KOI-126: a triply eclipsing hierarchical triple with two low-mass stars

The Kepler spacecraft has been monitoring the light from 150,000 stars in its primary quest to detect transiting exoplanets. Here, we report on the detection of an eclipsing stellar hierarchical triple, identified in the Kepler photometry. KOI-126 [A, (B, C)], is composed of a low-mass binary [masses M(B) = 0.2413 ± 0.0030 solar mass (M(⊙)), M(C) = 0.2127 ± 0.0026 M(⊙); radii R(B) = 0.2543 ± 0.0014 solar radius (R(⊙)), R(C) = 0.2318 ± 0.0013 R(⊙); orbital period P(1) = 1.76713 ± 0.00019 days] on an eccentric orbit about a third star (mass M(A) = 1.347 ± 0.032 M(⊙); radius R(A) = 2.0254 ± 0.0098 R(⊙); period of orbit around the low-mass binary P(2) = 33.9214 ± 0.0013 days; eccentricity of that orbit e(2) = 0.3043 ± 0.0024). The low-mass pair probe the poorly sampled fully convective stellar domain offering a crucial benchmark for theoretical stellar models.     

Nitrogen excretion in cockroaches: uric Acid is not a major product

Thin-layer chromatographic and enzymatic spectrophotometric analyses have failed to detect uric acid in fecal extracts from American cockroaches on specified diets. Uric acid appears in the excreta when it is a dietary constituent, although most of it is apparently absorbed and stored internally. Surprisingly, ammonia is a major excretory product.