Io, a volcanically active moon orbiting Jupiter.Image: NASA/Newsmaker (Getty Images)
There are just eight planets in our Solar System (sorry Pluto), so the neighborhood can feel pretty empty. But there are over 200 moons orbiting objects in the solar system, including planets and large asteroids.
Many of these moons have atmospheres, complex topography, and even weather systems. They are dynamic, volcanic, and exquisite objects for space agencies trying to learn more about the diversity of planetary bodies and their satellites.
Some moons are larger than planets and some are little more than space boulders—but all can offer clues about how our modern worlds came to be. Here are some of the most intriguing moons (big and small) that are orbiting around our solar system.
AMD’s AM4 socket has had a long and successful run on the desktop, ushering in the Ryzen processor lineup and helping AMD compete with and outperform Intel’s chips for the first time since the mid-2000s.
The aging socket’s time is coming to a close later this year when the Ryzen 7000-series chips are launched, but AMD is sending it off with one last high-performance processor: the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which launches on April 20th for $449.
AMD uses a unique packaging technology called “3D V-Cache” to triple the amount of L3 cache on the processor, from 32MB for the standard Ryzen 5800X to a whopping 96MB. This new tech feels like an experiment in some ways. Unlike other Ryzen CPUs, the 5800X3D doesn’t offer overclocking or power consumption controls, and its clock speeds are a bit lower than the standard 5800X. But AMD says that the extra cache allows the 5800X3D to outrun Intel’s fastest CPUs when it comes to gaming.
We’ve run some tests on the 5800X3D to find its strengths and weaknesses and to get a sense of when you’ll notice the impact of the additional cache. This is undoubtedly an interesting processor, but its pricing and extremely specific performance advantages will limit it to a niche of a niche.
3D V-Cache, in brief
Enlarge / A visualization of AMD’s 3D V-Cache.
AMD
Architecturally, nothing about the Zen 3 cores that power the 5800X3D has changed compared to the vanilla 5800X. We’re still talking about an 8-core, 16-thread core complex die (CCD) built on TSMC’s 7 nm process, with its 32MB of L3 cache intact. Just as Apple bulit interconnect support into the M1 Max to support the M1 Ultra, AMD created Zen 3 to support 3D V-Cache technology whenever it was ready to ship.
The main change is that AMD and TSMC have reduced the physical height of the CCD die so that a CPU package with 3D V-Cache won’t need to be physically taller than a CPU package without it. This adjustment preserves compatibility with existing CPU coolers.
The 64MB of additional L3 cache, also built on TSMC’s 7 nm process, is physically stacked on the Zen 3 CCD and connected with direct copper-to-copper bonding. The result is something that the system sees as one large pool of L3 cache that can all be treated the same—the 64MB of stacked cache isn’t an L4 cache, and the 32MB of L3 cache built into the CCD doesn’t have any performance advantage compared to the cache stacked on top.
Enlarge / Copper-to-copper bonding is used to fuse the CCD and the additional cache together.
AMD
One side effect of this packaging technology is that the 5800X3D runs at a noticeably slower clock speed than the 5800X, and AMD doesn’t officially allow any overclocking or power adjustments when using the 5800X3D. AMD is pushing the 5800X3D mainly as a gaming processor, and that’s because games benefit more consistently from having a bigger pool of cache to play with. For workloads that care less about cache and more about clock speed—as we’ll see when we start benchmarking—the 5800X3D can be slower than the regular 5800X, which AMD freely admits.
