MAROKO133 Update ai: Constant Space Launches Turning Earth’s Atmosphere Into a “Crematoriu

📌 MAROKO133 Hot ai: Constant Space Launches Turning Earth’s Atmosphere Into a “Cre

Constant space launches are turning the atmosphere into a “crematorium” for satellites and other space debris.

That was the warning from a trio of astronomers and atmospheric scientists in a new essay for The Conversation, which outlines the grim consequences of populating the Earth’s orbit with tens of thousands of expendable satellites. 

Satellites, they write, “have become part of throwaway culture.” Companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX design their satellites to last no more than a few years, after which they’re supposed to push themselves out of orbit and burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

It’s a tidy approach in theory, but one that could in reality be seeding the atmosphere with harmful particulates. The astronomers point to a study that found re-entering satellites were releasing metals into the atmosphere as they burned-up, including copper, lead, and aluminum particles called alumina. The rockets that bring the satellites to orbit are no less guilty, as a recent paper linked the re-entry of the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 to a plume of toxic lithium. A particularly alarming study speculated that the suffusion of metal particles could kickstart a chain reaction that devastates the ozone layer.

“This is just a fraction of what is to come if planned megaconstellations go ahead — and SpaceX is far from the only player,” the astronomers warn.

Of the some 15,000 active satellites in orbit, SpaceX alone has over 9,000 zipping around the Earth. And last month, the Musk-owned company applied with the US Federal Communications Commission to launch up to one million more to pursue Musk’s dream of building AI data centers in space. Other satellite operators have requested a combined allotment of one million, a report found. 

In all likelihood, those figures won’t be accomplished anytime soon, but they do illustrate the sky high ambitions of the space industry. And if SpaceX et al do get their way, it won’t be pretty. The astronomers estimate that a million satellites could mean one billion kilograms of alumina accumulating in the atmosphere. That’s “enough, alongside launch emissions, to significantly alter atmospheric chemistry and heating in dramatic ways we do not yet understand,” they warned.

The junk that accumulates in low Earth orbit could also blowback on the space industry spreading it. Experts warn that collisions between space junk could cascade out of control and cause the entire region to collapse into a destructive vortex of swirling debris. This scenario, called Kessler syndrome, would turn the Earth’s orbit into a dangerous minefield that could set back spaceflight for decades.

In the meantime, falling space junk could become a lethal threat for us on the ground, with increasing reports of large chunks of satellites and spacecraft surviving their fiery plunge instead of disintegrating as intended. The Federal Aviation Administration warned that by 2035, some 28,000 fragments from Starlink satellites alone could survive re-entry each year, raising the chance of someone getting struck and killed by space debris each year to 61 percent.

A surge in satellite constellations, the astronomers warn, would also further obscure observations of deep space. “For scientists, observing the deaths of stars and searching for new planets would become much harder,” they wrote. “Stargazing, astrotourism and cultural astronomy would similarly be disrupted worldwide.”

Global regulation is needed to rein in space launches, they said. This regulatory body or framework, with the help of astronomers, would need to define a “safe atmospheric carrying capacity for satellite launches and re-entries,” while facilitating research to understand the full atmospheric effects of spacecraft.

More on space: Damage to Chinese Spacecraft Was Worse Than Reported

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🔗 Sumber: futurism.com

📌 MAROKO133 Update ai: Anonymous Kalshi User Makes Huge Bet That the White House I

Is the US government about to confirm that aliens are real?

That’s the claim floating around among those who believe in prediction markets as reliable soothsayers of the future, a promise that prediction markets would very much like you to buy into, so you overlook the obvious fact that they’re just another form of gambling.

Let’s cut to the chase. After it reviewed Kalshi trading data, The Atlantic reports that a single trader just bet nearly $100,000 that the Trump administration will confirm the existence of alien life or technology by the end of this year.

Actually, that was just the first big bet. Just 35 minutes later, another wager appeared, possibly by the same person, for nearly double that amount. What did the bettor(s) know? Could they possibly have inside knowledge on an impending ET revelation?

It’s not quite the spectacular smoking gun that Agent Mulder might’ve stumbled onto in the original run of “The X-Files.” But the beloved show’s upcoming reboot might consider shining a light on prediction markets as avenues of conspiracies in their own right.

Prediction markets allow users to bet on an unbelievable plethora of real-world outcomes beyond sports, ranging from geopolitical events to how many times Elon Musk tweets in a week. Because they’re less regulated than traditional gambling, critics fear that they’ll be a hotbed of insider trading. 

Several scandals exemplifying these fears have already emerged. An anonymous Polymarket bettor on a freshly created account correctly guessed nearly every song that Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny would perform during his Super Bowl show, a statistical improbability.

Others implicate military and government insiders. Hours before the US launched an invasion into Venezuela and abducted its president Nicolás Maduro in January, an anonymous user placed a large bet that Maduro would be removed from power by the end of the month, netting them more than $400,000. In February, Israel arrested several citizens and IDF reservists for using classified information on upcoming strikes in Iran to place Polymarket bets.

The big Kalshi bets come amid an alien-laden news cycle. In an interview earlier this month, former president Barack Obama remarked that aliens are “real,” kicking up a media frenzy. Obama merely meant that the vast scale of the cosmos meant that aliens almost certainly existed somewhere. But UFO truthers took it as a sign that Obama had seen actual hard evidence, and president Trump capitalized on this “tremendous interest” to announce that he would direct government agencies to release files “related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).”

For whatever reason, the big bets on the confirmation of aliens weren’t placed until days after this media frenzy played out, with no new revelations coming to light since then, The Atlantic noted. It was also noteworthy that the bets were placed all in one go, instead of doled in slices to avoid spooking the market.

But perhaps the most puzzling fact is that there’s no clear purpose to the bets. Ben Shindel, an expert on prediction markets, told The Atlantic that the bold wagers may have simply been made by an inexperienced trader.

“The other possibility is that it’s an insider,” Shindel conceded.

More on prediction markets: Prediction Markets Are Sucking Huge Numbers of Young People Into Gambling

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🔗 Sumber: futurism.com