heaven

A huge fuel tank has fallen from heaven in Argentina. And we already have suspicious: a Chinese rocket

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The afternoon is almost always quiet in the small Chaco town of Puerto Tirol, north of Argentina. On Thursday, that tranquility was interrupted by an object fallen from heaven. He had appeared on a rural property whose owner did not hesitate to call the police. The police cordoned off the area waiting for firefighters. All the investigations are already made on the Internet. What is known. The object measures 1.70 meters long by 1.20 meters in diameter. It is metallic, has a cylindrical shape and is covered with carbon fiber or a similar compound material, so it is surely a pressurized propellant tank, a piece of the space rockets known as Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV). When a satellite or a rocket re -enters the atmosphere, most of its body is burned by pressure. These containers, on the other hand, are designed to support very high pressures, so it is not strange that they survive intact. Or judging by the photos, somewhat chamuscados and frayed. What is suspected. The first identification came from the hand of the Caribbean Astronomy Society (SAC) in A Facebook post. They confirmed that it looks like a piece of space vehicle, specifically a COPV. And they pointed out that, of the most recent releases, the main candidate is a Chinese rocket released the day before. The analysis of the trajectory seems to confirm suspicions. The astrophysic and renowned Jonathan McDowell satellite tracker He corroborated this hypothesisstating that the object is “probably” the tank of the fourth stage of a Chinese jielong-3 rocket. From China to Chaco. The private company China Rocket had launched on Wednesday the eighth mission of its Jielong-3 rocket. The Y8 mission took off From a maritime platform At 07:56 UTC to put 12 satellites of the Geely Future Mobility constellation in orbit, a positioning and communications service of the Chinese automotive giant Geely. After displaying the satellites, the fourth stage of the rocket continued to orbit the earth until 9:00 UTC of the next day, when It was sighted disintegrated in the sky 15 kilometers from Puerto Tyrol. Most likely, it will not be completely burned and the deposit survived the fall. A questionable history. China has earned in recent years. The most notorious case is that of the CZ-5B state rocket, whose central stage of more than 20 tons is designed to reach the orbit and then fall to the earth unpredictably within a period of days or weeks. The reality is that this behavior is changing, and both state and private companies are actively providing their rockets on the ability to actively extend, keeping some fuel and after deploying satellites. The problem is not that. But the space garbage, and that is that the Earth’s orbit has become a landfill. There are all kinds of dead satellites and rockets in the terrestrial orbit that gradually approach the earth due to atmospheric braking. With the rise of satellite megaconstellations, every day they re -enter the atmosphere an average of three large pieces of space garbage. And in this case they do it without any control. As a result, incidents in inhabited areas are increasingly frequent. In March 2024, a fragment of a battery pallet discarded from the International Space Station crossed the roof of a house. In January 2025, A half ton ring He appeared in a town in Kenya. In February, several fragments of a spacex rocket They fell near the city of Poland. The Earth is very large and mostly depopulated or covered with water, but it is a matter of time that something happens. Therefore, space agencies such as ESA They are promoting a commitment of “zero waste” to harden the regulations of their own missions. It is necessary, yes, a global consensus. Images | Llitory region In Xataka | The fireball that crossed Spain on Sunday will not be the last one: with 8,000 Starlinks in orbit, it will be a habitual show

