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Qiddiya Reveals First Look at Saudi ‘Capital of Entertainment, Sports and Arts’

The Qiddiya Investment Company unveils the much-anticipated Master Plan for Qiddiya. (SPA)
The Qiddiya Investment Company unveils the much-anticipated Master Plan for Qiddiya. (SPA)
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Qiddiya Reveals First Look at Saudi ‘Capital of Entertainment, Sports and Arts’

The Qiddiya Investment Company unveils the much-anticipated Master Plan for Qiddiya. (SPA)
The Qiddiya Investment Company unveils the much-anticipated Master Plan for Qiddiya. (SPA)

The Qiddiya Investment Company has unveiled the much-anticipated Master Plan for Qiddiya, the “Giga-Project” being constructed on the doorstep of Riyadh that will deliver on many of the goals of the Vision 2030. Qiddiya is set to become the Kingdom’s “Capital of Entertainment, Sports and the Arts”, with facilities and experiences that will bring together new opportunities and exposure at a scale and format never before seen.

By bringing together the elements for an active, healthy and ambitious lifestyle, Qiddiya will generate enormous economic opportunities, and thousands of new jobs that will prompt the development of new sectors, contributing to a diversified and prosperous economy.

“The people of Saudi Arabia share the universal desire for enriching experiences, and our plan allows Qiddiya to unlock access to these experiences in a new and culturally relevant way, encouraging personal and professional pursuits that foster enrichment,” said Michael Reininger, Chief Executive Officer of Qiddiya Investment Company.

The Master Plan, created in conjunction with Bjarke Ingles Group, a Denmark-based company, was constructed with careful consideration to the natural patterns that have been etched on the site throughout history, giving rise to a green-belt network carrying visitors throughout the property on roads, bike paths and walkways built within an enhanced landscape environment.

Located just 45 km from Riyadh, the 334 square kilometer site envisions development covering only 30 percent of the land leaving the majority of the majestic site dedicated for natural conservation.

“This project sets a new global standard for the seamless integration of visitor-focused experiences and an innovative mix of program pieces, delivering an unparalleled entertainment destination,” said Bob Ward, Chairman of the Qiddiya Advisory Board.

The site is organized around five primary attractions.

The Resort Core represents the heart of Qiddiya, where four gated-attractions surround a central specialty retail, dining, resort hotel and entertainment district. Adjacent to this 15-hectare lies is a major outdoor entertainment venue that can host events of a capacity of 5,000 to 40,000 visitors.

The 2022 opening phase features Six Flags Qiddiya, a family-oriented park filled with rides and attractions distributed throughout six themed lands. A second feature park is a water-oriented sports and entertainment attraction, which includes an integrated resort hotel.

The third feature is the “Speed Park” which brings together events and experiences from the world of motor sports in a venue that places equal emphasis on spectator and driver. The Speed Park includes tracks, showrooms, retail, a driver’s club and a luxury hotel within its gates.

Overlooking the Resort Core from its perch 200m above on the edge of the Tuwaiq escarpment, the City Center is a mixed-use village dedicated to sports and the arts. Coupled to the entertainment core below by a funicular transportation system, residential, retail and workplace environments are organized around two intersecting pedestrian circulation spines linking a portfolio of feature facilities.

The City Center is home to a collection of sports venues including a 20,000 seat cliff-top stadium, an 18,000 seat multi-purpose indoor arena, an aquatic center and a sports hub capable of hosting a cross-section of individual sports activities and events.

Arts and entertainment create a buzz throughout the city as they emerge from an innovative arts center, a signature 2,000 seat performing arts theater and a premier multiplex cinema that dot the central walkways as primary destinations.

A creative campus offers workspace, media production and education facilities. A grand mosque anchors one end of the city with a place for worship and community gathering. A private school, a sports medicine hospital, and beautiful private villas along a biking/walking path on the Cliff’s Edge complete the composition.

To the northwest of the Resort Core sits the Eco Core designed around a series of nature and wildlife encounters, an ecologically-sensitive golf course, outdoor sporting adventures and several unique hospitality offerings that take advantage of the picturesque desert environment.

The Motion Core, to the southeast of the Resort Core, will be home to events, experiences, residential and hospitality offerings that are driven by the science and technology of people in motion.

Along with a Race Resort, where homes and club facilities provide access to a beautiful and challenging 15 km performance driving course, facilities for both on-road and off-road driving experiences, driver education and destination motor sports events will be constructed within a landscape surrounded by a mountain side backdrop.

A Golf and Residential Neighborhood sits near the center of the property where panoramic vistas of the project are available from an array of residential and resort offerings that include a championship 18-hole golf course and club house facilities, a luxurious resort hotel and spa and equestrian facilities—all accessed from villas, townhomes and private retreats.

A range of additional retail, residential, community services and commercial support facilities are distributed throughout the property for ease of access and utility that support the modern lifestyle Qiddiya is designed to deliver.

