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Robots Smash Human Records at Beijing Competition

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High-tech competitors take the field in synchronized display

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What changes are coming to MCPS for the 2026-2027 school year?

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What changes are coming to MCPS for the 2026-2027 school year?

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MCPS has cut hundreds of positions, made sweeping programming changes and banned cell phones for high schoolers.

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Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

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Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

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OpenAI shares new results on long-standing open problems in mathematics and theoretical computer science, including advances in geometry, cryptography, and complexity.

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Ukraine’s Fiber-Optic Drone War Is Already Reaching Israel

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Cell phone use to be banned all day for MCPS high schools

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Cell phone use to be banned all day for MCPS high schools

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MCPS is updating its cell phone regulations to ban the use of mobile devices all day for all students, including high schoolers.

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Amazon seeks approval to launch 5,105 satellites for direct-to-device network

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Amazon seeks federal approval to launch 5,105 satellites for direct-to-device network

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The proposed network will partly rely on assets from Globalstar, which Amazon announced plans to acquire in April for roughly $11.6 billion.

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NASA says Artemis III mission on schedule as Blue Origin repairs launchpad

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NASA says Artemis III mission on schedule as Blue Origin repairs launchpad

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NASA remains on track for next year’s Artemis III mission, a key test of orbital ‌docking and lunar landers needed for future crewed moon landings, despite an explosion involving an unmanned Blue Origin rocket during a launchpad test in May, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said on Monday.

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SpaceX launches satellite repair drone with 10-foot robotic arms to Earth orbit (video)

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SpaceX launches satellite repair drone with 10-foot robotic arms to Earth orbit (video)

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The MRV-MEP mission is designed to extend the operational lives of multiple satellites in geostationary orbit.

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SpaceX launches satellite repair drone with 10-foot robotic arms to Earth orbit (video)

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SpaceX launches satellite repair drone with 10-foot robotic arms to Earth orbit (video)

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The MRV-MEP mission is designed to extend the operational lives of multiple satellites in geostationary orbit.

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Quantum Computing Stocks Drop 35% as Federal Mandate Reshapes Investment Case

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Quantum Computing Stocks Drop 35% as Federal Mandate Reshapes Investment Case

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Quantum computing stocks dropped 35% from their post-signing peak after Trump signed two June 22 executive orders — the same ones that sent IonQ, D-Wave, and Rigetti surging. The pullback reflects valuation reality: federal mandates set binding post-quantum cryptography deadlines for 2030 and 2031

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Quantum Computing Stocks Drop 35% as Federal Mandate Reshapes Investment Case

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Quantum Computing Stocks Drop 35% as Federal Mandate Reshapes Investment Case

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Quantum computing stocks dropped 35% from their post-signing peak after Trump signed two June 22 executive orders — the same ones that sent IonQ, D-Wave, and Rigetti surging. The pullback reflects valuation reality: federal mandates set binding post-quantum cryptography deadlines for 2030 and 2031

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Quantum Computing Stocks Drop 35% as Federal Mandate Reshapes Investment Case

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Quantum Computing Stocks Drop 35% as Federal Mandate Reshapes Investment Case

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Quantum computing stocks dropped 35% from their post-signing peak after Trump signed two June 22 executive orders — the same ones that sent IonQ, D-Wave, and Rigetti surging. The pullback reflects valuation reality: federal mandates set binding post-quantum cryptography deadlines for 2030 and 2031

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This map shows fine particle pollution (PM2.5) from wildfires and other sources. It provides a public resource of information to best prepare and manage wildfire season. Developed in a joint partnership between the EPA and USFS.

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This Day in Maryland’s History: The Ransom Of Middletown

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This Day in Maryland’s History: The Ransom Of Middletown - The BayNet

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MIDDLETOWN, Md. — July 7, 1864, was a dark day in Middletown’s history. The Civil War was ravaging the nation, and the Confederates had just crossed the Potomac River and were beginning to march into Union-controlled Maryland. When the Confederates entered Middletown, they weren’t simply interested in passing through. Instead, they aimed to take as […]

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At 100, Dick Van Dyke Credits One Habit For His Long Life. Studies Link It to 15% More Years

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At the close of 2025, the beloved actor Dick Van Dyke – famous for tap dancing with a ‘twinkle in his eye’ – turned 100 years old.

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The 4 dimensions of Elon Musk’s $1 trillion fortune

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Struggling to imagine the sheer scale of Elon Musk’s wealth? Consider it in dimensions you can comprehend.

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Elon Musk is poised to become the first trillionaire. Just how much money is $1 trillion? | CNN Business

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Elon Musk is poised to become the world’s first trillionaire. It’s a staggering amount of wealth never seen before in the history of human commerce.

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NASA to Announce Artemis III Crew, Provide Mission Progress Update

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NASA will provide an update on the agency's Artemis III mission and announce the astronauts assigned to the test flight during a live event at 11 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, June 9, at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The event will stream on NASA+ and on the agency's YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.

Following the event, the Artemis III crew will be available for limited in-person and virtual interviews.

Interview requests must be submitted to the NASA Johnson newsroom by 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 4. International media interested in attending must contact the NASA Johnson newsroom at jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov by 5 p.m., Thursday, May 28. U.S. media must contact the newsroom by 5 p.m., June 4. Registered media will receive confirmation and additional event details by email. NASA's media accreditation policy is available online.

Artemis III will launch four astronauts from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the Orion spacecraft on the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. The mission will test critical rendezvous and docking capabilities between Orion and commercial human landing systems needed to deliver astronauts to the lunar surface. Building on the successful Artemis II crewed test flight in April, Artemis III will pave the way for future surface missions.

As part of the Golden Age of innovation and exploration, NASA will send Artemis astronauts on increasingly complex missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, establish an enduring human presence on the lunar surface, and to build on our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.

Learn more about NASA's Artemis program:
https://www.nasa.gov/artemis
-end-

Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov

Anna Schneider
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
anna.c.schneider@nasa.gov

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NASA to Announce Artemis III Crew, Provide Mission Progress Update - NASA

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NASA will provide an update on the agency's Artemis III mission and announce the astronauts assigned to the test flight during a live event at 11 a.m. EDT on

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The sky of 2026 will be nothing short of spectacular. To help you keep track of the most exciting moments, we've created a special stargazing calendar - one must-see event for every month of the year. Explore them all in Sky Tonight, our interactive astronomy app that helps you identify stars and planets, follow upcoming sky events, and make every night under the stars unforgettable.

Contents

What Is The Best Celestial Event of April 2026?

Look for Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) this month - it is already visible to the naked eye under dark skies and is quickly becoming one of the standout sky events of 2026. Find observing tips in the dedicated section.

Best Astronomy Events in 2026

We made this list with every sky lover in mind - beginners and pros, northern and southern observers, telescope owners and naked-eye watchers alike. Some great events didn't make the cut, but you'll find them in our list of the Not-Quite-Best Astronomical Events of 2026 - they're still worth checking out!

Now, without further ado - let's get to the best of the best!

January 10: Best Time to See Jupiter in 2026

The biggest planet in our Solar System takes the spotlight this month! On January 10, Jupiter reaches opposition - standing directly opposite the Sun and shining at its very brightest. Its magnitude will reach -2.7, and the planet's disk will span about 45.6 arcseconds, making Jupiter hard to miss even for casual stargazers.

You'll see Jupiter glowing all night long, from sunset to sunrise, high in the constellation Gemini. Use the Winter Hexagon asterism as your guide - the planet shines right inside this huge ring of stars, near Pollux. Look for the bright, golden "star" that doesn't twinkle!

