stars

Astronomers’ trick to hunt hundreds of nearby exoplanets: look for suspiciously “quiet” stars

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The hunt for exoplanets in the universe has always depended on our ability to observe the invisible. Until now we have mainly noticed the flickering of a star when it passes in front of one of these planets or the subtle gravitational wobble that it causes, but we have never seen them directly. Now a team of astronomers has perfected a much more ingenious method: searching for planets based on the “false” magnetic tranquility of their stars. And now it works. The project known as Dispersed Matter Planet Project (DMPP) has just confirm the discovery of seven new planets spread across five star systems, and its projections indicate that there could be hundreds of rocky worlds hidden in our closest cosmic neighborhood. And we have not been able to ‘see’ all of these with our traditional systems. How it works. The DMPP method is fascinating because it turns the traditional way of observing the universe on its head. Now, instead of looking for active stars, the team selects bright, very nearby stars that have anomalously low calcium emission. In fact, they show levels of magnetic activity below their basal level. But these samples do not indicate that the star is without activity, but rather that it is hidden. Here astronomers have discovered that these systems host planets very close to the star, which due to the intense heat are evaporating. From this gas that is released from these worlds, a kind of ‘shield’ or orbital cloud is formed that absorbs radiation and hides the activity of the stellar chromosphere. That is, the star’s apparent inactivity is the gas “fingerprint” of a disintegrating planet. Its precision. To confirm these suspicions, the team does not stop at observing the gas, since it uses very high precision radial velocity spectrographs such as HARPS-Nwhich are capable of measuring minute variations in the star’s motion. One of the most intriguing case studies of the project is the system DMPP-4located about 25 parsecs away. In this star, candidates for planets with sub-Neptunian masses have already been detected, on the order of between 8 and 12.2 times the mass of the Earth, orbiting at breakneck speeds, with “years” that last only between 2 and 5 days. Where are they? These planets inhabit what astronomers know as the “Neptunian Desert,” a region very close to the star where planets the size of Neptune are rarely found. The leading theory is that these worlds are actually rocky cores of ancient Neptunes that migrated into the system and whose atmospheres were swept away by intense stellar radiation. Many to discover. The implications of this study are massive for modern astrophysics, as data from the DMPP project suggests that between 10% and 20% of these low magnetic activity stars could host compact systems of rocky planets that we have not known about until now. This not only helps explain certain anomalies in the historical catalogs of the Kepler telescope, but gives us a treasure map. As they are star systems so bright and close to Earth, these newly discovered exoplanets become the perfect candidates to be observed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the future generation of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELT). Images | NASA Hubble Space Telescope In Xataka | A new “solar system” has just been discovered. There’s just one problem: it shouldn’t exist.

Before, stars were born in movies and ended up on Netflix. Now they are born in streaming and end in movies

