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The World / Business

Mountain Views News Saturday, October 19, 2013

MVNews this week: Page B:3

The World Around Us

Mountain Views News Saturday, October 19, 2013

A STRANGE LONELY PLANET WITHOUT A START

An international team of astronomers has discovered an exotic young planet that is not orbiting a star.
This free-floating planet, dubbed PSO J318.5-22, is just 80 light-years away from Earth and has a mass
only six times that of Jupiter. The planet formed a mere 12 million years ago—a newborn in planet
lifetimes.

It was identified from its faint and unique heat signature by the Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) wide-field survey
telescope on Haleakala, Maui. Follow-up observations using other telescopes in Hawaii show that it has
properties similar to those of gas-giant planets found orbiting around young stars. And yet PSO J318.5-
22 is all by itself, without a host star.

“We have never before seen an object free-floating in space that that looks like this. It has all the
characteristics of young planets found around other stars, but it is drifting out there all alone,” explained
team leader Dr. Michael Liu of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “I had
often wondered if such solitary objects exist, and now we know they do.”

During the past decade, extrasolar planets have been discovered at an incredible pace, with about a
thousand found by indirect methods such as wobbling or dimming of their host stars induced by the
planet. However, only a handful of planets have been directly imaged, all of which are around young
stars (less than 200 million years old). PSO J318.5-22 is one of the lowest-mass free-floating objects
known, perhaps the very lowest. But this object’s most unique aspect is its similar mass, color, and
energy output to directly imaged planets.

“Planets found by direct imaging are incredibly hard to study, since they are right next to their much
brighter host stars. PSO J318.5-22 is not orbiting a star so it will be much easier for us to study. It is going
to provide a wonderful view into the inner workings of gas-giant planets like Jupiter shortly after their
birth,” said Dr. Niall Deacon of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany and a co-author of
the study.

PSO J318.5-22 was discovered during a search for failed stars known as brown dwarfs. Due to their
relatively cool temperatures, brown dwarfs are very faint and have very red colors. To circumvent these
difficulties, Liu and his colleagues have been mining the data from the PS1 telescope. PS1 is scanning the
sky every night with a camera sensitive enough to detect the faint heat signatures of brown dwarfs. PSO
J318.5-22 stood out as an oddball, redder than even the reddest known brown dwarfs.

“We often describe looking for rare celestial objects as akin to searching for a needle in a haystack.
So we decided to search the biggest haystack that exists in astronomy, the dataset from PS1,” said Dr.
Eugene Magnier of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and a co-author of
the study. Dr. Magnier leads the data processing team for PS1, which produces the equivalent of 60,000
iPhone photos every night. The total dataset to date is about 4,000 Terabytes, bigger than the sum of
the digital version of all the movies ever made, all books ever published, and all the music albums ever
released.

The team followed up the PS1 discovery by observing the same object with multiple telescopes on the
summit of Mauna Kea. Infrared spectra taken there, using the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility and the
Gemini North Telescope, showed that PSO J318.5-22 was not a brown dwarf.

You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@MtnViewsNews.com.

Multicolor image from the Pan-STARRS1 telescope of the free-floating planet PSO
J318.5-22, in the constellation of Capricornus. The planet is extremely cold and faint,
about 100 billion times fainter in optical light than the planet Venus. Most of its energy is
emitted at infrared wavelengths. The image is 125 arcseconds on a side. Credit: N. Metcalfe
& Pan-STARRS 1 Science Consortium

BUSINESS NEWS & TRENDS

BUSINESS TODAY

The latest on Business News, Trends and Techniques

By La Quetta M. Shamblee, MBA

A WARM INVITATION

WHO ARE THE GIVERS & TAKERS IN YOUR LIFE?

For entrepreneurs it is very helpful to identify individuals involved in your life as either a help or a
hinderance to your progress and success. It important to distinguish those who in your circle who
are truly supportive, in contrast to people who are simple involved with you to benefit from what
they may be able to get from you. Entrepreneurs have enough burden to bear without taking on the
load of providing benefits to people lurking on the sidelines to extract what they can for themselves,
without making some type of reciprocal contribution.

The ability to distinguish givers from takers is a great starting point for entrepreneurs to protect
themselves from these parasites. Several years ago I was introduced to a simple exercise that has made
it easy for me to identify and categorize the “givers” and “takers” in my life. These are the individuals
who I have some level of personal interaction with on an ongoing or routine basis. The nature of the
relationships or interactions place me in a potential position of vulnerability if I am not crystal clear
about the intentions of those who may have the greatest impact on my progress and success.

I’ll refer to the exercise as the “List of Givers & Takers”:

Step #1: Take a hard copy or digital pad and draw two vertical lines down the middle to create three
columns. Make the first column to the left the widest, and the other two need to be large enough to
place a checkmark (.).

Step #2: In the first column, list the name of everyone in your life with whom you have close contact,
ongoing involvement or routine affiliation. These individuals may be spouses, family, other loved
ones, friends, business associates or anyone you consider to be important in your life due to how often
or how deeply they are connected to you.

Step #3: Place the following headings in columns 2 and 3, respectively: Givers, Takers

Step #4: After completing Step 1 thru 3, starting from the top of the list, go through without hesitation
and being honest with yourself, place a checkmark in the “Giver” or “Taker” column next to the name
of each person on your list. This checkmark must be based on the actual dynamic that individual has
with you, not based on how much you love, respect or enjoy the company of the person.

Do they sometimes pick up the tab on a lunch outing? … likely a giver. Are they the ones that show
up at the family potluck with a car full of people, yet bring three liters of soda from the Dollar Store
and empty containers to take leftovers home? .. probably a taker. Perhaps it’s a business colleague
who has benefited professionally or financially from your business referrals, but has never provided a
referral that has resulted in any measurable benefit to you … probably a taker.

Hopefully this exercise will provide a level of clarity and awakening for you as it did for me the first
time I did it. This exercise is now an annual ritual with me, and not surprisingly, it helps me to
identify those with whom I choose to truly have in my circle. By identifying the Givers, I am able to
collaborate, partner and share ideas and resources with the relief that it will be reciprocated at some
point in our dealings with each other.

Also, I continue to interact with, be cordial, and even spend time socially with some of the Takers on
my list, but I’ve also quietly and without fanfare, eliminated them from involvement in anything that
has to do with my professional or business endeavors – unless of course, it’s clear there is something
for me to take, up front.

In spring and summer, it's easy to envision ways to enhance your home's curb appeal with a trimmed
lawn, planted and potted flowers, and patios and decks arranged with outdoor furniture and an
inviting grill. But when the leaves fall and the temperatures drop, even homes in temperate climes
undergo a winter transformation that can challenge a seller to create exterior appeal.

When it comes to landscaping and colorful plants, there are plenty of ornamental grasses and plants
that look great in wintertime. Purple cabbages, fountain grasses, and potted evergreens along pathways
and by the door all add seasonal color and appeal. And obviously, your sidewalk, entry path,
patio and deck should be clear of leaves and/or snow.

Be sure to keep in mind that shorter days mean that buyers are that much more likely to see your
home after sunset, so make sure all your floodlights are clean and in working order, highlighting
your home's exterior features. Lamps with soft lighting in all your windows will also offer a warm
invitation.

Finally, just to cover your bases, have photos available of your home in all its glory during the spring
and summer months. This gives buyers a better sense of your home's appeal during all the seasons of
the year. Your agent will have more tips for attracting buyers in any kind of weather.

We’d like to hear from you!

What’s on YOUR Mind?