Strauss' ‘Blue Danube' is beamed into space as Vienna celebrates with a concert
VIENNA (AP) — Strauss' 'Blue Danube' waltz has finally made it into space, nearly a half-century after missing a ride on NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft.
The European Space Agency's big radio antenna in Spain beamed the waltz into the cosmos Saturday. Operators aimed the dish at Voyager 1, the world's most distant spacecraft more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away. Traveling at the speed of light, the music was expected to overtake Voyager 1 within 23 hours.
Wednesdays
A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future.
The Vienna Symphony Orchestra performed the 'Blue Danube' during the space transmission, which actually sent up a version from rehearsal. It's part of the yearlong celebration marking the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II, who was born in Vienna in 1825. The Strauss space send-off also honors the 50th anniversary of ESA's founding.
Launched in 1977 and now in interstellar space, each of the two Voyagers carries a Golden Record full of music but nothing from the waltz king. His 'Blue Danube' holds special meaning for space fans: It's featured in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 sci-fi film '2001: A Space Odyssey.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
‘King of the Hill' voice actor Jonathan Joss fatally shot outside his Texas home
HOUSTON (AP) — Jonathan Joss, a voice actor best known for his work on the animated television series 'King of the Hill,' was fatally shot near his Texas home, authorities said Monday. Police were dispatched to a home in south San Antonio about 7 p.m. Sunday on a shooting in progress call. When officers arrived at the scene, they found the wounded 59-year-old near the street. 'The officers attempted life saving measures until EMS arrived. EMS pronounced the victim deceased,' San Antonio police said in a statement. Joss' death was confirmed by his husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales. 'He was murdered,' de Gonzales told The Associated Press in a text. The two were married earlier this year on Valentine's Day. In a statement, de Gonzales said that before the shooting, he and Joss were checking mail at Joss' home, which had been heavily damaged during a January fire that claimed the lives of their three dogs. A man approached the two and threatened them with a gun, de Gonzales said. 'Jonathan and I had no weapons. We were not threatening anyone. We were grieving. We were standing side by side. When the man fired Jonathan pushed me out of the way. He saved my life,' de Gonzales said in a statement. After the shooting, authorities arrested 56-year-old Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja and charged him with murder in Joss' death. Police said their investigation was ongoing and did not immediately provide any information on what prompted the shooting. Court records did not list an attorney who could speak on behalf of Ceja, who was being held in the Bexar County Adult Detention Center. Joss, who grew up in San Antonio, was best known as the voice of John Redcorn, a Native American character on the popular 'King of the Hill' animated series that ran for 13 seasons from 1997 to 2008. A reboot of the show is set to start in August. Joss also had a recurring role on the television show 'Parks and Recreation,' playing Chief Ken Hotate. He appeared in two episodes of the series 'Tulsa King' in 2022. A GoFundMe page had been set up in January for Joss after the house fire. According to the page, Joss had lost all of his belongings in the fire, including his vehicle. Before he was fatally shot, Joss had been in Austin, located about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of San Antonio, for events related to a sneak peak of the 'King of the Hill' revival. On Saturday, Joss had posted a video on Instagram in which he said he was signing autographs at a comic book store in Austin. 'The fans get to revisit 'King of the Hill' again, which I think is an amazing thing because it's a great show,' Joss said in the video, adding he had already done voice work on four episodes of the revival. Joss's husband said Joss was grateful for his fans. 'To everyone who supported him, his fans, his friends, know that he valued you deeply. He saw you as family,' de Gonzales said.
