Albemarle unfazed by Chilean election, cites 'unique' lithium contract

FILE PHOTO: A sign at the approach road leads to Albemarle's lithium 

evaporation ponds at its facility in Silver Peak

Wed, December 22, 2021
By Ernest Scheyder

(Reuters) - Albemarle Corp does not expect its Chilean lithium operations to be affected by President-elect Gabriel Boric's administration due to its long history in the country and "unique" contract to produce the electric vehicle battery metal.

Boric, a 35-year-old leftist lawmaker who takes office in March, won Sunday's election by a double-digit margin on a platform of overhauling Chile's market-oriented economic system. He repeatedly criticized lithium industry privatization during the campaign.

Chile has the world's largest reserves of lithium, most of which is found in brine that flows underneath the country's remote Atacama desert.

The election results spooked investors, pushing down shares of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Albemarle and Chilean-based rival SQM earlier this week. But Albemarle said it was unfazed and noted it has a contract to operate in Chile until at least 2043.

"We have been present in the country for more than 40 years and plan to be there for many more," Albemarle spokesperson Kelli Hopp-Michlosky said in an emailed statement to Reuters on Wednesday. "In essence, we do not expect that the new administration will have any impacts on our operations in Chile."

Albemarle noted that Boric said during the campaign he didn't plan to nationalize lithium operations and would look instead to create a national lithium company. Chile's government already operates Codelco, the world's largest copper producer.

Albemarle also noted it pays a lithium royalty rate that can be as high as 40%, the highest lithium royalty in the world, gives money to communities living near its operations and funds water level studies.

"We remain committed to maintaining our strong relationships in Chile, producing sustainable lithium for the world and generating development for the country," Hopp-Michlosky said. "We have a unique, long-term contract with the state of Chile."

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Nebraska project finds key minerals, 

but can it mine them?
 

NioCorp Corporate Controller Jeff Mason shows investors a rock sample while the company's CEO Mark Smith listens, Oct. 6, 2021 in Elk Creek, Neb. The company hopes to build a mine in southeast Nebraska to extract rare minerals if it can raise $1 billion. 

(AP Photo/Josh Funk)

NioCorp Chief Operating Officer Scott Honan tells a group of investors about the plans for a proposed mine in southeast Nebraska, on Oct. 6, 2021 in Elk Creek, Neb. The company hopes to build a mine in to extract critical minerals if it can raise $1 billion. 

JOSH FUNK
Wed, December 22, 2021

ELK CREEK, Neb. (AP) — Far beneath the rolling cropland of southeast Nebraska sits a deposit of elements that can be used to make steel and aluminum stronger. Extracting them would seem to be just the kind of project that President Joe Biden has argued is needed to reduce the United States' dependence on foreign suppliers of critical minerals.

But a proposed mine to recover the minerals — niobium, scandium and titanium — is instead providing a case study in the difficulty of actually launching such projects in the U.S.

The challenges start with the massive amount of money needed to build a mine but also include fickle customers, the nation’s tougher environmental regulations, volatile markets and intense international competition. As a result, despite years of efforts, the mine in Nebraska might never be built.

“People can spend their careers — all of their life — working for a mining company and never produce an ounce of metal,” said analyst David Abraham, who wrote a book about mining rare earth elements.

Without a doubt, money is the biggest hurdle to mining company NioCorp's plans to build a mine about 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Omaha. The company estimates it needs about $1 billion and so far, it hasn't secured enough major investors and the federal government hasn't shown much willingness to share that cost.

The U.S. is dependent on imports for the 35 substances it currently designates as critical minerals, including niobium, scandium and titanium. The U.S. relies entirely on imports for 14, and foreign producers provide more than half the supply of another 14 substances, led by China.

Recently, tight supplies caused prices to soar for the critical elements used in lightweight magnets for electric vehicles and other high-tech products. In 2011, new export restrictions by China caused abrupt shortages of 17 rare earth elements.

Niobium is mixed with steel to make the alloy stronger, lighter and more heat and corrosion resistant. It is used in bridges, oil rigs, pipelines and jet engines. Most of the U.S. supply comes from open pit mines in Brazil. The U.S. has never had a significant shortage, but the government is concerned enough that it keeps a supply in its national defense stockpile.

