LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 29, 2023--

When NASA’s Perseverance Rover observed an image from Mars of its moon Phobos eclipsing the Sun, it was a reminder that the astronomical body is doomed to crash into the planet. Phobos is the closest of Mars’ two moons and it is due to fall out of orbit relatively soon. When it does, it will either crash into the surface of the planet or break up completely. Before it does, it will drift ever closer to Mars at a relatively rapid rate. "Phobos is nearing Mars at a rate of six feet (1.8 meters) every hundred years; at that rate, it will either crash into Mars in 50 million years or break up into a ring," NASA says about the moon. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter A statement about the recently recorded eclipse states: "Scientists already know that Phobos is doomed. “The moon is getting closer to the Martian surface and is destined to crash into the planet in tens of millions of years. But eclipse observations from the surface of Mars over the last two decades have also allowed scientists to refine their understanding of Phobos’ slow death spiral." NASA's Perseverance Rover Sees Solar Eclipse on Mars www.youtube.com Mars is the subject of much scientific interest right now, especially after Nasa discovered “diverse organic matter” on the surface of the planet, which could change our understanding of the red planet and the search for life in the universe. The Perseverance rover made the discovery in the Jezero Crater on Mars and a number of different explanations for the existence of the material have been posited. The materials could have been formed when water and dust interacted, or was dropped onto the planet by dust or meteors. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Reddit was hit by yet another outage, as the site’s troubles continue. The forum has been hit by protests and outrage in recent days, in response to a new policy that would see the site charge for access to its data. Reddit said that it was unfair that developers were given free access to its API, which allow them to show posts in third-party apps. But developers said that Reddit’s new pricing was too expensive to be sustainable, and many of the biggest of those apps have now announced they will be permanently shutting down. Those announcements have led to a widespread protest on Reddit, where moderators announced they would be taking their forums “dark” in an attempt to force a change by the site’s leadership. Administrators switched those forums to private and hid posts, meaning that they were effectively taken offline. That protest ran from 12 June to 14 June. But many of those administrators have suggested that recent actions by Reddit’s management, and the lack of change on the issue of pricing, will lead them to carry on the protest indefinitely. Amid those issues, Reddit went briefly offline for some users on Thursday evening. The company said that it was “investigating an issue that is causing load failures across web and mobile clients”. Around an hour and a half later, the company said the incident was resolved. But it was the second such technical issue the company has experienced as the protest has continued. Earlier this week, users saw another problem that meant they were unable to get to posts. Reddit spokespeople later confirmed that the problem had been a result of the protests. The large number of forums being taken on and offline had caused issues for the site’s infrastructure, they said, meaning that it was briefly taken offline. It has led to an unusual number of problems at Reddit. Between 19 March and 14 May, the site experienced no issues, according to its tracking website – but the last five days have seen two significant problems at Reddit. Nonetheless, the company still says it is experiencing 99.94 per cent uptime. Steve Huffman, Reddit’s chief executive, has urged Reddit’s staff to continue working on the site and suggested that the protest will eventually pass. Read More Reddit just went ‘dark’, and the site is in chaos Reddit is in chaos – and it’s CEO has finally responded Reddit’s blackout protest is set to continue indefinitely

If there’s one thing astronauts don’t want to face when out in the endless expanse of space, it’s signs that their station is being sabotaged. And yet, cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chubwere forced to face a strange phenomenon during a spacewalk last week. The pair exited the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday to fix a radiator which had sprung a leak. And while they were out, they were met by a close encounter of a very strange kind. Inspecting the source of the leak during their outing, Kononenko reported seeing a number of holes on the radiator panel. "The holes have very even edges, like they've been drilled through," he told Moscow Mission Control, according to Space.com. "There are lots of them. They are spread in a chaotic manner." The cosmonauts were given tissues and cloths to soak up any fluid that had seeped out of the radiator, with the pool of liquid coolant described as a growing “blob”. However, Kononenko got so close to the “blob” that one of his tethers became contaminated. This meant that it had to be bagged up and discarded outside the ISS before the cosmonauts could go back inside. The external radiator was mounted on the outside of Russia’s Nauka module – home to a multipurpose laboratory – which was launched in 2021. It was used as a backup to another radiator which regulates the temperature inside the lab. Kononenko and Chub closed a number of valves to cut off the external radiator from its ammonia supply, and it’s believed that the “blob” formed from residual ammonia that was disturbed when the valves were being shut. The toxic liquid certainly wouldn’t have been welcome on board the space station, hence why the two colleagues embarked upon their spacewalk armed with cloths to wipe down their spacesuits and tools. Russian engineers on the ground will use the data they collected to further investigate the cause of the leak and figure out how to fix the radiator. The question now is will they be able to work out where those mysterious little holes came from? Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings

The Biden campaign has taken its trolling of former president Donald Trump to the next level, by announcing that it has joined his Truth Social platform. A Biden campaign spokesperson told Fox News on Monday that it plans to use its new Truth Social presence to combat misinformation – but also admitted it had joined Mr Trump’s social network site “mostly because we thought it would be very funny”. They also said that President Joe Biden plans to “[meet] voters where they are” adding that: “Republicans can’t even agree on a speaker of the House, so clearly, not every Republican thinks the same.” “We will be leveraging the fact that Republicans can sometimes be our best messengers,” the spokesperson added. The first post from @BidenHQ read: “Well. Let’s see how this goes. Converts welcome!” Other posts on the account include videos of Republican politicians such as Senator Tim Scott, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Rep Matt Gaetz criticising or disagreeing with Mr Trump. It comes as Mr Trump’s social media platform is facing financial difficulties after a founding partner announced plans to return hundreds of millions of dollars back to investors. Truth Social currently has about two million active users, compared to 450 million on X and 2.91 billion on Facebook, according to Search Logistics. The Biden campaign has been fighting back against Mr Trump’s attacks, adopting the “Dark Brandon” meme and using it to fundraise off the back of. The president also trolled Mr Trump by buying up advertising space on right-wing network Fox News to take aim at the former president. One of the ads, titled “Delivers”, slammed the former president’s record with union workers and blamed him for the loss of jobs within the industry. “He says he stands with autoworkers,” a voiceover in the ad stated. “But as president, Donald Trump passed tax breaks for his rich friends while automakers shuttered their plants and Michigan lost manufacturing jobs.” It continued: “Joe Biden said he’d stand up for workers and he’s delivering. Passing laws that are increasing wages and creating good-paying jobs. Manufacturing is coming back to Michigan because Joe Biden doesn’t just talk, he delivers.” Mr Trump is leading Mr Biden in four of six key swing states ahead of the 2024 presidential election, a recent The Telegraph poll found. The former president is currently the front-runner for the Republican nomination despite facing a number of criminal indictments at both the federal level and in state cases in New York and Georgia. Read More Biden campaign trolls Trump event by buying up ads on Fox News Can Donald Trump still run for president after four indictments? Trump vows to fight gag order as he returns to NY fraud trial – live Trump vows to fight gag order as he returns to NY fraud trial – live Trump roasts DeSantis for supposedly wearing ‘hidden heels’ Trump endorses MAGA Republican Jim Jordan for House speaker

Stock and bond markets will be closed Monday for Labor Day. Then, earnings reports from Zscaler, Gitlab, and Kroger. Plus, Services PMI data, the Fed's Beige Book, and more.

Germany’s top court struck down a key element of the government’s plans to address climate change and transform

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The European Commission wants big online platforms to "clearly label" content -- words, images and audio -- that has been created by artificial intelligence, one...

The social-media company reported better-than-expected revenue for the quarter, but didn't give official guidance for the current quarter.