Could there be life on the saddest planet in the universe?
The idea of a rogue planet is a wild one . Thought of emotionally, its also a little lonely and a little sad. A planetary body that has presumably been ejected from its Solar System, on its own in space. Maybe rogue isnt the right word, as it implies the planet chose to go on its own path. They could just as easily be called rejected planets. Essentially, these planets dont have a sun to warm them. But they might not be totally dead. Under their frozen surfaces, the capacity for life might actually exist. The idea of life existing in the most unlikely of places is at the center of our lead story today by space writer Passant Rabie. Well, if they had oceans at one point, vents on the planet's surface under the water could be emitting radiation that could spark life, underwater, on a frozen-over planet with a sun. If you needed to feel today that your problems arent as huge as they seem, our lead story might be able to help get your mind right. Im Nick Lucchesi, editor-in-chief at Inverse. That story and more are in this edition of Inverse Daily. The Inverse mission is to share big ideas about science and innovation in an entertaining style and look at entertainment and culture with deeply curious methods. Its Friday, people! Like a rogue planet, you can go your own way. You know, the backpack you carry when the world ends. These are your essentials for the post-apocalyptic world that you can fit in a standard backpack. Take the anonymous survey here. Weve had more than 1,700 respondents so far! We will publish the results later this summer in a special guide. This is an adapted version of the Inverse Daily newsletter for July 9, 2021. Subscribe for free and earn rewards for reading every day in your inbox. Mark Stevenson/Stocktrek Images/Stocktrek Images/Getty Images  Rogue planets  NASA's Kepler discovers a group of free-floating planets without a host star that may have been ejected from their star system. Space writer Passant Rabie reports:  In a study published this week, astronomers used archival data from NASAs Kepler space telescope to discover a group of Earth-size rogue planets orbiting untethered to a home star in deep space. These rebellious planets may have been violently ejected from their star system, but they could still host life beneath their icy cold surfaces. Upcoming space missions could look at them and figure out what theyre like. Read the full story. Go deeper into the realm of planet science:  Fun fact: Ancient Wings is also the name of my power metal band. What insects did before dinosaurs  Scientists discovered an ancient fossil of the winged insect Theiatitan azari, which holds the key to the world's oldest known form of insect communication. Nature writer Tara Yarlagadda has the story:  Etched into ancient rock, scientists think theyve identified the oldest, and perhaps most unique, form of insect communication. They published their findings this week in the journal Nature. We have an insect with a very different 'tool' to communicate  and much older, study co-author Andr Nel, a professor at the National Museum of Natural History in France, tells Inverse. Its approximated to be 310 million years old. It lived during a time of mammal-like reptiles and before the dinosaurs. Read the full story. Go deeper:  Shutterstock  Its not easy being an indie  Amid heated discussion about indie developers and their relationship with Sony, our sources say the topic is more complicated than it seems. Gaming trends writer Christopher Groux has the story:  A startling claim from an indie dev rocked PlayStation nation last week. In a Twitter thread, Iain Garner laid bare the difficulties of working with PlayStation as an indie developer. Garner, founder of Neon Doctrine, didnt name names, but replies downthread and elsewhere on Twitter made it crystal clear which company he was talking about. Platform X gives developers no ability to manage their games, Garner accuses. In order to get promotion, you must jump through hoops, beg and plead for any level of promotion.  When Garner says get promotion, he means prominent placement on the PlayStation Store homepage or inclusion in high-profile discount sales. For a small studio, discoverability can be the vital difference between keeping the lights on or laying people off. Read the full story. More on the business of gaming:  The new BMW can put turn-by-turn directions from Apple Maps in CarPlay right in the instrument cluster and the head-up display. Jordan Golson/Inverse  Review: The 2021 BMW 540i  Transportation writer Jordan Golsons BMW 540i xDrive test unit came in a beautiful Alpine White with a Mocha Nappa Leather interior and stickered for $77,935. That's a lot of cheese, and, as always, whether it's worth it depends on whether you have $77,935 and want a BMW 5 Series. Heres a snippet of the review:  I've written many times that sedans are dead, and that's true at lower price points, but up in the luxury world, they're anything but. BMW is indeed shoveling truckloads of South Carolina-made X-whatever SUVs out the dealership door as fast as they can build them  but BMW still sold almost 27,000 5 Series cars last year, and it's for one simple reason: they're excellent. Open the door, and you immediately know you're not in some mid-tier sedan. The ($2,500) leather is soft and cosseting. It's obviously not Rolls-Royce caliber (which BMW owns, by the way), but it's some of the nicest you'll find on this side of $100 grand. Read the full story. More car reviews:  Tom Hanks marks a birthday today. Here is the actor with Kevin Bacon and Bill Paxton in zero gravity in a scene from the film Apollo 13 in 1995. Universal Pictures/Moviepix/Getty Images