sun

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 molecule that stores the sun for years and releases heat just when you need it

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In winter, raising the blinds to take advantage of the light and heat of the sun in the central hours of the day is a good idea to heat the house while saving on heating. Of course, as the afternoon passes and night falls, goodbye to the sun and its heat. From an energy point of view, it would be fantastic to be able to store the sun in a bottle to release its heat when needed. Something like this has occurred to a research team from the University of California in Santa Barbara, which has published its research in Science: a molecule that captures sunlight, stores it for years without loss, and releases it on demand. No plugs or batteries. Professor Grace Han’s group has synthesized a modified organic molecule inspired by DNA. It is called pyrimidone and is capable of capturing solar energy, storing it in chemical bonds and releasing it as heat in a controlled and reversible manner. In short, as if it were a battery. Context. The analogy of the bottled sun is for practical purposes one of the great problems of solar energy: the issue is not so much capturing it, but rather storing it because obviously there is not always enough sun to satisfy demand. And conventional batteries degrade, are heavy, carry inherent management risks, and are expensive (although now they are below minimums). What Han’s team is proposing is not new: molecular thermal storage, known as “MOST” for short, has been researched for years. However, until now no system had managed to combine competitive energy densities with release temperatures sufficient for real practical application. Why is it important. Because this research breaks two essential barriers that make MOST increasingly closer to being a reality: It has an energy density of more than 1.6 megajoules per kilogram, almost double the energy density of a standard lithium-ion battery. It releases enough heat to be able to boil water under ambient conditions. It is also soluble in water, which makes it potentially compatible with circulation systems in solar collectors. These properties open the door to uses such as domestic heating and domestic hot water (DHW), areas without an electrical grid or systems integrated into roofs. How it works. It is important to highlight that despite the analogies with solar energy, its mechanism is completely different from that of photovoltaic cells. Come on, it does not convert light into electricity, but rather it transforms it into chemical energy that it stores in its chemical bonds. The molecule, which was designed with computational modeling thinking about reducing it as much as possible, works as if it were a spring: upon absorbing ultraviolet light it undergoes a reversible change in its shape, passing into a high-energy state. The molecule can remain stable in that state for years until an external stimulus causes it to relax, releasing the accumulated heat. As Han Nguyen detailslead author of the article, “the concept is reusable and recyclable.” From Barcelona to California. The fact that the MOST have been in the laboratory for a long time is so true that in 2024 a team from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia published a paper in Joule on a hybrid device that integrated a MOST system directly into a silicon photovoltaic cell. The idea is that organic molecules (composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, fluorine and nitrogen) act on the one hand by storing energy and on the other, as an optical filter and cooling agent for the solar cell. The molecules absorb the UV photons that silicon does not use well, cool the cell and store that surplus as chemical energy. Thus, the solar cell generates more electricity and nothing is wasted: the system achieved a solar utilization efficiency of 14.9% and a record of 2.3% in MOST storage. Yes, but. That two independent studies separated in time work on the MOST shows that this technology is more than a mere laboratory concept: it is getting closer to having real applications. Of course, like any other innovation, it faces the challenge of scalability and costs, essential for eventual industrial deployment. In Xataka | Plastic solar panels have always been more of a dream than reality: China has just changed that In Xataka | Spain has just plugged in more batteries in one month than in three years: this is the plan to save our cheaper energy Cover | POT

In 1832 Britain realized that it didn’t have much sun. Since then, a law requires that houses have good light