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‘War Machine’, the war science fiction film starring Alan Ritchson, has accumulated 39.3 million views in its first three days on Netflixbecoming the most viewed title on the platform globally today. The second most viewed film that week was ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’, by a huge margin: 6.7 million. The result is also a symptom of how the star factory has changed: the new star system is born on the platforms, not in the multiplexes. Other figures. The opening of ‘War Machine’ is the second best placed of the year on Netflix to date. If it keeps up the pace, it could aspire to enter the platform’s all-time Top 10 in the English-language film category. To gauge the magnitude: in all 87 countries tracked during that four-day windowthe film ranked number one in 80 of them. What is it about? The film is not especially original in its premise, and its authors do not intend it to be. Directed by Patrick Hughes (from the weak ‘The Expendables 3’ and the fun ‘The Other Bodyguard’) and produced by Lionsgate, it follows a group of candidates for the American Rangers during the final selection phase. Their training maneuver becomes a fight for survival when a robotic threat of alien origin appears. Alan Ritchson plays the character known only as 81, a traumatized combat engineer, even more silent and introverted than his famous Jack Reacher. Although all the critics have stressed its derivative and unpretentious nature, the truth is that its two-hour chase structure finds an enjoyable middle ground between ‘Predator’ and Heinlein’s Space Troops (not Verhoeven, there is no irony here, as seen in an ending with will continue that replies, without venom, the recruitment spots of that masterpiece 1997). ‘War Machine’ embraces its spirit of an effective and direct B series with a healthy brainlessness that makes perfect sense that it has found a millionaire audience, eager to disconnect and let themselves be dazed. The star. It has taken Alan Ritchson almost two decades to become a star. He debuted in ‘Smallville’ as Aquaman and then went unnoticed through multiple series as a secondary character until in 2022 he played the protagonist of ‘Reacher’ on Prime Video. The series, which championed the return of the television “for parents” (of which ‘War Machine’ is also an excellent example), is one of the biggest hits on the Amazon platform, and is already preparing its fourth season. In just a few weeks, Ritchson has managed to position himself as the number one actor simultaneously on Netflix and Prime Video with different projects. The distinction that for years existed between the star of streaming and the one that can sell a blockbuster in theaters with its mere presence is blurring. It is not the only case. Although the case of Ritchson, exclusive streaming star, is particular due to his almost total absence of films in his filmography, there are many other cases of proper names who owe a good part of their fame to the platforms. Pedro Pascal is now a global star whose fame was born entirely in hits for streaming (‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Narcos’, ‘The Last of Us’, ‘The Mandalorian’). Henry Cavill or Chris Hemsworth were born as movie stars, but they consolidated (‘The Witcher’, ‘Tyler Rake’) their fame in streaming. Dave Bautista or John Cena is also finding a second home in streaming thanks to hits like ‘Trap House’ or ‘El Pacificador’. Unmistakable signs of the change of times. Stars germinate in different places, but they generate hits with figures that rival the biggest blockbusters on the big screen. In Xataka | When medical dramas seemed to be in the doldrums, ‘The Pitt’ appeared. And that has forced Netflix to make decisions

For 45 years we thought we understood how stars like our Sun rotate. A Japanese supercomputer has just cast doubt on it

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Understanding how stars rotate may seem like a technical detail, but it is actually a central piece to understanding their evolution. For 45 years, theoretical models held that Sun-like stars would eventually change the way they rotate as they aged. The idea was that, as it lost speed over billions of years, the spin pattern would reverse and the poles would rotate faster than the equator. Now, new research from Nagoya University suggests that that prediction might not come true. The findings. The work, published in Nature Astronomysuggests that solar-type stars could maintain the same rotation pattern that we observe in the current Sun throughout their lives. That is, the equator would continue to rotate faster than the polar regions even as the star slows down with age. The simulations carried out by the team indicate that magnetic fields play a decisive role and could prevent this regime change that was taken for granted in theoretical models for decades. How a star like the Sun actually rotates. Unlike the Earth, which rotates as a solid body, the Sun is made of extremely hot plasma. That causes different regions to spin at different speeds. In the case of the Sun, the equator completes one revolution approximately every 25 days, while the regions near the poles take about 35 days. This phenomenon is known as solar-type differential rotation. For decades, theoretical simulations predicted that this pattern would not be permanent. As stars age and their global rotation slows over billions of years, the plasma flows within them should reorganize. Predictions indicate that there would come a time when the behavior would be reversed: the equator would rotate more slowly and the poles would rotate faster, a regime that the researchers called differential anti-solar rotation. The unexpected role of magnetism. The new simulations suggest that the scenario predicted by theoretical models for decades may not come to pass. According to the results of the study, stars similar to the Sun would maintain the same type of differential rotation throughout their lives. Even if the star slows down with age, the equator would continue to rotate faster than the poles, rather than reversing the pattern as proposed in previous simulations. A supercomputer on stage. To reach that conclusion, the team turned to FugakuJapan’s most powerful supercomputer, installed at the RIKEN research center in Kobe and operational for shared use since March 2021. With its help, researchers carried out an extremely detailed simulation of the interior of solar-type stars. Each simulated star was divided into about 5.4 billion calculation points, a much higher resolution than that used in previous work. This level of detail is important because previous simulations worked at much lower resolutions. Under these conditions, the magnetic fields tended to disappear artificially within the model, which led to underestimating their influence on the internal dynamics of the star. In the new simulation, however, the magnetic fields remained stable and showed a clear effect: they help prevent the reversal of the rotation pattern. The implications. Understanding more precisely how Sun-like stars rotate is key to interpreting their magnetic activity over time. This aspect is related to well-known phenomena on our own star, such as the approximately 11-year solar cycle that regulates the appearance of sunspots and episodes of magnetic activity. A better understanding of these processes could also help improve stellar evolution models used by astronomers to study distant stars. Images | POT In Xataka | PLD Space has raised 180 million euros with Mitsubishi at the helm: the Spanish space startup grows with Japanese money

