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Science

Four Exoplanets – Including a Super-Earth Planet – Discovered by High School Students

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A five-planet system around TOI-1233 includes a super-Earth (foreground) that could help solve mysteries of planet formation. The four innermost planets were discovered by high schoolers Kartik Pinglé and Jasmine Wright alongside researcher Tansu Daylan. The fifth outermost planet pictured was recently discovered by a separate team of astronomers. Artist rendering. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The high schoolers turned scientists published their findings this week, thanks to a research mentorship program at the Center for Astrophysics; Harvard and Smithsonian.

They may be the youngest astronomers to make a discovery yet.

This week, 16-year-old Kartik Pinglé and 18-year-old Jasmine Wright have co-authored a peer-reviewed paper in The Astronomical Journal describing the discovery of four new exoplanets about 200-light-years away from Earth.

The high schoolers participated in the research through the Student Research Mentoring Program (SRMP) at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. Directed by astrochemist Clara Sousa-Silva, the SRMP connects local high schoolers who are interested in research with real-world scientists at Harvard and MIT. The students then work with their mentors on a year-long research project.

“It’s a steep learning curve,” says Sousa-Silva, but it’s worth it. “By the end of the program, the students can say they’ve done active, state-of-the-art research in astrophysics.”

Pinglé and Wright’s particular achievement is rare. High schoolers seldom publish research, Sousa-Silva says. “Although that is one of the goals of the SRMP, it is highly unusual for high-schoolers to be co-authors on journal papers.”

With guidance from mentor Tansu Daylan, a postdoc at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, the students studied and analyzed data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). TESS is a space-based satellite that orbits around Earth and surveys nearby bright stars with the ultimate goal of discovering new planets.

The team focused on TESS Object of Interest (TOI) 1233, a nearby, bright Sun-like star. To perceive if planets were orbiting around the star, they narrowed in on TOI-1233’s light.

“We were looking to see changes in light over time,” Pinglé explains. “The idea being that if the planet transits the star, or passes in front of it, it would [periodically] cover up the star and decrease its brightness.”

To the team’s surprise, they discovered not one but four planets orbiting around TOI-1233.

“I was very excited and very shocked,” Wright says. “We knew this was the goal of Daylan’s research, but to actually find a multiplanetary system, and be part of the discovering team, was really cool.”

Three of the planets are considered “sub-Neptunes,” gaseous planets that are smaller than, but similar to our own solar system’s Neptune. It takes between 6 and 19.5 days for each of them to orbit around TOI-1233. The fourth planet is labeled a “super-Earth” for its large size and rockiness; it orbits around the star in just under four days.

Daylan hopes to study the planets even closer in the coming year.

“Our species has long been contemplating planets beyond our solar system and with multi-planetary systems, you’re kind of hitting the jackpot,” he says. “The planets originated from the same disk of matter around the same star, but they ended up being different planets with different atmospheres and different climates due to their different orbits. So, we would like to understand the fundamental processes of planet formation and evolution using this planetary system.”

Daylan adds that it was a “win-win” to work with Pinglé and Wright on the study.

“As a researcher, I really enjoy interacting with young brains that are open to experimentation and learning and have minimal bias,” he says. “I also think it is very beneficial to high school students, since they get exposure to cutting-edge research and this prepares them quickly for a research career.”

The SRMP was established in 2016 by Or Graur, a former postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Astrophysics |Harvard & Smithsonian. The program accepts about a dozen students per year with priority given to underrepresented minorities.

Thanks to a partnership with the City of Cambridge, the students are paid four hours per week for the research they complete.

“They are salaried scientists,” Sousa-Silva says. “We want to encourage them that pursuing an academic career is enjoyable and rewarding–no matter what they end up pursuing in life.”

