Will SpaceX’s Starlink satellites ruin stargazing?

SpaceX’s satellites will populate the night sky, affecting how we observe the stars. And this is just the beginning of private satellite mega-constellations. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/will-spacex-starlink-satellites-ruin-stargazing…

What is the moon’s terminator line?

The moon’s terminator is the dividing line between day and night on the moon. As we see it from Earth, it marks the line of lunar sunsets or sunrises. Earth and other worlds in our solar system have terminator lines, too. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/definition-moon-planet-terminator-line-twilight-zone…

Scientists discover ancient lake bed deep beneath Greenland ice

The ancient lake bed, sealed more than a mile under Greenland ice, may be hundreds of thousands or millions of years old, and contain unique fossil and chemical traces of past climates and life. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/ancient-lake-bed-deep-beneath-greenland-ice…

Waymo Pulls Back the Curtain On 6.1 Million Miles of Self-Driving Car Data

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: In its first report on its autonomous vehicle operations in Phoenix, Arizona, Waymo said that it was involved in 18 crashes and 29 near-miss collisions during 2019 and the first nine months of 2020. These crashes included rear-enders, vehicle swipes, and even one incident when a Waymo vehicle was T-boned at an…

College President Resigns After 712 Students Test Positive For Covid-19

CNN reports: The president of the State University of New York at Oneonta has resigned, as the school grapples with hundreds of reported Covid-19 cases within the university since the beginning of the semester… SUNY Oneonta has reported 712 student cases of Covid-19 since residence halls opened on August 17… The resignation of the sitting president of SUNY Oneonta comes after…

IBM Publishes its Quantum Roadmap, Says it Will Have a 1,000-qubit Machine in 2023

IBM today, for the first time, published its road map for the future of its quantum computing hardware. There is a lot to digest here, but the most important news in the short term is that the company believes it is on its way to building a quantum processor with more than 1,000 qubits — and somewhere between 10 and 50…

Chinese-Made Smartphones Are Secretly Stealing Money From People Around the World

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BuzzFeed News: When Mxolosi saw a Tecno W2 smartphone in a store in Johannesburg, South Africa, he was attracted to its looks and functionality. But what really drew him in was the price, roughly $30 — far less than comparable models from Samsung, Nokia, or Huawei, Africa’s other top brands. It was another sale…