The big names in AI are fighting over neuroscientists like they were soccer stars

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AI companies have found their new hiring obsession. After the engineers prompts and multimodal model designers, now they are looking for neuroscientists at the stroke of a checkbook. Why is it important. Language models have become common territory for all technology companies. The competitive advantage is no longer in having a LLMbut in making it more efficient and predictable. And to do that, they need to better understand how the human brain works. The Battista case. Aldo Battista At New York University, he was researching brain decision processes when faced with subjective options. In September he made the leap to Meta, according to what he says Semafor, to apply that knowledge to content recommendation systems on social networks. The most notable change: the speed of impact. Instead of publishing papers that perhaps no one will read, the changes in algorithms show immediate results in the behavior of millions of users. His academic research on how we choose what to have for dinner, for example, now helps predict which video will hook us on Instagram. There are more examples: OpenAI indeed approached Merge Labs a few months agoa brain implant firm competing with Neuralink. Akshay Jagadeesh joined OpenAI as research resident after almost ten years studying the brain and visual perception, focused on using his experience in computational neuroscience to improve AI models. At the ‘EBRAINS Summit 2025 – Neuroscience, AI & Technology’, a European event that brings together neuroscientists, technologists and industry, several biographies highlighted the jump from academic profiles to advice on AI startups. Ruslan Salakhutdinov is part of Apple AI Research. Although he is best known for Machine Learninghas worked for years on models inspired by biological systems and as a university professor, but Apple hired him as Director of AI Research. The logic of the signing. The basics of artificial neural networks are decades old, but taking them further requires looking to biology. Two specific areas are of particular interest to companies: Energy consumption. Interpretability. A human brain performs almost unlimited operations with just 20 wattsbut AI systems require much more energy for equivalent tasks. That gap is the Holy Grail: whoever reduces it will immediately gain an advantage. The money trail. In the offers You can see the logic of the level they are reaching economically: A researcher position at OpenAI, in the area of ​​mathematical sciences and applied to AI, announces base salaries ranging from approximately $178,000 to $342,000 annually, not counting bonuses or stock packages. In other private AI labs, the ranges for researchers with a mix of AI and neuroscience move in a similar range, from about $150,000 to $350,000 a year. OpenAI has come to offer total packages that reach the range of millions of dollarsincluding salary, bonus and stocks. It’s not the norm for everyone, but it helps explain why some leading neuroscience researchers are negotiating contracts that look more like those of sports stars than those of a university professor. Between the lines. Understanding why a model decides something matters more and more. For decades, neuroscience has developed methods to interpret complex decision processes. Those same tools can be applied to algorithmic black boxes. Yes, but. The phenomenon is not new, it has only intensified. Apple, Google or Neuralink have been hiring these profiles for years. The difference is in the scale and current urgency. Matthew Law works at OpenAI after studying at Stanford. Your diagnosis: AI companies have expanded their recruiting focus beyond traditional computer science graduates. They search the entire available scientific base. And the pool of pure developers is beginning to dry up. The background. This race says something without having to say it: there is a certain desperation in the AI ​​industry to find differential advantages. If the next breakthrough innovation is in university neuroscience labs, Silicon Valley will not hesitate to empty them. Exorbitant salaries and practically unlimited funding are weapons that universities will hardly be able to counter. In Xataka | Technology companies no longer even pretend to seek general artificial intelligence. And the “godfather” of AI has gotten tired Featured image | Josh Riemer

The Xiaomi 15T stars in a new offer of the day. You can now buy it cheaper or with a gift watch

