happened

The first hard drives in history were gigantic. Then a miracle happened: miniaturization

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Nowadays it is normal to have 32 or 64 GB of capacity on our mobile devices, and that capacity is usually multiplied by several orders of magnitude on our PCs and laptops. Storage technology has advanced incredibly in all these years, and to appreciate this evolution it is not a bad idea to take a short trip to the past and see how decades ago hard drives were heavy and cumbersome monstrosities that also had very limited capacity and features. The first example of that evolution we have it in the IBM RAMAC 305a monster that appeared in 1956 and was capable of storing 5 MB thanks to a system with 50 24-inch “platters”. That device rotated at a speed of 600 revolutions per minute and generated such a quantity of heat that it was necessary to enclose it in a large “refrigerator” with two cooling systems. Another curious fact about this product is that IBM already thought about a subscription model to make it profitable: clients who wanted to use this product had to pay $3,200 per month at the time, which would be equivalent to almost $30,000 today with inflation. Miniaturization would still take years to reach an industry that was trying to advance especially in the area of ​​storage capacity: customers demanded more capacity, and those 24 inch plates wereAs seen in the image, huge. In this case these models reached 10 MB capacity per disk. The giant of the time, IBM, dominated the sector for years, and in 1962 the company created the first “removable” drives. The IBM 1311 Disk Storage Drive made use of IBM 1316 “disk packs” that allowed the company’s customers to expand their needs to suit. From the 24 inches of the previous disks it went to 14 inches, with 2 Mbytes for each “pack”. The path to smallness Another of those storage devices It was UniDisc.a storage expansion that appeared in 1962 for the Univac 1004/1005 computers. That “flexible” disk similar to those used by IBM had a diameter of 14 inches and was capable of holding 2 Mbytes of information. The drive the disk was inserted into was about the size of a washing machine. At that time, several manufacturers tried to be leaders in a promising sector, and among them was Burroughs, a mainframe manufacturer that, for example, launched this unit of 250 MB in 1979. A true marvel that used, pay attention, regenerative braking: when it was turned off, the motor became a magnetic brake: otherwise the discs continued spinning for an average of 4 hours. A few years earlier IBM had already launched its new hard drive technology, the so-called “winchester“. The IBM 3340 drive had a smaller, lighter read/write head that had a design that allowed it to move across that surface at a tiny distance. Things would advance from that moment even more rapidly, especially in the field of miniaturization (more or less) and the capacity of units that, for example, in 1980 already reached the gigabyte with the IBM 3380 unit. From that year 1980 is also the Memorex Mark XIV “disk pack” in the header image that was advertised as an “error-free” system. It had a capacity of 80 MB and was intended for Memorex disk drives that were again the size of a washing machine. 5¼ units would soon give way to 3.5-inch oneswhich would arrive first from the Rodime company (with former Burroughs employees, by the way). Their devices were capable of storing 6.38 and 12.75 Mbytes and would start a real trend in the PC and laptop market. User needs continued to dictate smaller formats, and this led to 2.5-inch drives that are currently especially widespread due to their use in the solid state drive segment. The rest, as they say, is history: 3.5-inch drives are still widely used today, but that revolution would be followed a few years ago by that of solid state drives or SSD (especially in M.2 format) that have allowed us to achieve reading and writing speeds that were unthinkable just a decade ago. In the area of ​​capacity and cost per gigabyte, yes, those traditional hard drives continue to be (for now) the kings of the market, but if we want examples of miniaturization, the 1 TB drives that SanDisk presented at CES seven years ago made things even better. And what remains. In Xataka | Sandisk has risen 1,000% in the stock market since the summer. Its advantage is called Kioxia In Xataka | The computers of the future have found an unexpected ally to store information: fungi

The answer lies in what happened yesterday afternoon.

