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US Satellite Launch By ISRO May Make Phone Calls Directly Via Space A Reality
Jan 01, 2025 21:11 pm IST
India is all set to launch a massive American communications satellite that would allow making phone calls using direct connectivity from space. This is a highly innovative and a more modern approach to satellite telephony than the existing services.
This is also the first time an American company is launching a massive communications satellite from India in a dedicated launch on an Indian rocket. Till date, India has only launched small satellites made by American entities.
India's Science Minister Dr Jitendra Singh disclosed that "In February or March we will be launching a US satellite for mobile communication, this satellite will enable voice communication on mobile phones. It will be an interesting mission".
While neither the minister nor Indian space agency ISRO confirmed who the American satellite operator is, experts confirm that it is AST SpaceMobile, a Texas-based company is hoping to launch its big communication satellite from Sriharikota.
The US company has asserted that one can use any smartphone to make voice calls using their services. Most other current satellite-based Internet and voice providers ask subscribers to buy special handsets or have special terminals like Starlink does.
American media had reported that Abel Avellan, the CEO of AST SpaceMobile, had confirmed in an investor call last year by announcing that they will use the Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) to launch a single Block 2 of the Bluebird satellite.
NDTV has reached out to AST SpaceMobile for a statement. No response came in till the time the story was filed.
Each Bluebird satellite will have an antenna of the size of 64 square meters or about half the size of a football field. The satellite will weigh nearly 6000 kilograms and India's rocket will put it in a low Earth orbit.
In an earlier statement, Abel Avellan said they "invented a technology that connects satellites directly to ordinary cell phones and provides broadband internet through the largest ever commercial phase array in low Earth orbit".
AST SpaceMobile's mission, he added, is to close the global connectivity gap and digitally transform nations by bringing "affordable 5G broadband service from space to billions of people worldwide, direct to everyday smartphones".
An ISRO expert said this satellite will enable "direct to mobile communication" and the company is hoping to place some massive satellites in the Earth's orbit to power this path-breaking technology.
ISRO experts confirmed that AST SpaceMobile has hired the services of India's Bahuballi rocket or the Launch Vehicle Mark-3 for launching the Bluebird satellite.
It is a huge boost for ISRO since now even American companies are having faith in India's LVM-3 which has a one hundred percent success record.
Before this there have been two dedicated commercial launches of LVM-3 to hoist satellites for the OneWeb constellation, where Bharti Enterprises have a big stake, the same group also owns Indian telecom service Airtel.
This new satellite-based direct to mobile connectivity will be in direct competition to the existing providers like Starlink and Oneweb, both of which use massive constellations (satellite network) to provide broadband Internet connectivity.
In contrast, an ISRO expert said since AST SpaceMobile wants to deploy massive satellites they could make do with a slightly smaller constellation.
AST SpaceMobile asserts its technology is "designed to connect directly to mobile phones by becoming a pioneer as we create the first and only space-based cellular broadband network".
The American company further added: "Our goal is to make cellular broadband available almost anywhere so you can connect with the rest of the world - regardless of where you live or work.
We want to help people stay connected where traditional networks can't, including when existing telecom infrastructure fails. We hope to welcome new populations into the global digital economy, opening up opportunities for work, education, social networking, healthcare, and more.
AST SpaceMobile's planned solution may not require switching cellular service providers. We're working with mobile network operators around the world to provide optional connectivity to our satellites when needed."
ISRO experts confirm that it is a purely commercial launch being spearheaded by New Space India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of the Department of Space. India is just providing a ride to the American satellite and nothing more.
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/us-satellite-launch-by-isro-may-make-phone-calls-directly-via-space-a-reality-7378668
https://news.mit.edu/2025/unlocking-hidden-power-boiling-matteo-bucci-0102
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37899-7
Unlocking the hidden power of boiling — for energy, space, and beyond
January 2, 2025
Most people take boiling water for granted. For Associate Professor Matteo Bucci, uncovering the physics behind boiling has been a decade-long journey filled with unexpected challenges and new insights.
The seemingly simple phenomenon is extreely hard to study in complex systems like nuclear reactors, and yet it sits at the core of a wide range of important industrial processes.
Unlocking its secrets could thus enable advances in efficient energy production, electronics cooling, water desalination, medical diagnostics, and more.
“Boiling is important for applications way beyond nuclear,” says Bucci, who earned tenure at MIT in July. “Boiling is used in 80 percent of the power plants that produce electricity.
