turns

It turns out that at least half of what orbits the Earth is garbage. And that’s only what we can see

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Around the Earth is the moon and a lot of space junk. And it is not an exaggeration: we have decades launching satellites into space without a clear or unified strategy. Of those waters, these muds: only Starlink has 9,000 units orbiting and has requested permission to launch a million more. What began with a technological race between superpowers has become an orbiting dump that has serious implications: threat of catastrophic collisions (every time we launch something, we buy another ticket in this macabre lottery) to risk critical infrastructures such as GPS navigation or communications. But all this is not new: science has been warning about it for years. The truly disturbing thing is not so much that the problem has been diagnosed, but rather that there is no simple solution. Space debris will not degrade with rain nor will it be decomposed by microorganisms. What goes up, stays there. And everything that remains is a real threat to what is there that truly matters. Almost half of what is in orbit is garbage. The engineering company Accu has used public data of the United States Space Corps through the web Space-Track.org and has analyzed them: there are 33,269 trackable objects in orbit, of which 17,682 are satellites. What happens to that other 47%? What is space debris: abandoned rockets, dead satellites and thousands of fragments resulting from collisions, among other unidentified objects. Stay with this information, because it is important and we will return later. Why is it important. From high school physics: we have already seen that there are objects of all types and sizes, but the majority of them they travel At more than 27,000 km/h and that speed, even the smallest piece can be lethal. To put it in context: a one-kilogram fragment impacting at 10 km/s has a kinetic energy of 50 MJ, that is, its equivalence in TNT There are 12 kg of explosive, enough to completely destroy an entire satellite of several tons. Losing a satellite is not the worst thing that could happen (even if its function was critical), but the Kessler syndromean irreversible chain reaction: if two objects collide and generate thousands of fragments, these fragments can collide with each other, generating more and more until making the orbit unusable. Context. It all started with the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, but the problem has gotten out of hand in the last decade due to something that a priori was good: the cost of launches has plummeted, so there are more and more and in fact, there are even commercial constellations, like Starlink. Only between 2020 and 2025 the number of trackable objects in orbit grew by around 10,000 units. You can see the history of all objects launched into space in Space-Track.org. Maybe after hearing so much that the wolf is coming we downplay it, but it is already happening: in 2024 the astronauts of the International Space Station they had to take refuge after the fragmentation of a decommissioned Russian satellite. In 2025 Chinese astronauts they were trapped at Tiangong Station after a piece of trash cracked the window of their return capsule. The worst is what we don’t know. We mentioned before that 47% of space debris, but that is only what we can see: the European Space Agency calculate that there are more than 1.2 million fragments larger than one centimeter in orbit and that more than 50,000 exceed 10 centimeters, enough size to completely destroy an active satellite if both impact. The figure amounts to more than 100 million objects of one millimeter or less, according to NASA. Even a flake of paint. In addition, each space power manages its own tracking data with different levels of transparency, making it difficult to have a complete and reliable picture, a map of what is in orbit. The gap between what is trackable and what is real is abysmal: current surveillance systems can only reliably track objects larger than 10 centimeters in low orbit and larger than one meter in geostationary orbit. Everything that remains outside that threshold is simply invisible, not innocuous. As if that were not enough, there is one more dynamic variable to introduce into the equation: the interaction between debris and space weather. A 2025 study warned that an intense solar storm could cripple satellites’ ability to maneuver long enough to cause cascading collisions and that there would be less than three days to react. Whose fault is it. The origin of space debris is essentially concentrated in three blocks: China, the United States and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, heirs of the Soviet space program, concentrate on their shoulders about 95% of all waste cataloged in orbit. With data from March 2026, China accounts for 34% of the total debris tracked, closely followed by the CIS (Russia and eight other small countries) with 31% and the United States with another 31%. The underlying problem is legal: the international treaty that regulates space dates back to the 1960s and does not prohibit destroying satellites with missiles. Nor has anyone been serious about minimizing the launches. Without a clear policy to reduce waste, verification mechanisms or real sanctions, little can be expected, such as documents the UN. In Xataka | We have been burning space junk for years to get rid of the problem. It turned out to be a bad idea In Xataka | Orbital cleanup is no longer science fiction: the first regular space debris collection service will arrive in 2027 Cover | Photo of Javier Miranda in Unsplash

It turns out that there are invasive land snakes that take to the sea from Ibiza. And they are annihilating a unique lizard

