Tech

NASA to launch Roman telescope capable of capturing extensive space data

Published

9 months ago

Farwa

The amazing James Webb Space Telescope has allowed astronomers to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos as it shared a number of mesmerising pictures of the galaxies.

But scientists from NASA are putting their effort to build another space telescope, bigger than the James Webb. “Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope” is scheduled to be launched by 2027, Euronews Next reported.

Dubbing it “a new age for astronomy”, one of the scientists working on the telescope project said the telescope would allow acquiring more information and would help answer further riddles about astrophysics.

The telescope would provide a more “panoramic view of the universe and allow more statistical studies,” said Marco Sirianni, ESA’s Science Operations Development Manager, working on the project.

Difference between Roman Telescope, James Webb and Hubble?

As the pictures released last year by James Webb and Hubble, they provide detailed insights and views on small parts of space whereas, Roman, it is said, would give a much broad view of it, creating images 200 times larger than Hubble.

It would be aimed at surveying other objects in space, Sirianni said.

The rare sight of a Wolf-Rayet star – among the most luminous, most massive, and most briefly detectable stars known – was one of the first observations made by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in June 2022. Webb shows the star, WR 124, in unprecedented detail with its powerful infrared instruments. The star is 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. — NASA/File

He said that with the Roman telescope, a full picture of a galaxy can be taken in one single shot, unlike Hubble which captures parts of galaxies.

The Andromeda galaxy pictures were taken at least 400 times by Hubble and were put together to make a complete picture of the galaxy. Roman would take the large broad view in a single shot.

While 30 years of Hubble captures have provided us with data of 170 terabytes, from James Webb 1,000 terabytes of data is expected to be collected in just five years.

However, Roman would allow gathering 20,000 terabytes of data in mere five years, the scientists noted, adding that it will allow them to capture billion of galaxies helping scientists create a 3D model of galaxies.

Learning more about cosmos

With these large telescopes, scientists are trying to unravel the hidden mysteries of the universe such as the expansion of the universe, dark matter, dark energy, distances between the galaxies and measurement of the distances among different galaxies.

By acquiring more insights with the help of this modern technological equipment, it may allow scientists to modify theories of space.

Exploration of other solar systems

Among other things, one of the crucial purposes of the Roman telescope is to detect other solar systems with the help of gravitational microlensing.

“If two stars align to each other, the one in front will distort and magnify the light of the star behind. And if the star in the foreground has a planet, we will see the impact of that planet on the light of the star behind it,” Sirianni shared.

He also added that it will provide a “very good” census of how many stars will have exoplanets and the nearest stars of these exoplanets with the help of coronagraph, allowing Roman to take images of Jupiter-like planets with image quality corrections.

If it is successful, it will provide a bottom line to determine the Earth-like plants in other solar systems.

Tech

Facebook and Instagram full of predators for children, alleges lawsuit

Published

7 hours ago

Farwa

Meta’s social media platforms of Facebook and Instagram have become fertile grounds for child predators and paedophiles, revealed New Mexico’s Attorney General, Raul Torrez in a lawsuit.

Torrez’s office used fake accounts to conduct investigations and discovered that these fake accounts of minors were dispatched ‘solicitations’ and explicit content.

The lawsuit seeks court-ordered changes to protect minors, asserting that Meta has neglected voluntary actions to address these issues effectively.

In its response, Meta defended its initiatives in eradicating predators. However, New Mexico’s investigation disclosed a higher prevalence of exploitative material on Facebook and Instagram compared to adult content platforms.

Attorney General Torrez underscored the platforms’ unsafe nature for children, describing them as hotspots for predators to engage in illicit activities.

While US law shields platforms from content liability, the lawsuit argues that Meta’s algorithms actively promote sexually exploitative material, transforming the platforms into a marketplace for child predators.

The lawsuit accuses Meta of misleading users about platform safety, violating laws prohibiting deceptive practices, and creating an unsafe product.

Moreover, the lawsuit targets Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg personally, alleging contradictory actions in enhancing child safety while steering the company in the opposite direction.

In response, Meta reiterated its commitment to combating child exploitation, emphasizing its use of technology and collaborations with law enforcement to address these concerns.

Tech

Meta finally launches end-to-end encryption on Messenger

Published

7 hours ago

Farwa

Meta announced Thursday that it is finally implementing end-to-end encryption for one-on-one conversations and calls on Messenger, delivering on a long-standing commitment.

The company states that when end-to-end encryption is enabled, the only people who can view the contents of a message sent through Messenger are the sender and the recipient.

We’re starting to roll out default end-to-end encryption for personal calls and messages on @messenger. This isn’t a routine security update: we rebuilt the app from the ground up, in close consultation with privacy and safety experts. We added some new features too: you can now… pic.twitter.com/c7HhrjJWPf
— Loredana Crisan (@loredanacrisan) December 7, 2023

Messenger’s encrypted chat function was initially made available as an opt-in feature in 2016. However, following a protracted legal dispute, end-to-end encrypted messages and calls for two-person discussions will now be considered the norm.

“This has taken years to deliver because we’ve taken our time to get this right,” Loredana Crisan, vice president of Messenger, said in a statement shared with The Verge.

“Our engineers, cryptographers, designers, policy experts and product managers have worked tirelessly to rebuild Messenger features from the ground up.”

A representational picture of Messengers new feature. — Meta — A representational picture of Messenger’s new feature. — Meta

Crisan states that encrypted chats will not compromise Messenger features like themes and custom reactions. However, it may “take some time” for all chats to switch to default encryption.

The end-to-end encryption for group chats is still opt-in. Additionally, Instagram messages are still not encrypted by default, but Meta expects this to happen “shortly after” the rollout of default private Messenger chats.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2019 that the company planned to move toward encrypted ephemeral messages across its messaging apps, according to The Verge.

“I believe the future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure and their messages and content won’t stick around forever,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “This is the future I hope we will help bring about.”

By enabling encryption by default, most Messenger chats should remain unseen by Meta, and it will also prevent the company from providing the data to law enforcement.

Last year, a 17-year-old from Nebraska and her mother faced criminal charges for illegal abortion after police obtained their Messenger chat history.

Anti-encryption advocates argue that encryption makes it harder to identify bad actors on encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp.

Tech

Elon Musk poised to challenge OpenAI, targets $1bn for his AI startup

Published

1 day ago

Farwa

Tesla chief Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture, xAI, is making waves in the AI world, aiming to raise a substantial $1 billion to compete head-on with OpenAI’s widely-used ChatGPT technology.

According to recent filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, xAI has already amassed $134.7 million and is striving to amass the billion-dollar mark.

The filing indicates Musk’s strong commitment to gathering the entire sum, hinting that he might have secured deals to achieve this ambitious target.

Musk recently showcased “Grok,” a chatbot similar to ChatGPT, trained on data from X (previously Twitter), which he acquired for $44 billion last year.

Musk initiated xAI in July, recruiting top researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Tesla, and the University of Toronto. He expressed that the company’s goal is to “understand the true nature of the universe.”

Since the rise of OpenAI’s ChatGPT a year ago, there has been intense competition among tech giants like Microsoft, Google, Meta, and startups such as Anthropic and Stability AI. Earlier this year, OpenAI reportedly secured commitments of an astounding $13 billion from Microsoft.

Musk’s fundraising efforts coincide with a tumultuous period at OpenAI, as CEO Sam Altman’s return after a brief dismissal has led to delays in the company’s anticipated share sale. Reports suggest the sale, valuing OpenAI between $80 and $90 billion, faced hindrances due to internal disruptions.