All posts tagged: space

EU’s public debt could become ‘explosive’ without action, IMF warns – POLITICO

EU’s public debt could become ‘explosive’ without action, IMF warns – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

“The ‘muddling-through’ approach that many countries have adopted so far is reaching its limits, and a more strategic response seems essential to respond to rising spending pressures,” it added. The European Court of Auditors also told the finance ministers that doing nothing is not an option, highlighting the need for fiscal consolidation measures. The IMF paper calls EU countries to incentivize work and hiring across the ​27-country bloc, simplify citizens’ savings flow across the bloc into investments, energy markets integration and implementation of climate-resilient projects. Pension reforms and a higher retirement age would also help. EU should agree ‌that ⁠innovation, energy and defense are public goods and should be financed through joint borrowing, it adds. The bloc has remained deadlocked on the idea of sharing the debt to unlock additional funds, with some countries like Spain, Italy, Greece or France strongly in favor and others, like Germany, strongly opposing. “We are faced with a new and permanent spending needs,” EU Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said in a press conference after the meeting of finance ministers. …

Cosmic Voids May Contain the Universe’s Best Secrets

Cosmic Voids May Contain the Universe’s Best Secrets

Published by skeptic

Nature abhors a vacuum, so the saying goes, but nobody told the universe. Space is filled with cosmic voids—vast regions mostly free of matter that have opened between dense threads of material that make up a cosmic web. Far from being vacant backwaters with little to study, these voids may hold solutions to some of the most persistent cosmic mysteries, such as the behavior of gravity, the nature of dark energy, and the so-called Hubble tension, an observational mismatch in the expansion rate of the universe that has caused astronomers’ headaches for years. “With voids, we have the power to tackle most of the interesting cosmological riddles,” says Alice Pisani, a research professor in cosmology working at the Centre for Particle Physics in Marseille (CPPM) of the French National Centre for Scientific Research. She adds that because there’s less interference from matter, there’s a “high signal-to-noise” ratio in terms of what researchers can observe. The advent of new telescopes and advanced simulations has supercharged this field, inspiring a growing community of scientists worldwide to specialize …

I Tried 'Ranger Rolling' My Luggage And Saved So Much Space

I Tried 'Ranger Rolling' My Luggage And Saved So Much Space

Published by Sam Flores

I have something to confess: I’m a ridiculously heavy over-packer, even though I know there are better ways. I once brought a car-hoggingly huge suitcase to a two-day wedding. When my partner and I lived apart, I’d regularly bring two big sports bags over for a weekend. But for a recent trip, I figured: no more. Now, I think, is the time to save some suitcase space (not least because some airlines could soon become stricter about carry-on measurements).  My biggest problem is clothes. So, I gave “ranger rolling” a try, and was seriously impressed by the results.  What is ranger rolling?  It’s basically rolling up your clothes, but with an added “lip” made from the bottom of the garment that secures it to prevent unrolling.  Yes, “regular” rolling works too. But, Travel + Leisure pointed out, they risk far more wrinkling and a much greater chance of becoming loose than the military-approved method. How do you “ranger roll” clothes?  I have to be honest with you: this is a lot easier with thin, “square”-ish …

Amanda Heng creates space for rest at Venice Biennale: ‘Find a moment for yourself’

Amanda Heng creates space for rest at Venice Biennale: ‘Find a moment for yourself’

Published by Sam Flores

A significant figure in the contemporary arts scene of Singapore since the 1980s, Heng is a Cultural Medallion recipient who has had her work featured in major biennales and art festivals. Most recently, she was included in the all-women group show Fear No Power: Women Imagining Otherwise at the National Gallery Singapore, which runs until November. From walking a pet stool down the street to setting up a table to encourage people to have conversations while plucking beansprout, Heng’s body-centric practice spans nearly four decades.  These two, titled Walking The Stool and Let’s Chat respectively, are among her well-known performance pieces. Heng uses everyday gestures and ideas to explore gender roles and societal expectations in her practice.  And it’s no different in Venice. Inspired by the city’s many bridges, Heng uses the ordinary and familiar element of their steps and her observations of people using them to create A Pause. The steps are unusually shallow – at 10cm high and from 50cm to 4m in width – and naturally slow down visitors’ movement as they …

How ageing on Earth mimics the effects of space travel

How ageing on Earth mimics the effects of space travel

Published by skeptic

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly spent 340 days in space on one mission NASA One of the most famous thought experiments in physics is the twin paradox, first proposed by Albert Einstein in his 1905 paper on special relativity, and later expanded on by physicist Paul Langevin. It goes something like this. An astronaut leaves Earth and spends a few months travelling through space at almost the speed of light. He has a twin brother who stays on Earth. When the astronaut returns, he finds that his brother has aged decades while he is still young. I don’t claim to understand why this would happen, but it has something to do with the relative passage of time experienced by a fast-moving traveller compared with someone on Earth. Or something. It doesn’t really matter: this is a column about ageing. It is impossible to travel at such speeds, so the twin paradox will remain a thought experiment for the foreseeable future. But something quite similar actually happens in the real world, only in this case, it is …

