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The mysterious culture of Xiaohe of the Tarim Basin depicts a fascinating glance into ancient funeral traditions. The Xiaohe’s boat-shaped burials and symbolic artefacts make it different, dating back to 1950-1400 BCE. These tombs preserved in the hyperarid desert offer rare spiritual clues and organic materials. The research done by Dr. Gino Caspari restructures their symbolism through ecological and cultural lenses. This new perspective connects Xiaohe rituals to cattle, water, and mirrored concepts of their afterlife. Their inclusion could also mean anchorage and guidance in the journey of the afterlife.

Revisiting Xiaohe Burial Practices

As per the study, the first excavation was done in the 1930s for the Xiaohe culture, and completely explored in the early 2000s, has intrigued scientists with its unusual burial customs. The burial customs, characterised by boat-shaped coffins, upright poles, and cattle remains, went contrary to the cultures in ancient Central Asia.

Symbolism of Coffins and Poles

Interpretations in the past saw these forms as possibly representing a spiritual journey, through symbolic boats. Poles fixed to coffins, sometimes interpreted as a vulva, were found inconsistently across the gender lines. Dr. Caspari, however, predicts that these poles might represent mooring posts or paddles, which originated from Xiaohe telling about their existence from the oasis.

Water, Cattle, and the Desert Edge

Xiaohe people were completely dependent on the cattle for their survival in the oasis, at the edge of the desert. Burials included cattle hides and skulls quite often, mainly for honouring this symbiotic relationship. In such an environment, water was spiritually potent and also a life-giving element. Dr. Caspari proposed that the coffin shapes the burial adornments actually reflected this kind of significance, and the funerary rites were structured to ensure the  safe passage into a water-themed afterlife, completely inverted.

Legacy and Future Research

Even after these breakthroughs, many graves remained unpublished, and the site’s access to these remains was limited. Dr. Caspari found that the Xiaohe culture’s sudden disappearance around 1400 CE is still unknown. Each interpretation, such as the afterlife’s water-centric model, brings scholars closer to delving into the beliefs of Xiaohe and their daily lives of the elusive desert civilisations.

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SpaceX Launches 26 Starlink Satellites from California to Expand Low Earth Orbit Internet Network

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June 18, 2025

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SpaceX Launches 26 Starlink Satellites from California to Expand Low Earth Orbit Internet Network

SpaceX has launched 26 more Starlink satellites to the ever-growing constellation of internet relay stations in low Earth orbit. The flight took off at 8:36 p.m. PDT (11:36 p.m. EDT or 0336 GMT, June 17) on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base. It was the third trip to space for the rocket booster and reflected the continued push of SpaceX to make space travel more affordable — and more recyclable. The satellites reached their initial orbit around eight and a half minutes after departure. The landing set the stage for precise deployment later in the mission.

As per a mission update on SpaceX’s official website, the 15-9 Starlink group is expected to be deployed following a second burn of the Falcon 9 upper stage about an hour into the flight. Meanwhile, the rocket’s first stage—serial number B1093—executed a precise autonomous landing on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You stationed in the Pacific Ocean. This same booster previously flew in May, making this its third Starlink-related deployment.

The launch comes just days after a similar mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida, where SpaceX deployed the final batch of satellites for its first-generation direct-to-cell service. That June 13 mission (12-26) was a game-changer, providing elementary cell connectivity even in the planet’s most isolated areas. But the June 16 launch was not carrying direct-to-cell payloads; it was adding to the base of the primary Starlink internet constellation that already features more than 7,760 operational spacecraft.

SpaceX’s Starlink is its ambitious project to bring high-speed internet to practically the entire planet, with a focus on remote and underserved regions. The system continues to become bigger since Falcon 9 can be launched from both coasts of the US and is meant to be reused. As the constellation becomes denser, people all across the world will notice greater performance and reduced latency.

The launch on June 16 illustrates how dependable SpaceX’s orbital strategy is because it can quickly switch between missions and provide exact measurements for reusability. Starlink is nearing a point where it could provide service to the whole world, now that its network has topped 7,700 satellites. Other features may also be added to upcoming launches, including next-generation, direct-to-cell satellites that would make the service more valuable and easier to use.

