continues

With his next film, Tom Cruise continues to exploit one of Hollywood’s most profitable legacies: his own

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‘Days of Thunder’ was not a blockbuster in 1990, nor did it please critics much. And still, it’s going to be next let Tom Cruise roll. Before ‘Top Gun 3’ or any other project on his agenda. It is not another whim of the star, it is a new episode in the recovery of a legacy that the actor knows is currently valued very highly in Hollywood: his own. Days of Thunder 2. After months actively and passively confirming that the film is underway, Paramount now has a director for the sequel: it will be Jonathan Levinestill negotiating the terms of his contract. Cruise returns to be Cole Trickle, the NASCAR driver he played 36 years ago, and produces alongside Jerry Bruckheimer, the film’s original producer. The studio is already treating the film as Cruise’s next production, ahead of ‘Top Gun 3’, which Paramount has already announced is in development, and ahead of ‘Broadsword’, the project he is preparing with Christopher McQuarrie. A relative failure. ‘Days of Thunder’ was born in its day as an attempt to repeat the formula of ‘Top Gun’: same director, Tony Scott, same producers, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, same protagonist, four years after the premiere of that one. And although, as we say, he reunited Cruise with the director of his previous success, it did not work so overwhelmingly: ‘Top Gun’ grossed $357 million worldwide. with a budget of just 15; ‘Days of Thunder’ stood at 157 million compared to a disbursement of 60. Legacy is what matters. But Cruise treats both films the same: as his property, to be reactivated when he decides. When Paramount proposed turning ‘Days of Thunder’ into a series for Paramount+ years ago, it was the actor himself who rejected the idea. I didn’t want a second-rate spin-off. He wanted to repeat with this film the same move that worked with ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, about which we already explained how he turned nostalgia into Hollywood’s most profitable mechanism, compared to the forced recycling of other studios. Comedy on wheels. Levine’s choice is also unusual. Until now he has directed comedies like ‘Memories of a Teenage Zombie’ or modest dramas like ’50/50′, never an action blockbuster on this scale, and Paramount comes to him for an indirect reason. Apparently, test screenings of ‘Mr. Irrelevant: The John Tuggle Story’, a sports drama with David Corenswet that opens next Christmas, have been exceptionally good. That result, and not a previous history with cars or chases, is what has boosted the studio’s confidence in Levine. The definitive boost. The final push came, almost accidentally, from another motorized debut. In June 2025, while promoting ‘F1’, the film with Brad Pitt that Bruckheimer also produced, the producer confirmed that conversations with Cruise were active: “there are always new technologies, new ways of doing things and showing them.” weeks later it was more direct: confirmed that Cruise wants to film the sequel and that the two were still shaping the script. The actor himself confirmed it that same month. 36 years later. Of course, ‘Days of Thunder’ has severe problems recovering its original cast team, and it cannot be solved emotionally, as happened with the absence of Val Kilmer in ‘Maverick’. Thirty-six years later, Tony Scott and Robert Duvall have passed away (the absence, of course, will be regrettable). And Nicole Kidman, whom Cruise met during that filming and with whom he was married for eleven years, has not worked with her ex-husband since the divorce, and her return should be considered impossible. But first. Before Cruise gets back into a race car, ‘Digger’ will hit theaters on October 2: a black comedy by Alejandro González Iñárritu that marks Cruise’s return to Warner Bros., a decade after ‘Edge of Tomorrow’. There Cruise is not an action hero, but the most powerful man in the world, facing a catastrophe that he himself caused. The other side of the strategy: in this way Cruise reactivates his catalog with Bruckheimer, but also tries a different register with Iñárritu. Cruise has something for everyone. In Xataka | Being a close friend of Tom Cruise has a special bonus: exclusive viewing of a six-hour film masterclass