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He Xiaomi 15T It is one of the most interesting high-end phones, especially if what we are looking for is a good price that is as tight as possible and without sacrificing certain specifications. After a few months since its launch, it can now be purchased at a discount or with a promotion: Xiaomi 15T (256GB) by 489 euros on Powerplanet. Xiaomi 15T (512GB) + Xiaomi Watch S4 (41mm) by 649.99 euros in the official store. Xiaomi 15T (512GB) + Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro + Xiaomi Smart Band 10 for 649.99 euros in the official store. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A high-end that has a good price He Xiaomi 15T It is one of the latest high-end mobile phones launched by the brand that stands out, just as its previous generation did, for its excellent quality-price ratio. It is a big mobile (8.3 inches) which is accompanied by a panel with 1.5K resolution which is compatible with Dolby Vision and HDR10+. As if that were not enough, internally we find the processor MediaTek Dimensity 8400 Ultra along with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of internal storage. It also comes with a generous battery that supports 67W fast charging and its operating system is HyperOS. But without a doubt, the icing on the cake is found in its photographic section: once again, this generation comes with cameras signed by Leica. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the Xiaomi 15T has a rear camera module that consists of a 50 MP main sensor, a 50 MP telephoto sensor and a 12 MP wide-angle sensor. You may also be interested Fitudoos for Xiaomi 15T/15T Pro Tempered Glass Screen Protector (2 Pieces) + Camera Lens Protector (2 Pieces), (9H Hardness) (Scratch Resistant). The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi Redmi Buds 6 Pro – Wireless headphones, noise cancellation, lightweight, up to 36 hours of autonomy, Bluetooth 5.3, Black (ES version) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Xiaomi In Xataka | The best mobile phones (2025), we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | The best Xiaomi mobile in quality price: purchasing and comparison guide

Astrophysics do not know how to certain how the first stars of the universe formed. This is about to change

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All stars are different. Each of them has its own character. His own “personality.” However, THE MECHANISM OF NATURE that has triggered the birth of most of those we can observe is always the same, so, in some way, we can consider that All are related. The stars are born from clouds of dust and gas that are disseminated by the universe, and that began to form Shortly after the Big Bangwhich took place, according to the estimates of scientists, almost 14,000 million years ago. The analyzes that many research groups are carrying out defend that the first stars were born shortly after the formation of the universe. In fact, it is currently considered that the oldest known, whose name resists me to transcribe because it is a cluster of letters and numbers that will not contribute anything, was born nothing less than 13.6 billion years, which reflects that it is almost as old as the universe itself. A team of astronomers from the National University of Australia, which is the group of scientists responsible for its discovery, assures which is sixty times larger than our sun and is located in our same galaxy, the Milky Way, but to 6,000 light years from the earth. Just to a jump. Our protagonist is the oldest molecule known in the cosmos The most interesting thing is that, despite their age, astronomers are convinced that there are even more archaic stars. This suspicion relies on the fact that our 13.6 billion giant is composed, in addition to hydrogen, carbon, magnesium and calcium. These chemical elements have necessarily had to be previously manufactured by one or several stars of an even older generation and with a very low presence of metals, understanding as metals all those elements that are heavier than helium, regardless of their position in the periodic table. The problem is that the knowledge that astrophysics have about these primal stars is still very limited, although this scenario seems to be about to change. And it is that a research team of the Max Planck Institute of Nuclear Physics, which is housed in Heidelberg (Germany), has identified unexpected behavior of helium hydride (heh⁺), which is the oldest molecule known in the cosmos. It consists of a helium atom (He) and a proton (H⁺), and astrophysicists believe it was formed in the universe shortly after the Big Bang, when the temperature was reduced enough so that the helium and hydrogen atoms began to join. Astrophysics of the Max Planck Institute of Nuclear Physics have managed to reproduce the conditions of the original universe using a cryogenic storage ring One of the reasons why helium hydride is so important is that its appearance triggered the beginning of chemical bonds in the universe and strengthened the foundations for the creation of molecular hydrogen (H₂), which is the fuel that feeds the stars. The strategy used by astrophysicians from the Max Planck Institute of Nuclear Physics to recreate how this molecule behaved just after the Big Bang is amazing. And they have managed to reproduce the conditions of the original universe using a cryogenic storage ring. This experimental ingenuity is used to store ion beams for prolonged periods of time at extremely low temperatures and under ultra -oral vacuum conditions. This allows scientists to study the properties of molecules as unstable as helium hydride without being destroyed very quickly when colliding. As explained in the very interesting article that these astrophysicians have published in Astronomy & AstrophysicsDuring their experiment they realized that instead of slowing down as the temperature dropped, the reaction between helium hydride and the deuterium remained constant. This finding is important because in the primal universe helium hydride interpreted a leading role in the primordial gas cooling process. This cooling was essential so that the clouds of dust and gas collapse under the effects of gravity and give rise to the formation of the stars. In short, what these scientists have discovered is that Helio hydride had a much more active role in the primary chemistry of the universe of what was believed so far. Taking this idea as a starting point, astrophysicists onwards will be able to rethink the theoretical models that describe the processes involved in the formation of the oldest stars. Image | POT More information | Astronomy & Astrophysics In Xataka | The CERN has made an incredible pirouette: its last discovery has the ability to revolutionize quantum computers