Reference: “TESS Discovery of a Super-Earth and Three Sub-Neptunes Hosted by the Bright, Sun-like Star HD 108236” by Tansu Daylan, Kartik Pinglé, Jasmine Wright, Maximilian N. Günther, Keivan G. Stassun, Stephen R. Kane, Andrew Vanderburg, Daniel Jontof-Hutter, Joseph E. Rodriguez, Avi Shporer, Chelsea X. Huang, Thomas Mikal-Evans, Mariona Badenas-Agusti, Karen A. Collins, Benjamin V. Rackham, Samuel N. Quinn, Ryan Cloutier, Kevin I. Collins, Pere Guerra, Eric L. N. Jensen, John F. Kielkopf, Bob Massey, Richard P. Schwarz, David Charbonneau, Jack J. Lissauer, Jonathan M. Irwin, Özgür Bastürk, Benjamin Fulton, Abderahmane Soubkiou, Benkhaldoun Zouhair, Steve B. Howell, Carl Ziegler, César Briceño, Nicholas Law, Andrew W. Mann, Nic Scott, Elise Furlan, David R. Ciardi, Rachel Matson, Coel Hellier, David R. Anderson, R. Paul Butler, Jeffrey D. Crane, Johanna K. Teske, Stephen A. Shectman, Martti H. Kristiansen, Ivan A. Terentev, Hans Martin Schwengeler, George R. Ricker, Roland Vanderspek, Sara Seager, Joshua N. Winn, Jon M. Jenkins, Zachory K. Berta-Thompson, Luke G. Bouma, William Fong, Gabor Furesz, Christopher E. Henze, Edward H. Morgan, Elisa Quintana, Eric B. Ting and Joseph D. Twicken, 25 January 2021, The Astronomical Journal.
DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/abd73e

Pinglé, a junior in high school, is considering studying applied mathematics or astrophysics after graduation. Wright has just been accepted into a five-year Master of Astrophysics program at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.



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World

Biden walking a high wire with Russia ahead of Putin call

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has been quickly thrown into a high-wire balancing act with Russia as he seeks to toughen his administration’s stance against Vladimir Putin while preserving room for diplomacy in a post-Donald Trump era.

The relationship is sure to be different than the one Putin enjoyed with Trump, who was enamored of the Russian leader and sought his approval, casting doubt on Russian interference in the 2016 elections and involvement in a massive hack last year. Despite this conciliatory approach, his administration toed a tough line against Moscow, imposing sanctions on the country, Russian companies and business leaders for issues ranging from Ukraine to energy supplies and attacks on dissidents.

Unlike his immediate predecessors, Biden has not held out hope for a “reset” in relations with Russia but has instead indicated he wants to manage differences with the former Cold War foe without necessarily resolving them or improving ties. And, with a heavy domestic agenda and looming decisions needed on Iran and China, a direct confrontation with Russia is not something he seeks.

When Biden first speaks with Putin, he’s expected to call Putin out for the arrest of opposition figure Alexei Navalny and the weekend crackdown on his supporters, raise charges that Russian security services were behind the recent massive cybersecurity breach, and press allegations that Russia offered the Taliban bounties to kill American troops in Afghanistan.

At the same time, Biden must be mindful of his own proposal to extend for five years the last remaining U.S.-Russia arms control treaty that is due to expire in early February.

On Monday, Biden told reporters that he had not yet decided how to respond to the Navalny situation but expressed hope that the U.S. and Russia could cooperate in areas where both see benefit.

“I find that we can both operate in the mutual self-interest of our countries as a New START agreement and make it clear to Russia that we are very concerned about their behavior, whether it’s Navalny, whether it’s SolarWinds or reports of bounties on heads of Americans in Afghanistan,” Biden said.

Biden has already ordered the intelligence community to launch reviews of each of those issues, according to the White House, which on Friday said the U.S. proposal to extend New START would be accompanied by a reckoning on the other matters.

That approach has met with approval from some former U.S. diplomats who have dealt with Russia and are looking forward to how Biden’s team, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his nominee to be the No. 3 at the State Department, Victoria Nuland, delineate the contours of Russia policy.

