mysterious

More than 40 years ago we discovered a mysterious hexagon on Saturn. Today there is only one possible explanation

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If there is a planet within the Solar system as enigmatic as it is striking, it is Saturn. And not just because of their rings, probably caused by a collision of their moons. But it’s not the only thing that baffles the scientific community: if you look at Saturn’s north pole from space, you will discover a perfect geometric shape: a hexagon. 30,000 kilometers in diameter. To get the idea, two planets could fit inside it. Of that mysterious hexagon We know that it is there at least since 1981, when the Voyager 2 probe flew over the planet, leaving testimony of its existence. It is not that nature is not capable of making geometric shapes, but the hexagon is not exactly the most common. The latest and most solid hypothesis that attempts to elucidate what Saturn’s hexagon is to date was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offering a possible explanation: the internal dynamics of the planet’s atmosphere. The hypothesis. What the research team from Harvard’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences suggests is that the hexagon is not a surface structure, but rather is generated by rotating deep convection inside Saturn. The turbulence of the deep layers of its atmosphere generates vortices that push and bend a high-speed air current that surrounds the north pole, deforming it so much that it acquires its hexagonal shape. The hexagon is not the storm, it is the trace of what happens underneath. Qor why it’s important. Because we have been carrying around the mystery of the hexagon since 1981 and none of the previous theories fit as well as this one, capable of generating the hexagon from basic physics without artifice. Also, it answers a question: how far do Saturn’s winds reach? According to this model, to the bottom. On the other hand, if this explanation is correct, it changes the perception of how we understand the dynamics of giant planets, not just Saturn. Saturn hexagon with images from the Cassini probe. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute context. Before this 2020 theory, there were two clear sides: The forced Rossby wave proposed that the hexagon was an atmospheric wave held in place by an anticyclone, visible south of the pole in Voyager 2 data. When the Cassini probe arrived at Saturn in 2004, there was no trace of that anticyclone. That of the surface jet suggested that the hexagon was a surface wind that, when it becomes unstable, undulates and adopts a polygon shape. The problem was that it needed a starting current. Furthermore, it places the phenomenon in superficial layers, which contradicts the gravitational data of Cassini’s Grand Finale whose gravitational data suggest that Saturn’s winds maintain their intensity up to 100,000 bars of pressure. In both cases, they all reproduced the hexagon if you already gave them a base wind, but none of them generated it from scratch. How have they done it. The methodology is quite abstract, but roughly what they did was simulate a slice of Saturn, spinning it and heating it from below and letting physics act. No winds or hexes in the initial setup. So much the code used in the simulation like the data They are openly available, so anyone can reproduce and verify the results. Yes, but. The hypothesis developed by the Harvard team may be the best so far, but the paper itself recognizes Some objections to take into account. Thus, the simulation polygon is faster than what happens in reality, something that could be solved with a more powerful simulation. The simulation polygon moves faster than what happens in reality, something the authors attribute to the computational power available. Furthermore, the simulation only tests specific conditions and for a relatively short time: no one has yet verified whether the result holds under different parameters or on longer time scales. In Xataka | We have just discovered a true cosmic anomaly: an “invisible” galaxy made up almost 100% of dark matter In Xataka | A new “solar system” has just been discovered. There’s just one problem: it shouldn’t exist. Cover | NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

“Six. Four. Zero. Nine.” A mysterious radio has been repeating numbers in Iran since the start of the war, and no one knows why