My research has implications for space propulsion, energy storage, electronics, and the increasingly important task of cooling computers.”
Bucci’s lab has developed new experimental techniques to shed light on a wide range of boiling and heat transfer phenomena that have limited energy projects for decades.
Chief among those is a problem caused by bubbles forming so quickly they create a band of vapor across a surface that prevents further heat transfer.
In 2023, Bucci and collaborators developed a unifying principle governing the problem, known as the boiling crisis, which could enable more efficient nuclear reactors and prevent catastrophic failures.
For Bucci, each bout of progress brings new possibilities — and new questions to answer.
“What’s the best paper?” Bucci asks. “The best paper is the next one. I think Alfred Hitchcock used to say it doesn’t matter how good your last movie was.
If your next one is poor, people won’t remember it. I always tell my students that our next paper should always be better than the last. It’s a continuous journey of improvement.”
From engineering to bubbles
The Italian village where Bucci grew up had a population of about 1,000 during his childhood.
He gained mechanical skills by working in his father’s machine shop and by taking apart and reassembling appliances like washing machines and air conditioners to see what was inside.
He also gained a passion for cycling, competing in the sport until he attended the University of Pisa for undergraduate and graduate studies.
In college, Bucci was fascinated with matter and the origins of life, but he also liked building things, so when it came time to pick between physics and engineering, he decided nuclear engineering was a good middle ground.
“I have a passion for construction and for understanding how things are made,” Bucci says. “Nuclear engineering was a very unlikely but obvious choice.
It was unlikely because in Italy, nuclear was already out of the energy landscape, so there were very few of us. At the same time, there were a combination of intellectual and practical challenges, which is what I like.”
For his PhD, Bucci went to France, where he met his wife, and went on to work at a French national lab. One day his department head asked him to work on a problem in nuclear reactor safety known as transient boiling.
To solve it, he wanted to use a method for making measurements pioneered by MIT Professor Jacopo Buongiorno, so he received grant money to become a visiting scientist at MIT in 2013. He’s been studying boiling at MIT ever since.
Today Bucci’s lab is developing new diagnostic techniques to study boiling and heat transfer along with new materials and coatings that could make heat transfer more efficient.
The work has given researchers an unprecedented view into the conditions inside a nuclear reactor.
“The diagnostics we’ve developed can collect the equivalent of 20 years of experimental work in a one-day experiment,” Bucci says.
That data, in turn, led Bucci to a remarkably simple model describing the boiling crisis.
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“The effectiveness of the boiling process on the surface of nuclear reactor cladding determines the efficiency and the safety of the reactor,” Bucci explains.
“It’s like a car that you want to accelerate, but there is an upper limit. For a nuclear reactor, that upper limit is dictated by boiling heat transfer, so we are interested in understanding what that upper limit is and how we can overcome it to enhance the reactor performance.”
Another particularly impactful area of research for Bucci is two-phase immersion cooling, a process wherein hot server parts bring liquid to boil, then the resulting vapor condenses on a heat exchanger above to create a constant, passive cycle of cooling.
“It keeps chips cold with minimal waste of energy, significantly reducing the electricity consumption and carbon dioxide emissions of data centers,” Bucci explains. “Data centers emit as much CO2 as the entire aviation industry. By 2040, they will account for over 10 percent of emissions.”
Supporting students
Bucci says working with students is the most rewarding part of his job. “They have such great passion and competence. It’s motivating to work with people who have the same passion as you.”
“My students have no fear to explore new ideas,” Bucci adds. “They almost never stop in front of an obstacle — sometimes to the point where you have to slow them down and put them back on track.”
In running the Red Lab in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Bucci tries to give students independence as well as support.
“We’re not educating students, we’re educating future researchers,” Bucci says. “I think the most important part of our work is to not only provide the tools, but also to give the confidence and the self-starting attitude to fix problems.
That can be business problems, problems with experiments, problems with your lab mates.”
Some of the more unique experiments Bucci’s students do require them to gather measurements while free falling in an airplane to achieve zero gravity.
“Space research is the big fantasy of all the kids,” says Bucci, who joins students in the experiments about twice a year. “It’s very fun and inspiring research for students. Zero g gives you a new perspective on life.”