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The normality of a Sunday marked by strong wind in the Canary Islands was abruptly broken at 12:13 p.m. At that moment, the clocks stopped and the screens went off throughout La Gomera. According to official sourcesthe island suffered a total “zero energy” that left 15,610 medium and low voltage points without supply. It was not just a question of lighting: the fall of the system took telecommunications with it, leaving a large part of the population without mobile coverage and plunging businesses into chaos as the dataphones became inoperative, as reported by testimonies collected by The Newspaper. The question iinevitable: again? The technical cause points again to the energetic heart of the island. As explained by Radio Televisión Canaria (RTVC)the origin was a “destabilization of one of the generators” located at the El Palmar thermal power plant. This initial failure caused what is known in electrical engineering as a load shedding or cascade effect. For safety reasons, the instability of that first piece of equipment caused the rest of the generators to fail, resulting in a general power outage. Although the Endesa company has communicated that the exact causes are under investigation, the president of the Cabildo, Casimiro Curbelo, has been more blunt pointing out the age of the infrastructure: “One of the equipment failed, possibly because its engine is old, and that caused the entire unit to destabilize.” A recovery in record time. Unlike the traumatic blackout of July 2023, which kept the island in the dark for three days and resulted in a penalty of 12.1 million euros for Endesa, the response on this occasion has been noticeably more agile. The technicians managed to reverse the situation from “zero” in just 17 minutes. The recovery was, however, “gradual.” As explained in ElDiario.esthe Minister of Ecological Transition and Energy, Mariano Hernández Zapata, warned that the process had to be slow to prevent the system from collapsing again when receiving the entire load at once. At 3:25 p.m., approximately three hours after the start of the incident, the Cabildo confirmed the restoration 100% of the service, although maintaining alert for possible “micro-cuts” of adjustment and maintenance. The technical feat that did not arrive in time. This new incident reveals a critical technological reality: the extreme vulnerability of “isolated systems”. The definitive solution is already under water, although with a bittersweet taste due to the deadlines. As detailed by Red Eléctrica de España (REE) In its planning, the ship Enterprise Cable In August 2025, the laying of what is the deepest tripolar AC cable on the planet began, descending to 1,145 meters on the seabed. This 36 kilometer engineering work, which will connect the substations of Chío (Tenerife) and El Palmar (La Gomera), is the 66kV “umbilical cord” that will allow: End isolation: La Gomera will be able to receive up to 50 MVA of energy from Tenerife in case of failure. Integrate renewables: It will make it easier for the island to advance its decarbonization goals by being able to pour clean energy into the grid. Robustness of the system: We move from a single, dependent generation model to an interconnected network model. But the irony tells itself. According to the official REE schedule, the completion of the interconnection was scheduled for the end of 2025. However, at the start of 2026, the Gomeros They have verified again thatwhile the last connections are not completed and the infrastructure comes into operation—predictably in this first quarter—, its electrical security continues to depend on a plant whose material fatigue is no longer a secret. An island on alert. Although the light has returned to homes, the feeling of uncertainty persists. The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, and the minister Sara Aagesen have maintained permanent contact to monitor the situation, aware that the island’s image is damaged with each blackout. La Gomera has shown to have learned its lesson in terms of emergency protocols and speed of response, but the infrastructure is still at its limit. All eyes are now on that submarine cable that, according to Casimiro Curbelois the only real guarantee that an old engine will not silence the life of an entire island again. Image | freepik and Tony Hisgett Xataka | 99% of the internet travels through submarine cables. Now there is a much more ambitious plan underway: linking the electrical grid