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The short waves They were for decades one of the strangest territories on the radio planet: anyone with a cheap radio could hear metallic voices reciting meaningless numbers, repetitive melodies or absurd phrases that seemed straight out of a spy movie. During the Cold War, thousands of radio amateurs recorded these emissions mysterious things spread all over the world, many of them active for years without anyone officially knowing who was behind them. Some disappeared after the fall of the Soviet bloc. Others, surprisingly, they never left altogether. A voice in the middle of the war. I told the story this morning the financial times and begins shortly after the United States and Israel They will start their attacks against Iran on February 28. Then a sound began to be heard strange transmission on short wave directed at the country: a male voice in Persian that bursts through the static repeating “Tavajjoh” (attention) three times before reciting long sequences of numbers with an almost mechanical cadence. The emissions, detected by radio amateurs and signal trackers, apparently come from somewhere in Western Europe and are repeated twice a day for about an hour and a half. Although its exact origin has not been confirmed, former US intelligence officials consider it very likely that it is a emergency communication system to maintain contact with agents inside Iran at an especially sensitive time, when the war has raised the risks for any informant and the Iranian government has restricted access to the internet and other international communications. What the V32 station really is. The mysterious emission has been identified by observers like V32a call “number station”a type of shortwave transmission historically used by intelligence agencies to send encrypted orders to spies on the ground. The system works in an extremely simple way: the agent only needs a radio and a code book (the so-called one-time pads) to convert the figures heard into understandable messages. The station began broadcasting in Persian exactly coinciding with the start of the war and has already tried to be interfered with through electronic noises which probably come from Iranian jamming systems, but the mysterious voice has been limited to change frequency and continue with his reading of numbers. These types of broadcasts are almost impossible to completely neutralize, because anyone can tune in and because counterintelligence can only act if it detects a spy transcribing the message or if the operators make mistakes. The shadow of the Cold War. The pattern that this station follows is directly reminiscent of one of the most disturbing elements of 20th century espionage: the digital radios that proliferated during the cold war. For decades, services like the CIAthe KGB or the Stasi emitted metallic voices that recited numbers, letters or even melodies followed by coded sequences aimed at agents infiltrating enemy territory. These transmissions could heard around the world and yet its meaning was indecipherable to anyone who did not possess the proper key. Some stations became famous among radio amateurs for its peculiarities (childish voices, strange music or seemingly absurd phrases), but its logic was always the same: to offer an untraceable and extremely secure communication system. The method survived for decades because it was cheap, discreet and resistant even the most sophisticated espionage systems, and although the phenomenon decreased after the end of the Cold War never disappeared full. The Cold War Morse/Voice Generator is a machine that has been used in many well-known number stations Old, but it works. The reason why these stations continue to be useful in the 21st century is precisely their simplicity. If the internet goes down, if phones are tapped, or if digital communications are blocked, a simple shortwave radio still works and allows orders to be transmitted without leaving an electronic trace. For the secret services, it also offers additional benefits: The recipient can listen to the message in seconds, destroy their codebook immediately afterwards, and disappear without leaving any evidence. That simplicity makes even a single person well located can receive instructions capable of causing enormous consequences, from sabotage to more complex intelligence operations. By the way, messages are usually repeated several times to minimize the risk that the agent in question will have to expose himself for too long listening to the transmission. What could the mysterious voice be saying. Although they are all hypotheses and no one outside of their operators knows the real meaning of the sequences, former intelligence officials they point to several plausible possibilities. Emissions could serve to activate agents who remained waiting inside Iran, order evacuations to meeting points or even coordinate operations covered up during the conflict. There is also another more strategic interpretation: that the station is deliberately designed to sow doubts within Iranian counterintelligence, suggesting that there are high-level infiltrators awaiting instructions from the West. In that case, even without transmitting specific orders, the very existence of the station would force Tehran to mobilize cryptographers, researchers and resources to try to decipher a message that may never be understood. Weird, but still alive. Number stations are one of the few times when the normally invisible work of intelligence services becomes audible for anyone with a radio. Although they are much less common today than during the confrontation between blocs of the 20th century, they still there are transmissions regulars associated with countries such as Russia, Poland, Taiwan or North Korea. Some even preserve an almost ceremonial style, such as the Taiwanese station known as New Star Broadcastingwhich begins with a flute melody and ends by wishing “health and happiness” to its listeners before issuing coded numbers intended for agents on extremely sensitive missions. Iran and the difficulty. For the United States, maintaining intelligence networks inside Iran has always been especially complicatedpartly because it does not have an embassy in the country and because the Iranian security apparatus is one of the most vigilant in the world. That forces Western services to retain emergency communication methods capable of working when all else fails. … Read more

Make the “most mysterious book in the world” with dice and cards. How we are understanding the Voynich manuscript without deciphering a single line

