Life on super-Earths may have more time to develop and evolve thanks to their persistent magnetic fields that protect them from harmful cosmic rays, according to a new study published in the journal Science.
Space is a dangerous environment.Streams of charged particles very close to the speed of light, ejected from stars and distant galaxies, bombard planets.The intense radiation strips the atmosphere and causes the oceans on the planet’s surface to dry up over time, rendering them arid and unable to support habitable life.However, cosmic rays are deflected away from Earth because it is shielded by its magnetic field.
Now, a team of researchers led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) believes that super-Earths — planets more massive than Earth but less than Neptune — may also have magnetic fields.In fact, it is estimated that their defense bubbles stay intact longer than those around Earth, meaning life on their surfaces would have more time to develop and survive.
“While there are many requirements for a habitable planet, such as a surface temperature capable of producing liquid water, having a magnetosphere that can withstand solar radiation for extended periods of time could provide a longer time for life to evolve,” Richard said of the paper. Lead author Krause, a physicist at LLNL, told The Register.
The key to a persistent magnetic field is having a liquid metal core that cools more slowly.The Earth’s magnetic field is produced by a layer of molten iron swirling around a solid iron core.Electrons in the liquid move to create an electrical current that continues to power the magnetic field.
However, the temperature of molten iron buried 2,890 kilometers or 1,800 miles below the Earth’s surface is chilling.It will eventually cool until it is completely set.At this point, its internal generator will stop spinning and can no longer support the magnetic field.Earth’s magnetic field will disappear in about 6.2 billion years.
“When the iron solidifies, it releases energy and lighter elements into the liquid iron, which powers the generator for a long time. At some point, the temperature of the liquid core cools to melting temperature, which means it will start to freeze,” Klaus explained.The iron inside the super-Earth is compressed to much higher pressures than Earth, and it also melts at a higher temperature.
In other words, the super-Earth’s core needs to cool to a much lower temperature before it solidifies.Their larger cores also mean that they also dissipate heat more slowly than Earth.
“We found that the super core will solidify 30% longer than the core… Due to the competing effects of stored energy and surface area, the cores of planets smaller than Earth will solidify rapidly, with the longest timescale for solidification occurring at [ Super-Earths are four to six times the mass of Earth],” the paper concluded.
Krauss and his colleagues were able to simulate the interior conditions of super-Earths by studying the melting behavior of iron at a pressure of 1,000 gigapascals — nearly three times the pressure at Earth’s core.The team used a series of lasers to compress a small milligram of iron fragments to higher and higher pressures.
Experiments have shown that at 1,000 gigapascals, the melting temperature of iron is about 11,000 degrees Celsius.By comparison, Earth’s internal pressure is about 330 gigapascals, and the melting temperature of its core is about 6,000 degrees Celsius.
“This is the first experiment to measure the melting curve of iron at pressures in excess of 290 GPa, which means it is the first to limit the melting temperature of iron under super-Earth core conditions,” Krause told El Reg.
“Astronomers will use these results, along with their observations, to better map what’s going on inside and on exoplanets.” ®
In short, thieves working for the North Korean government stole nearly $400 million in digital cash last year in a coordinated attack to steal and launder as much money as possible.
A report by Blockchain biz Chainalysis found that attackers are tracking investment firms and currency exchanges to steal funds and return them to Glorious Leader’s vaults.They then use mixing software to make a large number of micropayments to the new wallet, then merge them again into a new account and transfer the funds.
Bitcoin used to be the number one target, but ether is now the most stolen currency, accounting for 58 percent of stolen funds, the researchers said.Bitcoin is only 20% down, down more than 50% since 2019 – although part of the reason may be that they are so valuable now that people care more about them.
In short, the California Department of Motor Vehicles said it was “re-examining” its view on whether Tesla’s so-called Full Self-Driving feature would require more oversight after a series of videos showed the dangers of the technology.
“Recent software updates, videos showing dangerous use of the technology, a public investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and input from other experts in the field,” according to a letter sent to California that made the DMV think twice about Tesla .Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach), chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Unlike other self-driving car companies like Waymo or Cruise, Tesla is not required to report the number of accidents to the California DMV because it has less autonomy and requires human oversight.But that could change after videos such as drivers having to take over to avoid accidentally turning to pedestrians crossing the road or failing to detect a truck in the middle of the road continue to circulate.
ERP specialist SAP’s fourth-quarter cloud revenue jumps 28% year over year to 2.61 billion euros
Preliminary results show that total revenue for calendar year 2021 increased by 6% year-on-year to 7.98 billion euros – a stark contrast to the 2020 crash financial figures provided by SAP.
The customer migration to the vendor’s latest in-memory ERP platform was slow until SAP took steps to persuade them to migrate.Preliminaries show that these plans are working.