Internxt continues with its active star promo

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Although it sounds a bit like science fiction, quantum computing is close to being a large-scale reality. But, how does that affect us? These types of computers, among many other things, are capable of deciphering the encryption systems that are most used today. For this reason, there are already several companies preparing to face this new scenario and one of them is Internxtcloud storage service which has post-quantum encryption. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A storage service ready for the future The quantum computing It is a challenge for current and future cybersecurity. All cloud services use algorithms and encryption systems to protect your data that current computers are not capable of solving given their complexity. That’s where quantum computers come in, working in a radically different way. and yes they are capable of breaking these current systems. In other words: the security systems that are used right now could no longer be secure in the future. At this point, we may think that since quantum computers are not a reality yet, we don’t have to worry about them. This is not entirely true, since someone can intercept our data and store it for the future. These may not be accessible today by the encryption systems that are being used right now, but they would be accessible with quantum computing. It is not crazy that our data, even protected by secure algorithms, is stored for many years. There are certain types of information that may not be a problem, but others, such as identification documents or photographs, may be. In that sense, it is worth protecting our data from current threats, but also of the future. Precisely for this reason, Internxt has its cloud storage prepared to avoid these risks. This company has incorporated into its service the Kyber-512 and AES-256 algorithmsdesigned specifically to address the future capabilities of quantum computers. This way, even if our data ends up stored somewhere, it cannot be decrypted either. To this, we must add that Internxt uses a zero-knowledge architecture. This means that our data They are encrypted before being uploaded to the cloud and not when they reach it.so even if someone intercepts them along the way, they will already be encrypted. Furthermore, since it is open source, anyone can audit the service to verify that there is no type of backdoor to access our data. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links If you are looking for a new cloud service, Internxt could be a great fit for you, especially if we take into account that, using the ‘XATAKA’ code, Their plans are 90% off. The cheapest plan costs 190 euros and we will have service for life. And not just cloud storage: also antivirus and VPN. Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Internxt In Xataka | Best VPNs 2026: guide with the 17 best services to protect your online privacy In Xataka | Google Drive alternatives: the best cloud storage services for your files

“Cinema is vital and essential, and continues to transform”

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Matt Damon left the filming of ‘The Odyssey‘ with the feeling of having done something that will no longer be repeated. Christopher Nolan, its director, believes that this pessimism is unfounded. And in fact, the easiest way to refute it is with the box office data of the last few weeks. Significantly, the most classic and traditional of today’s directors are not afraid of AI. What Matt Damon said. While promoting the film, Damon said that I had a feeling of nostalgia while filming itbecause it looked like the movies from when he started working, and he admitted that he knew that that type of cinema is ending. He went so far as to say that this was his last chance to make a film like this, and that he does not believe that the industry will have the resources to film this way for much longer. Nolan’s response. Nolan does not share that diagnosis, and he began to comment on the controversial topic of artificial intelligence. In an interviewthe director noted that he has never seen “a technology so successfully adopted by Wall Street, investors and technology companies, and at the same time so rejected by the public.” He aimed squarely at the younger generation: it was they, he said, who coined the term “AI slop” to describe the content generated by AI that has flooded the networks, and those who “show more disdain” towards everything related to this technology. No, but. Nolan doesn’t reject AI entirely. He believes it can provide useful tools for working with images, but states that “the idea that AI will completely replace humans and their creativity is, in my opinion, nonsense.” Your opinionbasically, is that the creativity of cinema is stronger: “Cinema is vital and essential, and it continues to transform.” We are with the people. To justify his words, Nolan defends the attitude of younger viewers and cites, for example, two hits of the season as proof that the twenty-year-old public has not lost interest in films made with real cameras and locations: ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession’. That is to say, they are indisputable box office hits that, in his opinion, dismantle another idea that has bothered him for a long time, that of young audiences no longer having the attention span for a three-hour epic film. Nolan defended that the films that succeed among that generation are mysterious and reflective, and even compared some parts of ‘Backrooms’ with the most enigmatic cinema of David Lynch. The ‘Oppenheimer’ precedent. This isn’t the first time Nolan has brought AI into the public conversation. Already in 2023with the premiere of ‘Oppenheimer’, said that he saw very strong parallels between the physicist’s calls for nuclear containment and the warnings of AI experts who asked to slow the development of the technology, citing among them Geoffrey Hinton, the researcher who left Google to speak more freely about the existential risk posed by advanced AI. Already then he insisted that AI can end up being a powerful tool, but that the responsibility cannot fall solely on technology. Header | HellaCinema In Xataka | Nolan has a reputation for being one of the directors who takes the most care of his films. But the IMAX format of ‘The Odyssey’ raises doubts

Antena 3 does not have Pasapalabra’s El Rosco, but it continues to destroy its substitute. Telecinco wants to fix it in court