Applying AI
Bucci is also excited about incorporating artificial intelligence into his field. In 2023, he was a co-recipient of a multi-university research initiative (MURI) project in thermal science dedicated solely to machine learning.
In a nod to the promise AI holds in his field, Bucci also recently founded a journal called AI Thermal Fluids to feature AI-driven research advances.
“Our community doesn’t have a home for people that want to develop machine-learning techniques,” Bucci says.
“We wanted to create an avenue for people in computer science and thermal science to work together to make progress.
I think we really need to bring computer scientists into our community to speed this process up.”
Bucci also believes AI can be used to process huge reams of data gathered using the new experimental techniques he’s developed as well as to model phenomena researchers can’t yet study.
“It’s possible that AI will give us the opportunity to understand things that cannot be observed, or at least guide us in the dark as we try to find the root causes of many problems,” Bucci says.
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We finally know where to look for life on Mars
January 1, 2024
Ever since the discovery of methane on Mars, scientists have wondered if the Red Planet might harbor life. Now, researchers know where to look: deep under the surface of a broad Martian plain.
The Mars methane mystery has befuddled scientists for years. Rovers on the surface have observed seasonal fluctuations of methane, but orbiting satellites have not found any significant trace of the molecule.
This kind of variability is an intriguing, but unproven, hint that a particular kind of life might exist on Mars.
Broadly speaking, however, Mars appears to be uninhabitable. The surface temperatures are usually well below freezing, there's barely any atmosphere, and deadly cosmic and solar rays constantly bombard the planet.
So, while ancient Mars once had oceans and warmer climates, we're unlikely to find any living creatures on or near the Martian surface.
But we can look to Earth to find potential habitats for Martian life.
On our planet, life has expanded and diversified to fill every available niche, from the upper reaches of the atmosphere to miles below the surface.
Life has also found many clever ways to extract energy from the environment.
Although the most common method is photosynthesis — and the resulting food web from that base — the domain Archaea consists of single-celled creatures that find energy wherever they can get it.
This includes the methanogens, creatures that "eat" hydrogen and excrete methane as a waste product.
These are prime candidates for potential surviving Martian life, given the evidence for the regular appearance and disappearance of methane on the Red Planet.
In a recent paper submitted to the journal Astrobiology, scientists scoured Earth for potential analogues to Martian environments, searching for methanogens thriving in conditions similar to those on Mars.
The researchers narrowed the list of potential habitat analogues to three categories.
The first was microscopic fractures deep in Earth's crust, where the bedrock hosts tiny amounts of fluids — conditions that also might appear deep in the Martian crust.
The second was freshwater lakes buried under glaciers or polar ice caps, which might exist under Mars' southern ice cap.
And the last was extremely saline, oxygen-deprived deep-sea basins, which replicated the possible seasonal appearance of water on crater slopes on the Red Planet.
Scientists have already found methanogens in all of these environments on Earth, but that's not precise enough.
In the new paper, the researchers mapped out the temperature ranges, salinity levels and pH values across sites scattered around the planet.
Then, they narrowed down the species that thrived in conditions that resembled Martian conditions.
Lastly, they surveyed the sites for the availability of molecular hydrogen, which is the primary food product of methanogens on Earth and potential life on Mars.
In particular, the researchers noted that the families Methanosarcinaceae and Methanomicrobiaceae were the most flexible, with member species living in a number of Mars-like conditions.
Next, the researchers examined available data about Mars itself. While information is scant, especially about subsurface conditions, there's enough data to put together a rough map of where liquid water might exist.
Liquid water is essential for supporting all life, even the hardy methanogens. Given the circumstantial evidence for subglacial lakes and moist crater slopes, the researchers think the best chance for life is deep under the surface.
Specifically, Acidalia Planitia, a broad plain in the Martian northern hemisphere, has the best possible conditions.
But the temperatures are only warm enough to support liquid water at a depth of 2.7 to 5.5 miles (4.3 to 8.8 kilometers).
The researchers think the temperatures, salinity, pH and availability of hydrogen there have the best chances of matching conditions where methanogens thrive on Earth. So it's time to start digging.
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/search-for-life/we-finally-know-where-to-look-for-life-on-mars
https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.15064
James Webb telescope uncovers massive 'grand design' spiral galaxy in the early universe — and scientists can't explain how it got so big, so fast
January 2, 2025
Researchers just found an unexpected galaxy using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The large swirl of stars is known as a grand-design spiral galaxy, and its exceptionally advanced age could change what we know about galaxy formation.
