We have found strange prehistoric spheres in the middle of the Amazon. Inside, human bones and animals

Sometimes only coincidences can open the way to certain findings. A tree that falls and the eyes attentive to a place can be the spark that gives rise to an unexpected discovery. Spherical urns. A group of archaeologists assisted by local communities has been responsible for finding curious ceramic spheres buried in an alluvial plain in the middle of Amazonas. These are seven funeral urns, two of them of important size, which were found between the roots of a fallen tree. Within these polls, fragments of human bones were found, as well as remains of Fish and turtles that suggest funeral rites linked to food. These polls can reveal important data on the indigenous cultures that inhabited this region of the Amazon basin. “They are large, without visible ceramic tapas, which could indicate the use of organic materials to seal them, which would have already broken down. They were buried at 40 cm deep, probably under old houses,” explained in a press release Geórgea Layla Holland, member of the team responsible for the finding. Lake Do Cochila. The discovery of these unique polls was made in the surroundings of Lago do Cochila, in the municipality of Fonte Boa, in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Located in the alluvial plains of the basin, this archaeological site was once part of a group of artificial islands built centuries ago (Maybe millennia) by the ancient inhabitants of the area. Archaeological remains found in this environment suggest that these elevations in flooded field would have allowed the construction of households and the development of social activities even in the flood time, explains the team. The artificial islands would have been created taking material from other places and transporting it to the plain. “It is a very sophisticated and ingenious engineering technique, which demonstrates land management and a significant population density in the past,” The archaeologist points out Márcio Amaral. A fundamental cooperation. The collaboration between archaeologists of the research group in Archeology and Cultural Heritage of the Amazon of the Mamirauá Institute and the local communities was instrumental in the development of archaeological prospecting, explains the team. The detection of these artifacts would not even have been possible without this collaboration: according to the team, it was the locals who initially detected ceramics Among the roots of a fallen tree. While initially they did not give importance to the finding, their photos caught the attention of archaeologists who got to work in the extraction and analysis of objects. Height excavation. The excavation of these polls was a technical challenge. The horizontal position of the tree that buried them left them suspended at height, which implied that their excavation had to be done in a not very conventional way. These local communities attended the team with the construction of a high structure that as a scaffold allowed access to these artifacts as well as their manipulation safely. Rumbo to Tefé. Among the challenges that the team had to face was also transport, which had to be done river. Depending on the river and transportation conditions used, traveling the 190 kilometers in a straight line that separate the deposit of the headquarters of the Mamirauá Institute may require between 10 and 12 hours of travel. We will have to wait for the polls to be studied at the facilities of the Mamirauá Institute to learn about new details about the finding. For now, the initial analyzes reveal the greenish color of the clay with which these urn were created, a clay that would have been identified in other contexts. A type of ceramic of great rarity that adds to the mystery of these strange funeral urns. In Xataka | The finding of a lot of garbage in a cave in Mexico has been something else: a fertility ritual 500 years ago Image | Marcio Amaral / Georgea Holland

Germany is installing giant concrete spheres under the sea. You have a good reason: store renewable energy

While France and Germany reinforce their energy alliances with a renewed bet For nuclear energy, within the German country they are developing a completely different system. The focus is on marine depths, with the aim of redefining the way in which renewable energy is stored. Under the sea. A group of researchers the Fraunhofer Institute of Germany They have created the Stensea project (Stored Energy AT Sea acronym). Since 2011, the equipment has worked in a solution to reduce land use, reaching the conclusion of sinking huge concrete spheres into the seabed to store energy. The operation. These spheres sink at 600 and 800 meters deep, where water pressure is so high that it can rotate turbines with great efficiency. Each one measures about 9 meters in diameter and weighs about 400 tons. The idea is that they work as giant batteries: by letting the sea water in, it moves a turbine connected to a generator. To recharge it, water pumps out, using network energy to overcome environmental pressure. A design of what a Stesea plant would be A real test. The system has already been successful at Lake Constanza, and now the next step is marked in the calendar by 2026. It is expected to install a prototype real and 3D printed on the coast of Long Beach, in California. This model can generate about 0.5 megawatts and store up to 0.4 megawatts-Hora, which would be enough to cover the consumption of a middle home in the United States for about two weeks. The future idea is ambitious: building much larger spheres, up to 30 meters in diameter, capable of storing much larger amounts of energy. The objective is to climb the system with spheres up to 30 meters in diameter, which would allow a much larger storage capacity. According to They have detailed Newatlas researchers, the estimated storage cost around the 5 cents per kilowatt-hora, a very competitive figure compared to other current solutions. Renewables in Germany. Although it seems contradictory for its climate, the country has been strongly betting on solar energy, especially In self -consumption facilities. However, it faces an important challenge: intermittent production, or Dunkelflaute. For this reason, projects such as Stesea can act as a shock absorber of the electrical system, because it stores excess renewable energy and releases it when it is most needed. So hydroelectric plants? Unlike traditional pumping storage –which requires mountains and large fresh water reserves-, this system does not need limited elevations or water resources. Its modular design allows it to install it on coasts around the world. In addition, this system has raised An economic advantage since it allows energy arbitration, buying electricity when it is cheap and selling it in moments of high demand. Forecasts The researchers They believe that this technology He has barely shown the tip of the iceberg. They estimate that, if it was deployed on a large scale, it could reach a global storage capacity of about 817,000 gigawatts-Hora. Translated to something more tangible, it would be enough to supply about 75 million homes in Europe for a whole year. However, although the project is presented as a solution to avoid intensive soil use, it does not stop moving that occupation to the seabed. Until now, the approach has been mainly technical, but it would be expected that in future phases rigorous environmental evaluations will be included that analyze its impact on oceanic ecosystems. Image | Stesea Xataka | Europe’s turn to nuclear: Germany and France have signed a pact to reconfigure the continent