We already know what happened to the SpainSat NG II

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A space system designed to last decades, an investment of more than 2,000 million euros and two satellites designed to guarantee secure communications for the Armed Forces may be compromised by a millimeter impact tens of thousands of kilometers from Earth. That is what has happened with him SpainSat NG IIone of the two central pieces of the SpainSat NG program. After days of minimal information, there is finally an answer about his fate. We know what happened and what decision was made, although the episode still leaves relevant questions open. The sequence of events now allows us to establish a clearer time frame. SpainSat NG II took off on October 22, 2025, according to the Ministry of Defensein a mission that was presented as the culmination of the new secure communications constellation. On January 2, 2026, Indra recognized for the first time an external impact during the orbital transfer, without specifying its scope. Two weeks later, a new statement confirms that this damage will prevent completing the mission and activates the satellite relay. Non-recoverable damage. The key to the announcement is in a phrase that until now had not been pronounced so clearly. Hisdesat states thatafter reviewing the most recent technical reports from the main contractor, the SpainSat NG II will not be able to complete its mission. The statement does not go into nuances or intermediate scenarios: the damage is considered irreversible for operational purposes. This conclusion explains the immediate passage to the next movement of the program, the beginning of the process to replace the satellite, leaving behind any expectation of functional recovery. What happened on impact. Everything indicates that the SpainSat NG II was hit by a space particle of millimeter size and very little weight. In the orbital environment, that size is not irrelevant. In the evaluation carried out by Hisdesatthe impact would have occurred at high speed and in a particularly sensitive area of ​​the satellite, which would have caused damage that was impossible to correct. Even so, the satellite remains stable and in an eccentric orbit that does not interfere with other missions. Many questions on the table (and some answers). The decision to replace the satellite now opens a key question that the statement does not answer: timing. Hisdesat announces the start of the bid request process for the SpainSat NG III, but does not offer any reference on contracting, manufacturing, launch or entry into service deadlines. This absence prevents the precise measurement of the time margin until the replacement is operational. Meanwhile, the continuity of the service is supported by the SpainSat NG I, already in operation, and the satellite SpainSata solution that guarantees temporary coverage. Insurance doesn’t explain everything. The official statement is blunt on this point: the loss of SpainSat NG II will not cause “any economic damage”, since the satellite was insured against this type of incident. It is a clear statement, but not exhaustive. It is not detailed, for example, whether this coverage is limited to the value of the lost satellite or whether it includes the costs associated with its replacement, such as the new contracting process or the possible effects on program deadlines. A key project for the Spanish defense sector. The Ministry of Defense itself has stressed that more than 45% of the industrial load of the new satellites has been developed with the involvement of practically the entire national space sector. Now we have to wait to find out how the pieces will fit together, once again, so that the program continues and can meet its planned objectives. The good news is that, despite the difficulties, SpainSat NG has what it takes to move forward. Images | Airbus (1, 2) | Thales In Xataka | Starlink is on the verge of having more than 15,000 satellites in low orbit: the perfect nightmare for astronomers

What happened, and how to know and act if it has affected you or you receive password reset emails

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Let’s explain to you what happened and how to act in the face of the alleged leak of Instagram data. There is a lot of confusion with the two versions why phishing emails are arriving to make you change your password and steal your account, and we are going to explain everything to you in a simple and understandable way. Let’s start with the explanation of these two versions so you can see what seems to have happened. And then we are going to give you solutions for both, first telling you how to act if you receive an email asking you to reset your password, and then how to know if the alleged leak has affected you. What happened on Instagram The alarms have gone off when a large number of users have begun to report on social networks that they are receiving suspicious emails that encourage them to reset their Instagram password. These emails provide a link with which to try to steal your account. On the one hand, the cybersecurity company Malwarebytes assures that a group of cybercriminals has Information stolen from 17.5 million accounts from Instagram. From each leaked account they claim to have obtained usernames, physical addresses, email names or phone numbers. Instagram says no, that no one has hacked them, but admits that it has solved a problem that allowed third parties to request password reset emails for some users. They say that user data was not stolen, these emails were simply sent using this vulnerability. There are two important questions here. First of all, if you receive these emails they may be trying to steal your account, and you must pay attention to avoid falling into the trap. Phishing campaigns are recurring, but if the problem was only what Instagram says, the number of these emails should start to reduce now. The danger is if Instagram tries to hide that Malwarebytes is right. In this case, the first danger is that you may continue to receive attempts to steal your account, something that is always dangerous. But the most serious thing is that they say that physical addresses have been included in the leak, and that the data is being sold on the black market, something that can be dangerous for known people. What to do if you receive one of the emails In the event that you have received one of these emails in which you are told that Instagram has received a request to reset your password and that you click on the link to proceed, you should always ignore the message. Never click on any link that reaches you in this type of email. If you want to change your Instagram password just in casethen you have to enter your account settings in the application or website of this social network. Once inside, Click on the section Account Center to enter the page where you manage all the service accounts belonging to Meta. Inside here, choose your Instagram account, although it is normal that you arrive having it already selected. So, click on the section Password and security of the section Account Setup. Once you are inside Password and securitythen you just have to click on the option Change password that will appear first, and follow the steps requested. You should try to change the password only from here. How to know if the leak has affected you If you want to clear your doubts and know if you are involved in the alleged leak, then the best thing is to go to the website. haveibeenpwned.comwhere all leaks are always collected. Using it is easy, you just have to write the email you use in your account from Instagram. When you do, the page will tell you if your email has appeared in a leak, and You can see if Instagram is among them. It is possible that your email has been included in one or more leaks, although it does not have to have been the one from Instagram. In the event that you appear in the leakthen what I always recommend is to change your password with the steps that we have told you before. The same with any other leak that appears, it is best to always change the password on the official website or app of that service. In Xataka Basics | My data has been leaked, now what: the steps you should take whenever there is a massive leak on the Internet that could affect you