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If there is something that the United Kingdom could blame for its geography and climate, it is the gray days. Rare is the moment when the sun is not covered by clouds in Mary Poppins’ country, where natural light has become a scarce commodity to fight for. So much so, that there is a “right to light” by which homeowners can legally prevent new construction that obstructs natural light rays into their homes. This law is actually an easement established in 1832 by which the owner of a building with windows that have received natural light for more than 20 years has the right to prohibit adjacent constructions that limit it. That is, historically, a person was entitled to this if natural light and air had passed freely through their windows during that time and been enjoyed without disturbance. And these homes protected by the ordinance were marked with the “Ancient Lights” sign. Therefore, if a neighbor tried to violate this by building a structure or planting trees, the owner had the power to sue him for the “nuisance”. Of course, it is important to note that these do not only affect direct sunlight. But it gives the right to a minimum level of natural lighting, not direct rays of the sun. Although this urban planning law has undergone quite a few changes since its inception, the power of property owners to demand natural light continues to be debated in British cities. Nowadays, These “Ancient Lights” signs are still found on buildings around London and other counties such as Dorset and Kent. And the law, more than 100 years later, continues to be the protagonist of all types of litigation, becoming a headache for judges, lawyers and construction companies. The idea of ​​”having the right to light” Let’s go into more detail. A question that arises from this concept is: how much natural light does a person have the right to? And that is precisely where this law has several legal loopholes. Because a building owner’s windows don’t even have to be completely blocked by a neighboring obstruction for that right to be invoked. You simply have to maintain the same level of lighting that the owner has experienced for twenty years, something that is quite diffuse. In the 1920s, Percy Waldram, an expert in this law, proposed a system to standardize the sufficient amount of light that people could claim. He suggested that “common people” required at least one foot-candle (a measure of light intensity) for reading and other work. If the builder, including a homeowner planning an extension, identifies a risk affecting light rights, they must notify the affected homeowner and engage with them to reach an amicable agreement. This could be as compensation or a redesign to rectify or mitigate the problem. However, if there is a dispute, There are two ways to take legal action: damages and/or a court order. The first consists of granting a sum of money to compensate for the loss. The second may require demolition of part or all of the new building unless some other structural change can remedy the problem. The latter is usually too expensive. The idea for many years was that if a property owner did not take immediate steps to obtain a court order, the only remedy available to them was damages. However, a 2010 case left builders stunnedas the court held that it was possible to obtain an injunction even after the completion of the new building. In another more recent case from 2020the court granted an injunction to a property owner two years after the completion of the infringing work. The court found that the builder had proceeded with full knowledge of the risk he was taking. Is there a similar law in Spain? The easements They also exist in Spain. It is the right that the owner of a property has over the adjoining property that limits the proprietary powers of the owner thereof. In fact, it is not so uncommon to find cases in our country (especially in individual homes), in which Your neighbor has one or more windows that face directly onto your property. Is it legal? As regulated by the Civil Code in article 580no party wall can, without the consent of the other, open any window or opening in a party wall. Otherwise, the owner of a wall that is not a party wall and that is adjacent to the back of another owner may open windows or openings in the same wall. to receive lightsas long as it complies with the premises established in article 581 of the Civil Code. Furthermore, as stipulated in the article 582 of the Civil Code: “You cannot open windows with straight views, nor balconies or other similar overhangs, over the neighbor’s property, if there is not two meters of distance between the wall on which they are built and said property. Nor can you have side or oblique views over the same property, if there is not 60 cm of distance.” In Xataka | If your renovation is a pain, think about the house that cost 120 times more than its original cost: a masterpiece In Xataka | If the question is whether they forgot the elevator shaft in the tallest residential skyscraper in Spain, the answer is simple: it was much worse Image | Chris Flexen

A star 1,540 times larger than the Sun is mutating in real time and it is something that baffles astronomers