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Antena 3 has been leading the audience in Spain for five consecutive seasons, and a good part of that dominance was built letter by letter, in the Rosco of ‘Pasapalabra’. In May, a court took away the iconic final test of his Access talisman. And three weeks after the channel replaced it with a very similar test, Mediaset intends to demonstrate that the change is not legal either. That’s why, will sue Atresmedia by AlaZ, the new final test of ‘Pasapalabra’. The judicial decision. Last May 21the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed that the Rosco format belongs to MC&F Broadcasting Production and Distribution, and not to ITV Studios or Atresmedia. The ruling ratified a previous ruling from the Provincial Court of Barcelona in 2022 and forced Antena 3 to stop broadcasting that specific test, although the rest of ‘Pasapalabra’ could continue on the air. It is a legal dispute that comes from afar. ‘Pasapalabra’ was born in 1996 as an adaptation of the British format ‘The Alphabet Game’, from ITV, although the final test grew on its own until it became an element with its own identity. In 2019, Telecinco already lost a similar legal battle against ITV for the global rights to the program and had to withdraw it from its schedule: ITV and MC&F have licensed it separately, and that has generated problems. Atresmedia recovered the competition in May 2020, but the judicial shadow over Rosco was never completely cleared, until this year’s ruling. The substitution. On June 19, Antena 3 replaced El Rosco with AlaZ, an adaptation of the Swiss contest ‘DallAZetA’. Mediaset, meanwhile, with the exploitation rights of Rosco finally under its belt, has begun to prepare its own contest built on that test, predictably for Telecinco. Its own ‘Pasapalabra’… which cannot be called ‘Pasapalabra’ or imitate the rest of the tests. The problem is that in Mediaset’s opinion, Antena 3 continues to culminate ‘Pasapalabra’ with a Rosco that cannot be Rosco. The resemblance. The company supports its claim on the Supreme’s own definition of Rosco: two or more contestants compete against the clock answering questions whose answers follow alphabetical order. Under this criterion, Mediaset maintains that AlaZ retains almost all the essential elements of the Rosco: two contestants, a tour of the 25 letters of the alphabet, accumulated time from previous tests during the program, a cumulative jackpot and visual signaling of successes, errors and pending questions almost identical to that of the Rosco, only in a line instead of a circle. The differences. However, there are also details that distinguish both tests: The AlaZ system is more closed and strategic and the contestant can no longer give probable answers, but must guess an exact word whose length is revealed by dashes, in the style of ‘The Hanged Man’. The stopwatch also changes, from the usual 85 seconds in the Rosco to 110, and a penalty is introduced for receiving clues that does not exist in the Rosco. Of course, for Mediaset none of these adjustments alter the essentials of the game. The company states that “only minor differences have been introduced to make something substantially the same.” The comparison it offers contrasts these changes with the real differences of the original Swiss format, where a single contestant competes, there is no accumulated jackpot and each program is independent of the previous one. For MC&F and Mediaset, AlaZ is more similar to Rosco than the Swiss contest from which Atresmedia bought the license. The hearings. Since Atresmedia recovered ‘Pasapalabra’ in May 2020, the chain went from an average share of 11.7% in 2019 to around 13.9% in the following years, consolidating a leadership which has been maintained for five consecutive seasons. The most important thing is the drag effect that ‘Pasapalabra’ generates on the network’s news programs and ‘El Hormiguero’. And things have not changed with the loss of Rosco. The premiere of AlaZ, on June 19, was already a hit: the program signed 21.9% of share and 1.6 million viewers on average, with the final test shooting up to a 28.3% share in its closing minute. The new mechanics improved the average that Rosco had been recording that same season by three points. The first full week confirmed the trend, averaging 17.1% share. And that sometimes competes with the World Cup, a sporting event that has devoured the Telecinco audiences (although in July, the only weak days for Antena 3 have coincided with free-to-air World Cup matches). Without that competition, the program continues to exceed the 18% quota, a level similar to what it already had. Antena 3 has no one to complain, with or without Rosco. In Xataka | Telecinco has ‘El Rosco’ but does not have ‘Pasapalabra’. Antena 3 has ‘Pasapalabra’ but does not have ‘El Rosco’

At the age of 15, he built an ocean generator with a PVC pipe and 10 euros. A decade later, it continues to spark interest in the sector