We knew that the space spheres were at some point in the universe. We have a new theory about its origin

The universe is full of spherical objects: stars, planets, black holes and a part of the satellites that we can find in our environment have more or less round shapes. However, there are other types of spheres (or rather other types), spheres that are not formed of compact matter but whose circular nature can be captured by our instruments. Teleios. A few days ago, an international team led by researchers at the Western Sydney University announced The discovery of a unique object spherical located in our own galaxy. Although the main hypothesis about the origin of this object is in the outbreak of an IA type supernova, the team admitted that some pieces did not fit. This leaves the door open to different possibilities. One of the details we know about this object is that it can be detected “almost exclusively” in radio frequencies, something not so conventional in this type of objects. This and other details of the discovery make the object an immense enigma. An enigma that does not even escape its location. The problem of distance. We know that this sphere is found at a not very large distance from our solar system, inside the Milky Way. The problem is that the team responsible for its study has only been able to delimit two possible distances to which the object could be found: either at around 7,175 years-years of us, or about 25,114 light years of our location. This has an obvious involvement and we don’t know what size this sphere is either. If we assume that it is located at the closest point, its size would be about 45.7 light years in diameter. However, it could also be further and be larger: it would be more than 156.6 light years of length if it was found in the farthest location contemplated. Unknown age. The size is in turn a temporary implication. Being an explosion, the object would have formed from inside out, as an expansive wave. That is, if the radius of this explosion is longer, we would be facing a burst occurred longer than if we were watching a shorter radius. The team’s estimates indicate that, if located at the closest point, the supernova that this remnant would have left would have been given less than one millennium; While if it was about the location, we would be talking about an event that occurred more than 10,000 years ago. The problem of X -rays. One of the enigmas that surrounds Teleios has to do with the X -rays or, rather, with the absence of these. The models used by the equipment suggest that the remnants of a supernova as the detected should emit radiation not only in radio frequencies but also in X -rays. IAX type supernovae. The fact that this is not the case has led the team to raise a somewhat different hypothesis: that it is not the remnants of a Ia supernova but of a IAX type. The IAX supernovas are a subtype of the former. The IA Supernovas occur in binary systems dominated by a white dwarf star that absorbs the subject of its companion star until reaching a critical mass that leads it to explode. The explosions of this type of supernovas are very predictable: as they always explode when reaching the same critical conditions, these supernovas shine with a predictable intensity. But not always: There are cases in which the outbreak is lower speed and luminosity. Something that makes these supernovae unique is that they leave behind a important remnanta “zombie star” that we cannot find in conventional supernovae. This hypothesis however poses another problem, and for this to be the case, Teleios would have to be much closer to our planet than the estimates of the team itself posed. As noted, none of the hypotheses raised can answer all the issues raised by this enigmatic object, so more observations will be necessary and determine exactly what we have in front. Askap. The finding of G305.4–2.2, another designation for teleIos, was made in the context of the creation of the evolutionary map of the universe or EMU (Evolutionary Map of the Universe), A work done by the Askap Observatory (Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder). The team recently sent an article to the magazine Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia detailing the details of the finding. The drafteven under review, it can be consulted through the repository Arxiv. ORCS. In recent years it has been done relatively common Topar with strange circular objects with a certain resemblance to teleIos. Some of these objects are usually classified as a strange circle of radio or orcs (Odd Radio Circles), A name that already accounts for the strangeness they generate in astronomers. These circles usually occur in the Intergalactic space So the scale in which they are given is different from that of Teleios. Initially cataloged as Supernovas, these circles still consider an important enigma for astronomers. In Xataka | We have a new explanation for dark matter. We have found it in superconductivity Image | SUPERNOVA TYCHO, NASA/CXC/SAO/JPL-CALTECH/MPIA/HIGH CALAR/O. Krause et al.

Perseverance has found a very strange rock on Mars. Is covered with spheres and does not fit with its surroundings

He Rover Perseverance He has discovered an intriguing rock on Mars. Composed of hundreds of small spheres, NASA scientists They are investigating how it formed. After climbing (Not without difficulties) The edge of the Jezero crater, Perseverance has been exploring a place called Broom Point, where he has seen rocks of different colors. There he took samples of clear stones and discovered a strange texture in a nearby dark rock. Appeared “St. Pauls Bay”, the rock is covered with Timinutas gray spheriessome crushed or games, other perforated, reminiscent of a lot of blueberries. The formation is very peculiar and darker than the environment. It is not the first time that NASA finds strange spheres in Mars. The Opportunity and Curiosity Roversity saw similar formations, nicknamed “Blueberries”, which originated when The planet was full of waterdue to the groundwater, circulating through the rocks. But the Water circulation It is not the only process that can lead to spherules. Also volcanic eruptions or meteorite impacts. The St. Paul’s Bay rock in its surroundings The geological origin of St. Pauls Bay is not clear. It is a floating rock, so it was not in its original position, which suggests that the spheris may not be concretions (particle accumulations). Perseverance team is checking if the Rock fits with The layers observed in the surroundingsa region called Witch Hazel Hill. Discovering the origin of these tiny spheres could help NASA to unravel the Geological history of the area. If it belongs, like other Jezero rocks, at the NOEICA age, it is an exceptional witness of the primary cortex of Mars more than 3.7 billion years ago. In addition to Find past life cluesPerseverance tries to understand how Mars became an inhospitable and cold planet of little atmosphere, something that could also happen with the earth in a few million years. Images | NASA, JPL-Caltech In Xataka | Perseverance is leaving rock signs along Mars. And something even more valuable: air samples

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