An early prototype of the Obital Reflector in Nevada

Hello! In the near future, two reflectors may appear in orbit. The first is a prototype that Elon Musk will launch. Thanks to the reflected sunlight, it can be observed in the sky with the naked eye.

The second is an ambitious project by the authorities in the southern Chinese city of Chengdu, who plan to launch their reflector in 2020. It will "hover" over the city and will give a spot of sunlight with a diameter of 10 to 80 kilometers. What for? To save on city lighting at night!

The city itself occupies a circle of 125 kilometers, so only the center will be illuminated.

How bright will the reflector satellite be? About 8 times brighter than the moon. In addition, the boundaries of the light spot can be adjusted if necessary.

Ready for a future where cities are illuminated by satellites at night?

Hello! IBM, together with the scientific community of the Technical University of Munich, published a recent study on quantum computers in the journal Science.

The most curious fact is that even if quantum computers were already ubiquitous, we would be faced with an acute shortage of tasks for them. In other words, first we have to find out "why" we need quantum PCs, except for just a few highly specialized tasks (which one way or another are already being solved by existing supercomputers).

In fact, this confirms the fears of scientists that, apart from an acute cryptographic crisis in the next few years, early quantum technologies may simply “be of no use”. And this problem must be solved before they appear.

Source (English): http://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6412/308

Hello! The Insight device, which landed on Mars after half a year of flight, transmitted the first selfie to Earth 🚀 🌄

Photo of a glacier on Mars from the Mars Express (MEX) orbital probe. The diameter of the crater Korolev, located on the edge of the dune field Olympia (Olympia Undae), which surrounds the northern polar cap of Mars, is 84 kilometers.

Hello! This is a real photo of the black hole at the center of the Messier 87 galaxy, which scientists obtained thanks to the Event Horizon Telescope project.

This image is from data collected in 2017 using eight radio telescopes around the world.

The distance to the object is 55 million light years from Earth. The mass of this black hole is 6.5 billion solar masses.

UPD: I am correcting the inaccuracy in the original information. In the photo - a black hole from the center of the galaxy Messier 87, located at a distance of 55 million light years from Earth.

I apologize to the readers of my channel for the inaccuracy in the previous publication. But the image of the black hole has become a little better: https://eventhorizontelescope.org/files/eht/files/20190410-78m-4000x2330.png

Hello! The LightSail 2 satellite was able to raise its orbit by 1.7 km using solely the power of the solar sail.

What does this mean and why is it important? The satellite itself was launched into Earth's orbit in June, and in July it successfully deployed a huge "solar sail".

The satellite weighs 5 kilograms and is about the size of a loaf of bread. The sail area is about the size of a boxing ring.

LightSail 2 succeeded in proving the feasibility of spaceflight by small satellites, relying only on the power of sunlight to propel itself through space. Quite simply, light particles do not have mass, but they carry momentum. Light can push objects through space.

Throughout August, attempts will be made to further increase the height of the satellite's orbit. In the end, the satellite, along with the sail, will still burn up in the atmosphere due to the elliptical orbit (every time it raises its orbit from one side, it approaches the Earth from the other side of the orbit).

Space sailboats are real.

Hello! Thanks for subscribing to my channel. Posts are rare, but I will strive to fix it.

Friday night is a good time to post about how things "from the future" in cinema become reality.

For example, a filter from the popular special series White Christmas, the series "Black Mirror", which hides a person "in the frame", leaving only his outlines visible, is available not only to enthusiasts, but literally to everyone who gets acquainted with AR development for iOS.

See what it looks like on YouTube, using the example of passengers in the subway (https://youtu.be/IV_e2JYJ6JA).

The world's best-selling game, Minecraft (yes, the world's best-selling school game), is testing out an AR version that's about to release for iOS and Android called Minecraft Earth. And she has every chance to surpass Pokemon GO, because in addition to the geolocation component, objects created in augmented reality can be placed in real space.

So far, they can only be seen through the camera of a smartphone or by broadcasting the image to an external screen.

And the head of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, recently said that Windows is no longer an important area for Microsoft. The future is near!

Hello! For Halloween, NASA released a new image from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Don't worry, the "creepy ghost with glowing eyes" is 704 million light-years away.

But what is happening in the picture is still capable of inspiring a certain amount of fear, this is a collision of two galaxies.

The "eye" in the image is the nucleus of galaxies, the outline of the "face" is a ring of new stars, and older star clusters form the nose and mouth.

The collision process will take place very quickly by astronomical standards, in just 100 million years. And after one or two billion years, it will be impossible to see traces of the merger 🎃

Hello! Of all the headlines under which this news came out, the version from Futurism seems to me the most accurate.

Here is the news: "11K SCIENTISTS: PLEASE PANIC, CLIMATE CHANGE WILL KILL US ALL"

This is a very large-scale attempt by scientists from 153 countries to attract the attention of the widest sections of the population.

The problem with climate change is aggravating faster than the saddest forecasts.