You don't need any equipment to spot it - Jupiter is bright enough for the naked eye. But if you grab binoculars or a small telescope, you'll notice four little dots nearby - the Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. They never sit still, constantly shifting their positions, hiding behind the planet, or gliding in front of it. Don't be surprised if you see only three moons instead of four - one of them is probably just taking a quick lap behind the giant!

Those four bright dots are only the most famous ones - Jupiter actually has 97 known moons! The rest are much smaller and fainter, visible only through powerful telescopes. For many years, Jupiter proudly held the title of the planet with the most moons - but then another gas giant quietly took that crown. Any guesses which one? Test your smarts in our quiz about the cosmic record holders!

February 28: Large Planetary Alignment

Around February 28, six planets - Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, Neptune, Venus, and Mercury - will gather for a rare planetary alignment. About an hour after sunset, you'll see them lined up in a gentle diagonal, rising from the western horizon up toward the almost full Moon.

Four of the six - Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and Mercury - will be bright enough to spot with the naked eye. Venus will sparkle near the horizon, with Mercury just above it. Higher in the sky, you'll find Saturn with its soft golden glow and Jupiter shining brilliantly next to the 90% illuminated Moon.

If you have binoculars or a small telescope, try to catch Uranus - it sits about halfway between bright Jupiter and the main group of evening planets. Neptune, meanwhile, will be found close to Saturn. Spotting them might take a bit of effort, but their presence completes this rare celestial lineup.

Curious about all the details - magnitudes, constellations, and timings? Find everything you need in our full article about planetary alignments.

March 3: Blood Moon, or Total Lunar Eclipse

Get ready for one of the most dramatic sights of the year - a total lunar eclipse on the night of March 3, 2026. During the eclipse, the Moon will pass completely through Earth's shadow and turn a deep reddish color - the event colloquially called "Blood Moon."

See full guide (visibility map + exact times): Blood Moon 2026 - total lunar eclipse timeline (ET/PT, UTC)

Visibility map of the total lunar eclipse on March 3, 2026. To find out the exact time and visibility of the lunar eclipse in your location, use the Eclipse Guide app.

This eclipse will be visible across the Pacific region, with partial visibility from Asia, Australia, and the Americas - basically, anywhere the Moon is above the horizon during the event. The total phase will last for 58 minutes, and the entire eclipse - from the penumbral beginning to the end - will take over 5 hours.

This eclipse coincides with the March Full Moon, traditionally called the Worm Moon. The name comes from Native American traditions - it marks the time when the ground begins to thaw and earthworms reappear, signaling the coming of spring. So, on March 3, we're getting a Blood Worm Moon (which sounds a bit creepy, doesn't it?).

See exact March Full Moon (Worm Moon) time + best viewing tips: Worm Moon 2026.

Check out our infographic about the Full Moons of 2026 - it shows all the full Moons of the year with their traditional names, exact dates, and gorgeous illustrations. (You might even want to print it out and hang it on your wall - we won't judge!)

April 20: C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS), Possibly One Of The Brightest Comets Of 2026

Around April 20, comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) could reach its peak brightness, possibly around magnitude 3. That's within naked-eye range under good conditions, and if we're lucky, it might shine even brighter - some forecasts go as bright as mag -0.5! If those predictions come true, C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) could become one of the brightest comets of 2026.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the comet will be best seen in the morning sky during the first half of April, before sunrise. After perihelion on April 19, it will quickly sink into the Sun's glare and become much harder to observe. In the Southern Hemisphere, viewing conditions are expected to improve in late April and early May, with the comet becoming an evening object.

Want to know more details? See our full observing guide to Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS), including the best viewing dates, brightness expectations, and visibility tips for each hemisphere. And if you're curious about how comets work - their orbits, tails, and periodic returns - don't miss our infographic about comets: it's a quick, colorful guide to everything you ever wanted to know about these icy travelers.

May 31: Blue Micromoon, The Tiniest Moon This Year

Mark your calendars for a rare combo! On May 31, the night sky will feature a Blue Moon - the second Full Moon in a single calendar month - and it also happens to be the year's smallest Full Moon, or Micromoon. We've covered this unusual combination in detail in our dedicated article on the Blue Micromoon of May 2026. Below, you'll find the key facts at a glance.

Because the Moon will be near its apogee - the farthest point from Earth in its orbit - it will appear about 5.5% smaller and 10.5% dimmer than a typical Full Moon. The difference is subtle to the naked eye, but fascinating once you know what to look for. If you're curious how Micromoons compare with Supermoons (and why skywatchers love keeping track of both), take a look at our article about the Supermoons & Micromoons.

Despite the name, the Moon won't actually turn blue - the "Blue Moon" is nothing more than a name for the "odd" Full Moon. By the way, the Blue Moon isn't the only "colorful" lunar term out there - we also have the Black Moon, the Blood Moon, and a few others that sound just as dramatic. Curious how many you know? Dive into our Moon Colors quiz!

June 9: Venus Near Jupiter, Two Brightest Planets Together

On June 9, Venus and Jupiter - the two brightest planets in the sky - will meet for a moment in Gemini. They'll come within 1°30′ of each other, which is just a little more than the width of your finger held at arm's length. Look for them in the evening sky after sunset. Both planets will be easily visible to the naked eye:

Venus will shine at a magnitude of -4.0, with an apparent size of 13.9".

Jupiter will glow at a magnitude of -1.9, spanning 31.9".

Planetary meet-ups like this aren't as common as they seem; in some years, you can count them on one hand. We cover every one of them (big and small!) in our dedicated guide to planetary conjunctions.

July 11: The Moon Near Mars And Pleiades

Set your alarm a little early on July 11 - the thin crescent Moon, Mars, and the Pleiades will gather in the pre-dawn sky. The Moon is only 15.6% illuminated, and it'll be sitting close to the Pleiades, one of the brightest star clusters (mag 1.2).

A bit farther away, you'll find Mars, glowing with its familiar reddish tint (mag 1.3). Together, the pale Moon, blue-white Pleiades, and red Mars form a tiny palette in the sky - pretty and easy to spot even for beginners.

All three objects are visible to the naked eye, but binoculars really bring the Pleiades to life as a sparkling cluster of tiny stars. For the best view, try to get away from light pollution. And if you're curious about how dark your sky actually is, see our Bortle scale infographic - it's a handy way to estimate what you can realistically see.

🌟August 12: Triple Treat - Large Planetary Alignment, Total Solar Eclipse, Perseids Peak

August 12 is basically the all-inclusive cosmic buffet of 2026: we'll have an event for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

Before sunrise, the sky will host a six-planet parade: Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune. It's an extended line stretching from the east to the southwest, with the planets rising one by one through the night: Saturn and Neptune rise first, around midnight. Uranus joins a couple of hours later, Mars climbs up about an hour after that, and shortly before dawn, Jupiter and Mercury finally appear to complete the lineup. The bright ones - Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn - are easy to see with the naked eye. Uranus and Neptune are best found with binoculars or a small telescope.

In the afternoon comes the main course - a total solar eclipse. The path of totality crosses Greenland, Iceland, Portugal, and Spain, offering a jaw-dropping view for anyone lucky enough to be in the zone. Across a big portion of Europe, the eclipse won't be total but will still cover most of the Sun, which is impressive on its own. Totality reaches its maximum at 17:45 GMT, so plan accordingly. And use proper eye protection - no exceptions, you know the drill.

The path of totality for the solar eclipse on August 12, 2026, will sweep across the North Atlantic and Western Europe. To find out the exact time and visibility of the solar eclipse in your location, use the Eclipse Guide app.

After dark, comes the day's grand finale: the legendary Perseids, one of the most beloved meteor showers of the year. This time, conditions are perfect - there's a New Moon, and the sky will be pleasantly dark. The predicted peak is at 14:53 GMT on August 13, so the night of August 12-13 offers one of the best viewing opportunities. Under a dark sky with no Moon, observers often catch more than 90 meteors per hour, many of them bright, colorful, and leaving long-lasting trains.