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Voynich is an old acquaintance of this house: for years, we have been tracking (and gutting) each of the attempts to decipher the “most mysterious manuscript in the world.” They have all been unsuccessful and that includes, of course, the attempts to some of the sharpest minds of history. Now, however, we have a new idea. And, despite not solving absolutely anything, it sounds very good. What is the Voynich manuscript? Let’s start at the beginning: Between 1404 and 1438someone somewhere started writing a book in a language or code that no one has been able to decipher. A book that, since its rediscovery in 1912, has baffled everyone and especially cryptographers. Overall, this is an extraordinarily strange piece (full of illustrations of rare or non-existent plants, astrological symbols, strange creatures and naked women) about which we know only a handful of things. We know, for example, that it is a natural language (or a code related to a natural language) because complies with Zipf’s Lawan empirical regularity that only occurs in natural languages ​​and that describes the frequency of appearance of words. Invented languages ​​(especially languages ​​invented in the 15th century) do not comply. We have known this since the 60s, but little else. And people are still trying to figure it out? Yes, absolutely yes. The Voynichians are a group of people who are extremely passionate (and ‘insistent’) about their manuscript and, in fact, have members in almost every social strata in the wide world. An example is today’s protagonist. A few weeks ago, the magazine Cryptology public a job of Michael A. Greshko in which a new and very interesting idea was proposed. Greshko is a renowned science journalist, he is an editor at Science and has worked for media such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, Nature, Scientific American and National Geographic. He is someone who is risking part of his prestige on this, come on. And what does he propose? Greshko has exposed something called “Naibbe cipher”. Basically, it is an encryption system that allows languages ​​such as Italian or Latin to be transformed into a pseudo-writing that preserves properties of ‘voynichés’ (the ‘language’ of the manuscript). Respect, for example, things like glyph frequencies or word lengths. All this, with plausible cryptographic tools for the 15th century. And that’s precisely what’s interesting: Greshko doesn’t try to “read” the book; It attempts to demonstrate that, at that time and starting from a common language, a text similar to that of the manuscript could be constructed. How to make your own Voynich at home. According to the work of Cryptologiathe Naibbe method does things like break words into blocks (splits ‘gatto’ into ‘g’, ‘at’ and ‘to’), uses random systems (like dice or card rolls), and generates a homophonic cipher (ciphers specially designed to “counter the main deciphering tool for monoalphabetic substitutions, frequency analysis”). So, have we solved the problem? Not even close. As I said, Greshko has not deciphered the manuscript. He has simply looked for ways in which that manuscript could have been produced. For years, artificial intelligence algorithms have failed in the translation of the Voynich and, as the author explains, this may be because they do not know very well what to look for. Systems like Naibbe draw constructive possibilities that expand the options among which we can search. And in that sense, yes: Voynich is still much smarter than us. Although we don’t know for how long. Image | Gunnar Klack In Xataka | No, no “artificial intelligence” has deciphered the Voynich manuscript

China has unveiled its most mysterious vessel to date. And then the theories have begun, some very crazy

