A Dream Wedding

Jessica and Mark had spent months planning their dream wedding. From the stunning venue to the meticulously curated guest list, every detail was designed to reflect their love story. Friends and family traveled from far and wide to celebrate their union in a picturesque garden setting, surrounded by blooming flowers and twinkling fairy lights.

As the day began, excitement filled the air. Jessica looked radiant in her elegant gown, while Mark appeared dashing in his tailored suit. They exchanged smiles and whispered sweet nothings as they prepared for the ceremony. Everything seemed perfect—until it wasn’t.

The Ceremony Begins

As guests settled into their seats, the atmosphere was charged with anticipation. The officiant welcomed everyone, and the couple exchanged vows that spoke to their deep love and commitment. Laughter and happy tears flowed freely, creating a magical moment that felt straight out of a fairytale.

However, just as they were about to seal their vows with a kiss, an unexpected figure burst into the scene—a former friend of Jessica’s, Sarah, who had been uninvited to the wedding. Her sudden appearance sent shockwaves through the crowd. Dressed in a bold red dress, she marched down the aisle, a look of determination on her face.

A Dramatic Interruption

The officiant paused, and whispers rippled through the crowd as Sarah approached the couple. “Jessica, wait! You can’t do this!” she shouted, her voice filled with urgency. Gasps echoed among the guests, and Mark’s expression shifted from love to confusion.

“Sarah, what are you doing here?” Jessica asked, trying to maintain her composure despite the chaos unfolding before her.

“I can’t let you marry him!” Sarah insisted. “You don’t know the truth about Mark!”

The Shocking Revelation

As the tension escalated, Sarah revealed a shocking secret that left everyone stunned. She claimed that Mark had been unfaithful to Jessica during their engagement, providing supposed evidence in the form of text messages and photos. The atmosphere turned electric as gasps filled the air, and Jessica’s face drained of color.

Mark’s expression quickly changed from confusion to defensiveness. “That’s not true! You’re lying!” he exclaimed, trying to maintain control over the situation. The guests were torn, some gasping in disbelief, while others murmured amongst themselves, unsure of what to believe.

A Heartbroken Decision

Jessica stood frozen, her heart racing as she processed the shocking revelation. The weight of the situation hit her like a freight train. Memories of their time together flashed through her mind—the laughter, the plans, the love they had shared. But now, doubt crept in.

“Is this true, Mark?” she finally asked, her voice trembling.

Mark hesitated, caught off guard by the accusations. “No! Sarah has always had it out for me. She wants to ruin this for us!”

But Jessica’s heart was heavy with uncertainty. As tears streamed down her face, she made a decision that shocked everyone. “I can’t do this. I need to know the truth. I can’t marry you like this,” she said, turning away from Mark.

The Aftermath

With those words, the fairytale wedding crumbled around them. Guests looked on in stunned silence as Jessica walked away, leaving Mark standing alone at the altar. The love story that had been years in the making disintegrated in mere moments, overshadowed by betrayal and doubt.

As the guests dispersed, murmurs of disbelief echoed throughout the garden. Many were unsure how to console the bride who had just experienced the most devastating moment of her life on what was supposed to be the happiest day.

Moving On

In the days following the shocking incident, Jessica and Mark faced a tumultuous whirlwind of emotions. Friends and family offered their support, but the path ahead was fraught with uncertainty. Jessica took time to reflect on her relationship, needing space to process the events that had unfolded.

Mark, on the other hand, attempted to clear his name, reaching out to friends and family to defend himself against the accusations. Despite his efforts, the damage was done. The trust that had once formed the foundation of their relationship had been shattered, and the couple found themselves drifting further apart.

Conclusion

The shocking wedding day incident that tore Jessica and Mark apart serves as a poignant reminder that even the most meticulously planned events can unravel in an instant. Love can be both beautiful and fragile, and the truth can emerge in the most unexpected ways.

As they both navigate their separate paths, Jessica and Mark have learned that sometimes, the most significant chapters in life come not from the celebrations but from the challenges faced along the way. It’s a bittersweet lesson that echoes through their hearts, shaping their futures.

