lit Archives - usatoday24

The success of Artemis II has lit China’s space fire. Now, your space station will be twice as big

May 5, 2026 by usatoday24

All powers have embarked on the new space race and Artemis II It has been the lighthouse that demonstrates the interest that continues to arouse in sending humans outside our borders. Aside from rockets, in low orbit humanity has one of the most exclusive laboratories in the universe: the International Space Station. While the long-standing facility awaits dismantling, China has just sent a message with its Tiangong space station. Soon, it will be twice as big. Ambition. When China was left out of the International Space Station project, it got to work on its own facility. The Tiangong It began to take shape in the 2000s and launched its central module into low orbit in 2021. Other modules have been added designed for Chinese astronauts to investigate in an environment that, until now, was forbidden to them. Since then, it has become a symbol of the ambition of the Chinese space program. Also of the speed at which they are completing goalswith round trip rocket tests and plans for build, together with Russia, a lunar station. Despite everything, he has a problem. It is considerably smaller than the ISS and has a mass of just 100 tons, a pressurized volume of 340 m3 with the capacity to house a crew of three astronauts. Expanding the Tiangong. The ISS can support a crew of seven astronauts, has triple the pressurized volume capacity and a mass of more than 420 tons. If China wants to get involved in space research, it had to do something, and its response has come in the form of a project to expand the Tiangong. How has informed state television CCTV, the station will go from being a ‘T’-shaped structure with three modules to a cross-shaped one with six modules. Its mass will be approximately 180 tons and, although it will remain smaller than the ISS, it will have the capacity to equal the astronauts on a permanent mission: six. If the plans are fulfilled, the three current modules will be joined by a fourth that will have multiple docking ports that will give rise to future laboratory units, increasing the potential to six modules. At the moment, there is no date for this expansion, but it is estimated that work will begin around 2027 and will be a Long March 5B the rocket that will transport what is necessary. Since its T-shaped module was completed, astronauts have performed more than 260 experiments and 26 spacewalks. Exclusiveness. China spent 2025 launching rockets, culminating in a month of December in which they broke all their launch records in a stress test for your multiple mission points. With plans to expand their space station, they show that they are committed to this new era of research and exploration, being something that arrives just when the International Space Station remains in question. Tiangong has remained an exclusive laboratory for Chinese researchers, but if it suddenly becomes the only station in low orbit, China is the one that has the access key so that foreign astronauts can carry out their work in those special conditions. On April 22, the Chinese Manned Space Flight Agency already commented that two Pakistan Air Force pilots would be trained as reserve astronauts and one would travel to Tiangong. He will be the first non-Chinese astronaut to do so, although there are already other astronauts from Hong Kong and Macau who will perform the same process. It is something that responds to China’s intention to promote cooperation projects with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, but without forgetting that the Tiangong is Chinese and, as we say, they have the keys to the doors… and the right of admission. Scrap. While the Asian giant announces the good news around its station, on the other side of the world a dismantling process of the ISS is still scheduled for 2031. The plan is that NASA use a vehicle exclusive to SpaceX to guide the ISS to a space cemetery somewhere in the Pacific. In recent months there has been a lot of discussion about whether it is a better idea to dismantle it, turn it into scrap metal or use it as a portbut at this point, the plan continues its course and it is possible that, sooner rather than later, Tiangong will remain the only manned space station in low Earth orbit. In Xataka | Europe has grown tired of being NASA’s “supporting actor.” And that is why it is starting to work with China