Generally, the older a galaxy is, the farther away it is from us. Scientists can gauge the age and distance of galaxies through something called redshift — a phenomenon that occurs when light shifts to lower-frequency, redder wavelengths as it crosses large stretches of space.
This happens for a couple of reasons; first, because the universe is expanding, older stars naturally end up further away.
And second, because red is the longest wavelength in the visible spectrum of light, stars that are very far away tend to appear redder, having a higher redshift.
JWST is designed to peer deeply into the red and infrared spectrum, allowing it to see old, distant galaxies more clearly than any previous telescope.
But spiral galaxies tend to be on the younger side, making the newly-discovered galaxy, designated A2744-GDSp-z4, an outlier. Grand-design galaxies like A2744-GDSp-z4 are characterized by their two well-defined spiral arms.
Very few have ever been found with a redshift above 3.0 — meaning their light has been traveling for nearly 11.5 billion years, according to the Las Cumbres Observatory
The newfound galaxy, meanwhile, has a redshift of 4.03, meaning the light JWST detected was emitted more than 12 billion years ago.
According to the researchers who discovered it, that means A2744-GDSp-z4 came together when the universe was only about 1.5 billion years old — and it appears to have formed very rapidly.
Given its estimated star formation rate, it accrued a mass of about 10 billion solar masses in just a few hundred million years.
This flies in the face of how scientists think spiral galaxies usually form.
"The rarity of high redshift spirals might be a consequence of galaxies being dynamically hot at those early epochs," the researchers, led by Rashi Jain at the National Center for Radio Astrophysics in India, wrote in the new study.
"Dynamically hot systems tend to form clumpy structures," rather than highly ordered spirals, the researchers added.
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/james-webb-space-telescope/james-webb-telescope-uncovers-massive-grand-design-spiral-galaxy-in-the-early-universe-and-scientists-cant-explain-how-it-got-so-big-so-fast
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2412.04834
Fall 2024 was Earth's warmest autumn ever
January 2, 2024
When we think of typical fall weather, an image might come to mind of crisp, cool days prompting sweater weather, hot pumpkin spice lattes and an evening bonfire to stay warm.
But with the end of November prompting the closure of what was a record-setting meteorological fall (which spans from September through November), our changing climate paints a different picture — with record-setting warmth as the story of the season.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) released its monthly climate report last month, in which scientists concluded that not only was the month of November the sixth-warmest on record, but that meteorological fall was also the warmest in recorded history.
And, to date, 2024 could also hold the top spot for the warmest year as well if the trend continues up until the ball drops on New Year's Eve.
NOAA has been keeping climate records for the past 130 years, and this year’s meteorological fall claimed the spot as warmest on record with an average temperature of 57.6 degrees Fahrenheit (14.2 degrees Celsius).
18 states experienced one of their top-three warmest falls and five states, including Maine, Wisconsin, Texas, Nebraska, and Minnesota, saw their warmest in recorded history.
In addition, the three month-span was also the driest on record for Maine, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut.
The U.S. seasonal precipitation total for fall came in 0.65 inches (0.02 meters) below average at 6.23 inches (0.2 meters), making the 2024 meteorological fall also the third driest on record.
If the abnormally warm temperature trend continues through December, 2024 could end up being the warmest year in recorded history.
From Jan. 1 through Nov. 30, the average temperature sits 3.3 degrees higher than average at 57.1 degrees Fahrenheit (13.9 degrees Celsius).
Additionally, 22 states so far remain in the top spot for having their warmest year on record, following suit with above average temperatures dominating for the same time frame.
With sea-surface temperatures remaining elevated from the continual warming this year, it’s no surprise 2024 was also a historic year for the Atlantic hurricane season, which came to a close on Nov. 30.
The season, which officially began June 1, was above-average as forecasters predicted, with a total of 18 named tropical systems with almost a dozen of the storms strengthening into hurricanes.
2024 tied 1893, 2004, and 2005 for fourth place having the most landfalling storms in a season, and awaiting final estimations, it will likely be one of the costliest on record.
https://www.space.com/the-universe/climate-change/fall-2024-was-earths-warmest-autumn-ever
https://www.noaa.gov/news/fall-2024-was-nations-warmest-on-record
The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks tonight! Don't miss the 1st 'shooting stars' of 2025
January 2, 2025
Early each January, the Quadrantid meteor stream provides one of the most intense annual meteor displays, with a brief, sharp maximum lasting only a few hours.