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The universe is rarely in a hurry, since stellar processes usually be measured in millions or billions of yearsso witnessing the metamorphosis of a great star in the span of a single human life is practically unheard of. And this is precisely what is happening with WOH G64a true cosmic monster located in the Large Magellanic Cloudabout 163,000 light years from Earth. Big changes. Astronomers have been analyzing this astronomical giant for years, and now the red supergiant is changing radically in front of our telescopes as it heats up rapidly and opens a heated scientific debate. The question that the community is asking itself right now is whether we are facing the transformation towards a very rare yellow hypergiant or if it is simply the fierce interaction of a binary system before collapsing. What we knew. Discovered in the 1970s, WOH G64 has long held the title of one of the largest stars known. The data we know about it is no wonder, since it has a radius 1,540 times greater than that of our Sun, an approximate mass of 28 solar masses and shines 282,000 times brighter than our star. Despite its enormous size, it is an extremely young star, since it is barely 5 million years old. And if we put it into context, in the ruthless world of astrophysics, the largest stars “live fast and die young”, devouring the fuel inside them at great speed. The script twist. Until recently, everything fit the classic profile of an extreme red supergiant, placing its temperature at 3,400 ± 25 degrees Kelvin. But a turning point came in the last decade after the data published in Nature Asia which pointed out that the star suffered a mysterious dimming in 2011, followed by a sudden warming of more than 1,000 ºC and significant chemical alterations in the atmosphere. Now, a new study analyzes the photometry and optical spectroscopy accumulated over more than thirty years of this star. And the conclusion they have reached is that between 2013 and 2014, WOH G64 began to transition from red supergiant to yellow hypergiant. What are they? Yellow hypergiants are an exceptionally rare transition phase of which we barely have data and, above all, it is very ephemeral. In this case, the dramatic thermal evolution could be due to the star having partially ejected its outer envelope or to its stellar companion aggressively stripping away material. The debate is served. As is often the case on the frontier of astrophysics, not everyone agrees that the transition is complete. Rigorous science requires fact-checking constant, and recent research adds nuance to this story. This same year, one study pointed out because the star continues to maintain its classic red supergiant characteristics, questioning whether it has become a rare yellow hypergiant. The most logical explanation they see in this case is that the interaction with its companion star is causing these large temperature changes. This generates a great debate, since it goes completely against the other part of astrophysics that is convinced that we are facing a great twist in the script. A supernova. The big question that everyone is asking is how this titan will end, and some voices suggest that we are seeing the prelude to an imminent supernova. However, in astronomical terms, “imminent” is an elastic concept, since core collapse could occur in a time frame ranging from 100 to a few thousand years. And even if it collapses, even a spectacular explosion is not guaranteed. Although there is also the possibility that it fails in its attempt to explode and, instead, collapses directly in on itself, silently forming a black hole. Likewise, what happens seems to be something that our next generations will see. Images | European Southern Observatory In Xataka | We have analyzed the universe for 20 years looking for ET and all we have are 100 signals that China is now investigating

If the question is who is going to illuminate part of the new A-5 tunnel, the answer is simple: the sun

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He burial of the A5 continues its course. It is one of the most ambitious works in the recent history of the Spanish capital and, after months of headaches, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. There is still a way to go, but the light thing is quite literal if we take into account that, in the surface park, there will be enormous pergolas that will not only serve to provide shade. They will be the battery of the tunnel. The pergolas. From the beginning The project took into account the installation of an infrastructure that would allow the use of sunlight to power the tunnel through which the vehicles will circulate. The idea with this burial is to create a large green area of ​​80,000 m2 that, in addition to trees, will have another solution to shelter pedestrians: eight pergolas to combat the sun and rain. They won’t be the only thing they will do. As the Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility area of ​​the Madrid City Council has commented to ABCall of them will have photovoltaic panels that will total 1,055 panels for a nominal power of 437 kW and an annual production of 561 MWh. It is the equivalent of the annual consumption of 200 homes in Spain and the energy that will power the installations of the underground section. We will see when the works are completed, since the Madrid City Council already calculation a production of 1,158 MWh per year. Geothermal. All the pergolas will not be the same and the panels will be installed in the most optimal way possible to meet this estimated production, but it is not the only system planned to supply the park facilities with electricity from renewable sources. An example is the Ángel González Municipal Public Library, located at one end of the project. Currently, and as detailed the town hall, the thermal installation compose of a 285 kW boiler and a 220 kW chiller. In their place, two 150 kW heat pumps will be installed and will employ low temperature geothermal energy to create a water circuit tempered at a constant 25 degrees. It is a form of renewable energy that takes advantage of the constant heat of the shallow subsoil to air condition buildings and produce hot water. Undertaking work to switch to low-temperature geothermal is a complex and expensive process, but on the scale of the A5 underground, it makes a lot of sense. In this way, a pump will exchange heat with the ground to extract ground temperature in winter and, in summer, transfer heat from the building to the subsoil and, thus, cool the library. All this without local combustion. Mountains in the capital. And since we’re talking about renewables and reusing, it’s curious what they will do with some of the land they are excavating. Instead of having to manage it as waste, in part of the walk will be created three artificial hills. It is a good way to take advantage of surplus land, but it will also have a useful function. They will house thousands of trees that must be relocated due to current works, but, in addition, each of the hills will have a purpose. One will be a park with picnic areas and biodiversity areas, another will house a skatepark and another will become a viewpoint. Let them finish now…That is the feeling of the neighbors who have been enduring headaches from noisebut also an urban ‘Mario Kart’. Because it is very good to undertake works that use renewable energy to solve specific problems, but it is normal that there are those who are choking on these works. In the end, it is not easy to cut one of the access arteries to the city for almost two years to bury 3.2 kilometers of a highway on which 80,000 vehicles circulate a day. There is less left until the end of 2026… Images | MadridMadrid City Council In Xataka | Madrid wants to put 110,000 tons of weight on the M-30. And the challenge is not technical: it is not to collapse the road