Nuland, in particular, is reviled by Putin and his aides for her support of pro-Western politicians in Ukraine and held the Europe portfolio at the State Department in President Barack Obama’s second term. She and Sullivan are said to share opinions about how to deal with Moscow, taking a tough line on human rights and Russia’s intentions in eastern and central Europe while keeping an open channel to the Kremlin on other matters.

But their starting position is complicated, they say, particularly given Putin’s experience in dealing with Trump, who frequently undercut his own administration’s hawkish stance on Russia by privately trying to cozy up to the Russian leader.

“It’s hard but it’s doable,” said Daniel Fried, a U.S. ambassador to Poland and assistant secretary of state for European affairs in the George W. Bush administration. “They’re going to have to figure this out on the fly, but it’s important to pursue New START without hesitation and push back on the Navalny arrest and other issues without guilt.”

“They need to do both and not let Putin tell them he won’t accept New START unless they drop Navalny, SolarWinds or Afghanistan,” said Fried, who is now with the Atlantic Council. “You have to push back and you can’t let Putin set the terms.”

Putin, however, may be cautious given his uncertain domestic standing in the aftermath of the pro-Navalny protests that took place in more than 100 cities over the weekend.

Biden’s team has already reacted strongly to the crackdown on Navalny supporters over the weekend in which more than 3,700 people were arrested at the demonstrations across Russia, including more than 1,400 in Moscow.

Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and Putin’s fiercest critic, was arrested Jan. 17 as he returned to Russia from Germany, where he had spent nearly five months recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities deny the accusations.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki and State Department spokesman Ned Price have urged the immediate and unconditional release of Navalny, as well as those who were detained in the crackdown.