In 2017, Google and Facebook reached an agreement to end header bidding, a way for multiple ad exchanges to level the playing field in automated ad auctions, said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Negotiated, and endorsed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (now Meta) and Google CEO Sundar Pi, according to the latest complaint filed in a Texas-led antitrust lawsuit against Google Chai (Sundar Pichai).
Texas, 14 other U.S. states, and the federal states of Kentucky and Puerto Rico accused Google of illegally monopolizing the online ad market and manipulating ad auctions in a December 2020 lawsuit.Plaintiffs subsequently filed an amended complaint in October 2021 that included details of the previous redaction.
On Friday, Texas et al.A third amended complaint [PDF] was filed, filling in more gaps and expanding the allegations by 69 pages.
China’s cold war with the U.S. over chips has not slowed the country’s rapid semiconductor growth, the Semiconductor Industry Association said this week.
U.S. sanctions on Chinese companies have not had the desired effect of restricting China’s semiconductor industry.In fact, the industry body warns, the tension is just to get China to pull together on the semiconductor issue.
China’s semiconductor industry sales totaled $39.8 billion in 2020, up 30.6 percent from 2019, SIA said.In 2015, China’s chip sales were only $13 billion, accounting for 3.8% of the market.
Alibaba has released a report detailing the technology trends that the China-based giant believes will have an impact on the entire economy and society in the coming years.This includes the use of artificial intelligence in scientific research, the adoption of silicon photonics, the integration of terrestrial and satellite data networks, and more.
The top ten technology trend reports are produced by Alibaba’s Dharma Institute, which is a blue-sky technology research institute established by Alibaba in 2017.DAMO recently hit the headlines with hints of a new chip architecture that blends processing and memory.
Among the trends listed in the Dharma report, artificial intelligence has appeared more than once.In the field of science, Dharma believes that artificial intelligence-based approaches will enable new scientific paradigms, thanks to the ability of machine learning to process massive multi-dimensional and multi-modal data and solve complex scientific problems.The report pointed out that artificial intelligence will not only speed up scientific research, but also help to discover new scientific laws, and will be used as a production tool in some basic sciences.
Few people want to read terms of service agreements on websites, so a group of U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill Thursday that would require commercial websites and mobile apps to translate their legalese into summaries that are easier for people and machines to read.
Titled “Terms of Service Labeling, Design, and Readability (TLDR) Act [PDF]“, the bill was introduced by Lori Trahan (D-MA-03), Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), making it technically a bipartisan effort – something of a rarity at a time when the two major US political parties can’t agree on basic facts like who was lawfully elected President in 2020.
“For too long, blanket terms of service have forced consumers to either ‘agree’ to all of a company’s conditions or lose access to a website or app entirely,” said Congresswoman Trahan, a member of the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection.business, in a statement.”No negotiations, no options, no real options.”
Russia’s internal security agency said today that it had dismantled the REvil ransomware gang’s network and raided the homes of its operators after yesterday’s arrest in Ukraine.
In a statement, the FSB (Federal Security Service) said it had searched 25 addresses apparently belonging to “14 members of the organised crime community” “at the request of the competent US authorities”.
Russian law enforcement agencies say the “community” is known as REvil.A translation of the FSB statement showed that the 14 were charged under Article 187 of the Russian Criminal Code, which deals with “illegal means of transferring payments”.
A U.S. court has held Oracle-backed specialist Rimini Street in contempt of court and ordered it to pay $630,000 in sanctions — a paltry amount for the $40 billion Big Red software company.
The Nevada District Court also imposed reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs against Rimini in a dispute that has lasted more than a decade, to be decided at a later date.
District Judge Larry Hicks found Rimini in contempt of court on just five of the 10 questions asked at the hearing.”The court’s willful finding of most of these issues clearly supports the ruling,” the ruling said.
Virgin Orbit has successfully completed its third mission, sending seven satellites into orbit on a LauncherOne rocket.
Virgin Orbit, which describes itself as a “responsive launch and space solutions company,” completed two missions last year.Yesterday’s launch came just days shy of the company’s first successful mission on January 17, 2021.Its first attempt in 2020 ended in failure.
This week’s release includes repeat business from the US Department of Defense and Polish company SatRevolution.The payload includes experiments in space-based communications, debris detection, navigation and propulsion.All told, Virgin Orbit has successfully launched 26 satellites.Still, that’s a far cry from just a quarter of the payload that 109 small satellite upstart Rocket Lab and SpaceX launched on Jan. 13 on the Transporter-3 mission.
The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has said 5G mobile phone emissions will not harm airliners, dampening excitement in the US over mobile masts interfering with airliner altimeters.
In December, the FAA issued a warning about 5G C-band frequencies used for cellphones, saying the 3.7-3.98GHz band used by cellphone masts conflicts with airliner radio altimeters.
The timely warning, telling airlines to pay attention to the problem, was followed by two prominent U.S. mobile network operators delaying the rollout of C-band.
Post time: Jan-17-2022