that it would not have happened to North Korea for a very simple reason

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When we talk about isolated and sanctioned states, an enclave usually emerges in the conversation at some point. North Korea has every chance to join that list of nations with dubious qualifications. And yet, after the attack from Washington to Caracasone idea is repeated insistently: this would not have happened to Pyongyang. That uncomfortable idea. Yes, after the attack, a phrase is repeating in the analyzesgatherings and networks:“This would not have happened to North Korea”. It is not an ideological slogan or a gratuitous provocation, but an almost empirical verification that points to the heart of the real international system, not the one taught in manuals. The reason: Venezuela lacks nuclear weapons, and North Korea has intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads capable of reaching US territory. That difference, alone, explains much more than decades of resolutions, treaties and solemn declarations on sovereignty, legality and world order. International legality as a story. It happens that the operation against Venezuela has been described by jurists and international organizations as a flagrant violation of international law. However, that sentence has not had (nor does it seem that it will have) practical consequences. It has not stopped the operation, nor reversed its effects nor imposed real costs on the actor who carried it out. From that perspective, it is not an anomaly of the system, it is, rather, its normal functioning. International legality has never been an independent coercive mechanism, but a regulatory framework whose effectiveness ultimately depends on the balance of power. When this balance does not exist, the law is reduced to a moral language that accompanies the facts, but does not condition them. Nuclear deterrence: the frontier. The contrast with North Korea is revealing. We are talking about a nation capable of launching missiles simply because the “neighbor” visits China. Pyongyang is an isolated, sanctioned State, with a violation history of human rights and UN resolutions against them much more extensive than the Venezuelan one. And yet, no one is seriously considering a direct military operation to capture their leader or impose regime change by force. The reason is starkly simple: North Korea may respond with what we call nuclear escalation. In that sense, deterrence does not guarantee peace or justice, of course, but it does guarantee survival. In the real international system, the nuclear weapon functions as the only fully recognized life insurance. Iran and Venezuela. The Iran situation fits the same logic. Tehran has been getting closer for years to the nuclear thresholdaware that Libya, Iraq or Venezuela show the fate of States that renounce (or do not arrive in time) to this type of deterrence. Until Iran definitively crosses that line, it remains exposed to limited attacks, sabotage, targeted assassinations and indirect military pressure. Venezuela, without a nuclear program or credible deterrence umbrella, has proven to be even more vulnerable: not only to sanctions or pressure, but to a direct intervention designed to “extirpate” the political leadership, just as it has happened. The Non-Proliferation Treaty. He Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty It was born with an implicit promise: States that renounced nuclear weapons would obtain collective security and respect for their sovereignty. What’s happening? that the reality has denied that promise over and over again. At least until now, no non-nuclear state has been defended militarily by the international system against a great power determined to act. On the contrary, states that have managed to equip themselves with nuclear deterrents (from North Korea to Pakistan) have ensured their practical inviolability, regardless of their internal or external behavior. The message that other countries draw seems obvious and deeply destabilizing: following the rules does not protect you, but having the damn bomb does. USA and the royal hierarchy. If you also want, the Venezuelan operation It does not inaugurate this logic, but it makes it visible in an almost pedagogical way. The United States has not acted outside the international system, but from its top. It has shown that the global hierarchy remains asymmetrical and that sovereignty is conditional for those who cannot impose an intolerable cost on an aggressor. Seen this way, the comparison with North Korea is not an anti-Western provocation, but rather an a priori, realistic reading of the facts: the law is applied where there is balance, and where there is none, force rules. What we don’t want to say. This being the case, the lesson left by the attack on Venezuela is uncomfortable because it dismantles decades of rhetoric, or almost so. International legality has not disappeared now, perhaps because it has never existed as an autonomous shield. It has always been a reflection of power. and North Korea is not untouchable because he is right, but because he can just destroy. Venezuela was not attacked because it is more illegitimate, of course, but because in that sense it is weaker. That is why Iran is moving towards the nuclear thresholdbecause he has learned that lesson by observing others. That the international system does not reward compliance, but rather the ability to deter. Everything else is story. Image | GoodFon, Gary Todd In Xataka | North Korea is sending its soldiers to the most sinister place in Ukraine: one where drones are not the problem, but where you step In Xataka | The North Koreans are hungry, so they have started hunting tigers. It’s just the tip of the iceberg