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Business

Ethereum’s Ether Cryptocurrency Sets New All-Time Price High Above $1,450

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TipRanks

3 Top Dividend Stocks With Growth Opportunity; Goldman Sachs Says ‘Buy’

Investing is all about finding profits, and investors have long seen two main paths toward that goal. Growth stocks, equities that will give a return based mainly on share price appreciation, are one route. The second route lies through dividend stocks. These are stocks that pay out a percentage of profits back to shareholders – a dividend, usually sent out quarterly. The payments vary widely, from less than 1% to more than 10%, but the average, among stocks listed on the S&P 500, is about 2%. Dividends are a nice addition for a patient investor, as they provide a steady income stream. Goldman Sachs analyst Caitlin Burrows has been looking into the real estate trust segment, a group of stocks long-known for dividends that are both high and reliable – and she sees plenty of reason to expect strong growth in three stocks in particular. Running the trio through TipRanks’ database, we learned that all three have been cheered by the rest of the Street as well, as they boast a “Strong Buy” analyst consensus. Broadstone Net Lease (BNL) First up, Broadstone Net Lease, is an established REIT that went public this past September in an IPO that raised over $533 million. The company put 33.5 million shares on the market, followed by another 5 million-plus picked up by the underwriters. It was considered a successful opening, and BNL now boasts a market cap over $2.63 billion. Broadstone’s portfolio includes 628 properties across 41 US states plus the Canadian province of British Columbia. These properties host 182 tenants and are worth an aggregate of $4 billion. The best feature here is the long-term nature of the leases – the weighted average remaining lease is 10.8 years. During the third quarter, the most recent with full financials available, BNL reported a net income of $9.7 million, or 8 cents per share. The income came mainly from rents, and the company reported collecting 97.9% of rents due during the quarter. Looking ahead, the company expects $100.3 million in property acquisitions during Q4, and an increased rent collection rate of 98.8%. Broadstone’s income and high rent collections are supporting a dividend of 25 cents per common share, or $1 annually. It’s a payment affordable for the company, and offering investors a yield of 5.5%. Goldman’s Burrows sees the company’s acquisition moves as the most important factor here. “Accretive acquisitions are the key earnings driver for Broadstone… While management halted acquisitions following COVID-induced market uncertainty (BNL did not complete any acquisitions in 1H20) and ahead of its IPO, we are confident acquisitions will ramp up in 2021, and saw the beginning of this with 4Q20 activity… We estimate that BNL achieves a positive investment spread of 1.8%, leading to 0.8% of earnings growth (on 2021E FFO) for every $100mn of acquisitions (or 4.2% on our 2021E acquisition volumes),” Burrows opined. To this end, Burrows rates BNL a Buy, and her $23 price target implies an upside of ~27% for the year ahead. (To watch Burrow’s track record, click here) Wall Street generally agrees with Burrows on Broadstone, as shown by the 3 positive reviews the stock has garnered in recent weeks. These are the only reviews on file, making the analyst consensus rating a unanimous Strong Buy. The shares are currently priced at $18.16, and the average price target of $21.33 suggests a one-year upside of ~17%. (See BNL stock analysis on TipRanks) Realty Income Corporation (O) Realty Income is a major player in the REIT field. The company holds a portfolio worth more than $20 billion, with more than 6,500 properties located in 49 states, Puerto Rico, and the UK. Annual revenue exceeded $1.48 billion in fiscal year 2019 (the last with complete data), and has kept up a monthly dividend for 12 years. Looking at current data, we find that O posted 7 cents per share income in 3Q20, along with $403 million in total revenue. The company collected 93.1% of its contracted rents in the quarter. While relatively low, a drill-down to the monthly values shows that rent collection rates have been increasing since July. As noted, O pays out a monthly dividend, and has done so regularly since listing publicly in 1994. The company raised its payout in September 2020, marking the 108th increase during that time. The current payment is 23.45 cents per common share, which annualizes to $2.81 cents – and gives a yield of 4.7%. Based on the above, Burrows put this stock on her Americas Conviction List, with a Buy rating and a $79 price target for the next 12 months. This target implies a 32% upside from current levels. Backing her stance, Burrows noted, “We estimate 5.3% FFO growth per year over 2020E-2022E, versus an average of 3.1% fo rour full REIT coverage. We expect key earnings drivers will include a continued recovery in acquisition volumes and a gradual improvement in theater rents (in 2022).” The analyst added, “We assume O makes $2.8 billion of acquisitions in each of 2021 and 2022, versus the consensus expectation of $2.3 billion. [We] believe our acquisition volume assumptions could in fact turn out to be conservative as, eight days into 2021, the company has already made or agreed to make $807.5 mn of acquisitions (or 29% of our estimate for 2021).” Overall, Wall Street takes a bullish stance on Realty Income shares. 5 Buys and 1 Hold issued over the previous three months make the stock a Strong Buy. Meanwhile, the $69.80 average price target suggests ~17% upside from the current share price. (See O stock analysis on TipRanks) Essential Properties Realty Trust (EPRT) Last up, Essential Properties, owns and manages a portfolio of single-tenant commercial properties across the US. There are 214 tenants across more than 1000 properties in 16 industries, including car washes, convenience stores, medical services, and restaurants. Essential Properties boasts a high occupancy rate of 99.4% for its properties. In 3Q20, the company saw revenue increase of 18.2% year-over-year, reaching $42.9 million. Essential Properties finished the quarter with an impressive $589.4 million in available liquidity, including cash, cash equivalents, and available credit. The strong cash position and rising revenues had the company confident enough to raise the dividend in going into Q4. The new dividend payment is 24 cents per common share, up 4.3% from the previous payment. The current rate annualizes to 96 cents, and gives a yield of 4.6%. The company has been raising its dividend regularly for the past two years. In her review for Goldman, Burrows focuses on the recovery that Essential Properties has made since the height of the COVID panic last year. “When shelter in place mandates went into effect in early 2020, only 71% of EPRT’s properties were open (completely or on a limited basis). This situation has improved in the intervening months and now just 1% of EPRT’s portfolio is closed… We expect EPRT’s future earnings growth to be driven by acquisition accretion and estimate 2.8% potential earnings growth from $100 mn of acquisitions,” Burrows wrote. In line with her optimistic approach, Burrows gives EPRT shares a Buy rating, along with a $26 one-year price target, suggesting a 27% upside. All in all, EPRT has 9 recent analyst reviews, and the breakdown of 8 Buys and 1 Sell gives the stock a Strong Buy consensus rating. Shares are priced at $20.46 and have an average price target of $22.89, giving ~12% upside potential from current levels. (See EPRT stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for dividend stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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Business

