Usually their nests are found in remote areas, often around the coast, resting on cliff edges and rocky outcrops. To see them would require specialist climbing gear and a long lens. But in Worcester, a pair have nested bang in the city centre - it is possible to clearly see the adults coming and going during the day and now the chicks have begun to hatch, one is often seen standing guard over the nest.
They have built their nest on St Andrew's spire, known locally as The Glover's Needle.
They found two planets that were close matches for Jupiter and Saturn orbiting a star about half the size of our Sun. Martin Dominik, from the St Andrews University, UK, said the finding suggested systems like our own could be much more common than we thought. And he told a major meeting that astronomers were on the brink of finding many more of them.
The St Andrews researcher said this planetary system, and others like it, could host terrestrial planets like Earth. It was just a matter of time before such worlds were detected, he explained. "We found a system with two planets that take the roles of Jupiter and Saturn in our Solar System. These two planets have a similar mass ratio and similar orbital radius and a similar orbital period.
"It looks like this may have formed in a similar way to our Solar System. And if this is the case, it looks like [our] Solar System cannot be unique in the Universe. There should be other similar systems out there which could host terrestrial planets."
About time!
Each year, on 23 March, the World Meteorological Organization, its 188 Members and the worldwide meteorological community celebrate World Meteorological Day. This Day commemorates the entry into force, on that date in 1950, of the WMO Convention creating the Organization. Subsequently, in 1951, WMO was designated a specialized agency of the United Nations System.This year, celebrations at the Secretariat will take place on 25 March.
