Latest News - Page 1306

In a new video that has appeared on its official YouTube channel, NASA has explained how important Trojan asteroids are in understanding the formation of our solar system.

The new video has been published as part of NASA's "We Asked A NASA Scientist" series that answers some of sciences most burning questions. The question posed in this specific video is "What Are the Trojan Asteroid?", and it was answered by NASA Trojan asteroid expert Audrey Martin who says that billions of years ago, the solar system just consisted of small rocky and icy objects that eventually came together to form the planets that we see today.

However, not all of the early solar systems objects were used up to form the planets, as some of them are described a "pristine asteroids" that now orbit on the same orbital plane as Jupiter. These asteroids orbit in two massive swarms on either side of Jupiter and are called Trojan asteroids. Martin says that these asteroids are mysterious and could have possibly come from outside of our solar system.

ASUS has officially teased its new graphics cards based around the world of Noctua, with new cards designed in collaboration with Noctua. Check it out:

The new cards aren't exactly official yet, with an ASUS representative sharing some juicy photos of the ASUS x Noctua GeForce RTX 30 series graphics card on the official ASUS ROG Vietnam Facebook page. The ASUS x Noctua GPU is a 3.5-slot chunky boi, with 3 x DisplayPort 1.4 and 2 x HDMI 2.1 display outputs.

ASUS requires dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors, but we don't know if the GPU is overclocked or not. I mean, I'd be disappointed to find out that a custom graphics card with a custom cooling solution from a high-end company like Noctua (and given it's an ASUS ROG card) doesn't have any factory OC.

Lenovo has just announced the very first Intel Alder Lake PC, which features Intel's upcoming 12th Gen "Alder Lake" CPU, DDR5 RAM, and PCIe 5.0 technology -- all ready for now, and the future of gaming.

Lenovo's new Legion 9000K 2022 PC features an Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake CPU of some sort, with what should be an Intel Z690-based motherboard. The Intel Z690 chipset will include DDR5 memory support and PCIe 5.0 support, with Lenovo listing an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card.

The new gaming PC from Lenovo will be available starting October 29, with VideoCardz pointing out that this should be when pre-orders go live. Intel will have its new Alder Lake CPUs up for pre-order on October 29 with the new CPUs launching on November 4... we can expect Lenovo's new Legion 9000K 2022 PC to begin shipping then.

Corsair has just unveiled its first-ever gaming monitor, a new 32-inch 1440p 165Hz display that will cost $800. Check it out:

The new Corsair Xeneon has support for both AMD FreeSync and NVIDIA G-SYNC technologies, with Corsair tapping Quantum Dot technology, a 1ms response time, and up to 400 nits of brightness. There's thin bezels here which make for a perfect display for multi-monitor setups, but it seems no having the display in portrait mode. Disappointing... maybe with Corsair's Xeneon 2.0 monitor.

Corsair isn't right up to date as there's no HDMI 2.1 connectivity here, but there's no need when there's no 4K 120Hz support. Still, it would be nice to be able to have HDMI 2.1 here, but we do have 2 x HDMI 2.0 ports, 1 x DisplayPort 1.4a port, USB-C ports, 2 x USB 3.1 ports, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Turn10 has released the finalized PC spec requirements for Forza Horizon 5, and they're expectedly steep for 4K gaming performance.

The new spec chart has a spectrum of hardware requirements for different perf targets. There's minimum specs (~720p), recommended specs (~1080p) and ideal specs (demanding 1440p - 4K gameplay). Turn10's game seems to be well optimized and the requirements are pretty reasonable, with a Ryzen 5 1550X/Intel i5-8400 CPU and Radeon RX 590/NVIDIA GTX 1070 required for the recommended spec perf.

Predictably the 4K settings require a bigger hardware jump, with a Ryzen 7 3800XT/Intel i7-10700K CPU and a Radeon RX 6800 XT (16GB) / NVIDIA RTX 3080 graphics card (10GB) needed. One thing remains consistent across all configurations: the need for 110GB of internal space for the game.

The Grand Theft Auto Trilogy Definitive Edition has been rated by Korean ratings board GRAC today, signaling an incoming release.

GTA V's next-gen release has been delayed to 2022, but a GTA trilogy re-release will fill its place. New ratings confirm the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition is real, and sources tell Kotaku the game is set to release sometime in November.

The trilogy will include PS2 era games GTA 3, GTA San Andreas, and GTA Vice City in one package across PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Switch consoles.

Nintendo's official investor relations division squashes recent Switch Pro reports, says it has no plans for a new next-gen Switch capable of 4K gaming.

A new report from says that nearly a dozen game developers possess devkits for Nintendo's next-gen 4K-ready Switch, and that preparations to release enhanced 4K resolution games by late 2022 are under way. Nintendo corporate has stepped in to say these claims are false:

"A news report on Sept. 30, 2021(JST) falsely claims that Nintendo is supplying tools to drive game development for a Nintendo Switch with 4K support. To ensure correct understanding among our investors and customers, we want to clarify that this report is not true," Nintendo IR said on Twitter.