a “galaxy” that never lit up

January 9, 2026 by usatoday24

If a galaxy is, above all, a collection of stars, what do we do when we find something that looks like a galaxy, but doesn’t have one? That’s the question it poses. Cloud-9an object detected in the nearby cosmic environment that defies common definitions. There are no explosions or flashes, just a silent cloud whose existence invites us to look at the first steps of galactic formation in a different way. What the researchers have identified is a type of object that had been in the realm of theory for years. Cloud-9 fits into the category of so-called RELHICa primitive cloud of neutral hydrogen associated with a halo of dark matter that never became a galaxy. According to NASAit would be a vestige of the first stages of galactic formation, preserved to this day in the local universe. Hubble as definitive proof. The key to the discovery was not to find something new, but to confirm an absence with an unprecedented level of precision. Where radio telescopes had detected hydrogen, Hubble found no trace of stars, not even the faintest ones. That combination of data ruled out the hypothesis of a dim dwarf galaxy and placed Cloud-9 in a different category. “Seeing that there are no stars is what shows that the theory is correct,” said Alejandro Benitez-Llambay, principal investigator of the program. “It tells us that we have found in the local universe a primordial block that never formed.” Cloud-9 is located about 14 million light years from Earth, in the vicinity of the spiral galaxy Messier 94, with which it appears to maintain a physical relationship. Its structure is compact and almost spherical, a rare feature among known hydrogen clouds in the nearby environment. The core is made up of neutral hydrogen and has a diameter of approximately 4,900 light years. Radio measurements indicate a mass of gas equivalent to around a million suns and, from that gas and assuming that the pressure of the material itself compensates for the gravity of the halo, the team estimates that the associated dark matter would be around 5 billion solar masses. When dark matter is not enough. Cloud-9 fits into a scenario long anticipated by theory, but difficult to verify: structures dominated by dark matter that manage to retain gas without transforming it into stars. For researchers, this type of object acts as a missing link between cosmological simulations and the observable universe. The cloud illustrates that not all dark matter halos evolve into luminous galaxies. Some are trapped in an intermediate state, offering a direct window into the processes that regulate when and how star formation is triggered. The object first appeared three years ago in a hydrogen gas survey by the Chinese FAST radio telescope, as a discrete signal on the fringes of Messier 94. Subsequent observations with the Green Bank Telescope and the Very Large Array reinforced the detection, but did not resolve its nature. Detecting these types of systems is especially complex because nearby, luminous objects tend to eclipse them, and because clouds can lose gas as they move through intergalactic space, further reducing their visibility. In addition, high-resolution radio data show slight distortions in the gas, compatible with some type of interaction with the nearby galaxy. Between being born or disappearing. The authors of the study suggest that the fate of Cloud-9 is not closed. A sufficient increase in mass would upset the current balance and push the gas toward star formation, something that has not happened so far. But there is also the possibility that the environment works against you. The proximity to Messier 94 could favor processes that remove part of the gas, further reducing its ability to evolve. In that case, Cloud-9 would end up dissipating without ever becoming a proper galaxy. The finding has also raised caution among researchers outside the study. Jacco van Loon, an astrophysicist at Keele University, has pointed out that other hydrogen clouds initially considered dark ended up showing unexpected stellar populations. In his opinion, proving that an object is really a relic of dark matter requires evidence that is difficult to obtain even with Hubble. This caution marks the next step of the work: expanding the search and using higher resolution observations to confirm whether Cloud-9 is an isolated case or part of a broader population. Images | POT | THAT In Xataka | If we want to colonize the Moon, we will most likely have to live in caves. And South Korea is already planning it

He left his tesla Cybertruck plugged in and went on vacation. Two weeks later, the vehicle no longer lit

