China launches probe to collect asteroid samples
China has launched a mission aiming to retrieve samples from an asteroid orbiting the Sun.
China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported that a rocket carrying the Tianwen-2 robotic probe lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan at 1:31 a.m. local time on Thursday.
Tianwen-2 aims to collect rocks and other samples from the Kamo'oalewa asteroid and deliver them back to Earth in a capsule by late 2027.
The report said the immense distance makes the mission difficult. The distance between the asteroid and Earth at their closest is about 40 times that between Earth and the Moon.
Japan's Hayabusa mission was the first to successfully retrieve samples from an asteroid. Since then Hayabusa2 and US space agency NASA's OSIRIS-REx have also succeeded in retrieving asteroid samples.
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Japan Times
4 hours ago
- Japan Times
Misinformation hits South Korea's upcoming election
A photo of the frontrunner bowing to a Mao Zedong statue? News reports claiming U.S. President Donald Trump endorsed a long-shot candidate? Not true, and they're just examples of South Korea's election misinformation problems. With the country set to vote on Tuesday for a new leader to replace ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached over a botched martial law declaration, there has been an explosion of false claims online. AFP takes a look at some of the worst offenders: What are the claims? Many of the claims focus on foreign interference, tapping into local fears of meddling by China, or fabricating support for the conservative camp from the United States. One of the most prominent falsehoods circulating online suggested weaknesses in the overseas voter registration system, with Chinese nationals exploiting the system to cast fraudulent ballots. "Even foreigners can vote as long as they have an email address!" read one widely shared post, which AFP Fact Check debunked. Who gets targeted? Opposition leader and election frontrunner Lee Jae-myung is a popular target for disinformation. Many claims focus on his purported allegiance to Beijing — feeding into a long-running narrative among conservatives that casts progressive candidates as sympathetic to, or even controlled by, China. For example, photos debunked by AFP journalists showed Lee kowtowing to a Mao statue, and wearing a face mask with the Chinese flag on it. This trend reflects the fact that many voters are less swayed by claims politicians are pro-North Korea, said Choi Jin-bong, a media communications professor at Sungkonghoe University in Seoul. "It's now the claim that progressives are subservient to China that resonates — especially amid worsening U.S.-China tensions," he said. "Even when false, these narratives remain politically useful to conservatives as a last-ditch effort to blunt what looks like an inevitable Lee victory." What about the conservative candidate? The disinformation involving South Korean conservatives tends to focus on their ties to the United States. Doctored images have shown Trump supporting former prime minister Han Duck-soo's presidential campaign announcement. Han since dropped out of the race, after a failed bid to become the conservative People Power Party (PPP) nominee. Another claim involved a popular right-leaning YouTuber falsely telling his 1.5 million subscribers that the Pentagon had endorsed PPP candidate Kim Moon-soo. U.S. Forces Korea said it was "completely untrue." But even if they are patently false, the claims "remain persuasive because they benefit political actors," said Lee Jun-han, a politics professor at Incheon National University. "They tap into Korea's polarized landscape and its geopolitical anxieties, rallying each side with narratives that play on fear, identity and outside influence." What about AI? In April, a deepfake video surfaced showing Lee supposedly ending a hunger strike — which he went on in 2023 to protest then-president Yoon's policies — and joking about eating fried chicken. The video, which was shared widely in South Korea's right-leaning online ecosystem, was generated using a real photo of Lee in a hospital bed. An AFP analysis identified numerous signs of AI manipulation — disappearing background elements, warped body parts and inconsistent surroundings. The video was fake, but it fed into a preexisting narrative that Lee's protest was performative. "AI-driven misinformation poses a serious threat to democracy by obstructing voters' access to reliable information," said Song Kyeong-jae, a democracy and technology expert at Sangji University. "When decisions are made based on manipulated content, they are irreversible — and the resulting social and political consequences can be profound." Fudged numbers Other claims have also sought to misrepresent preelection polling, which has consistently shown Lee commanding a large lead over his conservative rivals. A viral graphic, shared days before early voting began, falsely claimed PPP candidate Kim was leading Lee in recent polls. In reality, the numbers came from January and February, and the original source clearly listed the survey dates. These were deliberately cropped out to mislead viewers into thinking the results were current. Official May polls showed Lee with a commanding lead of five points or more.
Japan Times
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Japan Today
a day ago
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Strauss' 'Blue Danube' is beamed into space as Vienna celebrates with a concert
Members of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra perform "The Blue Danube" waltz as it is transmitted into deep space towards Voyager 1. in Vienna, Austria, on Saturday, May 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos) 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. 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.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
