decipher

We’ve spent years unraveling a signal from space that shouldn’t exist. And finally we have a “Rosetta stone” to decipher it

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It was the year 2018 when a team of Australian scientists detected a strange radio signal in the plane of the Milky Way. The radio pulse was too slow for any known astronomical object. It seemed more like some kind of anomaly or error in the telescopes than a new discovery. However, in 2025 another similar signal was located. And then another and another. Currently, there are at least 12 of these signals recorded, which have been named long-period radio transients (LPTs). Each of them includes a new feature that makes it impossible to find a common thread. Or at least it had been that way until now, since a new group of Australian researchers has located a sign that brings together several of the pieces of the puzzle. It has been so useful that it has been colloquially dubbed a space Rosetta stone. All the pieces together. The signal located in 2018 (although it was published in 2022) occurred every 18.18 minutes. With this periodicity, a star in the Milky Way increased its brightness for 30-60 seconds, and then decreased it again. Later a similar phenomenon was located, in which it was possible to see further. A binary system consisting of a white dwarf and a red dwarf was identified. The interaction between the two produced the emission of radio waves. However, when another LPT was detected, the emissions were not radio waves, but X-rays. How was a single phenomenon going to be defined if each one was different from the previous one? The key, finally, has been another LPT, initially located by the ASKAP telescope, of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). With it, and with the collaboration of other telescopes, a binary system composed of a white dwarf and a red dwarf has been identified, whose interaction gives rise to a periodic change in brightness, accompanied by the emission of radio waves and X-rays. All in one. With all the pieces, it has now been possible to reconstruct the event. Four telescopes to reconstruct history. The new LPT has been named ASKAP J1745-5051. It is not possible to know exactly how far away it is, although estimates place it between 1,300 and 30,000 light years away. Observations made with the ASKAP radio telescope made it possible to locate a periodic emission of radio waves every 81 minutes, which corresponded to a possible LPT. In order to check if the rest of the conditions that had been observed individually were met, it was observed with three other telescopes. On the one hand, space telescopes Swift and Einstein Probewith which X-ray emissions were detected. On the other hand, with the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR). With this, a binary system composed of a white dwarf and a red dwarf that orbit each other with a period of 81 minutes was identified. Everything fits. The full story. The conclusion when putting all the pieces together is the following. On each orbit, the white dwarf, which has a large mass concentrated in very little space, gravitationally attracts the red dwarf and extracts material from it. This is channeled by the magnetic field of the white dwarf itself until it reaches its surface, where it collides, producing a temperature increase of millions of degrees Celsius. Furthermore, this very violent interaction causes the release of energy in the form of X-rays. On the other hand, the gas accelerated by the colliding magnetic fields of both stars is what appears to produce the radio signals. A Rosetta Stone. The principal investigator of this new study It’s called Kovi Rose. We might think that this has had to do with the fact that the discovery is referred to as a space Rosetta stone. And maybe it has had a little influence, but the reality is that there are more reasons. The original Rosetta stone It was a fragment of Egyptian rock in which there was a text written in three different languages: ancient Greek, hieroglyphics and demotic writing. Because archaeologists of the time knew how to speak Greek, they were able to use it as a basis for understanding hieroglyphs. One language allowed them to reconstruct another. In this case, the new discovery is also in three languages: radio waves, detected by ASKAP, X-rays, with which Swift and Einstein Probe work, and visible light from SOAR. Three languages, three pieces that, when read together, can help to understand the whole much better. With this Rosetta stone, the authors of the study hope to be able to unravel many of these mysterious signals from the Universe. Image | Hans Hillewaert (Wikimedia Commons)/Magnific In Xataka | We believed that the pyramids of Giza did not hide any more secrets. we believed wrong

For some reason that no one can fully decipher, Madrid has insisted on having the largest Ferris wheel in the world.

