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Nvidia-backed startup Starcloud says it will fly dedicated Bitcoin mining hardware on its second satellite, Starcloud-2, targeting an early 2027 launch. CEO Philip Johnston argues that ASIC chips are far cheaper per kilowatt than GPUs, and that abundant orbital solar power could make space mining economically appealing, following the company's earlier Starcloud-1 test that put an Nvidia H100 GPU into orbit.
Satellite operators are finding it harder to book rides to orbit as SpaceX scales back its workhorse rocket in favor of newer vehicles, while competing launch companies have yet to ramp up capacity to match demand. The resulting supply crunch is forcing smaller satellite makers and researchers to compete more aggressively for limited slots.
An investigation by Futurism found that Space Daily, a decades-old space news site now owned by Brown Brothers Media, published articles under invented bylines like 'Dr. Katherine Chen' and 'Dr. James Whitfield,' who were falsely credited with careers at NASA's JPL and the European Space Agency. Neither agency has any record of these people existing, and after being contacted by reporters, Brown Brothers Media began deleting large numbers of articles and the fake author profiles themselves.
Researchers have formally described Leopardus tilcayo, a small spotted feline native to South America, marking the first new cat species identified by science in over a century. Genetic analysis places it within the tiger cat lineage, distinguishing it from previously known relatives despite its similar leopard-like markings.
Hosts Carolina Hidalgo and Marcus Parks have relaunched their music history podcast No Dogs in Space with a fourth season called Punk 2.0, kicking off with a multi-part look at the New York Dolls. The hiatus stretched over two years, partly because the pair abandoned an earlier planned season on the Washington DC punk scene after research into Bad Brains and the scope of the project became untenable.
President Trump announced on Truth Social plans to establish a new 'AI Force' and appoint an 'AI czar' to lead it, comparing the initiative to his creation of the Space Force. He pledged his administration would not hinder AI industry growth, instead vowing to 'cherish' and support it, while making unsubstantiated claims that data centers raise salaries, cut taxes, and improve safety in host communities.
A new Nature study led by Max Planck Institute astrophysicist Sunmyon Chon simulated conditions in the early universe and found that rapidly forming black holes can generate light signatures matching the mysterious 'little red dots' seen by the James Webb Space Telescope. The team argues these objects quickly develop dense, thick gas disks that produce a strong hydrogen-alpha glow resembling what's observed in these ancient regions of space.
President Trump used a Saturday Truth Social post to declare the creation of an 'AI Force,' comparing it to his Space Force initiative, and said he would soon name an AI 'czar.' He offered no details on the group's structure, mandate, or funding, and the White House did not clarify whether it would function as a military or civilian body.
President Trump announced via Truth Social that he is establishing an 'AI Force,' comparing it to the creation of the Space Force, and said he will soon name someone to lead it. He gave no specifics on the agency's structure or duties but pledged not to hinder AI industry growth, and also floated renaming 'artificial intelligence' to something like 'extreme' or 'supreme intelligence.'
Astronomers led by Pablo Santos-Sanz used the James Webb Space Telescope to re-observe a stellar occultation by Chariklo, a small icy body about 250 kilometers wide orbiting between Saturn and Uranus. Compared to the rings first detected in 2013, one of Chariklo's two narrow rings has become denser while the other has nearly disappeared, and the cause remains unclear.
NASA and IBM Research have jointly released the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model, an open-source AI system pretrained on SomBench, a dataset of nearly two million co-registered lunar data bundles across 11 modalities. The model fuses imagery, topography, mineralogy, radar, gravity and other planetary datasets to help scientists analyze the Moon's surface, with USRA scientist Rachel Slank contributing planetary science expertise during development.
Astronomers analyzing James Webb Space Telescope data have identified an unusual celestial object that some researchers believe could be a so-called 'black hole star,' a rare hybrid where a black hole is enshrouded in thick gas that mimics stellar light. The classification remains tentative, with further observation needed to confirm whether the object fits this proposed new category.