Qiddiya brings together an expansive range of attractions and opportunities in a singular and easily accessible destination, delivered to “best-in-class” standards and allows Saudis to enjoy the entertainment and professional experiences that inspire them without having to leave the Kingdom to fulfill their ambitions.

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Varieties

Saturn's Moon Titan May Not Have a Buried Ocean as Long Suspected, New Study Suggests

This image made by the Cassini spacecraft and provided by NASA on March 12, 2006, shows two of Saturn's moons, the small Epimetheus and smog-enshrouded Titan, with Saturn's A and F rings stretching across the frame. (NASA via AP)
This image made by the Cassini spacecraft and provided by NASA on March 12, 2006, shows two of Saturn's moons, the small Epimetheus and smog-enshrouded Titan, with Saturn's A and F rings stretching across the frame. (NASA via AP)
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Saturn's Moon Titan May Not Have a Buried Ocean as Long Suspected, New Study Suggests

This image made by the Cassini spacecraft and provided by NASA on March 12, 2006, shows two of Saturn's moons, the small Epimetheus and smog-enshrouded Titan, with Saturn's A and F rings stretching across the frame. (NASA via AP)
This image made by the Cassini spacecraft and provided by NASA on March 12, 2006, shows two of Saturn's moons, the small Epimetheus and smog-enshrouded Titan, with Saturn's A and F rings stretching across the frame. (NASA via AP)

Saturn's giant moon Titan may not have a vast underground ocean after all.

Titan instead may hold deep layers of ice and slush more akin to Earth’s polar seas, with pockets of melted water where life could possibly survive and even thrive, scientists reported Wednesday.

The team led by researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory challenged the decade-long assumption of a buried global ocean at Titan after taking a fresh look at observations made years ago by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft around Saturn.

They stress that no one has found any signs of life at Titan, the solar system’s second largest moon spanning 3,200 miles (5,150 kilometers) and brimming with lakes of liquid methane on its frosty surface, The AP news reported.

But with the latest findings suggesting a slushy, near-melting environment, “there is strong justification for continued optimism regarding the potential for extraterrestrial life,” said the University of Washington’s Baptiste Journaux, who took part in the study published in the journal Nature.

As to what form of life that might be, possibly strictly microscopic, “nature has repeatedly demonstrated far greater creativity than the most imaginative scientists," he said in an email.

JPL’s Flavio Petricca, the lead author, said Titan’s ocean may have frozen in the past and is currently melting, or its hydrosphere might be evolving toward complete freezing.

Computer models suggest these layers of ice, slush and water extend to a depth of more than 340 miles (550 kilometers). The outer ice shell is thought to be about 100 miles (170 kilometers) deep, covering layers of slush and pools of water that could go down another 250 miles (400 kilometers). This water could be as warm as 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius).

Because Titan is tidally locked, the same side of the moon faces Saturn all the time, just like our own moon and Earth. Saturn’s gravitational pull is so intense that it deforms the moon’s surface, creating bulges as high as 30 feet (10 meters) when the two bodies are closest.

Through improved data processing, Petricca and his team managed to measure the timing between the peak gravitational tug and the rising of Titan’s surface. If the moon held a wet ocean, the effect would be immediate, Petricca said, but a 15-hour gap was detected, indicating an interior of slushy ice with pockets of liquid water. Computer modeling of Titan’s orientation in space supported their theory.

Sapienza University of Rome’s Luciano Iess, whose previous studies using Cassini data indicated a hidden ocean at Titan, is not convinced by the latest findings.

While “certainly intriguing and will stimulate renewed discussion ... at present, the available evidence looks certainly not sufficient to exclude Titan from the family of ocean worlds," Iess said in an email.

NASA’s planned Dragonfly mission — featuring a helicopter-type craft due to launch to Titan later this decade — is expected to provide more clarity on the moon’s innards. Journaux is part of that team.

Saturn leads the solar system’s moon inventory with 274. Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is just a little larger than Titan, with a possible underground ocean. Other suspected water worlds include Saturn’s Enceladus and Jupiter’s Europa, both of which are believed to have geysers of water erupting from their frozen crusts.

Launched in 1997, Cassini reached Saturn in 2004, orbiting the ringed planet and flying past its moons until deliberately plunging through Saturn’s atmosphere in 2017.

Varieties

Catch the Ursid Meteor Shower as it Peaks just before Christmas

People look up to the sky from an observatory near the village of Avren, Bulgaria, Aug. 12, 2009. (AP Photo/Petar Petrov, File)
People look up to the sky from an observatory near the village of Avren, Bulgaria, Aug. 12, 2009. (AP Photo/Petar Petrov, File)
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Catch the Ursid Meteor Shower as it Peaks just before Christmas

People look up to the sky from an observatory near the village of Avren, Bulgaria, Aug. 12, 2009. (AP Photo/Petar Petrov, File)
People look up to the sky from an observatory near the village of Avren, Bulgaria, Aug. 12, 2009. (AP Photo/Petar Petrov, File)

The last major meteor shower of the year, known as the Ursids, peaks soon, bringing glowing streaks to nighttime and early morning skies. Compared to other meteor showers, it's more subdued, but experts say it's still worth a glimpse.