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The Ain Dubai It is a 250 meter high Ferris wheel located in the Bluewaters Islandin the United Arab Emirates (UAE), making it the biggest of the planet. At least his kind. For reference, the famous London Eye around 135 m. However, the reign of meganoria Dubai might not last long. A group of Spanish investors has proposed to build a similar structure of 260 m, a unique piece that would redefine the skyline of the city. They have even given it a name: Panorama Tower. The most curious thing is not the project itself, but Madrid’s determination to carry it out against all odds. A meganoria in Madrid? That’s how it is. And if you have followed the Madrid chronicle of the last five years you will know that it is not exactly a new project. Its origins can date back to at least March 2020, when the then vice mayor Begoña Villacís wakefulness that the City Council was working to provide Madrid with the largest Ferris wheel in Europe. Although Villacís came to meet with a company interested in the project, the pandemic and the political changes (the leader was part of C’s, a group that was left out of the Consistory in 2023) made the meganoria would stay in the drawer. Since then the topic has warmed the political debate and there has even been talk of different locations for the structure, including Madrid Rio and the park Tender Galvanalthough without becoming a priority real. Click on the image to go to the tweet. What has changed? That the project seems to have gained oxygen. That is what follows from an exclusive published a few days ago by The World in which a few news about the future Panorama Tower are revealed. According to the newspaper, the project has the support of the organization Madrid Business Forum and it seems to have aroused the interest of an investment group with Spanish capital that, although it has chosen to remain anonymous, would be willing to provide funds to raise the wheel. It is not a minor detail if you take into account that The World talks about the investment being around 300 million. Is it the only new thing? No. In fact the above is not even the most important thing. The real novelty is that the meganoria has found a new horizon. Although in recent months the debate had focused on its possible location in the Tierno Galván park, now its promoters are looking towards another area of ​​the city: the future development of Madrid New North. To be more precise, the focus is on a municipal plot which houses the EMT garages and is not far from the ‘Four Towers’ from Madrid. Is it that important? Yes. That the promoters are now betting on Madrid Nuevo Norte is important for several reasons. First, because of what it would represent for this new urban development in Madrid, which aspires to become one of the great financial, technological and business centers of Europe. Second, because, if Torre Panorama finally goes ahead and the meganoria becomes a new tourist icon, it would help decongest the center. What about the previous location? The choice of Madrid Nuevo Norte would also mean giving up the Tierno Galván park, a location that was controversial because the rejection of the residents of Arganzuela to the project. In fact, they came together 15,000 signatures against the meganoria. At the moment the Consistory only has recognized that it is “open to studying the technical feasibility” of a ferris wheel, although it has not yet received any “formal” proposal. Regarding the possibility of building it on the plot that the EMT once used, remembered that its use is “endowable”, so it “could be used” for that purpose. Do we know anything else? Yes. Beyond its size or location, one of the details that most attracts attention about the project is the effort that its promoters are putting into moving it forward. Even rethinking locations. In 2020, when it was talked about for the first time On the subject, Madrid Río was targeted. It even slipped that the idea had attracted to the firm Circular View, which had previously tried without success to promote a similar structure in Valencia. Years later the focus shifted to Tierno Galván. The location actually rang so loudly that in August 2024 The City Council even hired a geotechnical study to clarify whether the park has the necessary characteristics to accommodate a structure of that caliber. Its results were revealed a few months ago, in march. And although the change in location has caused them to lose interest, they help us understand the dimensions of the Ferris wheel much better. And what will it be like? According to the information collected in that study, replicated a few days ago The Worldthe Ferris wheel would measure up to 260.4 m high, the equivalent of a 62-story floor. With such a size it would easily surpass the Crystal Tower (249 m) and would become the tallest building from Madrid and Spain. It would also far surpass the Ain Dubai. The construction would sit on an area of ​​800 m2 and, instead of having the traditional structure of the London Eye or Ain, it would rise as a “ferris wheel tower”, with shops, commercial areas, leisure spaces and a panoramic viewpoint. The objective: to provide Madrid with its own ‘Eiffel Tower’. Images | Madrid City Council and Wikipedia In Xataka | Madrid has turned Manzanares into a new tourist attraction with LEDs. The neighbors have something to say

In 2011 a mysterious series of numbers and letters appeared in Reddit. Thousands of people would spend years trying to decipher her