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Just two weeks ago China completed that plan for world domination that had staged at the end of summer through a military parade unparalleled. And he did it showing the Type 076 In its first tests, an unprecedented technological leap in the Chinese naval industry as it is an amphibious assault ship with electric propulsion and electromagnetic catapults. It turns out that there was a “one more thing”. Challenging the known. Yes, the appearance of a mysterious black trimaran in what appears to be the Huangpu shipyard has revealed for the first time the complete silhouette of a ship that China had been hiding for months under tarps and that until now was only known by satellite analysis. Its lines combine features typical of a surface ship with unmistakably underwater elements, giving shape to a hybrid design about 64 meters in length, designed to operate both in exposed navigation and in submersible mode, an architecture that radically expands the possibilities of stealth, range and survival against adversary sensors. Theories. They counted the TWZ analysts that the presence of a type propellant pump-jetvisible in the new imagereinforces the impression that acoustic discretion and efficiency have been prioritized during long journeys, while its sail with depth markings, snorkel or mast points to long immersion cycles and a behavior closer to that of a light submarine than to that of a simple unmanned surface vehicle. With or without humans. That has been the big question since the image was made public: the question of whether the ship operates with a crew or if it belongs to the new generation hybrid USV/UUV that China has begun to deploy in recent years. Its design, without a classic superstructure and with a minimal sail, supports the possibility of a vehicle capable of ssubmerge almost completelywhich would place it in an intermediate category between a semi-submersible drone and a small displacement submarine. The presence of draft marks on the sail and other areas of the hull suggests that total immersion is contemplated, and that the ship is somewhat more sophisticated than the semi-submersibles used in surveillance or infiltration operations. If it is confirmed that it is an unmanned system (or with a minimum crew) we would be faced with a notable jump in Chinese naval doctrine, which has been experimenting for years with distributed fleets of autonomous platforms capable of operating far from bases and with less political risk. Render seen in nets of the boat More hypotheses. One of the stronger theories maintains that this trimaran represents the Chinese evolution of the naval arsenal concept: a stealthy, difficult-to-detect, unmanned or reduced-crew vessel loaded with land-attack or anti-ship missiles that could surface, launch its salvo, and disappear again beneath the waves. In times of sensor proliferation, anti-satellite warfare and constant surveillance, such a platform would expand the Chinese navy’s depth of fire without exposing more valuable frigates or destroyers. Although the available image does not show a VLS system that confirms this function, the internal volume of the ship and its profile fit with the unofficial renders that have been circulating for years on a possible semi-submersible prototype capable of hiding its thermal and radar signal. If China were testing this concept, it would try to replicate the logic the United States explored decades ago: a “floating arsenal” that provides fire mass without compromising manned vessels. Unofficial render appeared on networks before the leaked image The drone mothership option. Another interpretation with increasing weight is that of a drone mothershipboth air and sea, an idea that would fit with the tactical revolution seen in the Black Sea, where Ukraine has shown the devastating potential of swarms launched from small platforms. In this case, the interior of the trimaran could house VTOL drones or ramp launchers for long-range loitering munitions similar to the Shahed, expanding China’s ability to saturate defenses or conduct remote attacks without compromising manned aircraft. The absence of a flight deck Conventional does not rule out this function: an internal catapult system or inclined launchers could be adapted without the need for an open hangar. This approach would make the ship a force multiplier within a distributed combat architecture that the PLAN has been cultivating for yearsdrawing inspiration from both the American model and recent lessons from the war in Ukraine. Secret missions. A third possibility is that it is a platform designed for special operationscapable of infiltrating equipment into archipelagos, reefs or highly monitored coastal areas without the acoustic and thermal signal of a conventional submarine. The ability to surface surf long distances and then submerge to conceal aligns with special forces doctrines that privilege silent penetration and discreet exfiltration. Similar vessels have been developed by the United States (like the Sealion) and for other navies operating in densely monitored environments. China, with its growing interest for projecting power in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Straitwould have a clear incentive to test vehicles capable of moving between islets and shallow waters where a standard submarine would be impractical. A test bench. It cannot be ruled out, however, that this trimaran is above all a prototype intended to experiment with technologies that will end up being integrated into other platforms. The recent history of the PLAN is full of test ships and experimental structures used to validate sensors, thrusters, stealth helmets or autonomous systems before scaling up production. Ambiguity is part of the message: by showing a ship of indeterminate purpose, China introduces uncertainty in adversary planning, forcing the United States, Japan and Australia to contemplate a whole collection of potential threats without being able to rule out any. In that sense, the opacity, reinforced by its black paint and the absence of official details, is part of the strategic game. A symptom. Be that as it may, for now there is only one certainty: the discovery of the image It does not dispel the mystery, but rather expands it. The ship represents a deliberate experiment with concepts that are redefining 21st … Read more

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard removed all their songs from Spotify. Immediately afterwards some mysterious versions took their place