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NASA and DoD Simulate Critical Abort Scenarios to Secure Artemis II Moon Mission

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June 18, 2025

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NASA and DoD Simulate Critical Abort Scenarios to Secure Artemis II Moon Mission

NASA teamed up with the U.S. Department of Defence on 11 and 12 June to conduct a simulation for emergency procedures for a crewed lunar mission as part of the Artemis II mission. The combined test was a test of abort scenarios that could affect the Orion crew vehicle during a countdown or in flight as it travels to space. Staged off the coast of Florida, these high-stakes dress rehearsals were dry runs of just how quickly and effectively teams could find and recover astronauts following an in-flight failure, bolstering readiness as NASA aims for its first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years.

NASA, DoD Simulate Orion Capsule Abort Rescues to Boost Artemis II Astronaut Safety Systems

As per an official NASA report, these simulations involved coordinated efforts by the Kennedy Space Centre’s launch team, Johnson Space Centre flight controllers, and the Artemis II mission management. A test version of the Orion capsule, known as the Crew Module Test Article, was deployed with mannequins on board to mimic a real crew. On the first day, a simulated pad abort was executed where Orion was imagined to be ejected before launch. Navy helicopters carrying U.S. Air Force pararescuers deployed from Patrick Space Force Base, diving into the ocean to extract the test crew for a mock medical evacuation.

In the following scenario, there was an abort during ascent, which included a simulated mid-flight ejection and splashdown in the water 12 miles off the coast. More pararescuers were dropped, and they used special NASA-DoD equipment to get to the floating capsule. This was necessary for emergency retrieval.

Teams for NASA’s Moon to Mars Program are practising launch day operations with a series of procedures similar to previous Underway Recovery Tests to verify mission safety functionality.
NASA and the Department of Defence (DoD) have practised an abort scenario to keep astronauts safe as they would fly on the Artemis II mission, which will take four astronauts on a journey around the Moon and back as part of long-term human exploration of deep space beyond Earth.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who’sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.


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Brain’s Built-In Signal Threshold Helps Differentiate Imagination from Reality

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June 18, 2025

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Brain’s Built-In Signal Threshold Helps Differentiate Imagination from Reality

A basic but inscrutable brain system may distinguish between reality and imagination. New research has found that there may be a “dial” in the fusiform that may influence whether we interpret something sensory as real or imagined. The research, published in the journal Neuron, also gives new understanding of conditions like schizophrenia, where perception and thought are not properly distinguished, leading the researchers to conclude that this threshold system is crucial to normal cognition and sensory decision-making.

Brain Distinguishes Reality from Imagination Using Signal Threshold in Visual Processing Region

As per a report in Live Science, researchers from University College London used functional MRI to examine brain activity in 26 volunteers as they viewed or imagined diagonal lines on a noisy screen. Half the time, the lines were real; the rest of the time, participants were asked to imagine lines, either matching or differing from the visual cues. When imagined visuals aligned with expected inputs, participants were more likely to report having “seen” something, even when nothing was displayed, indicating the brain’s susceptibility to being tricked by strong internal signals.

The scans showed that both real and imagined stimuli activated the fusiform gyrus, but only when activity exceeded a specific intensity did the brain classify the input as “real”. This finding suggests that a threshold in this brain region helps determine reality perception. Notably, the anterior insula—a region linked to decision-making—also activated in tandem, potentially acting as a “reader” of the fusiform’s signal strength.

Lead author Nadine Dijkstra noted that while imagination does stimulate the same region, the signal is usually too weak to convince the brain of external input. This technology is basic enough that it could aid us in understanding more about hallucinations and other mental health issues that alter the way we see.

Experts say the study paves the way for further research with more complex visual and real-world multimodal integration. The group seeks to investigate how people perceive faces, animals, and things. They’re also curious if applying brain stimulation can be a route to enhancing imagined perception. Thomas Pace, a neuroscientist who wasn’t involved with the research, said that the findings were a big step towards figuring out how reality monitoring works and how it could not work in cases like schizophrenia.

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