Latest News - Page 1135

NASA plans to eventually transport samples from its Perseverance mission currently being conducted on the red planet back to Earth.

While the effort of landing, acquiring, and transporting Martian samples back to Earth for scientific study has been years in the making, there are scientists that are concerned that the samples may contain alien germs. Peter Doran, a geologist at Louisiana State University, explained that there is a very low chance that the samples will contain any form of life, "but there is a possibility".

To combat the concerns from researchers around the world about potential contamination NASA is proposing to hold a public meeting that asks for feedback on its Mars retrieval mission. At the moment, the space agency's current plan to transport Mars samples back to Earth involves launching the samples from the surface of Mars into orbit, where they will be collected by another spacecraft and transported back to our blue planet for analysis. Additionally, NASA will be sterilizing any surface that the Mars samples have touched.

NASA's Perseverance Rover landed on the surface of Mars on February 18, 2021, and since then, it has been exploring the red planet and its barren yet interesting wasteland.

Master has recently published a set of images captured by the small Mars helicopter named Ingenuity. The small helicopter is used as a scout, and as explained by the Perseverance team, the helicopter is used to reach places Perseverance wouldn't usually go and to scout ahead for possible routes that are favorable to the rover.

Images captured on April 23 were from engineer Ingenuity's 27th flight. The small helicopter was able to capture images of a martian ridgeline that the NASA team has called Fortun Ridge. Notably, the Ridgeline is of scientific significance how's the geological feature indicates a boundary between two major rock units.

On April 15th, the US 18th Space Defence Squadron announced that there were an additional 16 pieces of space debris being trapped in low earth orbit.

The new space debris was tracked back to object #32398, which was discovered to be an ullage motor that was used to transport three Russian satellites into orbit back in 2007. These ullage motors are used to correctly position the parent rocket's fuel before the engine is restarted in orbit. These rockets were created to push the fuel down once the rocket has entered orbit as there is no gravity, as explained by Astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell.

At the moment, there are 64 of these ullage motors floating around in Earth's orbit. Notably, the 18th space defense Squadron confirmed the break up of SL-12 R/B, adding that they are tracking the additional 16 pieces of space debris and that there is an ongoing analysis. Furthermore, the European Space Agency believes that there are about 36000 individual pieces of space debris larger than 4 inches in width currently in low Earth orbit.

AMD is still cooking its next-gen RDNA 3 architecture and flagship Navi 31 GPU, where we should see the flagship Navi 31-based Radeon 7000 series graphics card, which will have next-gen PCIe 5.0 x16 support.

I think it's a foregone conclusion even before a leaker "Kepler_L2" giving the Chuck Norris thumbs up to PCIe 5.0 x16 support on Navi 31. AMD will be launching its next-gen Zen 4 architecture for the CPU side of its business later this year, with new X670-based motherboards rocking DDR5 + PCIe 5.0 support.

Intel had DDR5 first on its new Z690-based motherboards ready for its new 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs, and now AMD will have not only catch up with DDR5 but also introduced PCIe 5.0. Yes... Intel also has PCIe 5.0 connectivity on its flagship Z690-based motherboards, but they have no PCIe 5.0-ready GPU. AMD will have a PCIe 5.0-ready GPU (Navi 31) and a PCIe 5.0-ready chipset, right in time for the holidays.

Tesla has rolled out a new Model S with an upgraded, factory-equipped, motorized, swiveling center screen... all inside of a Model S and posted on Twitter. Check it out:

The infotainment display at the center of the Model S has received a small, yet significant quality-of-life improvement from Tesla. The display is usually static and can't be moved, but now it can be tweaked so that the driver can more easily see, the passenger to their side, or people sitting in the back (especially if the car was parked).

It's not like you couldn't get this before, as you could get an aftermarket mod for your Model S and Model X -- but Tesla also had its website tease the center display with a "left-right" tilt option last year. Now it's finally here, but the web pages were updated -- with those details removed -- unfortunately.

Activision-Blizzard launched the new Overwatch 2 PvP beta test last week, and now the developer has provided some of the feedback it has received from players so far.

Overwatch 2 is changing things up in a few ways: with the largest being the shift from 6v6 to 5v5, and some players don't like that. I'm a huge fan of Overwatch -- and I've been playing the Overwatch 2 PvP beta -- and the change to 5v5 isn't the best. But hey, that's me.

Blizzard said: "The main goals for our first Beta were to test our shift to 5v5, the new maps and Push game mode, overall balance, and build and server stability. We believe 5v5 is a significant adjustment for players, and we have been happy to hear consistent and positive feedback about players having more fun, feeling a greater sense of impact in their matches, and enjoying a faster pace of combat and engagements".