How and when to enjoy the tears of San Lorenzo, the biggest rain of summer stars

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The most important astronomical event is approaching every summer, so we are going to tell you How and when can you see the Perseids of 2025. This is a true show where, in its peak of activity, we can enjoy the arrival of up to 100 meteors per hour. Therefore, we are going to tell you the best dates to be able to see this phenomenon, since although you can see some meteors fall there are still several days until its peak of activity. We will begin by telling you when it is the day of maximum activity, and then we will give you advice to visualize them as well as possible. When to see the Perseids 2025 Perseids are a phenomenon that will remain active between July 17 and August 24. But its moment of maximum activity It will be at dawn from August 12 to 13. That is the date on which this peak of activity will be reached in which we can observe up to 100 meteors per hour. The best time to see the Perseida will be between 22:00 on August 12 and 10:00 the next day, and the highest activity interval is expected to be between 2 and 5 in the morning of August 13, which is when the point from which the meteors seem to approach is at the highest point in the sky. However, This year there are bad news with the moonsince the rain of stars coincides with the full moon phase planned for August 9. The full moon brightness will make it very difficult to see the weakest meteors, so it will subtract spectacularity, although you will continue to see many of them. In addition, you can try to make the observation after the night peak, when the moonlight loses intensity. This is due to the orbital movement of the earth in space. This year it will be after midnight when we begin to guide on the “advance” side. This means that we will be facing the meteorites that come, and any particle in our orbital trajectory will enter the atmosphere at 11-72 km per second and will look like a meteor. How and where to see them Perseids will be able to see anywhere in Spain, both in the Peninsula and in the archipelagos. They can be seen anywhere in the skyso you do not need to look for a concrete orientation. A fleeting star may appear anywhere in the sky and at any time. The only requirement to see them clearly is to go to an elevated area and with a clear skythat is far from a city and its light pollution. The latter will make the sky look darker, improving the visibility of the stars. This year you should try to look when the moon is at its lowest points, since it is in its full phase. In addition, in any of the cases it is always advisable Look at the opposite direction to the moon in heaven. It is not because there is an area where there is more, but because there will be more darkness and it will be easier to see them. Cover image | Pxhere.com In Xataka Basics | 19 apps and tools to see and have more information about stars and constellations

Sydney Sweeney stars in a new announcement of jeans. And for some it is the end of the “era woke”