Now there are giant comets generating electricity from heaven

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The West Coast of Ireland, as green as steep by the wind, has become the test bench of A novel idea: Replace wind turbines with giant comets. Generate electricity from the sky. Willing to find a Alternative to terrestrial wind turbinesResearchers at the University of Delft chose May County, in Ireland, to test a system called Kitepower. Instead of wind turbines, Kitepower generates electricity by 60 square meter comets that rise to 425 meters from the ground. Why Ireland. To put the invention to the limit. “The wind conditions on the west coast of Ireland allow us to exceed the limits of our system, to make it more robust and reliable,” Andrei Luca explained to RTEChief of Operations of Kitepower. “If it has worked in Ireland, it will probably work around the world.” This is how the May County, to the west of the country, has become the first air -transported energy test site in the world, which those responsible for Kitepower describe as a potential “change of play” in the sector. How it works. With an ingenious “Yoy effect”. The kite, subject to a cable rolled in a drum, ascends by drawing an eight in the sky for 45 seconds. This flight pattern, inspired by a kitesurf candle, maximizes wind traction, generating a force between 2.5 and 4 tons. This force rotates the drum, which in turn is connected to a generator on land, producing electricity that is stored in a battery system. Once the 45 seconds have elapsed, the kite is leveled to minimize wind resistance, which allows the cable to be collected using only a fraction of the energy generated. The cycle is repeated again and again, generating a net renewable energy gain. The system, which combines the KITESURF movements with a GPS guidance system, is capable of producing up to 30 kilowatts of electricity per hour for each kite. What improves wind turbines. According to Kitepower, his comets are twice as efficient that wind turbines when capturing wind energy, because they take advantage The winds of great altitudeinaccessible for conventional wind turbines. But the truly interesting thing is that the whole system fits in a six -meter container, which makes it a portable system that can be deployed anywhere accessible by a truck, without the need for heavy foundations or towers. Islands and remote places. After the tests in Ireland, Kitepower has launched A pilot project in the Netherlands with the construction company Dur Vermeer, where the system is being used to load excavators and electric trucks in an infrastructure project. The objective of the company is to bring technology to remote communities and the islands of the European Union, many of which depend on the importation of diesel, with the cost that that entails. The comets deployed in Ireland have shown that airborne wind energy could be a cheap, clean and renewable alternative. Image | Kitepower In Xataka | A comet for large ships: This is how this company projects to save 20% fuel and emissions on your trips

The “highway to heaven” is a monster of 270 viaducts and 25 tunnels

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In the 80s, the Chinese road network had a long way forward. They had no highways, above all, because the bulk of merchandise transport was made by their Rich Railway Network. However, something began to change in the mid-decade with the Shanghai-Jiading highway, and in 2005, the Minister of Transportation was He committed to build 85,000 kilometers in the next 30 years. Of All that networka small segment is starring one of the most imposing highways in the world. The “staircase to heaven” from China. Yaxi Expressway. That of “All roads lead to Rome“In China, it is applied to Beijing. Yaxi Expresswaya section known as “staircase to heaven.” It is a 240 -kilometer segment that joins the cities of Xichang and Ya’an and that built Between 2007 and 2012 for about 3.3 billion dollars. To put it in context, the average cost Construction of a kilometer of new highway in Spain is 8.8 million euros. It depends on many things, but we are talking about an important extra cost in the case of this highway, and seeing how it is, it seems totally justified. SOBRADA. Within those 240 kilometers, the Yaxi Expressway account With 270 viaducts to save considerable slopes, but also has 25 tunnels. In total, the latter add up to 41 kilometers underground. One of those tunnels is that of Nibashan, who has the honor of being the deepest of China by descending about 1,650 meters in just 10 kilometers. Necessary? Yes, since a journey that previously took hours around a mountain is now completed in just ten minutes. But everything that goes down, must have previously upload, and it is precisely why this highway is known as the “staircase to heaven.” The reason is to rise to more than 2,430 meters, with one of the sections raising 7.5 meters per kilometer traveled. There are 51 kilometers of continuous ascent with an average slope of 3%. That ascension, as well as the complete route if you prefer, can be seen perfectly in this video: Surrounding mountains. In that video there is something very interesting that we can see: the spiral -shaped tunnels, but it is something that is also better appreciated in this image of the Maps tour: The reason is that there are two mountains that do not go through as such, but are “surrounding.” With the idea of minimizing the impact on the environment, this way of drawing tunnels was considered the ideal in a complicated area. In the images in which the relief is shown you can see sections of that ‘snail’ appearing from time to time in the mountain: Beyond muscle. This highway is interesting beyond its technical achievements. Because left the virguerías aside, the Yaxi Expressway allows to connect a mountainous and traditionally isolated area that allows the local economy to develop and that ethnic minorities such as Han, Hui or Tibetans have integration easier. Difficult. And, from the point of view of a user of the road, driving on this road is complicated. The weather is changing due to the change of height we experience, it has very technical slow curves and a great slope of both ascent and down, and that difficulty can be seen in various moments of the video that we share above. But well, beyond this, the “highway to heaven” has become a tourist attraction in the region and is another sample of the Powerful civil infrastructure in China. In addition, what most attracts the attention of all this is how the country has undertaken a lot of Extremely complex works In just two or three decades. AND If we talk about bridgesthe thing shoots. Image | Xinhuavideo/New China TV, Chinese curious In Xataka | Three highways, 20 access ramps: China has the most diabolical exchanger in the world in Huangjuewan