GameStop stock hits record high when short sellers clash with Redditors

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GameStop’s stock price, which had dropped steadily over the previous five years before beginning a climb last fall, closed at an all-time high on Friday following a tremendously volatile week in which Reddit-organized day traders made a lot of trouble for investment firms short-selling the stock.

Trading of GameStop stock on the New York Stock Exchange was halted twice Friday, but not before the price peaked at $73.09. It closed at $65.01, beating the previous record of $63.30 set on Dec. 24, 2007. GameStop closed on Thursday at $43.03, and when the surge began last week, it was around $20 a share.

What’s going on? Well, at the beginning of September, the stock started rallying out of the $5 doldrums where it had been for a little over a year. That’s because dog food tycoon Ryan Cohen (the founder of Chewy, which he sold for $3.35 billion in 2017) had just purchased a 10% stake in the beleaguered video game retailer. He and two allies have since joined GameStop’s board of directors, and those positions could help Cohen act on his tough talk about where GameStop’s priorities should be. Cohen says the Texas-based company needs to give up its continued brick-and-mortar retail focus altogether and move to “a technology-driven vision.”

What’s behind the eye-popping stock price surge this week, reports Ars Technica, is “a massive short squeeze bubble.” In the investing practice known as short selling, a party borrows shares of a stock and immediately sells them at the current market price; when the price later drops (as a short seller is betting it will), the short seller buys back the same number of shares to return them to the lender — and makes money by having to pay back less than what the shares were worth at the time of borrowing.

In this case, GameStop’s stock price is rising, forcing these short sellers to buy more shares at a higher price to cover their positions. That has put GameStop’s stock price in an upward spiral, one that analysts like Wedbush Securities’ Michael Pachter think will quickly come to an end.

“The smart money already got in and probably got out,” Pachter told Ars.

The smart money got in more than a year ago, reports Motherboard. Some of it came in from investors on the subreddit WallStreetBets, a community that styles itself as “Like 4Chan found a Bloomberg Terminal.” A Redditor there posted screenshots from 2019 of a $50,000 purchase of GameStop shares, when the stock price was below $1.

That’s because WallStreetBets (and others) reasoned that if they bought in to GameStop, short sellers would eventually have to cover their positions together, driving the price way up. “There is likely not an original GameStop-issued share left on the market,” noted one Redditor. In other words, GameStop has issued more shares than are actually available to buy. Higher demand plus scarce supply equals a higher price, of course, and short sellers buying up stock to cover their debts — along with, of course, interest from new investors looking to short the stock — is what’s driving the demand.

Citron Research is one of those short sellers, and on Friday the firm said it was no longer commenting on GameStop’s stock because “an angry mob” had made it a dangerously volatile stock, Bloomberg reported. Citron also alleges that these miscreants had tried to hack the company’s Twitter account, after the company criticized the stock on Tuesday and then made plans for a livestream on social media to discuss that.

GameStop’s closing price on Friday gave it a market capitalization of $4.5 billion, almost 20 times higher than what the company was worth as of late July. But none of this means GameStop has actually recovered or saved itself as a business. Indeed, its last quarterly earnings report, in December, showed revenues still declining and losses per share increasing over the same figures a year before.