For those dealing with relationship challenges or needing guidance on personal matters, professional support can help navigate the complexities of love and trust. Seeking advice from trained professionals can provide clarity and direction, ensuring that you’re equipped to face whatever life throws your way.

Later-stage solar flares could be more disruptive to communication systems than previously thought, according to new research.

While it’s well known the first wave of a solar flare – a sudden burst of energy from the Sun – can knock out GPS signals and trigger global radio blackouts, the secondary emission is less-studied.

A new study now suggests this later phase, known as EUV (extreme ultraviolent), could be just as threatening to the Earth’s satellites, with more energy over a longer period of time.

This means it could have a prolonged impact on a part of the upper atmosphere called the ionosphere, which grows and shrinks depending on the energy it absorbs from the Sun.

Significant changes to the ionosphere – which satellites need to send signals around the planet – can disrupt communication completely.

Corresponding author Dr Susanna Bekker, from the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen’s University Belfast, said studying the impact of solar flares on the ionosphere is a “significant focus”.

“Studies have indicated that the illuminated part of the Earth’s ionosphere is extremely sensitive to variations in solar radiation fluxes, which can cause failures in technology that people rely on daily,” she said.

“During more powerful events, the effect on the ionosphere is much higher, therefore the late phase can also have a negative impact on the accuracy of navigation systems and the stability of radio communications.”

Recent findings have shown a large proportion of solar flares have an EUV late phase, whose influence is not yet as clear.

Solar flares are classed in relation to how powerful they are and their potential impact on Earth – with an X flare considered the most aggressive.

Image:
Extreme ultraviolet light streaming out of an X-class solar flare. Pic: NASA via PA

Researchers looked at data from previous X-class flares to analyse how the ionosphere responded to an EUV late-phase flare.

The findings are published in the The Astrophysical Journal.

Plinko: Il Gioco della Caduta

Plinko è un gioco che combina fortuna e strategia. L’obiettivo è far cadere una pallina lungo una serie di ostacoli per accumulare punti. La semplicità del gioco lo rende perfetto per brevi sessioni di gioco.

Consigli per Giocare a Plinko:

1. Osserva il Tabellone: Prima di lanciare la pallina, osserva attentamente il tabellone per identificare il percorso migliore.
2. Calcola gli Angoli: Prova a lanciare la pallina da angoli diversi per vedere quale ti offre la migliore possibilità di ottenere punti.
3. Sfrutta la Gravità: Ricorda che la pallina è soggetta alla gravità, quindi cerca di prevedere come rimbalzerà sugli ostacoli.

Giochi di Caramelle: Esplosioni di Dolcezza

I giochi di caramelle, come il famoso Candy Crush, continuano a essere tra i preferiti dai giocatori italiani. Questi giochi offrono sfide basate su puzzle dove devi abbinare caramelle dello stesso colore per eliminarle.

Consigli per i Giochi di Caramelle:

1. Pianifica le Tue Mosse: Prima di ogni mossa, pianifica attentamente per massimizzare l’effetto delle tue combinazioni.
2. Crea Combinazioni Speciali: Cerca di formare combinazioni speciali che possono eliminare intere righe o colonne di caramelle.
3. Gestisci i Bonus: Utilizza i bonus con saggezza per superare i livelli più difficili.

Giochi di Diamanti: Brillantezza e Strategia

I giochi di diamanti, come Bejeweled, sono perfetti per coloro che amano risolvere puzzle complessi. L’obiettivo è abbinare tre o più diamanti per guadagnare punti e avanzare nei livelli.  Pacchetto di benvenuto per i nuovi giocatori. Iscriviti oggi!

Consigli per i Giochi di Diamanti:

1. Cerca le Catene Lunghe: Più lunga è la catena di diamanti che abbini, maggiori saranno i punti che otterrai.
2. Fai Attenzione ai Timer: Alcuni livelli hanno un limite di tempo, quindi cerca di essere veloce ed efficiente.
3. Utilizza i Potenziamenti: I potenziamenti possono aiutarti a risolvere i livelli più complessi, quindi usali strategicamente.

