Latest News - Page 1281

In a new blog post, NASA has detailed the results yielded from the Juno spacecraft's observations of the solar system's largest planet.

In the post, the space agency states that its Juno probe that is currently orbiting the planet Jupiter has provided insight into the inner workings of the gas giant's atmosphere. From the observations, researchers were able to derive the first 3D map of Jupiter's atmosphere, the results have been published throughout several papers in the two recent issues of the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets and Geophysical Research Letters.

Scott Bolton, the principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio and lead author of the Journal Science paper that explores the depth of Jupiter's vortices, said, "Previously, Juno surprised us with hints that phenomena in Jupiter's atmosphere went deeper than expected. Now, we're starting to put all these individual pieces together and getting our first real understanding of how Jupiter's beautiful and violent atmosphere works - in 3D."

Following a leak incident with the all-civilian Inspiration4 crew that recently launched with SpaceX, NASA has asked astronauts returning back from the ISS not to use the toilet.

NASA's Commercial Crew program manager, Steve Stitch, said on Friday that following a detected leak during the Inspiration4 mission that included just civilians, that NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Meghan McArthur, Akihiko Hoshide of Japan's JAXA, and Thomas Pesquet of the ESA to explore "other means" of disposing of their bodily fluids. Technicians detected the leak by discovering one of the glued joints in the waste tank broke, which resulted in urine from the tank leaking into the fan.

Stitch said, "We have other means to allow the crew to perform the functions they need to do... Anytime the crew is suited they use an undergarment in that suit, and it's a short mission coming home." Adding, "Our intent is to not use the system at all for the return leg home because of what we've seen with the fluids we are talking about." The NASA crew that is heading back to Earth from the ISS was scheduled to launch from the floating laboratory on Halloween, but the launch was delayed due to bad weather until November 3 at 1:30 am ET.

NASA recently confirmed that on October 28, the solar flare was observed on the Sun's lower center and that this flare would result in a large amount of radiation smashing into Earth.

The flare was officially classified as an X-1 flare, with X being the most intense classification given to a flare. Officials predicted that the solar wind produced by the flare would impact Earth on October 30, and while their timing was correct, the intensity wasn't. The coronal mass ejection (CME) from the flare arrived with much less intensity than anticipated, with the majority of the flare actually missing Earth.

While the impact of a CME can cause geomagnetic storms that interfere with satellite, GPS communications, and other signals, they also can cause auroras to appear in the sky. Auroras are the result of the interaction between charged particles from the Sun's solar wind hitting particles in Earth's upper atmosphere. The interaction causes a glow that is visible in the sky. Skywatchers in certain locations around the world were able to spot the gorgeous phenomenon occur in the night sky.

The space located around Earth is exponentially filling up with junk from rocket parts and broken satellites, and if the issue isn't solved, the polluted space may result in a hindrance to humanity's space exploration.

In 1979 NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler proposed what was dubbed the "Kessler syndrome", which is a scenario that could unfold when the number of objects within low Earth orbit becomes so dense that the likelihood that it increases the the the point where it's more likely further collisions will occur, causing a cascade effect of debris collisions throughout low Earth orbit. Researchers are proposing new ideas to clean up low Earth orbit to prevent this tragic domino effect from happening. One suggestion may be to use magnets that can manipulate the debris.

A new study published in the journal Nature by researchers at the University of Utah details the use of spinning magnets equipped by robots. These robots would be able to push space debris down into Earth's atmosphere, where they would then burn up upon re-entry, removing the need for the robot to collect them physically. The team of researchers was able to demonstrate with the technology that they were able to manipulate debris in six degrees of movement, including rotation.

NASA recently confirmed the existence of a solar flare occurring on the Sun, which resulted in a plasma wave being launched directly towards Earth.

The space agency explained that Sunspot AR2887 erupted, causing a solar flare and a coronal mass ejection (CME) to be shot towards Earth's direction. The solar flare was classified as an X1-class flare, X being the highest categorization that is given to a solar flare. For those that don't know what flares are, they are burst of radiation that can't pass through Earth's atmosphere to harm humans. However, its impact on Earth can cause geomagnetic storms that knock out GPS and radio communications and interfere with satellites.

As for the flare that hit Earth's magnetic field on Oct. 31st at ~10:00 UT, the resulting impact was much less than anticipated as it only caused a G1-class geomagnetic storm. The reason for the weakness, as Spaceweather.com reports, is that majority of the CME missed Earth, which stands as an example that current computer models used to predict the events of the Sun aren't always 100% correct as there are still many unknowns about the Sun and its processes. More simply put, it's difficult to predict the motions of a celestial object located 93 million miles away.

TeamGroup has just announced its new T-Force Cardea A440 Pro SSD, which is a bit faster than the current T-Force Cardea A440 SSD.

The new T-Force Cardea A440 Pro SSD packs read speeds of up to 7.4GB/sec (7400MB/sec) and write speeds of up to 7GB/sec (7000MB/sec) over its PCIe 4.0 x4 connection. TeamGroup has used an upgraded patented aluminum fin type heat sink, with improved airflow and ventilation.