AMD’s 8-core Zen 3 CPUs
Street price
Clocks (Base/Boost)
L3 cache
TDP
PCIe support
Ryzen 7 5700G
$280-300
3.8/4.6
16MB
65W
3.0
Ryzen 7 5700X
$299
3.4/4.6
32MB
65W
4.0
Ryzen 7 5800X
$340-360
3.8/4.7
32MB
105W
4.0
Ryzen 7 5800X3D
$449
3.4/4.5
96MB
105W
4.0
AMD played coy about whether we could expect future Zen 3 CPUs with 3D V-Cache enabled, but reading between the lines, it seems unlikely. 3D V-Cache will be one of the tools in AMD’s toolbox when it comes to boosting performance for Zen 4 and the first Socket AM5 platforms—along with a 5nm TSMC process, DDR5 support, and other architectural improvements—but I don’t get the sense that the 5800X3D will be followed up with an expanded lineup of Zen 3-based X3D chips.
AMD says that motherboards will need a BIOS update to see and use the extra 64MB of cache—look for AGESA version 1.2.0.6b or higher in the release notes. Motherboards that support other Ryzen 5000 CPUs will work with the 5800X3D, but they won’t be able to access the extra cache, defeating the purpose of spending more money on the CPU in the first place.
Speaking of which, the solar-powered TH50-00 is the result of a partnership between TAG Heuer and the Manufacture of La Joux-Perret based in La Chaux-de-Fonds. The result is a watch that won’t need a battery change due to its re-charging ability. According to the brand, the movement only needs two minutes of direct sunlight to run the watch for an entire day Once it’s fully charged and after less than 20 hours of sunlight, it can run for six months. Once it stops working, it only needs ten seconds of exposure to make it run again. In addition, the watch has a power save mode engaged by pulling out the crown, which extends its autonomy for three-and-a-half years.
If you are someone who loves playingFinal Fantasy XIV, but who hates the idea of NFTs, then you’ll be happy to hear that it seems unlikely the two will mix. According to the game’s producer and director Naoki Yoshida, NFTs aren’t coming to the popular MMO anytime soon. However, Yoshida did explain that he is still interested in the concept of NFTs and thinks they could work in future games built with them in mind.
As spotted by Fanbyte, yesterday Yoshida appeared in a Final Fantasy XIV “Letter from the Producer” stream. During the stream, he talked about blockchain technology in games, NFTs, and how they would factor into the future of video games and Square Enix.
During the stream, Yoshida made it clear that NFTs would not be added to FF14.
“Based on how Final Fantasy 14 is designed, we don’t intend on incorporating any sort of NFT element in the game at this point,” explained Yoshida. “If anybody is worried or concerned about it, I can clearly state at this time that we do not have any intentions to incorporate that into the game.”
Later on in the stream, he doubled down on this promise, saying “No NFTs in FF14, so don’t worry.” However, I’m still a bit worried, but not about FF14.
Earlier this year, the CEO of Square Enix, Yosuke Matsuda, published a letter where he praised NFTs and even hoped that the scam-pretending-to-be-a-future-technology would become a “major trend in gaming going forward.’ In that New Year’s letter CEO Matsuda presented empty buzzwords, vague hints, and non-ideas about Square Enix’s potential plans involving the metaverse, NFTs, and blockchain technology. It was… not great!
Yoshida is aware of that letter and commented on it during the stream, explaining that after the CEO’s letter was published, Square Enix noticed a “ lot of reactions” about NFTs and how many Western players seemed “opposed” to them. He further explained the situation in the stream, suggesting people seem nervous about NFTs.
However, don’t assume Yoshida is against the idea of incorporating NFTs in video games. I mean, that would be nice! But nope. Instead, Yoshida expressed curiosity about NFTs and games, “completely unrelated to FF14“.
“I do believe the vehicle itself could potentially be something that makes the concept of a video game a little bit more interesting,” Yoshida explained. “That being said, we would need a specific game design that would accommodate for the concept of NFTs.”
A reminder that NFTs are a giant scam and more people and companies within the gaming industry should be committed to saying that publicly and frequently. However, as you might expect, most companies seem more than willing to start selling players in-game NFTs and other blockchain-powered bullshit in order to make some quick cash before the inevitable bubble pops.