Giochi di Frutta Pazza: Un Arcobaleno di Colori

I giochi di frutta pazza sono amati per la loro grafica vivace e il gameplay dinamico. L’obiettivo è simile a quello dei giochi di caramelle, dove devi abbinare frutti dello stesso tipo.

Consigli per i Giochi di Frutta Pazza:

1. Ottimizza le Tue Mosse: Cerca di creare le combinazioni più lunghe possibili per guadagnare più punti.
2. Sfrutta le Combo: Le combo possono eliminare grandi quantità di frutti, quindi cerca di crearle il più spesso possibile.
3. Mantieni la Calma: Anche se il gioco diventa intenso, mantieni la calma e pianifica le tue mosse con attenzione.

Questi giochi non solo offrono divertimento senza fine ma anche l’opportunità di sfidare le tue abilità di risoluzione dei problemi. Scarica questi giochi e inizia a giocare oggi per unirti agli altri milioni di giocatori in tutta Italia!

Ora disponibile in Italia! 

The UK’s competition regulator has launched an inquiry into Amazon’s investment of over £3bn into an artificial intelligence (AI) startup as regulators ramp up their scrutiny of mergers involving the fast-growing technology.

The deal, which was announced by Amazon in March, included a $4bn (£3.16bn) investment into Anthropic and a commitment from the AI startup to use Amazon Web Services as its “primary cloud provider” for essential functions, including safety research and the development of future foundation models.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had “sufficient information” about Amazon’s partnership with Anthropic, the company behind the Claude generative AI models, to begin an investigation.

The CMA said in a statement on its website that the watchdog is “considering whether it is or may be the case that Amazon’s partnership with Anthropic has resulted in the creation of a relevant merger situation” and, if so, whether that has “resulted, or may be expected to result, in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services.”

A tumble for AI boom companies

The launch of the inquiry follows a tumble in share prices for tech giants and companies associated with the AI boom.

Amazon’s share price slid in part because its financial results raised concern among some investors that the company had invested heavily in the technology without seeing much of a return.

The CMA last week announced a similar inquiry into Google’s partnership with Anthropic, and it is also investigating Microsoft’s involvement in Inflection, the AI lab, and OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.

The preliminary investigation into Amazon’s investment in Anthropic is now under way, and the CMA will decide whether to escalate the inquiry for an in-depth review by 4 October.

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Amazon’s reply

A spokesperson for Amazon said: “We’re disappointed that the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has not ended its probe yet. Amazon’s collaboration with Anthropic does not raise any competition concerns or meet the CMA’s own threshold for review.”

They said Amazon does not hold a board seat or have decision-making power at Anthropic, adding: “Building models is expensive, and companies like Anthropic need access to a substantial amount of capital to train these models.

“By investing in Anthropic, Amazon, along with other companies, is helping Anthropic expand choice and competition in this important technology.”

Anthropic did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Scientists think they can warm up Mars by blasting glitter into its atmosphere.

Warming up the red planet to around 28C could make it more hospitable for humans by melting ice and allowing microbial life to flourish.

One-third of Mars’ surface is water, and streams may have flowed around the planet as recently as 600,000 years ago, but at present it is too cold to be habitable.

For years, scientists have tried to work out how to heat up Mars but the proposed technologies have been expensive and hard to implement.

Now, scientists at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University in Illinois, and the University of Central Florida say they could use engineered particles made from iron and aluminium that lies on the planet’s surface to reflect light and trap escaping heat.

It’s the same process that humans have accidentally employed here on Earth; releasing material into the atmosphere to enhance Mars’ natural greenhouse effect and trap solar heat at the surface.

Instead of CO2 and methane, however, the researchers say “conductive nanorods” – “not much smaller than commercially available glitter” could do the job.

That means materials wouldn’t need to be brought to Mars, making the operation more feasible.

“For Mars, warming the planet is a necessary […] first step [to making it habitable]. Previous concepts have focused on releasing greenhouse gases, but these require large amounts of resources that are scarce on Mars,” said University of Chicago planetary scientist Edwin Kite, who helped lead the study published this week in the journal Science Advances.