We believed that everything happened because of the new fighters. The F-16 has been in the air for 50 years and continues to sell like hotcakes

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For years we have heard that the future of air combat is called F-35a program associated with stealth, advanced sensors and a very specific idea of ​​Western technological superiority. It’s the plane that makes headlinesbudgets and strategic debates. But while that conversation progresses, there is a much quieter reality that dislodges the story: a fighter designed in the seventies not only is it still in service, but construction continues in South Carolinaand continues to find buyers in 2025. The interesting thing about the F-16 is not only that it continues to fly, but to understand why so many countries continue to bet on it when there are newer alternatives. To answer that question you have to go back to its origin, follow its evolution and look at the present with data, contracts and calendars. It is also advisable to separate promises from real capabilities, because not all air forces buy the “best”, they buy what they can operate on a sustained basis. The secret of a fighter that does not retire The F-16 was born from an internal discussion in the United States about the drift towards increasingly larger, more complex and more expensive fighters. In the early 1970s, the United States Air Force promoted the Lightweight Fighter program to see if a lighter plane could gain maneuverability and be more affordable without sacrificing efficiency. The YF-16 prototype first flew in 1974 and, in January 1975, was selected in the Air Combat Fighter (ACF) competitiona decisive step towards production. The idea was simple: operational performance before unlimited ambition. That philosophy translated into very specific design decisions. The F-16 opted for a compact cell with controls fly-by-wire that allowed finer control and relaxed stability difficult to achieve with traditional systems. The cabin was also part of the approach, with a high visibility dome, a stick side and a reclined pilot position to better withstand G forces. Over time, this approach focused on air-to-air combat expanded. The F-16 incorporated improvements in avionics, sensors and payload capacity that they pushed it towards a multi-role capabilitywith room for ground attack and increasingly demanding missions. In parallel, its international expansion was supported by cooperation, standardization and support programs between allies, which created a broad community of operators. That network remains one of the reasons the plane stays alive. Almost continuous modernization is the bridge between the original design and the F-16 currently rolling off the production lines. In its most recent standards, such as the F-16V and the new Block 70/72updated mission displays and computing, data link systems such as MIDS-JTRS, and a AESA APG-83 radar as a central part of the equipment. These newly manufactured devices are offered with a declared structural life of 12,000 hours. Almost continuous modernization is the bridge between the original design and the F-16 currently rolling off the production lines. Here the question stops being just technical and becomes operational. The F-16 continues to fit because it offers a relationship between capabilities, cost and availability that is difficult to match in many defense plans. It is a well-known aircraft, with acceptable maintenancescalable training and a mature logistics chain, something especially valuable in periods of tension and urgency. In addition, it facilitates interoperability with allies and the integration of Western weaponry in a predictable framework. Recent contracts illustrate that pattern with names and numbers, and are often channeled through government agreements and programs like the Foreign Military Sales of the United States. Slovakia has been receiving new F-16 Block 70 from 2024. Bulgaria has also opted for this modernized aircraft. Taiwan maintains an order for 66 F-16Vs approved in 2019with deliveries and testing affected by publicly acknowledged delays.Bahrain ordered 16 Block 70 and Jordan signed an offer letter and acceptance for eight units. The case of Ukraine introduces a different dimension. Here the F-16 does not arrive as part of a planned modernization, but as rexposed to an ongoing war and the need to reinforce air defense. The transfers have been materialized by the Netherlands and Denmarkand deliveries have been confirmed in phases with a limited level of detail for operational reasons. Beyond the exact figures, the jump is relevant because it introduces a platform compatible with Western doctrines, support and weapons in a real combat environment. Argentina is a different example, but just as revealing. In this case, the F-16 arrives to fill a long gap in air defense capabilities and recover supersonic flight after years without an equivalent fleet. The operation is supported by the transfer of 24 used aircraft from Denmark, with deliveries in sections, and the first batch of six devices arrived in December 2025. For Buenos Aires, the value is not just the plane, but also the training and support package that accompanies it. If we look at the current Western catalogue, the temptation is to think that the future has already been resolved. The F-35 has become the great bet of several allies and, in parallel, Eurofighter and Rafale have continued to grow with new variants, radars and weapons. The problem is that an air force is not measured only by the most advanced aircraft it can buy, but by how many it can sustain, train and deploy on a continuous basis. That’s where the balanced fleet model gains weight and the F-16 falls into place again. And if we look one step further, the conversation is already in the sixth generation. The United States works in NGADEurope pushes FCAS and the United Kingdom has allied with Italy and Japan in GCAPa proposal that aims to redefine sensors, connectivity and cooperation with unmanned systems. But they are programs with long calendars and a very high investment, in addition to the uncertainty inherent in any technological leap. In that gap, the F-16 maintains a clear space, because it offers real and available capacity while the future finishes arriving. Images | United States Air Force (1, 2, 3, 4, 5,) | Volodymyr Zelenskyy | Ministry of Defense of Argentina In Xataka | The Comac C919 … Read more

