Activision-Blizzard has issued a new SEC filing that explains terms and logistics to its developers and employees.

Why is Activision selling to Microsoft in a huge $68.7 billion deal? According to a new Securities Exchange Commission document, it's a simple matter of opportunism. "This is the right transaction, with the right buyer, at the right time," Activision said in the report.

Why is Activision Blizzard entering into the transaction now?

• This is the right transaction, with the right buyer, at the right time.
• The entertainment landscape is hitting an inflection point that will benefit companies that evolve in order for them to remain relevant and competitive. Bobby and the Board of Directors unanimously agreed this is an exciting opportunity for Activision Blizzard and its shareholders.
• Together, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft will drive innovation, creativity, and advancement in the industry and create another competitive force in the metaverse.

Sony could lose hundreds of millions of dollars if Call of Duty becomes exclusive to Xbox platforms.

Microsoft's recent $68.7 billion buyout of Activision-Blizzard has prompted a big question: Will Call of Duty still come to PlayStation? The answer isn't quite simple. But the numbers are: Key financial experts like CitiGroup estimate that Sony will lose 10 billion yen to 30 billion yen ($87.5 million to $262.6 million) if Call of Duty doesn't release on PlayStation systems.

Activision's megaton franchise contributes hundreds of millions in distribution payments to Sony, Microsoft, and other platform-holders like Valve every year. The annualized release cadence is a dependable source of third-party earning contributions for Sony. It could also be the same for Microsoft, who would pocket Activision's 70% cut of all Call of Duty game sales and revenues.

Sony believes that Microsoft will honor Activision's existing contractual obligations and keep specific games coming to PlayStation platforms.

Future Activision games won't be full Xbox exclusives and avoid PlayStation platforms, at least that's what Sony thinks. Following huge $68.7 billion Activision-Blizzard buyout, Sony believes that Microsoft will honor its existing contracts that were signed by Activision before the deal closes--which is something that Xbox CEO of Gaming Phil Spencer has already confirmed will happen.

"We expect that Microsoft will abide by contractual agreements and continue to ensure Activision games are multiplatform," Sony told The Wall Street Journal.

Three new studies published today in the journal Nature show independent achievements of highly reliable and robust quantum computing.

A team from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) achieved a 1-qubit operation fidelity of up to 99.95 percent and a 2-qubit fidelity of 99.37 percent. Their approach used silicon embedded with phosphorus atoms via ion implantation, a method used in producing all existing silicon computer chips, allowing their quantum breakthrough to be "compatible with the broader semiconductor industry."

"When the errors are so rare, it becomes possible to detect them and correct them when they occur. This shows that it is possible to build quantum computers that have enough scale, and enough power, to handle meaningful computation," said Professor Andrea Morello of UNSW regarding their breakthrough.

NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission will soon be another step closer to launching for real.

Artemis 1 intends to launch an uncrewed spacecraft toward the moon later this year and has an upcoming "wet dress rehearsal" scheduled for late February. A simulated countdown will ensure the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket are working as expected. The Orion spacecraft has flown only once before, and the Artemis 1 launch will mark the SLS rocket's first flight.

Since the new year, engineering tasks have readied the spacecraft, with the crew access arm for the Orion spacecraft being tested successfully on January 11th. The SLS also completed core stage engineering tests by January 14th, after replacing one of its four RS-25 engine controllers.

The Shiyan 13 test satellite has a currently unknown mission.

The satellite was launched from the northern Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC) on January 17th at 10:35 a.m. local time (02:35 UTC) aboard a Long March 2D rocket. The launch site temperature was recorded at -37 degrees Celsius (-35 degrees Fahrenheit), requiring the launch team to add "product sealing measures" to the rocket to ensure a successful launch.

"The Experiment No. 13 satellite is mainly used to carry out space environment detection and related technology experiments," the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) wrote in a statement.

The new study was published in the Geological Society of America's journal Geology.

The study focuses on the eruption of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines, which began a series of eruptions starting in January 2020, 43 years after its last eruption. The plume of volcanic ash rising led to thousands of land-to-ground lightning strikes occurring over several hours.

The electrical activity arises after the plume rises high enough in the atmosphere to freeze. Radio waves produced by lightning can be detected with remote sensing tools quickly, allowing scientists to collect data quickly. Along with lots of social media posts with pictures and videos of the event, scientists identified a "highly electrified region at the base of the umbrella cloud."

A new study on the observation has been published in the journal Nature.

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observed the dwarf starburst galaxy Henize 2-10, found 30 million light-years away in the constellation Pyxis. Hubble saw a gas outflow from the black hole at the center of the galaxy reaching into a star-forming region 230 light-years away and fostering the growth of stars, rather than suppressing it.

"From the beginning I knew something unusual and special was happening in Henize 2-10, and now Hubble has provided a very clear picture of the connection between the black hole and a neighboring star forming region located 230 light-years from the black hole," said Amy Reines, the principal investigator for the new Hubble observations.

In a recent article published in The Conversation, Gareth Dorrian, a Post Doctoral Research Fellow in Space Science, University of Birmingham, explains how the recent volcanic eruption was detected in space.

On January 15, an underwater volcano located 40 miles north of the Tongan capital erupted with the power equivalent to 10 megatons of TNT exploding, or more than 500 times as powerful as the nuclear bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. The eruption spawned a tsunami that has devastated Tongan islands, wiping out most houses and structures, the event has been caused an "unprecedented disaster" by the Tongan government.

Dorrian explains in the article that the eruption has generated "atmospheric gravity waves" that were detected by a NASA satellite. These waves that were detected will allow Dorrian and fellow researchers to better understand the top layers of Earth's atmosphere from events happening on Earth, and how volcanic eruptions can impact space, as opposed to the alternative perspective of how space impacts the top layer of Earth's atmosphere.

Amazon has taken to its YouTube channel to drop a teaser trailer and the official name for its highly anticipated Lord of the Ring TV show.

Amazon has begun starting up the hype train by releasing a teaser trailer for its upcoming Lord of the Rings TV show officially called "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power". The teaser trailer doesn't show any footage from the show but does show the forging of one of the rings of power. The voice-over for the teaser should ring a bell as it's one of the most famous passages Tolkien has ever written.

Amazon's upcoming TV show will focus on the Second Age of Tolkien's legendarium and will attempt to unite all of the major stories that occurred during that age; the forging of the rings of power, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the rise and fall of Numenor and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy focused on the One Ring carried by Frodo and Bilbo Baggins and only made subtle references to the other rings of power.