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The campaign that Sydney Sweeney has starred for American Eagle He has raised an opinion polcareda in the United States, with accusations of racism and even Eugenics Defense that are rarely made to clothing marks. On the surface, criticisms accompanied by the moment of special sensitivity in the country; If we deepen a little more, an authentic thermometer of the Anti-Woke wave that deployed throughout the state since Donald Trump won the elections. American Woman. That Sweeney star in a campaign for American Eagle has nothing strange: one of the actresses with a more canonical beauty of the current Star System Hollywood Juvenile at the service of a purely American jeans brand. The ads have an erotic and fashionable point, almost Vintage In his shameless contemplation of Sweeney’s physicist, and at the same time self -conscious, to parodic of pure topic (checking the engine of a typical American car, recording with a video camera, I made a casting …) Good genes. The problematic is the slogan: “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans”, an intraductible misunderstanding set between genes and jeansthat in English they pronounce the same. In one of the clips The misunderstanding comes to make explicit, and the protests have happened. Articles like this room They speak of commentators strange that it is precisely a blonde, white and blue -eyed woman, which is described as’ good genes. “It is a speech that many find, as the article details, uncomfortably similar to the discourse on The “upper race” of the Nazissince “good genes” is a message that has traditionally wielded ideology groups related to eugenics. Eugenics Today. The eugenic movement in the United States was An important social and scientific phenomenonmainly active from the end of the 19th century until the mid -twentieth century, and aimed Improve “genetic quality” of the population through selective breeding and reproduction control. It was greatly fed by beliefs in biological determinism and The racial hierarchy And he frequently pointed to groups considered “not suitable”, as poor, disabled, certain racial and immigrant minorities of the southern and east of Europe. Today, the movement does not exist in an organized way, but has experienced resurgence Thanks to certain political and social groups auged by Trump’s conservative ideas: beliefs in “genetic purity”, opposition to diversity efforts and hard migratory positions framed in statements pseudo-biological about “bad genes.” Even today laws persist in the country based on eugenic principles, such as norms for “usual criminals” or The laws of three crimes. Ozempic Empire. Some observers They also point to Ozempic consumptionwho has grown up significantly in the United States. The medicine has become a social phenomenonwith a boom auged by Influencers and pressure on social networks that encourage its use to lose weight. This has done that The movement Body Positivity that claimed diverse bodies and not adjusted to traditional canons of beauty has entered into decline: in front of a new cult of thinness and an “era of self-injection.” In Tiktok, this Return to the ideal of very thin bodies Similar to 2000, disguised as inclusion and self -acceptance, it already has a name: “Skinnytok”. Woke decays. All this panorama (claim of canonical bodies, toying accusation with defiantly ultra -right -wing root ideas, the theoretical undercover racism) is under the umbrella A broader and more complex phenomenon: The recent wave that groups politicians, influencers, podcasters and Leaders of the technological sector that They oppose the policies and speeches associated with the “woke ideology”. For example, an icon of this movement, the governor of Florida, Ron Desantis, has promoted laws to combat the teaching of the critical theory of the race, which enters with the theories we have seen above. Antiwake wave critics denounce that, disguised as Fight for Freedom of Expression (which is undoubtedly what allows American Eagle to launch campaigns like this), this rhetoric serves to preserve white and conservative power structures, attacking narratives that promote racial and social justice. That is, very in line with criticism of this new campaign starring Sidney Sweeney. Header | American Eagle In Xataka | Hildegart, the “red virgin” designed by her mother to eugenize Spain and ended in tragedy

We have been sending our location to space for 75 years without realizing it. It is now detectable in more than 120,000 stars

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Deliberate attempts for Contact extraterrestrial civilizations, Like the famous Arecibo messagethey have not received an answer. But what takes the dream of a group of cosmologists are not our well -intentioned messages, but those who send without realizing all the airports in the world. An incredibly powerful beacon. We have been shouting at the cosmos for decades without even pretending, betraying our existence in more than 120,000 nearby star systems. A new investigation presented in the Royal Astronomical Society It reveals that the combined electromagnetic leakage of all our airports form a very powerful beacon. According to the study, the signal is so intense that a civilization with technology similar to ours could detect it at a distance of up to 200 light years. Civil and military aviation radars. Researchers at the University of Mercanster simulated how radar signals that are used to control air traffic spread in space. The conclusion is amazing: the combined power of civil aviation radars adds 2 × 10¹⁵ watts, a sufficient figure for a radio telescope to capture hundreds of light years. But the thing doesn’t end there. Military radars, although they have a accumulated power of less than 1 × 10¹⁴ watts, create a pattern that sweeps the sky like a lighthouse. This signal will seem clearly artificial for anyone who observes from interstellar distances. In fact, it can be up to 100 times more powerful than the background signals, depending on the location of the observer. Our accidental technofirma since 1950. While the detection potential is 200 light years, these radar systems only emit with a similar intensity Since the 1950swhich means that our unintentious signal has expanded for now about 75 light years in all directions. Our technofirma has already reached nearby star systems as next centauri (4 light years), the star of Barnard (6 light years) and au microscopii (32 light years), but we still have to wait another 125 years to spread to the maximum and be detected in a radius of 200 light years. There are two ways to take this. On the one hand, we are sending the entire neighborhood an unequivocal sign that there is intelligent life on Earth. Figures such as astronomer David Brin have been Very critical of the idea of “shouting to the cosmos” without first establishing a global consensus. It is an arrogant decision, he argues, because he could end up affecting all humanity. On the other hand, the study gives us an important clue to The search for extraterrestrial life: If there are other civilizations such as ours, perhaps the easiest signs to locate are not their messages, but the radars of their airports. Image | Masterphoto-Dk (CC by 2.0) In Xataka | What is Fermi’s paradox and why the atomic bomb architect took a turn to the extraterrestrial life search