If you manage to see all three events, you've officially earned the right to brag about it for the rest of your life.

September 24: Venus at Its Brightest for 2026

This September, Venus is going to be not just the evening star, but the full evening superstar! On September 24, it will reach its greatest brilliance, shining at a magnitude of -4.8. This makes it the brightest Venus will be all year.

Here's a fun fact: while Venus is at its brightest to us, through a telescope it appears as a slender crescent, only 22% illuminated. How can a crescent be so bright? The secret is in its proximity. Venus will be relatively close to Earth, and its large, sunlit crescent presents the greatest total area of reflected sunlight we can see from our planet. When Venus is in its full phase, it's actually at its farthest point from us, making it appear smaller and dimmer.

Look for Venus in the evening, glowing just above the southwestern horizon in the constellation Virgo. It'll sparkle like a tiny spotlight not long after the Sun has set - so bright that many people might mistake it for an airplane... or something more exotic.

October 4: Best Time To See Saturn in 2026

The "Lord of the Rings" is putting on its best show of the year! On October 4, Saturn will reach opposition, meaning it's directly opposite the Sun from our earthly perspective. This celestial standoff makes it brighter and larger than at any other time in 2026 (mag 0.3, 19.7 arcseconds), and visible from sunset to sunrise.

You'll find Saturn shining with a steady, golden glow in the constellation Cetus. It's a perfect naked-eye target, but a small telescope will reveal its magnificent ring system. This is what makes Saturn a "wow!" moment for every first-time observer.

November 16: Mars Near Jupiter

On November 16, two of the most observed planets in the sky, Mars and Jupiter, will perform a close duet. They will be separated by just 1°12′ - that's roughly the width of two full Moons - making them a stunning pair for the naked eye.

The contrast between them is what makes this close approach special. Jupiter will dominate as a golden beacon at magnitude -2.1, while Mars, glowing with a distinct reddish hue at magnitude 0.7, will sit close by. You can easily find them in the constellation Leo. By the way, the show isn't limited to a single night - you can enjoy this brilliant pair gracing the sky together for several days before and after the event.

December 14: Geminids Peak

Cap off the year with one of the most reliable and spectacular meteor displays - the Geminid meteor shower. Peaking on the night of December 14, this shower is known for its high activity, producing around 120 meteors per hour. It often produces bright, moderately fast meteors that are a delight to watch.

This shower puts on a fantastic show for the vast majority of Earth's population. It is best viewed from the Northern Hemisphere, where the radiant point climbs high in the sky. But observers in the Southern Hemisphere can also enjoy a very good display, albeit with a lower meteor count per hour. The waxing crescent Moon will set early in the evening, leaving a dark sky perfect for meteor watching. For the best view, find a dark spot away from city lights after midnight and let your eyes adjust to the darkness. Also, check out our infographic about meteors to learn how to make the most of your observing session.

How to make the most out of every astronomical event: useful tools

So, you're excited about the events of 2026 - but how do you make sure you're in the right place at the right time? We've got you covered with our astronomy apps that do the heavy lifting for you.

Star Walk 2 Plus has the unique Planet Walk feature! It calculates and shows you the planets that can be seen tonight, and the exact dates when the maximum number of planets will be visible in the sky above your location.

Eclipse Guide is your personal assistant for the eclipses of all types. Whether it's the "Blood Moon" in March or the total solar eclipse in August, this app will provide you with exact timings, visibility maps, and all the details you need to prepare for any lunar or solar eclipse.

Sky Tonight is your ultimate weapon for planning any stargazing session. The app's Calendar neatly shows you all meteor shower peaks, Moon phases, and nightly observing conditions at a glance.

In any of these apps, you can set a reminder for any event that catches your eye. Let your phone handle the remembering, so you can focus on the wonder.

Best astronomical events 2026: to sum up

Well, there you have it - a year's worth of cosmic wonders, handpicked for your stargazing pleasure. No matter your experience level or equipment, 2026 promises at least one must-see event every single month. And if you're really ambitious, mark August 12 in bold - that's your chance to bag three top-tier events in just one day!

Clear skies and happy stargazing!

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Top Astronomical Events 2026: Best Celestial Wonders For Every Month

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We've handpicked the best celestial event for each month of 2026 - check them all out and plan your year under the stars!

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SpaceX launches largest Starship ever from South Texas. Recapping mission

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For the first time in 2026, SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket launched on a critical mission from Texas that took it halfway around the world.

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13K views · 14K reactions | Mister Rogers’ final message… A few months before he passed, Fred Rogers returned to the same studio where he’d spent decades filming—this time speaking not to children, but to the adults they had become. He didn’t try to explain the world or offer a roadmap. Instead, he came back to something simple that’s easy to forget: you are already worthy of being liked, just as you are. And the way you show up for others—especially the children in your life—leaves a lasting mark. What he left behind isn’t just nostalgia. It’s a reminder that the small, everyday choices we make—how we listen, how we respond, how we make space for others—are what ultimately shape the kind of world we all live in. | Builders Movement

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Mister Rogers’ final message… A few months before he passed, Fred Rogers returned to the same studio where he’d spent decades filming—this time speaking not to children, but to the adults they had…

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Use this map to find the data centers in your backyard

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Use this map to find the data centers in your backyard

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Opposition to data centers is one of the few things that unites Americans across party lines.

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The sky of 2026 will be nothing short of spectacular. To help you keep track of the most exciting moments, we've created a special stargazing calendar - one must-see event for every month of the year. Explore them all in Sky Tonight, our interactive astronomy app that helps you identify stars and planets, follow upcoming sky events, and make every night under the stars unforgettable.

Contents

What Is The Best Celestial Event of April 2026?

Look for Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) this month - it is already visible to the naked eye under dark skies and is quickly becoming one of the standout sky events of 2026. Find observing tips in the dedicated section.

Best Astronomy Events in 2026

We made this list with every sky lover in mind - beginners and pros, northern and southern observers, telescope owners and naked-eye watchers alike. Some great events didn't make the cut, but you'll find them in our list of the Not-Quite-Best Astronomical Events of 2026 - they're still worth checking out!

Now, without further ado - let's get to the best of the best!

January 10: Best Time to See Jupiter in 2026

The biggest planet in our Solar System takes the spotlight this month! On January 10, Jupiter reaches opposition - standing directly opposite the Sun and shining at its very brightest. Its magnitude will reach -2.7, and the planet's disk will span about 45.6 arcseconds, making Jupiter hard to miss even for casual stargazers.

You'll see Jupiter glowing all night long, from sunset to sunrise, high in the constellation Gemini. Use the Winter Hexagon asterism as your guide - the planet shines right inside this huge ring of stars, near Pollux. Look for the bright, golden "star" that doesn't twinkle!

You don't need any equipment to spot it - Jupiter is bright enough for the naked eye. But if you grab binoculars or a small telescope, you'll notice four little dots nearby - the Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. They never sit still, constantly shifting their positions, hiding behind the planet, or gliding in front of it. Don't be surprised if you see only three moons instead of four - one of them is probably just taking a quick lap behind the giant!

Those four bright dots are only the most famous ones - Jupiter actually has 97 known moons! The rest are much smaller and fainter, visible only through powerful telescopes. For many years, Jupiter proudly held the title of the planet with the most moons - but then another gas giant quietly took that crown. Any guesses which one? Test your smarts in our quiz about the cosmic record holders!

February 28: Large Planetary Alignment

Around February 28, six planets - Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, Neptune, Venus, and Mercury - will gather for a rare planetary alignment. About an hour after sunset, you'll see them lined up in a gentle diagonal, rising from the western horizon up toward the almost full Moon.