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In addition to being one of the great European tourist destinations, the Pitiusas Islands have a unique jewel of nature: the pitiusa lizarda unique reptile in the world that only lives there. By living in isolation, the lizard populations on each islet have evolved independently, giving rise to 28 different subspecies. This biological jewel today has a direct and truly terrifying threat: the horseshoe snake, a foreign species that was accidentally introduced to Ibiza in 2003, probably through ornamental olive trees imported from the Iberian Peninsula. Or so they thought: spotting a horseshoe snake is no longer something occasional, but they can even be seen swimming in the open sea. Spoiler: they are terrestrial snakes. what’s happening. The Center for Ecological Research and Forest Applications (CREAF) has published an academic article that covers the origin and invasion status of the horseshoe snake. The expansion map is conclusive: in 2010 the snake was present in less than 5% of the Ibizan territory, in 2016 it already occupied 40% of the island and in 2025 it had reached 90%. As stated by the research team led by Guillem Casbas and researcher Oriol Lapiedra, when it conquers a new area, it can take less than three years to eradicate the entire population of lizards. The speed of expansion is unprecedented among invasive snakes in Europe. What has never been seen is also the most disturbing: they have documented how snakes swim between islets, that is, they carry out active colonization. In 2024 they recorded a snake crossing 430 meters of open sea to the islet of Santa Eulària. The same sea that has served over the years as a barrier to the evolutionary isolation of the pitiusa lizard is no longer enough to protect it from its predator. The unstoppable advance of the horseshoe snake. Ecology Why is it important. The extinction of a species is always bad news from the point of view of fauna diversity, but this one is unique: its goodbye means that a unique and irrecoverable evolutionary lineage disappears, and according to the IUCN It is already cataloged as threatened, which means that population models predict a severe and continued reduction in the short and medium term. Beyond taxonomy, this eventual extinction would have its effect within an ecosystem as particular as the island and its balance, which could end with more extinctions due to a domino effect. In the case of the pitiusa lizard, it has pollinating and seed dispersal functions and if it does not do so, it puts the reproductive success of plants in check. On the other hand, and although its importance is more relative, the Pitiusas lizard is one of the great cultural and identity icons for those who are from Ibiza and Formentera: this amphibian is deeply rooted in the collective local imagination and popular mythology. Context. The magnitude of the problem is best understood within the biology of the islands. Islands are especially vulnerable ecosystems to invasive species because the loss of a single species can trigger cascading effects throughout the entire biological community. Invasive species enter the islands like an elephant enters a china shop: they compete for resources (more limited), alter habitats (smaller) and disturb ecological processes. The Pitiusas lizard is a critical node for the islands: however, was For millions of years it was the only terrestrial vertebrate in the archipelago and did not develop anti-predatory behaviors against snakes. A parallel case studied in depth is that of the brown tree snake on the island of Guamwhich decimated native bird and lizard populations, causing an increase in insects and altering forest dynamics. tragic consequences. The immediate ecological consequences are severe and quantifiable: there have already been local extinctions of lizards on at least 10 islets, and the snake has colonized between 12 and 15 of them through active swimming. And unfortunately, it’s just the beginning: this global study highlights that the impact of invasive vertebrate species on seed dispersal in island ecosystems is even greater than that caused by the extinctions of native fauna. Or what is the same, there may be a disruption in the plant regeneration of these islets. Likewise, its disappearance can take its toll on agriculture indirectly, as the lizard regulates the insect population. Is there a solution? The most urgent and important shock measure is to actively control the snake invasion. In 2025 the Balearic Government surpassed the 4,400 captures of invasive snakes in the Pitiusas and has already opted to leave the traps throughout the year. In 2026 the device will continue to expand with more resources. Of course, with a presence of 90% already in Ibiza, total eradication is unfeasible in the short term: the most realistic thing is to contain the advance and protect refuges. On the other hand, the conservation of the pitiusa lizard is also a priority objective, with several breeding lines of pitiusa lizards with genetic criteria in collaboration with the Barcelona Zoo. In the long term, the only structural solution is to combine the control of the snake with the conservation of the lizard’s genetics for a later reintroduction into its territory. In Xataka | The Ebro is filling with brown prawns, an invasive species that we are going to find more and more on our plates. In Xataka | Spain is witnessing a shocking phenomenon: three invasive species are feeding each other to conquer the country Cover | Albert Masats and Swimming Snakes Wipe out Endemic Lizards from Mediterranean Islets, Oriol Lapiedra

Starlink has been ruining astronomers’ nights for years. Now it turns out that their launches are leaving their mark on the climate