Nearly a dozen video game developers have access to an early version of Nintendo's next-gen Switch 4K console, sources tell Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki.

Devkits of Nintendo's next upgraded Switch have been released to over 10 game developers, sources tell Bloomberg. The new system runs on unspecified new hardware and is capable of performing 4K gaming with enhanced visuals and in-game effects that are believed to outpace the current model's limited custom hybridized Tegra X1 chipset.

Depending on which chips are used it's possible that the Switch 4K devkits are closer to PC hardware than actual retail units. NVIDIA's Orin chips, which may power the 4K-ready Switch, are not due out until 2022.

Netflix is getting into video games, and it's hiring lots of experienced talent to help lead its new business.

After conquering the streaming market, Netflix has now set its sights on the world's most lucrative billion-dollar entertainment industry: Video games. The company is currently gearing up its games business with new strategic hires. Netflix is currently hiring more than 30 people to help its new video games division.

Netflix's games team recruitment includes Sean Flinn, an ex-Blizzard product manager who spent nearly a decade helping fortify Battle.net and improving communication with fans. Flinn has joined Netflix as the Director of Product Management of its games division, where he will help outline the future of the new initiative.

A team of researchers have uncovered the decapitated head of an ancient Byzantine warrior and found that the jaw was threaded with gold.

The decapitated head of the Byzantine warrior was found at the Polystylon fort, an archaeological site in Western Thrace, Greece, in 1991. Anagnostis Agelarakis, an anthropology professor in the Department of History at Adelphi University in New York, studied the burial of the warrior and penned a study that was published back in 2017.

Now, Agelarakis has penned a new study that focuses on the warriors healed jaw, which states that "The jaw was shattered into two pieces" but was mended together by a medical professional that seemed to have followed the advice from the famous Greek physician Hippocrates who wrote much about jaw injuries 1,800 years before the warrior experienced his injury. The researchers found that the warrior died between the ages of 35 and 40 years old and that the jaw injury was endured 10 years before he died.

The Sun is nearing the most intense part of its 11-year cycle, and as it approaches the time-frame of intensity, the chances of Earth feeling its power increase.

For those that don't know, the Sun goes through an 11-year-cycle in which its magnetic poles flip, and throughout 2020 the Sun's magnetic poles were at the lowest point in the cycle, meaning that solar activity and solar storms will be on the increase until July 2025. A solar storm is when the Sun spews a large amount of charged particles out into space. Sometimes these particles line up with Earth and then collide with our magnetic field.

The collision between the Sun's charged particles and Earth's atmosphere can impact all of us, especially as the world becomes more dependent on the digital sphere. Solar storms can affect things such as communication channels, internet facilities, electricity, and more. Solar storms have hit Earth in the past, the first recorded one being in 1859. If you are interested in reading more about space, check out this link here.

More than 100 people have seen a fireball streak across the night sky over North Carolina, and NASA has confirmed its existence.

According to NASA Meteor Watch, the fireball appeared to be "exceptionally bright" as it skimmed across the night coast at around 7:40 pm. The meteor became visible to the eye at around 48 miles above sea level, and according to the American Meteor Society, the fireball was seen by more than 100 people as it traveled through the sky at 32,000 mph.

The fireball didn't cause any damage, and throughout its descent, it disintegrated, "28 miles above Morehead City, after traveling 26 miles through Earth's upper atmosphere", per NASA. The video that is seen above was taken 15 miles south of Raleigh and was posted by the American Meteor Society. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

New information has surfaced about Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin moving to sue NASA over the space agency's decision to award Elon Musk's SpaceX the $2.9 billion lunar lander contract.

Legal documents obtained by The Verge with the Freedom of Information Act reveal the basis of some of the arguments made by Blue Origin. While the legal documents are some hundred or so pages in total, some of the main points that can be derived are what Blue Origin considers to be the basis of its argument. Blue Origin argues that it was treated unfairly through the selection process for the $2.9 billion award and that NASA didn't give it an opportunity to renegotiate the price of its proposal.

During the time of the selection process, Blue Origin was aware that Congress wasn't giving NASA all of its requested funding, essentially forcing the space agency into a tighter budget. Blue Origin gave its $5.9 billion proposal to NASA for its Artemis program, to which NASA declined the offer and selected SpaceX's proposal that was nearly half the price. In response to NASA's decision to go with SpaceX, Blue Origin argues that it wasn't given the opportunity to renegotiate the price of its proposal like SpaceX was.

The rovers that are currently stationed on the Red Planet will be forced into "safe mode" in the coming days.

NASA and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) will have no choice but to turn its Martian vehicles into "safe mode" and temporarily put a pause on ongoing research. Why? Well, the Sun is going to be getting in the way, and I mean that quite literally. Earth and Mars are about to be directly opposite each other in their orbits, and right in the middle of both of the planets will be the Sun.