NioCorp Corporate Controller Jeff Mason shows investors core samples the mining company has collected while NioCorp CEO Mark Smith listens, Oct. 6, 2021 in Elk Creek, Neb. The company hopes to build a mine in southeast Nebraska to extract rare minerals if it can raise $1 billion. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)

Scandium can make aluminum stronger, is used in some specialized lasers, and would be used more widely if greater supplies were available. Most comes from China, with smaller amounts produced in the Philippines, Russia, Canada and Kazakhstan

The titanium that NioCorp hopes to produce would primarily be used in paint production. Unlike niobium and scandium, there are a few U.S. mines, but more than half the titanium is imported from China and other countries.

Company officials say tests have found some of the most sought-after elements at the Nebraska site, but it's not clear yet whether there's enough to be commercially viable.

Even if NioCorp can come up with the money for its mine, its profitability could hinge on whether its minerals will be cheaper than foreign competitors' supplies.

“Simply knowing the existence of a mineral deposit that’s attractive geologically does not guarantee commercial viability,” said professor Rod Eggert, deputy director of the Critical Materials Institute at the Colorado School of Mines.

NioCorp has been actively exploring the site for seven years, drilling out samples from as deep as 3,000 feet (900 meters) below the surface. The company raised $6.2 million earlier this year to buy the land, and since 2015 has raised roughly $60 million.

Nearly half of NioCorp’s 6,400 shareholders live in Nebraska not far from the project. The proposal has received the key state and federal environmental permits it would need.

But the Nebraska project is one of dozens of critical minerals projects worldwide at various stages of development, competing for investors.

“I can assure you that as the largest shareholder of this company, there is nothing more that I want done faster than financing, and we’re working our tails off to get it done,” said NioCorp CEO Mark Smith, who holds more than 19 million shares and has loaned the company more than $2 million of his own money.

The Biden administration made rare earth elements a focus of its supply chain review earlier this year and is investigating the national security implications of relying so heavily on imports. A task force is planned to identify U.S. sites for production.

The new $1 trillion infrastructure plan that provides incentives for electrical vehicles and wind power is expected to boost demand for critical minerals.

“It always helps when the public sees that the government has an interest in these areas,” NioCorp’s Smith said. “But I’ve been in this business for an awful long time — over 40 years — and I think it may be time for us to quit studying these issues and start doing something about the issues.”

Rio Tinto to pause lithium mine in Serbia after protests -report

Thu, December 23, 2021

BELGRADE, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto plans to pause its lithium project in western Serbia after a municipality in the west of the country scrapped a plan to allocate land for the mine, the Beta news agency reported on Thursday, quoting the CEO of Rio's Serbian arm.

The mining group wants to develop the mine near Loznica in the western Jadar river valley to extract lithium, a vital ingredient for batteries for electric vehicles, while another product, borates, are used in solar panels and wind turbines.

But last week Loznica's municipal assembly scrapped a plan which would allocate land for the project.

Beta's report quoted Vesna Prodanovic as saying Rio plans a pause during which it will engage in a public dialogue about the project, which has stirred protests by environmental groups.

"We want to call for a public dialogue, to acquaint residents with all aspects of our project," Beta quoted Prodanovic, who is CEO of Rio Sava Exploration, as saying.

Prodanovic said Rio also plans to "reconsider and possibly improve" technical solutions it wants to use for the mine.

Earlier this year, Rio said any development would meet all domestic and European Union environmental standards but activists say it would cause irreparable damage.

The company's $2.4 billion project is part of Serbian government efforts to bring in more investment and boost economic growth.

In recent weeks, green groups have staged protests and blocked roads across the country, demanding authorities end the project, causing a political headache for the ruling coalition loyal to President Aleksandar Vucic ahead of April elections.

"It is extremely difficult in such an intense anti-mining and negative campaign to have a reasonable debate on any topic," the report quoted Prodanovic as saying.

Vucic has repeatedly said that opening the mine would depend on the outcome of an environmental study and a referendum on it. (Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Alexander Smith)

'Feminist' foreign policy — what does that mean?

