List of All Articles with Tag 'tech'

Scientists have discovered one of the strangest exoplanets ever that is so light and fluffy that it is actually being compared to candyfloss (or cotton candy if you are American). The planet is called WASP-193b and is 1,232 light-years away and was discovered by researchers at the University of Liège in Belgium. The findings of their study, led by astronomer Khalid Barkaoui has been published on arXiv. The planet, which is believed to be a so-called gas giant is nearly 50 per cent bigger than Jupiter and is orbiting a Sun-like star named WASP-193, which the scientists believe is up to 6 billion years old. Although this star is slightly bigger than our sun it is still said to have the same temperature but compared to Earth, WASP-193b orbits its star just every 6.25 days. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter By studying the planet, Barkaoui and his team were able to determine that its density was around 0.059 grams per cubic centimetre. Earth's density per cubic centimetre for comparison, is 5.51 grams whereas candyfloss has a density of 0.05 grams. There are few other examples of a planet like this existing but its close proximity to a star may give an indication as to how it came to exist as its heat is likely to have warmed up the planet's puffy atmosphere, which is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium. This state of the planet is only set to last for around a few ten million years as the temperatures and winds emitted from the star are only likely to strip back the atmosphere further. Due to this scientists cannot fully recreate or determine what is causing WASP-193b's unique atmosphere but is it likely to be a continued source of study to try and determine the cause of this phenomenon. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Time travel, or just an illusion? Eagle eyed art lovers have spotted what appears to be a satellite in a four-century old painting of Jesus Christ. The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are depicted in the ‘Glorification of the Eucharist’, a painting by Ventura Salimbeni from 1595. But in the background is something surprising – a blue sphere with spikes sticking out of it, which some people have interpreted as Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth in 1957. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Steve Mera, chairman of the Manchester Association of Paranormal Investigation & Training (MAPIT) and a paranormal specialist and lecturer, said at a conference: “You start to find a lot of religious connotation linked in with the UFO phenomenon. “This painting [the Eucharist] was painted in the 1600s and nobody ever really knew what that was a painting of, until we kind of looked at Sputnik, which was the first satellite to pass round the Earth,” he said. “What is really, really interesting is it is surprisingly similar to Sputnik, even to the point there is a little nodule there (on Sputnik) and the exact same nodule on the side there [on the object in the painting].” Clearly, Salimbeni wouldn’t have known about Sputnik. Or would he…? Mera added: "Did they somehow have knowledge of future events?" Well, we can probably assume not. Instead, experts think the ball is a representation of the so-called celestial sphere (or the universe), while the spikes indicate God’s power over it. But for conspiracy theorists, it’s yet another win for time travel. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Scientists think they have discovered a previously unknown hidden structure inside the Earth’s core that could change our understanding of our planet. In school, most of us were taught there are four main layers to the Earth’s structure: the crust, the mantle, the outer core and the inner core. What we know about the Earth’s insides has mostly derived from geologists’ knowledge and observations of volcanoes and seismic waves. But now, scientists believe that there may also be a whole extra layer hidden inside the inner core that no one knew about. Earth’s molten inner core is predicted to be around 5,000 degrees Celsius in temperature and scientists have calculated that it takes up around just 1 per cent of the planet’s total volume. The discovery of a potential fifth layer to the planet’s core came a few years ago when scientists used an algorithm to model thousands of scenarios of the inner core to observe the length of time it takes seismic waves to travel through Earth based on data by the International Seismological Centre. Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter Scientists were able to analyse how different material properties within the inner core would affect seismic waves differently and found that some scenarios were certainly more likely than others. The algorithm showed how different materials altered the angle of seismic waves, leading them to hypothesise that there was a change of material somewhere in the inner core. Joanne Stephenson, an Australian National University geophysicist, explained: “We found evidence that may indicate a change in the structure of iron, which suggests perhaps two separate cooling events in Earth's history.” She continued: “The details of this big event are still a bit of a mystery, but we've added another piece of the puzzle when it comes to our knowledge of the Earth's inner core.” While their data isn’t conclusive, it does correlate with other similar studies that have looked into the anisotropy of the Earth’s inner core. Stephenson said: “It's very exciting - and might mean we have to re-write the textbooks!” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A bevy of possibly market-moving events are in store for investors this week.

