stars

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

500 million years of evolution separate us from sea stars, but there is something that has not changed so much: our appetite

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Hormones are molecules that exert the functions of messengers in our body. They take part in a large number of physiological processes, among which are the food and digestion of the food we consume. Among them, we know several hormones that regulate appetite and satiety. Evolutionary History A new study has analyzed The evolutionary history of bombsin, a hormone capable of transmitting the signal of satiety to our brain. This hormone had already been detected in some species of vertebrates and we know that it is capable of exercising this function in humans. Now we have found the genes that encode these hormones in very distant species evolutionarily, such as sea stars. Bombsin Bombsine was discovered in 1971, not in humans but in an amphibian, the belly toad fire (Bombina Bombina). It is a small peptide similar to those used by our own body to transmit (among other “messages”) the sign that we have satiated, molecules such as glucagon, the gastric inhibitor peptide (GIP), or the peptide similar to glucagon-1 (LPG-1). The researchers who studied the bombsin verified that, by injecting it into mammals, this also caused a feeling of satiety. This caused the subjects to reduce the amount of foods they consumed and space their intakes more over time. Needle in a haystack. In his study, the team responsible for New Research, began to study the genomes of different invertebrate animals until it ran into genes capable of encoding hormones similar to bombsin. And they found them in several equinoderms species (Echinodermata), As for example in the common sea star (Asterias Rubens), but also in hedgehogs and sea cucumbers. “It was like finding a needle in a haystack,” explained in a press release Maurice Elphick, co -author of the study, “but finally we discover the genes that encode a neurohormone similar to the stars of sea stars and their relatives.” Arbn.After that, the team studied the function of this hormone, which they called Arbn. Through mass spectrometry, the equipment was able to determine the molecular structure of the compound, thanks to which they could synthesize it and submit it to test. Thus they found that the hormone had an impact on the gastric processes of sea stars. “When I put Arbn, I saw that it caused contraction in the stomach of the sea star,” Weiling Huang addedCo -author of the study. “This, Sig would, that Arbn could be involved in stimulating the stomach retraction when the sea star stops eating. And that is precisely what I saw. When I injected Arbn into the sea stars (…) it made the stomach retract (…). What is more, arbn also delayed the beginning of the food, since the stars injected with arb those that water was injected. “ The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Making historians. The study gives us new clues about how our digestive system and its tools to control its internal processes evolved. A track that allows us to ride ourselves 500 million years ago, when the last common ancestor of humans and sea stars inhabited the earth. But the finding also has significance for the pharmacological industry. In recent years they have seen the rise of various treatments based on hormone analogous substances such as LPG-1 or GIP. Compounds such as semaglutida (better known by its commercial name Ozempic) or the tirzepatida (Tirzepatida) were born as diabetes treatments but achieved success as losing weight formulas. These compounds emulate the hormones that our body secretes behind meals, hormones that fulfill the function of communicating to organs such as the pancreas that our digestive process is underway but that also transmit to the brain the message that we have satiated our appetite. Compounds such as Bombsine, Arbn, or similar could perhaps be used also In this context. In Xataka | Japanese researchers have studied how to eat less. Your verdict is extremely simple: eat more slowly Image | Hans Hillewaert, CC by-SA 4.0