What to do? In simple words, everything that they thought of doing before, but not in theory, in practice. These include reducing methane emissions (hello livestock!), reducing greenhouse gas emissions, introducing new energy efficiency methods, birth control (!), and, in a tribute to the times, removing barriers to gender equality.

What is really connected with the fact that the real situation is worse than the worst assumptions? Overconsumption - The wealthiest countries still have the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions.

The Paris Agreement on climate change didn't help :(

Hello! I followed with enthusiasm the story shared by Denis Shiryaev from the editors of the "Committee" (DTF, TJ) about the composer Antonin Dvorak, who 115 years ago did not finish one of his works "From the Future World", having died prematurely.

Thanks to algorithms and the startup AIVA, the work was completed and the Prague Philharmonia in Prague performed the final part of the piece in November of this year.

Listen to how the piece added by the neural network sounds, only 6 minutes, but it's worth it:https://youtu.be/3LRO4ZgB7Ug

Hello! There is a category of innovation that is difficult to recognize at first glance. An example of a breakthrough in industrial design may well be found in your home. OXO's swivel knife vegetable cutter with large rubber handle was developed in 1990 specifically for people with arthritis as part of an inclusive design, but has become the "new normal" as a result.

Now you can find this type of handle in screwdrivers and other tools.

In 1994, OXO products became part of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), but are still on sale - the rating on Amazon is kept at 4.8 out of 5 points at a price of $10

Hello! Pictured is comet 2I/Borisov against the background of a distant spiral galaxy. The picture was taken from the Hubble telescope on November 16, 2019, which in the coming days will pass at a minimum distance from the Earth - 289.8 million kilometers. And then it will fly away forever - its speed is too high, more than 32 kilometers per second.

Its path is similar to a straight line, rather than the ellipse characteristic of comets. It is impossible to establish where 2I/Borisov came from, there are too many factors.

The cloud of dust that surrounds the comet will stretch for 160,000 kilometers. Judging by the change in the spectrum, the comet is composed of cyanide and carbon.

The fact that the comet has been detected gives hope that "giant" telescopes under construction (such as the LSST "Large Synoptic Survey Telescope") will be able to see where it went, but this will happen as early as 2022.

To catch up with a comet that moves at such a speed, humanity can not yet.

Hello!
No, these are not the results of a year or a decade.

Just look at what news the subscribers of this channel expected in 2019 and compare with your feelings :)

I won't bore you with a long message, Happy Holidays! Thanks for reading. I hope I can write for the channel more often. Inspiration and hope in 2020! ⚡️

Hello! The first publication this year will be with a very "catchy" title - a new theory about the construction of a time machine has appeared.

Its author is astrophysicist Ron Mallett, professor of physics at the University of Connecticut (USA). In an interview with CNN, he announced the existence of a scientific equation that could serve as the basis for a real time machine.

Before getting acquainted in more detail, let's clarify right away that this is not about traveling to the future, by accelerating a rocket with an astronaut to near-light speeds.

Malett believes that travel to the past is possible by combining two theories - general relativity (the curvature of space-time under strong gravity) and a laser loop - a theoretical "ring laser" that creates a circulating beam of light.

In any case, even if this theory is confirmed in the future, it does not solve the problem of "physical" movement into the past - the effect created in this way may allow information to be transmitted to the past, but only to the same point in space where the "laser" will be created. the loop".

A detailed CNN interview, including a short biography and criticism from other scientists, can be read here in English: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/time-travel-ron-mallett-scn/index.html

Hello! Right now, from space, you can observe the consequences of the fires in Australia.

Raging forest fires paint the entire (!) Continent in blood red hues.

See what it looks like from Japan's Himawari-8 meteorological satellite.

Australia's wildfires are so big that they spawn their own kind of firestorm, the 'pyrocumulonimbus', which is capable of causing even more fires.

Clouds of smoke rise to a height of 16 kilometers, creating thunderstorms (lightning causes new fires), carrying embers from existing fires and intensifying fires due to accompanying wind currents.

In particularly severe cases, pressure differences between areas with pyrocumulonimbus and normal weather can cause fire tornadoes.

Smoke emissions in such cases can rise to a height of more than 30 miles (48 kilometers).

Hello! A recent genetic experiment has given rise to a new round of publications about a cardinal life extension. Geneticists use nematode worms Caenorhabditis elegans for experiments.

They live only 2-3 weeks, and their body is very simple - ideal candidates for experiments.

The essence of the "mutation", or rather changes in the genes, was to suppress the work of the genes responsible for growth and metabolism - by disrupting pathways in mitochondria and slowing down protein synthesis.

In a new work that combines two methods of prolonging the life of experimental subjects, it was possible to extend the life of the worm by 500% - the mutation acts synergistically, enhancing the effect.

How can you describe the essence in simple words? Animals that suppress the synthesis of a particular protein receive less of it. But if at the same time the mitochondria lack substrates that help to get more energy, they make the surrounding cells more responsive to stress. And live longer.