In a tale blending high-stakes corporate boardroom drama with groundbreaking astronomical discoveries, OpenAI is weighing the introduction of special voting rights for its nonprofit board to fend off an unsolicited takeover bid by Elon Musk, while simultaneously, astronomers have mapped the layered, jet-stream-driven atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter-size exoplanet WASP-121b (aka Tylos). OpenAI’s proposed governance tweaks aim to ensure the nonprofit board can overrule investors like Microsoft and SoftBank and resist hostile offers, even as CEO Sam Altman dismisses Musk’s bid with playful bravado on social media. On the cosmic front, using data from the European Southern Observatory’s VLT and its advanced spectroscopic instrument ESPRESSO, researchers tracked distinct atmospheric layers—iron in the deep, sodium in the middle, and hydrogen at the top—revealing unprecedented climate behavior that challenges current weather models.

Key Points:

• OpenAI Governance Overhaul:
  • Considering new voting rights for the nonprofit board to secure control against external takeover bids.
  • Elon Musk and a consortium pitched a $97.4 billion bid, which was unanimously rejected by the board.
  • CEO Sam Altman emphasized that OpenAI is “not for sale,” countering Musk’s approach by humorously comparing potential acquisitions.
• Exoplanet Atmospheric Mapping:
  • Astronomers used ESO’s Very Large Telescope and the ESPRESSO instrument to study WASP-121b’s 3D atmospheric structure.
  • The observations revealed a jet stream around the equator and a separate flow transferring gas from the hot to the cold side.
  • Key chemical layers (iron, sodium, and hydrogen) provided insight into the planet’s complex weather dynamics.

Joke: Looks like the boardroom drama and exoplanet weather both have one thing in common—unexpected spins and twists that even the best navigators (or CEOs!) couldn’t predict!
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