The Kuiper Belt is mainly made up of asteroids
The heliopause is the point where solar wind meets interstellar space
The Oort Cloud (left) is much larger than the inner solar system (right) or the Kuiper Belt (center)
The location of the solar system's outer boundary is a point of contention among astronomers
which "all have merit." But which one is best
The solar system is an enormous place
Our cosmic neighborhood includes eight planets
several hundred moons and millions of asteroids and comets
all spinning around the sun — and in many cases each other —at speeds of thousands of miles per hour
But where does it end? Well, the answer may depend on whom you ask and how they define the solar system
The arguments for each boundary "all have merit," which makes choosing between them complicated, Dan Reisenfeld
a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico
But there is one that most astronomers most commonly agree upon
Related: Have all 8 planets ever aligned?
(One astronomical unit is equal to the distance between Earth and the sun.)
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This region is filled with asteroids and dwarf planets, such as Pluto
that have been ejected from the inner solar system by one-sided gravitational tugs-of-war with the planets
Some astronomers argue that the Kuiper Belt should be considered the edge of the solar system because it loosely represents the edge of where the sun's protoplanetary disk — the swirling ring of gas and dust that later became the planets
moons and asteroids — would have been
"If one narrowly defines the solar system as just the sun and its planetary bodies
then the edge of the Kuiper Belt can be considered to be the edge of the solar system," Reisenfeld said.
But this definition of the solar system is considered to be far too simple by some astronomers, such as Caltech's Mike Brown.
The uncertainty around this region's own outer edge therefore makes it an unreliable boundary for the solar system as a whole
The heliopause is the outer edge of the sun's magnetic influence, known as the heliosphere. At this point, the stream of charged particles emitted by the sun, known as the solar wind, becomes too weak to repel the oncoming stream of radiation from stars and other cosmic entities in the Milky Way.
Two spacecraft have traveled beyond the heliopause: Voyager 1
As the Voyager probes crossed the heliopause
they quickly detected changes in the types and levels of magnetism and radiation hitting them
signifying that they had crossed some kind of border
which creates a bow shock — a rounded shock wave that deflects incoming radiation around the rest of the solar system
The bow shock is located around 120 AU from the sun
and creates a long tail that stretches at least 350 AU from the sun in the opposite direction
Using the heliopause to delineate the solar system therefore leaves us with a lopsided neighborhood
which goes against some researchers perceptions of planetary systems
The Oort Cloud is the furthest and most expansive potential solar system boundary, extending up to around 100,000 AU from the sun, according to NASA.
"People who define the solar system as everything that is gravitationally bound to the Sun consider the edge of the Oort cloud to be the edge of the solar system," Reisenfeld said
this is the clear choice for a solar system boundary because in theory
a planetary system consists of all objects orbiting a star
"I don't understand how anyone considers anything other than the Oort Cloud to be the edge of the solar system," Sean Raymond
an astronomer at the Bordeaux Astrophysics Laboratory in France
It is literally the edge of where something can orbit the Sun."
other researchers believe that because the Oort Cloud is located in interstellar space
it lies beyond the solar system even if it is bound to our home star.
There is also a large amount of uncertainty about where the Oort Cloud actually ends
which some would argue makes it just as unreliable a border as the Kuiper Belt
Out of the three possible boundaries, the heliopause is the one that is most often used by researchers, and by NASA
This is because it is the easiest to pin down and because the magnetic properties on either side of it are significantly different
"I would argue for the heliopause to be the boundary because it really is a boundary," Reisenfeld said
—How many times has Earth orbited the sun?
—How many times has the sun traveled around the Milky Way?
—What's the maximum number of planets that could orbit the sun?
But that doesn't mean that everything beyond the heliopause should be considered an interstellar object, such as the enormous space rock 'Oumuamua
"The Oort Cloud was originally part of the same stuff that the planets were formed from
so it is composed of solar system material
But while some researchers are happy to pick a side in this argument
others see no reason why the solar system cannot have multiple boundaries
"I would say that there is no actual debate," Brown said
"There are just different ways to define it depending on what is important for the question you are trying to answer."