Researchers will lose line-of-sight with Mars from October 2 to October 16, and during this time, the space agencies won't be able to communicate with any of their vehicles stationed on the Red Planet, hence the decision to put all vehicles into "safe mode". It should be noted that the rovers won't be completely inactive, they just won't be communicating with Earth. Curiosity and Perseverance will continue observing and recording Mars' weather. The same goes for the InSight lander that is monitoring Marsquakes.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has recently replaced Jeff Bezos as the world's richest person, according to Forbes.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO took the opportunity to throw a little bit of shade at the Amazon founder after becoming the third person in the world to reach a net worth of $200 billion. Musk wrote in an email to Forbes that he will be sending a giant statue of the digit "2" to Jeff Bezos along with a silver medal. Here's what Musk wrote, "I'm sending a giant statue of the digit '2' to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal."

Musk is no stranger to throwing comments at Bezos. Even just yesterday, the SpaceX CEO said that Bezos couldn't "sue his way to orbit", which is in reference to the recent moves made by Bezos' space company Blue Origin to sue NASA over its decision to award SpaceX with a $2.9 billion contract. If you are interested in reading more about that story, check out this link here.

HTC Vive's next digital event is coming up on October 14, and it looks like the company has something special to reveal. Could it be an update to Project Proton?

The VR and XR markets are starting to heat up lately, with leaks and announcements coming left and right. Oculus is grabbing lots of attention lately as it leads up to the Facebook Connect conference, but HTC's event is coming first, and the company doesn't want you to forget about it.

Earlier this week, HTC Vive's Twitter account shared a crudely photoshopped image of a black cylindrical case sitting on a desk next to someone using a laptop. The post said only 10.14.21 vive.com #gowiththeflow.

The amount of hours put into this Apex Legends Loot Tick robot is simply incredible, my brain just doesn't work like this -- hats off to YouTuber The3DPrintSpace -- or Graham Watson, and his real-life Apex Legends Loot Tick robot. Check it out:

He even labels it as his new thing, a "crazy mechanical/robotic design" where his first project is the Apex Legends Loot Tick robot. The robot actually walks, talks, and can be mean to the smaller loot ticks. It's utterly amazing to see up and running, and the entire build in the 41-minute video.

You can watch every nitty-gritty moment of construction of the real-life Apex Legends Loot Tick, and it just makes me want to see Graham make more fantastical things like this from the gaming worlds we all play and love. If this replica is his first attempt at designing, building, and programming a robot -- then holy hell I can't wait to see what he can do next.

Intel's next-gen LGA 1700 socket is going to debut with the new 12th Gen "Alder Lake" CPUs, with be quiet! has now announced free LGA 1700 mounting kits for compatible CPUs.

The company has announced that with the changes by Intel in the new LGA 1700 socket, with an additional 500 contacts from the LGA 1200 socket to the LGA 1700 socket, be quiet! notes that the "socket had to be greatly enlarged".

"Thus, the heatspreader has a much larger surface than before, and above all no longer square, but rectangular. While this heralds a new era for Intel CPUs that promises even more performance, unfortunately no CPU coolers already available on the market are compatible with this change".

Emtek has done some simple tweaks to a couple of its graphics cards, and unveiled the new Diablo 2 Remastered themed cards.

The new Diablo 2 Resurrected themed graphics cards are offered in the GeForce RTX 3060 and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti models, with the RTX 3060 using a dual-fan cooler while the RTX 3070 Ti model uses a triple-fan cooler. Both cards have Diablo 2 Resurrected artwork on the back.

We don't know the GPU clock speeds of the Emtek RTX 3070 Ti Storm Dark Diablo 2 Resurrected Edition, but it will feature the same 8GB of GDDR6X memory on all GeForce RTX 3070 Ti cards. Emtek will have a factory overclock on the RTX 3060 STORM X DUAL OC Diablo 2 Resurrected Edition graphics card, with the GPU overclocked to 1837MHz and a 180W TDP.

Google's next-gen Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro smartphones are right around the corner, with some reports surfacing on pricing: the Pixel 6 starts at $749 while the bigger Pixel 6 Pro begins at $1049.

The new starting price of $749 is steep for the Google Pixel 6 is steep, but it's no different to the flagship Apple and Samsung smartphones -- Apple's new iPhone 13 starts at $699, $50 less than the Pixel 6's purported starting price. The bigger Pixel 6 Pro at $1049 or $1099, with Apple's new iPhone 13 Pro Max starting at $1099.

Google is swinging much higher this time around with the Pixel 6 Pro, offering a high-end flagship akin to the Galaxy S21 Ultra and iPhone 13 Pro Max. We should expect Android 12 nice and nude, the Google way, and many tweaks under the hood hardware-wise now that Google is using its own in-house Tensor chip.