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It was 2015 when a high school student from Boca Raton, Florida, presented to a jury of scientists a prototype built with parts that anyone could find in a hardware store. Your project He was trying to solve how to generate electricity where power lines do not reach, taking advantage of the movement of the sea. There was no laboratory or company behind it, just 12 dollars in budget (about 10 euros at the current exchange rate). Interestingly, his idea is the principle on which an entire emerging marine energy industry is built. Who is he and what did he do?. Hannah Herbst was 15 years old when she devised BEACON (Bringing Electricity Access to Countries through Ocean Energy), a probe capable of transforming the movement of ocean currents into electricity. The device earned him the title of “America’s Top Young Scientist” and $25,000 in the 2015 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, after competing against eight other finalists at the 3M innovation center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. How it all started. As Herbst shared at the time, she maintained contact by postal mail with a nine-year-old girl in Ethiopia, who lived with almost no access to electricity. “I can’t even imagine a day without light,” came to declare Herbst herself told Business Insider when recalling their conversations. She wanted to build something that could bring energy to communities like her friend’s, without depending on expensive infrastructure or conventional electrical grids. This is how your invention works. The mechanism is easy to explain precisely because its beauty lies in its simplicity. A 3D-printed propeller is placed on one end of the device; When the water current makes it rotate, a system of pulleys transmits that movement to a Pelton wheel, a type of hydraulic turbine widely used in engineering, connected to a generator. All housed inside a PVC tube. This means that clean and continuous electricity can be obtained, without depending on the sun or the wind. Herbst tested the prototype on the Intracoastal Waterway of Boca Raton, where he managed to light LED bulbs. It is not that Herbst suddenly provided a new physical principle, but it is very interesting how his proposal took that physical principle to a much smaller and cheaper scale. It didn’t stop at a school fair model. With the help of Jeffrey Emslander, a 3M scientist who served as a mentor during the summer before the contest, Herbst wanted to take his idea to a larger scale version. According to picked up Business Insider’s calculations suggested that the expanded design could generate enough electricity to charge three car batteries in less than an hour, enough energy to power water desalination pumps, blood centrifuges in rural clinics, or coastal navigation beacons. Why does it matter? More than ten years later, this approach (small, autonomous and cheap devices for areas where installing a conventional electrical network does not pay off) is exactly the direction that the marine energy industry is taking. The United States Department of Energy estimates that the technical resource available in US waters equals approximately 57% of all the country’s current electricity generation, according to data from its Hydropower and Hydrokinetic Office, although it warns that the technology is still in an early stage of development. Between the lines. Turbine technology for marine currents already existed and was being researched on an industrial scale long before Herbst put it into practice. Although what is striking is that the direction in which the sector is now moving, with smaller, modular devices designed for areas without an electrical grid, instead of gigantic and centralized turbines, coincides with the idea that that teenager intuitively applied in her garage. In this sense, several companies already operate under this same approach, although on a very different scale. ORPC (Ocean Renewable Power Company) has deployed a hydrokinetic device in Igiugig, Alaska, since 2019 to supply that remote community, and is preparing new projects in rivers in Louisiana, Canada and France. Ocean Motion Technologies develops small wave generators controlled by artificial intelligence to power ocean sensors. and Hydrokinetic Energy Corp. works in turbines that take advantage of the Gulf of Mexico current. On the other hand, it should be noted that Herbst has never intended to patent his invention or keep it exclusive. “When I finish developing it, I’m going to release it openly… everyone in the world will be able to have access to the bill of materials and the data that I got, everything necessary to make this device,” explained Herbst to Fast Company magazine in 2015. And now what. Herbst has continued to broaden his horizons ever since. He trained in information systems at Florida Atlantic University, years later developed an antibacterial bandage inspired by shark skin and, now in the field of medical technology, created AutoTQan automatic tourniquet designed to save lives in severe bleeding situations. In fact, she is currently listed as founder and CEO of this medical initiative. Cover image | Medill News Service In Xataka | Europe has found an energy vein for the next decade: North Africa

Schwarzenegger continues training every day at 78 years old and the fascinating thing is that he is right