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You can leave Spotify, but you don’t leave it completely until Spotify allows you to. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard just found out the hard way: They left the platform in protest of the CEO’s investmentsbut there are still his songs inside. The terrifying thing about it: they are not the ones who composed or recorded them. We go, or not. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard left Spotify in July 2025: it was a protest against Daniel Ek’s investments in military technology. Weeks later, however, they discovered that several of the group’s songs were still available on the platform. But they were not the originals, but rather instrumental versions that imitated the original songs, with the same artist name, identical titles and official covers. According to Platformer accountthese songs managed to accumulate more than 10 million views before being detected. The trick. Spotify presented these tracks as authentic. As a fan of the band tells Platformer, when playing ‘Deadstick’ from the album ‘Phantom Island’, what sounded was a simplified version, almost a cell phone ringtone, a kind of low-quality version. But without knowing the original song (and especially taking into account how fond of jokes and experimentation this unclassifiable and prolific band is) any listener could have confused it with the real song. The same thing happened with other songs on the album such as ‘Aerodynamic’ and ‘Grow Wings and Fly’. The article sparked a wave of protests that led Spotify to remove the content, confirming that it violated its anti-phishing policy. There are currently no songs from the group on the platform. It is not an isolated case. According to data from the company itself published in September 2025Spotify has removed 75 million tracks classified as spam over the last year. The consulting firm Luminate estimates that about 99,000 songs are uploaded daily to streaming services, often through distributors that do not verify the identity of the artist. The situation is accentuated on other platforms, in what seems to be a widespread problem with a clear trigger: the ease with which songs can be generated using AI. Deezer, for example, counted this same month which receives more than 50,000 tracks completely generated by artificial intelligence every day, 34% of all the content that reaches its servers. 70% of AI-generated music plays, he says, are unauthorized songs or songs that replace real artists. The Ghost of The Velvet Sundown. In June 2025, a band called The Velvet Sundown reached more than one million monthly listeners on Spotify. Its promotional photos had that artificial appearance characteristic of images generated by AI, and its members did not exist on any social network, but the group started with 550,000 monthly listeners after being recommended by the platform’s algorithm. After weeks of denying the accusations, those responsible admitted it was an “artistic provocation” created with artificial intelligence. His songs are still available on Spotify. The dead artists. However, in terms of impersonated artists, the case of deceased artists is more disturbing: numerous songs generated by AI began to appear in official profiles of deceased musicians. The page of Blaze Foley, country singer-songwriter murdered in 1989, received new songs. It also happened with Guy Clark, a Grammy winner who died in 2016, Sophie, an electronic artist who died in 2021, and Uncle Tupelo, Jeff Tweedy’s former band from Wilco. All of these tracks were uploaded by distributors without any verification and remained active for weeks before being detected. A systemic problem. Although Spotify is the visible head of this chaos, there is a real mess at many points on the diffusion scale. For example, distributors like DistroKid allow massive topic uploads without verifying the real identity of the artist. In the aforementioned September communication, Spotify announced new anti-spoofing policies and an anti-spam filter, but at the moment its effectiveness has not been proven. For now, the King Gizzard case raises a devastating question: after abandoning a platform, you do not abandon it completely. Maybe you’ll never do it. Header | Paul Hudson

There were thousands of mysterious holes lined up in Peru. We didn’t know why until a drone saw them from the air

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In the arid hills of Pisco Valleyin the south of Peru, extends a monument as mysterious as it is precise: a strip of almost a kilometer and a half made up of some 5,200 perfectly aligned cavities, known like Mount Sierpe or the Band of Holes. Discovered in 1931 by the geologist Robert Shippee and Lieutenant George R. Johnson during one of the first aerial expeditions over the Andes, the site baffled generations of archaeologists. Until now. A mysterious landscape. For decades, theories were proposed ranging from its defensive use to fog capture or water storage, but none of them quite fit. Now, a new study published in Antiquity provides a convincing hypothesis from a point of view that no one had valued: from the air. In this way, Mount Sierpe would have functioned as a accounting and barter system on a large scale, a kind of “spreadsheet” of the pre-Hispanic Andes. The geometry that speaks. The international team of researchers, led by archaeologist Jacob Bongers from the University of Sydney, used drones to map the site with millimeter precision. Aerial images revealed an organized structure into about 60 blocks or sections, each with distinct alignments and regular number patterns. Some areas show rows of nine by eight holesothers alternate between groups of seven and eight. This internal order, absent any defensive or agricultural logic, suggests an administrative purpose. Sediment analyzes extracted microscopic remains corn, totora and willow (plants traditionally used to make baskets and mats), which suggests that the cavities were lined with plant fibers and were used to store goods, possibly in packages or braided baskets. The holes of Mount Sierpe From local barter to administration. Researchers believe that Monte Sierpe was born as a space for exchange between highland and coastal communities, an organized market for balance the flow of goods in the absence of currency. Products (for example, corn, coca or cotton) could be deposited in each cavity as a visible representation of the value of one good compared to another, allowing quantities to be compared in a public and transparent manner. Centuries later, with the expansion of inca empirethat system would have been reinterpreted and expanded as an accounting tool to manage the tribute of local populations. Each block of holes would have corresponded to a different community group, and the variations in number and arrangement would reflect the contribution levels or work shifts required by the Inca State. In essence, Monte Sierpe would have been a physical data recorda stone matrix destined to organize the unwritten economy of the Andean world. A carved khipu. The most revealing finding is the similarity between the structure of the site and the Inca khipusthe rope systems with knots used to record censuses, taxes or resources. One of the khipus found near Pisco presents around 80 groups of lacesa figure surprisingly close to the 60 segments of Monte Sierpe. This correspondence suggests that the Band of Holes could have been a three-dimensional khipua monumental version of that woven numerical language, designed to coordinate the flow of goods and work between communities. Unlike the tablets or inscriptions of other civilizations, the Andean peoples turned geography itself into a support for information. Code in the desert. If you also want, Monte Sierpe redefines our understanding of pre-columbian organizational intelligence. Without writing, without currency and in a hostile environment, Andean societies managed to develop a visual, modular and mathematical method to represent their economy. Each hole would have been a cell a great living recordmanaged collectively, perhaps accompanied by ceremonies or ritual exchanges. Thus, in its apparent geometric simplicity, this “spreadsheet” carved into the rock reveals a advanced economic systembased on reciprocity and communal control of resources. What for the first explorers were simple rows of holes now emerge as the physical testimony of a civilization that, centuries before European contact, had already found its own way of turning the landscape into memory. Image | JL Bongers In Xataka | We have found 76 megatraps in the Andes. It’s amazing we hadn’t done it before. In Xataka | A secret room has just revealed how they ruled in Peru 2,000 years ago: with the help of drugs