For this reason, many stargazing guides make reference to this display as being particularly elusive. However, in 2025, viewing circumstances favor North Americans, particularly those living west of the Mississippi.
The meteors actually radiate from the northeast corner of the constellation of Boötes, the Herdsman, so we might expect them to be called the "Boötids."
But back in the late 18th century there was a different constellation there called Quadrans Muralis, the "Mural or Wall Quadrant" (an astronomical instrument).
It is a long-obsolete star pattern, invented in 1795 by J.J. Lalande to commemorate the instrument used to observe the stars in his catalogue.
Adolphe Quetelet of Brussels Observatory discovered the shower in the 1830s, and shortly afterward it was noted by several astronomers in Europe and America.
Thus, they were christened "Quadrantids" and even though the constellation from which these meteors appear to radiate no longer exists, the shower's original moniker continues to this day.
Remnants of a long-dead comet
At greatest activity, 60 to 120 meteors per hour should be seen during the 2025 Quadrantid meteor shower.
However, the Quadrantid influx is sharply peaked: six hours before and after maximum, these blue meteors appear at only half of their highest rates.
This means that the stream of particles is a narrow one — possibly derived relatively recently from a small comet.
In fact, in 2003, astronomer Peter Jenniskens of NASA, found a near-Earth asteroid (2003 EH1) that seemed like it was on the right orbit to make the Quadrantids.
Some astronomers think that this asteroid is really a piece of an old, "extinct" comet; perhaps a comet that was recorded by Chinese, Korean and Japanese observers during the years 1490-91.
Maybe that comet broke apart, and some of the pieces became the meteoroids that make up the Quadrantid stream.
When and where to look
In 2025 a moderately strong display of Quadrantid meteors is likely for North America, particularly over the western half of the continent.
According to Margaret Campbell-Brown and Peter Brown in the 2025 edition of the Observer's Handbook of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, maximum activity is expected at around 10 a.m. Eastern Time or 7 a.m. Pacific Time (1500 GMT).
Just before the break of dawn, the radiant of this shower — from where the meteors appear to emanate — will be ascending the dark northeastern sky.
This is also the time that the dawn side of the Earth is facing forward in our 18.5-mile (30 km) per second face around the sun.
This added velocity also means that our upper atmosphere strikes more meteors, and hits them harder, thus making them appear brighter, as opposed to when meteors come at us from behind during the evening.
Those who live in the eastern half of North America will be seeing the "Quads" increasing in intensity before bright morning twilight and sunrise intervenes, with a single observer likely to see rates of 20 to 40 per hour.
For those who live in the western half of North America, meteor rates will probably be even higher, possibly even approaching their absolute peak rates of 60 to 120 per hour.
With no moonlight to interfere, this might turn out to be one of the best meteor displays of the year.
https://www.space.com/stargazing/meteors-showers/the-quadrantid-meteor-shower-peaks-tonight-dont-miss-the-1st-shooting-stars-of-2025
Eutelsat resolves OneWeb leap year software glitch after two-day outage
January 2, 2025
Eutelsat said Jan. 2 it has restored services across its low Earth orbit (LEO) OneWeb network following a two-day outage.
The French company, which also operates a fleet of 35 geostationary satellites, said in a brief news release the disruption was caused by a software issue within its ground segment.
Delays to build and get approval for OneWeb’s ground infrastructure have held back global services since the company deployed enough satellites for worldwide coverage in 2023.
OneWeb is currently available across the Americas, large swathes of Europe, Asia, and other areas, but aims to start full services for government and enterprise customers — including aviation — this spring.
The software issue was caused by a failure to account for 2024 being a leap year, according to Eutelsat spokesperson Joanna Darlington, who told SpaceNews that services were partially restored 36 hours after the disruption began Dec. 31.
“With the service fully restored a full investigation will take place indeed to ensure it does not recur,” she said via email.
Eutelsat says its multi-orbit capabilities give it an edge amid Starlink’s dominance in LEO, as the French operator plans to supplement OneWeb services with geostationary capacity in high-demand areas.
The geostationary fleet also provides network redundancy, according to Eutelsat, although its geostationary satellites were not used to provide backup services during the recent outage.