They are planets orbiting other stars to 130 light years

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One of the original purposes of the James Webb space telescope was the direct observation of exoplanets: distant worlds that orbit stellar systems other than the sun. The latest images of the 10,000 million dollars observatory demonstrate the level of detail that is capable of capturing. Young and gaseous. The Webb Telescope, operated by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), has been observing a planetary system to 130 light years from the Earth. At the tender age of 30 million years, this neighborhood called HR 8799 It is much younger than our solar system, which is 4.6 billion years old. The four planets in the photo that revolve around the star HR 8799 are gaseous giants similar to Jupiter and Saturn. Being so young, in addition to giants, they retain the residual heat of their formation, which makes them emit a large amount of infrared light. This light is what has allowed Webb Space Telescope Capture clear and direct images of exoplanets. An important finding. One of the most surprising aspects of these observations is the remarkable presence of carbon dioxide in the atmospheres of the four giant planets. A study published by The Astronomical Journal Associates CO2 to a large number of heavy elements such as carbon, oxygen and iron in the gaseous body of these exoplanets. The study supports the theory of core’s accretion training, which is the same mechanism proposed by astronomers for the formation of Jupiter and Saturn in our solar system. According to this theory, the giant planets begin forming solid nuclei that then attract large amounts of gas from the protoplanetary disk that surrounds a young star. Cooked over low heat. The Chemical composition observed by the Webb In the HR 8799 system it is a clue that the planets were formed by slow accumulation of heavy materials, instead of faster alternative processes. Scientists have also been able to analyze important differences between the planets. For example, HR 8799 B, the farthest from its star, shows greater carbon dioxide wealth, while HR 8799 E, the closest to its star, seems to have formed in very different conditions, in a warmer region and with a different composition. Another Nircam job. Thanks to the Nircam Chamber and its coronograph, which blocks the bright light of the central star, the Webb has not only been able to observe the HR 8799 system, but also 51 eri ba relatively cold and young planet located in the 51 Eridani system, 96 light years from the earth. This orbit planet at a considerable distance from its star, similar to a location between Saturn and Neptune of our solar system. In this case, the webb has also detected a rich atmosphere in carbon dioxide, which further supports the hypothesis of the solid nucleus as a training mechanism. Images | NASA, ESA, CSA, STSCI, JHU In Xataka | We have just discovered a tiny planet where it is three days every year. Is orbiting the star closest to the sun

This Seoul bridge seems ordinary, but stars one of South Korea’s biggest problems: suicides

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South Korea is a country that advances by leaps and bounds in technological question. It is home to some of the most important companies in the world -Samsung or Hyundai- and He is fighting To become one of the referents in the chips segment. Seoul, its capital, is a look at what could be the future of cities hypertecnologicalbut after that image of modernity, an increasingly silent pandemic is hidden: that of suicide. And no place better reflects this crisis than the Mapo bridge in Seoul, nicknamed ‘The Suicides Bridge’. Alarming figures. Suicide is a taboo issue in many societies that sometimes have not paid attention to avoid the tragic outcome. It is not something that Pille so far. In 2020, in Spain it committed suicide One person every two and a half and a half. Each country Try to deal with your way With this situation, but the case of South Korea is bleak. Do not go to the archives to see the evolution of suicides in the Asian country: In 2021, 13,352 people committed suicide. In 2022, approximately 13,000 were given. In 2023, the figure rose to 13,770. In the first six months of 2024, 6,375 people committed suicide, assuming a increase of more than 10% compared to the same period of the previous year. He total It was 14,439 dead. Cocktail. They are figures distant to the maximum of 2013, when 14,427 occurred, but in 2020, the country had the highest rate among OECD countries with 24.1 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants. It is more than double the average. The reason is that there is a social and cultural cocktail that pushes thousands of people to end their lives. There is one very high social pressure and competitiveness for being the best in studies and work life. If you do not achieve it, economic problems occur, but although that ‘success’ is achieved, there is a high level of stress and low social awareness about mental illnesses. Also idealized and impossible beauty canons for much of the population. And it is not something that cares only to suicide, since the scarce birth that is taking the country to an unsustainable situation is also the gross of those social pressures. THE MAPO BRIDGE Effect called. The most affected group is the one between ages of 10 to 39 and is the major Cause of death among South Koreans between 10 and 39 years. Between 40 and 56% of deaths in these age groups is due to suicide. These brutal pressures even affect celebrities of the country, so much that studies have already been carried out that relate the increase in suicides with the moment in which one of these celebrities ends with his life. As if there were an effect called or idealization of the act, three of the eleven cases of suicides between celebrities resulted in an increase in the rate among the population, leading people to use the same methods as said celebrity. In recent years, there have been numerous cases among young Astros of K-Pop, cinema and television, very exposed to criticism in a country where there is a very strict moral standard that these celebrities must meet. The notice says: “Line Life. Methods. They have gone changing These last years. At the beginning of the century, most used pesticides to get intoxicated. This poisoning remains one of the most used methods, but now it is through burning YoTan: Carbon cylinders that produce poisoning by carbon monoxide aspiration. The hanging has also become common (with examples such as’Sulli‘That they expose that effect called), but throwing themselves to train tracks or from bridges is also a method. THE MAPO BRIDGE. And all this leads us to the Seoul bridge. We have talked about Many bridges in Xataka And Mapo’s is, structurally, a normal bridge, almost ordinary. It does not stand out for design, certainly, but it has become the sad secondary protagonist of dozens of suicides in recent decades. It is not the only one from which the South Koreans throw themselves to end their lives, but one of the most used due to the current of the river has very difficult the rescue work very difficult. So much is the impact of the bridge on the statistics of the country that began to call colloquially as ‘The Suicides Bridge’. From the city, this was wanted to combat the structure as ‘bridge of life’ as part of a Samsung Life Insurance initiative. But it was not a simple name change. Measures. The company placed photos of happy families, among other measures to deter suicides, such as movement sensors that activated light posters with mood phrases, but they were considered a failure In 2015 and that was when the focus was changed to prevent suicide instead of deter. Thus, a series of active and passive measures were installed to stop the high rate of vacuum throwing, such as phones from which to request help every few meters (it has a length of about 1,300 meters), mirrors so that those who plan to jump see their face, cameras, high barriers and rollers that make it difficult to get to the edge. The fences are high and in the last upper section there is a roller We can see the roller, as well as the mirrors Social strategies. It is, in short, a series of actions to make jumping more difficult, but beyond this (which is still a patch), in recent years the country has taken the mental health of citizens more seriously. For example, strategies to prevent suicide thanks to greater media coverage than public awareness, as well as training campaigns and notions of suicide prevention for teachers and social workers. Also reviews focused on adolescents and another series of infrastructure measures to strengthen security on bridges and train tracks. Despite the efforts to reduce the incidence of suicide, the Mapo bridge remains a symbol of this crisis, with 846 people jumping From the bridge between 2014 and 2018, … Read more