Four of the six - Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and Mercury - will be bright enough to spot with the naked eye. Venus will sparkle near the horizon, with Mercury just above it. Higher in the sky, you'll find Saturn with its soft golden glow and Jupiter shining brilliantly next to the 90% illuminated Moon.

If you have binoculars or a small telescope, try to catch Uranus - it sits about halfway between bright Jupiter and the main group of evening planets. Neptune, meanwhile, will be found close to Saturn. Spotting them might take a bit of effort, but their presence completes this rare celestial lineup.

Curious about all the details - magnitudes, constellations, and timings? Find everything you need in our full article about planetary alignments.

March 3: Blood Moon, or Total Lunar Eclipse

Get ready for one of the most dramatic sights of the year - a total lunar eclipse on the night of March 3, 2026. During the eclipse, the Moon will pass completely through Earth's shadow and turn a deep reddish color - the event colloquially called "Blood Moon."

See full guide (visibility map + exact times): Blood Moon 2026 - total lunar eclipse timeline (ET/PT, UTC)

Visibility map of the total lunar eclipse on March 3, 2026. To find out the exact time and visibility of the lunar eclipse in your location, use the Eclipse Guide app.

This eclipse will be visible across the Pacific region, with partial visibility from Asia, Australia, and the Americas - basically, anywhere the Moon is above the horizon during the event. The total phase will last for 58 minutes, and the entire eclipse - from the penumbral beginning to the end - will take over 5 hours.

This eclipse coincides with the March Full Moon, traditionally called the Worm Moon. The name comes from Native American traditions - it marks the time when the ground begins to thaw and earthworms reappear, signaling the coming of spring. So, on March 3, we're getting a Blood Worm Moon (which sounds a bit creepy, doesn't it?).

See exact March Full Moon (Worm Moon) time + best viewing tips: Worm Moon 2026.

Check out our infographic about the Full Moons of 2026 - it shows all the full Moons of the year with their traditional names, exact dates, and gorgeous illustrations. (You might even want to print it out and hang it on your wall - we won't judge!)

April 20: C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS), Possibly One Of The Brightest Comets Of 2026

Around April 20, comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) could reach its peak brightness, possibly around magnitude 3. That's within naked-eye range under good conditions, and if we're lucky, it might shine even brighter - some forecasts go as bright as mag -0.5! If those predictions come true, C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) could become one of the brightest comets of 2026.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the comet will be best seen in the morning sky during the first half of April, before sunrise. After perihelion on April 19, it will quickly sink into the Sun's glare and become much harder to observe. In the Southern Hemisphere, viewing conditions are expected to improve in late April and early May, with the comet becoming an evening object.

Want to know more details? See our full observing guide to Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS), including the best viewing dates, brightness expectations, and visibility tips for each hemisphere. And if you're curious about how comets work - their orbits, tails, and periodic returns - don't miss our infographic about comets: it's a quick, colorful guide to everything you ever wanted to know about these icy travelers.

May 31: Blue Micromoon, The Tiniest Moon This Year

Mark your calendars for a rare combo! On May 31, the night sky will feature a Blue Moon - the second Full Moon in a single calendar month - and it also happens to be the year's smallest Full Moon, or Micromoon. We've covered this unusual combination in detail in our dedicated article on the Blue Micromoon of May 2026. Below, you'll find the key facts at a glance.

Because the Moon will be near its apogee - the farthest point from Earth in its orbit - it will appear about 5.5% smaller and 10.5% dimmer than a typical Full Moon. The difference is subtle to the naked eye, but fascinating once you know what to look for. If you're curious how Micromoons compare with Supermoons (and why skywatchers love keeping track of both), take a look at our article about the Supermoons & Micromoons.

Despite the name, the Moon won't actually turn blue - the "Blue Moon" is nothing more than a name for the "odd" Full Moon. By the way, the Blue Moon isn't the only "colorful" lunar term out there - we also have the Black Moon, the Blood Moon, and a few others that sound just as dramatic. Curious how many you know? Dive into our Moon Colors quiz!

June 9: Venus Near Jupiter, Two Brightest Planets Together

On June 9, Venus and Jupiter - the two brightest planets in the sky - will meet for a moment in Gemini. They'll come within 1°30′ of each other, which is just a little more than the width of your finger held at arm's length. Look for them in the evening sky after sunset. Both planets will be easily visible to the naked eye:

Venus will shine at a magnitude of -4.0, with an apparent size of 13.9".

Jupiter will glow at a magnitude of -1.9, spanning 31.9".

Planetary meet-ups like this aren't as common as they seem; in some years, you can count them on one hand. We cover every one of them (big and small!) in our dedicated guide to planetary conjunctions.

July 11: The Moon Near Mars And Pleiades

Set your alarm a little early on July 11 - the thin crescent Moon, Mars, and the Pleiades will gather in the pre-dawn sky. The Moon is only 15.6% illuminated, and it'll be sitting close to the Pleiades, one of the brightest star clusters (mag 1.2).

A bit farther away, you'll find Mars, glowing with its familiar reddish tint (mag 1.3). Together, the pale Moon, blue-white Pleiades, and red Mars form a tiny palette in the sky - pretty and easy to spot even for beginners.

All three objects are visible to the naked eye, but binoculars really bring the Pleiades to life as a sparkling cluster of tiny stars. For the best view, try to get away from light pollution. And if you're curious about how dark your sky actually is, see our Bortle scale infographic - it's a handy way to estimate what you can realistically see.

🌟August 12: Triple Treat - Large Planetary Alignment, Total Solar Eclipse, Perseids Peak

August 12 is basically the all-inclusive cosmic buffet of 2026: we'll have an event for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

Before sunrise, the sky will host a six-planet parade: Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune. It's an extended line stretching from the east to the southwest, with the planets rising one by one through the night: Saturn and Neptune rise first, around midnight. Uranus joins a couple of hours later, Mars climbs up about an hour after that, and shortly before dawn, Jupiter and Mercury finally appear to complete the lineup. The bright ones - Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn - are easy to see with the naked eye. Uranus and Neptune are best found with binoculars or a small telescope.

In the afternoon comes the main course - a total solar eclipse. The path of totality crosses Greenland, Iceland, Portugal, and Spain, offering a jaw-dropping view for anyone lucky enough to be in the zone. Across a big portion of Europe, the eclipse won't be total but will still cover most of the Sun, which is impressive on its own. Totality reaches its maximum at 17:45 GMT, so plan accordingly. And use proper eye protection - no exceptions, you know the drill.

The path of totality for the solar eclipse on August 12, 2026, will sweep across the North Atlantic and Western Europe. To find out the exact time and visibility of the solar eclipse in your location, use the Eclipse Guide app.

After dark, comes the day's grand finale: the legendary Perseids, one of the most beloved meteor showers of the year. This time, conditions are perfect - there's a New Moon, and the sky will be pleasantly dark. The predicted peak is at 14:53 GMT on August 13, so the night of August 12-13 offers one of the best viewing opportunities. Under a dark sky with no Moon, observers often catch more than 90 meteors per hour, many of them bright, colorful, and leaving long-lasting trains.

If you manage to see all three events, you've officially earned the right to brag about it for the rest of your life.

September 24: Venus at Its Brightest for 2026

This September, Venus is going to be not just the evening star, but the full evening superstar! On September 24, it will reach its greatest brilliance, shining at a magnitude of -4.8. This makes it the brightest Venus will be all year.

Here's a fun fact: while Venus is at its brightest to us, through a telescope it appears as a slender crescent, only 22% illuminated. How can a crescent be so bright? The secret is in its proximity. Venus will be relatively close to Earth, and its large, sunlit crescent presents the greatest total area of reflected sunlight we can see from our planet. When Venus is in its full phase, it's actually at its farthest point from us, making it appear smaller and dimmer.