There was a time when HTC sold more phones than Apple and Samsung. The question is what happened next: Crossover 1×28

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In 2002 we still didn’t have smartphones, but I was lucky enough to see a preview of that future. I traveled to London with Microsoft and at that event the company presented the Orange SPVa big-headed and different mobile because it was based on Windows Mobile 2002. In it you could surf the Internet, write emails or listen to music, although in a limited way because neither the software nor the hardware were very competitive at that time. And yet, the vision was clear: everything was going toward those devices. What was surprising was not only that, but who manufactured that device was HTC. The Taiwanese firm was already beginning to be known for manufacturing devices for others, but it would soon end up launching into the smartphone market taking advantage of the push of Android. In 2011 its market share in the US became superior to Apple’s or Samsung, but after that achievement, the firm started making bad decisionsand other manufacturers joined in – especially from China – who began to make competition much more difficult. HTC never recovered from that and although it experimented with other segments like virtual realityfaded to a paper totally secondary in the technological field. We talk about all this in a new episode of Crossover in which we remember the great milestones of the company and that singular fall almost into oblivion. In Xataka | “It is a brutal economic effort, but we have to act now”: parents who are taking their children to schools without screens

The origin of the oceans on Earth has always been somewhat mysterious. Now we are clearer how it happened

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A team of scientists, analyzing the tiny and invaluable samples of the asteroid Ryugu brought to Earth by the Hayabusa2 missionhas made a discovery that shakes our understanding of water in the early solar system. The discovery, published in the prestigious magazine Naturereveals that liquid water flowed in Ryugu’s progenitor body more than a billion years after its formation. Something that changes our paradigms. Contradiction. This new discovery contradicts the belief that water activity on asteroids It was a phenomenon exclusive to the first moments of the history of our solar system. And most importantly, it could force us to recalculate how much water these bodies brought to a young Earth. Many doubts. The story of how our planet became an aquatic world still has gaps. One of the most accepted theories is that carbonaceous asteroidsformed from ice and dust in the confines of the Solar Systemacted as a cosmic “water delivery” service for the inner planets. JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission has provided us with a unique opportunity to study this process by bringing back 5.4 grams of pure material from the asteroid Ryugu. And this is very important. While meteorites that fall to Earth are altered by contact with the atmosphere and environment, the Ryugu samples are a near-perfect time capsule. This is because a perfect record of water activity is preserved within it, proof that fluids moved through its rocks sooner than could be expected. This is something fundamental that changes the way we think about where the water in asteroids comes from and ends up on our planets. Isotopic clock. To reach this conclusion, the team turned to a “radiometric dating“based on isotopes: the radioactive decay of Lutetium-176 into Hafnium-176. Something that can be similar to the ‘Carbon-14’ test that is better known. In an object as old as Ryugu’s father, you would expect the proportion of these elements to follow a predictable line, known as isochronewhich dates back to 4,565 million years ago. But Ryugu’s data did not fit these models. The samples deviated from that ‘reference’ line showing an excess of hafnium (or a deficiency of lutetium). In order to understand why, it was first ruled out that it was due to accelerated disintegration or the effects of cosmic radiation. This made the conclusion point differently than that, at some point, a liquid ‘washed’ and took away some of the lutetium from the asteroid’s rocks. The reasons. The event that triggered this late flow of water was, most likely, a violent impact. While the first aqueous activity, which occurred in the first seven million years of the solar system, was driven by heat from the decay of radioactive elements, this second event was different. Specifically, we are talking about an impact on the body of Ryugu’s ‘father’ that would have generated enough heat to melt the ice that had remained frozen inside for eons, and at the same time, would have created fractures in the rock that emerged as channels for liquid water to flow. On the Primitive Earth. If asteroids like Ryugu’s father were able to retain not only hydrated minerals but also large amounts of water ice for more than a billion years, their potential to ‘water’ other planets is much greater than expected. Current models of the formation of terrestrial planets could be underestimating the amount of water contributed by these bodies. According to this study, Ryugu-like planetesimals could have entered two to three times more water into Earth than is commonly estimated. This would have direct implications on our understanding of the origin of the oceans, the atmosphere and in general the conditions that made it possible for us all to be living here. Images | NASA Hubble Space Telescope Carl Wang In Xataka | The last asteroid loaded with precious metals to graze the Earth escaped us. For the next one we already have a plan