Now we have 74 images of exocomets orbiting nearby stars

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In recent years we have seen images of Supermasive black holes, Stars outside the Milky Way and planetary systems that orbit other solesthe famous exoplanets. Current astronomy allows us to see with a precision until recently unimaginable the environment that surrounds other stars, to the point that we now have 74 images – not exoplanets, but of exocomena. The news. An international astronomer team has published the most detailed images until the date of 74 different exocometa belts: Dust structures and countless icy bodies that orbit other star systems, in the same way as Kuiper’s belt surrounds our solar system. The images They are part of the Reasons surveywhich combines data from the powerful telescopes Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (soul) in Chile and Submillimeter Array (SMA) in Hawaii. The context. The exocometer are frozen bodies of at least one kilometer in diameter. Although they are too small to be observed directly from the earth, the collisions between them release dust and small fragments that form extensive rubble belts, exocometaries belts. It is not a new concept. Astronomers first intuited the presence of exocomets around the Beta Pictoris star in 1984, long before the discovery of the first exoplanet in 1995. Specifically, they detected the spectral firms of evaporated ice passing in front of the star. The details. Reasons images reveal a whole diversity of structures. Some form narrow rings, like our Kuiper belt. Others have multiple rings or are more elongated, suggesting that they have been molded by the severity of unknown exoplanets. The discs have ages ranging from 20 million to 2,000 million years, which covers from systems in the protoplanetary phase to mature systems. The astrophysicist Carlos del Burgo, from the University of La Laguna, highlights that this is “the biggest sample to date.” An opportunity to study them. Located in the outer regions of its systems (more than 10 astronomical units), these rings are at extremely low temperatures (between -250 ° C and -150 ° C), which allows volatile compounds such as water to remain frozen . The researcher Isabel Rebellido, of the European Space Astronomy Center, points out “the importance of being able to perform statistical analysis of these discs for the first time.” Especially its evolution. With the passage of time, the discs seem to lose mass and surface area. And those closest to their stars dissipate more quickly due to the impact of star radiation. Image | Alma (ESO / NaOJ / NRAO) / SMA / L. Matrà et al. In Xataka | We are finding galaxies that we didn’t even know that they existed, and all thanks to Einstein

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