Annalena Baerbock is Germany's first female foreign minister. According to the new government's coalition agreement, she wants to pursue a "feminist foreign policy." But opinions differ as to what that actually means.



Female foreign ministers on the job: Norway's Anniken Scharning Huitfeldt and Germany's Annalena Baerbock

In 2014, the Swedish Social Democrat Margot Wallstrom called for equal rights for women worldwide. She demanded that women be equally represented in politics, business and society, and also have access to the same resources.

She had just been appointed foreign minister, and fairly soon began placing more women into government positions and approving funds earmarked for feminist projects abroad.

"Feminist foreign policy" became the official policy of the Swedish government and found favor in a number of other countries as well, including Canada and the Netherlands.

But the concept remains somewhat fraught.

What about Germany?

In Germany, Kristina Lunz has been at the forefront of this movement. Together with others, the feminist and social activist founded the "Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy" in Berlin, which advises, conducts research and makes policy proposals aimed at forging a different brand of foreign and security policies.

"Feminism tries to smash structures that rely on violence," she told DW. She cites the fight against terrorism as one example: 90% of terrorists operating worldwide are men.

She believes the reason for this is that society promotes aggressive behavior in boys, while raising girls to be more passive. These "patriarchal structures," she thinks, contribute to most terrorists being men.

Terrorist attacks, like that which took place at Berlin's Breitscheidplatz being memorialized here, are committed largely by men

Those who promote feminist foreign policy believe that such patterns are prevalent in foreign and security policies as well. These are predominantly shaped by men and, in Lunz's view, too often rely on force. States arm themselves to take preventive action against such terrorists, while also engaging in violence if necessary.

Feminist foreign policy, on the other hand, calls for the peaceful resolution of conflicts. Lunz is also against stationing nuclear bombs on German soil.
Two schools of thought

Carlo Masalla, an instructor at the German Bundeswehr University in Munich, is no fan of unilateralism when it comes to disarmament. He told Germany's foreign broadcaster that if Western countries spent less on defense, Russia would view this as a weakness and respond with everything but disarmament.

He believes that feminist foreign policies, as they currently stand, require more clarity. And there's even division among its supporters, he said, between adherents espousing a "maximum version" and those favoring a "realistic approach."

The first group seeks a peaceful, utopian version of foreign policy at all costs; while the other is primarily concerned with getting more women into positions of power in public diplomacy, the military and civil society.

Most foreign policy is dominated by men and therefore marked by agression, the theory goes

Kosovo: a role model

Viola von Cramon is a member of the German Greens in the European Parliament. She told DW that as a pragmatist, she believes feminist foreign policies should place women at the center of negotiations.

Women's issues need to be emphasized more strongly than in the past, she continued. On paper at least, the European Union says it wants an equal number of men and women negotiating the issues of the day. But in reality, this is often not the case.

Von Cramon cites Kosovo as an example of what successful feminist foreign policy looks like. Among Serbs and Kosovar Albanians, she said, there are many socially active women's groups. These remain in close contact with one another and work together in a spirit of cooperation.

According to von Cramon, such groups have been able to make progress that men and their governing structures have so far prevented .


Social groups of women in Kosovo, such as these protesting the murder of women and girls, help bring about change
Divvying up the world more fairly

Von Cramon fears that a certain division of labor that was present within Angela Merkel's government will continue under the new chancellor, Olaf Scholz.

The concern is that the chancellery will continue to take care of the "big players" like the United States, China, France, the EU and Russia, while leaving smaller fish to the Foreign Ministry.

She criticized former Foreign Minister Heiko Maas for allowing himself to be, as she put it, "demoted" in this way. She hopes that Annalena Baerbock will bring more strength to the Foreign Ministry, and not just hand everything over to the chancellery.

Masalla, however, does not think this will happen, and predicts that the chancellery will continue to focus on the "big players." He believes that the old division of labor will continue under the new government, and that Annalena Baerbock will simply have to get used to it.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (right) should take a tougher line with new Chancellor Olaf Scholz (left) regarding who deals with which country, some think

Aspiration versus reality

The contradictions of feminist foreign policies are quite visible upon taking a closer look at Sweden, Masalla pointed out. In 2014, it vowed to pursue a feminist foreign policy; yet during the last ten years it has been one of only a few European countries to increase defense spending. This is based on a perceived threat from Russia.