The sun never set in the Spanish empire. AI is achieving that in some companies neither

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There was a time when the Spanish empire did not set the sun. Their domains ranged from the colonies in America, to Europe and Southeast Asia. In the 21st century, global technology startups are recovering that model to develop your AI-based products 24 hours a day. When a team in San Francisco is finishing its work shift, its work continues in Europe, and then moves on to Asia, ensuring that development does not stop. The “follow the sun” model is not new, but the combination of distributed remote work and the development of AI has turned it into a formula to stay ahead of the competition, without exhausting the workforce. The IBM empire in the 90s. In the 90s, IBM was an empire on which the sun did not set either. He IBM giant was one of the first to try the “follow the sun” model (Follow The Sun or FTS) with a team of five offices spread over different time slots to chain days and shorten software development times. This model is based on the concatenation of days. Each group works during its normal day. When this ends in an office, the day begins in the next time slot that collects the witness of the work of his colleagues. The process is repeated throughout the day, synchronizing the journey of the star through the sky with the different work days throughout the planet. Although in principle this model ran into some difficulties due to the poor performance of the connection networks of the time, IBM refined the process and managed to reduce projects by up to 67% by coordinating three offices in the United States, Australia and India. A model that makes sense with AI. Today, Silicon Valley has stepped on the accelerator pedal of AI and new startup founders technologies have embraced days “996” in which all hours of the day that are dedicated to product development they are few. As and as I pointed out analyst and software engineering expert Gergely Orosz, in the context of high competitiveness in the development of AI models experienced by the startup ecosystem on the west coast of the United States, more and more companies are choosing the “follow the sun” model to add normal days for teams in different countries. Thus, a model designed in Europe is tested on equipment in Asia at night and reviewed in California the next morning. The development machinery does not stop. Global clients, local attention. Likewise, the clients of these technology companies are spread all over the world, so offering a technical support service is complicated if it has to be done from a single location. According to data From Zendesk, 73% of customers switch to competitors due to bad experiences with support servicesso the distributed remote system allows the change of time slot so that the service adapts to the languages ​​and local culture of each region. The user who needs help always speaks to someone during their normal hours, no matter where they live. ​The push for AI and remote work. The rise of AI has improved the efficiency of the system at its most critical moment: shift change. This was one of the points that was most difficult for IBM managers to polish in the 90s. AI tools have helped unite shifts with chatbots that resolve doubts to employees, agents who summarize conversations with customers, prepare error reports or give solution ideas based on the context of the information that has been collected throughout the shifts, so as not to lose details when changing teams. Companies that have opted for this model in which the sun does not set highlight that products are developed faster, there are fewer unresolved cases by the support service and customers see the company as always available. Companies, especially technology companies, opted for elimination of teleworking and back to the office. However, no one said that this office should be on the same continent as that of their colleagues. A new evolution of remote work. In Xataka | Three Spanish companies tell us how they fared after implementing a work utopia: the four-day week Image | Unsplash (James Harrison)