Eutelsat recently ordered 100 OneWeb satellites from Airbus Defence and Space to replenish the constellation as the spacecraft reach the end of their design lives in 2027 and 2028.
https://spacenews.com/eutelsat-resolves-oneweb-leap-year-software-glitch-after-two-day-outage/
Navy to probe underwater drone found in Masbate
January 3, 2025 | 12:00am
The Philippine Navy has taken custody of an underwater drone that was recovered in the waters off Masbate early this week.
The Navy said it would look into how the drone, believed to have come from China, reached Philippine waters.
The drone, which was found by three fishermen in the waters off Barangay Iniwaran in San Pascual town on Monday, bore the marking HY-119.
The remotely operated device reportedly enables underwater vessels or equipment to communicate with surface units or satellites.
It is reportedly capable of transmitting and receiving data, voice messages and navigation information.
The Navy said it would conduct a thorough investigation to determine the origin and use of the drone.
“The Armed Forces of the Philippines confirms the turnover of a remotely operated submersible drone from the Philippine National Police to the Philippine Navy,” AFP public affairs office chief Col. Xerxes Trinidad told journalists yesterday.
Trinidad said the recovery of the underwater device shows the importance of collaboration between local fisherfolk and maritime stakeholders.
“We commend their vigilance and continued support in reporting suspicious activities. We encourage ongoing cooperation to ensure effective monitoring of our territorial waters,” he said.
Trinidad said the AFP is committed to ensure the safety and security of the country’s maritime domain.
He said all necessary resources are being mobilized to address similar and other situations.
https://www.philstar.com/nation/2025/01/03/2411433/navy-probe-underwater-drone-found-masbate
Commerce Department seeks to potentially restrict or ban drones from China
January 2, 2025, 9:02 AM
The Commerce Department on Thursday announced its intent to explore proposing a rule to secure the technology and supply chain of drones from foreign adversaries, including the potential ability of China and Russia to remotely access and manipulate the devices.
The department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), seeks to implement a rule that would explain how foreign adversary involvement in "supply chains, including acute threats from China and Russia – may offer our adversaries the ability to remotely access and manipulate these devices, exposing sensitive U.S. data," according to a department news release.
If implemented, the rule would restrict or even ban drones from China – the source of most of the commercial drones sold in the U.S.
BIS is hoping to get feedback on how information from drones is used and how it could pose a national security risk from adversaries, according to the Commerce Department.
"Securing the unmanned aircraft systems technology supply chain is critical to safeguarding our national security.
This [rule making notice] is an essential step in protecting the United States from vulnerabilities posed by foreign entities," said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
The deadline for public comments on this rule is March 4, 2025. It is the latest step in rulemaking from the Commerce Department.
Last year, BIS proposed a rule to ban Chinese software in cars from entering into the United States due to national security risks.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/commerce-department-seeks-secure-drone-technology-supply-chain/story?id=117210374
Mystery New Jersey UFO 'faster than police drone' - as 30 areas hit with aircraft ban
11:32 ET, Thu, Jan 2, 2025
The enigma of New Jersey's drones has prompted aviation authorities to significantly expand a ban on the flying devices.
For several weeks now, the Garden State has been abuzz with reports from hundreds of residents witnessing unexplained aerial phenomena.
While officials have attempted to allay fears by stating there's no national security risk, actions taken by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) suggest otherwise.
Initially, the drone prohibition covered 22 towns and municipalities; however, the FAA has recently extended the ban to include an additional nine areas.
Although reports of drone sightings seem to be diminishing, fresh videos capturing these mysterious objects over Somerset, Ocean and Bergen counties continue to surface online.
The rationale behind the augmented restrictions remains a mystery. When local journalists sought answers, the FAA directed them to the Department of Homeland Security, which then sent inquiries back to the FAA.
The FBI also deflected questions about the ban back to the FAA. An FBI representative disclosed that out of approximately 5,000 public reports investigated by the agency, around 100 were deemed "credible."
Despite the heightened concerns, federal authorities maintain that the drones do not pose any threat to national security or public safety.
John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, assured the public of safety, stating:
"We have not identified anything anomalous or any national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the Northeast."
Ocean County Sheriff Michael G. Mastronardy informed the press that his team had launched their drone to follow a group of unidentified aircraft reported "coming off the ocean" by a local deputy, but admitted their "industrial-grade" drone couldn't match the speed of the mysterious flyers.