Meteor showers happen when space rocks hit Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds and burn up, gaining fiery tails — the end of a “shooting star.” Random meteors are visible from Earth on any given clear night, but more predictable meteor showers happen yearly when Earth passes through streams of cosmic leftovers from comets or asteroids, Reuters reported.

The Ursids peak Sunday night into Monday morning and will be visible until Dec. 26 from the Northern Hemisphere. Skygazers usually see five to 10 meteors per hour during the height and there's a possibility for outbursts of up to 25 meteors per hour, according to the American Meteor Society.

How active a shower will appear from Earth depends on the amount of debris and the moon's brightness, which can blot out glowing meteors. The Ursids feature less space debris than other showers like the Geminids, but the narrow crescent moon won't be much of an obstacle when they peak.

No special equipment is needed to view a meteor shower. To see the Ursids, which hail from a comet called 8P/Tuttle, bundle up and get away from city lights.

“The darker your sky, the better the shower is going to be,” said astronomer Peter Brown with Western University in Canada.

The meteors can be seen over the whole sky, but all the streaks will seem to come from a central point near a constellation for which the shower is named. In this case, that's the constellation Ursa Minor, also known as the Little Dipper.

Once it gets dark, avoid bright lights from cellphones, which will make it harder for your eyes to adjust.

Varieties

Private Astronaut Jared Isaacman Becomes NASA Chief

NASA's next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with its Orion crew capsule perched on top, is seen in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) before it is scheduled to make a slow-motion journey to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, US March 16, 2022. REUTERS/Thom Baur
NASA's next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with its Orion crew capsule perched on top, is seen in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) before it is scheduled to make a slow-motion journey to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, US March 16, 2022. REUTERS/Thom Baur
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Private Astronaut Jared Isaacman Becomes NASA Chief

NASA's next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with its Orion crew capsule perched on top, is seen in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) before it is scheduled to make a slow-motion journey to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, US March 16, 2022. REUTERS/Thom Baur
NASA's next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with its Orion crew capsule perched on top, is seen in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) before it is scheduled to make a slow-motion journey to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, US March 16, 2022. REUTERS/Thom Baur

The US Senate confirmed billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman to become President Donald Trump's NASA administrator, making an advocate of Mars missions and a former associate of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk the space agency's 15th leader. The vote on Isaacman, who Trump removed and then renamed as NASA administrator nominee this year, passed 67-30, two weeks after he told senators in his second hearing that NASA must pick up the pace in beating China back to the moon this decade, Reuters reported.

Isaacman will lead an agency of 14,000 employees as it invests billions of dollars into its most ambitious space exploration endeavor yet: returning humans to the moon to seed a long-term presence on the surface before eventually sending astronauts to Mars.

NASA WORKFORCE CUT IN EFFICIENCY PUSH

The White House, in its government efficiency push led by Musk, slashed NASA's workforce by 20% and has sought to cut the agency's 2026 budget by roughly 25% from its usual $25 billion, imperiling dozens of space-science programs that scientists and some officials regard as priorities.

Isaacman envisions a revamped focus on sending missions to Mars on top of the Artemis moon effort, as well as a greater dependence on private companies such as SpaceX to save taxpayer money and stimulate private-sector competition.

Of the 67 votes in Isaacman's favor, 16 were from Democrats, joining 51 from Republicans. All 30 votes against his confirmation were from Democrats.

Maria Cantwell, the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee that oversees NASA, has criticized the Trump administration's efforts to cut NASA's science unit. She supported Isaacman's confirmation on Wednesday.

"During his nomination process, Mr. Isaacman emphasized the importance of developing a pipeline of future scientists, engineers, researchers, (and) astronauts to support the science and technology development and align with NASA's objectives. I strongly agree," Cantwell said.

Some Democratic senators said during Isaacman's hearing on December 3 they are concerned about Isaacman's closeness to Musk, whose company holds about $15 billion in NASA contracts and could benefit from certain policies Isaacman has advocated.

Musk advocated for Isaacman's nomination when Trump was elected in 2024. Musk had sought to realign the US space program with a greater focus on Mars during his stint as a close adviser to Trump.

Senate Republicans and some Democrats, including Cantwell, have also stressed urgency in NASA's moon race with China, which is aiming to send its astronauts to the lunar surface by 2030. NASA faces a shaky target of 2028 using its Space Launch System rocket and SpaceX's giant Starship rocket, under development, as the lander.

Acting NASA chief Sean Duffy, who also leads the US Transportation Department, congratulated Isaacman on X, wishing Isaacman "success as he begins his tenure and leads NASA as we go back to the Moon in 2028 and beat China."