news.buyenne.com

Enlarge (credit: NASA/APL/SRI)

Pluto’s recategorization as a dwarf planet may have caused some past anger, but there has never been a better time to be a Pluto fan. Since the New Horizons mission gave us our first real look at Pluto in 2015, researchers have been digging into the rich reality of this icy world. The latest question under the magnifying glass: what was Pluto like at its birth?

Beneath its surface—composed of frozen water, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and more—Pluto is today thought to have a liquid water ocean surrounding a rocky core. But scientists are trying to figure out how long it has been that way. In the "cold start" model, Pluto's interior ocean is thought to have been frozen but then gradually thawed due to heat from radioactive decay in the core. But it remains possible that a "hot start" model is more accurate, one where the planet started out warm enough to form some liquid water.

Cold start vs. hot start

Although the dwarf planet’s beginnings are buried deep in the past, its two possible origins should have left marks on the surface.

Enlarge / Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity comes in for a landing after its first suborbital test flight. (credit: GENE BLEVINS/AFP/Getty Images)

Last October, the space tourism company Virgin Galactic, founded by Sir Richard Branson, became publicly traded. After opening at $11.75 a share, the SPCE stock value generally declined, briefly reaching a low just under $7 a share late in 2019.

At around the same time, the company's chairman, venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, began to talk about developing point-to-point suborbital travel. This advance, he said, would come after Virgin Galactic developed its space tourism business based upon a small rocket-powered spacecraft launched from a large airplane. Such trips, which provide a few minutes of weightlessness, cost at least $250,000 per person. Commercial service may begin in early 2021.

Moving from this technology to a rocket-powered vehicle capable of carrying passengers on long suborbital hops around the world represents a significant step forward. It would involve getting a larger, much more powerful spacecraft to work, making it safe, convincing regulators to allow spaceflights near populated areas, and finally bringing costs down to something that more than a handful of the ultra-wealthy can afford.

Enlarge / The participating businesses have decided the best way to show "dislike" is to withhold money. (credit: GreyParrot | Getty Images)

Update: Late Thursday, Verizon joined the list of companies participating in the Facebook advertising boycott, becoming the first telecom firm and also the largest company by far to join in to date.

"We have strict content policies in place and have zero tolerance when they are breached, we take action," Verizon said in a written statement. "We’re pausing our advertising until Facebook can create an acceptable solution that makes us comfortable." The company also added that its withdrawal from Facebook was similar to the way it temporarily stopped advertising on YouTube in 2017 after its ads appeared next to extremist content on that platform.

Verizon made the choice to withdraw from Facebook and Instagram advertising after the Anti-Defamation League identified a Verizon ad "appearing next to a video from the conspiracy group QAnon drawing on hateful and antisemitic rhetoric," CNBC reported.

Enlarge / The 10km-wide caldera on Alaska's Unmak Island formed during the 43 BCE Okmok II eruption. (credit: Kerry Key (Columbia University, New York, NY))

Roman writers described unusual weather and famines in the years following Julius Caesar’s assassination in 44 BCE, adding to the turbulence of the civil war that marked the transition from Republic to Empire. A recent study has now identified the culprit: a volcano 9,000km (6,000 miles) away in Alaska.

“Madness of wolves in winter”

“Madness of wolves in winter; in summer, no grain is harvested,” cried a voice from the Oracle of Apollo, in Delphi, in the months following Julius Caesar’s death. Ancient writers who survived the period describe cold weather, short growing seasons, and widespread famine around the Mediterranean, from Rome to Egypt. Throughout the empire, starvation led to disease and fueled growing civil unrest in an already turbulent time.

For years, modern historians have speculated that a major volcanic eruption might have been the culprit. An erupting volcano blasts sulfur dioxide high into the atmosphere. As the sulfur dioxide spreads out in the stratosphere, chemical reactions turn it into other sulfur compounds that reflect solar radiation, blocking the Sun’s light and warmth. Huge swaths of the planet turn colder, often continents away from the eruption.

Enlarge / The answer to Beenie Man's eternal question is "my iPhone." (credit: Apple)

On Monday, Apple revealed a new feature in iOS 14 that will allow (some) users to ditch the keys to their car. It's called CarKey, and it's Apple's implementation of the Car Connectivity Consortium's Digital Key Release 2.0 standard, which was finalized in early May. The idea is pretty simple. You pair your phone with your car—assuming your vehicle supports this new standard—and from then on you can use the device to unlock and start your car.

The digital key communicates with your car via near-field communication (NFC) and is stored in the same secure enclave that your iPhone uses to store credit cards. That means it's protected by Face ID or Touch ID, although there is an Express Mode option that allows you to skip authentication. And since it's a digital key, it can also be shared with other iOS users the way you can share other items in your iOS wallet. However, you don't need Internet access for it to work, so there shouldn't be any worries about being locked out of your car if you take a trip to the boonies.

Although this is the first time Apple has implemented this connected car tech, it's not a new idea. BMW will be the first carmaker to support Apple CarKey when the face-lifted 5 Series goes on sale in July, but the German OEM has already offered an Android version for some time now via its BMW Connected app.