A powerful X1.9 solar flare from new sunspot AR4299 triggered strong radio blackouts, as giant sunspot AR4294 rotates into view with more activity likely.
Category: futurism – Page 46
[News] Silicon Photonics Momentum Builds: Samsung Ramps R&D in Singapore, UMC Teams With IMEC
With AI compute demands soaring, silicon photonics is emerging as a next-generation technology poised to reshape the landscape. According to Hankyung, sources say that Samsung Electronics’ Device Solutions (DS) Division has designated the technology as a future strategic priority and begun recruiting experts for its Singapore-based R&D center, led by Vice President King-Jien Chui, a former TSMC executive. The report highlights that Samsung is expanding its team in Singapore and working with Broadcom to move the technology toward commercialization.
As the report indicates, citing industry sources, Samsung’s 2027 target for CPO (Co-Packaged Optics) commercialization suggests that its real contest with TSMC will begin at that point. By 2030—when silicon photonics is expected to be applied at the individual-chip level—the technology will likely become the central battleground of the foundry market. Although TSMC currently leads, Samsung is gearing up, viewing the technology as a key to attracting major foundry clients, the report adds.
Scientists track recent solar flare disruptions in Earth’s ionosphere
As this month’s string of powerful X-class solar flares sparked brilliant auroras that lit up skies across an unusually wide swath of the globe—from northern Europe to Florida—researchers at NJIT’s Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (CSTR) captured a less visible, but crucial, record of the storm’s impact on Earth’s upper atmosphere.
Recent measurements recorded by NJIT’s new network of radio telescopes show how a rare sequence of intense flares from Nov. 9–14, including an X5.1 event marking 2025’s strongest flare so far, jolted the ionosphere—the plasma-filled atmospheric layer essential for radio signals, GPS accuracy and satellite orbits.
The flares triggered R3 (strong) radio blackouts across Africa and Europe, with several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) fueling a major geomagnetic storm and aurora at unusually low latitudes.
High pressure increases terahertz emission 13-fold in 2D semiconductor GaTe, study reveals
A new study led by the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with their collaborators, has demonstrated that high pressure can significantly enhance and precisely tune terahertz (THz) radiation from the two-dimensional semiconductor gallium telluride (GaTe).
Using a diamond anvil cell, the research team achieved a 13-fold increase in THz emission and directly mapped the sequence of ultrafast processes that produce THz waves.
Their findings are published in Laser & Photonics Reviews.
Italian mission adds to growing IRIDE space fleet
The Italian programme IRIDE, which provides public sector services based on data from its fleet of Earth observation constellations, has added eight satellites to its second constellation, Eaglet II.
The Eaglet II satellites lifted off on board a Falcon 9 rocket at 19:44 CET (10:44 local time), 28 November, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US. All satellites were placed into orbit about one hour after launch. Acquisition of signal for all satellites was confirmed several hours later by OHB’s Mission Control Centre in Rome.
The launch was a rideshare carrying numerous other satellites into orbit, including HydroGNSS (ESA’s first Scout mission under its FutureEO programme) and two ICEYE satellites for Greece.