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Much has been said about the great light pollution that generate the Starlink satellites from SpaceX. However, not so much has been said about something that, if we think about it, is much more evident. Air pollution derived from launches. Any space launch, in fact, can generate this type of contamination. However, satellite trains require such a large number of launches that it is not unusual for them to be of particular concern to scientists today. 15,000 satellites and counting. A team of British and American scientists has carried out Recently a study brought this problem to the fore and predicted what the effects could be in the short term. This investigation indicates that there are currently around 15,000 telecommunications satellites in orbit, more than 10,000 of which belong to SpaceX. This represents three times as many satellites as in 2020 and the worst thing is that the number continues to increase. As a consequence, according to the simulations of these researchers, by 2029, these satellites could account for 40% of the atmospheric pollution derived from space activity. Also have calculated that by then this sector will be releasing around 870 tons of soot into the atmosphere annually. It would be more or less the same amount released by all cars in the United Kingdom, so action must be taken as soon as possible. Launch and reentry problems. The two key points at which these trains of satellites will put our planet’s climate on the ropes are launch and re-entry. With the first, a large amount of black carbon. These are fine carbon particles that come from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels. Regarding reentry, it mainly releases aluminum oxides. The satellites must be changed every 5 years. Later, when orbital conditions are favorable, this re-entry can occur, the price for which for the planet is also very expensive. The effects. Black carbon is harmful to the Earth’s climate on two levels. On the one hand, the particles that make it up have a great capacity to retain the heat of the Sun. That is why they play a very important role in the global warming of our planet. On the other hand, they can affect cloud formation in two different ways. Sometimes they prevent their formation, causing droughts, and other times they trigger extreme rainfall. Regarding aluminum oxides, can damage the ozone layerwith all the harmful effects that this entails. The place matters. The main problem with the release of these polluting substances is that it occurs in the highest layers of the atmosphere. The contamination at this height, if space activity did not exist, would be residual. However, the launches deposit that black carbon there, which remains for 2 to 3 years, retaining heat and affecting the clouds. That is why black carbon derived from space activity is estimated to have a much greater effect on the climate than that of ships, cars or power plants, for example. What is to come is very dangerous. It is said that Elon Musk wants to launch a million satellites into space. This is possibly an exaggerated figure. But it is clear that SpaceX has enormous objectives set. In fact, already It is even looking for launch platforms outside the United Statesbecause in his native country there is no room for such ambition. To all this we must add that other companies have increasingly ambitious objectives with their own satellite trains. This is, for example, the case of Amazon with Leo. The situation can become very worrying if alternatives are not sought, such as less polluting fuels for launches or more durable satellites that require fewer re-entries. Science will probably take us there at some point; but, in the meantime, the consequences for the planet will become worse and worse. We have time to solve it, but we must act now. Images | Gwendolyn Kurzen In Xataka | In 2018, Elon Musk put his own car into orbit. Eight years later it is still circling the Earth

I always thought that a Stream Deck was only for streamers. It turns out to be a gadget that saves you a lot of time every day

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It is not easy to work in front of a computer for many hours a day (whether at home or in the office). You spend the entire day browsing between documents, spreadsheets, files or writing emails and, just moving from one task to another, you already waste a lot of time. I really like the concept of ‘optimize workflow‘so that this does not happen (or happens little), but it is not easy at all. There are many ways to try to do this, although few are as visual as using a Stream Deck. Yes, that little device that many streamers have on their table and that seems to only serve to change scenes or cameras, but nothing could be further from the truth. It is a device that helps improve productivity in many waysand although there are a lot of models, my favorite is this Stream Deck Neo: right now it costs 84.99 euros. Elgato Stream Deck Neo – 8 customizable keys, 2 Touch Points, fly through your tasks and processes – Control Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Zoom, Spotify, etc. Easy setup – For Mac and PC The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Integrates with almost any software you use on a daily basis The idea of ​​the Stream Deck (of this specific model or any of the others that Elgato has) is the same: to have a panel that, with just the press of a button, simplifies tasks of all kinds. Let’s start with something simple: you can place buttons on a key to open the apps that you use most when working, such as an email manager, the browser or a Slack-type program. Or directly program a single button to open everything at once when you sit in front of the PC. In addition, it is a device that is very easy to install (it is basically plug and play) and configure. The software is also intuitive and allows us to customize the keys to the millimeter. Being compatible with software of all types, we can assign very specific keys to Photoshop, Excel or PowerPoint tools, for example. All, furthermore, with a very high degree of customization. I like this particular model for two things. The first of them is that it is compact and not as big as other models that Elgato has (which have more keys or even other types of buttons). The other is that it has two small touch panels that allow us to switch between the different “pages” of actions that we have configured. All of this means that we have a tool that will help us (a lot) to give a boost to our ‘workflow’. You also have other different Stream Deck models As I said above, there are different models of this gadget. In fact, this same year it released a keyboard in collaboration with Corsair that, directly, integrates a Stream Deck where the numeric keypad usually goes. Next, we leave you said keyboard and some different models of this Elgato gadget. Corsair Galleon 100 SD RGB Wired Mechanical Gaming Keyboard – Spanish QWERTY, Stream Deck Integration, Pre-Lubricated and Interchangeable MLX Pulse Key Switches, SOCD FlashTap, 8000Hz The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Elgato Stream Deck Mini – Control Zoom, Teams, PowerPoint, MS Office etc., increase your productivity with perfect integration with the most used apps, easily create shortcuts, compatible with Mac and PC The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Elgato Stream Deck +, Audio Mixer, Live and Studio Controller for Content Creation, Streaming, Gaming, with Touch Strip, Customizable LCD Dials and Keys, Works with Mac and PC The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Elgato Stream Deck XL – Advanced Studio Controller, 32 Macro Keys, Activates actions in apps and Software such as OBS, Twitch, Youtube and Others, Works on Mac and PC 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 | Elgato In Xataka | Best iPhones. Which one to buy in 2026 and recommended models based on budget, tastes and quality-price In Xataka | This is the gaming tower that I would buy. The computers with the best quality-price ratio for gaming recommended by Xataka