August 1, 2025 by usatoday24

Imagine the scene. You have a tesla and you are about to go on vacation. The trip will be by plane, so you face an immediate decision:leave the car plugged in During the two weeks you will be out or wait to connect it when returning? If you follow the manufacturer’s recommendations, the answer is clear: it is best to leave it plugged in. That was exactly what Aj Esguerra did, resident in Arizona. The official advice followed to the letter. But when he returned home after his break, he ran into an unpleasant surprise: his Tesla Cybertruck did not respond. This is what they tell in Motorpasion Mexico. What failed? We go in parts. What happened exactly to cybertruck At first glance, everything seemed in order. As the user explains in a group of Tesla ownersthe charger worked, the car had been left with 79 % battery and the Tesla app showed that the load limit It was set at 80 %. But when returning on vacation, Aj Esguerra encountered the last thing one would expect from a connected vehicle: a completely inert cybertruck. “I need help: we were out two weeks and when returning, the Cybertruck does not turn on at all,” he explained. I couldn’t even open the doors. He restarted the charger – the blue light went to flash in red – and began to consider hypotheses: “I live in Arizona and this week we have had record temperatures. Could the battery have overheated and damaged the battery?” AJ contacted the technical service through the app and, as he said, the answer was immediate. “The Tesla service is on its way. They responded quickly through the application and received a call immediately,” he explained. The technicians managed to access the interior of the vehicle, put it in a provisional way and They transferred to a service center For a more complete diagnosis. There came the final explanation. The problem was not the battery, nor the heat, nor an error when programming the load. The failure was in a key component of the Cybertruck electrical system: the Power conversion system (PCS). According to Esguerra, the technicians ruled out that the breakdown was related to having left the car plugged in. In fact, they reiterated that this is still the recommended practice. The good news: Tesla took over the reparation without any cost for the owner. Thus, the vehicle worked normally. What is the power converter and what does it do As Skill-Lync points outthe SCP plays a fundamental role: it is in charge of managing how electrical energy in the vehicle enters and is distributed. When we connect the car to a power outlet, the SCP transforms that alternating current (CA) in direct current (CC) To load the main, high voltage battery. But he doesn’t stay there. Power conversion system He is also responsible for keeping the car’s auxiliary systems – such as lights, internal electronics or sensors – through a second conversion: high voltage to a lower voltage. It is composed of several key elements: CC-CC converters, filters, electronic controllers and a liquid cooling system to avoid overheating. In the cybertruck is located in the auxiliary compartment Known as the “Ancillary Bay”, which requires the removal of some sheets to access it. The official recommendations Tesla makes it clear in the cybertruck user manual: The most important thing to preserve the high voltage battery is leave the vehicle plugged in When not used. This is literally indicated by the manufacturer, which warns that the car, even off, continues to consume energy progressively. And if the load falls to zero, damage that does not cover the warranty can occur. In addition, Tesla recommends not waiting for the load level to be low to plug the car. In fact, he affirms that the system pays better if it is kept loaded regularly, even if it is not used. And in case of a prolonged trip, it advises to calculate that the vehicle loses around 1 % battery per day, although that figure can vary depending on the temperature or vehicle configuration. The background message is clear: nothing happens to leave it plugged for weeks, provided that everything works correctly. Although, as we have seen in this case, sometimes things do not go as expected. So, is it safe to leave the car plugged for weeks? In theory, yes. It is what Tesla recommends and is what Aj Esguerra did. But the case of his cybertruck shows that, in practice, Other factors can come into play They escape user control. For example, a peak of voltage in the electricity grid, a punctual failure in the charger or overheating due to extreme temperatures can trigger a chain of errors difficult to detect if no one is there to intervene. In the absence of supervision, a minor incident may end up becoming a major problem. Esguerra himself acknowledged that, before leaving, forgot to schedule the load for the freshest hours. The Cybertruck was carrying day, in the middle of heat wave in Arizona, for several days in a row. Although Tesla did not attribute the failure to heat or continuous load, that context helps to understand how certain environmental factors can increase risk, especially in extreme climates. So, leaving the car plugged in is recommended. But it is also to ensure that the charger works correctly, that the environment is safe and that the electrical installation is protected against unforeseen events. In that balance between trust and prevention is where you should really reduce the possibilities of meeting any type of inconvenience. Images | Formulate (CC By-SA 2.0) | Tesla In Xataka | Norway has tested the real autonomy of electric cars. His verdict: Tesla and Chinese brands are ahead

Telefónica has a plan to become a giant. Has lit the alarms among local operators

May 21, 2025 by usatoday24

The Spanish telecommunications market enters a new phase of concentration. With Masorange already underway and A possible movement between Telefónica and Vodafonethe president of the first, Marc Murtra, defends a consolidation of the sector to win scale. But Aotec – the association that groups more than 150 local telecommunications operators – has been more than reluctant to The declared objective of Telefónica to create a “European champion”. What has happened. During the presentation of the Congress AOTEC 2025which will be held in June in Madrid, the main representatives of the Association have raised the tone, as he has collected Digital economy. Its executive director, Gonzalo Elguezábal, has been clear: “We are not against consolidation, but that it is forced by legal or regulatory means.” Between the lines. AOTEC does not oppose concentration per se. What rejects is the political and regulatory thrust to facilitate great mergers, to the detriment of an alternative model that is already working: Small operators, with local implementation. Direct attention, without subcontractors. Physical stores that open where the big ones close. For his part, María Jesús Cauhé, vice president of AOTEC, has valued that “close operators are generating more and more business, compared to the destruction of employment that is taking place in large operators.” A growth that, remarks, occurs especially in the rural environment. The context. The notice is not free. In recent months, the CNMC has approved an average rise of 20% in wholesale prices of the Framework model, for which alternative operators pay Telefónica for using their infrastructure. This measure, according to AOTEC, lacks technical and economic justification, and “can strangle the competitiveness of the sector.” The dossier has already reached the European Commission, and the association is confident for Brussels to force a review. The pulse. Beyond prices, what is at stake is the future of the operator ecosystem. AOTEC defends a decentralized, competitive and rooted model in the territory, in front of a vision that Prioritize European concentration and scale To compete better worldwide. Antonio García Vidal, president of the association, summarizes it as follows: “Where others see fear, we see opportunity. The bigger they are, worse they attend.” The contrast. While the big ones seek efficiency based on mergers, local operators put the focus in the vicinity, use of proximity and capillarity in areas where no one else wants to be. According to AOTEC, the consolidation proposed by Telefónica does not guarantee a better service, and can translate into less real competition and more client disconnection. The Murtra Teleco is complicated by his great project. Of course there are many pages to write in that book. Outstanding image | Telefónica In Xataka | 100 years after his birth, Telefónica faces the greatest existential dilemma in its history: what wants to be older

Log In

Sign In

Forgot password?

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections