DiCaprio Invests in Space: Lights, Camera, LiDAR!
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DiCaprio Invests in Space: Lights, Camera, LiDAR!
PLUS: Scars of a Black Hole's Tantrum
Greetings from Hollywood, my fellow Earthlings - and happy Friday 👽️ 🖖
📸 From Hollywood to the Heavens: Nuview’s LiDAR satellites close $15MM in funding with Leo DiCaprio among investors
Star-studded startup, Nuview, has been making waves with its space-based LiDAR technology attempting to map the entire globe in 3D. LiDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging - it’s a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure how long it takes for the light to return to the sensor. This is how 3D models of the Earth are constructed. The company is building a constellation of 20 commercial satellites outfitted with its proprietary LiDAR system capable of scanning very large areas at once and generating the most comprehensive LiDAR data for Earth's landmasses to date.
It's not your ordinary maps project; think of it as Leonardo Da Vinci painting the Mona Lisa, but instead it's Leonardo DiCaprio capturing the entire landmass of Earth on a 3D, real-time canvas. Nuview has already banked $15 million from investors in a group led by MaC Venture Capital, along with Broom Ventures, Cortado, Florida Funders, Industrious, Liquid2, Veto Capitala - and the Academy Award-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio, marking his first-ever space startup investment.
The company has also received $1.2 billion in early adopter agreements, given this is the first-ever commercial system designed to map the entire globe in 3D with LiDAR. These early adopter agreements mean that Nuview has customers who have agreed to use their tech before it is widely available.
Here is a summary of how Nuview is innovating in this space:
Nuview's Space-Based LiDAR is revolutionizing earth observation like a high-tech bird flying globally, capturing detailed 3D images of the earth's surface, surpassing traditional methods like airplanes or drones in detail and coverage, even in the most remote and inaccessible areas.
Nuview's high-resolution 3D models, Digital Surface Models (DSMs) and Digital Terrain Models (DTMs), can be compared to assembling two distinct puzzles. When these puzzles are united, they reveal a fuller picture, with greater significance. DSMs are sensors for man-made structures, while DTMs focus solely on natural terrains.
Nuview's 3D Change Detection and Foliage Penetration is like a time-lapse video documenting environmental changes and an x-ray vision penetrating forest canopies, respectively. This unique ability supports urban growth monitoring, infrastructure development, and environmental studies.
Wide Applications Across Various Fields: Nuview's LiDAR tech is akin to a Swiss Army knife, attempting to be the solution for flood mapping & water body management, forest and carbon monitoring, renewable energy, flood risk management, coastal resilience, infrastructure planning, environmental management, telecommunications, and national mapping initiatives.
💥 Ancient Galactic Battle Scars: Tracing the Path of Black Hole Eruptions
According to new research published June 2 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, it's as though astronomers have uncovered the cosmic equivalent of ancient battle scars etched across the Milky Way. With the help of the MeerKAT telescope, they've discovered hundreds of filament-like structures, each stretching up to 10 light-years long (a very long road trip). These invisible threads, only visible in radio wavelengths, seem to lead right to the heart of our galaxy, where our local black hole monster, Sagittarius A* resides.
These filaments may trace a sort of “tantrum” of Sagittarius A*—imagine a toddler with the mass of 4 million suns—resulting in a high-energy outburst that left these filaments as unhealed scars. They're like cosmic breadcrumbs, revealing an ancient eruption estimated to have occurred about 6 million years ago — an outburst that tore through surrounding clouds of gas. Further observations are needed to confirm this theory, but it's clear our galaxy has a bit of a wild past.
Tune in next time for more cosmic soap opera updates!
🐦 Tweet of the Day 🐦
'Extraterrestrials Don't Exist,' Says Pentagon Spokesman From Behind Alien Facehugger https://t.co/f1WhyU6v64 https://t.co/gZP9PtgsZ1
That’s it for today, Earthlings.
As always, thanks for reading, and see you next time! 🧑🚀