Fifteen billion miles from home, the farthest machine humans have ever built is still doing science on less memory than a blank Word document and a data recorder that is, quite literally, an 8-track tape.
Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is roughly 15.9 billion miles out—closing in on one light-day from Earth—and still reporting from interstellar space with about 69 kilobytes of computer memory total, plus a digital 8-track that has to overwrite old data to make room for anything new. Its signal takes nearly a day to reach us, carried by a transmitter weaker than a hallway bulb.
There are some people who believe finding something wrong validates their worth, rather than looking for something right. If they don't find something wrong, they believe they lose their worth/importance.
Tomorrow, SpaceX drops Google’s Project Suncatcher into Low Earth Orbit at the exact moment the sun unleashes a stream of geomagnetic plasma.
On the ground, it looks like a silent cosmic ballet-emerald waves rippling harmlessly across the night sky.
On the satellite's silicon die, it feels like trench warfare.
Millions of solar protons, accelerated to near light speed, tear through the TPU’s memory banks. No warning. No sound. Just a stray ion striking a single floating-point register and lobotomizing an entire neural network in half a clock cycle.
Auroras aren't just a serene light show. They're also the blast deflections of an orbital firing squad.
This is what sand looks like magnified up to 300 times
Dr. Gary Greenberg’s photographs reveal the remarkable shapes, colors and tiny natural fragments hidden within individual grains of sand
The "sound" of a black hole, based on observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory of pressure waves rippling through the hot gas around the supermassive black hole in galaxy NGC 1275, raised in pitch about 57 octaves so we can hear them.
📽️: NASA/CXC/SAO
"Hypocritical pretenders to religion are worse for a commonwealth than the openly profane." ~from Benjamin Franklin by Carl Van Doren. I concur but actually more dangerous for the Church at large.
Innovative with musical cliches (who doesn't?) but done extremely beautifully well. Very soothing. I love the hook.
Evidence youtu.be/ObhXHjZOCY0?si=FRE2… via @YouTube
IF you're a musician, serious, multi-genre, let this sink in as to the degree of excellence here. Excellence takes us to a new level.
Corea, Patitucci & Colaiuta - Tumba (Blue Note Tokyo 1992) | 60 FPS Upgr... youtu.be/GE92AFVW428?si=hIaP… via @YouTube