A new crop of artificial intelligence tools carries the promise of streamlining tasks, improving efficiency and boosting productivity in the workplace. But that hasn't been Neil Clarke's experience so far.

(Reuters) -Audio-streaming platform Spotify Technology plans to raise the price of its ad-free premium monthly plan by $1 in the

It feels like there have been staggering science stories emerging every other day recently, all of which have blown our tiny little minds. First, there was the discovery of a terrifying black hole pointing right at us, then there was a huge hole found in the sun and a missing continent found after going missing for 375 years. Now, people are only just realising that there’s a massive ocean hidden under the Earth’s crust. It turns out there’s a huge supply of water 400 miles underground stored in rock known as 'ringwoodite'. Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter Scientists previously discovered that water is stored inside mantle rock in a sponge-like state, which isn’t a liquid, solid or a gas, but instead a fourth state. The scientific paper titled ‘Dehydration melting at the top of the lower mantle’ was published in 2014 and laid out the findings. "The ringwoodite is like a sponge, soaking up water, there is something very special about the crystal structure of ringwoodite that allows it to attract hydrogen and trap water," said geophysicist Steve Jacobsen at the time. "This mineral can contain a lot of water under conditions of the deep mantle,” added Jacobsen, who was part of the team behind the discovery. He added: "I think we are finally seeing evidence for a whole-Earth water cycle, which may help explain the vast amount of liquid water on the surface of our habitable planet. Scientists have been looking for this missing deep water for decades." Scientists made the findings at the time after studying earthquakes and discovering that seismometers were picking up shockwaves under the surface of the Earth. From that, they were able to establish that the water was being held in the rock known as ringwoodite. If the rock contained just 1 per cent water, it would mean that there is three times more water under the surface of the Earth than there is in the oceans on the surface. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

When Tesla revealed its Cybertruck in 2019, it didn’t go so well. The supposedly bulletproof windows were smashed when hit by a metal ball, much to the embarrassment of chief executive Elon Musk. Now, the electric car company is nearing the point when it starts shipping the product – which it says is new and improved – but people still aren’t particularly impressed. Musk has said deliveries can be expected at the end of this year, with mass production set to begin in 2024. And during the firm’s latest earnings update this week, it gave a fresh sneak peak of the highly anticipated truck driving through a desert. But eagle eyed observers have already noticed a problem: the wiper doesn't cover the whole windscreen. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The Tesla Cybertruck Is Officially HERE! www.youtube.com In the video, the Cybertruck’s enormous glass windscreen has been covered in muddy water, some of which is pushed away by the long, singular wiper. But the passenger’s side is still completely covered in mud. For $40,000 dollars, which is the Cybertruck’s expected cost, it’s probably safe to say you’d be disappointed. Meanwhile, the wiper also rests upright on the side of the windscreen, unlike most cars where it sits horizontally next to the bonnet. Tesla’s design chief Franz von Holzhause also shared a picture of him standing in front of a dust-covered Cybertruck at a construction site in Texas earlier this year, and the top part of the passenger side was again untouched by the wiper. Watch the Tesla Cybertruck's Windows Get Smashed www.youtube.com People took to Twitter to criticise the design. One person said: “Am I the only one who thinks that Tesla Cybertruck Windshield Wiper needs to be better? They can put two wipers, one on each side, just like it is now or at the bottom like a traditional one.” “They can even put a pushing motion on the one they have to get more coverage.” Another person added: “I can only imagine the visibility from inside this tin can is horrible.” Even Musk is aware of the issue. He told Fox News earlier this year: “The wiper is what troubles me most.” And on Twitter, he said there's “no easy solution” to the massive windshield, saying: “Deployable wiper that stows in front trunk would be ideal, but complex.” That said, at least there’s a wiper now. The famous 2019 version didn’t even have one. Keep plugging away, Tesla galaxy brains. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

You don't need to use a bulky scanner to scan your documents. If you own an iPhone, it's as easy as taking a picture.

By Diane Bartz and Krystal Hu WASHINGTON/NEW YORK Top AI companies including OpenAI, Alphabet and Meta Platforms have

Embraer says it will build electric aircraft with hopes they will take flight from 2026.

By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) -FTX Trading on Thursday sued founder Sam Bankman-Fried and other former executives of the cryptocurrency exchange,