This is C/2026 A1 and its race towards the Sun

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We have just started 2026 and astronomy has already given us the first surprise of the year, since while most were looking towards the usual objectives, a team of astronomers in the Atacama Desert has detected an object. It’s about the comet C/2026 A1and there are possibilities that we can see it from Earth itself. Its relevance. We are not facing just any comet, since its orbit and size suggest that we are facing a “sungrazer“, which translated into Spanish would be something like “Sungrazer.” This means that it is a type of suicidal object that, if it manages to survive its passage through perihelion, could become a visual phenomenon comparable to the legendary Ikeya-Seki comet of 1965. The discovery. The story of this discovery It starts on January 13 at the AMACS1 observatory, located in the privileged geography of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile with a team of French astronomers who detected an unusual movement. The discovery was made as part of the MAPS search programwhich has been active since 2020 and already has the discovery of 8 comets and more than 300 near-Earth asteroids to its credit. In this way, the different organisms initially confirmed this finding as a diffuse spot. It had already been seen. Weeks before this discovery, researchers saw that ‘precoveries’ already existed in the databases. This means that other teams had uploaded previous images where the comet appeared, but it had not been identified since the brightness was even dimmer. But this team has finally not missed it. Your family. What makes the C/2026 A1 special is not only its discovery, but its lineage. Data from the JPL Small-Body Database and expert Seiichi Yoshida confirm that it belongs to the Kreutz familyspecifically to the Pe subgroup. In order to understand all these words, we must put ourselves in context to know that Kreutz comets are fragments of a giant comet that broke up centuries ago. Now this new visitor appears to be directly related to the Great Comet of 1106, a monster that broke into pieces giving rise to some of the brightest comets in history. Your trip. When analyzing the journey you are havingThe truth is that the numbers can be dizzying. Specifically, it has been seen that it has a speed of 3.2 million kilometers per hour and, based on this information, it has been seen when it will pass close to the Sun. Specifically, it will be on April 4, 2026 when it will pass just 0.00547 Astronomical Units from the Sun. In “Christian”, that means that it will pass about 800,000 kilometers from our star, which for an object made of ice and rock, that is basically grazing the solar surface. The April scenario. This is where the scientific community is divided between caution and excitement, as it all depends on one very specific question: ‘Will he survive?’ Right now on the table there is two possible scenarios which can be summarized in the following points: The first is for the comet to disintegrate, which would be a boring ending. What basically happens here is that the immense gravity and solar heat vaporize the comet before it leaves perihelion, being the fate of many sungrazers small. The second scenario is that it survives, and it is not nonsense since current estimates place the comet’s nucleus at about 2.4 kilometers in diameter. This figure is good news because it is large enough to have a chance of survival. If he survives. If it withstands the gravitational and thermal pull, the C/2026 A1 could reach an absurd brightness. Some optimistic projections suggest that it could be brighter than the full Moon or even visible to the naked eye during the day, near the solar disk, something we haven’t seen since Comet Ikeya-Seki in the 1960s. Calendar to view. The calendar that is on the table right now begins at the end of March 2026when astronomy fans will be able to begin to see them with telescopes. From here we will have to wait until April 4 to see if it survives and increases its brightness greatly to later deploy a massive tail. visible to the naked eye in our skies. As always with comets, they are like cats: they have tails and do exactly what they want. But with a core of 2.4 km and a direct trajectory from the Kreutz clan, C/2026 A1 is, without a doubt, one of those events that we must keep in mind in order to make history. Images | NASA Hubble Space Telescope In Xataka | China has created the largest kite in the world with a very clear objective: to make its energy extremely cheaper.

The future of energy lies in fusion, and China aims to light the first light bulb with the power of the Sun in 2030