Razer's latest Blade 15 gaming laptop comes with the option of customizing it with a 240Hz OLED display, with a native 2560 x 1440 (1440p) resolution... with the laptop starting at $3500 with the OLED panel.

The new Razer Blade 15 gaming laptop starts at $3500 with the 1440p 240Hz OLED panel, and with that you'll get the Intel Core i9-12900H processor, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. That's not too bad at all -- considering you've got a 240Hz OLED display -- portable, too.

But not all OLED panels are made the same, with Razer only putting out 400 nits of brightness, so you won't be blinking too much when you're gaming. You'll, unfortunately, be waiting for a while, as Razer will be shipping its new Blade 15 with the 240Hz OLED panel later this year in Q4 2022.

Samsung has just unveiled the industry's highest-performing Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 4.0 storage solution, which has received its important JEDEC board of director approval.

The new Samsung UFS 4.0 uses the latest JEDEC standard specification, which the company says "enhances our diverse portfolio. Our UFS mobile storage solutions differentiate key technologies in controller design to improve performance and power efficiency".

The company has worked with smartphone and consumer device manufacturers across the world, making sure that there is an ecosystem for the super-fast UFS 4.0 standard for high-performance mobile storage solutions. We're looking at up to 23.2Gbps per lane, which is double UFS 3.1 -- with Samsung's advanced 7th-generation V-NAND used -- on top of an in-house controller delivers up to 4.2GB/sec (4200MB/sec) reads and up to 2.8GB/sec (2800MB/sec) writes.

Activision is facing court complaints once more and this time it's by New York City's municipal retirement branches. Here's what you need to know.

Many of New York City's municipal pensions and retirement funds have invested into Activision-Blizzard, making them bona-fide shareholders in the billion-dollar company. The shareholders in question include New York City employees' retirement system, New York City fire department pension fund, New York City board of education retirement system, and teachers' retirement system for the City of New York. All of these branches are suing Activision-Blizzard for failing to deliver specific documents.

The lawsuit alleges the plaintiffs started to prepare a derivative claim as far back as October 2021, when the controversial sexual harassment reports broke out and caused Activision-Blizzard's stock to plummet. The plaintiffs were preparing their own suit (in this case, the derivative claim) that has been described as "lucrative," meaning the plaintiffs likely expected Activision to settle the case for a specific amount.

Activision-Blizzard confirms nearly 1/3rd of its total employee headcount is working on the Call of Duty franchise.

Call of Duty is by far Activision-Blizzard's most important and lucrative franchise. Annual releases paired with two multi-billion dollar F2P games have helped push company revenues to all-time highs from 2020-2021.

Activision now says it is doubling-down on Call of Duty investments. Over 3,000 people are working on the franchise, representing 31% of its total employee headcount (9,800) and nearly half of its total developers (6,800). The publisher says it is developing "the most ambitious plan" in franchise history, which will culminate in Modern Warfare II and the new revamped Warzone.

Bungie today spoke out against one of the most controversial court decisions of our modern age.

Leaked reports from Politico indicate the United States Supreme Court will reverse abortion rights outlined in Roe v. Wade court ruling in the 1970s. This would effectively grant discretion of abortion laws and rights to individual states, who could choose to outlaw abortions. The ruling has sent cultural shockwaves throughout the United States as thousands gather to protest against the decision.

Video game makers typically stay silent during these political endeavors, but not Bungie. The Destiny maker has spoken out against the decision, and has declared that the Supreme Court's draft is a "direct attack on human rights."

Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family is reportedly looking to buy out all company shares and take the company private to prevent a hostile takeover.

Reports indicate that big equity firms like BlackRock (who owns stakes in EA, Take-Two, and Activision) are mulling over buyout offers and force a hostile takeover of Ubisoft.

New reports suggest the Guillemot family, who founded Ubisoft in 1986, will go so far as to take the company private in order to retain ownership. Sources have told Dealreporter that the Guillemots--which includes current acting CEO Yves Guillemot--may team up with a private equity firm to buy out all remaining Ubisoft shares and maintain control over the company.

Overwatch is one of Activision-Blizzard's billion-dollar franchises, but the game didn't manage to break into the top spots in the last 3 years.

Activision-Blizzard's three most important franchises are Call of Duty, Candy Crush, and Warcraft. First-person arena shooter Overwatch was once among the studio's top stars, but after six years the game is getting long in the tooth.

Activision-Blizzard's latest financials reveal that Overwatch and other franchises like Diablo and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater did not manage to make even 10% of the company's revenues across the last three years. The majority of these earnings were completely dominated by the Top Three and Overwatch is having tough comps.

