Galileo's Pendulum

BEER is not the solution to life’s problems, but it might help astronomers characterize new exoplanets. As you probably surmised, BEER isn’t the beverage: it’s an observational technique standing for BEaming, Ellipsoidal, and Reflection/emission modulation. (That wins the award for the most awkward acronym I’ve seen in some time. As Mary Roach would say, it’s…