Look for Venus in the evening, glowing just above the southwestern horizon in the constellation Virgo. It'll sparkle like a tiny spotlight not long after the Sun has set - so bright that many people might mistake it for an airplane... or something more exotic.

October 4: Best Time To See Saturn in 2026

The "Lord of the Rings" is putting on its best show of the year! On October 4, Saturn will reach opposition, meaning it's directly opposite the Sun from our earthly perspective. This celestial standoff makes it brighter and larger than at any other time in 2026 (mag 0.3, 19.7 arcseconds), and visible from sunset to sunrise.

You'll find Saturn shining with a steady, golden glow in the constellation Cetus. It's a perfect naked-eye target, but a small telescope will reveal its magnificent ring system. This is what makes Saturn a "wow!" moment for every first-time observer.

November 16: Mars Near Jupiter

On November 16, two of the most observed planets in the sky, Mars and Jupiter, will perform a close duet. They will be separated by just 1°12′ - that's roughly the width of two full Moons - making them a stunning pair for the naked eye.

The contrast between them is what makes this close approach special. Jupiter will dominate as a golden beacon at magnitude -2.1, while Mars, glowing with a distinct reddish hue at magnitude 0.7, will sit close by. You can easily find them in the constellation Leo. By the way, the show isn't limited to a single night - you can enjoy this brilliant pair gracing the sky together for several days before and after the event.

December 14: Geminids Peak

Cap off the year with one of the most reliable and spectacular meteor displays - the Geminid meteor shower. Peaking on the night of December 14, this shower is known for its high activity, producing around 120 meteors per hour. It often produces bright, moderately fast meteors that are a delight to watch.

This shower puts on a fantastic show for the vast majority of Earth's population. It is best viewed from the Northern Hemisphere, where the radiant point climbs high in the sky. But observers in the Southern Hemisphere can also enjoy a very good display, albeit with a lower meteor count per hour. The waxing crescent Moon will set early in the evening, leaving a dark sky perfect for meteor watching. For the best view, find a dark spot away from city lights after midnight and let your eyes adjust to the darkness. Also, check out our infographic about meteors to learn how to make the most of your observing session.

How to make the most out of every astronomical event: useful tools

So, you're excited about the events of 2026 - but how do you make sure you're in the right place at the right time? We've got you covered with our astronomy apps that do the heavy lifting for you.

Star Walk 2 Plus has the unique Planet Walk feature! It calculates and shows you the planets that can be seen tonight, and the exact dates when the maximum number of planets will be visible in the sky above your location.

Eclipse Guide is your personal assistant for the eclipses of all types. Whether it's the "Blood Moon" in March or the total solar eclipse in August, this app will provide you with exact timings, visibility maps, and all the details you need to prepare for any lunar or solar eclipse.

Sky Tonight is your ultimate weapon for planning any stargazing session. The app's Calendar neatly shows you all meteor shower peaks, Moon phases, and nightly observing conditions at a glance.

In any of these apps, you can set a reminder for any event that catches your eye. Let your phone handle the remembering, so you can focus on the wonder.

Best astronomical events 2026: to sum up

Well, there you have it - a year's worth of cosmic wonders, handpicked for your stargazing pleasure. No matter your experience level or equipment, 2026 promises at least one must-see event every single month. And if you're really ambitious, mark August 12 in bold - that's your chance to bag three top-tier events in just one day!

Clear skies and happy stargazing!

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Top Astronomical Events 2026: Best Celestial Wonders For Every Month

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We've handpicked the best celestial event for each month of 2026 - check them all out and plan your year under the stars!

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Canvas is back online, but questions — and final exam disruptions — linger

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Canvas is back online, but questions — and final exam disruptions — linger

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Some schools are warning users not to log back into Canvas yet, after a ransomware group claimed credit for a data breach. Half of North America’s higher education institutions use the platform.

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Hanna Park and Ramishah Maruf and Emma Tucker

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Canvas hack: What we know about the apparent cyberattack impacting thousands of schools | CNN

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An apparent cyberattack shut down an education platform used by universities and K-12 schools across the US Thursday, depriving students and teachers of essential classroom materials – at a time when many are taking or prepping for final exams.

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What’s your Brain Care Score? - Harvard Health

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The Brain Care Score is a 12-question quiz developed to help people identify proven, actionable steps to lower their risk of stroke, dementia, and depression.…

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2026 NFL Draft: Final snap grades for every team

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2026 NFL Draft: Final snap grades for every team

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Now that all seven rounds of the 2026 NFL Draft have been completed, Chad Reuter reveals his final snap grades for each team in the league.

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A visual guide to Artemis II and previous missions to the moon

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A visual guide to Artemis II and previous missions to the moon | Space News | Al Jazeera

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The first flyby images of the Moon captured by NASA’s Artemis II astronauts during their historic test flight reveal regions no human has ever seen before—including a rare in-space solar eclipse. Released Tuesday, April 7, 2026, the photos were taken on April 6 during the crew’s seven‑hour pass over the lunar far side, marking humanity’s return to the Moon’s vicinity.

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How to Turn Your iPhone Into a Dumb Phone and Reduce Your Screen Time

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How to Turn Your iPhone Into a Dumb Phone and Reduce Your Screen Time

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You don’t need a fancy fix to reduce reliance on your device. Your iPhone has built-in settings to find calm again.

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Video shows how easy one can induce “Learned Helplessness” in others 🤯 #psychology

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Artemis II Launch Live Updates: NASA Astronauts Await Liftoff of Moon Mission

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Braylon Mullins’s Miracle: Ranking the 12 Most Improbable Shots of March Madness

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Braylon Mullins’s Miracle: Ranking the 12 Most Improbable Shots of March Madness

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Based largely on shock value, here are the NCAA men’s tournament buckets that had historic impact, spontaneity, a degree of difficulty and contextual drama.

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NASA is just days away from historic Artemis II moon launch

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NASA is just days away from historic Artemis II moon launch

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On Wednesday, the crew of NASA’s Artemis II could blast off on a mission around the moon and back. No astronaut has ventured out to the moon since the 1970s.

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NASA’s Artemis II Launch Mission Countdown Begins

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NASA’s Artemis II Launch Mission Countdown Begins - NASA

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The countdown for NASA’s Artemis II test flight is underway at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with members of the launch

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NASA’s Artemis II Launch Mission Countdown Begins

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NASA’s Artemis II Launch Mission Countdown Begins - NASA

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The countdown for NASA’s Artemis II test flight is underway at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with members of the launch

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'We are ready': NASA still on track to launch Artemis 2 astronauts to the moon April 1

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‘We are ready’: NASA still on track to launch Artemis 2 astronauts to the moon April 1

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“There are little things that we find as we go that we’re working right there, but none of them are threatening the first right now.”

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Cyber stocks plunge after reportedly leaked document shows Anthropic is worried its new model will enable indefensible online attacks

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Cyber stocks plunge after reportedly leaked document shows Anthropic is worried its new model will enable indefensible online attacks

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And yet we only seem to know about this because Anthropic doesn’t have decent cybersecurity itself.…

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Galaxy AI Smart Glasses - Samsung revealed a new pair of AI-connected smart glasses that will act as a vision gateway, featuring an eye-level camera and designed to work clo…

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The US bans all new foreign-made network routers

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The US bans all new foreign-made network routers

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The Federal Communications Commission has released a notice today designating any consumer routers manufactured outside the US as a security risk.

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says ‘I think we’ve achieved AGI’

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He then seemed to slightly walk back the claim.

He then seemed to slightly walk back the claim.

Hayden Field

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See All by Hayden Field is The Verge's senior AI reporter. An AI beat reporter for more than five years, her work has also appeared in CNBC, MIT Technology Review, Wired UK, and other outlets.

