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Dragonfly mission of NASA to search for signals of life on Titan

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has came up with the Dragonfly mission to search for the presence of life in Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. The mission is estimated to cost $1 billion.

NASA said that the Dragonfly mission will be launched in 2026 and will land in 2034. The rotorcrafts which will be sent by the Dragonfly drone will be flying to various locations across the icy moon, and this will be viewed by the scientists. Nasa said that there will be 8 rotors in this spacecraft.

Titan, the largest moon of Saturn and the second-largest natural satellite in the Solar System is the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere. Titan is thought to be a prebiotic environment rich in complex organic chemistry, with a possible subsurface liquid ocean serving as a biotic environment.

Since Titan has lakes of methane, the scientists doubts the presence of methane based lives there. No presence of water has been detected in Titan.

Titan

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said, “Visiting this mysterious ocean world could revolutionize what we know about life in the universe”. About the Dragonfly mission, he said, “This cutting-edge mission would have been unthinkable even just a few years ago, but we’re now ready for Dragonfly’s amazing flight”.

WATCH THE VIDEO ON DRAGONFLY MISSION – BY NASA

Image / video courtesy: parman .blogspot .com, nature .com, news. stanford .edu, YouTube / images / videos are subject to copyright

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Genoa bridge towers demolished in controlled explosion

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The remains of the giant Morandi bridge in the Italian city of Genoa has been demolished in a dramatic controlled explosion. The structure had collapsed almost an year ago and 43 people had been killed.

The bridge has been blown up by the demolition experts. Thousands of people, residing near the bridge has been evacuated before performing the explosion, for safety.

Two large towers consisting of about 4,500 tonnes of concrete and steel had been demolished. The dramatic demolition happened just after 9:30 a.m. local time (3:30 a.m. ET). Reports said that a new structure is being planned to be built there.

As this process of demolition produces an enormous dusty atmosphere, water tanks had been placed around the towers for controlling dust. The legs of the bridges were connected with explosives. The explosion occurred within just a few seconds.

The Interior Minister of Italy and Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini reported their presence at the time of explosion. A huge crowd were present who viewed the explosion from a safe distance.

A replacement bridge designed by Renzo Piano has been in construction since 25th June 2019, and is planned to be opened in the 1st half of 2020.

Watch the video here !!

Image / video courtesy: cnn .com, AFP news agency (YouTube) / images and videos are subject to copyright

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Libra – Facebook’s cryptocurrency

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The tech giant Facebook has announced the details of its cryptocurrency, Libra. This feature allows you to buy things or transfer money with nearly zero fees.

Libra cannot be actually termed as a product of Facebook alone. It is supported by the Geneva, Switzerland-based Libra Association, a non-profit organization with a long list of founding members who will jointly make decisions over Libra.

Apart from Facebook, the list has Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, Stripe, eBay, Uber, Lyft, Spotify, Coinbase, Xapo, Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, Mercy Corps, and Women’s World Banking.

Libra is a stable coin. It is a special type of cryptocurrency that remains fairly stable compared to the value of another fairly stable real-world asset, such as the U.S. dollar.

Image courtesy: theverge .com / images are subject to copyright

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Soviet car model sent to stratosphere

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A Siberian start-up has launched its own more modest motor satellite to the space. This happens just after an year when Elon Musk sent his Tesla car into space.

Tesla’s was a space-suited Starman mannequin whereas the ToSky start-up sent up a smaller dummy in the likeness of Dmitry Rogozin. The users of Internet picked Mr Rogozin over other candidates. This includes a dummy of the late Stephen Hawking or a cactus, Radio Liberty’s Siberian news site reports.

The model was Mr Rogozin’s figure, seated at the wheel of the Lada. This has reached an altitude of 20km (12.5 miles) before landing 150km from the launch site with the help of a parachute.

The Tomsk-based start-up says that they can learn more about automatic stratostats. This can spend a long time in the stratosphere.

Nikita Cheban, the project director told the Interfax Siberia news agency that the test flight gathered data that will allow ToSky to design vessels that can “spend more time in the stratosphere, carry heavier payloads, and develop better manoeuverability”.

A promotional video was released by the group. The video was called “We sent Rogozin into near space!”. This featured a smiling Rogozin cardboard cut-out flying above the clouds in a bright-red Lada before making a flawless landing in a field.

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WhatsApp facing surveillance attack on users’ phones

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The social media giant WhatsApp faced a surveillance attack which targeted a “select number” of users, and was orchestrated by “an advanced cyber actor”.

WhatsApp recommended its users to upgrade to the latest version of its app. It is confirmed that the hackers could install surveillance software on user’s phones and other devices, using a vulnerability on WhatsApp.

The security attack has been identified and rectified. But they said that this has targeted some of the users. A new upgrade for fixing this issue had been released on Friday.