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When we think of the future energyit is easy for us to think about renewables. Much of Europe has a while running with renewables, China is an expanding power and even some states in the United States They are seeing its benefits. However, the future lies in nuclear power. But not because of fission, but for the fusion. And China has just taken a giant step in the forecasts of its BEST program with a single objective. Replicate the process that powers the Sun. China and the ultimate energy. Fusion and fission are nuclear reactions that release energy from the nucleus of the atom, and That’s where their similarities end.. Briefly, fission consists of breaking the nuclei of heavy atoms such as uranium to release energy. It is the process that we use in current nuclear power plantsand decades ago we managed to make it something stable. Fusion is the reverse process: it joins light atoms to generate energy. It is tremendously unstable and the heat generated is enormous, but the process generates a much higher amount of energy. Imitate that star power It is extremely complex, but we have been trying to replicate it for years for a very simple reason: it is estimated that it will offer almost unlimited energy and long-lasting waste-freesomething against which nuclear fission can’t compete. China is one of the countries that is pushing the development of nuclear fusion plants the most, so much so that it intends to put the first plant into operation a decade before its competitors. EAST. It stands for ‘Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak’, an experimental program that China has been developing since 2006 to test the viability of commercial fusion energy. After setting some records for temperature and operating time, in 2021 achieved continuous plasma operation for 17 minutes in which the core operated at 70 million degrees Celsius. They are five times the sun temperature and, although temperatures of up to 160 million degrees were previously achieved for 20 seconds, the ideal is to maintain a very high temperature for as long as possible. Steps have continued to be taken and researchers recently discovered that the reactor could work at 165% of its maximum theoretical capacity without suffering disruptions. To contextualize, it is as if we have an engine designed to go at 200 km/h, but we discover that we can drive at 330 km/h constantly without it overheating. In short: China is taking steps to control the enormous challenge represented by the magnetic confinement of plasma. BEST. The ‘Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak’, for its part, is the spearhead of its nuclear fusion program. If EAST is the proof of concept, BEST is the demonstration of feasibility. The EAST steps are those that will be replicated in BEST, a reactor built on a larger scale that will operate for a shorter period of time in a sustained manner, but under conditions of greater energy gain. Goal: 2030. China began construction of the BEST in 2023 and hopes to complete it by 2027 to begin testing with plasma. If it goes well, the CFETR reactor will be the one that pours fusion energy into the grid. In a statement published by the state media Xinhuawe see that the intention is to generate electricity by 2030 and start do it commercially by 2035. If the goal is reached, China will be the first country that will be able to commercially emulate the power of the Sun to light the “first nuclear fusion light bulb” in history. Although, of course, the United States and Massachusetts They also say that they will be the first. They are not the only ones. If they reach the goal, it will be a fundamental step in achieving new generation energy, and they want to reach that future a decade before the rest of the countries, or so China suggests. In this race for nuclear fusion, the BEST is expected to begin operating commercially between 2030 and 2035. Meanwhile, in France there is the ITER. With 24,000 million euros in budgetis the most expensive international program in history, only surpassed by the Apollo Programthe International Space Stationhe Manhattan Project or the GPS system. It aims to be very powerful, but has constant delaysa budget that has overflowed and an operational date that has not been fulfilled. In the United States, a private startup is building SPARCmuch smaller than ITER, but more profitable. United Kingdom has the STEPJapan JT-60SA and Russia the T-15MD Hybrid. Talking about dates is complicated, since there were tests that were expected to be obtained in 2025 and were not achieved… and there is talk of between 2040 and 2060 for the commercial viability of this energy “from the stars”, although the calendars have been readjusted. China has turned new generation energy in a matter of stateand we will see if they meet their goal of starting production in 2030. And, although it seems that we have to put the artificial intelligence even in the soup, the enormous energy needs of this technology are encouraging advances in nuclear fusion. The joke that nuclear fusion energy always has 30 years to go may have come to an end. Images | Oak Ridge National LaboratoryNASA In Xataka | Europe is looking for where to put its first nuclear fusion reactor. And Spain is one of the best candidates

Europe is looking for a place to light its “artificial sun” and Spain only has to defeat Italy and Germany to achieve it