On a Monday episode of the Lex Fridman podcast, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made a hot-button statement: "I think we've achieved AGI."

AGI, or artificial general intelligence, is a vaguely-defined term that has incited a lot of discussion by tech CEOs, tech workers, and the general public in recent years, as it typically denotes AI that's equal to or surpasses human intelligence. In recent months, tech leaders have tried to distance themselves from the term and create their own terminology that they view as less over-hyped, more useful, and more clearly-defined (although the new phrases they've come up with essentially mean the same thing as AGI). The term has also been the subject of key clauses in big-ticket contracts between companies like OpenAI and Microsoft, upon which a significant amount of money may hinge.

Fridman, the podcast's host, defines AGI as an AI system that's able to "essentially do your job," as in start, grow, and run a successful tech company worth more than $1 billion. He then asks Huang when he believes AGI will be real - asking if it's, say, five, 10, 15, or 20 years away - and Huang responds, "I think it's now. I think we've achieved AGI."

Fridman says, "You're gonna get a lot of people excited with that statement." Huang goes on to mention OpenClaw, the open-source AI agent platform, and its viral success. He said that people are using their individual AI agents to do all sorts of things, and that he "wouldn't be surprised if some social thing happened or somebody created a digital influencer ... or some social application that, you know, feeds your little Tamagotchi or something like that, and it become out of the blue an instant success."

But Huang then seemed to slightly walk back his earlier claims, saying, "A lot of people use it for a couple of months and it kind of dies away. Now, the odds of 100,000 of those agents building Nvidia is zero percent."

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says 'I think we've achieved AGI'

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told Lex Fridman in a Monday podcast interview that he believed AGI had been achieved, then seemed to slightly walk back the claim.

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Anthropic's Claude Can Now Control Your Computer

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You can now let Claude take control of your computer to perform tasks like sending you a file you left on your hard drive, Anthropic announced Monday. For the feature to work, you just need to be on a qualifying subscription plan.

In the wake of the viral explosion of the open-source framework earlier this year, it's the latest developer to deliver a tool that enables an AI model to act more actively

OpenClaw has spawned an entire ecosystem of "claws," or AI tools that can take simple commands and perform them somewhat autonomously on your computer or with your tools or systems. Nvidia last week debuted , its framework for easily setting up and installing OpenClaw, with some security settings.

Anthropic says that Claude will look for the right tools to complete the task at hand via connectors with apps like Google Calendar or Slack. If the tool or connector isn't available, Claude can manually perform the task by typing or moving the cursor, as if it were using the keyboard and mouse. It can use programs like your web browser, dev tools and open files.

When it's performing these tasks, it can use a computer as you normally would -- by scrolling and clicking around. The only difference is that Claude will always ask for permission beforehand. You can stop Claude from performing a task at any time.

Giving your chatbot the keys to your computer can be convenient for certain tasks, but it can leave your computer vulnerable to attacks. Experts told us one major worry with is that it can take major, sometimes dramatic actions quickly and with little warning. Claws can also be hijacked by malicious actors, who can use your personal data and systems in ways you don't want.

Anthropic says it implemented safeguards to minimize risks like prompt injections. The system will automatically scan for this and more vulnerabilities as they are implemented.

Despite some of its efforts to keep Claude's computer use safe, Anthropic also provides a warning to users. The feature is new and may contain errors, and the company suggests not using apps that handle sensitive data -- so much so that some of these apps are disabled by default.

The research preview is available now for Claude Pro and Claude Max subscribers and limited to computers running MacOS only.

Anthropic says the new computer-use feature works well with Dispatch, which allows you to assign tasks to Claude using your phone. Such tasks include checking your email every morning or opening up a Claude Cowork or Claude Code session.

The combination of computer use for Claude and Dispatch enables you to do even more while you're not even around. Anthropic says the feature combo can create a morning briefing or run tests, for example.

Given that both features are new, some complex tasks might not work the first time. Anthropic said it's releasing this research preview to gain early insight on where it needs the most attention to become an even more powerful tool.

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Anthropic's Claude Can Now Control Your Computer

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The developer is boosting Claude's agentic capabilities in an apparent effort to compete with platforms like OpenClaw.

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These Data Centers Are Getting Really, Really Big

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Gigawatt-sized data centers are becoming the new normal

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Top 10 Upcoming Data Centers in the USA (March-2026)

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Stargate AI, Vantage Frontier, Amazon’s NC campuses, and Meta’s Monroe are a few of the upcoming data center projects in the USA. Read for more.

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Electric air taxis are about to take flight in 26 states

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The Federal Aviation Administration approved eight pilot programs that will allow a handful of companies, including Archer Aviation, Beta Technologies, Joby Aviation, and Wisk to start widespread electric aircraft testing as early as this summer.

The three-year program, which will span 26 states, is designed to ensure U.S. companies lead the way in next-gen aircraft used for personal travel, regional transportation, cargo logistics, and emergency medicine, Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in remarks Monday.

The pilot program, known as the Advanced Air Mobility and Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Integration Pilot Program, was announced last year through an executive order by President Donald Trump in an effort to speed up development of the futuristic aircraft.

Numerous electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) companies have emerged in recent years with promises of launching urban air taxis and other regional electric aircraft. However, getting those aircraft into commercial operation takes years and hundreds of millions of dollars. The FAA must certify any new aircraft, which is a multi-year process.

The pilot program will allow these companies to test their eVTOL aircraft even though they have not received full regulatory certification.

That kind of accelerated timeline could bolster the efforts, and share prices, of many eVTOL companies such as Archer, Beta, and Joby that have gone public in recent years.

Beta Technologies founder and CEO Kyle Clark said being selected for the program will allow the company to start aircraft operations one year earlier than anticipated. The company's stock price popped nearly 12% Monday. Archer and Joby, which are also publicly traded, saw stock jumps as well.

Archer compared the eVTOL program to robotaxi testing and said it will help build trust and establish a playbook for safely scaling electric air taxis. The company, which is developing a four-passenger piloted eVTOL called Midnight, said it will also help it prepare for air taxi operations in Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympic Games.

"These partnerships will help us better understand how to safely and efficiently integrate these aircraft into the National Airspace System," FAA Deputy Administrator Chris Rocheleau said in a prepared statement. "The program will provide valuable operational experience that will inform the standards needed to enable safe Advanced Air Mobility operations. We appreciate the strong interest reflected in the many proposals we received."

The FAA said it received 30 proposals.

These companies aren't going it alone, however. The pilot program requires companies to partner with state, local, tribal, or territorial governments.

The projects cover several applications of electric aircraft, including urban air taxis and regional flight. For instance, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have partnered with Archer, Beta, Electra, and Joby to test a dozen operational concepts, including one based out of a Manhattan heliport.

The Texas Department of Transportation will work with Archer, Beta, Joby, and Wisk to test regional flights connecting Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and eventually Houston. That program will include building networks of air taxis that will expand from each city to extend regional reach, according to the DOT.

Some projects have widespread geographic implications.

For instance, a project led by Utah that will test next-generation aircraft and operational concepts across the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountains, and the Plains of Oklahoma will test a wide range of next-generation aircraft and operational concepts. Another project, led by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, will include 13 states to revitalize regional flights across the country.

Other projects are focused on cargo delivery, medical response, and automation. Beta, Elroy Air, and others will test cargo and personnel transportation flights into the Gulf of America and to energy industry locations in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi.

The departments of transportation in Florida, Louisiana, and North Carolina also are leading projects. The city of Albuquerque is working with Reliable Robotics to test autonomous operations.

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Electric air taxis are about to take flight in 26 states | TechCrunch

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The federal government has selected eight proposals to test electric aircraft across 26 states.