Both von Cramon and Masalle agree that Germany's new foreign minister has already adopted a much harder stance towards Russia and China, and appears to be committed to the idea of a feminist foreign policy agenda.

After all, part of the plan is to promote more women within government agencies, including the Foreign Ministry.

Belarus labels broadcaster Radio Liberty as extremist

It is the latest part of a crackdown on independent media in Belarus. Hundreds of news outlets have been branded as "extremist" for the way they have covered anti-government protests.


Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is the latest media outlet to suffer as part of a government crackdown

Belarus labeled the local service of the United States-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty extremist on Thursday.

The interior ministry's decision means that Belarusians who subscribe to RFE/RL online could face up to six years in prison.

As well as adding RFE/RL to its list of extremist organizations, authorities have launched a criminal investigation over the conduct of one of its journalists.
RFE/RL describes a 'continued clampdown'

The broadcaster posted on its website on Thursday: "Belarus' Interior Ministry has added RFE/RL's Belarus Service, known locally as Radio Svaboda, to its registry of extremist organizations, in a continued clampdown on independent media and civil society sparked by an eruption of protests against authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko's claim he won a presidential election last year that the opposition says was rigged."

Earlier this month, a Minsk court ruled that the social media pages of Radio Svaboda were extremist, before adding all of its content to its registry on Thursday.

Journalist being held 'hostage'

Meanwhile, authorities have launched a criminal case against RFE/RL journalist Andrey Kuznechyk, his relatives said on Thursday. It was not immediately clear what the charges are related to.

Kuznechyk, 43, was detained around a month ago and sentenced twice to 10-day jail terms. RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said the journalist remains in custody, despite serving out both jail terms.

"Andrey Kuznechyk has completed his sentences," Fly said in a statement. "As far as we know, Belarusian authorities continue to hold him, essentially as a kidnapped hostage. Andrey should be allowed to return to his family immediately. Journalism is not a crime."
More than 300 media outlets labeled 'extremist'

This development is the latest example of the Lukashenko regime's crackdown on media outlets, which are seen as a threat to his near three decades of rule.

More than 300 independent media outlets on the messaging app Telegram have been designated "extremist" in Belarus since covering mass protests that broke out in the wake of a disputed presidential election in August 2020. Official results declared Lukashenko the winner of the ballot, but the West joined opposition leaders in denouncing the result.

Anti-government protests ensued and authorities subsequently targeted independent media, human rights groups, journalists and activists.

A total of 31 Belarusian journalists are currently serving jail terms or awaiting trial.

Thailand: Sea turtles return to shore during Covid-19

Issued on: 23/12/2021 - 

Plastic and discarded fishing lines and nets remain the primary cause of turtles disease and death. 

© AFP   Video by: Mandi HESHMATI

After almost 20 months of Covid travel restrictions in Thailand, several different species of sea turtle have returned to nesting around Phuket, an ultra-popular beach destination before the pandemic. But as the country tentatively begins to reopen its doors to fully vaccinated international tourists, scientists have tempered their optimism.

The Matrix Resurrections review: A Matrix remix with mixed results

Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss question reality in an uneven but dizzyingly playful sequel.

Richard Trenholm

CNET CULTURE
Dec. 22, 2021 

Carrie-Anne Moss and Keanu Reeves share some bullet time in The Matrix Resurrections. Warner Bros

It's been 20 years and people just will not shut up about The Matrix. You might expect slick remix The Matrix Resurrections to be just money-grabbing nostalgia, but it's also a comment on money-grabbing nostalgia, a refinement and updating of the original film's ideas, and an exasperated clapback to anyone who missed the damn point these past two decades.

With guns. Lots of guns. And even a few jokes.

The Matrix Resurrections is out now, both in theaters and on streaming service HBO Max. This visually arresting sci-fi flick arrives at a time when the omicron variant threatens, so you need to make an informed decision about visiting theaters. Be sure to check guidance and restrictions in your local area. If you prefer, you can stream the film at home -- shades and leather coats optional.

