We’d like to hear your stories about the ways you’re using chatbots to assist with your social life or important life decisions
Lots of people now use chatbots as personal assistants, not just for work but in everyday life and social interactions. We want to hear your stories about the ways you’re using chatbots to navigate your social life or significant life decisions.
Have you ever drafted a breakup text using AI? Or crafted a message to delicately cancel plans? Have you consulted AI on whether to take, or quit, a job? Or sought advice from a chatbot on a tricky friendship or relationship?
Continue reading...Italian government urges IPC to reconsider its stance
Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under flags
Italy, the Winter Olympic hosts, has called for a reversal of the decision to let 10 Russian and Belarusian athletes compete with national flags and anthems at next month’s Paralympic Games.
The foreign minister Antonio Tajani and sports minister Andrea Abodi urged the International Paralympic Committee to reconsider its stance due to Russia’s four-year-old invasion of Ukraine, saying it contradicted the Olympic spirit.
Continue reading...WASHINGTON (ANP/RTR) - Tot nu toe hebben vijf landen toegezegd om met troepen mee te doen aan de internationale veiligheidsmacht in Gaza. Dat kondigde de Amerikaanse bevelhebber van die macht aan bij de eerste bijeenkomst van de Vredesraad, die de Amerikaanse president Donald Trump oprichtte om toe te zien op het staakt-het-vuren in Gaza. Het zou gaan om Indonesië, Marokko, Kazachstan, Kosovo en Albanië.
De Amerikaanse generaal-majoor Jasper Jeffers zei "ongelooflijk blij" te zijn met de bijdragen uit die landen. Ook meldde hij dat Egypte en Jordanië hebben aangeboden om de politie in Gaza te trainen. Italië zei eerder daar ook toe bereid te zijn.
Volgens Jeffers zal de veiligheidsmacht (ISF) eerst in het zuiden van de Gazastrook actief zijn. Van daaruit zullen de troepen zich sector voor sector verspreiden naar de rest van het Palestijnse gebied, dat door twee jaar Israëlische aanvallen grotendeels in puin ligt.
Het plan is om op de lange termijn 20.000 militairen naar Gaza te sturen om 12.000 Palestijnse politieagenten te trainen. Indonesië zegde eerder 8000 militairen toe.
europeanspaceagency posted a photo:
For the first time, an international team of astronomers have mapped the vertical structure of Uranus’s upper atmosphere, uncovering how temperature and charged particles vary with height across the planet. Using Webb’s NIRSpec instrument, the team detected the faint glow from molecules high above the clouds. These unique data provide the most detailed portrait yet of where the planet’s auroras form, how they are influenced by its unusually tilted magnetic field, and how Uranus’s atmosphere has continued to cool over the past three decades. The results offer a new window into how ice-giant planets distribute energy in their upper layers.
Two bright auroral bands were detected near Uranus’s magnetic poles, together with reduced emission and ion density in part of the region between the two bands (a feature likely linked to transitions in magnetic field lines).
Read more
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, STScI, P. Tiranti, H. Melin, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)ñ CC BY 4.0
europeanspaceagency posted a photo:
For the first time, an international team of astronomers have mapped the vertical structure of Uranus’s upper atmosphere, uncovering how temperature and charged particles vary with height across the planet. Using Webb’s NIRSpec instrument, the team detected the faint glow from molecules high above the clouds. These unique data provide the most detailed portrait yet of where the planet’s auroras form, how they are influenced by its unusually tilted magnetic field, and how Uranus’s atmosphere has continued to cool over the past three decades. The results offer a new window into how ice-giant planets distribute energy in their upper layers.
Two bright auroral bands were detected near Uranus’s magnetic poles, together with reduced emission and ion density in part of the region between the two bands (a feature likely linked to transitions in magnetic field lines).
Read more
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, STScI, P. Tiranti, H. Melin, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)ñ CC BY 4.0
europeanspaceagency posted a photo:
Lunar View is an ESA refueling module on the lunar Gateway, an international space station being built around the Moon. The Gateway is providing a place to live and work in lunar orbit as part of NASA’s Artemis programme returning humankind to the Moon.
The module will initially transport cargo to the station, and once docked to the Gateway it will provide fuel to the station’s propulsion system, storage capacity and a view of space and the Moon through its windows.
As well as payloads, ESA is contributing three key elements to the Gateway: Lunar I-Hab, Lunar View and Lunar Link. Together, these provide a habitable space for astronauts, refuelling and telecommunication capabilities, and windows to view space and the Moon.
Credits: ESA–A. Brancaccio
europeanspaceagency posted a photo:
Related
Lunar I-Hab is an ESA habitation module on the lunar Gateway, an international space station being built around the Moon. The Gateway is providing a place to live and work in lunar orbit as part of NASA’s Artemis programme returning humankind to the Moon.
The pressurised module will provide around 10 cubic metres of living space for astronauts visiting the Gateway. Together with NASA’s Habitation and Logistics Outpost module there will be enough room on the station for four astronauts staying up to 90 days. Lunar I-Hab will also provide large deployable radiators, playing an essential role in the thermal control of the Gateway station.
As well as payloads, ESA is contributing three key elements to the Gateway: Lunar I-Hab, Lunar View and Lunar Link. Together, these provide a habitable space for astronauts, refuelling and telecommunication capabilities, and windows to view space and the Moon.
Credits: ESA–A. Brancaccio
europeanspaceagency posted a photo:
A dark blue van stands at the ready in front of a 25-metre-wide antenna, framed by a sky of deep cerulean.
One of two European Space Agency’s mobile laboratories, this van – part of the agency's Advanced NTN Telecommunication Laboratory – is used primarily for the testing of advanced Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs).
NTNs are wireless communication systems that operate via satellites in various orbits, as well as through other platforms, like airplanes or balloons, flying at lower altitudes.
To establish and test connections with satellites, the van’s roof is equipped with an antenna co-developed for ESA by Kebni in Sweden and A.D.S. International in Italy.
“The interior features various radio equipment, including spectrum analysers, software-defined radios, and custom developed software,” adds ESA's Telecommunications Engineer Giovanni Serafini. “Depending on the activity, we can also host our partners’ equipment and provide power and access to the internet or required radio frequency.”
Batteries and inverters power the equipment, and power generators located in the van's trunk ensure that this laboratory on wheels can be self-sufficient for several days.
The van doesn’t just idle in its dedicated parking spot at ESTEC, ESA’s technical centre in the Netherlands – it collects one achievement after another. Among the most recent ones is performing the first 5G New Radio signal handover to a satellite constellation in low Earth orbit.
In our increasingly digital world, assuring stable and reliable connectivity is key. ESA is supporting innovation in satellite communications mainly through its Space for 5G/6G & Sustainable Connectivity programme, part of the Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES).
This image was taken during a Q-band test campaign at RAL Space’s Chilbolton Observatory research facility in the UK. The van’s next field trip will be to the European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC) & 6G Summit taking place in Málaga, Spain, in June.
Credits: ESA-A. Marziani