Latest news with #Manhattan-sized
New York Post
11 hours ago
- Science
- New York Post
New images show Manhattan-sized interstellar object that could be alien probe here to ‘destroy us': Harvard scientist
A Harvard physicist has asserted that new images of the Manhattan-sized interstellar object rocketing through our inner solar system back his claim that it's not a comet — but instead possibly an alien probe that may 'destroy us.' Dr. Avi Loeb is pointing to apparent smoking guns emanating from 31/ATLAS — the object discovered in early July motoring past Earth which NASA officials have deemed a simple, though aberrational, comet. 'Usually, for comets, you see a tail trailing behind the object,' Loeb told CNN Thursday. 'Here, the glow is actually in front of it. We've never seen such a thing. A comet doesn't glow in front.' 4 New images released by NASA show the 31/ATLAS emitting a glow from the front of its motion, contrary to how comets move. Jewitt et al. 2025 Loeb then called the glow 'puzzling' in a blog post and implied that the object could be directed by an intelligent species with their sights set on our pale blue dot. 'It may come to save us or destroy us. We'd better be ready for both options and check whether all interstellar objects are rocks.' Loeb cited two new images from The Hubble Space Telescope that show a concentration of light in front of the interstellar rock. The images, taken on July 21, represent the most recent publicly available data on the 31/ATLAS. In a blog post Wednesday, the theoretical astrophysicist wrote, 'The existence of a glow ahead of 31/ATLAS but no evidence of gas molecules is puzzling.' Loeb further reiterated claims made in a paper last month regarding the object's suspiciously specific flight path through our inner solar system. 4 31/ATLAS's flight path is ideal for measuring the size and motions of the planets, Dr. Loeb has claimed. NASA/JPL-Caltech 'It lies in the plane of the orbits of the planets around the sun to within five degrees,' Loeb explained to CNN. 'It will arrive closest to the sun when the Earth is on the opposite side. We won't be able to observe it. But that's the perfect time for it to maneuver.' In his recent paper, Loeb suggested that the pathway is ideal for observing and measuring the motion of the spheres in our solar system. 4 An image of the object taken by NASA's ATLAS space telescope. ATLAS/University of Hawaii/NASA The object will come closest to the Sun on Halloween and the intervening time will provide the best opportunity to glean information from the object. 'We will have a better assessment of this probability within a month or two, once 31/ATLAS gets brighter and easier to observe as it approaches the Sun,' Loeb wrote in a blog post last week. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla) is answering Loeb's calls for increased and vigilant observation of 31/ATLAS. 4 31/ATLAS in an image shared by NASA and the European Space Agency. AP 'I'm urging NASA to extend the Juno mission to study interstellar object 31/ATLAS,' Rep. Luna wrote on X last week. 'Thank you Avi Loeb for your continued dedication to exploring our universe. We must seize this opportunity for groundbreaking discovery.'
Business Insider
25-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Welcome aboard the 'AI crazy train'
Big Tech is in an AI arms race, each company trying to outspend the others on data centers, GPUs, networking gear, and talent. Engineers can be let go. But the infrastructure? That's permanent. If the AGI dream fades, you're stuck with massive, costly assets. So when Google announced it would hike capex by $10 billion to $85 billion in 2025 eyebrows went up. Most of it is for things you can't walk back: chips, data centers, and networking. Google is "jumping aboard the AI crazy train," Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik wrote, referencing a song by the late bat biter Ozzy Osbourne. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg brags about Manhattan-sized data centers. And Elon Musk keeps hoarding GPUs. While Sam Altman is building mega-data centers with partners. JPMorgan dubbed this " vibe spending," warning OpenAI might burn $46 billion in four years. It's no shock when Elon, Zuck, and Sam flex on capex. But Google? That's surprising. "Google doesn't do this," Shmulik said. The company has been viewed as measured in recent years, prioritizing investment intensity with care. Not anymore. Now investors want to know: Will these swelling bets pay off? There are promising signs. Since May, Google's monthly token processing (the currency of generative AI) has doubled from 480 trillion to nearly a quadrillion. Search grew 12% in Q2, beating forecasts. Cloud sales surged 32%. CEO Sundar Pichai said Google is ramping up capex to support all this growth. But it's still a huge gamble. "Does the current return on invested capital seen in both Search and Cloud hold up at higher [capex] intensity levels," Shmulik asked, "or is the spend a very expensive piece of gum trying to plug an AI-sized hole?" He leans optimistic.