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Once “lifted” into the atmosphere, the Mars glitter would be much slower to settle than standard Mars dust, meaning it would stay up there for a long time, according to the study.

“You’d still need millions of tons [of ‘glitter’] to warm the planet, but that’s five thousand times less than you would need with previous proposals to globally warm Mars,” said Mr Kite. “This significantly increases the feasibility of the project.”

Astronauts still won’t be able to breathe on Mars because of the thin air so it will be a long time before humans can walk on the surface unaided.

It’s the plot of plenty of sci-fi films: two astronauts are stranded in space and don’t yet know how they’re getting back.

Sunita “Suni” Williams and Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) in June as the first crew to test Boeing’s new Starliner, which suffered helium leaks and thruster failures before it docked – raising questions over how safe it is for the return flight.

Boeing has insisted the astronauts are not stuck and said “there’s no increased risk” in bringing them back in the Starliner, but NASA is contemplating getting them back on a SpaceX flight instead.

They should have only been in space for eight days, but they’ve now been there for more than two months and may have to stay until February.

But do they have enough supplies for such a stint, how are they coping mentally and what is day-to-day life like at the ISS?

Size and facilities

The ISS is 356ft (109m) end-to-end, one yard shy of the full length of an American football field including the end zones.

The living and work space, NASA says, is larger than a six-bedroom house, and has six sleeping quarters, two bathrooms, a gym, and a 360-degree view bay window.

As you’ll see later, it’s not quite as luxurious as it sounds.

Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore aren’t alone; they’re sharing the facilities with seven other astronauts from other missions; four of them fellow Americans and three of them Russians.

Is there enough food, water and oxygen?

Yes, there are reserve supplies up there to keep astronauts going for plenty of time.

The space station has its own oxygen-generating systems, and about 50% of oxygen exhaled from carbon dioxide is recovered.

As for water, the station has a urine-into-drinking-water recycling system, and a part of that system also captures moisture released into the cabin air from the crew’s breath and sweat.

Food supplies are a bit fancier. Meals are created at NASA’s Space Food Systems Laboratory in Houston, where chefs focus on making food appetising as well as nutritious.

Much of it is dehydrated, meaning it has to be filled up with water before being consumed, while some is ready-made and just needs to be heated.

There’s meat (barbecued beef brisket is one example of a meal on offer), eggs, vegetables, bread, savoury snacks and sweet treats in the station’s kitchen.

Image:
Astronauts at the space station made their own pizzas in 2017. Pic: AP

Crew members are also allowed to request some of their own personal favourites from off the shelves.

In a video on NASA’s YouTube channel, Ms Williams revealed her favourite commodity was Nutter Butter spread – and showed off a jar her family had sent up for her.

When were supplies last sent?

The spacecraft regularly receives more supplies from Earth, with the last one arriving on 6 August.

Launched on a rocket from Kazakhstan on 30 May, the supplies included about three tonnes of food, fuel and other supplies for Ms Williams, Mr Wilmore and the seven other crew members on board.

The crew can essentially place their orders for what they want to come on these crafts by speaking to Mission Control ahead of launches.

That was good news for Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams, who were forced to ditch their personal suitcases before taking off in June to make room for extra equipment, meaning they’ve had to wear spare clothes that were already at the ISS upon arrival.

Their own clothes finally arrived with the 6 August supplies, and more supplies are set to be sent up in a few months.

Once supply ships are emptied at the ISS, the crew fill them with their rubbish before sending them back to Earth.

How do you use a toilet without gravity?

There are some things space-based movies just don’t cover – but Ms Williams got into the grittier details of space life on NASA’s YouTube channel.

In the video filmed in 2012, Ms Williams showed off the toilet, which somewhat resembles one you might see on an airplane.

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The difference is there are two separate tubes to go in – one for urine and one for poo. The urine one, which is coloured yellow, is attached to the wall and almost looks like a vacuum cleaner – and fittingly it has a suction function to prevent gravity from causing a mess.

The tube for poo looks like more of a typical toilet, with a seat too – though you have to hold on to a handle on the wall next to it to avoid floating away as you go.

