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Tensions between Brazil and Elon Musk’s business empire ratcheted up further as the country’s telecoms regulator threatened to sanction his satellite broadband company Starlink hours after its top court stood behind a controversial decision to ban social network X from the country.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also backed the top court’s Judge Alexandre de Moraes’ decision to suspend X. The judge found that X allowed postings of hate messages and falsehoods about the country’s electronic voting system that undermined Brazil’s democracy.

“The Brazilian judiciary may have given an important signal that the world is not obliged to put up with Musk’s far-right ideology just because he is rich,” Lula said in an interview with CNN Brasil released on Monday.

Reacting to the judge’s earlier move to freeze Starlink’s accounts for possible use to pay fines owed by X, Musk said in an X posting that he would seek a reciprocal seizure of Brazilian assets, but did not say how.

Starlink on Monday again found itself in Brazilian authorities’ crosshairs by refusing to obey Moraes’ order for all internet providers to block domestic access to X.

A senior official at telecommunications regulator Anatel said sanctions against Starlink for noncompliance could include the revocation of its license to operate in Brazil.

Anatel commissioner Artur Coimbra told Reuters that the regulator is inspecting all Brazilian telecom operators to make sure they have shut down Musk’s messaging platform.

Starlink is the only company that has told Anatel it will not comply with the judge’s ruling, Coimbra said.

Starlink did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

It previously told Anatel it was refusing to remove X from its service until the freeze on its Brazilian bank accounts was lifted, the telecom regulator confirmed to Reuters earlier on Monday.

Moraes last week froze Starlink’s accounts after X did not pay fines imposed for failing to obey judicial orders.

Sixth Biggest Market

Earlier on Monday, a Supreme Court panel voted unanimously to uphold the suspension of X in the country for defying a court order.

Moraes last week ruled that X should be suspended in Brazil because it did not name a local legal representative as required by law and ignored a deadline for compliance.

Justices Flavio Dino, Cristiano Zanin, Carmen Lucia and Luiz Fux sided with Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Three of the justices on the panel said the suspension could be reversed if the platform complied with previous rulings.

X did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the panel’s decision.

X was taken down for most Brazilians in the early hours of Saturday following Moraes’ decision although some people continued to access it through VPNs and other means. Moraes has also threatened to levy a fine of 50,000 reais ($8,902.66) a day on those using VPNs to access the social network, although it remains unclear how enforceable that threat is.

Brazil is X’s sixth-biggest market globally with about 21.5 million users as of April, according to Statista.

Moraes and Musk, who owns a controlling share in Starlink, have been locked in a months-long feud after the social media platform challenged orders to block accounts accused by investigators of spreading misinformation and hate.

While Moraes’ defenders see him as a crusader in the defense of democracy, critics accuse him of using heavy-handed methods on politicians and businessmen.

Musk has argued that Moraes sought to censor users and closed the X office in Brazil in August without appointing a new representative, triggering the suspension.

On Monday, Musk replied, “Exactly,” to a post that described the suspension as an attack on freedom of expression and Brazilians’ rights.

Chief Justice Luis Roberto Barroso, who was not on the review panel, said that removing legal representatives to avoid complying with court decisions “is a behavior that would not be acceptable anywhere in the world.”

X remained inaccessible for most users in Brazil.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Sun Unleash a 600,000-Mile Filament in Fiery Eruption

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May 19, 2025

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Sun Unleash a 600,000-Mile Filament in Fiery Eruption

A stunning solar eruption captured on video on the night of May 12-13 has revealed a 600,000-mile-long filament blasting away from the sun’s northern hemisphere. The outburst occurred around 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT) and spanned a distance more than twice that between Earth and the moon. A massive solar filament suspended above the sun’s surface became unstable and erupted, blasting a CME into space along with a cloud of plasma and magnetic energy. Preliminary models show Earth is nowhere in the firing range of this fiery ejection, but researchers are still watching the phenomenon closely.

Sun’s 600,000-Mile-Long ‘Angel-Wing’ Eruption Stuns Skywatchers, Signals Rising Solar Activity

As per the Space.com report, the eruption originated from a filament structure composed of dense, cooler solar plasma held aloft by magnetic fields. These structures often appear as dark ribbons across the sun’s disk and can become unstable without warning. Solar observers noted that this latest eruption dwarfed similar recent events, both in scale and intensity. Aurora chaser Jure Atanackov remarked that the CME from the blast was among the most spectacular seen this year, although fortunately, it is headed north and will miss Earth.