In the past two years, the company has closed more than 750 stores out of the 5,700 locations it had as of 2019. The same year, the company got rid of top executives and fired more than 100 corporate staffers, in a round of layoffs that also gutted the staff of GameStop-owned Game Informer magazine.



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Health

Number of Iowa counties reporting high COVID-19 positivity rates down to 10

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The number of Iowa counties reporting a 14-day COVID-19 positivity rate of 15% or higher has dropped to only 10.The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 1,319 new positive COVID-19 cases and 33 additional deaths Friday. As of 10 a.m., the health department reported 310,596 total positive cases, 273,011 total recoveries and 4,478 total deaths since the start of the pandemic. The health department reported 309,277 total cases and 4,445 total deaths at the same time a day earlier.Iowa’s positivity rates continue to decline. The state reports an 11.1% 14-day positivity rate. That’s down from 11.3% the previous day. The 7-day positivity rate also declined from 8.5% to 8.3%. There have been 1,439,736 Iowans tested for COVID-19, with 3,466,465 tests administered in the state.The number of Iowa’s 99 counties with a 14-day positivity rate at 15% or higher has dwindled to 10. On Nov. 12, that number was 93. Iowa schools can apply for a waiver to provide 100% virtual learning at the 15% threshold. Only Kossuth and Ringgold counties report a rate greater than 20%. Thirty-nine counties report a rate lower than 10%. The number of Iowans hospitalized with COVID-19 is at its lowest level since October 7. There are now 450 Iowans hospitalized with the virus, down from 457 the previous day. The number admitted in the last 24 hours dropped from 77 to 66. There are 89 patients in ICU and 34 patients on ventilators.The number of long-term care facilities reporting virus outbreaks dropped from 71 to 69 in the last 24 hours. The state reports 1,868 positive cases and 1,031 recoveries among residents and staff within those facilities. There have been 1,839 deaths reported in Iowa’s long-term care facilities.Gov. Kim Reynolds said Thursday that Iowa’s vaccination data would be available on the health department website starting next week.The Iowa Department of Public Health lists COVID-19 data in real time on this website. KCCI publishes a daily summary at 10 a.m.

DES MOINES, Iowa —

The number of Iowa counties reporting a 14-day COVID-19 positivity rate of 15% or higher has dropped to only 10.

The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 1,319 new positive COVID-19 cases and 33 additional deaths Friday.

As of 10 a.m., the health department reported 310,596 total positive cases, 273,011 total recoveries and 4,478 total deaths since the start of the pandemic. The health department reported 309,277 total cases and 4,445 total deaths at the same time a day earlier.

Iowa’s positivity rates continue to decline. The state reports an 11.1% 14-day positivity rate. That’s down from 11.3% the previous day. The 7-day positivity rate also declined from 8.5% to 8.3%. There have been 1,439,736 Iowans tested for COVID-19, with 3,466,465 tests administered in the state.

The number of Iowa’s 99 counties with a 14-day positivity rate at 15% or higher has dwindled to 10. On Nov. 12, that number was 93. Iowa schools can apply for a waiver to provide 100% virtual learning at the 15% threshold. Only Kossuth and Ringgold counties report a rate greater than 20%. Thirty-nine counties report a rate lower than 10%.

The number of Iowans hospitalized with COVID-19 is at its lowest level since October 7. There are now 450 Iowans hospitalized with the virus, down from 457 the previous day. The number admitted in the last 24 hours dropped from 77 to 66. There are 89 patients in ICU and 34 patients on ventilators.

The number of long-term care facilities reporting virus outbreaks dropped from 71 to 69 in the last 24 hours. The state reports 1,868 positive cases and 1,031 recoveries among residents and staff within those facilities. There have been 1,839 deaths reported in Iowa’s long-term care facilities.

Gov. Kim Reynolds said Thursday that Iowa’s vaccination data would be available on the health department website starting next week.

The Iowa Department of Public Health lists COVID-19 data in real time on this website. KCCI publishes a daily summary at 10 a.m.

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