GoKawiil
Tech News
Google will launch a prototype satellite to test how its Tensor Processing Units perform in orbit, part of Project Suncatcher, a research effort first announced last year. The initiative explores whether satellites in low Earth orbit, which can access near-constant sunlight and generate far more solar power than on Earth, could eventually host machine learning infrastructure.
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside modeled how Venus' extremely slow rotation—243 Earth days per spin—combined with its gravity could have gradually dragged a hypothetical moon inward until it broke apart and was absorbed by the planet. Lead author Steven Kane says this process wouldn't have required a catastrophic collision, contradicting an earlier theory that Venus' moon was destroyed by an impact with another body. The team built a computer simulation of gravitational interactions to test this mechanism.
Researchers are monitoring the atmospheric drag experienced by SpaceX's more than 11,000 Starlink satellites to calculate a daily 'sink rate,' the altitude a typical satellite at 480 km would lose in one day without thruster corrections. In 2026 that figure has swung from 19.7 meters per day during quiet conditions to 127.6 meters per day during the year's largest geomagnetic storm in January.
Startup Modal Motors, founded by Michael Van Steenburg, is developing electric motors that avoid rare-earth magnets altogether, aiming to manufacture in the U.S. rather than rely on Chinese supply chains. The company is preparing two products—a small drone motor and a flat 'Hybrid Enigma Drive' motor—ahead of its appearance in Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt next month.
China dominates global processing of rare earth elements, materials essential to consumer electronics and US military hardware including F-35 jets and Virginia-class submarines. In 2025 China issued export controls on these materials, then agreed to suspend enforcement until at least November 10, 2026, according to the report.
Researchers Hao Zhang and Mathieu Dumberry report in Nature that gravitational coupling between Earth's solid inner core and its mantle explains multidecadal changes in day length of a few milliseconds. They combined seismological data on inner-core rotation with a model of outer-core flow derived from magnetic field measurements to reach this conclusion.
A study published in Nature reports that small variations in the length of Earth's day, on the order of milliseconds over decades, can be explained by competing gravitational, mechanical and electromagnetic forces between Earth's solid inner core, molten outer core and rocky mantle. Researchers, including geophysicist Mathieu Dumberry, had long suspected core-mantle interactions caused these fluctuations but lacked clarity on which specific forces were responsible.
Researchers analyzed length-of-day (LOD) records from 1964 to 2019, after removing known effects from the atmosphere, oceans, tides and surface mass changes, to isolate multidecadal variations. They modeled these residual variations using torque equations that account for gravitational pull from the inner core alongside electromagnetic and topographic coupling at the core-mantle boundary, finding that gravitational torque from the inner core contributes to the slow, multidecadal changes in how long a day lasts.
An international team of scientists conducting a periodic assessment of Earth's systems found that seven of nine defined 'planetary boundaries' have been crossed, according to the report. These boundaries cover areas such as climate, biodiversity and freshwater that researchers consider critical to maintaining a stable environment for human life.
ESET researchers report that the Chinese-linked espionage group FamousSparrow shifted in mid-2025 to focus exclusively on government targets in Central and South America, replacing its older SparrowDoor malware with a newly built implant called SparroWocky. The group, loosely tied to Earth Estries and Salt Typhoon, appears to be zeroing in on agencies overseeing Chinese investments now under scrutiny from the Trump administration.
Researchers at Ege University modeled how the young Sun's evolution would change if it had absorbed a super-Earth-sized planet, and found the scenario helps resolve mismatches between standard solar models and real observations, including the Sun's depleted lithium and internal sound-speed profile. The team also found such a planet could pass through the Sun's outer layers while losing little mass, implying a lasting internal chemical signature.
A team of researchers, publishing in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, used stellar modeling software to suggest the young Sun may have engulfed a rocky planet several times Earth's mass. They argue this ingested super-Earth could explain persistent mismatches between standard solar models and actual observations of the Sun's interior, including its unusually low lithium levels.