We believed that the success of artificial insemination was a genetic lottery. Turns out it depended on your shopping list.

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When we consider having a child, the truth is that there are many factors that can intervene such as real obstaclessuch as age. This means that science is focused on looking for different variables that can be ‘altered’ to tip the balance in our favor and favor fertility. And the last one that has been known is related to the much loved Mediterranean diet. A new investigation. In a recent published study in the magazine Food & Function, A Spanish research team has come to the conclusion that it is not about eating healthily, but rather that we need a set of nutrients that the Mediterranean diet gives us, which directly modulate the ecosystem of bacteria that our body has and that prepares it for a successful pregnancy. The bacteria. On many occasions we see them as our enemies by causing very severe infections, but the reality is that they play a fundamental role within our body. In this sense, we have spoken on many occasions of the intestinal microbiota, but there are also large bacterial colonies in the vagina that protect against a large number of infectious diseases. In this sense, the research team analyzed vaginal samples from 104 women between 18 and 38 years old who had been diagnosed with primary infertility and were undergoing artificial insemination processes. What they saw here is that the success of fertility treatment depended largely on who “governed” the patients’ vaginal microbiota. The results. After crossing the samples with the patients’ diet, it was seen that those who followed a Mediterranean diet had a microbiome dominated by bacteria of the genus Lactobacillus. These microorganisms act as a protective shield and are strongly associated with a higher rate of successful pregnancies. On the contrary, a poor diet left the door open to bacteria such as Gardnerella vaginalis. This pathogen is not only linked to the annoying bacterial vaginosisbut the study directly relates it to implantation failures and failure of artificial insemination. Because? Here the Mediterranean diet stands out for the micronutrients that foods contain and that we ingest almost without realizing it when we follow this dietary pattern that is so common in our country. Here vitamins A, C, D and E, along with beta-carotene, calcium and zinc, act as protectors of the vaginal ecosystem. These elements not only nourish the patient, but selectively nourish the Lactobacillus, strengthening defenses against bacterial vaginosis and creating the perfect uterine and vaginal environment for insemination to thrive. It is becoming more and more important. Although this study details for the first time this interaction between diet, vaginal bacteria and artificial insemination, scientific literature has already been warning that the refrigerator matters a lot in fertility. But previous studies already indicated that women who followed a Mediterranean diet in the months before undergoing in vitro fertilization had success rates that were up to 68% higher. In this way, you can see that it is increasingly important to keep in mind that what you are going to eat is essential for even a new life to take shape. Images | drobotdean in Magnific jcomp In Xataka | If we want to increase human fertility, mice have something to tell us: fecal transplants

