We haven't found it, but we have evidence that it's out there |
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Welcome to Decrypted, Digital Trends' daily newsletter guiding you through the latest news in the world of tech, with insights from our senior writers. |
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Scientists studying a shard of meteorite have found evidence that it comes from a previously unknown asteroid that could be as large as the dwarf planet Ceres. The meteorite, Almahata Sitta (AhS), fell to Earth in 2008, and researchers studied its composition to learn about the asteroid from which it came.
A meteorite is the name for a piece of debris that falls to Earth, and this particular one comes from an asteroid, which is a small object that orbits the sun. Asteroids are typically much smaller than planets and are most commonly clustered in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. Within this asteroid belt, the largest known object is a dwarf planet called Ceres.
Now, the new evidence suggests another asteroid as big as Ceres may exist somewhere else out in the solar system. |
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New technologies -- such as the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, a growing interest in data analysis, and ultra-high-definition video footage -- have made us into data hoarders. The enormous data centers built by the likes of Google are the high-tech equivalent of houses stacked high with piles of old newspapers and plastic bags of junk. By 2025, the stack of worldwide data is expected to hit 175 zettabytes (ZB). A single zettabyte is equal to a trillion gigabytes (GB).
What's the best way to store all of this? Answers on a digital postcard can range from huge racks of solid-state drives to futuristic solutions like laser-etched glass or storing data in the form of DNA. But what if the world had it right well over half a century ago? What if a solution that seemed dated long before most people got online for the first time had it right?
That's what IBM has been considering by taking and dusting off digital magnetic tape, a storage medium that was first invented in 1952 with a capacity of around 2MB per reel, to be used as the method of the future. Or, at the very least, the present. |
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The phrase "out of the frying pan, into the fire" is an incredibly apt description of the plight of the internet's social media giants in 2020.
Already grappling to settle into their increasingly large roles in democracy and culture, social networks like Facebook and Twitter suddenly gained an even bigger role in our daily lives as the coronavirus pandemic took hold. In the face of this extra pressure, they had no choice but to adapt.
While these forced adaptations were no doubt difficult for the companies involved, the resulting changes have arguably been good ones — not only for individual users, but for the world at large. |
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