A low-mass star with a large-mass planet.

A large planet orbiting a very low-mass star challenges theories of planet formation.

Planet heating prevents inward migration of planetary cores.

Planetary systems are born in the disks of gas, dust and rocky fragments that surround newly formed stars. Solid content assembles into ever-larger rocky fragments that eventually become planetary embryos. These then continue their growth by accreting leftover material in the disk. Concurrently, tidal effects in the disk cause a radial drift in the embryo orbits, a process known as migration. Fast inward migration is predicted by theory for embryos smaller than three to five Earth masses. With only inward migration, these embryos can only rarely become giant planets located at Earth's distance from the Sun and beyond, in contrast with observations. Here we report that asymmetries in the temperature rise associated with accreting infalling material produce a force (which gives rise to an effect that we call 'heating torque') that counteracts inward migration. This provides a channel for the formation of giant planets and also explains the strong planet-metallicity correlation found between the incidence of giant planets and the heavy-element abundance of the host stars.

Evaluation of fully automated assays for the detection of Rubella IgM and IgG antibodies by the Elecsys(®) immunoassay system.

Screening for acute rubella infection in pregnancy is an important element of antenatal care. This study compared the sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility of two new, fully automated Elecsys(®) Rubella IgM and IgG immunoassays designed for the Elecsys 2010, Modular Analytics E170, COBAS e-411 and COBAS e-601 and e602 analytical platforms, with current assays using serum from patients with primary rubella infections, vaccinated patients, patients with potentially cross-reacting infections and on routine samples in clinical laboratories in France, Germany and Italy. Both assays showed good within-run and within-laboratory precision. A sensitivity of 79.8-96.0% was demonstrated for Elecsys IgM in primary, early acute infection, consistent with existing assays. In samples obtained from routine antenatal screening, the Elecsys Rubella IgM assay revealed high specificity (98.7-99.0%). A significantly (p<0.0001) lower reactivity was demonstrated in samples from previously infected patients where acute rubella infection was excluded, and the incidence of false positives in patients with potentially cross-reacting infections was lower with Elecsys Rubella IgM compared with other. The Elecsys Rubella IgG assay exhibited a relative sensitivity of 99.9-100.0% and specificity of 97.4-100.0% in samples from routine antenatal screening. The Elecsys Rubella IgM and IgG assays allow convenient, rapid and reliable determination of anti-rubella antibodies. Sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility were comparable with existing assay systems. Assay results were available in approximately half the time required for currently employed methods and the assays are compatible with widely used analytical platforms.

Shallow water analogue of the standing accretion shock instability: experimental demonstration and a two-dimensional model.

Despite the sphericity of the collapsing stellar core, the birth conditions of neutron stars can be highly nonspherical due to a hydrodynamical instability of the shocked accretion flow. Here we report the first laboratory experiment of a shallow water analogue, based on the physics of hydraulic jumps. Both the experiment and its shallow water modeling demonstrate a robust linear instability and nonlinear properties of symmetry breaking, in a system which is one million times smaller and about one hundred times slower than its astrophysical analogue.