the spectacular technology that finally turns fencing into a spectacle

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The tip of a foil in a professional fencing competition moves faster than the human eye can follow, and that limitation has condemned the sport to a secondary role in broadcasts for decades. A Japanese studio has been working since 2012 on an answer that combines 4K cameras, deep learning and augmented reality. This April 25, it debuts in its first professional competition, in Los Angeles. It’s difficult to follow. Fencing has rules like right of way in foil and saber, used to determine who wins the point when both fencers touch the opponent’s body at the same time, forcing the spectator to follow movements of the weapon in fractions of a second. According to the Rhizomatiks official technical documentationthe tip of the weapon takes up just a few pixels even captured in 4K, and the blade deforms so much when flexing that classic image processing methods cannot follow it clearly. How it works. This visualization system is called Fencing Visualized and is born from an alliance between the Japanese studio Rhizomatiksdirected by Daito Manabe (known for collaborations with Björk, Perfume and the closing ceremony of Rio 2016), the agency Dentsu Lab Tokyo and the fencer Yuki Ota, the first Japanese Olympic medalist in the discipline. The idea germinated from previous work with dancers in which the team used motion capture and high-speed cameras to draw graphics on the bodies on stage. The official phase began in 2013 and the concept already appeared in Tokyo’s bid video for the 2020 Games. Early versions of the system depended on retroreflective markers attached to the weapon: In 2014 it was tested live during the Yuki Ota Cup and in 2017 the balls were replaced with reflective tapes so as not to hinder the shooter. From reflective markers to deep learning. The technical leap has come now, when the team has worked to introduce the system in official competitions without interfering with the athletes’ competition equipment, mainly weapons. Therefore, in 2016 they rewrote motion detection with the help of deep learning. According to the engineer Kye Shimizuthe solution is a multistage network based on YOLO v3, fed by 24 4K cameras on both sides of the track, and whose results are crossed to estimate the position of the tip. This new version without physical markers debuted as an exhibition at the 71st Japan National Championships in 2018 and was seen in official competition a year later. The next milestone was Tokyo 2020, where the technology was deployed on site during the Games. That time at the Olympic Games is, in fact, what has allowed it to be sold to other competitions. Money. The American premiere on April 25 responds to a commercial logic adopted by the World Fencing League (WFL) that organizes the event, a professional league founded at the end of 2025 by three-time Olympian Miles Chamley-Watson. The competition brings together twelve athletes in mixed teams with a total distribution of $100,000 in prizes. The WFL itself describes the installation as a system of blade tracking with AI intended to make new viewers understand the action instantly. In other words: the league is interested in ensuring that, as a television show for all audiences, each round is understood intuitively, without knowing the regulations. More visions of the future. Fencing Visualized It is not an isolated case: There are systems like Hawk-Eye in tennis and cricket, Second Spectrum as the official optical tracking provider for the NBA and Premier League, or semi-automated offside in football. But the tiny tip of a saber is a more demanding problem than tracking a ball. On the other hand, this vision of the future also fits into the trend that the IOC has been promoting for years with Alibaba Cloud and Intel, and which turned Paris 2024 into the first end-to-end 8K broadcast with multi-camera 3D replay. The Los Angeles 2028 Games are a good space for this system to be integrated into the audiovisual dissemination of this sport. In Xataka | We have been living with robots for years that beat us at chess. Now we have robots that beat us at tennis

It turns out that they have a loving arm that tastes the sex of females

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Few animals are as fascinating as octopuses. These very intelligent invertebrates (since I saw “What the pulse taught me“I have a hard time consuming it) They have a brain in each armthree hearts, blue blood and a nervous system distributed by its tentacles. However, one of its greatest mysteries was truly intimate: how does a male manage, in the absolute darkness of a sea crevice, to locate the female’s reproductive system with surgical precision. Until now, science thought it was pure tactile instinct, but no: a recent study from Harvard University published in Science and led by Pablo Villar has discovered that the octopus does not look, it tastes love with the tips of its fingers. fingers suction cups. The love scene. Octopus mating is a sophisticated maneuver of extreme delicacy. The protagonist is the hectocotylthe third arm of the male: this tentacle is not used for eating or exploring, but for loving (in the most reproductive sense of the word). The maneuver is as follows: the male introduces this arm under the female’s mantle and there navigates between vital organs until he finds the oviduct, an opening of just a couple of millimeters. Once located, both remain motionless for approximately one hour, the time necessary for the transfer of sperm packets that the female will store throughout her life in a specific gland. Fingers that smell and taste. What the study shows is that the octopus does not “see” the path, but rather “feels” it on a chemical level. If it sounds strange, it is because humans actually lack that sensory modality, contact chemoreception. Going a little more into detail: the female emits progesterone, which will be the chemical lighthouse for the male in this internal navigation. He sensor of the hectocotyl is in its suction cups, covered by an epithelium similar to our retina or tongue, rich in receptors CRT1. According to the experiment, the male’s love arm is indifferent to other hormones: only when its CRT1 detects progesterone is the search and coupling response activated. It is literally tasting your goal with your fingertips. Why is it important. Beyond the obvious biological curiosity, this discovery has critical implications such as helping to understand how species separate and how biodiversity arises, as these receptors act as a sensory barrier: if the male’s receptor does not match the female’s chemistry, there is no copulation. On the other hand, they also put on the table the seriousness of endocrine disruptors as environmental contaminants, substances that act by imitating hormones that can confuse the male octopus and cause it to get lost. Finally, it is valuable information for aquaculture: octopus farming is a global challenge due to its complex reproduction and this finding is a step forward to optimize its sustainable breeding. From hunter to lover. One of the most fascinating aspects of this paper is how this ability originated: the octopus did not invent this loving arm out of thin air, but rather it is a recycling of an old tool for a new use. And originally the CRT1 receptors were used to detect molecules from their prey during hunting, but over time these receptors mutated with a kind of “hydrophobic pocket” that made it possible to develop that special sensitivity towards progesterone. An evolution from a survival sensor to one of genetic continuity. In Xataka | We knew that octopuses were very intelligent. But not to the point of having a “brain” in each arm In Xataka | England is experiencing an unprecedented invasion. The problem is that they are octopuses, and they are devouring everything they can find. Cover | Dear Sunflower