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Microsoft debuts $99/month "E7" tier for Microsoft 365 Enterprise

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Microsoft debuts $99/month “E7” tier for Microsoft 365 Enterprise

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Microsoft is introducing a new $99/month “E7” enterprise tier to drive higher revenue from its saturated commercial user base.

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Sick of Microsoft and Google? This new European office suite is a private, open-source alternative

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Sick of Microsoft and Google? This new European office suite is a private, open-source alternative

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Built on open-source software, this European cloud office suite aims to keep your data out of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.

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198K views · 1.5K reactions | China has tested a jet fuel-powered hypersonic engine reportedly capable of reaching Mach 16—around 16 times the speed of sound. Unlike rocket engines, this system is designed to operate using conventional aviation fuel, making sustained hypersonic flight more practical. At such speeds, air behaves like plasma, creating extreme heat and pressure challenges. The test reportedly involved advanced combustion techniques that allow stable ignition even under hypersonic airflow conditions. If successfully scaled, this technology could dramatically impact space access, high-speed global travel, and military aerospace systems, though independent verification of full performance remains limited. Key Facts: • Reported speed: Mach 16
• Uses jet fuel, not rockets
• Designed for hypersonic flight
• Faces extreme heat and pressure challenges
• Potential aerospace and defense applications #Hypersonic #AerospaceTechnology #ChinaInnovation #FutureFlight #DefenseTech | Engineering Brains

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China has tested a jet fuel-powered hypersonic engine reportedly capable of reaching Mach 16—around 16 times the speed of sound. Unlike rocket engines, this system is designed to operate using…

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Elon Musk Predicts Tesla Moon Factories Within 20 Years, Tells Investors To ‘Hold On’ To TSLA: ‘Gonna Be Worth A Lot’

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Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has predicted that the automaker would have factories on the lunar surface in 20 years, urging investors to hold on to TSLA stock. Lunar Factories In 20 Years In an interview with André Thierig, who is the plant manager at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Berlin, Musk shared his predictions for the future of the automaker. “In 20 years, I’d say Tesla’s got factories on the moon,” Musk said, adding that he saw a “prosperous” and an “extremely bright future” for the au

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Taleb, Citrini Fuel AI Scare Trade as IBM Drops Most in 25 Years

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It began after a bearish report was published over the weekend by a little known firm called Citrini Research. The report, released on social media Sunday, outlined the potential risks to various segments of the global economy, using hypothetical scenarios set in the future, specifically calling out food delivery services and credit card companies as ones facing trouble.

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The snowstorm of ’26 was a record-breaker. Here are the totals around Boston.

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For the rest of Monday afternoon and evening, the storm that dumped a record-breaking amount of snow on Providence will slowly subside. Here’s what to expect.

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347K views · 3K reactions | 1929 Crisis Explained Like Never Before | The Parallel Truth

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Peter Thiel and other tech billionaires are publicly shielding their children from the products that made them rich | Fortune

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As governments race to restrict minors’ social media use, the tech billionaires who built the platforms are imposing strict screen limits at home.

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Something big is happening in AI — and most people will be blindsided | Fortune

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It’s not like a light switch... more like the moment you realize the water has been rising around you and is now at your chest.

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TikTok is growing its data harvesting empire, and avoiding the app won't protect you - but some easy steps can keep you safe.
TikTok keeps track of everything you do on its app - no surprises there. What's less obvious is how the company follows you around other parts of the internet that have nothing to do with TikTok.

In fact, TikTok collects sensitive and potentially embarrassing information about you even if you've never used the app. Over the past week, I've watched websites sending TikTok data about cancer diagnoses, fertility and even mental health crises. It's part of a tracking empire that extends far beyond the social media platform. Now, thanks to a new set of features, TikTok is poised to expand its network and see even more details about your life.

The change comes just weeks after the sale of TikTok's US operations to a group of companies with ties to US President Donald Trump. The deal has led to fresh privacy concerns from some human rights experts and users, though TikTok says it has transparent guidelines on how it responds to government requests for data.

Fortunately, this is a privacy story with a positive note. Some easy steps you can take in about five minutes will help you keep your information out of TikTok's hands.

The issue centres around major changes to TikTok's "pixel", a tracking tool that companies use to monitor your online behaviour. I asked a cybersecurity company called Disconnect to analyse it. They found the updated TikTok pixel collects information in unusual ways compared to its competitors.

"It's extremely invasive," says Patrick Jackson, chief technology officer at Disconnect. "This expanded data sharing, when you do analysis of the actual pixel code, you see things that look really bad."

When I clicked a button on a form that said I was a cancer patient or a survivor, the website sent TikTok my email address along with those details

TikTok says its users are informed about its data practices in privacy policies and notifications in some cases. The company also says it gives people privacy settings to take control.

"TikTok empowers users with transparent information about its privacy practices and gives them multiple tools to customise their experience," a TikTok spokesperson says. "Advertising pixels are industry standard and used widely across social and media platforms, including by the BBC."

But most people might not realise that TikTok holds data about them even if they have never used the social media platform.

Tracking pixels are nothing new. For years, companies that run advertising networks - including Google, Meta and hundreds of others - have used them to eavesdrop on what people do across the web. They're an invisible image the size of one pixel of your screen that loads in the background of a website, full of data-harvesting tech. They're everywhere, and they're constantly watching you.

Here's how it works. TikTok, for example, encourages companies to put pixels on their websites to help the social media giant harvest more data. Let's say I have an online shoe store. If I use a pixel, it lets TikTok collect lots of data about my customers in order to show them targeted ads. Plus, it helps TikTok figure out whether people who see those shoe ads end up making a purchase. That way, I know the ads I paid for are working, and maybe I'll pay for more. (Like most news organisations, the BBC uses analytics tools and shares data with advertising partners in accordance with our privacy policy. The BBC does not use TikTok tracking pixels on its website or place advertising pixels on third-party sites.)

When it's shoe store data, the information might be innocuous. But I've reported on TikTok's data collection for years and pixels can collect extremely personal information.

For example, last week I visited the website for a cancer support group. According to Disconnect, when I clicked a button on a form that said I was a cancer patient or a survivor, the website sent TikTok my email address along with those details. A women's health company sent TikTok data when I looked at fertility tests. A mental health organisation pinged TikTok when I indicated I'm looking for a crisis counsellor. Websites that use pixels send data about every single visitor, so it doesn't matter if you don't have a TikTok account.

A TikTok spokesperson says, essentially, that this isn't TikTok's responsibility. They say websites are required to abide by privacy laws and tell you about their data practices. TikTok says websites are prohibited from sharing certain kinds of sensitive information, such as health data. And the company says it takes proactive steps to alert websites that share anything inappropriate.

Many of the world's top websites have pixel trackers on them that send data back to big tech companies (Credit: Serenity Strull/ BBC)

If you're concerned about these individual websites you're missing the point. Critics say the issue is that large tech companies like TikTok are increasingly following everything you do online. According to DuckDuckGo, a privacy company, TikTok has trackers on 5% of the world's top websites. That number has grown steadily, though it's nothing compared to Google with trackers on almost 72% of top websites and Meta at about 21%.

"This is verbatim the playbook that Google and Meta have used over the years," says Peter Dolanjski, executive director of product at DuckDuckGo. They started collecting small amounts of data and grew that into an empire that has massive visibility into your daily life, he says.

All of this data could mean you see ads that are more tailored to you, which you might like. But these detailed records of your personal life wouldn't exist if tech companies weren't surveilling you, and it exposes you to all kinds of risks, Dolanjski says.

"Algorithms can use this data to exploit you," he says. "It could be coercing you to buy something, it could be political campaigns, it could be price discrimination." Advertising data has been used for all kinds damaging purposes, from alleged civil rights violations to sexual discrimination.