Square Enix spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year on its video games production account, and in FY2022 it spent more than it ever has before.

A quick look at Square Enix's game investment spending gives perspective on why it sold its Western game development division to Embracer. Square Enix cut its losses after losing an estimated $200 million from Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, both games failing to recoup even their development budgets let alone make a profit.

According to data provided by the publisher and compiled and converted by us, Square Enix's game investment spending can vary quite a bit depending on what it's plans are. In the last six years, Square Enix has spent over $3 billion to fund its in-development projects, with the last two years jumping up to $711 million (FY21) and a record $792 million (FY22).

Undefined Technologies has unveiled the new design of its concept eVTOL drone named the Silent Ventus.

The drone is powered by proprietary ion propulsion technology, creating "high levels of ion thrust in atmospheric air" from the ion cloud surrounding the craft. Undefined Technologies is currently working toward achieving longer flight times and keeping noise levels below 70 decibels. By comparison, most drones produce between about 85 and 96 decibels.

In the U.S., acceptable noise levels range for residential, industrial, and commercial zones from 50 to 70 decibels, making the technology much more suitable for general use. The next mission flight is scheduled for sometime in May, and it previously completed a 2-minute and 30-second mission flight in December 2021.

A study on the echoing black holes titled "The NICER "Reverberation Machine": A Systematic Study of Time Lags in Black Hole X-Ray Binaries" has been published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Stellar-mass black holes are formed when a star collapses and range from five to several tens of solar masses. Astronomers have estimated that our Milky Way galaxy could contain around 100 million stellar-mass black holes. Of these, many are inactive and effectively invisible. Those that are active can be detected by the light bouncing off the material surrounding the black hole consuming it.

Echoes of light bouncing around these black holes have been discovered in eight new examples by astronomers, adding to the two that had been previously identified in the Milky Way. The echos are generated when the accretion disk made from the dust and gas feeding the black hole flairs brightly with light which is then reflected back.

A study on potential alien life titled "The Number of Possible CETIs within Our Galaxy and the Communication Probability among These CETIs" has been published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Researchers have estimated that the time humanity will have to survive to hear from any Communicating Extraterrestrial Intelligent Civilizations (CETIs) is about 400,000 years. A 2020 study has estimated that the Milky Way houses about 36 CETIs, whereas simulations run by the authors of the latest paper estimate between as high as almost 43,000 and as low as about 111.

The tornado tore across Wichita, Kansas, destroying buildings in the city of Andover on April 29th, 2022.

Meteorologist Reed Timmer captured footage of the tornado with his drone as it tore through Andover. The tornado was given a preliminary EF-3 rating on the Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF Scale), which rates tornadoes from 0 to 5, with a rating of 3 corresponding to a gust of wind with a speed of 136-165 mph (218-265 kph) measured over 3 seconds.

Chad Russell, the city's fire chief said during a news conference that over 950 buildings were in the tornadoes path. Over 20,000 homes and businesses were left without power in the immediate aftermath. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Storm Prediction Center recorded 15 tornadoes that day, of which 14 were in Kansas or Nebraska.

A study on the plastic waste titled "Quantification and evaluation of plastic waste in the United States" has been published in the journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling.

The United States Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has estimated that in 2019, the country sent an average of $7.2 billion worth of plastic to landfills. It has also been estimated that though the upfront cost of setting up recycling systems may cost more in the short term than cheaply disposing of plastic waste in landfills, a circular plastic economy could save between $4.5 billion and $9.9 billion.

The NREL estimates that plastic waste in the United States amounts to 44 million metric tons. A different methodology used by the Environmental Protection Agency estimates the amount to be 32.2 million metric tons. New recycling techniques would provide incentives to create a circular economy, reclaiming billions of dollars and the embodied energy of the waste plastics, the amount of energy used to manufacture them, equating to about 12% of the energy consumption of the country's industrial sector.

We knew they were coming, but it looks like they're here: next-gen USB-C cables that are capable of delivering a rather crazy 240W of power.

The new USB-C 2.1 cables can deliver up to 240W of power, as well as up to 40Gbps of data... turning up out of nowhere by Club 3D. The cables aren't exactly for sale, nor are they on retailer shelves just yet... but the new Club 3D CAC-1573, CAC-1575, and CAC-1576 cables are on their way.

Which one will you want? Well, if you want the fastest then the Club 3D CAC-1576 is a USB4 Gen3x2 Type-C bi-directional cable that offers the full 240W of USB-PD (Power Delivery) and up to 40Gbps of bandwidth which is enough to drive up to 8K 60Hz. It's a small 1m cable, so make sure you're very close.