If there is something that biologists did not expect to discover is that billions of moths look at the stars to orient

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Imagine having to travel a thousand kilometers to a place where you have never been. Now imagine you have to do it at night, without GPS, or maps of any kind. To finish curling the curl, imagine that you only have one chance in your life to do so. You don’t have to imagine it because we are not talking about a person, but of moths. The annual pilgrimage of the Bogong moths. This is the feat that billions of Bogong moths (Infusa agrotis) They perform every year in Australia. And scientists have just discovered that they are oriented looking at the stars. This discovery, Posted in Nature magazineconverts the Bogong moth in the first insect of which you have a record that uses a stellar compass for long -distance navigation, a skill that until now was believed reserved for animals such as some night migratory birds. The trip of a life. Each southern spring, these moths undertake one of up to a thousand kiometers. They hatch in the warm plains of southeastern Australia and fly towards a handful of cold caves in the Australian Alps to spend the summer (a process called Estivation). When the fall arrives, those same moths undertake the trip back to their breeding areas to reproduce and, finally, die. The big question that has fascinated biologists for years is how they do it. No one teaches them the way. It is a round trip that each individual performs only once. A team of researchers, led by David Dreyer from the University of Lund, had already demonstrated in 2018 that the moths were sensitive to the magnetic field of the earth, Like other animalsbut they suspected there was something else. They had their eyes on the sky. A planetarium for moths. To confirm your hypothesis, The team designed an ingenious experiment. They captured migration during their migration and introduced them into a flight simulator. This device, similar to a small planetarium, held the moth allowing him to beat the wings and turn freely, while a sensor recorded his flight address. The team did several tests: They canceled the magnetic field: using a coil system, they created an environment without magnetic clues. Thus they made sure that any correct orientation was due to visual signals. They projected a natural starry sky: under an artificial night sky, identical to the one they would see in the time of migration, the moths were oriented persistently in their correct migratory direction: to the south in spring and north in autumn. They turned the sky 180 degrees: In the final test, the researchers rotated the projection of the starry sky 180 degrees. The response of the moths was immediate and amazing: they invested their flight direction almost exactly 180 degrees. They project random stars: to make sure they did not respond simply to the light, they projected an image with the same amount of stars and brightness, but randomly distributed, without forming recognizable patterns. In this situation, the moths flew disoriented, without a clear direction. Unexpected. These results demonstrated without a doubt that the moths not only see the stars, but use them as a true compass to maintain a specific geographical direction for thousands of kilometers. It was already known that other insects, such as players, use the Milky Way to orient. However, they do it to move in a straight line and quickly move away from a lot of manure, a short -term orientation and without a fixed destination. The achievement of the Bogong moth is much more complex. Use the stars to “discern specific geographical directions” and sail towards a “distant objective”, something radically different and much more sophisticated. A brain connected to the stars. The researchers did not stop in behavior. They also analyzed the brain of the moths and discovered visual neurons that responded specifically to the rotation of the starry sky. Interestingly, these neurons showed their maximum activity when the moth was heading south, regardless of whether it was spring or autumn, which suggests that they have a wiring neuronal system to detect a fundamental light blue orientation. This does not invalidate its magnetic compass. In another experiment, the scientists observed that on completely cloudy nights, when the stars were invisible, the moths were still oriented correctly. The conclusion is that the Bogong moth has an incredibly robust and redundant navigation system. It uses both the Earth’s magnetic field and a stellar compass, probably using a system to calibrate the other or to take over when one of the two fails. There are still mysteries to solve, such as what stars or exact constellations use or how they compensate for the rotation of the earth throughout the night. But what is clear is that not only the ancient sailors looked at the stars to find their way. A tiny insect, on his only trip, also does. Image | Pexels In Xataka | If the question is whether there is an “invasion” of moths in Murcia, the answer is that of every year by these dates

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