Your adjudicated newspaper for Riverside County
desert
STAR W E E K L Y
PRESORTED STANDARD US POSTAGE PAID
First-of-Its-Kind Roadway Project Utilizes 81,000 Recycled Tires see page 8
Desert Hot Springs, CA PERMIT NO 00005
Friday, August 2, 2019 Vol. 15 No. 60
Peace, Love & Happy Hour By Desert Star Staff INDIO, CA – Big & Rich have blazed an indelible trail in modern country music, not merely by breaking the rules, but by setting them on fire. Now the platinum-selling duo is bringing their Peace, Love & Happy Hour Tour featuring
Cowboy Troy to Fantasy Springs Resort Casino’s Special Events Center on Friday, October 25th at 8 p.m. Tickets ($89, $69, and $49) go on sale this Friday, August 2nd at the Fantasy Springs Box Office, via phone (800) 827-2946 and online at www.
FantasySpringsResort.com. For over a decade, Big Kenny Alphin and John Rich have captivated both country and rock fans with their sterling songcraft and high-energy live performances. Beginning with their 2004 debut album, the triple-platinum Horse of
By Desert Star Staff NASA has just discovered a potential “super-Earth” outside our solar system which is located comfortably inside its star’s habitable zone, meaning it could be ripe for human colonization. While monitoring the star named GJ 357, which sits just 31 light-years away in the constellation Hydra, the space agency’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) caught the star dimming every 3.9 days, indicating the presence of at least one transiting exoplanet. GJ 357 d
After some further solar sleuthing, the researchers came across a clutch of planets, the most promising of which, GJ 357 d, has conditions which indicate that it could sustain life. Given its position relative to its star, the NASA boffins estimate that it receives similar amounts of solar energy that Mars receives from our sun. So far, so good. “This is exciting, as this is humanity’s first nearby super-Earth that could harbor life,” gushed one of the lead astronomers, Lisa Kaltenegger. They are now hoping to discover that the planet
has a dense atmosphere that can trap enough heat to warm it and allow liquid water on its surface. Without an atmosphere, however, the planet likely has an equilibrium temperature of around -64 Fahrenheit (-53 Celsius), which would make it a frozen hellscape and likely nigh on impossible to colonize without expending vast resources – ice picks at the ready, everyone. Current estimates suggest the planet weighs at least 6.1 times Earth’s mass and
NASA discovers ‘first nearby super-Earth’
Continues on Page 2
a Different Color featuring the hit “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy,” the duo has evolved into one of music’s most successful partnerships. The song “Rollin’ (The Ballad of Big & Rich)” set the tone with the prophetic lines, “Country boys don’t rock and roll/ Yeah
the record man told me so.” Garnering numerous Grammy, ACM, CMA and CMT Music Award nominations, subsequent best-selling collections include Comin’ to Your City (No. 3 Country), Continues on Page 3
If found to have an atmosphere, GJ 357 d could be promising for future human colonization © NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith