In an area stretching from Africa to South America, Earth’s magnetic field is gradually weakening. This strange behaviour has geophysicists puzzled and is causing technical disturbances in satellites orbiting Earth. Scientists are using data from ESA’s Swarm constellation to improve our understanding of this area known as the ‘South Atlantic Anomaly.’ Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-05-swarm-probes-weakening-earth-magnetic.html…
Tag: Swarm
Why is Earth’s magnetic north pole drifting so rapidly?
The location of Earth’s north magnetic pole appears to be controlled from deep within Earth by 2 competing blobs in the magnetic field. One is under Canada, and the other is under Siberia. “The Siberian blob is winning,” according to scientists. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/magnetic-north-rapid-drift-blobs-flux…
Murder hornets? 5 questions answered about Asian giant hornets in North America
Are ‘murder hornets’ from Asia invading North America? An entomologist who lived among them in Japan explains what’s true about the predatory insects. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/what-are-asian-giant-hornets-dangerous…
Are We on the Cusp of a Metaverse, the Next Version of the Internet?
The Washington Post describes it as “the next internet.” Wikipedia defines it as “a collective virtual shared space…including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the Internet.” But it was Neal Stephenson who named it “the metaverse” in his 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. Are we closer to seeing it happen? The Washington Post reports:
In the past month,…
The Beehive: 1,000 stars in Cancer
On a dark night, look for it as a smudge of light, with 3 times the moon’s diameter. It’s really a wondrous cluster of stars called the Beehive, or M44. Source: https://earthsky.org/clusters-nebulae-galaxies/praesepe-beehive-cluster…
Turkey Deploys a ‘Swarm’ of Unmanned Combat Aircraft
Turkey deployed dozens of unmanned “drone” combat aircraft over Syria, calling the maneuver a new military milestone, reports Bloomberg: Turkey deployed swarms of killer drones to strike Russian-backed Syrian government forces, in what a senior official said was a military innovation that demonstrated Ankara’s technological prowess on the battlefield. The retaliation for the killing last week of 33 Turkish soldiers by…
Millions of desert locusts descend on Africa
A plague of locusts of biblical proportions has been devouring vast swathes of crops across east Africa. The apocalyptic swarm – the largest in 70 yea… Source: https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/334120/millions-of-desert-locusts-descend-on-africa…
Inside Apple’s iPhone Software Shakeup After Buggy iOS 13 Debut
Apple is overhauling how it tests software after a swarm of bugs marred the latest iPhone and iPad operating systems, Bloomberg reported Thursday. From the report: Software chief Craig Federighi and lieutenants including Stacey Lysik announced the changes at a recent internal “kickoff” meeting with the company’s software developers. The new approach calls for Apple’s development teams to ensure that test…
Composite image of SpaceX Starlink satellite swarm
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite project will eventually place an initial 12,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit to provide worldwide internet access. This image is from the second batch of satellites launched November 11. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/composite-spacex-starlink-satellite-swarm-nov-2019…
The Drone Wars Are Already Here
The skies of Syria, Yemen, and Libya swarm with armed and dangerous unmanned aerial vehicles. And the technology is spreading farther and farther afield. From a report: Three decades ago, drones were available to only the most technologically developed state military organizations. Today they’re everywhere, being used by weaker states and small military forces, as well as many non-state actors, including…