Something has hit a Boeing 737, injuring the pilot. The truly unheard of: it happened at 11,000 meters

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A shattered windshield, a pilot with his arm covered in cuts, and United Airlines Flight 1093 diverted for an emergency landing. The plane that covered the route from Denver to Los Angeles has become the aeronautical mystery of the moment after, apparently, something hit the cockpit at 11,000 meters above sea level. What we know. The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating an incident that occurred Thursday with a Boeing 737 MAX 8 flying over Moab, Utah, at cruising speed. The plane was traveling at an altitude of 36,000 feet when a suspected impact occurred in the cockpit. Photos of the incident show the captain’s side windshield completely splintered, the plane’s center console splattered with glass, and the pilot’s arm covered in small cuts and abrasions. According to initial reports, the captain “thought they had been hit by a piece of metallic space debris.” When they made an emergency landing in Salt Lake City, they ended up discovering a “3.5-inch” impact on the outer panel of the windshield, but the cabin did not depressurize. Space junk? The plane’s windshield has been sent to NTSB laboratories for analysis, but researchers are not working on the hypothesis that it was a space debris impact, but rather part of a more mundane object that also flies higher than airplanes: a weather balloon. Although space junk be a growing problemthe United States Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) considers the risk “minuscule” of a piece of satellite or rocket hitting an airplane. That it also injures a person on board has a probability of “less than one in a billion.” The famous popularizer Scott Manley points out one of the main reasons for skepticism: modern satellites are designed to disintegrate into small pieces. Upon reaching cruising altitudes, these pieces are no longer hypersonic and have low impact energy. So a balloon? If it wasn’t space debris, what could have broken the windshield and injured the pilot? One of the exterior images of the plane shows, in addition to the broken windshield, dozens of small marks and dents on the metal fuselage of the plane, just above the window, which could be an indication that they encountered a hail storm. Hail is rare at 11,000 meters, but not impossible. However, the NTSB is working on the line of investigation that it was “a piece of a weather balloon data packet,” according to the specialized website AVBrief. These balloons and their payloads usually operate at 25,000-40,000 meters above sea level. Of course: if the piece was still tied to a balloon, it is strange that the pilot confused it with space junk. The windshield failed. Whatever hit the plane, the photos suggest the windshield didn’t do its job. The cabin windows of a 737, Manley explains, have multiple structural layers: glass on the outside and inside, with a polymer layer in between. The impact did not cause depressurization, indicating that the main structure and polymer layer held, but the inner glass layer fractured violently, projecting “glass dust” and small fragments toward the pilot, and causing the abrasions and cuts seen in the photos. The crew descended to 26,000 feet after the incident to reduce the pressure differential over the damaged window, and landed without further complications. The definitive answer as to what hit Flight 1093 will have to wait for the forensic analysis the NTSB is conducting on that shattered windshield. Images | JonNYC In Xataka | Three large pieces of space debris reenter every day: “one day our luck will run out and they will fall on someone”

In 1901, Russian explorers found the corpse of a frozen mammoth. What happened to his meat is a mystery