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At 78 years old, the seven-time Mr. Olympia and the most famous cyborg in the history of cinema continues to faithfully attend his appointment at the gym, as Schwarzenegger acknowledges in an entry on his personal blogwhere he explains that even on days when he has less energy he goes to exercise, something that sums up pretty well with the phrase: “No matter the pain, no matter the weight, every day I achieve a victory.” It’s a reality. His mentality, forged in the golden age of bodybuilding, might seem like the eccentricity of a Hollywood star who refuses to age. However, behind Schwarzenegger’s weights and pulley machines lies one of the most robust physiological truths of modern medicine: strength training starting at age 70 and 80 is not an aesthetic whim, It is a medical necessity. Falling into the stereotype that sport is for young people who want to show off having a good body on the beach is real nonsense, because playing sport literally becomes the next prescription for all the benefits it entails. And logically being more or less old here does not at all condition entry to a gym, as science recognizes us. Inactivity weighs more. To reach old age in better health, you don’t have to invest a lot of money in super expensive supplements or creams to keep your skin firm. And there is a widespread belief that the loss of functional capacity and weakness are inevitable consequences of getting older, but here the National Institute on Aging from the United States is blunt about it: in the vast majority of cases, physical inactivity weighs much more than biological age itself in this deterioration. One of the great silent enemies of middle age is sarcopenia, which is the gradual loss of muscle mass and strength, and which literally correlates with both quality and life expectancy. And to correct it, the only treatment we have at hand is to do strength training adapted to each person profile, directly improving our ability to perform such everyday tasks as getting up from a chair, walking to the supermarket or carrying shopping bags. It’s never too late. Another of the great myths that we also have on the table is that you are too old to start exercising, but here the scientific literature reminds us that it is false, since starting late is still (very much) worth it. Here, a study that grouped 121 randomized trials with 6,700 participants showed that progressive strength training improves muscle strength and functional capacity in older people. This resulted in an improvement in autonomy by significantly improving their walking speed and their ability to climb stairs autonomously. Besides this, a recent systematic review of the Polytechnic University of Madrid on training in older people reported that traditional strength training can achieve improvements in knee extension strength of up to 46%. That percentage, in clinical practice, is the difference between needing a walker or walking on your own. Beyond the muscle. Strength work is also important for bone formation and combating osteoporosis by reducing several cardiometabolic risk factors. Besides, the Heart Foundation points out that strength work, added to balance and mobility training, is vital to protect against falls. It is not something minor, since in people over 70 years of age a fall is not an accident, but rather it is one of the most serious clinical problems that can drastically reduce life expectancy. Added to all this is that exercise has been shown to help regulate sleep, improve mood (reducing stress and anxiety) and even protect cognitive function. Adapted. There is no need to try to emulate Schwarzenegger’s youth records to obtain these benefits, but current medical guidelines agree on a minimum effective dose that is very affordable for almost everyone. In this case, for a person over 70 years old, a reasonable guideline supported by evidence is to train strength at least 2 days per week. But here you should always adapt the exercise to each person and start with a gentle exercise and gradually increase it. Although you don’t just have to be with the dumbbell in your hand, it should be combined with balance routines, joint mobility and some aerobic work. Images | Wikipedia Victor Freitas In Xataka | We have been debating for years whether it is better to go to the gym in the morning or in the afternoon. Physiology finally has the answer

Spain continues refining oil and, once again, is once again Europe’s energy lifeline