Astronomers identify first 'good' candidate for controversial Planet Nine deep in our solar system
the 2nd-largest asteroid in the solar system
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Ukrainian soldiers brace for a potential threat from Belarus (Photos)September 9
2024 2:16 PM3 min readSoldiers of the 78th Air Assault Regiment enter their positions through barbed wire in Chornobyl zone
by Since June 2024
the 78th Air Assault Regiment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces
has been stationed in the Chornobyl exclusion zone
The regiment has been part of the latest group of forces Ukraine transferred closer to the border with Belarus
following ongoing threats by the country's dictator Alexander Lukashenko
the regiment took part in grueling battles in Donetsk Oblast
the regiment received intelligence that Belarus troops were planning an attack on the northern border in the direction of Kyiv
the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry issued a statement that
the Belarusian Armed Forces had concentrated personnel
and air defense in the bordering Homel region under the guise of exercises
Ukrainian forces at the border are on high alert
The soldiers are currently equipping fortifications
patrolling the border and tracking down enemy reconnaissance groups
The defense of this area is extremely difficult because it has a specific terrain - swamps
Photojournalist Karina Piliuhina spent a few days with the regiment in late August and early September
joining the daily patrols near the border with Belarus
She has been working in documentary filmmaking since 2018
the main topic she works with is the war in Ukraine
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the email looks like a textbook phishing attempt
Subject line: “Invoice from Help those affected by the California Wildfires
Body text: “‘Help those affected by the California Wildfires’ sent you an invoice for $35.00 USD.” A button in the email reads “View and Pay Invoice.” Who in their right mind would click that
the email really is from PayPal (service@paypal.com) and there really is an invoice waiting for you in your PayPal dashboard
even if you never clicked that dreaded button
I should know: It happened to me this weekend
I was able to resolve it easily enough but
decided to put on my journalist hat and try to understand why this is happening
but the general email template remains consistent
— Samir (@SamirDiwan) August 30, 2020
Apparently they only needed my email address to do that?Took a bit to figure out how to cancel; I was worried for a hot minute
— Derek Slenk (@derekslenk) August 31, 2020
— Bill Eager (@beager) August 30, 2020
a PayPal spokeswoman acknowledged the scams
“We are aware of this and believe it to be a common scheme leveraging a brand name,” the spokeswoman said
“We take every instance of potential fraudulent schemes seriously
have worked to remove the incorrect invoices
and ensure our customer's information is secure.” The representative continued
alluding to preventive measures in place: “In addition to employing a range of sophisticated proactive detection and mitigation methods
if a situation does occur we’ll take swift action to protect our customer’s accounts.”
by Andrew J. Hawkins
FacebookThreadsPhoto by James Bareham / The VergeAndrew J. Hawkins is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs
His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.Tesla’s cloud account was hacked and used to mine cryptocurrency
Hackers gained access to the electric car company’s Amazon cloud account
where they were able to view “sensitive data” such as vehicle telemetry
discovered the breach last month while searching for which organization left credentials for an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account open to the public internet
“We addressed this vulnerability within hours of learning about it”
RedLock’s researchers say they found Tesla’s unprotected information on a Kubernetes console
a Google-designed system for optimizing cloud applications
The exposure allowed hackers to access Tesla’s cloud environment
RedLock said they immediately reported the incident to Tesla
A Tesla spokesperson said that no customer data was impacted by the breach
“We maintain a bug bounty program to encourage this type of research
and we addressed this vulnerability within hours of learning about it,” the spokesperson said
“The impact seems to be limited to internally-used engineering test cars only
and our initial investigation found no indication that customer privacy or vehicle safety or security was compromised in any way.”
using Tesla’s cloud account to mine cryptocurrency is more valuable than any data stored within
The cybersecurity firm said in a report released Monday that it estimates 58 percent of organizations that use public cloud services
have publicly exposed “at least one cloud storage service.” Eight percent have had cryptojacking incidents
A weekly newsletter by David Pierce designed to tell you everything you need to download, watch, read, listen to, and explore that fits in The Verge’s universe.
Plaintiffs claim firm knowingly sold phones with microphone issues
which prevented calls and voice assistant functionality
Google is facing a class-action lawsuit over defects to its Pixel smartphones
The plaintiffs allege that Google knowingly sold defective Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones
which suffered from problems with the microphones that prevented them from being used for calling or voice assistant functionality
“It promoted the Pixel phones as premium products and priced them from $649 to $869. Yet, immediately after launching the phones, customers complained directly to Google of ‘severe microphone issues’,” the two plaintiffs, Patricia Weeks from Florida and Waleed Anbar from California, said in the suit
“Despite receiving hundreds of complaints shortly after launch – and admitting the phones have a ‘faulty microphone’ – Google continues to sell the Pixel phones without telling purchasers about the microphone defect.”
Google’s support agents acknowledged the defects with the microphone, stating that the issues affected less than 1% of the units sold at the time and that, according to the firm’s vice president of product management Brian Rakowski a “hairline crack in the solder connection on the audio codec” was to blame
Google urged those with affected Pixel smartphones to claim under warranty or to contact a service provider if out of warranty
including Dixons Carphone Warehouse in the UK and uBreakiFix in the US
“Instead of fixing the defective Pixel phones
or replacing the devices with non-defective phones
Google has replaced defective phones with other defective phones
resulting in many consumers repeatedly experiencing the microphone defect,” the plaintiffs claim
Google declined to comment on the lawsuit.
years after adding a frowning face for Windows 8