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Fourteen years ago a Reddit user appeared called ‘A858DE45F56D9BC9’ and began publishing characters of characters, apparently meaningless, in a SubnetDit of the same name. For more than a year the publications went unnoticed until one day madness began. What followed was the creation of a community with thousands of obsessed people with solving the puzzle And, above all, know who was behind the one who is considered One of the biggest Internet mysteries. Reddit’s Stonehenge Although the user’s name was much longer, in Reddit it is known as The mystery of A858. Although the first publications arose in July 2011, it was not until 2012 when the Reddit community began to pay them attention. Some users attempted to disappoint the messages and there was one that made interest explode. The comment and the answer confirmed that A858 was not “something”, but “someone.” A user mentioned that A858 was Reddit’s Stonehenge in reference to Its function was a mystery. A858 responded shortly after with one of his classic encrypted messages. The surprise came when they discovered that it was an image in ASCII format that represented precisely that: the Stonehenge. Until that point he had not given too much importance, but with this it was demonstrated that Behind A858 there was someone human. And then madness unleashed. Years trying to solve it Users wanted to know the goal behind those messages and set out to disregard them, but they soon realized that it was not going to be simple. In September 2012, the SOLVINGA COMMUNITY858 which currently has 15,000 members. Here a collective effort to understand The goal behind A858 that lasted years. Decipher A858 seemed impossible. He also behaved strangely: he disappeared, erased posts … the community was frustrated Only a few messages were deciphered by the community, including some citations of famous authors such as is from Max Lerner, Christmas greetings either References to April’s Fool (The equivalent of innocent’s day). The challenge was very complex from the technical point of viewhe used unusual obfuscation techniques, and there was not a clear pattern in his behavior; Sometimes he disappeared, he deleted posts, the submandit made deprived, Some messages were very easy to solve and others seemed impossible… This made the community frustrate and begin to lose interest, but then A858 appeared and everything was reactivated. Ask A858 Anything One of the points in the Subbreddit Solvinga858 was in 2015 when A858 made a mist (Ask Me Anything) where He attended to the numerous doubts of the users, although they also had to disappoint them. It wasn’t going to be so simple. Users asked him if they were wasting his time trying to decipher him, to which A858 replied that no, but I couldn’t tell them the goal behind the project. He also revealed that only a woman from the United Kingdom had managed to decipher him and expected more correct answers. Here you can read in fullbut then we highlight some of the questions and answers of the session: What is R/A858DE45F56D9BC9? The objective cannot be revealed. A858 published ASCII art drawings, prime numbers tables, Apple II source code fragments, etc. Were you playing with us? Because? Coded posts are designed to be easily resolved. And the other encrypted using a stronger encryption? The other posts are not designed to be easily resolved. There are often long pauses in which there are no A858 posts. Is A858 your only job? Sometimes we are retouching. Other times we are working on other projects. Are you doing this love alone or are we talking to the team of which you are part? A858 is a project with a team. I am a member of the team. Are you affiliated with a government organization? I don’t know any place that has no government. An unsolved mystery The question session fed even more if the mystery fits, but over time A858 was publishing less frequently until the publications ceased completely. In March 2016, after months in which the Subbreddit had been deprived, A message appeared which said “the A858 project has concluded. It can be unsubscribed.” Many users did not believe it, but A858 never published again. A858 was never resolved. We only know that there was a company behind that one day cut the financing. The next news that was had was In September 2016 through one of the moderators of Solvinga858which revealed that he had had contact with the person behind A858. In his message he assured that this mysterious person was paid by a company to “post code puzzles through encryption and different text handling methods.” After a while, The company behind the project decided to cut the financing And there all ended. Needless to say that It was not the answer that the community expected and left too many unknowns to solve. Theories behind A858 As a good mystery, there are many theories about what was really behind A858. One of the most repeated is that it was A company looking for experts in encryption To hire them. A858 agreed over time with Cicada 3301 Another very similar mystery, although much easier to solve. Supposedly those who managed to decipher Cicada, received a message to enter a mysterious organization. Another of the theories defends that A858 a ‘Numbers Station’ Used by Mossad for Espionage Tasks. It does not seem to be known with total certainty, but one of the theories that makes more sense is that A858 was A company testing its own safety. In this scenario, The objective of the project would be precisely for anyone to solve the puzzleswhich would show that security was good. If so, they got it. Image | Amparo Babyloni, Xataka In Xataka | The James Webb has just photographed one of the great mysteries of the universe’s galaxies: how they intertwine

This 4,500 -year -old game was an absolute mystery. Until AI helped us decipher it