This cool 3D map of light pollution turns cities into mountains of light

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This 2026 is the year that opens a fantastic period to enjoy astronomical milestones, since the first of the three eclipses planned between 2026 and 2028: it will be next August 12, it will be a historic event in these latitudes (it has been more than a century since the Iberian Peninsula has witnessed a total solar eclipse) and not everyone will be able to see it: It will only be total in a strip. Being in the right place at the right time is only the first step: the next thing to be able to enjoy both the solar eclipse and any astronomical event, or simply to be able to see the stars well and distinguish constellations is total darkness. Or at least, try to be in a place free of light pollution. Getting away from the big cities is the first step as they tend to be the main sources of light, but not the only one: there are many infrastructures that can spoil the experience. Our recommendation if you plan to see the solar eclipse is that you do not leave it to improvisation and be clear about where to go to enjoy it better and here in addition to the map of the National Geological Institute To follow it, it is worth having on hand a good light pollution map. Where the solar eclipse will be seen: areas where it will be total and areas where it will be partial. IGN But does a light bulb next to you bother you so much to see the sky?? Yes, essentially because it is never usually just a light bulb. In fact, it’s not even just too much light. An example: when you approach a city with your car and it is getting dark or it is night, you can see a glow of the sky (skyglow) fruit of the rebound of light against dust particles, humidity and aerosols in the atmosphere, returning as a luminous veil that destroys astronomical observation. The underlying problem is the increase in the brightness of the sky: a star or a nebula does not compete against darkness, but against that background. If the background is brighter, the contrast drops (excepting the distances, it is like cheap TVs with bad backlighting scheme). The heavens are measured by the Bortle scalewhich goes from 1 to 9 where a class 1 sky is the darkest possible, practically a miracle in continental Europe (most medium-sized cities are around 7 – 9). With a class 9 sky you can barely see the brightest stars and the moon. Where not to see the solar eclipse of August 2026 And it does not only affect large cities (in Madrid it can be seen from quite a few kilometers away), but also industrial areas and ports. In these cases, it is also usually permanent lighting without any control. Also the road networks. A picture is worth a thousand words: the map by cartographer and geospatial developer Jacob Wasilkowski and Petrichor Studio called Earth at Night. Earth at night. JWasilGeo & Petrichor Studio This map combines several sources: night light data comes from NASA (Suomi-NPP satellite, VIIRS sensor) and background satellite mapping is provided by Earthstar Geographics along with other commercial providers integrated into Esri’s World Imagery service. The technological infrastructure to render it in 3D is also from Esri, a Californian company specialized in GIS software. Wasilkowski is the one who has put it all together to convert luminosity into topography. Simply put: It has converted the luminosity of NASA’s nighttime images into elevation, so that cities are mountains. The bigger the city, generally the bigger and higher the mountain will be. Note that there are areas, such as northern Italy or the German border with Belgium, that are real garlands. In the Iberian Peninsula, the Mediterranean coast, the Portuguese coast and a point in the middle of everything stand out: Madrid. These are the areas to escape from if we want to see the sky well. Earth at night. JWasilGeo & Petrichor Studio And just the opposite, the valleys are the most interesting areas to observe the eclipse or any other astronomical milestone: they are the dark areas. Although its controls are intuitive, you have options to switch to the satellite layer, you can zoom, pan and rotate. The map is a few years old now, but for those of us who like to observe the sky it is a good idea to always have it at hand. Furthermore, when this map was launched a decade ago it had a great impact on the cartographic community, winning the award GOLD from the KANTAR Information is Beautiful Awards 2019 in the category “Maps, Places and Spaces”, under the name “Earth at Night, Mountains of Light”. And why not say it: it is evocative. After all, it uses real light captured from space to re-sculpt the Earth, letting it be human activity that defines its topography. In Xataka | Solar eclipses visible in Spain: these are the three astronomical events of 2026, 2027 and 2028 In Xataka | Half of Spain waits expectantly for the historic eclipse of August 2026. The authorities are already thinking about the problems Cover | JWasilGeo & Petrichor Studio