CTV News
4 hours ago
- CTV News
Milky Way may not be destroyed in galactic smash-up after all
This photo illustration depicts a view of the night sky just before the predicted merger between our Milky Way galaxy and the neighboring Andromeda galaxy. (NASA) PARIS, France — The Milky Way may not have a catastrophic collision with another huge galaxy as has been predicted, computer simulations revealed Monday, giving our home galaxy a coin-flip chance of avoiding destruction. But don't worry either way: no galactic smash-up is expected for billions of years, long after our ageing Sun will have burnt away all life on Earth. The Milky Way and the even-larger galaxy Andromeda are speeding towards each other at 100 kilometres (60 miles) a second, and scientists have long predicted they will collide in around 4.5 billion years. That would be bad news for our neighbourhood. Previous research has suggested that the Sun - and our Earth - could wind up in the centre of this newly merged 'Milkomeda' galaxy and get sucked into its supermassive black hole. Alternatively, the Sun could be shot out into the emptiness of intergalactic space. However 'proclamations of the impending demise of our galaxy seem greatly exaggerated', according to a new study in the journal Nature Astronomy. There is only a roughly 50 per cent chance the Milky Way and Andromeda will smash into each other in the next 10 billion years, the international team of astrophysicists determined. 'It's basically a coin flip,' lead study author Till Sawala of the University of Helsinki told AFP. The researchers ran more than 100,000 computer simulations of our universe's future, using new observations from space telescopes. A galaxy merger in the next five billion years is 'extremely unlikely', Sawala said. Much more likely is that the galaxies will zoom relatively close to each other -- say, a little under 500,000 light years away. In only half of the simulations did dark matter then eventually drag the two galaxies together into a cataclysmic embrace. But this would likely only occur in around eight billion years -- long after our Sun has died, the researchers found. 'So it could be that our galaxy will end up destroyed,' Sawala said. 'But it's also possible that our galaxy and Andromeda will orbit one another for tens of billions of years -- we just don't know.' possible encounter scenarios between our Milky Way and the neighboring Andromeda galaxy. These galaxy images illustrate three possible encounter scenarios between our Milky Way and the neighboring Andromeda galaxy. Top left: Galaxies M81 and M82. Top right: NGC 6786, a pair of interacting galaxies. Bottom: NGC 520, two merging galaxies. (NASA) Galaxy's fate 'open' 'The fate of our galaxy is still completely open,' the study summarised. The researchers emphasised that their findings did not mean that previous calculations were incorrect, just that they had used newer observations and taken into account the effect of more satellite galaxies. Future data releases from Europe's recently retired Gaia space telescope as well as Hubble could provide a definitive answer to this question within the next decade, Sawala predicted. How much all this all matters to us is a matter of debate. The Sun is expected to make Earth inhospitable to life in around a billion years. 'We might have some emotional attachment' to what happens after we're gone, Sawala said. 'I might prefer the Milky Way not to collide with Andromeda, even though it has absolutely no relevance to my own life -- or the lives of my children or great-great grandchildren.' Article by Daniel Lawler.
Winnipeg Free Press
5 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Photo gallery: Cicadas swarm parts of the Eastern U.S. as the insects emerge in Brood XIV's 17-year cycle
CINCINNATI (AP) — Another cicada invasion is here. The large Brood XIV, which emerges every 17 years, is making for a spectacular natural event as billions of periodical cicadas emerge across parts of the Eastern U.S., including in Georgia, southern Ohio, Kentucky, Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and Long Island, New York. When spring warms the soil to 64 degrees Fahrenheit (about 18 degrees Celsius), these cicada nymphs dig their way up to the surface after their long development period. On the right night, usually after a warm spring rain, near trees showing cicada pilot holes and chimneys, they will emerge — so many that they can be heard crunching through the grass to climb up trees, plants, people or any vertical surface. There is a forceful quality about it. Once they find footing, they begin the molting process. They shed their nymphal skin, emerging soft, vulnerable and pale yellow. They have two large red eyes on the sides of the head, three small, jewel-like eyes called ocelli in the center, and gossamer wings. In a few hours, their bodies harden and darken, and they fly up to the treetops. Then the screaming begins — the loud buzzing, screaming sound males make when they are looking for a mate. It leaves ears ringing. Throughout this process, cicadas serve as a source of protein for both wildlife and humans. They survive by sheer numbers. After mating, females lay eggs in tree branches and die shortly after. The hatched tiny nymphs fall and burrow into the ground, and the cycle begins again. Cicadas are part of the magic of spring when the yellow and purple irises are blooming, and the green is new and vivid. The cicada show takes place in every light of the day and the dark of night. The pull is the power and beauty of nature and time.