Keanu Reeves returns as Thomas Anderson, a computer geek living an unfulfilled life and haunted by the idea maybe nothing is real. Strange signs and portents keep showing up in his life, forcing him to make a choice whether to step out of the numbing safety of mundanity or seek a dangerous uncharted path involving something called... The Matrix.

You read that right: The Matrix 4 is very much a reset to the beginning of the series, not just harking back to the first film but reliving and remixing it, turning it upside down and poking at what's inside. Original writer and director Lana Wachowski returns to the world she created with sibling Lilly Wachowski (who isn't involved this time), and the new film feels almost like a director's commentary on the original. The original films already played with layers of reality in a post-modern, self-reflexive way, and Resurrections doubles down with layer upon layer of meta self-awareness -- in fact, comparing it to a director's commentary actually feels too old-timey, too analogue: Resurrections is more like a re-recording and remix of a classic album, in space.

Funnily enough, Resurrections is the second blockbuster sequel this year with a title and subject matter resurrecting an apparently dead film series. Like Ghostbusters: Afterlife, this new Matrix film explicitly addresses its own legacy, as the original real-life thing is also a thing in the story, so the film's characters are fans of the original thing, just like the viewer. The silver screen is a mirror.

In Afterlife, that translated as fan-pleasing tributes which squashed a promising new direction under the weight of gratuitous nostalgia. But in Resurrections, Wachowski refuses to pander to the film's fans. In fact, Resurrections addresses the many and varied ways the original film has been adopted or co-opted. It pokes fun at over-earnest assertions that the film's symbolism and metaphors mean this or that, and exasperatedly rolls its eyes at those who've "missed the point" of the infamous red pill.

Remember: all I'm offering is the truth.

Warner Bros

As a jaded and middle-age Neo suffers from being surrounded by people who can't stop talking at him about what The Matrix really means, the opening scenes of the film play out what life must have been like these past two decades for Reeves, and particularly for the Wachowskis. If you've ever gone back to one of your favorite films from your youth and found it startlingly different seen through older (and hopefully wiser) eyes, you'll understand what Lana Wachowski must be going through. The first half of Resurrection is less trippy sci-fi questions about simulations and simulacra, and more a jittery dissection of art under capitalism. A musing on the artistic recidivism of resurrecting that one lucrative artwork people keep talking about, even if you don't want to. A barbed treatise on the quandary of shoveling content into the voraciously chomping nostalgia-harvester of the digital age.

But, y'know, funny.

This isn't me overthinking some wacky subtextual interpretation, by the way -- the film is literally about Keanu/Anderson being forced to make a literal, actual Matrix sequel by literal, actual Warner Bros. Evoking the famous sad Keanu meme, Anderson suffers in silence while Matrix nerds yell at him. These early scenes are a candid portrait of an artist struggling with the agony and anxiety of success, like 8 1/2 with more shootouts.

Keanu watches The Matrix.

Warner Bros

Speaking of shootouts, one of the big reasons the '90s Matrix was such a game-changer was its jaw-dropping action. On the cusp of the CG revolution and blowing everyone's minds with that innovative bullet time effect, those unforgettably iconic action scenes kicked in the door so the Wachowskis could lob in so many big ideas.

That puts a lot of pressure on this film to come up with something new and gobsmacking. Again, that's part of the film, as character actually discuss how they can top bullet time's cultural impact. Self-mockingly highlighting a problem doesn't solve it, however, and there isn't anything as groundbreaking or even as exciting as the first film. In fact, in the age of CG, even the recreations of the signature gravity-defying Matrix mayhem feel a bit weightless. Later sections of the film feature a digital effect, which is probably exceedingly clever but just looks like a leftover from the recent Terminator movies.

The effects may not be game-changing, but there's still room for the punching and kicking to kick your heart into your mouth. The climax, for example, features one macabre moment impacting with a horrifying idea rather than flashy CG. And yet the fights offer surprisingly inert staging and static camerawork. Sure, it's nice to actually see and follow what's going on in punch-ups that are clearer than the incomprehensible shaky-cam and whiplash-inducing editing that ruins all too many action scenes lately. But several of the fight scenes are essentially re-creations of the original, only without as much energy or even a sense of what's at stake. You get the feeling Wachowski just isn't interested in the banging and crashing any more.

