“NASA’s twin Voyager probes keep making discoveries in interstellar space,” reports Space.com The Voyager mission has detected a new type of “electron burst,” which will provide insights into the mechanisms of flaring stars, a new study reports. The bursts occur when cosmic ray electrons — fast-moving particles from far beyond the solar system — are pushed by shock waves generated by…
Tag: probes
Voyager mission finds a new type of electron burst at the edge of our solar system
The Voyager probes left our Solar System years ago, yet even as they travel through interstellar space, they are still detecting bursts of cosmic rays from our Sun, more than 23 billion kilometres (14 billion miles) away. Source: https://www.livescience.com/voyager-finds-electron-burst-at-solar-system-edge.html
Facebook Antitrust Probes Will Target Acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram
A group of state attorneys general, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, is on track to file antitrust charges against Facebook in early December, according to a report Thursday from the Washington Post. CNET: The move comes as the US Federal Trade Commission is also reportedly finalizing its antitrust probe into the social media giant. State and federal investigators…
NASA re-establishes contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft
On October 29, NASA re-established contact with its Voyager 2 spacecraft, after the probe was left flying solo for 7 months while repairs were made to the radio antenna in Australia used to control it. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/nasa-reestablishes-contact-with-voyager2-spacecraft-oct2020…
Voyager Spacecraft Detect An Increase In the Density of Space Outside the Solar System
As Voyager 2 moves farther and farther from the Sun, the density of space is increasing. “It’s not the first time this density increase has been detected,” notes SciencAlert. “Voyager 1, which entered interstellar space in 2012, detected a similar density gradient at a separate location.” From the report: Voyager 2’s new data show that not only was Voyager 1’s detection…
Instagram’s Handling of Kids’ Data Is Now Being Probed In the EU
Facebook’s lead data regulator in Europe has opened another two probes into its business empire — both focused on how the Instagram platform processes children’s information. TechCrunch reports: The action by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), reported earlier by the Telegraph, comes more than a year after a U.S. data scientist reported concerns to Instagram that its platform was leaking the…
Japan To Join Forces With US, Europe in Regulating Big Tech Firms
Japan will join forces with the United States and Europe to take on any market abuses by the four Big Tech companies, the new head of its antitrust watchdog said on Monday, a sign Tokyo will join global efforts to regulate digital platform operators. From a report: Kazuyuki Furuya, chairman of Japan’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC), also said Tokyo could open…
Astrophysicist probes cosmic ‘dark matter detector’
A University of Colorado Boulder astrophysicist is searching the light coming from a distant, and extremely powerful celestial object, for what may be the most elusive substance in the universe: dark matter. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-09-astrophysicist-probes-cosmic-dark-detector.html…
Scientists reveal the power behind the curtain—with neutrons
In a potential step forward for imaging technology, scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Sandia National Laboratories have developed a way to use neutrons to detect electric fields in spaces that are unreachable by conventional probes. …
Has microbial life been found on Venus?
Is there microbial life in the atmosphere of Earth’s closest neighbor, Venus? An international team of astronomers has found tentative but highly compelling evidence. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/life-on-venus-phosphine-biosignatures…