It turns out that there is a Soviet submarine at the bottom of the Norwegian Sea releasing radiation for 40 years

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On April 7, 1989, the Soviet nuclear submarine K-278 Komsomolets sank in the Norwegian Sea after an uncontrolled fire fruit probably short circuit in the electrical panels of compartment 7, which led to a massive and uncontrollable deflagration because the atmosphere was critically enriched with oxygen due to failures in the air regeneration system. Of the 69 people on board, only 27 survived. It wasn’t just any submarine: it had a double titanium helmet that allowed him descend to unreachable depths for his rivals of the time. Its cutting-edge technology hid a dangerous core: a nuclear reactor and two plutonium warheads that have since lain at the bottom of the sea, 180 kilometers southwest of Bear Island, in the Svalbard archipelago. And according to the most complete study carried out to date, published a few days ago in the scientific journal PNASthe Komsomolets remains an active source of radioactive contamination in the Arctic. The discovery. In 2019, a Norwegian research team went down with the Ægir 6000 underwater robot to thoroughly inspect the submarine using cutting-edge technology. As they approached the ventilation tube they found a visibly distorted column of water, as if it were smoke, as you can see in the video immediately after this block. It is a leak with intermittent behavior. They took samples and the results were overwhelming: concentrations of Cesium-137 800,000 times the normal radiation of seawater in the area and Strontium-90 400,000 times. Both isotopes are direct products of nuclear reactor fission. The analysis shows that the radiation comes from the propulsion system (the nuclear reactor) and that the reactor fuel is in the process of corrosion with the environment. Why is it important. The good news is that this radioactive leak does not come from the nuclear warheads: two torpedoes with atomic warheads. For now, that threat is under control: the Soviets sealed the torpedo compartment with titanium plates in the early 1990s and judging by analysis, the sealing continues to work because they have not detected weapons-grade plutonium in the marine environment. The bad news is the reactor. It does not explode or disappear, but simply the zirconium cylinders that protect the uranium and plutonium are corroding, leaking these isotopes into the sea in a slow and invisible leak that is diluted in the ocean. Fortunately, samples taken in relatively close areas show that dilution is rapid, as they return values ​​close to normal. In fact, the hull is full of sponges, corals and anemones and its samples contain low traces of cesium-137, but without detectable damage. Context. Man-made radioactivity in the oceans has three main sources according to the International Atomic Energy Agency: the atmospheric nuclear tests of the 60s and 70s, the Chernobyl accident and the authorized discharges from the Sellafield and La Hague reprocessing plants, in the United Kingdom and France respectively. The sunken nuclear submarines, where the Komsomolets would enter, have a marginal contribution. Their importance is more qualitative than quantitative: they are point sources, localized and that tend to worsen over time. After the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, the Soviet Union came under great international pressure. When the Komsomolets sank three years later, Moscow organized inspection missions with MIR submersibles. When he confirmed that the warheads had been in contact with sea water, he acted: in 1994, with the economy in free fall and western funds involvedRussian technicians they sealed the cracks of the torpedo compartment with titanium plates. Since 2007, Norway has undertaken regular monitoring of the wreck as part of its nuclear safety responsibilities in the Arctic. Current risk status. For now the nuclear warheads are contained, their sealing works and there are no signs of weapons-grade plutonium in the water. The reactor is the active problem now: the fuel is corroding, the emissions are real, and the research team does not understand why they are intermittent or what the rate is. Any attempt to recover or physically manipulate the submarine would probably be more dangerous than leaving it where it is, since if the radioactive materials reached the atmosphere, the contamination could reach land with worse consequences than today. . A nuclear laboratory under the sea. The research team has two goals ahead: to understand why the leak is intermittent and whether that corrosion rate is accelerating over time. Inadvertently, the Komsomolets is now a natural laboratory to study what happens to submerged nuclear reactors in the long term. Information that is not trivial, given the number of nuclear devices that sleep on the seabed. In Xataka | Russia’s most advanced nuclear submarine was a secret. Until Ukraine has revealed everything, including its failures In Xataka | The Soviet Union needed to save millions of people from hunger so something was invented: the art of making sausages Cover | Karina Victoria

The return of BTS turns K-pop into macroeconomics thanks to 4 million copies and a 2 billion tour