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The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused panic in Asia and set off all the alarms in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Energy Agency (IEA). Faced with this global shortage, the Spanish system has done its homework. According to Agency EFEour country’s refineries have made their operations more flexible to maximize the production of petroleum derivatives, backed by a supply of crude oil that, for now, remains secure. Gonzalo Escribano, principal researcher at the Elcano Royal Institute, explains in statements to EFE that Spain has “specialized and better adapted refineries” than most of its neighbors. The contrast is blatant: Italy or Germany made the strategic mistake of closing 20% ​​of their refining capacity in recent years, outsourcing production to the Persian Gulf or to chinese refineries. Today, that decision is taking a historic toll on them. The real crisis is in the derivatives. It is easy to look out the window and think that the energy apocalypse has not arrived because there is still fuel at the gas stations. But it is a logistical mirage, maritime supply lines they move at the speed of a bicycle by the sheer inertia of the gigantic supertankers (VLCC) that were already sailing before the closure. The jam of more than 800 ships in the Gulf has already erased hundreds of millions of barrels from the market, and the real problem facing the world is not the lack of crude oil, but of already processed products. The first sector to suffocate has been aviation, which acts like the canary in the mine. global airlines They are canceling thousands of flights in the face of kerosene that has soared above 170 euros per barrel. At this point, the Spanish Fuel Industry Association (ACIE) corroborates EFE that the current bottleneck is in distillates such as diesel and kerosene. The Spanish lifeguard. By keeping its refineries at maximum performance, our country not only covers its demand, but also establishes itself as a logistics node capable of helping its neighbors. The contrast is abysmal: while the United Kingdom is forced to import 80% of the kerosene that its planes burn, Spain is capable of producing 80% of what it consumes. This not only protects the internal market from shortages, but also positions the peninsula to export the surplus to a thirsty Europe. In a scenario where the barrel maintains a “war premium” that inflates prices, having the final product already processed makes the Spanish plants the great emergency supplier. Those countries that decided to outsource their production of derivatives to Asia today depend on Spanish capacity so that their carriers and airlines do not remain grounded. The strategic “bunker”: the ace up CORES’ sleeve. How is it possible for Spain to hold its own if it imports practically 100% of the crude oil it consumes? The answer lies in our emergency reserves. Spain counts with an autonomy of about 105 dayswell above the 92 required by international law, managed through a mixed system between the industry and the Strategic Reserves Corporation (CORES). But the real “trick” of this bunker is not the quantity, but the quality: more than half (54.4%) of CORES’ reserves are already refined diesel fuel. Even if Saudi Arabia manages to bypass the Hormuz blockade by sending crude oil through its pipelines to the Red Sea, Europe has a serious problem if it does not have enough factories to distill it. By having the refining duties done in advance, the Spanish tanks buy the country more than three months of logistical peace to prevent the trucks from stopping. There is another safe passage: the “green shield” exception. Added to this fossil shielding is the electrical part, a front where Spain plays with a structural advantage. More than 60% of our generation mix It is already renewable, supported by massive solar and wind deployment and a solid hydraulic cushion. In the European electricity system—where the most expensive technology, usually gas, dictates the final price of all electricity—this green park acts as a retaining wall. During the central hours of the day, the massive injection of clean energy manages to sink wholesale market prices, reaching zero or even negative values. This protects us from the brutal gas increases that are suffocating bills in Germany or Italy. In practice, it allows the national industry to maintain a vital respite and a huge competitive advantage during sunny hours, cushioning an economic blow that is devastating manufacturers in the rest of the continent. A life preserver that floats, but is not immune. Spain has become a fortunate energy island, but not by chance. It is the result of not having succumbed to the temptation to dismantle its hydrocarbon infrastructure while, in parallel, investing massively in the transition towards sun and wind. However, it would be a mistake to become complacent. The life jacket floats, but the sea is rougher than ever. Fatih Birol, director of the IEA, has warned that this crisis exceeds those of 1973, 1979 and 2022 combined. And our country is not without cracks: we still lack massive batteries to store our renewable energy (which makes us vulnerable to gas every time it gets dark) and our external dependence on crude oil remains almost absolute. We have gained precious time, but the hyper-connected economy of the 21st century reminds us that when the world slows down, no one is completely unscathed. Image | Gregorio Puga Bailón Xataka | First it was the automotive industry, now Europe is going to lose another of its star industries to China

We thought that Voyager 1 had already given everything it could. NASA continues to turn off parts to keep it alive

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to some 25,000 million kilometers from Earth, Voyager 1 continues to send us data from interstellar space, Farther than any other ship built by humanity. The probe was launched in 1977 and, almost half a century later, it remains operational with an increasingly delicate condition: to keep it alive, the mission team is shutting down parts of the ship itself. That is exactly what has just happened with one of its scientific instruments, in a maneuver that reveals the delicate moment the mission is going through. The maneuver. On April 17, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California they sent the order to turn off the experiment Low-energy Charged Particlesbetter known as LECP. It is an instrument dedicated to measuring low-energy charged particles, including ions, electrons and cosmic rays from both our solar system and the galaxy. The decision was not improvised. According to NASA, this instrument was next in the order agreed upon years ago by the scientific and engineering teams to cut consumption without terminating the mission. There are no solar panels. To understand why NASA has reached this point, we have to look at how Voyager 1 is powered. The probe does not work with solar panels, but with a radioisotope thermoelectric generator that converts the heat generated by the decay of plutonium into electricity. This system has allowed the mission to be sustained for decades, but its capacity is not infinite. According to NASA, both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 They lose about 4 watts of power per yeara small loss on paper, but decisive when you have been managing each watt with extreme care for almost half a century. The scare that accelerated the decision. Although the shutdown of the LECP was part of a previously defined roadmap, there was a recent episode that forced the team to move more carefully. During a routine turn maneuver on February 27, Voyager 1’s power levels dropped unexpectedly. The US agency explains that any additional descent could activate the ship’s undervoltage protection system, designed to disconnect components on its own and protect it. A calculated “pruning”. The shutdown sequence was decided a long time ago, in joint conversations between those who design the scientific part of the mission and those who technically keep it alive. Of the 10 instruments each Voyager had, seven have already been turned off. In addition, the LECP will not be completely disconnected: the small motor that allows the sensor to rotate to scan in all directions will remain on, because it barely consumes 0.5 watts and keeps a remote option open to reactivate it later. The plan that comes now. With this shutdown, NASA does not consider the issue closed, but rather gains time to attempt a deeper intervention. According to the agency, switching off the LECP should give Voyager 1 about a year of respite. During that time, engineers want to complete a more ambitious energy adjustment for the two probes, dubbed “big Bang“The idea is to change several energy-consuming devices at once, turning off some and replacing others with lower consumption alternatives, to conserve the necessary heat and continue operating scientific instruments for as long as possible. When will the maneuver be attempted?. NASA will first test this setting on Voyager 2, which is closer to Earth and has slightly more power. The tests are planned for May and June 2026 and, if they go well, the team will try to apply the same maneuver on Voyager 1 no earlier than July. Images | POT In Xataka | The paradox of artificial gravity: Einstein told us how to do it, engineering tells us it is almost impossible