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A few years ago archaeologists found something unique at the Shahr-i Sokhta site: a board game. I had about 4,500 years old, and it is believed that it is the board game complete older ever discovered. The problem was that no one knew how it was played … until AI arrived. Persian games. That site was part of the Helmand civilization in the Bronze Age. Lying To the east of Iran and south of Afghanistan, in that discovery both the board were found, with 20 circular spaces, and four dice and 27 geometric pieces. But how were they used? No game manuals. In old board games hardly ever There were written rules, and the instructions passed orally. That probably caused the rules to end up being modified between different groups of players over the decades or centuries, experts point out. But that also facilitates the task of finding out how it was played: as explained in New Scientistit was not necessary to find the definitive rules, only those that approached those that were probably the most logical. AU helps learn to play. The used AI systems use techniques such as Monte Carlo Search Treewhich was also used for the Alphago developmentof Deepmind. With them it is possible to simulate rules that can be applied to the game based on the structure of the board and the available parts. They can evaluate multiple variations of the possible rules that allow evaluating not only if they are logical, but end up offering boring or fun games. Beyond chess. Among these games there are real jewels because of their age Senetthat for example was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. There are representations such as the main image – the Nefertari Egyptian queen playing Senet – that demonstrates its popularity in that culture. Others, like him Ur’s real gamefrom the ancient Mesopotamia, their secrets were able to discover a cuneiform tablet that It deciphered in 2007 In the British Museum. Shahr-i Sokhta game. Source: Persian Wonders First studies. One of the first applications of AI to the board games of antiquity is in the game Ludus Latrunculorum (“The game of thieves”), which was played among the Romans and that it is believed that it was already played (at least, in a previous version) in Greece. It is one of the best known thanks to the writings recovered from that time, and that allowed – thatNot effortlessly– rebuild its rules quite likely they were the ones that the Romans effectively used. Thus the Romans played. Cameron Browne, from the University of Maastricht, in Holland, led The call Digital Ludeme Project (DLP). It investigated about 1,000 traditional games over the 6,000 years of the history of humanity, and games such as Ludus Latrunculorum were studied. Simulations everywhere. It was not easy: this game – or its variants – appears with boards of different formats and sizes throughout history, but the AI ​​helped discover possible rules. Simulations were made to investigate which boards made more sense for the most plausible rules, and it was discovered how three games still active in our days – Khabebga, Seega and Tablut – had a strong relationship. All these tests allowed to conclude how the smallest boards were the ones that probably They were used in the Roman gameand others may be dedicated to other board games that experts have not been able to identify. You can play Shahr-i Sokhta. As with Ludus Latrunculorum, the help of AI served to raise what were the probable rules of the Shahr-i Sokhta game. So much so that developer Sam Jelveh and archaeologist Hossein Morad created An online playable version of the video game With complete information on how it was supposed to be played. Endless investigation. These efforts have not stopped there. More than 200 computer scientists, archaeologists and historians are collaborating in the project Gametable to develop even more advanced AI tools to discover the rules of old board games. And also, perhaps, to reveal why some came to our days transformed into current games – it is believed that UR’s real game ended up becoming the backgammon – and others disappeared without leaving just a trace. Image | Wikipedia In Xataka | The 41 best board games: from ‘Catán’ to ‘Gloomhaven’

We have been trying to decipher how 1950 the Antarctica would be like. We just discovered it

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We have always seen the earth in the same way: Green and Brown Earth masses and the poles contrasting in white. Logical, because it has been tens of thousands of years covered by that white command, but the funny thing is that we have been trying to unravel What would Antarctica be like without ice. And we just discovered it in what is a curious and bleak view that could be the future of the earth. Decades melting Antarctica. Making Antarctica is not just a matter of curiosity. It is also key to predicting ice loss and sea level elevation. It is something that has studied Since 1950, but in 1996 the culminating moment came: the creation of the Bedmap consortium. With European support, many measurements and the most avant -garde technology at that time, the researchers marked the goal of creating a complete map of Antarctica. That came a few years later, with the Bedmap1 published in 2001. Bedmap1 Methods. It is what allowed us to know the average elevation of the rock base of Antarctica, the distribution of ice and its volume. Bedmap1 gave us a vision of that scenario with a resolution of five kilometers. In 2013 Bedmap2 appeared, for which they used ten times more measurements than the first and with a superior resolution. For the analysis, the researchers gathered data thanks to airplanes that fly over the area by sending radio pulses that allow measuring both the ice thickness and the most interesting: the depth of the rock bed. Crossing the data of these radars, batimetric data, satellite information and seismic studies, we can have that radiography of Antarctica. Bedman2 To the third is the defeated. And the most accurate so far is the one that crowns this article: Bedmap3. This is the result of the study of more than 82 million data points – some times more than those taken into account to elaborate Bedmap2 – and, as explained from British antarctic surveyit is as if they had removed the 27 million cubic kilometers of ice that cover the territory. In this new analysis, we see the most hidden places of the great mountains, but also details of the deepest cannons. Bedmap 2 already had a great level of detail, but this third map reveals is more depth in some areas. For example, where is the thickest layer of ice. It has been identified in an unnamed cannon in Wilkes, where the ice has a whopping 4,757 meters thick. Bedmap3 Fascinating. The resolution of this third attempt is 500 meters and, as we say, is the result of 70 years of measurements that have combined to give life to the new map. The three overlapping models It is what allows researchers to be more precise when having place statistics: Total ice volume in Antarcticaincluding ice platforms: 27.17 million km³. In Bedmap1, the calculation was 25.34 million km³. In Bedman2, 26.54 million km³. Total ice surface in Antarcticaincluding ice platforms: 13.63 million km² Ice thickness in Antarcticaincluding ice platforms: 1,948 m (excluding ice platforms: 2,148 m) Potential increase in sea level globally if all ice melts: 58 meters. And scary. That last value, the potential increase in sea level, is one of the main utilities of this type of research. It has not varied in the three attempts to map Antarctica and, as one of the researchers of the Bedmap project points out, the utility goes beyond the simple objective of satisfying curiosity. With the new data, Peter Fretwell comments that “it is evident that the Antarctic ice layer is thicker than we originally realized and has a greater volume of ice. It is also buried in a layer of rock located under sea level and is something that exposes ice at a greater risk of melting due to the incursion of warm water of the ocean. It is something that is taking place on the banks of the continent and what Bedmap3 shows us is that we have a slightly more vulnerable Antarctica than we thought. ” Precisely there is the disturbing. If the average temperature continues to increase, Bedmap3 may go from being a simple map to a prediction of the future of the earth. By the way, if you want to toys with Bedmap3, you have it in This link. Images | Bedmap, Bas In Xataka | Whenever there is a cold episode, voices arise that question climate change. The explanation is simpler than it seems