China had been testing a mysterious satellite in orbit for years. A counterespionage company has finally revealed what it was

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On October 16, the starry skies of the Canary Islands were illuminated by a spectacular fireball that crossed the sky from south to north. It was not a meteorite, it was a Chinese satellite that until a few days ago had been a complete mystery. A mystery called XJY-7. Since its launch in December 2020, as part of the maiden flight of the Long March 8 rocket, the Xinjishu Yanzheng-7 had been an unknown. China officially described it as a “new technology verification satellite.” Aside from a blurry render, the world knew almost nothing about its configuration, purpose, or capabilities. And although its re-entry was news in itself, the real news is that, just before it disintegrated, an Australian company managed to photograph it in orbit, finally solving the mystery of what it was and what it was doing up there. Counterespionage in orbit. Using its network of satellites to photograph other objects in orbit, the Australian company HEO achieved what ground-based radars could not: take photos of the XJY-7 up close. The images and the 3D model that HEO built from them revealed features that China had neglected to mention. According to the company has declared to SpaceNewsthe satellite was not a simple test platform; It was equipped with “a large radar antenna” and, most tellingly, a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) antenna. It was a spy satellite. SAR is an advanced remote sensing technology that allows high-resolution images of the Earth’s surface to be obtained in any weather conditions, day or night. The “mysterious” test satellite was, in reality, an advanced surveillance and remote sensing satellite. The HEO observations also revealed a fascinating detail about its design: the satellite had fixed solar panels. This forced it to “rotate its entire body” to maintain power generation, a behavior that the Australian company was able to verify through multiple simultaneous observations from different angles. Satellites that monitor satellites. Traditional monitoring methods (ground-based radars and telescopes) are no longer sufficient to monitor the activity of other nations in orbit. HEO uses a network of more than 40 sensors in flight to take satellite-to-satellite images for your clients. When one of its associated satellites passes near a target, it takes a photo of it. It is a “non-invasive flyby method” that offers real photographs where you can see antennas, panels, thrusters and payloads. With this technique, HEO has managed to identify more than 80 space objects before they appeared in any public catalogue. In an environment where satellite constellations are deployed by the dozens, knowing whether an object is an operational satellite, a piece of space junk, or what type of antenna it carries is crucial for intelligence and defense. Mysterious until his re-entry. Ironically, the mystery that surrounded XJY-7 in its useful life also accompanied it in its death, as the United States Space Command never issued a reentry alert. This is “strange” for an object of this size, says expert Marco Langbroek. It is estimated that XJY-7 had a mass of between 3,000 and 5,000 kg. That an object weighing more than three tons bypassed re-entry warning systems highlights the gaps in conventional space tracking. Even worse when it comes to a satellite with secret capabilities. Image | H.E.O.