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Although we are trying to bring them backthousands of years ago mammoths disappeared from the face of the Earth. However, for centuries, humans fed on its flesh, created tools with their bones and were protagonists in the stories that were drawn on the walls. Now, although they disappeared about 4,000 years ago, there are stories that claim that less than 100 years ago, there were those who ate mammoth meat. Its flavor? Like a sirloin of the time. Of course, there is quite a bit of ‘sauce’ that masks this culinary story. The Berezovka mammoth. Otto Ferdinandovich Harz was a Russian-German naturalist who, at the beginning of the 20th century, participated in the famous Siberian excavation of 1901 in which the Berezovka mammoth. It is about one of the best preserved specimensif not the best, because he died when he was between 45 and 50 years old in the Permafrost, more than 44,000 years ago. That’s how they found it. The most superficial part, the skull, had been gnawed by wolves, but look at the state of the buried paw The peculiarity. This exposure to extreme temperatures allowed researchers to find a piece in enviable conditions. The wolves had eaten some of the meat, but the carcass was complete and even herbs in its mouth and 12 kilos of food in its stomach were recovered. The conditions allowed us to determine that the skin was a reddish brown color, with curly hair about 50 centimeters long, a 35 centimeter tail, a penis in good condition and a layer of fat nine centimeters thick, key to withstanding low temperatures. The size? 2.8 meters high by just over four meters long. Reconstruction of the mammoth at the time of its death “Appetizing“Unearthing the animal was not quick. The researchers set up a tent at the excavation point and got to work. Here we entered turbulent terrain because legends begin. Nobody was there on those cold Siberian nights to see what was being cooked, but there are those who point out that there was mammoth meat in that casserole. Due to the good conservation of the meat, the rumor was that the members of the expedition ate part of the mammoth to last the nights. But there’s a twist: it turns out that although it didn’t look bad, when it thawed, the smell could be nauseating. Even seasoned, it was too much for the human nose and, although jokingly they dared to try it (after a story which points to alcohol consumption as a trigger), it seems that in the end they gave it to the dogs at the camp. The Explorers Club. Another story goes in the opposite direction: after arriving at St. Petersburg Zoological Museumwhere you can see both the remains and a faithful representation of the mammoth at the time of its death, Otto began to sort through the remains and realized that the meat was of no use. Therefore, he organized a dinner for colleagues. The requirement? That these also carried something from prehistory. Evidence that they ate mammoth meat from 44,000 years ago? None, but the story is good. Same as that of New York Explorers Club. It turns out that, according to legends, the explorers of 1901 were not the only recent humans to have tasted mammoth meat. Founded in 1904, the Explorers Club of New York is a society dedicated to the exploration of land, sea, air and space (more recently, of course). It was created to support exploration exploits and has notable and honored members such as Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Jane Goodall, Richard Garriott either James Cameronamong many others. Part of a room at the ‘Explorers CLub’. Humble. Myth. Anyone who makes a documented and outstanding contribution to scientific knowledge through field expeditions can be a member. Aside from that adventurous spirit, what its members share are annual banquets in which the menu is… exotic. has been eaten polar bear or seal babies (to comment on this), but also crocodile tail, caramelized yak and a large number of insects fried, in quesadillas, baked, or in dessert form. What if they didn’t eat dodo? It’s because there wasn’t, wow. Dinner at the club What they are said to have eaten was mammoth: woolly mammoth discovered in Alaska. Supposedly, it was Roosevelt and Armstrong who, at the 1951 dinner, tasted this ancient meat. They were going to eat meat megatheriumwhich was a kind of enormous sloth, but it seems that a misinterpretation by a magazine that covered the dinner led them to think that “megaterium” was another term for “mammoth”, so it went down in history as, that day, they ate mammoth at the prestigious event. The turn. It turns out, and here comes the twist, that a member of the club was not going to be able to attend and asked that they give him his portion in a jar so he could keep it. He put “megatherium meat” and took it to the Bruce Museum in Greenwich. He left it there, but fate wanted it to end up at the Peabody Museum of Natural History and, in 2014, some researchers performed DNA tests to see what the hell it was. It didn’t matter if it was a mammoth: the fact that in 1951 they had had megatherium for dinner would still be just as impressive. Well, neither a mammoth… nor a giant sloth: the analysis showed that it was turtle meat. And not a Pleistocene turtle, but a green sea turtle that, yes, is protected and in danger of extinction, but not extinct. The mammoth meatball. Legend pointed to this similarity between the modern sirloin and mammoth meat, but in the absence of documents, it seems that any consumption of mammoth in the last 4,000 years is difficult to believe. What is known is that, in 1979, a paleontologist who discovered a bison from 50,000 years ago He couldn’t resist the temptation of making a good stew with its meat. It wouldn’t smell … Read more

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