Latest news with #Meerkat
The Star
a day ago
- Science
- The Star
Astronomers fear impact of Musk's Starlink on South Africa mega-telescope observations
FILE PHOTO: People look at Meerkat telescope array at the launch of the construction of Square Kilometre Array-Mid telescope outside the town of Carnarvon, with a similar ceremony taking place in SKA co-host Australia on the same day, in Northern Cape, South Africa, December 05, 2022. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo CAPE TOWN (Reuters) -Astronomers working with South Africa's SKA telescope are pushing authorities to ensure that any licensing agreement with Elon Musk's Starlink will protect their groundbreaking observations, a senior scientist said. Discussions to bring Musk's internet service Starlink in South Africa have already been contentious, with parent company SpaceX criticising local shareholding laws while backing equity equivalent programmes. Attaching astronomy-linked licensing conditions may further complicate attempts to introduce Starlink to the country of Musk's birth, where he has already said he is deterred by government Black empowerment policies. South Africa said it will review its Information and Communication Technology sector rules but will not back down on government policies to transform the economy three decades after white-minority rule ended. Scientists fear South Africa's Square Kilometre Array (SKA-Mid), the world's most powerful radio telescope together with another array co-hosted in Australia, will have their sensitive space observations distorted by Starlink's low-orbiting satellites. "It will be like shining a spotlight into someone's eyes, blinding us to the faint radio signals from celestial bodies," Federico Di Vruno, co-chair of International Astronomical Union Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky, told Reuters in a telephone interview. Di Vruno said the SKA Observatory, where he is spectrum manager, and the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) were lobbying for license requirements to reduce the impact on observations in certain frequency ranges, including some that SKA-Mid uses. That could direct Starlink to steer satellite beams away from SKA receivers or stop transmission for a few seconds to minimise interference, he said. South Africa's current SKA antennae, in the remote Northern Cape town of Carnarvon, use the 350 megahertz to 15.4 gigahertz bandwidth, a range also used by most satellite operators for downlinks. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa regulator and Starlink did not immediately respond to questions from Reuters about the scientists' concerns. MAJOR OBSERVATIONS South Africa's MeerKAT radio telescope, a precursor to SKA-Mid which will be incorporated into the larger instrument, has already discovered a rare giant radio galaxy that is 32 times the size of the Milky Way. Last year, it found 49 new galaxies in under three hours, according to SARAO. SKA Observatory, an international body, also campaigns for conditions on licensing agreements with other major satellite operators such as Amazon and Eutelsat's OneWeb to ensure quiet skies amid a boom in new satellite launches. "We are trying to follow different technical and regulatory avenues to mitigate this issue on the global stage," Di Vruno said. (Reporting by Wendell Roelf and Nqobile Dludla in Johannesburg; editing by Tim Cocks and Rachna Uppal)
The Irish Sun
4 days ago
- The Irish Sun
Baby boom in popular Cork wildlife attraction as meerkat pups and bison calves welcomed at park amid conservation effort
THERE is a baby boom in Fota Wildlife Park in recent weeks with the birth of three meerkat pups and two European Bison calves. Proud parents to mum Biggy and dad, Snaggles, who are the dominant breeding pair within the clan are busy looking after the triplets. 2 The wildlife park is bustling with new life Credit: Play Creative 2 This bank holiday is the perfect time to catch a glimpse of the new additions Credit: Play Creative On May 13, one baby meerkat was spotted in the habitat with their mum, and by the next day, two more had emerged, closely guarded by their protective family. The other members of the mob, including dad Snaggles, care for the young and are known to collectively feed, protect and groom the new pups. With these new arrivals, the Meerkat mob now stands at 16 strong. Rangers in the Read more in Travel Both of were fathered by the bull Bomer who came from Borås Djurpark in Sweden in February 2024. These are his first two offspring. The calves are already best friends, and can be seen playing, snoozing, and soaking up the sunshine together. Their mums are both healthy and very protective. Most read in Irish News The European bison, the largest mammal in Europe, was once extinct in the wild. However, collaborative efforts by many zoos and wildlife parks, including Fota Wildlife Park, which contributed members from its own herd, have helped reintroduce the species to the wild in parts of Europe and, more recently, the UK. Everyone saying the same thing as 'precious' baby rhinoceros is born in Cork's Fota Wildlife Park And now with the Bank Holiday looming visitors will have just a week to experience the spectacular Be sure to take in the incredible views of the wildlife habitats and daily conservation efforts over the Park before it's gone.