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

We have detected a mysterious and very potent radio signal of a nearby galaxy. And its origin is a complete enigma

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In March 2025, an energy pulse as powerful as the one that emits our Sun in several days hit the earth. It lasted just a few milliseconds, but its detection, and above all, the location of its origin, mark a before and after modern astronomy. Now a team from Northwestern University has managed to identify the origin of the fast radio gust (FRB) brighter ever registered. Although there are still many questions to answer. What is a fast radius gust. To understand the magnitude of this finding you must first know what we are talking about. The astronomers themselves describe THE FRB LIKE a cosmic lighthouse of immense power that ignites during a fraction of second In a vast and distant universe. These signals are incredibly energy and travel for millions of light years to reach the earth’s telescopes. Detect one of these bursts It is already an achievement. However, the real challenge is Respond to the origin of these bursts of energy. Until now, the frb that were repeated, which gave scientists multiple opportunities to triangulate the position, had been precisely located. Now they have done it with only one signal. A “photo” with unprecedented precision. The protagonist has been baptized as FRB 20250316A which was detected on March 16, 2025. To achieve this, it is where our current technological capacity enters. Thanks to a telescope network called Chime Outriggerastronomers were able to locate this burst of energy with an amazing accuracy of 13 parsecs, which is equivalent to 42 light years. If we move this measure to the universe itself, we could talk that they have been able to point out a specific house in an entire city seen from space. Something that marks preceding, is that the first time it is achieved for a burst that has apparently been a unique event. An origin that was almost empty. The address from where this signal came to a spiral galaxy called NGC 4141. At that time, all the great telescopes of the world, from the MMT in Arizona to him Keck in HawaiiThey turned to observe that little corner of the universe. Everyone tried to look for some explanation to this event, but what they found did not square them at all. And it is that in the exact place of the outbreak of this signal there is nothing. Not a supermagnnetic neutron star (a Magnetar), Neither a nebula, nor any continuous radio source. A very quiet neighborhood. When looking around the point that scientists had located, you could think that there would be something spectacular. But nothing is further from reality. It was seen that the signal could not come from another close place. Specifically, the formation of stars closest to the localized point is 190 Persecs away. In this way, the origin is located in a really quiet region of the universe. There have been no more repetitions of the event. Despite looking intensely for months, the signal has not reappeared. This is key. Many frb are “repeating”, emitting bursts sporadically. If it were, given its closeness and power, we should have detected weaker pulses. Statistical calculations are clear: the probability that it is a known repeater and we have only seen this bright pulse is very small (with a tension of more than 3.7σ, a very high level of certainty in physics). What could cause this signal. This combination of factors puts the main theories about the origin of FRB. The most accepted hypothesis is that they come from young magnetares, neutron stars with incredibly powerful magnetic fields. These objects are usually born in active star formation regions. The fact that FRB 20250316A is displaced from its “cradle” could mean that the Magnetar He is older of the one that is thought (between 200,000 and 3 million years) and has moved away. However, this clashes with the active life that is presupposed to these objects. The study also rules out other scenarios, such as outbreaks gamma rays Recent The “cleaning” of the environment and the lack of any residual glow in radio or X -rays do not fit with the models of cataclysms such as the Fusion of two neutron starsat least not immediately. The beginning of a new era. Beyond the enigma of the origin of this particular signal, this phenomenon marks a before and after in astrology. The capacity of the Chime/FRB system to locate unique events with this precision The field will revolutionize. It will no longer be necessary to wait for a source to be repeated to be able to study it in detail. Now, astronomers will be able to create a large -scale map of the environments of hundreds of FRB, allowing to compare the unique bursts and those that are repeated every so often. Perhaps in this way we discover that, after all, not all FRB are born from the same type of event. We may be facing two (or more) different phenomena that produce the same type of signal. The universe is plagued by mysteries. From how The stars were formed to him How the ‘big bang’ formedthey still have Many intrigues For our scientists. This makes every time there are more fronts in open -open astronomy And also the hardware field for put our best teams pointing to space with the aim of increasing our knowledge. In Xataka | There is a radio signal arriving at Earth since 1988. The pulsar from which an important mystery is hidden

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

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