Even though it is hotter than anything else on or in the planet, the Earth’s inner core of iron and nickel has long thought to be entirely solid because of the intense pressure pressing in on it – but if new research is right, that isn’t entirely the case.
The Earth’s core can only be seen indirectly through data, particularly though seismic waves. When an earthquake occurs someplace in the world, the vibrations travel through the entire planet like ripples from a stone thrown in a pond.
But just like those ripples spread smoothly and concentrically across the pond’s surface until they smack into a pier pylon, a boat, or even other ripples from another stone, the same thing happens with seismic waves in the Earth’s interior.
As the waves travel through different material – or even through different phases of the same material, like liquid and solid iron – the seismic waves from an earthquake bend as they move through the Earth in ways that we are able to see in the data from those waves.
These data from seismic waves are how we are able to identify the different layers of the Earth, and how we’re able to tell that there is an inner core of iron-nickel surrounded by an outer core of iron-nickel in liquid form.
But for a long time, the inner core of the Earth has been thought to be entirely solid. A new study in the journal Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors calls this assumption into question, at least in part.
“The more that we look at it, the more we realize it’s not one boring blob of iron,” Jessica Irving, a University of Bristol, England, seismologist who didn’t take part in the study, told our colleagues over at Live Science. “We’re finding a whole new hidden world.”
(Image credit: Dima Zel / Shutterstock)
Rhett Butler, a geophysicist at the Hawai’i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, was studying earthquake data from the other side of the world when the numbers didn’t seem to quite add up the way the math said they should.
“When you’re in this business, you’ve got to match the data,” Butler said.
Butler argues that it’s the assumptions we’ve been making about the Earth’s core that are wrong, and that the seismic math makes sense if the inner iron-alloy core isn’t entirely solid.
“We’ve seen evidence that not only is it not soft everywhere; it’s really hard in some places,” Butler said. “It’s got hard surfaces right up against melted or mushy iron. So we’re seeing a lot of detail within the inner core that we didn’t see before.”
Analysis: what does a smushy core mean for Earth’s magnetic field?
The biggest implication of a not-entirely-solid inner core is for Earth’s magnetic field, and changes in the inner core’s composition and can have a big impact on the planet’s protective bubble.
Earth’s magnetic field is a product of the rotation of the Eath’s liquid outer core, with the solid inner core influencing the strength, shape, and other characteristics.
If the inner core isn’t entirely solid or at least inconsistently so, than this should have an effect on the magnetic field as well.
What effects those are isn’t know, or even if it has an effect at all, but it’s new data that sheds light on the protective shell around our planet that helps protect us from the ravages of charged particles in the solar winds produced by the sun.
The upcoming Galaxy S22 Ultra could be one of the most exciting S-series launches in some time if recent leaks are to be believed, but no one seems to agree on one aspect of the design, and that’s the camera housing. However, the latest leak may shed some light on the final design of the phone’s rear camera layout.
An image of the alleged Galaxy S22 Ultra backplate has emerged, showing five separate cutouts for the cameras. The photo was posted on Weibo before being retweeted by leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer, aka Onleaks.
Well, this seems to be #Samsung #GalaxyS22Ultra final rear camera design…. Still “P” shaped but with each single camera lens protruding instead of the usual bump style housing… (source: https://t.co/dbiWVYZsMp) pic.twitter.com/qKcbvE5TMM
— Steve H.McFly (@OnLeaks) October 21, 2021
If it’s to be believed, it would be an interesting departure from Samsung’s recent rear camera layouts, which have sat in large, protruding stoves. The camera housing would more resemble the LG Velvet and its raindrop camera layout, as opposed to the two previous designs that were being floated around by leakers:
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Of course, from the image, it’s not entirely clear where the LED would be housed, assuming Samsung maintains its quad-camera setup and laser-autofocus unit. Although apparently, we weren’t the only ones wondering that very thing:
Or maybe one of the two holes on the right is split in half, including a sensor(s) and flash within each half… pic.twitter.com/flqvghClvi
— Steve H.McFly (@OnLeaks) October 21, 2021
That said, we should take the new camera design with a grain of salt, at least until we start seeing real-life images of the device. Still, depending on your tastes, the change could be a welcome one for some, considering many of the best Android phones have stuck with a similar stove design for a couple of years now.