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Local seal's cheeky behaviour amuses thousands of Aussies: 'Mind of his own'
As Aussies spend their Easter weekend lolling on the shorelines of beaches and rivers across the country, one town is attempting to lure even more visitors with its colourful local mascot — Sammy the seal. Several videos of the playful creature frolicking in the water under Windang Bridge have been making the rounds online this week as residents in Shellharbour push for the coastal city to be named NSW's Top Tourism Town. In the footage, Sammy can be seen performing his — or her — trademark move of lying upside-down with their flippers in the air, amusing locals and travellers, some of which said they hoped to catch a glimpse of the 'beautiful' seal when they stop by. 'He's definitely got a mind of his own,' Bec Dunning, from SUP Shellharbour, told Yahoo News. 'We pretty much go past him almost every day.' Dunning, who spotted Sammy once again on Wednesday 'wagging his tail' at her and a customer while 'hiding' behind one of the bridge's concrete pylons, explained the seal has been living in the area 'for years'. 'A lot of the residents say that he's always been here. We've had up to three seals underneath, and recently it's just been the one,' she said. 'They do those little barrel rolls. We sort of wonder if they're using the pylons on the bridge for a bit of a massage.' There are also often 'lots of fish' that Sammy likely snacks on throughout the day. Speaking to Yahoo, Sea World Curator of Animal Welfare and Operations, Mitchell Leroy, explained that Sammy's adorable upside-down manoeuvre is called 'sailing' and is a 'way for the animal to thermoregulate'. 'Meaning that they use the flippers above the water to either cool down or in most cases warm up. This means they don't have to get out of the water just to stay warm,' he said. Leroy added that it is 'quite common' for seals to inhabit locations for periods of time. 'There are many who move away during the year for different life stages, such as breeding season, only to return to the locations where they spend other times such as winter. 'It is most likely dependent on prior learning and success in behaviours such as successful hunting, predator avoidance or mate selection.' 🩸 Camper's gruesome injuries lead to warning ahead of Easter holidays 🐬 Sad sight off Aussie coast prompts 'hundreds' of worried calls ☀️ Easter long weekend weather forecast across every Aussie state Dunning told Yahoo that Sammy can sometimes 'gets a little scared', especially if there are jet skis around or construction on the bridge. 'But generally we can go under there, chill out for a little bit, have a good look at him and then move on and see him on the way back as well,' she said. 'Once I came through with a couple of guests, and couldn't see him, and then all of a sudden he popped up behind us, had a look like a little Meerkat, and sort of followed me for a little bit, and then pushed away, and went swimming off somewhere else,' the local added, laughing about the seal's cheeky antics. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
Boston Globe
09-02-2025
- Science
- Boston Globe
Why the odds of an asteroid striking Earth in 2032 keep going up (and down)
To many, this feels unsettling. But what appears scary is, in fact, typical when it comes to newly discovered near-Earth asteroids. 'It is true that the probability of impact has doubled recently, but that doesn't mean that it will keep doing so,' said Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California who is involved in overseeing the programs that make these orbital calculations. 'What matters is that the probability of impact is very small, and that it is likely to drop to zero as we keep observing 2024 YR4.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Two key organizations are involved in calculating these impact odds. They are the NASA center Farnocchia works at, and the Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre in Italy, which is part of the European Space Agency. These groups are the cartographers of near-Earth space, looking out for parts of the cosmic map where they can mark 'here be dragons' — in this case, potentially hazardous asteroids or comets. Advertisement When an asteroid (or a comet) is discovered, both centers use their automated orbital dynamics software (Scout and Sentry for NASA, and Meerkat and Aegis for the European center) to consider the available observations of the object. When the asteroid's many possible future orbits are plotted out, some may result in an Earth impact. But many of these orbits will shift away from Earth, so the probability of an impact will be low. It's as if the asteroid has a wide spotlight that's beaming out ahead of it. Earth is initially caught in the beam, but so is a lot of the space around it. Advertisement Then, more observations come in. The spotlight of those possible orbits shrinks. The outliers are gone. But Earth is still in the spotlight and now takes up proportionally more space in it. 'Earth now covers a larger fraction of the uncertainty, and so the probability of impact has gone up,' Farnocchia said. This can happen for some time as observations continue. 'That's why the impact probability rises,' said Juan Luis Cano, an aerospace engineer with the Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre. 'Little by little, it grows.' And it explains what's been happening with 2024 YR4's odds. Sometimes, as has been the case for 2024 YR4, the odds can fluctuate slightly. This is because the quality of some observations can be better or worse than others, which can move the cluster of anticipated orbits around a bit. 'All this is expected,' Farnocchia said. Normally, additional observations significantly reduce the orbital uncertainty, and Earth falls out of that trajectory — dropping the impact odds to zero. Humanity will have to see whether the same outcome awaits 2024 YR4. Telescopes can observe 2024 YR4 until April, after which time it will be too distant and faint to see until another Earth flyby in 2028. By April, it's likely that astronomers will have enough observations of the asteroid, spread across several months, to know its orbit precisely, and they will ultimately determine that no impact will occur in 2032. 'People should not be worried at this point,' Cano said. Nevertheless, 2024 YR4 is being taken seriously by NASA and ESA. 'Even though the probability of impact is small, it is larger than we usually find for other asteroids,' Farnocchia said. Advertisement If this asteroid were to hit Earth, it would unleash a destructive force similar to a nuclear bomb. And the current uncertainty over its future orbit extends to its possible impact locations, which include a mix of uninhabited, sparsely populated and densely populated areas: the eastern Pacific Ocean, northern South America, the Atlantic Ocean, parts of Africa, the Arabian Sea and South Asia. 2024 YR4 is unlikely to be on a collision course. But 'we don't get to choose when the next significant asteroid impact will be,' Farnocchia said. 'We just don't want to take any chances, and so we will keep tracking 2024 YR4.' And if it does become a problem, it may be time for Earth to rally anti-asteroid defenses. This article originally appeared in
