Connect with us

Tech

Astronomer leaves message for life on Mars shortly before his death

Astronomer leaves message for life on Mars shortly before his death

Published

on

Astronomer leaves message for life on Mars shortly before his death

Shortly before his death, famed astronomer Carl Sagan recorded a message for the first humans on Mars.

Sagan, who died from pneumonia in December 1996, was the co-founder of The Planetary Society and strongly believed the Red Planet should be explored for signs of life.

Ahead of his death, Sagan made a recording for the first people on Mars.

The recording was sent to Mars and arrived on May 25 2008 via NASA’s Phoenix lander. The mini DVD is still on Mars in hope that it will stay there for thousands of years.

Advertisement

In the clip, he introduces himself and his work based in Ithaca at the time.

“Maybe you can hear, in the background, a 200-foot [60-metre] waterfall, right nearby, which is probably – I would guess – a rarity on Mars, even in times of high technology,” Sagan says.

“Science and science fiction have done a kind of dance over the last century, particularly with respect to Mars,” he continues.

“The scientists make a finding, it inspires science fiction writers to write about it, and a host of young people read the science fiction and are excited and inspired to become scientists to find out more about Mars, which they do, which then feeds again into another generation of science fiction and science.”

Sagan then says that he is unaware of “why you’re on Mars,” before citing various theories.

Advertisement

“Maybe you’re there because we’ve recognised we have to carefully move small asteroids around to avert the possibility of one impacting the Earth with catastrophic consequences, and, while we’re up in near-Earth space, it’s only a hop, skip, and a jump to Mars,” he suggests.

He then details another reason that it could be because “we recognise that if there are human communities on many worlds, the chances of us being rendered extinct by some catastrophe on one world is much less.”

“Or maybe we’re on Mars because of the magnificent science that can be done there, the gates of the wonder world are opening in our time,” he theorises, adding: “Or maybe we’re on Mars because we have to be, because there’s a deep nomadic impulse built into us by the evolutionary process.

“We come after all, from hunter-gatherers, and for 99.9 percent of our tenure on Earth, we’ve been wanderers. And the next place to wander to is Mars.

But whatever the reason you’re on Mars is, I’m glad you’re there. And I wish I was with you.”

Advertisement

Tech

Kretinsky and Layani face off in battle for distressed IT firm Atos

Kretinsky and Layani face off in battle for distressed IT firm Atos

Published

on

By

Kretinsky and Layani face off in battle for distressed IT firm Atos

 Shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust jumped 2.4% on Monday after the exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the price of bitcoin saw its first day of inflow since January.

The move marks a major milestone for GBTC, which has seen $17.46 billion in withdrawals since it converted from a trust to an easily tradable ETF in January, due to the higher fees it charges compared with rivals.

Some of the outflows were also tied to the wave of bankruptcies in the crypto industry, as companies that collapsed in the last two years pulled money out of the fund to repay their creditors.

GBTC saw inflows of $63 million on Friday, according to investment management firm Farside Investors. It currently manages $18.08 billion in assets, according to its website.

Advertisement

However, its position as the biggest spot bitcoin ETF by assets under management (AUM) has come under threat from BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, which manages $16.91 billion, according to its website.

Grayscale said in March that it would seek approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to spin off a portion of GBTC’s assets into a new, lower-fee Bitcoin Mini Trust. The company has yet to decide on the fees for the Mini Trust.

Spot bitcoin ETFs, which were approved by the SEC in January following a decade of rejection, provide investors with bitcoin exposure without the need to directly hold the cryptocurrency. 

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Tech

China to build 100-mile-long hyperloop train line by 2035

China to build 100-mile-long hyperloop train line by 2035

Published

on

By

China to build 100-mile-long hyperloop train line by 2035

China’s top engineering and rail design experts have exciting news: they’re planning to build the country’s very first hyperloop train line!

This futuristic project will connect two bustling cities, Shanghai and Hangzhou, spanning a distance of 150km (about 93 miles).

What makes this project so special? Well, it’s all about speed! The hyperloop train will travel inside a special vacuum tunnel, allowing it to reach mind-blowing speeds of up to 1,000km/h (that’s about 621mph!).

Before choosing the Shanghai-Hangzhou route, the experts carefully evaluated several options.

Advertisement

They considered factors like economic potential, population density, and existing transport infrastructure. In the end, they decided that connecting Shanghai and Hangzhou would bring the most benefits to the region.

This project is a big deal for China, and it’s being led by some of the country’s top engineers and scientists.

They’re excited about the potential for this hyperloop train to revolutionize transportation and boost economic growth in the area.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Tech

Scientists discover hidden planet buried under Earth’s surface

Scientists discover hidden planet buried under Earth’s surface

Published

on

By

Scientists discover hidden planet buried under Earth's surface

There’s all sorts of intriguing stuff hidden beneath the Earth’s surface, from massive oceans to water leaking directly into the planet’s core – the latest discovery, though, might be the most interesting of all.

New research has pointed to fascinating findings close to the Earth’s core which experts are claiming to be remains from an ancient planet.

The planet, named Theia, could have collided with our planet billions of years ago and evidence of this event is supposedly found within two blobs far beneath the surface.

These blobs have fascinated the scientific community since they were first discovered back in the 1980s. These structures are the size of entire continents and around twice the size of the moon.

Advertisement

They’re located beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean, and due to the high iron content of these structures, seismic waves pass through them at a slower rate – leading to them being labelled “large low-velocity provinces” (LLVPs).

A study into these LLVPs was published at the end of 2023 in the journal Nature and featured new findings from Caltech researchers.

Most significantly, the study argues that these structures, which have divided opinion for decades, are actually the remains of Theia, which collided with Earth billions of years ago.

This collision caused the creation of the moon, and the new study argues that the planet was absorbed into the Earth and formed the LLVPs.

“Seismic images of Earth’s interior have revealed two continent-sized anomalies with low seismic velocities, known as the large low-velocity provinces (LLVPs), in the lowermost mantle,” researchers wrote.

Advertisement

“The LLVPs are often interpreted as intrinsically dense heterogeneities that are compositionally distinct from the surrounding mantle.”

They added: “Here we show that LLVPs may represent buried relics of Theia mantle material (TMM) that was preserved in proto-Earth’s mantle after the Moon-forming giant impact.

“Our canonical giant-impact simulations show that a fraction of Theia’s mantle could have been delivered to proto-Earth’s solid lower mantle.”

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © GLOBAL TIMES PAKISTAN