Weird ‘hot Jupiter’ exoplanet is shaped like a football

A distant exoplanet looks more like a football than the usual sphere, researchers report in a groundbreaking new study. The strange shape of ultrahot WASP-103b, which is more than 1,000 light-years from Earth, is due to the planet being stretched by the gravitational forces of its parent star, according to the new research. WASP-103b was … Read more

Drought: Plants prioritise keeping their flowers cool during hot, dry weather

Under heat and water stress, plants sacrifice their leaves to keep their sexual organs cool – a strategy that we could harness to protect crops from climate change   Life 10 December 2021 By Richard Kemeny A field of soya bean plants Shutterstock / kuludi In hot, dry weather, plants sacrifice their leaves to … Read more