How the TUR rate continues to be the great refuge for consumers

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In a macroeconomic context where the word “inflation” continues to make headlines and the Third Gulf War threatens energy stability, Spanish households receive an unexpected respite. Starting this Wednesday, April 1, 2026, the Last Resort Rate (TUR) for natural gas will experience a drastic reduction that will lower the bill for more than three million families. The long-awaited descent. The individual rate without taxes will decrease on average by 16.6% regarding prices set last January 1. This fall consolidates the regulated tariff not only as the most economical option on the market, but as the great protective shield against the energy crisis for domestic economies. The good news isn’t just for individual households, however. Homeowner communities and energy service companies will also notice the relief. The neighborhood TUR will register cuts in its variable term that will range between 10.8% and 16.7%, depending on the consumption segment. All this is supported by the Official State Gazette (BOE). In its resolution of March 27, 2026, the General Directorate of Energy Policy and Mines certifies the new prices. Thus, the monthly fixed term is 3.93 euros for TUR 1 (only cooking and hot water) and 8.11 euros for TUR 2 (which includes heating), with variable terms of 3.82 and 3.61 cents per kilowatt hour, respectively. So how does it affect my pocketbook? To translate it into real euros, we have the analysis of expert platforms that have analyzed the official data. According to Sergio Soto, energy expert Roamsfor an average home in Spain with gas heating (the usual TUR 2) and a consumption of about 660 kWh per month, the approximate cost will plummet to 37 euros per month. “The new revision represents a saving of about 7.16 euros per month for an average household,” explains Soto. To put it in perspective, this same receipt was around 46 euros at the end of 2025 and 44 euros in the first quarter of 2026. For their part, the simulations developed by the experts of Papernest They allow us to see the impact depending on the type of family: Households with low consumption (up to 3,000 kWh/year): They will go from paying about 18.23 euros in January to 15.11 euros in April (a saving of more than 3 euros per month). Households with average consumption (about 9,000 kWh/year): They will see their bill fall from 48.32 euros to 39.54 euros per month (almost 9 euros in savings). Households with high consumption (about 20,000 kWh/year): The drop is notable, going from 101.40 euros to 82.43 euros (almost 19 euros of monthly respite). The small print. That gas fell by 16% while the price of a barrel of Brent has risen by 4% and the euro has appreciated slightly against the dollar seems like a magic trick, but it responds to three very specific technical and political factors: The “lag effect” of the market: Sergio Soto details that the regulated rate is reviewed quarterly and is based on an average of the gas costs in the wholesale markets of the previous months. In other words, the TUR does not reflect today’s volatility, but yesterday’s calm. This system acts as a buffer, allowing consumers to now benefit from gas that was purchased at a good price before the war. The end of winter: The TUR’s own methodology has an ace up its sleeve in April since the seasonal gas component disappears. During the winter, the calculation includes a surcharge because demand skyrockets. When spring arrives, that factor is eliminated, and the price begins to depend exclusively on the “base gas.” This simple mathematical adjustment makes the raw material cheaper by 16%. The real hero. As the study of Papernesta household can save almost more due to tax decisions than by lowering the gas itself. Royal Decree-Law 7/2026 extends extraordinary conditions fundamentals: VAT at 10%: It will be valid until June 30, 2026. This means that if we had the usual VAT of 21%, the reduction for an average customer would not be 16.2%, but a discreet 7.8%. (Or as they calculate in Roamsthe average bill would not be 37 euros, but 40.50 euros). Hydrocarbon tax: It remains at the legal minimum allowed (€0.00108/kWh). The zero-cost canon: The BOE expressly collects that a storage fee of zero euros is applied for reservations that exceed 20 days of consumption. This fee at zero cost will be subsidized by the state with 45 million euros, directly impacting downwards the variable term that we all pay. A real descent, but with spring nuances. The data is resounding, the official documents support them and the analysts agree: the regulated gas rate has suffered a spectacular drop. However, you have to apply a dose of realism when looking at the mailbox at the end of the month. As they conclude from Papernestthis reduction comes into effect on April 1, just when the Spanish begin to turn off their radiators. This means that the gas drop comes when it is least consumed. In the short term, the real day-to-day savings will be less noticeable because, simply, we will use many fewer kilowatts than in January or February. However, the medium-term impact is undeniable. Understanding our rate, monitoring our consumption and being attentive to the expiration dates of tax reductions (like that June 30 for VAT) is vital for the financial health of the household. Although the international context continues to hang in the balance, the conclusion is unanimous: today, the regulated market (TUR) continues to be the safest and most profitable refuge to light the stove and heat the water in Spain. Image | Photo by Henry Kobutra on Unsplash Xataka | Until now, every bus in Spain belonged to its father and mother: the Government wants them to be more like the AVE