TeamGroup says this improved heat sink is good for up to 48% cooler operation over other SSDs, and thanks to the improved thermals the speed drops you experience when the NAND flash on your SSD gets too hot shouldn't happen as much -- or much longer into the trashing of your TeamGroup T-Force Cardea A440 Pro SSD.

Patreon could soon allow users to reward their favorite creators with cryptocurrency, with the company reportedly "evaluating" the use of cryptocurrency according to Patreon executives.

At the recent The Information's summit, Patreon executives Jack Conte and Julian Gutman said that Patreon was "evaluating" the use of cryptocurrency. They reiterated a previous hint of "creator coins" that the company could have, which would let users buy to show support to their favorite creators.

Better yet, you could invest in a creator and if they get bigger, you are rewarded -- alternatively, having coins of your creators would give you access to special content reserved just for those coin holders. Conte wouldn't dive into what he and his company had been working on when it comes to Patreon + crypto, but they did talk about the possibility of letting creator coins become a reality soon.

Apple is still cooking up its new iMac Pro which should have some of the same innards and technologies that its new MacBook Pro includes, namely the Mini-LED display and in-house M1 Max or M1 Pro SoC.

According to the latest rumors, the next-gen Apple iMac Pro should feature an Apple M1 Max or M1 Pro SoC, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage for the base model. @dylandkt also mentions that the 2021 iMac Pro would have HDMI output, an SD card slot, USB-C connectivity, and a "similar design to iMac 24 and Pro Display XDR".

The starting price of Apple's new iMac Pro would reportedly be at, or over $2000 while Ethernet on Brick is standard and Face ID was "tested" but "not confirmed" while a release window of 1H 2022 was teased. All of the ports make the new iMac Pro very similar to the just-released 2021 MacBook Pro, which will be nice to see for desktop Mac users.

Can you believe GoldenEye 007 was just unbanned in Germany, now, in 2021?

GoldenEye 007 was released in 1997 on the Nintendo 64 by developer Rare, becoming the most successful N64 game in the US market, and the third-most successful N64 game worldwide. In Germany? Nope, they weren't having it -- literally, at all, as the game was "indexed".

If you don't know what "indexing" means, the German government has the Federal Government for Media Harmful to Young Persons, which deemed GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64. GoldenEye 007 wasn't the first game, as there is a big list of games that were indexed for 25 years in Germany... this means they cannot be sold to people under 18, and the games cannot be advertised or displayed in-store.

You knew this day was coming, and it probably costs a little less than you thought -- or maybe a little more -- but you can now order a hoverbike for $680,000 from a company called ALI Technologies.

A.L.I. Technologies has opened up pre-orders for its new "XTurismo Limited Edition" hoverbike, with a conventional engine, with 4 x battery-powered motors that provide up to 40 minutes of flight time at up to 62 mph (100 kph). It has a motorcycle-style design that is placed on propellers, with a red-and-black style that looks slick.

ALI has considerable backers in Mitsubishi Electric and Kyocera, where it debuted its hoverbike hovering a few feet off the ground at a race track near Mount Fuji recently. ALI CEO Daisuke Katano told Reuters: "Until now the choice has been to move on the ground or at scale in the sky. We hope to offer a new method of movement". Katano added that the hoverbike use would be limited at first, not flying on the roads of Japan, but more so by rescue teams to access difficult-to-reach locations.

GPU prices are totally out of control right now, but in Europe the pricing really is something else: AMD and NVIDIA graphics card pricing is insane.

AMD's new Radeon RX 6000 series GPUs are up to 101% over their MSRP, while NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs are up to 88% over MSRP. This is just crazy, paying double or more for a graphics card. Right now, the lower-end Radeon RX 6800 and Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics cards are more expensive than what the Radeon RX 6900 XT should cost.

Over just the course of October 10 to October 29, AMD Radeon GPU pricing jumped up by 18% while AMD Radeon GPU pricing jumped up by 16%. GPU pricing isn't slowing down, but rather it is increasing. There's more people who want cards, and less cards available... you can do the rest.

We all know GPU prices are crazy, but there are markets where you really do just scratch your head and wonder how many people along the way are making money right now.

Well, prices down in the South Asian and Middle Eastern markets are interesting -- with retailers and scalpers thrown into the mix, but also official distributors and even AIB partners. The mix of these people actually allow certain procedures to take place, and then retailers are left without graphics cards -- or scalped prices -- with profits squeezed out of customers.

This means if you want a single GPU or maybe you're powering a crypto mine and need 10-20-50 x graphics cards, the scalpers and everyone in between are making a bad situation even worse. Things have gotten so bad that there are retailers in the Pakistan market selling older Radeon GPUs for crazy high prices.

TSMC is quite ahead of the game but Samsung of all companies knows this, and now the South Korean giant is tripling down on its chip production manufacturing.

During a recent Samsung earnings conference call, Samsung executive Han Seung-hoon explained: "We plan to expand our capacity about three times by 2026 to meet customers' needs as much as possible by expanding capacity in Pyeongtaek as well as considering establishing a new plant in the U.S."