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After four years of group silencethe return of the undisputed kings of K-pop, BTS, is going beyond the mere cultural event: 3.98 million copies of her new album sold on the first day and the announcement of an 82-concert tour whose projected revenue rivals Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. BTS is already more than one of the most important pop groups in the world. It is an event of almost microeconomic magnitude. The farewell BTS’s last joint concert was in March 2022. A few months later, the group announced a pause for its seven members to complete mandatory military service in South Korea, a commitment of between 18 and 21 months from which not even they were exempt. The last to graduate was Jin, in June 2025. In between, each member launched solo projects with mixed success while HYBE, the company that owns the group, endured the pressure of not having its main asset working. Strangled without BTS, but not much. Because of this forced absenceHYBE’s operating profit fell 73% in 2025up to 49.9 billion won and while restructuring its operations in the United States and investing in new business lines. Its fan platform Weverse, however, managed to enter its first year of profit, with 11.2 million monthly active users generating stable income through memberships and expenses linked to digital commerce. The search for ‘Arirang’. This past weekend, BTS released ‘Arirang’, their fifth studio album. The title is loaded with meaning: it refers to a Korean folk song considered the country’s unofficial anthem, with centuries of history and dozens of regional variants. A clear manifesto, as they have said in various interviewsabout the group members’ common Korean identity. They produced more than 120 songs for this album in two months, of which 14 survived, all deliberately brief to please generation Z and its more than recognized difficulty concentrating your attention at a point beyond a few minutes. The sales. ‘Arirang’ sold 3.98 million physical copies in its first 24 hourssurpassing the record that the group itself had with ‘Map of the Soul: 7’. On Spotify, the platform recorded 110 million global plays on Spotify in its first 24 hours, and was positioned among the most pre-saves in the history of the service, with more than 5 million prey. The album’s 14 songs simultaneously occupied Spotify’s global top spot, while the single ‘Swim’ debuted at number one with more than 14.6 million views. The absolute historical record for the platform is still held by Taylor Swift with ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ and 314 million listens. Concert in Seoul. The day after the release, on March 21, BTS held a free concert in Seoul’s massive Gwanghwamun Square. Around 260,000 people traveled to the venue: 22,000 fans were in front of the stage and tens of thousands more followed the show on giant screens installed in the surrounding area. Municipal authorities and HYBE 8,200 people were deployed between police, medical staff and management teams. The concert was, furthermore, broadcast live on Netflix: It was the platform’s first global live broadcast of a music concert, and could be enjoyed in 190 countries. The tour is the key. The tour is where the economic magnitude of the return is concentrated. The ARIRANG World Tour will begin on April 9 in Goyang (South Korea) and will end about 11 months later in Manila, with 82 concerts in 34 cities in 23 countries. The tour includes Europe (Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany and France), North America, Latin America (Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Brazil), Southeast Asia and Australia. How will it be? Apparently, BTS will use a 360 degree scenario instead of the usual front format. This will eliminate restricted visibility areas that normally render between 15% and 30% of the seats unusable: a 70,000-seat stadium in frontal format sells approximately 55,000 usable tickets; with the round design it can reach 65,000. The analysts They project total income from the tour of up to $1.8 billion, figures that would place the tour in the same league as Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour. For comparison: that of Taylor Swift It generated nearly $2.07 billion with 149 concerts. BTS could approach that figure with half the number of concerts. The stock market hype. Following the announcement of BTS’ comeback, HYBE shares reached their highest in the last four years, rising up to 9.5% and adding more than one trillion South Korean won to the company’s market capitalization. It is expected HYBE’s revenue in 2026 is expected to grow by 47% to 3.87 trillion won, with an operating profit of approximately 480 billion won: ten times that of 2025. Impact on tourism. According to data from the South Korean Ministry of Justice, foreign visitor arrivals between March 1 and 18 grew by 32.7% compared to the previous year, driven especially by tourists between 20 and 29 years old. Europe was the market with the highest relative growth, with an increase of 51%. The Korea Culture and Tourism Institute esteem that the tour will generate 1.2 trillion won of impact per concert held in South Korea. Some economists are modeling the entire return as a macroeconomic event in itself, with projections pointing to a contribution of up to 0.5% of GDP when tourism, hospitality, retail and country brand growth are added. What has changed. Four years later, BTS returns to a different market than the one they left: the short-form video (Reels, YouTube Shorts, TikTok) is no longer an accessory promotional tool, but the very core of what needs to be covered with any launch. Artificial intelligence has been installed in music production (in the interview with Bloomberg, Suga compares it to the Industrial Revolution and speaks of “irreversible” changes). It has also changed how we see live musicincreasingly in need of spectacularity. And, of course, how the international perception of K-pop has changed after the success of ‘The K-pop Warriors’ from Netflix. A world in perpetual change to which, for the moment, BTS does … Read more

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