It continues orbiting and was mistaken for an asteroid

by

It’s not every day we see a car end up in space, but that’s exactly what happened in February 2018. with the first launch of the Falcon Heavy. On board was a Tesla Roadster and a mannequin nicknamed Starman, conceived as a test load for the mission. What is striking is that this was not a simple one-time experiment: over the years, this object has continued its trajectory around the Sun and has once again captured attention for reasons that go beyond the initial spectacle. What SpaceX sent into space that day was not just a car floating aimlessly, but a technical set designed to validate the behavior of the aforementioned rocket. The mission included the upper stage, the vehicle itself and the Starman dummy, and ended up placing them in a heliocentric orbit after a final maneuver outside of Earth’s gravity. According to NASAthat elliptical trajectory causes the object to move between distances comparable to the orbits of Earth and Mars. The car that one day looked like an asteroid The story took an unexpected turn in January 2025. The Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union announced the discovery of a new near-Earth object, identified as 2018 CN41. However, the correction came just a day later: “The orbit coincides with that of the artificial object 2018-017Athe upper stage of the Falcon Heavy with the Tesla Roadster. The 2018 CN41 designation will be removed and omitted,” they said. What seemed like an astronomical find was, in reality, the same car launched years ago. This episode is not only a curious anecdote, it also gives us clues about how sky surveillance works. Systems that track near-Earth objects work by comparing trajectories and observations to identify possible asteroids or comets, and they do so in an environment with tens of thousands of cataloged objects. This helps to understand why an artificial object can, for a brief moment, fit the parameters of a natural one. If we want to land the story in the present, the question is inevitable: where is that car right now. At the time of writing this article, whereisroadster.com placed the object about 284 million kilometers from Earth, about 214 million kilometers from Mars and about 229 million kilometers from the Sun. According to these calculations, it completes one revolution around the Sun approximately every 557 days and has already traveled more than 6,550 million kilometers since its launch. It is worth making an important clarification here: we are not seeing the car in real time. The position offered by tools such as the one mentioned is based on orbital models built from data collected after launch and subsequent calculations, not on continuous direct observations. NASA itself points out that the trajectory is adjusted with solutions such as those of the Horizons systemwhich implies that we are talking about very refined estimates, but not an exact location at all times. If we look back and forward, his career also leaves some interesting milestones. In 2020, for example, it made a close approach to Mars, passing within about 5 million miles of the planet. And it will not be the last: the US space agency’s forecasts point to new encounters in the coming decades, as a close pass to Mars in 2035 and approaches to Earth in 2047 and 2050, always within margins that do not imply impact. From there, what remains is the terrain of probabilities and very long-term scenarios. Some studies have attempted to calculate what could happen to the object in millions of years, including the possibility of collisions with Earth, Venus or even the Sun, although with low probabilities and subject to uncertainty. However, long-term predictions could be skewed by factors that are difficult to model, such as thermal radiation or possible uncharacterized degassing accelerations, leaving its final fate open. Images | SpaceX In Xataka | NASA has been racking its brains for years to figure out what we will eat on the Moon. Answer: Madrid stew

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