can have many different forms.
The nearest star with planets is Alpha Centauri. It is 4.3 light years away. Using standard rockets, it would take tens of thousands of years to get there. The nearest star similar to our Sun is Tau Ceti. It has five planets, one of which in the habitable zone, where liquid water may exist.
Some extrasolar planets might be Earth-like. This means that they have conditions very similar to that of the Earth. Planets are ranked by a formula called the Earth similarity index or ESI for short. The ESI goes from one (most Earth-like) to zero (least Earth-like). For a planet to be habitable it should have an ESI of at least 0.8. For comparison, the four solar terrestrial planets are included in this list.
Extratropical cyclone
An extratropical cyclone (also called a mid-latitude cyclone) is a type of cyclone. It is a large low-pressure weather area with clouds, rain and heavy wind. They occur in areas that are between latitudes 30° – 60° from the equator. They are not the same as tropical cyclones or low-pressure weather areas from polar zones. They are actually many masses of cold and warm fronts producing rain, heavy wind, and sometimes tornadoes and even hail.
An extratropical cyclone turns anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. The shape is circular or oval. The usual size in diameter is about 1000 km. These cyclones are usually connected with fronts. A front is a system of changes in weather. It is caused by a very cold air mass meeting a very hot air mass. In the cyclone, there is a system of warm front and cold front. The center of a cyclone is cloudier. There is also a very high chance of precipitation. The wind is strong and changes its direction, as the warm front passes. The weather is stable and fog is usual. As the cold front passes, there is a change of wind, the temperature decreases and rain is also common.
Some extratropical cyclones are made from tropical cyclones that become weak but do not die when they move over cold water. Sometimes, these weather areas can become even stronger than before as they turn into extratropical cyclones. When made from tropical cyclones, they can still have an eye (a place in the middle of a tropical cyclone that is not as windy, cloudy, or rainy). European windstorms are sometimes made when wind from the northwestern part of the Atlantic carry them more east and north towards Europe. Nor'easters often hit northeastern North America, and are made when it is cold, most often in late fall. Wind from the west part of the Atlantic moves them north. They become stronger, and drop snow on the areas it moves into. When a nor'easter drops in pressure and become stronger, by more than one millibar every hour, it is called a weather bomb. Hurricane Hazel was extratropical but still hurricane-level when it hit Toronto, for example.
Cyclonal defects usually occur in series called "the families of the cyclones". Usually, there is a belt of 3 or 4 cyclones in different stages. The cyclone has several stages of evolution. First, there is a stage of the origin of a cyclone. Second stage means that the cyclone is strengthening. At that moment, both the warm and cold front are very large. The system is moving very fast. The cold front is generally faster, which means that it runs down the warm one. This causes an occluded front. The weather is similar to both types of fronts. The third stage ends with filling of the area with air. The pressure rises. Stage four means that the signs of cyclonal weather disappear.
A violent storm during the Crimean War on November 14, 1854, wrecked 30 vessels, and sparked initial investigations into meteorology and forecasting in Europe. In the United States, the Columbus Day Storm of 1962, one of many Pacific Northwest windstorms. Hurricane Sandy also became extratropical before it's landfall.
Small solar system body
A small solar system body (SSSB) is a term defined in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union to describe solar system objects which are not planets or dwarf planets:
Therefore, it refers to these objects that can be further grouped based on their orbit or what they are made of:
Some of the larger "small solar system bodies" may be reclassified in future as dwarf planets, pending further examination to determine whether or not they are in hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly-round shape).
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel written by Mary Shelley. It is about a creature produced by a strange scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was nineteen. It was published when she was twenty-one. The first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818. Shelley's name appears on the second edition, published in France in 1823.
Shelley had travelled in the region of Geneva, Switzerland, where much of the story takes place. Ideas about occultism were topics of conversation among her travelling companions, especially her future husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary, Percy, Lord Byron, and his doctor John Polidori decided to have a competition to see who could write the best horror story. After thinking for weeks about what her possible storyline could be, Shelley dreamt about a scientist who created life and was horrified by the result. She then wrote "Frankenstein".
Since publication of the novel, the name "Frankenstein" is often used to refer to the monster itself. This usage is sometimes considered erroneous, but usage commentators regard the monster sense of "Frankenstein" as well-established and an acceptable usage. In the novel, the monster however is called "creature", "monster", "fiend", "wretch", "vile insect", "daemon", "being", and "it". Speaking to Victor Frankenstein, the monster refers to himself as "the Adam of your labors", and elsewhere as someone who "would have" been "your Adam", but is instead "your fallen angel."
Victor Frankenstein is a scientist who wants to create life itself. He stitches together parts from the dead bodies of criminals executed at the gallows. He brings his creation to life during an electrical storm. The monster scares Frankenstein. It begins to kill without reason or cause. Frankenstein chases the monster to the Arctic, and dies pursuing the creature. The monster vanishes into the fog.
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