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Rather, Resurrections seems to be interested in honing the original films' ideas instead of heading in bold new directions. By the end of the sequels (Reloaded and Revolutions) the series bogged down in ponderous philosophizing, but Resurrections is pleasingly light on its feet in comparison. You don't have to remember any of the sequels' tortuous lore, happily (although once again, anything in the shaved-head-and-chunky-knitwear real world drags on forever).

While there's quite a lot of standing around talking, the new faces bring a nimble zest to proceedings. In the absence of Laurence Fishburne, Morpheus is reincarnated with youthful swagger and eye-popping tailoring by the absurdly watchable (and under-used) Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Meanwhile, black-suited bad guy Agent Smith is reinvented as a blankly sociopathic/narcissistic tech bro type in the shape of Jonathan Groff. Neil Patrick Harris and Jessica Henwick are also fun to watch. And watch out for old face Lambert Wilson in perhaps the most hilariously socially distanced cameo the pandemic will throw up.

But it's in Keanu's other original co-star, Carrie-Anne Moss, that the film finds its focus. Trinity is now living the life of a wife and mother, a traditional feminine role chafing against her essential inner self ground down by society's rules and expectations. That's clearly a story about which Lana Wachowski had more to say (both Wachowski siblings are transgender women), and it also gives the film a heartbreaking dramatic punch. I found myself less interested in some technical explanation of how the new Matrix worked, instead aching for Neo and Trinity to figure it out together.

As the original trilogy expanded, Resurrections shrinks down tight to essentially a love story. The further it gets from that driving motivation, the middle of the film wobbles off course without a clear sense of direction, threat or urgency. So by the end you'll surely be rooting for Neo and Trinity, that perfect big screen pairing, to kick the Matrix's ass again.

And then maybe people will shut up about it. But probably not.

Mars and Earth likely formed from collisions of moon-sized rocks


By Charles Q. Choi 

Meteorites provided answers to a long-standing mystery about the origins of inner solar system planets.

An artist's depiction of an asteroid hitting Earth. (Image credit: NASA/Don Davis)

Earth and Mars likely arose from collisions between giant moon-size rocks instead of the clumping together of tiny pebbles over time, a new study found.

Previous research suggested there may be two primary ways in which rocky planets such as Earth are built. The classic model proposes that moon-to-Mars-size rocks dubbed planetary embryos once regularly smashed together in the inner solar system, eventually assembling into full-size worlds. A more recent alternative concept envisions tiny pebbles from the outer solar system drifting inward toward the sun, gradually accumulating to form rocky planets, a process thought essential to the formation of the cores of giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn.

To see which model potentially best explains how the solar system's rocky planets formed, scientists analyzed a total of about 0.77 ounces (22 grams) of material from 17 meteorites that originated from Mars. These rocks were blasted off the Red Planet by impacts of ancient asteroids, eventually finding their way to Earth.

The researchers examined how these samples varied in their isotopic composition. Isotopes are forms of the same chemical element that vary only in the number of neutrons in their nucleus. For instance, uranium-234 has 142 neutrons in its core while uranium-238 has146 neutrons.

The scientists compared levels of titanium, zirconium and molybdenum isotopes from Mars and from Earth with those of different groups of meteorites from the inner and outer solar system. They found the Earth and Martian rocks more closely resembled meteorites from the inner solar system, with only about 4% of their compositions resembling outer solar system material. The large number of Martian meteorites they analyzed helped overcome conflicting results seen in prior work that analyzed smaller numbers of these rocks.

All in all, "we resolve conflicting interpretations of previous studies and show that Earth and Mars were formed from material that largely originated in the inner solar system," study lead author Christoph Burkhardt, a planetary scientist at the University of Münster in Germany, told Space.com. "Only a few percent of the building blocks of these two planets originated beyond Jupiter's orbit. As such, we answer the fundamental question of what the Earth is made of, and this allows [us] to address the even more fundamental question of how Earth formed."