For the first time we have pointed to heaven with a 3,200 megapixel camera. In just 10 hours he has done several years

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The world’s largest digital camera is already operational. And what he has seen in just a few hours of trial is simply overwhelming. The Vera Rubin Observatory. Located in the privileged Watchtower of Cerro Pachón, Chile, the Vera Observatory C. Rubin points to the sky with a digital camera of the size of a small car. Its 3,200 megapixel sensor is ever built. He has been developing more than two decades, but the wait has been worth it. What is capable of capturing They are not simple “beautiful photos” of the universe. In just 10 hours of operations, the preliminary results already exceed years of work from other observatories. What he has seen in 10 hours. In this very brief period of time. The Rubin Observatory has been able to capture 10 million galaxies. It is only 0.05% of the 20,000 million galaxies that their operators expect to catalog during their main mission. But also has discovered 2,104 asteroids Never seen before. This figure is surprising if we compare it with the approximately 20,000 asteroids that discover all other observatories in the world throughout a whole year. Rubin has done 10% of that work in less than half a day. Among them, he has found seven asteroids near Earth, but all out of our trajectory. Trifida nebulous and lagoon seen by the LSST camera of the Vera Rubin Observatory The biggest camera in the world. Financed by the National Foundation of Sciences (NSF) and the United States Department of Energy (DOE), the Rubin Observatory promises “to capture more information about our universe than all optical telescopes of all history together”, in the words of Brian Stone, director of the NSF. It is a matter of brute force. Mounted on a telescope of 8.4 meters in diameter is the space-time research chamber as a legacy for posterity (LSST), a technological feat of 2,800 kg. Each image that captures an area of ​​the sky equivalent to 45 full moons. And who was Vera Rubin. The Observatory owes his name to the American astronomer which contributed the most conclusive evidence of the existence of dark matter, the invisible substance that seems to constitute 85% of the matter of the cosmos. The dynamic and ultra -precise map that will create the Rubin Observatory for the next ten years will play a key role to understand its nature. The Observatory will generate approximately 20 data terabytes every night. Throughout its ten years of useful life, the final data set will reach the figure of 500 petabytes. Only in its first year will collect more data than all previous optical observatories together. In Xataka | Caltech has published the “stronger” tests that there is an unknown planet in the solar system

“With Spherex we will literally map all heaven”