For five years we have tried to decipher a television signal that came from the sky. The mystery has been resolved

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The news for the year in the cosmos has a name and surname: 2024 YR4, that asteroid whose probabilities of impact on Earth do nothing but up. But thousands of kilometers from our planet continue to happen fascinating events. Without going very far, X -ray telescopes have just revealed A superstructure of more than one billion light years. There are more, because for five years astronomers had been looking for a response to a television signal that came from space. The enigma has just been resolved. The mystery of the signals. For five years, astronomers who analyzed the data of the Murchison Widefield Array radio in Western Australia found an unexpected enigma: A television signal from heaven. Since the telescope is located in A radioelectric silence zone Designated to avoid human interference in radioastronomy, the detection of said signal was particularly disconcerting for the community. Even more strange was the fact that the signal It seemed to move through the skywhich led to all kinds of speculation about possible reflections of our own transmissions until, of course, theories about extraterrestrial activity. The answer, as almost always, It was something simpler. The discovery: airplanes. Apparently, the turning point came when Jonathan Poly, physicist at Brown University and leader of the United States research team, He had a revelation: “We said: ‘I bet the signal is being reflected in a plane’”. While this hypothesis had already raised before, no one had confirmed it with certainty. To check it, the equipment used advanced signal processing techniques, as close field corrections and beam formationwith which they managed to better focus close sources of interference. What happened? That the analysis revealed that The reflected signal corresponded to the Channel 7 frequency bandan Australian digital television station. Perhaps more important than that, the calculations on the altitude and speed of the reflective object indicated that It was a plane in full phase of cruiseflying at 11.7 kilometers of altitude at a speed of 792 km/h, data that coincide with the usual characteristics of a commercial flight. A problem for astronomy. As indicated in your recently published studythis type of interference represents a serious problem for astronomers, since Contamin the data and can force the elimination of large amounts of valuable information. According to Jade Chucharmefrom Brown University, “It’s like trying to listen to a friend whispering on the other side of the table while a child screams in your ear.” In this way, every time a television signal is reflected in a plane, It overlaps cosmic waves That astronomers seek to analyze, which can make large sets of observations must be ruled out. Not just that. As they underline, the team’s discovery is key to Develop interference elimination methodswhich will allow filtering these reflexes without losing important astronomical information. However, the problem is not limited to airplanes: satellites in orbit represent an even greater threat. Are we too loud on earth for astronomy? It is the big question that slides from the finding. The number of satellites in orbit It is still increasingwhich aggravates the problem of radio interference. Although scientists are improving data filtering techniques, some begin to question whether planet Earth himself remains adequate place for radioastronomy. According to poor“If we cannot find a silent sky on earth, maybe the earth is no longer the indicated place.” Be that as it may, some astronomers have begun to consider The possibility of moving radioastronomy to spacewith projects that propose the installation of telescopes in the hidden face of the moon, where the terrestrial interference would be minimal. In that sense, the discovery of Poly and his team not only solves a five -year mystery, but also marks a crucial step for the preservation of radioastronomy in an era where electromagnetic pollution is a growing problem. With the advancement of technology, the struggle between the exploration of the cosmos and the signs generated by the human being could define the future of astronomy. Unfortunately for believers, no one was watching TV in space. Image | Pexels, Nara In Xataka | X -ray telescopes have revealed an unimaginable object: a superstructure of more than one billion light years In Xataka | The impact probability of asteroid 2024 YR4 has risen to 3.1% (1 of 32): why the UN waiting for May to act

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