Although pebble accumulation might play a major part in rocky planet formation around other stars, one reason it likely only had a minor role in rocky planet formation in our solar system is Jupiter, which could have devoured much of the pebbles and dust from the outer solar system that normally would have drifted inward toward the sun.

"There is no doubt that Jupiter as the 'king of the planets' had an influence on what was going on in the inner solar system," Burkhardt said. "Without Jupiter, we may sit today on a super-Earth or mini-Neptune planet."

The new findings also suggest that both Earth and Mars likely incorporated material from a group of space rocks that are currently unknown to science, ones originating "most likely sunwards of Earth's orbit," Burkhardt said. "So the hunt is on. Finding a sample with the predicted characteristics among the ungrouped meteorites in our collections would be amazing."

The scientists detailed their findings online Dec. 22 in the journal Science Advances.

 Astronomers Stunned To Find 70 Mysterious ‘Rogue’ Planets In The 13th Constellation

Jamie Carter

Senior Contributor

This artist’s impression shows an example of a rogue planet detected in the Rho Ophiuchi region where ESO observations have recently helped uncover at least 70 of these objects. Rogue planets have masses comparable to those of the planets in our Solar System but do not orbit a star, instead roaming freely on their own.

 ESO/M. KORNMESSER

A team of astronomers have discovered at least 70 new “rogue” planets in our Milky Way galaxy. It’s the largest group of these “galactic nomads” found so far and could teach astronomers how these mysterious cosmic oddities came to be.

Rogue planets are planets that move through space without orbiting a star. Often described as free-floating, they’re isolated bodies that are planet-like, having possibly been ejected from a star system. Another theory is that rogue planets can form from the collapse of a gas cloud that is too small to lead to the formation of a star.

MORE FROM FORBESFour Homeless 'Rogue Planets' Of Earth-Mass Found Using A Long-Dead TelescopeBy Jamie Carter

“We did not know how many to expect and are excited to have found so many,” said Núria Miret-Roig, an astronomer at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux, France and the University of Vienna, Austria, and the first author of the new study published today in Nature Astronomy.

This image shows a small region of the sky in the direction of the Upper Scorpius constellation. It zooms in on a recently discovered rogue planet, meaning a planet that does not orbit a star but instead roams freely on its own. The rogue planet is the tiny, bright red dot at the very centre of the image. The image was created by combining data from the OmegaCam instrument on VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and from the VIRCAM instrument on the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), both located at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. Observations with these and other instruments helped the scientists tell the planets apart from stars, brown dwarfs and other objects in this region of the sky. Lurking far away from any star illuminating them, rogue planets would normally be impossible to image, but shortly after formation they emit a faint glow that can be detected by sensitive cameras on powerful telescopes.

 ESO/MIRET-ROIG ET AL.

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So how did they find them? Though dark and cold—and therefore impossible to find—Miret-Roig and her team used the fact that rogue planets are still hot enough to glow in the few million years after their formation. So they can be detected by sensitive cameras on large telescopes. “We measured the tiny motions, the colours and luminosities of tens of millions of sources in a large area of the sky,” said Miret-Roig. “These measurements allowed us to securely identify the faintest objects in this region, the rogue planets.”

All 70 new rogue planets have masses comparable to Jupiter’s in a star-forming region in the Upper Scorpius and Ophiuchus constellations. Ophiuchus is known as the 13th constellation because despite being a large constellation on the ecliptic—so therefore hosting the Sun just like Leo, Taurus and all the others—it was the victim of ancient Babylonians hatred of the number 13.

To find the rogue planets the team used data from 20 years and from a range of telescopes, including the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope in Chile.

This image shows the locations of 115 potential rogue planets recently discovered by a team of astronomers in the direction of the Upper Scorpius and Ophiuchus constellations, highlighted with red circles. Rogue planets have masses comparable to those of the planets in our Solar System, but do not orbit a star and instead roam freely on their own. The exact number of rogue planets found by the team is between 70 and 170, depending on the age assumed for the study region. This image was created assuming an intermediate age, resulting in a number of planet candidates in between the two extremes of the study.

 ESO/N. RISINGER (SKYSURVEY.ORG)

“We used tens of thousands of wide-field images from ESO facilities, corresponding to hundreds of hours of observations, and literally tens of terabytes of data,” said Hervé Bouy, an astronomer at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux, France, and project leader of the new research. The team also used data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite.