On the bright side, there’s about half-a-dozen types of toilet paper stuffed into bags on the toilet walls, including wet wipes and disinfectant wipes in case “things don’t go correctly,” as Ms Williams puts it.

Astronauts are also each given toiletry kits that come with things like a toothbrush and toothpaste (which you have to either swallow or spit into a tissue) and a hairbrush – which Ms Williams says is pointless in space because gravity constantly keeps your hair upright.

Image:
Suni Williams shows off her space hair during a news conference in July. Pic: AP

What about sleeping arrangements?

Remarkably you can sleep on the floor, on the wall or on the ceiling.

That’s because without gravity, the crew never feel like they are lying down. It makes no difference whether they are on the floor, standing up or upside down – it all feels the same.

So the ISS has sleeping stations about the size of phone booths that the crew get into, which consist of a sleeping bag and a pillow on the floor, wall and ceiling.

Leisure time

When they aren’t running space experiments, the crew can enjoy their view of Earth from the station’s observatory deck, or head to the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) in the Tranquillity node – a fancy term for gym equipment.

The ARED offers traditional upper and lower-body exercises, such as squats, dead lift, heel raises, bicep curls and bench press by using vacuum cylinders to replicate weights in gyms.

The crew is encouraged to use it throughout their space stays, as muscle and bone loss is common on long missions.

How are the pair feeling?

They are both retired navy captains and longtime NASA astronauts who already have long space station missions behind them.

Mr Wilmore, 61, and Ms Williams, 58, said going into this test flight that they expected to learn a lot about Starliner and how it operates.

At their only news conference from space in July, they assured reporters they were keeping busy, helping with repairs and research, and expressed confidence in all the Starliner testing going on behind the scenes.

Image:
Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams shortly before the launch. Pic: AP

Image:
Pic: AP

“I have a real good feeling in my heart that the spacecraft will bring us home, no problem,” Ms Williams told reporters.

There are tests going on back on Earth to determine whether the Boeing craft can still be used safely to bring them back.

“That mantra you’ve heard, ‘Failure is not an option,’ that’s why we are staying here now,” Mr Wilmore said last month.

“We trust that the tests that we’re doing are the ones we need to do to get the right answers, to give us the data that we need to come back.”

There’s been no public word from them yet on the prospects of an eight-month stay.

Mr Wilmore’s wife Deanna told AP earlier this week that he is “content” at the space station, “neither worrying nor fretting”.

She said Mr Widmore, who is a longtime elder at a church in Texas, has faith God is in control, and that this gives his family “great peace”.

What’s happening now?

As it stands, all but one of the Starliner’s five failed thrusters have been reactivated in orbit.

Tests are currently being done on Earth to try to remedy the problems seen in space, but engineers aren’t sure exactly what’s causing them and are also trying to plug helium leaks in Starliner’s propulsion system, which is crucial for manoeuvring.

Boeing has reiterated its capsule could still safely bring the astronauts home, but the company will need to modify Starliner’s software in case it has to return without a crew.

Image:
The Starliner pictured in space. Pic: AP

Ken Bowersox, NASA’s space operations mission chief, has suggested coming home on the same aircraft is still an option.

Mr Bowersox said during a recent meeting, they “heard from a lot of folks that had concern, and the decision was not clear”.

The SpaceX flight they would get on instead would leave Earth in September, but two astronauts scheduled to be on it would have to stay home to make room for Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore.

A decision is expected in the next week or so.

Would this be the longest anyone has spent in space?

No – Russian Valeri Polyakov set that record in the mid-1990s, spending 437 days off Earth.

And last year NASA astronaut Frank Rubio came back from a 371-day trip alongside Russian astronauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, breaking the record for the longest amount of time spent in space by an American.

That trip, much like this one, was prolonged by technical difficulties, and was only meant to take six months.

Scientists say there could be water on Mars underground, and more than enough to fill the planet’s oceans.

Scientists from California universities San Diego and Berkeley say evidence suggests there is a large reservoir of liquid water under the planet’s surface.

Using data from NASA’s InSight lander – which carried out a four-year-long mission that ended in 2022 – they wrote that the amount of groundwater could cover all of Mars to a depth of one to two kilometres.