In December, Ocean County officials requested a state of emergency declaration to enable federal intervention against the drones.
The incidents seemed to climax in mid-late December, yet persist despite an expanding drone prohibition.
New Jersey Representative Jeff Van Drew, who had previously echoed allegations of an Iranian "mothership" releasing the drones, told The New York Post that his "high-clearance" government contacts corroborated his belief that the drones were espionage tools from an adversarial nation.
"Something's very wrong," he remarked. "We've got unidentifiable, sophisticated drones, as big as minivans, carefully navigating airspace that's not covered by radar, in a very important part of our country, and still, a month later, we somehow don't know anything."
Van Drew also expressed frustration with reassurances from authorities, saying: "We're being told, 'Don't worry, everything's okay."
Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden joined the chorus for urgent action, insisting: "Residents are increasingly alarmed by the surge in drone activity after dark, raising concerns about public safety and security."
He emphasized the need for immediate measures, saying, "We cannot wait any longer. The Governor must act now, and the Air National Guard needs to step in to protect our communities."
https://www.the-express.com/news/us-news/159186/drone-sightings-new-jersey-authorities-increase-ban
Hundreds of dinosaur footprints discovered in Oxfordshire
Thursday 2 January 2025 16:18, UK
Nearly 200 dinosaur footprints have been discovered in a quarry in Oxfordshire, shedding new light on the extinct creatures.
The prints are 166 million years old and were discovered buried under mud in Dewars Farm Quarry after a worker noticed "unusual bumps" in the limestone quarry.
Five tracks of footprints were uncovered in what researchers said is part of a "dinosaur highway".
The longest continuous track found during the excavation in the summer is more than 150 metres in length.
Four of the sets of tracks that make up the so-called highway show paths taken by gigantic, long-necked, herbivores called sauropods, thought to be Cetiosaurus, a dinosaur that grew to nearly 18 metres in length.
The fifth track was made by a Megalosaurus, a carnivore that left a distinctive triple-claw print, researchers said.
An area where the tracks cross raises questions about possible interactions between the carnivores and herbivores.
"Scientists have known about and been studying Megalosaurus for longer than any other dinosaur on Earth, and yet these recent discoveries prove there is still new evidence of these animals out there, waiting to be found," said Emma Nicholls, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH).
Information on how dinosaurs walked, at what speed and how big they were can also be gleaned from the markings.
The Universities of Oxford and Birmingham jointly led a team of more than 100 on a week-long excavation.
About 200 footprints were uncovered with roughly 20,000 photographs taken. Detailed 3D models of the site were built using aerial drone photography.
"The preservation is so detailed that we can see how the mud was deformed as the dinosaur's feet squelched in and out," Duncan Murdock, an earth scientist at OUMNH, said.
"Along with other fossils like burrows, shells, and plants, we can bring to life the muddy lagoon environment the dinosaurs walked through."
The findings will be shown at a new exhibit at the museum.
Discoveries had already been made near the quarry in 1997, when 40 sets of footprints were discovered - considered one of the world's most scientifically important dinosaur track sites.
https://news.sky.com/story/hundreds-of-dinosaur-footprints-discovered-from-in-oxfordshire-13282803
Aerial video shows collapsed Cheshire canal bank as flood devastates village
Thursday 02 January 2025 14:54 GMT
Aerial video shows collapsed Cheshire canal bank as flood devastates village
The banks of the Bridgewater Canal in Cheshire collapsed on New Year's Day after heavy rainfall, devastating the small village of Little Bollington.
Aerial footage shows water from the canal pouring into the village, which sits on the outskirts of Manchester.
Cheshire Police released a statement saying a section of the M56 had been closed and a number of nearby houses had to be evacuated.
Earlier the same day, the Greater Manchester police declared a major incident after flooding left city residents trapped in their houses.
https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/flooding-cheshire-canal-aerial-video-b2672822.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14241805/Britain-New-Year-flood-chaos-major-incident-Manchester.html
Drone Captures Footage Of Massive Firework Explosion That Killed Three Near Honolulu, Hawaii
January 2, 2025
These illegal fireworks sent 20 people to the hospital and killed three people. This is why we should leave the fireworks to the professionals.
Sacramento's KCRA has the full story of how this massive explosion rocked a residential neighborhood.
https://digg.com/digg-vids/link/honolulu-hawaii-firework-new-year-explosion-video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbbXlMyq3Cs