Reports said that an Israeli security firm named NSO Group, has developed the attack. WhatsApp urged all of its 1.5 billion users to update their apps as an added precaution, on Monday.

A spokesman said, “WhatsApp encourages people to upgrade to the latest version of our app, as well as keep their mobile operating system up to date, to protect against potential targeted exploits designed to compromise information stored on mobile devices”. “We are constantly working alongside industry partners to provide the latest security enhancements to help protect our users”, he added.

Image courtesy: 9jacybercorps. blogspot. com / images are subject to copyright

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One of world’s biggest dark web sites shut down by German police

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German police have shut down one of the major illegal websites of online market. The police have arrested 3 men on this case, who were illegally running this ‘dark web’.

The website named ‘Wall Street Market’ (WSM) was dealing with the trade in cocaine, heroin, cannabis and amphetamines as well as stolen data, fake documents and malicious software.

Over 5,000 registered sellers and more than 60,000 sales offers were found on the website platform with more than 1m customer accounts.

US prosecutors said, “WSM operated like a conventional e-commerce website, such as eBay and Amazon. However, its sole existence was geared to the trafficking of contraband”.

Image courtesy: securityboulevard. com / images are subject to copyright

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Mark Zuckerberg reveals changes in response to criticism

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Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had revealed some changes to the portfolio of FB’s social platforms. The changes includes Instagram and WhatsApp also.

Facebook had been facing criticisms over the leakage of user’s privacy issues. The new designs and features for its apps are providing a direct solution for this widespread privacy criticisms.

Zuckerberg said that the company is aiming to make the users privacy concerns on top priority. The Facebook boss also acknowledged that there was much to do to rebuild trust.

Zuckerberg, in a speech said that Facebook’s new features focus on privacy as “a major shift” in how the company is run.

“The future is private. I know we don’t have the strongest reputation on privacy right now, to put it lightly”, said Mark Zuckerberg.

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Facebook beats Q1 2019 profit estimates, sets aside $3 billion for privacy penalty

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On Wednesday, Facebook Inc blew past Wall Street profit estimates in the first quarter and set aside $3 billion to cover a settlement with the US regulators calming investors who had worried about the outcome of a months-long federal probe, reports Reuters.

In after-hours trade, shares of Facebook jumped more than 10 percent to $200.50 . A large part of the ground lost last year was regained by Facebook. They had set the settlement accrual at $3 billion but said could rise as high as $5 billion. This had cut the company’s net income in the first quarter to $2.43 billion, or 85 cents per share.

According to IBES data from Refinitiv, if the charges are excluded, Facebook would have earned $1.89 a share, up from $1.69 in the year-ago quarter and easily beating analysts’ average estimate of $1.63 per share.

The senior analyst at financial markets platform Investing.com, Haris Anwar said, “This is a strong report suggesting that advertisers still see value in Facebook’s platform, as they did before the controversies and scandals erupted”.

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Russia will now hear the ‘Robot’ news reading

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Rossiya 24, the Russian state news channel has introduced a robot presenter for some of its bulletins.

The robot News presenter ‘Alex’ has already excited the viewers. But, some viewers are complaining about his appearance and accusing him of peddling political propaganda.

‘Alex’ was developed by Promobot in the city of Perm. The silicon head of the robot is made similar to the face of the company’s co-founder Alexei Yuzhakov.

The present features of this robot can only move his facial features and neck. The developers are hoping that the final robot will have fully mobile limbs as well. According to the makers, the robot’s construction had started in 2017 and should be fully complete later this year.

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Dutch fertility doctor fathered 49 children – shows the DNA tests

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Reports clarified that a Dutch fertility doctor Jan Karbaat, is the direct father of 49 children, after women consulted him for infertility treatment.

Jan Karbaat, who died in 2017, had used his own sperm to inseminate the patients, without their consent. His clinic was in Bijdorp, near Rotterdam. On Friday morning, DNA tests were conducted at a hospital in the south-eastern city of Nijmegen, and the results showed that “49 children in the case are direct descendants of the late Karbaat”, said the organisation in a statement.

A lawyer named Tim Bueters, who had represented the 49 children said thet he was pleased about the outcome of the case after years of uncertainty, after receiving the results of DNA test.

Jan Karbaat was first taken to court in 2017 by a group of donor children and their parents over suspicions they were related. The ‘Karbaat children’ had forced and bought Karbaat’s family to court to force them to release Karbaat’s DNA profile, which was kept behind locked away in a safe.

Defence for Children advisor Iara de Witte said, “However, with the judges agreeing to the paternity test, the judge placed the children’s rights above those of Karbaat and his family”. “Now, after years of uncertainty the plaintiffs can finally close a chapter and start processing the fact that they are one of Karbaat’s many descendants”, he added.

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