Could there be more rogue planets? “There could be several billions of these free-floating giant planets roaming freely in the Milky Way without a host star,” said Bouy. However, to find more scientists will require a bigger, even more sensitive telescope. Cue the ESO’s forthcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which is currently under construction in Chile. “These objects are extremely faint and little can be done to study them with current facilities,” said Bouy. “The ELT will be absolutely crucial to gathering more information about most of the rogue planets we have found.”

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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Jamie Carter

I'm an experienced science, technology and travel journalist and stargazer writing about exploring the night sky, solar and lunar eclipses, moon-gazing, astro-travel, astronomy and space exploration. I'm the editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com and the author of "A Stargazing Program for Beginners: A Pocket Field Guide" (Springer, 2015), as well as many eclipse-chasing guides. 

Despite scrapped IPO, Babbel sees fast growth for its language learning service

Frederic Lardinois@fredericl •December 22, 2021

 

Berlin-based language learning service Babbel was supposed to IPO on the Frankfurt stock exchange in late September. But only a few days before the initial listing the company pulled the plug with an eye on the developing Evergrande debt crisis that made the global stock markets very nervous. It has yet to announce a new date, but as Babbel CEO Arne Schepker told me, the company continues to monitor the markets.

Scrapping the IPO was clearly unexpected for everybody, though. “It was disappointing for the team that worked on it — worked hard and long — and we were doing really well,” Schepker said. “We had our books covered, we were on the right trajectory, met more than 100 super-interesting investors, got fantastic feedback — and then the Evergrande situation unraveled, which pulled the plug on most of the IPO markets. We were faced with a very conscious decision of do we launch ourselves into that market, yes or no?”

Schepker is confident that the company made the right decision, something the team was able to do because Babbel is well-funded and has plenty of cash in the bank, as well as other financing options to continue to invest in its products and make acquisitions as opportunities arise.

Image Credits: Babbel

One of the company’s fastest-growing businesses is its live classes, which augment the service’s app-based language learning tools. Launched earlier this year, Babbel Live saw a 300% increase in subscriptions and a 400% increase in revenue in the second half of 2021 compared to the first half. With tens of thousands of learners, Babbel Live now hosts 15,000 classes each month and Schepker tells me that for about 25% of these learners, the live platform is the first touchpoint for these users, while 75% get started with the app.

Babbel Live and the company’s B2B Babbel for Business services now account for 9% of the company’s revenue. And business overall is looking good, too, with billable sales in November surpassing $20 million, up 30% from 2020.

It helps, Schepker noted, that the company is able to recruit some of the best teachers, thanks to its reputation for a high-quality product. “We push the frontiers of innovation and we always tried to make the best of the human intelligence and the artificial intelligence. So we’re neither fully human nor fully tech and I think that’s what makes us very attractive for live tutoring classroom teachers,” he said.

Image Credits: Babbel

As for the company’s B2B side, Babbel signed up 5,000 new corporate learners in November and the company now works with more than 1,000 companies. It took Babbel a while to build up this business, which was only available in Germany for a long time and only recently expanded to Italy. The plan is to soon expand it to other European markets and then the U.S., too. Schepker noted that corporate language learning is about a third of the overall language learning market, so this represents quite a growth opportunity for the company.

Looking ahead, the Babbel team is specifically looking at how it can create more integrations between its different platforms, so that a teacher on Babbel Live can see what a student has learned in the app between classes, for example. Add to that Babbel’s podcasts, in-app games and other touchpoints and Babbel already offers quite a rich ecosystem of language learning tools. The question now is how it can bring all of those into a more cohesive platform.

“Users tend to stitch together their own ecosystem of learning methods, but I call that creative chaos because we never really learned how to do that — and it’s not integrated,” Schepker said. “So the different learning methods don’t get the benefit of knowing what Arne has just done on his app as Arne walks into a classroom. That’s the added value that we see in the ecosystem, both for the learner as well as for the teachers and for us as a language learning company: to make sure that we can actually get you further in your learning journey because we stitch together your ecosystem for you.”