The event, dubbed the “angel-wing” or “bird-wing” eruption by observers online, was widely shared among solar watchers. Vincent Ledvina, another aurora chaser, noted its incredible visual impact, describing it as a sight worth watching on loop. The eruption is, in fact, so long, by more than a million kilometres, that it is of scientific interest and visually striking as well. Geomagnetic storms resulting from this kind of CME can affect satellites, communication systems, and even Earth.

Although it foreshadows the unpredictable nature of our host star, this particular CME does not pose a threat to Earth at the moment. Solar activity is ramping up as we approach the peak of Solar Cycle 25 in 2025. What’s more, more — and maybe more Earth-threatening — solar explosions could follow.
As a reminder of the formidable and delicate forces at play relatively close by on Earth, the sun remains a source of wonder for astronomers and skywatchers alike.

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New Study Challenges Fuzzy Dark Matter with Stronger Mass Constraint

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May 19, 2025

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New Study Challenges Fuzzy Dark Matter with Stronger Mass Constraint

Over 80 years, dark matter has been a great mystery for the researchers. Elusive of direct observation, it has made its existence known only by the gravitational impacts it makes on cosmic structures. Even though there is a lot of indirect evidence of its existence, the real nature of dark matter is still unknown. An important attribute of its particle is mass. While past studies have constrained the mass of fermionic dark matter using quantum principles like Pauli’s exclusion principle, bosonic dark matter remained less constrained. In a recent study, scientists have estimated a new lower bound on the mass of ultra-lightweight bosonic dark matter particles.

About the study

According to the study published in Physical Review Letters, the mass of ultralight bosonic dark matter must be more than 2 × 10-21 electron volts (eV), 100 times more than previous estimates using Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.

The team of researchers, led by the first author of the study, Tim Zimmermann, a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, focused their method on the data of Leo II, the Milky Way’s satellite galaxy. It is a dwarf galaxy 1,000 times smaller than the Milky Way. By analyzing the internal motions of stars within Leo II—heavily influenced by dark matter—the team derived 5,000 possible dark matter density profiles using a tool called GRAVSPHERE.

They compared these with profiles generated by quantum wave functions of various dark matter particle masses. If the particle is too light, quantum fuzziness spreads it too thinly, preventing it from forming the observed structures. The study concluded that the dark matter particle must have a mass greater than 2.2 × 10⁻²¹ electron volts (eV)—over 100 times more than previous lower estimates.

Impact on dark matter studies

The findings have significant implications for popular ultralight dark matter models, particularly fuzzy dark matter, which typically proposes particles with masses around 10-22 ev.

Looking ahead, the team plans to extend their methodology to mixed dark matter scenarios, where dark matter is composed of particles with different masses.

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NASA’s Perseverance Captures Deimos Before Dawn in Striking Martian Sky Image

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May 19, 2025

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NASA’s Perseverance Captures Deimos Before Dawn in Striking Martian Sky Image

NASA’s Perseverance rover has delivered a striking early morning image of Mars’ moon Deimos, taken just before dawn on March 1, 2025 — Sol 1433 of the mission. Captured at 4:27 a.m. local time using the rover’s left navigation camera, the view combines 16 long-exposure shots taken over 52 seconds. Each frame used the maximum exposure setting of 3.28 seconds, enabling the camera to glimpse faint celestial features in Mars’ dim pre-dawn sky. Though the image appears hazy due to low light and digital noise, the effort reveals a rare visual of Deimos suspended in the Martian atmosphere.

Perseverance’s Celestial Snapshot Reveals Deimos, Distant Stars, and Martian Sky Dynamics

As per a report from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the brightness of Deimos is accompanied by multiple white specks across the sky, many of which are likely caused by image noise. Some of them could be cosmic rays hitting the sensor while exposing. Two bright spots, Regulus and Algieba, are easily found in the image. It adds perspective on the rover’s unique view of things, these stars, which belong to the Leo constellation. The image was stitched together onboard and transmitted later to Earth, where researchers analysed the result.

These make the resultant composition an example of other possible roles of the Perseverance rover as an observational instrument apart from geology and surface exploration. While atmospheric haze and digital distortion make it difficult to show in full clarity, the long-exposure effort shows the faintness with which Martian moons and nearby stars can, in fact, still be tracked under controlled conditions. Deimos appears brighter due to its reflective nature and proximity during this early-morning observation.

Researchers believe this type of celestial photography may enhance understanding of Mars‘ sky conditions and moon dynamics. Deimos and Phobos, the Red Planet’s two moons, are of growing interest as potential markers for future orbit-based missions. Capturing them from the surface during optimal lighting conditions offers new insights into their behaviour.

NASA continues to push imaging capabilities on Mars through Perseverance’s tools. With each sol, even distant cosmic views — like Deimos before dawn — offer new visual science from the Martian frontier.

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