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For decades, nuclear fusion has been the distant horizon of energy: an almost mythical promise, always thirty years ahead. A future without a map. In full electrification of the economy and with demand pushed by the digital industry and data centers, Europe has begun to set coordinates for that promise: where to build the first commercial centers. For the first time, the “artificial sun” is no longer just a scientific experiment and it becomes a problem of territory, infrastructure and industrial planning. And in this new European energy map, Spain appears among the best positioned countries. A new path. Gauss Fusion, the European company created to power the first generation of commercial fusion plants on the continent, has completed the first comprehensive European study of potential sites for this technology, in collaboration with the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The study culminates in a map that did not exist until now. A map that indicates 150 industrial clusters and up to 900 potential sites spread across nine European countries. Behind each point there is an analysis of geology, seismicity, meteorology, refrigeration, access to the electrical grid and existing infrastructure, aligned with standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Spain on the horizon. It appears as the third country with the most identified clusters: 17, only behind Germany (53) and Italy (22), and ahead of France, Austria, the Netherlands or Switzerland. This is not a political decision or a formal candidacy, but rather a strictly technical diagnosis: where it would be possible to build a first-generation fusion power plant if it had to be done tomorrow. “That Spain appears as the third country with the most potential clusters is due solely to technical criteria,” emphasizes Milena Roveda, CEO of Gauss Fusion, in an interview with Xataka. “The study follows an objective methodology consistent with international standards. There are no strategic weightings or quotas per country,” he emphasizes. And that nuance is key. The map does not look for winners or distribute investments: it identifies where the minimum physical and industrial conditions already exist to host a fusion power plant. But why Spain? On the one hand, its fusion ecosystem. Spain is one of the European countries with greater historical involvement in ITERhouses the headquarters of Fusion for Energy in Barcelona and has achieved key industrial contracts for national companies. Added to this is the role of CIEMATuniversities with leading groups in plasma physics and materials, and the beginning of the construction of IFMIF-DONES in Granadaa critical infrastructure to validate materials for future reactors. On the other hand, their regulatory experience. “Spain has a nuclear regulatory body with extensive prestige and experience,” highlights Roveda. From an industrial point of view, Roveda insists that Spain should not limit itself to being a host: “It has the potential to be a key piece in the merger value chain. Companies like IDOM already have demonstrated that can design and deliver extremely complex systems. Where could these clusters be? The map does not draw isolated points, but rather broad areas. The study identifies regional clusters capable of containing multiple viable locations. In Spain, they appear spread over a good part of the territory – from Andalusia and Extremadura to Castilla y León, Aragon, Catalonia, Galicia, the Basque Country and the Valencian Community – and are concentrated in industrial areas with high electrical demandgood network connectivity and, in some cases, close to old energy enclaves that could reuse part of their infrastructure. Frédérick Bordry, CTO of Gauss Fusion, explains to Xataka that the objective of the map is not to select a specific place, but “to have a broad database that allows collaboration with authorities, companies and other interested parties.” The final decision, remember, will not come until the end of 2027. What would a commercial fusion center be like? Talking about commercial fusion is no longer talking about experiments like ITER. Gauss Fusion works with the concept of a GIGA plantcapable of producing 1 gigawatt of electricity. This implies very specific industrial requirements. “Assuming an efficiency of 30%, a plant of this type must safely evacuate about 2 GW of heat,” explains Bordry. In practice, this requires access to rivers, reservoirs or the sea, as well as robust electrical infrastructure. Unlike fission, fusion does not produce chain reactions, is self-limiting, does not emit CO₂ and does not generate long-lived radioactive waste. “Due to its safety features, it could and should be integrated near urban and industrial centers,” says Bordry, even supplying waste heat for industrial uses or district heating. This aspect connects with a trend that is already seen in Europe: heat recovery in district heating networks, as happens in Finland with data centerseither the use of large industrial heat pumps. The process now enters a delicate phase. According to Gauss Fusion, the goal is to reduce the European map to between two and five final locations by the end of 2026, and make the final decision in 2027. But the technical criteria will not be the only ones. “Political will, the regulatory framework and social acceptance will be essential,” emphasizes Roveda. In his opinion, Europe needs policies that promote fusion as a new industrial engine, and regulations “adapted to the real risk of these facilities.” Social acceptance will also be key. “Transparency and citizen participation are essential,” he says. “We have to explain well what fusion is and what it is not.” A project that covers a lot. For Bordry, no European country can tackle a project of this magnitude alone. The merger will require a continental industrial alliance, something that Roveda defines as a “fusion Eurofighter”, in which Spain should play a central role, not only as a location, but as a technological and industrial supplier. In a context in which European electricity demand could grow up to 75% by 2050fusion is beginning to be seen not as a distant promise, but as one more piece of the energy puzzle, complementary to renewables, storage and electrification. An open closure, but with a … Read more