New on Peacock
Here are the best shows on Peacock right now
NBC’s Peacock streaming service offers subscribers access to a ton of free and premium content. With so much to choose from, we’ve rounded up a list of the best Peacock shows available for your viewing pleasure this weekend!
Don’t flip out
No need to flip out, just get a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 screen protector
Samsung’s new factory-installed PET screen protector on the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is quite an improvement over the previous generation’s, but you still need some extra protection. Here are the best third-party screen protectors to keep your new phone’s folding display extra safe.
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Enlarge / New whole-hemisphere image of Mars captured by the UAE “Hope” probe.
Emirates Mars Mission
Since arriving at Mars eight months ago, the Emirates Mars Mission has quietly begun to deliver some intriguing scientific data about the Martian atmosphere and its weather patterns.
Named “Hope,” the probe is in a relatively high orbit, varying in altitude above Mars from 20,000 to 43,000 km. This vantage point allows the spacecraft to see an entire hemisphere at a time. For much of this year, then, the Hope probe has been training its multi-band imager, infrared spectrometer, and ultraviolet spectrometer on Mars to collect data about the planet’s atmosphere and resulting weather conditions.
The project was financed by the United Arab Emirates, and the spacecraft was built in conjunction with several US-based universities, including the University of Colorado Boulder. The goal was to inspire young Emiratis to pursue an education in math and science and train some of them through the resulting collaborations. The probe launched in July 2020 on a Japanese rocket.
Enlarge / The Emirates Ultraviolet Spectrometer mapped the distribution of atomic oxygen in the planet’s upper atmosphere,
Emirates Mars Mission
One goal of the mission was to share the resulting data freely, and as a result, the mission recently opened a science data portal. Anyone can register to get access to raw images and data collected by the probe in the past, with new data sets being released every three months, without embargo. The mission, the first Arab probe sent to Mars, is planned to operate for a minimum of two years in orbit around the red planet.
The Hope probe has already made some interesting discoveries. For example, scientists had expected to observe a fairly uniform distribution of oxygen throughout the Martian atmosphere. Although the planet’s thin atmosphere is predominately composed of carbon dioxide, molecular oxygen is a trace gas. According to the Hope probe’s observations of oxygen in the upper atmosphere, concentrations vary by more than 50 percent. Similar variations were also observed in carbon monoxide.
Scientists are now working to understand these variations, which do not entirely fit within current models of the Martian atmosphere.
The probe is also closely tracking temperatures across the surface of Mars, acting as if it were the first weather satellite in orbit around the red planet. Although there will be many considerations that go into determining the initial landing sites for humans on Mars—a lack of rocky outcrops and hazards will be foremost among them—understanding local weather conditions will also be a valuable tool for mission planners.
Following the success of its Mars mission, the UAE Space Agency recently announced that it is planning a still more ambitious probe that will perform a flyby of Venus in the late 2020s and then travel to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. There, the probe will observe up to seven asteroids before attempting a landing on one of them in 2033.
The probe mapped the temperature of the atmosphere, tracking how it warmed up over the course of the morning.
Emirates Mars Mission
For this mission, the country will again partner with US-based universities to help develop the spacecraft and to further strengthen collaboration with educators in the Middle East.
“Our goal is clear: to accelerate the development of innovation and knowledge-based enterprises in the Emirates,” said Sarah bint Yousif Al Amiri, minister of state for Advanced Sciences and chair of the UAE Space Agency, in a statement. “This can’t be done by going steady-state; this requires leaps in imagination, in faith, and the pursuit of goals that go beyond prudent or methodical.”
A small asteroid barely missed Earth just hours after the car-sized rock was discovered flying through space.