Samsung is already finalizing its $17 billion chip manufacturing plant in Texas, but also pushed into a huge $151 billion chip manufacturing deal that would last through to 2030. It's good to see that Samsung is not just wanting to expand its operations in South Korea, but a new plant in the US as well.

RIDE 4 dropped on the PC last year in October 2020, with the folks at Digital Dreams used Reshade Ray Tracing on top and the results are absolutely beautiful.

A video popped onto the internet last month that claimed to be the most realistic game on the PlayStation 5, but we now know what that was: RIDE 4, running on the PC, and was released a year ago. Digital Dreams has now got something even better: RIDE 4 running on the PC in the super-glorious 8K resolution at 60FPS with Reshade Ray Tracing, and man... does it look good.

RIDE 4 was running on an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X processor and ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card, and at 8K 60FPS it truly does look amazing. It's not perfect: shadows on the bike and more are missing, but overall it does look fantastic.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is reportedly in "development hell" according to fresh rumors, which also state that GTA 6 development restarted once Dan Houser left Rockstar Games in 2020.

GTA 6 had already gone through changes before Houser left, with the story of GTA 6 changing before he left and that development on GTA 6 had restarted when he left -- and that Houser leaving Rockstar is a "direct consequence" of that says Chris from Rockstar Mag.

The post on NeoGAF continues, saying that Rockstar cannot provide any information on GTA 6 -- noting the original announcement for Grand Theft Auto 6 was meant for 2020 -- because "they changed the story and other game elements too many times in 2019, so don't count on something related to GTA VI soon. This is the most chaotic project R * has managed to date. More than RDR 1 and GTA IV. He didn't want to develop but that's not a good sign".

We all know SpaceX and Tesla Motors founder and CEO Elon Musk is a troll at heart, and if he wasn't busy -- hell, he is busy with running those companies -- and yet he continues to troll away.

His latest time in the headlines today is after the director of the United Nations' food scarcity organization, the UN World Food Program (WFP), said that 2% of Elon Musk's wealth could solve world hunger. Musk replied: "If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it. But it must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent".

In 2020, the UN WFP raised $8.4 billion and yet couldn't solve world hunger... and now Musk has called them out very boldly here, and now the WFP needs to reply on how exactly it would solve world hunger for $6 billion. Hell, if they can reply, Musk will sell Tesla stock right now and pay for it.

A new job listing at id Software hints that a new Doom or Quake game is currently in development.

id Software's Senior Technical Animator job listing is pretty interesting and might give away what the studio is working on next. id is specifically looking for an animator that specializes in hair and cloth physics in the Havok games engine for a "long-running iconic action FPS series."

id uses Havok for its games--Doom Eternal, RAGE 2, and even Quake Champions--and the specific mentions of hair and cloth physics might lean towards the rumored female protagonist starring in the unconfirmed Quake reboot that's reportedly in development.

A used copy of Animal Crossing New Horizons is only $10 right now at Gamestop.

Animal Crossing New Horizons has been significantly discounted down to $9.99 over at Gamestop. Granted this is a used copy, but it sure beats the always-premium pricing Nintendo permanently affixes to its first-party games. You'd think since the game has pretty much hit peak sales performance that Nintendo would lower the price to move more units. It worked for Capcom--they've reported 8 consecutive years of operating profit growth because they're flexible with pricing.

The reality is Animal Crossing is already a sales revenue monster. In little over a year, New Horizons has amassed a gargantuan 33 million copies sold. It's by far and away the second best-selling game on the Switch, and it managed to sell 1 million copies per week for many months in a row.

MachineGames' next game may have monetized live services similar to those found in Wolfenstein Youngblood.

It looks like MachineGames is doubling-down on monetization (likely at the behest of Bethesda and its new parent company, Microsoft, who is known for live services). The developer is currently hiring a Monetization and Live Designer who will help establish in-game economies for a new project. The listing says the designer will work with teams to help build a new game from the ground up, meaning the project is being made with monetization in mind.

Intel is showing off a bit more of its XeSS super-resolution technology leading into its Arc Alchemist GPU launch in 2022, with the company teaming with Hitman developer IO Interactive, and Exor Studios, on getting its upcoming XeSS tech into their games.

IO Interactive released Hitman 3 earlier this year in January 2021, and will be one of the first with Intel XeSS support when Arc Alchemist is in the wild. But now we get some eyes-on with XeSS + Hitman 3 thanks to a video posted on Intel's YouTube channel, featuring Intel VP and GM of Client Graphics Products and Solution, Roger Chandler, teasing Hitman 3 running XeSS.

Unfortunately, Intel with all of its might, talent, and money could only upload shitty 1080p video to YouTube... nothing in 4K, yet they're showing off 4K XeSS. Hitman 3 is running on the updated Glacier Engine, but hasn't been updated to include NVIDIA DLSS or AMD FSR... it seems Intel XeSS might be the go here in Hitman 3.