But the researchers warned it isn’t straightforward to find it. They believe the water is located in the rocks that form the midcrust of the planet, and is around 11.5 to 20km below the surface.

Despite how inaccessible the water is, study author and assistant professor at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Vashan Wright, said the evidence it’s there gives major indications to the evolution of the red planet.

He said: “Understanding the Martian water cycle is critical for understanding the evolution of the climate, surface and interior.

“A useful starting point is to identify where water is and how much is there.”

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The researchers used InSight’s data collected from the ground on Mars, including on the speed of Marsquake waves, and used a model to determine that the presence of liquid water in the crust most plausibly explained the data.

They wrote: “While available data are best explained by a water-saturated mid-crust, our results highlight the value of geophysical measurements and better constraints on the mineralogy and composition of Mars’ crust.”

Scientists have long tried to find water on Mars, with theories suggesting it had escaped into space. But the new evidence suggests “Mars’ crust need not have lost most of its water via atmospheric escape,” the writers said.

“Liquid water in the pores of the mid-crust also requires high enough permeability and warm enough temperatures in the shallow crust to permit exchange between the surface and greater depths,” they add.

The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

NASA has given Elon Musk’s SpaceX permission to destroy the International Space Station (ISS) by 2030.

The space station has been continually occupied since 2000 by astronauts doing more than 3,300 scientific experiments above our heads.

But the countries operating the ISS only agreed to run it until 2030 at the latest.

Since 1998, the US, Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada have maintained different sections of the ISS. The agreements to jointly run the space station marked a new era of global cooperation after the Cold War.

But when those agreements run out, the space station will need to be brought out of orbit and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been given the $843m (£666.4m) contract to do it.

The company will build a vehicle to tow the space station through the atmosphere where it will “destructively break up”, according to NASA.

Crash landing

It will then crash into the ocean, away from populated areas, along with the SpaceX vehicle.

“The orbital laboratory remains a blueprint for science, exploration, and partnerships in space for the benefit of all,” said Ken Bowersox, NASA’s associate administrator for Space Operations Mission Directorate.

While SpaceX will develop the deorbit spacecraft, NASA will take ownership after development and operate it throughout its mission.

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But once the ISS is destroyed, low-orbit will not lie empty.

Private companies including SpaceX, Axiom, Blue Origin and Vast are developing commercial space stations that could launch as soon as next year.

“[Selecting the deorbit vehicle] supports NASA’s plans for future commercial destinations and allows for the continued use of space near Earth,” said Mr Bowersox.

The ISS costs the various space agencies €100bn (£84.6bn) to run, according to the European Space Agency, over 30 years.

NASA said the agency is transitioning to “commercially owned space destinations closer to home”.

Astronauts on the International Space Station were forced to take shelter last night after a Russian satellite broke into more than 100 pieces.

The nine astronauts living on the space station were told to shelter in their respective spacecraft, according to NASA, after the debris was spotted.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunni Williams boarded their Starliner spacecraft, the Boeing-built capsule that has been docked since June 6 in its first crewed test mission on the station.

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Three of the other US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut went into SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule that flew them to the station in March.

The sixth US astronaut joined the two remaining cosmonauts in their Russian Soyuz capsule that ferried them there in September last year.

The astronauts emerged from their spacecraft roughly an hour later and resumed their normal work on the station, NASA said.

Russian missile theory

There were no immediate details on what caused the break-up of the Russian Earth observation satellite, which was declared dead in 2022.

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Experts thought it was unlikely Russia shot it down with a ground-based anti-satellite missile.

“I find it hard to believe they would use such a big satellite as an ASAT target,” said Harvard astronomer Jonathan McDowell. “But, with the Russians these days, who knows?”

Russia sparked strong criticism in 2021 when it struck one of its defunct satellites in orbit with a missile launched from its Plesetsk rocket site.

The blast, testing a weapon system ahead of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, created thousands of pieces of orbital debris.

Mr McDowell and other analysts speculated the break-up could have been caused by a problem with the satellite, such as leftover fuel on board causing an explosion.

US Space Command, tracking the debris swarm, said there was no immediate threat to other satellites.