Astronomers have discovered 139 new “minor planets” in our solar system, beyond the orbit of Neptune. These small objects could provide clues as to whether the mysterious Planet Nine, a hypothesized planet orbiting our sun which has not been directly observed, does really exist. The minor planets were discovered using data from the Dark Energy […]
Wondering what kind of operating system you would use in a post-apocalyptic world after the collapse of society might sound like kind of a low priority. But that’s because you’re not actually in the situation and don’t have to worry about how humankind can make a go of it in Earth’s darkest hour yet. This […]
The original Star Wars launched thousands, if not millions, of dreams for the generation of kids who grew up watching it. For Jeri Ellsworth, today the CEO of augmented reality company Tilt Five, there was one moment that especially stuck out: the Dejarik scene. For non-Star Wars geeks, Dejarik — also known as holochess — […]
An artist’s impression of a black hole. ANDRZEJ WOJCICKI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY The concept of a ninth planet in our solar system which orbits far beyond Neptune captured the public’s imagination in 2016, and earlier this year the idea gained steam again when astronomers found more evidence in support of “Planet Nine’s” existence. Now, a different […]
Gemini Observatory two-color composite image of C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) which is the first interstellar comet ever identified Gemini Observatory/NSF/AURA The interstellar comet that was discovered passing through our solar system on August 30 has been officially named 2I/Borisov. The comet formerly known as C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) — a mouthful, to be fair — was discovered […]
Previous Next Next to image quality, medium format cameras are known for being massive and expensive — but Phase One’s latest camera aims to resolve at least one of those negatives. Unveiled on Tuesday, September 10, the Phase One XT is the most compact medium format field camera system yet, the company says. The Phase […]
Kyoto University, Primate Research Institute From unlocking smartphones to spotting criminals in crowds, there’s no shortage of reminders that facial recognition technology has gotten pretty darn good. Among humans, that is. But now researchers from the U.K.’s University of Oxford and Japan’s Kyoto University want to expand the tech’s capabilities — by making a facial […]
[embedded content] The sun shakes the solar system by sending out dramatic interplanetary shocks, and NASA has observed these shocks for the first time. NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MMS) consists of four spacecraft which have been in orbit around Earth since 2015, moving through our planet’s magnetosphere to study a phenomenon called magnetic reconnection. The phenomenon […]
Enlarge Ever since the Trump administration’s export ban on Huawei threatened the company’s Android phones, Huawei has been making claims that it didn’t really need Android and could start its own operating system if it needed to. Today, Huawei’s saber-rattling reached a new volume with the announcement of “HarmonyOS,” Huawei’s very own, home-grown operating system. […]
Blizzard said that the new Role Queue system for Overwatch will help make sure that matches remain “fair and fun,” but the jury is still out on whether the change is good for the long-term health of the multiplayer shooter. The Role Queue system is designed to ease the tension at the start of Quick […]
Telescopes, including Hubble, have monitored the Eta Carinae star system for more than two decades. It has been prone to violent outbursts, including an episode in the 1840s during which ejected material formed the bipolar bubbles seen here. NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of Arizona, Tucson), and J. Morse (BoldlyGo Institute, New York) This Hubble […]
[embedded content] NASA will test the emergency escape system for Orion, the next-generation spacecraft which will hopefully carry humans to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. You’ll be able to watch the test live starting at 4 a.m. PT on Tuesday. In a period of dwindling public support for the expense of space exploration, NASA is […]
Heath Brandon/Creative Commons While we fully acknowledge that the act of pushing a button to indicate your presence at a signalized crosswalk isn’t exactly a chore worthy of complaint, researchers at the Institute of Computer Graphics and Vision in Graz, Austria, have nevertheless created a new system that brings such crosswalks firmly into the 21st […]
Enlarge / Multi-threading. Jamie Golden / Flickr Not content with having a Windows-based Internet of Things platform (Windows 10 IoT) and a Linux-based Internet of Things platform (Azure Sphere), Microsoft has added a third option. The company has announced that it has bought Express Logic and its ThreadX real-time operating system for an undisclosed sum. […]
[embedded content] There are some technologies that, paradoxically, we really wish didn’t need to exist, yet are still kind of glad that they do. One of these is the Safe Zone Gunfire Detector, a fast gunfire-detection system with the ability to provoke a police response to an active-shooter situation within a matter of seconds. In […]