William Shatner, Neil deGrasse Tyson on Physics, Space, New Album

William Shatner, Neil deGrasse Tyson on Physics, Space, New Album

Published by Daniella Wilson

William Shatner and Neil deGrasse Tyson regaled an enthusiastic crowd with stories of everything from our understanding quantum physics to Shatner‘s space flight to the meaning of the universe on Wednesday night during a conversation dubbed “The Universe Is Absurd!” at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. The event was actually the second of a two-night event wherein the close friends ribbed each other and shared personal anecdotes of their adventures together, including their 2024 trip to Antarctica, where they first met. The audience may have even learned a few things about astrophysics along the way. (“The electron is so small, we do not know how small it is,” Tyson shared. “Every measurement of the electron is smaller than our attempts to measure it. As far as we’re concerned, it’s infinitesimally small.”) The topic of Shatner’s age (95 years) came up quite often. At one point, he mentioned his forthcoming heavy metal album (yes, you read that right), out in October. (“Why does everyone approach me with a smile when they hear ‘heavy metal album’?” …

The looming crisis putting Europe’s energy security at risk  – POLITICO

The looming crisis putting Europe’s energy security at risk  – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

With a smaller proportion of oil and gas supplies likely to be compliant, less availability means there’s a real risk this looming crisis will affect energy affordability for households and businesses alike. Remember, these rules have nothing to do with lowering levels of methane, which the legislation does not demand until 2030, but are about adhering to measurement, reporting, certification and verification standards for which neither the European Commission nor member states have done the work to establish in time for implementation.    With a smaller proportion of oil and gas supplies likely to be compliant, less availability means there’s a real risk this looming crisis will affect energy affordability for households and businesses alike.    Consumers will ultimately bear the burden through anticipated higher gas and/or fuel prices; Wood Mackenzie say gasoline and diesel prices could increase by 24 percent and 16 percent respectively. The Commission knows this but appears unwilling to make the necessary changes to reduce the cost burden on its citizens.  High energy costs would further damage the competitiveness of Europe’s energy intensive industries like steel, chemicals and manufacturing — leading the bloc further down …

Futuristic canned space drinks could spice up that three-year trip to Mars

Futuristic canned space drinks could spice up that three-year trip to Mars

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Space is undeniably incredible—but the food options up there, not so much. Though cosmic cuisine has come a long way from the days of sucking liver and beef paste out of a tube in the 1960s, the options on the intergalactic menu are still limited. And with astronauts preparing to spend longer periods in zero gravity following the recent Artemis II mission, there’s never been a greater need for a wider variety of shelf-stable options to break up the dietary monotony. The team behind a new study published  in the journal ACS Food Science & Technology have found a partial solution: a customizable fortified beverage made from nanoemulsions.  The roughly soda can-sized drink comes in various flavors and sweetness levels that astronauts can choose from. It is also enriched with omega-3 fatty acids, which are largely absent from astronauts’ normal daily diet.  The emulsions are possible both on Earth and in zero gravity, which means astronauts could pick and …

Europe must make big changes to compete with US, space chief warns – POLITICO

Europe must make big changes to compete with US, space chief warns – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

The war between Russia and Ukraine has illustrated the dependencies. SpaceX — whose dominance in low-Earth orbit through systems such as Starlink has raised concerns over wartime connectivity for countries relying on it like Ukraine — should be “a wake-up call to really think about what Europe needs for its own autonomy,” he said. Aschbacher referred to Europe as a “sleeping beauty” with “excellent capacities,” citing Galileo and Copernicus — the EU’s satellite navigation and Earth observation programs — as successes, but said Europe needs more funding, faster decision-making and “defragmentation.” He pointed to the U.S. accounting for 60 percent of global public space funding, with Europe trailing behind at just 10 percent. “I would ask the decision-makers to multiply our investment by a factor of two, at least, if not three,” he said. “There is no alternative. We have to do it. This is not, for me, a plan B,” Aschbacher said. Source link

Space wasn’t infinitely small when the hot Big Bang began

Space wasn’t infinitely small when the hot Big Bang began

Published by Jenni Sidey

Today, when we look out in any direction as far as the laws of physics allow us to see, the limits of what’s observable extend to truly astronomical distances. At the farthest reaches of our observable limits, the most ancient light we can see was emitted a whopping 13.8 billion years ago: corresponding to the hot Big Bang itself. Today, after traveling through our expanding Universe, that light finally arrives here on Earth, carrying information about objects that are presently located some 46.1 billion light-years away. It’s only due to the expanding fabric of space that the most ancient light we can see corresponds to distances that exceed 13.8 billion light-years. As time continues to march forward, we’ll be able to see even farther away, as light that’s still on its way eventually reaches us: ultimately revealing objects that are presently up to 61 billion light-years distant. Nonetheless, at any given time, there’s always a limit to how far away we can see: a limit to the observable Universe. This also means that if we went …