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NASA has put a new space observatory in orbit: Spherex. This cone -shaped telescope has the mission of creating a complete and detailed map of the sky in infrared light every six months, complementing the observations of the powerful James Webb space telescope. Panoramics of the observable universe. Spherex are the acronym of spectro-pHotometer for the history of the universe, efoch of reion and ices explorer. With its ability to observe the full sky in 102 different infrared colors, the space telescope will complement the findings of the Webb, whose specialty is the deep and detailed observations of specific regions of the universe. In NASA Words: “We will literally map all heaven in 102 infrared colors for the first time in the history of humanity.” Another launch by Spacex. Spherex took off on March 11 In a Falcon 9 rocket to enter polar orbit. He did it from the Vandenberg base of the space force in California next to the Punch Mission, also from NASA. Punch (Polarimeter to Unify The Corona and Heliosphere) are four small satellites designed to study the outer atmosphere of the sun, its crown. Specifically, how the solar wind is generated, responsible for geomagnetic storms that can affect astronauts, satellites and terrestrial infrastructure. Unraveling cosmic inflation. One of the great Spherex telescope objectives It will be to study what happened in the first moments of the universe after the Big Bang: an exponential growth phenomenon known as cosmic inflation. Spherex will map the distribution of more than 450 million galaxies to understand how this event ended up influencing the current structure of the cosmos. Colors and signs of life. Thanks to its infrared spectrograph, Spherex will divide the light captured in hundreds of colors to measure distances, chemical compositions and the historical evolution of the brightness of the universe. In addition to creating the most detailed and colorful infrared map of the cosmos to date, the telescope will look for vital molecules for life, such as water and carbon dioxide, hidden in interstellar clouds of gas and dust inside our galaxy. Why a cone. Spherex’s cone -shaped design is not just aesthetic. It is a passive cooling system that does not need electricity or refrigerants to maintain the cold ship, which will allow it to detect the weak infrared emissions of distant objects without thermal interference. Despite its global vision of the cosmos, Spherex will capture light from galaxies never observed individually, giving clues about objectives of interest for more detailed studies by the Webb and other space telescopes. Images | POT In Xataka | The European Hera probe has just sent us its first photos for the story: we orbit Mars

A Polish called the police for a fallen tank from heaven. It is from a spacex rocket that rented without control in Europe

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The second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket of Spacex rented last night without control over Europe, illuminating the sky of several Central European countries with flashes as they burned in the atmosphere. Not all the rocket disintegrated. This morning they found a deposit in Poland. Night show. From Germany, From Denmark, From Poland itself. They were not even 5 in the morning, but on social networks they began to appear videos of the Metal remains Burning with drama in the night sky of central Europe. Atmospheric resentments are a show that we are increasing 13.8 meters long by 3.66 meters in diameter. A tank fell in Poland. It is not usual for a Spacex rocket to resent without control, so it is even less common for him to do so in a place as densely populated as Europe. But the rocket did not disintegrate completely and part of the remains fell, without causing damage, on the outskirts of Poznań, a city of half a million inhabitants west of Poland. At 9:20 in the morning, an employee of an industrial plant He warned the police that an object had “fallen from heaven” in its facilities. It was a pressure tank coated with carbon fiber (COPV) identical to the one that appeared on a Washington farm in 2021. Trajectory of the reentry of the rocket on Europe according to astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell On that occasion, it was confirmed that it was A helium deposit of the second stage of a Falcon 9. The object, of a meter and a half of length, is pressurized to 400 bars and is capable of resisting extreme conditions, including the reentry. In the Washington farm left a crater of 10 centimeters deep on the earth, a sample of the speed at which he re -entered the atmosphere. It was a rocket failure. Spacex is the Ryanair of Space, the company that launches most rockets with a difference: two to three per week. Does this mean that we will have to go out with a helmet to the street? Not necessarily. Like most rockets (China has notorious exceptions), The second stage of the Falcon 9 fuel reserve to exorbitite on the ocean with a motor re -desence once the load is deployed. In this case, the remains that fell on Europe are due to a technical failure in the launch of the Starlink 11-4 mission, which He failed to readece his engine to exorbitar on February 2. The rocket spin around the earth to enter the atmosphere naturally due to gravity. He did it on February 19, 3:43 UTC, in a trajectory extended to Ukraine and that coincides with the remains found in Poland. Images | Ludi-e, Adam Borucki (X) In Xataka | A strange object appeared in a Glamping of North Carolina. They were the remains of a Spacex spacecraft

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