The asteroid, dubbed 2021 RS2, came within 9,532 miles of the earth’s surface on Tuesday. The close call was slightly farther than the Earth’s diameter, 7,917.5 miles, according to EarthSky.
RS2 was first observed by researchers at Mount Lemmon Survey in Arizona on September 7 as it barreled Earthward at 39,366 miles per hour.
If the asteroid had come any closer, it would have mostly disintegrated while burning up in the atmosphere and posed no real threat to the planet.
It is the closest flyby of the year and the 21st closest on record, sharing the place with 2021 CZ3 which flew past us on February 9, 2021.
According to The Watchers website, RS2 is the 81st known asteroid to fly within one lunar distance [239,228.3 miles] of Earth since the start of 2021.
In case an asteroid one day threatens Earth’s existence, NASA has developed a contingency plan to launch a spaceship right at the rock.
The asteroid was discovered on September 7 by researchers at Mount Lemmon Survey in Arizona.Getty Images
“Up until now, we haven’t had too many options for what we might do if we found something that was incoming,” Johns Hopkins planetary astronomer Andy Rivkin told Vice News of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission in April. “DART is the first test of how we might be able to deflect something without having to resort to a nuclear package, or sitting in our basements, waiting it out and crossing our fingers.”
Amazon has announced that over 500,000 of its workers will get a permanent increase in their hourly wages starting in mid-May, from as low as an additional 50 cents an hour to as much as three extra dollars per hour (via GeekWire). That’s a substantial chunk of its 1.3 million person workforce getting at least a small pay bump, and the company shared that it’s investing over $1 billion in these pay increases. Amazon said that it’s also on a hiring spree for “tens of thousands of jobs across our operations in the US.”
Amazon previously recognized its warehouse and delivery workers with a $2 pay bump last March as the company worked to meet increased demand during the pandemic, but that was a temporary raise that disappeared in May 2020, shortly after the United States had reached 100,000 deaths; the coronavirus pandemic has killed over 400,000 additional people in the United States since then. The company confirmed to The Verge that the pay bumps announced Wednesday are permanent, however, and new hires will be eligible for them as well.
Here’s the full text of Amazon’s announcement, from Amazon’s Darcie Henry:
Amazon is hiring now for tens of thousands of jobs across our operations in the U.S., and we’re looking for great people to join our Customer Fulfillment, Delivery, Package Sortation, and Specialty Fulfillment teams. In support of this effort, we pulled forward our annual fall pay review for these teams and will be rolling out increases from mid-May through early June.
More than 500,000 people will see an increase between at least 50 cents and $3 an hour, which is an investment of over $1 billion in incremental pay for these employees. This is on top of our already industry-leading starting wage of at least $15 an hour and the more than $2.5 billion that we invested last year in additional bonuses and incentives for front-line teams. These jobs come with a range of great benefits, like medical, dental, and vision coverage, parental leave, ways to save for the future, and opportunities for career advancement—all in a safe and inclusive environment that’s been ranked among the best workplaces in the world.
Other teams are continuing with their regular annual compensation review plans, which will occur throughout the remainder of 2021.
Wednesday’s news comes just a day before the company’s earnings tomorrow, April 29th. It also arrives as a fired Amazon worker is attempting to unionize other warehouse employees after the failed union vote in Bessemer, Alabama.
Green Bay Packers Damon Harrison (98) looks to get a call against the Chicago Berars during their football game Sunday, January 3, 2021, at Soldier Field in Chicago, Ill. Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
This would obviously be a re-signing instead of an outside addition. But Harrison played some quality snaps as an interior defender for the Packers to end last season, and he could be the run-stuffing lineman the Packers still need to help Kenny Clark in 2021. Give him a full offseason in Green Bay and a well-defined role and he could be a quality role player for Joe Barry. Throw in the right draft pick, and more development from Kingsley Keke, and the Packers defensive line could take a step forward this year.