New York Post
24-07-2025
- Science
- New York Post
Rare interstellar object the size of Manhattan could be an alien probe: Harvard scientists
It's probe-ably nothing. The newly discovered Manhattan-sized interstellar object zooming through our solar system has been identified as a comet — but two Harvard scientists argue there is reason to believe it's really an alien probe. NASA discovered 31/ATLAS on July 1, speeding through the inner solar system at 140,000 miles per hour according to observations from the ATLAS telescope in Chile — with experts clueless as to where it originated. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb suggested in a new paper that the object — only the third interstellar object ever detected — could be an intelligently directed alien craft observing Earth with possibly hostile intentions. 3 The trajectory of 31/ATLAS, which passes right through the interior Solar System and will end up passing Jupiter, NSF NOIRLab 'The hypothesis in question is that [31/ATLAS] is a technological artifact, and furthermore has active intelligence. If this is the case, then two possibilities follow,' Dr. Loeb, Adam Drowl, and Adam Hibberd, wrote in a paper published on July 17. 'First, that its intentions are entirely benign and second, they are malign,' the experts opined, suggesting ETs. The paper presented several anomalous characteristics of the object, which could indicate that it is not a comet at all but instead a directed craft. One of the 'most puzzling' observations is that the object has 'significant 'non-gravitational' acceleration whilst having now 'cometary outgassing.' Loeb writes that 31/ATLAS 'approaches surprisingly close to Venus, Mars and Jupiter with a probability of <0.005%,' the paper claimed. 31/ATLAS's 'low retrograde tilt' would seemingly allow it to 'access our planet with relative impunity.' 3 31/ATLAS pictured by Gemini North. NSF NOIRLab The retrograde tilt 'means attempts by humanity to intercept it, or even more difficult, rendezvous with it, are extremely challenging,' while the route simultaneously gives 31/ATLAS easy access to 'certain key target planets,' the paper hypothesized. Loeb further suggests that the tilt and pathway would allow the intelligent life on the object to gather 'astrometric measurements, to determine the orbits and masses of the Solar System planets, allowing it to prepare an optimal approach strategy to the Solar System.' Another possible smoking gun is that 31/ATLAS will come closest to the Sun on October 29 — on which day the object will be completely blocked from Earth's view by the fiery ball. 3 31/ATLAS pictured by Gemini North. NSF NOIRLab The paper, presented in part as a 'pedagogical experiment,' embraces the 'Dark Forest' hypothesis regarding alien life — which assumes that other intelligent life would likely view Earthlings as a threat to be snuffed out. The Dark Forest hypothesis, coined in the 2008 novel 'The Dark Forest' by Cixin Liu, is a direct rebuttal to the Fermi Paradox, which suggests that contact with extraterrestrial intelligences is impossible.
Business Insider
05-06-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Interviewing for a Meta job? Get set for AI to be involved.
From coding agents to a Manhattan-sized data center, Meta's going all in on AI this year — and now plans to put it to work in HR. The company is preparing to use AI to automate key parts of its recruitment process, including testing coding skills and helping interviewers with question prompts, according to an internal document obtained by Business Insider. The document reveals Meta's plans to lean on AI to carry out several functions in its hiring process in the latter half of this year. Meta aims to use AI for a lot of the administrative work involved in its recruitment process, like matching interviewers with candidates, transcribing interview notes, and flagging job posts that overlap. Meta also intends to use an internal AI assistant to judge the quality of its human interviewers, including by flagging any questions that aren't inclusive, and assessing how "good" they are based on criteria such as the number of candidates they advance to the next stage and the quality of their feedback. In addition, Meta plans to use the AI assistant to help interviewers with scheduling, including their preferences for how many internal or external interviews they want to conduct each week. It is also set to keep track of interviewers' skills, including what languages they speak. The overall goal is to automate some functions, make its hiring processes more efficient, flexible, and adaptable, and improve the "interviewer conduct rate," according to the business outcomes listed in the document. A Meta spokesperson told BI: "Like many other companies, we're using AI to make recruiting more efficient and match candidates with open roles more quickly. Humans talking to humans will always be part of the interview process, that remains unchanged." Meta is not the only Big Tech firm turning to AI to streamline its recruitment operations. Amazon uses AI hiring tools to help screen candidates and find them relevant roles, although it doesn't want job seekers using AI to help them get ahead in interviews. The company has been cracking down on the use of AI tools like coding assistants and "teleprompter" apps, BI's Eugene Kim previously reported. A growing number of companies are also embracing AI for a range of recruitment tasks. LinkedIn's "Future of Recruiting 2025" report, released in February, found 37% of organizations it surveyed were "actively integrating" or "experimenting" with adopting AI tools into their hiring process. That's up from 27% a year ago.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Norway raises security concerns over Manhattan-sized Arctic land sale as tensions rise
A large plot of private land in Norway's Arctic Svalbard archipelago may soon be sold for about €300 million ($330 million), but the deal has raised concerns in Oslo over national security. The property, known as Søre Fagerfjord, covers roughly 60 square kilometers (23 square miles) and is the last privately owned land in Svalbard. A group of international and Norwegian investors has offered to buy the land, but officials in Norway worry it could give foreign powers a strategic foothold in a sensitive Arctic region. The land is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the main town of Longyearbyen and has been in Norwegian hands for over a century. It was listed for sale last year, and the government quickly made it clear that any sale must be cleared in advance due to security To Keep Supplying Us Navy With Fuel Despite Company Boycott Call One of the sellers even called it a "strategic foothold in the High Arctic," which has only fueled concerns. Svalbard is becoming more important as melting sea ice opens up new shipping routes and increases global interest in the Needs To Be Convinced Defeat In Ukraine Is Inevitable, Norway's Finance Minister Says The buyers describe themselves as environmentalists from NATO countries who want to protect the land. Read On The Fox News App "The consortium includes both Norwegian and international investors who have a long-term perspective of protecting this territory from environmental changes," said Birgit Liodden, a shareholder and climate activist. She added that about half the money from the sale would go toward environmental projects in Svalbard. So far, the group has not discussed the sale with the Norwegian government. Still, Norwegian officials are cautious. In 2024, they blocked a similar attempt by Chinese investors. Trade Minister Cecilie Myrseth warned at the time that such actions could harm regional stability and threaten national interests. Svalbard is governed by a 1920 treaty that gives over 40 countries, including Russia, China and the U.S., equal rights to live and do business there. The sellers' lawyer, Per Kyllingstad, said the buyers only want to protect nature and that the sale should not be article source: Norway raises security concerns over Manhattan-sized Arctic land sale as tensions rise