For years, foreigners who wanted sun and beach bought a house in Spain. Now they are looking for something else: luxury housing

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The real estate market emits signals which show that foreigners have won a relevant weight in the sale and purchase of luxury homes, which leads us to think about changes in the profile of the international buyer. Spain is no longer just a destination for families or couples from other countries interested in getting a small apartment for their vacation in search of sun and beach. It also receives wealthy people who want settle herein the cities, and is able to pay for his house out of pocket. The data are certainly suggestive. “First level destination”. I warned him recently in an interview with Idealista Paloma Pérez Bravo, CEO of Residencial de Lucas Fox, a platform specialized in the premium market: “Spain has gone from being a sun and beach getaway to a top-level luxury destination.” From your experiencethe country “has stopped being the home of the sun and has become the home of investment. People want more first homes than second homes because they are moving to Spain.” It’s not the only change he appreciates. Upon your signature, Bravo explains to SERdigital nomads are now arriving, entrepreneurs from America, English and American, also businessmen and investors who used to invest in the US and now find themselves with problems there due to Trump’s immigration policy. Is there data? Yes, although they come mainly from companies, so they must be handled with some caution. In your report On market forecasts for 2026, Lucas Fox reveals for example that 62% of buyers Those who close transactions worth more than 2.5 million euros are foreigners, more than 60% of ultra-luxury sales are signed without the need for financing and a good part of the acquisitions are made in search of a “main residence”, not to convert the property into a vacation home or as an investment. Looking ahead to next year, the company also expects that activity in the segments prime and super prime grow 3-6% and 6-10% respectively and leaves behind a fundamental idea that tells us about the profile of those clients who purchase the most expensive houses: “The international buyer is already the majority.” Specifically, the weight of Europeans stands out, followed by Americans and British. Other percentage: 92%. Lucas Fox is not the first to warn of the frequency with which foreign accents are heard in real estate agencies specializing in the premium market. A few months ago Barnes claimed that 92% of buyers from the Spanish luxury market were already foreigners. Of them, around half (49%) were also investors from outside the EU, with a notable presence especially of Mexicans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Russians, Chinese and Arabs. The community members They accounted for 43% while the Spanish, according to the real estate agency, were left with a meager 8% of the total. Are there more clues? The answer is once again affirmative. Another company that shared data recently is LuxuryEstatea premium housing portal that confirms that searches by international buyers interested in the Spanish market already represent a substantial part of its traffic. Above all, the demand for information from european countries such as Germany, France, Italy, Belgium or the Netherlands and the interest aroused by the premium segment of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Madrid or the Valencian Community. Other regions, such as the Canary Islands and the Basque Country, also seem to be emerging. A consolidated destination. LuxuryEstate confirm in fact that ours “is no longer just an aspirational destination, but a highly competitive market.” The comment is in line with what it points out to Lucas Fox or even CaixaBank Research, which in a recent analysis Regarding the changes in the profile of the resident foreigner who acquires housing in Spain, he warns: “Spain has established itself as one of the most attractive destinations for luxury investment in Europe.” Different buyers. In the same reportCaixaBank recalls that the demand for housing by foreigners has grown in recent years, first after the pandemic and then thanks to the improvement in financing. It also clarifies that there are differences between resident foreigners and those who do not live here and are mainly looking for houses for their vacations or as an investment. On average, the former (residents) paid around €1,795/m2 in 2024 and the latter (non-residents) €3,063/m2. These are values ​​significantly higher than those recorded by national buyers, which moved at 1,713. However, the last balance of Property Registrars shows that foreign demand for housing has reduced in the third quarter of the year, representing 13.6% of the total. The percentage reflects the entire market, not just the luxury segment, although there are those who warn that the latter is not immune to the shortage of supply, which among other issues affects its prices. Images | DaYsO (Unsplash) In Xataka | After Catalonia, there is another autonomous community considering prohibiting buying a home to invest: Canary Islands

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