TikTok's pixel is years old, but it just shifted in some major ways. On 22 January 2026, when TikTok's US operation officially changed hands, users had to agree to a new set of data collection practices. That includes a new advertising network that TikTok will use to show targeted ads on other people's websites. To facilitate that new advertising system, TikTok updated its pixel.

In the past, TikTok's pixel basically just told companies if their ads were generating sales in the app itself. Now, the pixel will help companies follow users who see an ad when they leave TikTok and make a purchase elsewhere.

That probably means more companies will buy TikTok ads and the pixel will show up in more places, according to Arielle Garcia, chief operating officer at Check My Ads, a digital advertising watchdog group. In other words, TikTok's tracking empire is set to expand. "These tools naturally make the platform more attractive to advertisers, which is ultimately how ad platforms grow," Garcia says.

Disconnect found TikTok's pixel now collects more information than ever before, automatically intercepting data that websites are sending to Google. Experts tell the BBC this is unusually invasive. "They're silently capturing that data without the site owner explicitly sharing that information with TikTok," Jackson says, and that means websites might unintentionally send TikTok even more data than they intend to.

TikTok disagrees. A spokesperson says TikTok is clear about what data the pixel collects, and companies can just set up their websites differently if they don't want TikTok to see what they send Google. (Google did not respond to a request for comment.)

TikTok also has some privacy controls you can use. Users can "clear" the data TikTok collects with pixels using a setting in the app. People who don't have an account can ask TikTok to delete any data it has about you.

But if you want to stop the data collection before it happens, you need additional steps.

How to protect yourself

There's good news and bad news. Let's start with the cheerful stuff.

The best option? Use a more private web browser. I know switching seems like a pain, but it's easy to import your bookmarks. Try it.

Something like 71% of people use Google Chrome, which has been found in preliminary academic research to leak more information than many competitors. Privacy experts often recommend the DuckDuckGo browser and Brave, which are specifically built to safeguard data. Firefox and Safari are considered better options than Chrome, though they're less strict about privacy by default.
More like this:
* The number one sign you're watching an AI video

* How YouTube's secret AI edits could bend reality

* Is Google about to destroy the web?

If switching browsers is too much, install a browser extension that blocks these trackers. I asked Disconnect and DuckDuckGo to help with this article because they both make tracker blockers, but there are other options, including Privacy Badger and Ghostery. Certain ad blockers also block some data harvesting, including AdBlock Plus and uBlock Origin. DuckDuckGo has a chart comparing which ad blockers do it best. Just don't install browser extensions that aren't recommended by reputable sources - it's just like installing an app. Some are dicey.

Now the bad news. Following those two steps will block the TikTok pixel and lots of other privacy invasions. But I won't pretend your data problems are solved.

There are lots of other ways that companies share data with TikTok, Google, Meta and other advertising companies. Companies collect data about you and send it directly to the tech giants from their own servers, for example. "It's a black box, I can't tell you how often that's used because it all happens behind the scenes," says Dolanjski. "It's much harder to protect yourself from that. Your only real defence is to not use the same personal information on different services", so it's harder to match up what you do on different parts of the internet.

The real solution is better privacy laws, says Garcia from Check My Ads. "This isn't a problem limited to one platform. It's a broader advertising technology ecosystem issue that ultimately needs to be addressed through stronger regulation," she says. "The only thing that's really going to change this is when people make their voices heard with lawmakers and make it clear that privacy is something they actually care about."

--

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TikTok is tracking you, even if you don't use the app. Here's how to stop it

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The Artemis II wet dress rehearsal countdown was terminated at the T-5:15 minute mark due to a liquid hydrogen leak at the interface of the tail service mast

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MCPS Code Red: Schools & Offices CLOSED - 1/26/26 & 1/27/26

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Toy Theater is your source for free educational games specially designed for elementary-aged students. It's available on all desktop computers, tablets, and mobile devices, ensuring learning is never out of reach. If you are a fan of our site, we encourage you to share Toy Theater on your social media or website.

Explore Toy Theater

Here's a sneak peek into what Toy Theater has in store:

Math Games: Ranging from counting and numeral recognition to division and telling time, there's a vast assortment of interactive math games.

Language Arts: Students can work on spelling, letter recognition, and even practice reading with online books.

Art and Music : From teaching students to play simple songs on a keyboard to exploring symmetry via art games, the platform fosters creativity alongside learning.

Puzzles and Games: Ideal for early finishers or indoor recess, their online educational puzzles and games promise fun-filled learning.

Teacher Tools: Need a fun timer or a spinner? Or perhaps a simple way to evaluate basic math skills? Their virtual teacher tools have got you covered.

Whether you project Toy Theater games and interactive tools on your smartboard for the whole class to see or use them during small group work, you're sure to love them!

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Toy Theater | Fun Online Educational Games for Kids

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Make learning a blast! Toy Theater is chock full of interactive online art, reading & math games for kids. Designed with the needs of kindergarten through third grade classrooms in mind, these free games are trusted by teachers around the world to provide real educational value.

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Daymond John on Instagram: "Genius play by Payless Shoes! 

My mentor @realjayabraham would call this a prime example of Akito marketing. 
Using the strengths of others as their weaknesses. Payless took the obsession of others to be the first to have and turned it on its head. It reminds me of the @llcoolj @Fubu @gap commercial from back in the days.

Now how can you do this with your personal Brand or company in your own way?

#thinkoutsidethebox #riseandgrind #powerofbroke #Blackfriday"

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24K likes, 940 comments - thesharkdaymond on November 28, 2025: "Genius play by Payless Shoes! 

My mentor @realjayabraham would call this a prime example of Akito marketing. 
Using the strengths of others as their weaknesses. Payless took the obsession of others to be the first to have and turned it on its head. It reminds me of the @llcoolj @Fubu @gap commercial from back in the days.

Now how can you do this with your personal Brand or company in your own way?

#thinkoutsidethebox #riseandgrind #powerofbroke #Blackfriday". 

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View this post on Instagram

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Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, aggregated from sources all over the world by Google News.

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The convergence of digital transformation and the GenAI revolution creates an unprecedented opportunity for accelerating progress in precision health. Precision immunotherapy is a poster child for this transformation. Emerging technologies such as multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF) can assess internal states of individual cells along with their spatial locations, which is critical for deciphering how tumors interact with the immune system. The resulting insights, often referred to as the "grammar" of the tumor microenvironment, can help predict whether a tumor will respond to immunotherapy. If it is unlikely to respond, these insights can also inform strategies to reprogram the tumor from "cold" to "hot," increasing its susceptibility to treatment.

This is exciting, but progress is hindered by the high cost and limited scalability of current technology. For example, obtaining mIF data of a couple dozen protein channels for a tissue sample can cost thousands of dollars, and even the most advanced labs can barely scale it to a tiny fraction of their available tissue samples.

In our paper published in Cell on December 9, " Multimodal AI generates virtual population for tumor microenvironment modeling (opens in new tab) ," we present GigaTIME (opens in new tab) , a multimodal AI model for translating routinely available hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) pathology slides to virtual mIF images. Developed in collaboration with Providence and the University of Washington, GigaTIME was trained on a Providence dataset of 40 million cells with paired H&E and mIF images across 21 protein channels. We applied GigaTIME to 14,256 cancer patients from 51 hospitals and over a thousand clinics within the Providence system. This effort generated a virtual population of around 300,000 mIF images spanning 24 cancer types and 306 cancer subtypes. This virtual population uncovered 1,234 statistically significant associations linking mIF protein activations with key clinical attributes such as biomarkers, staging, and patient survival. Independent external validation on 10,200 Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) patients further corroborated our findings.

To our knowledge, this is the first population-scale study of tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) based on spatial proteomics. Such studies were previously infeasible due to the scarcity of mIF data. By translating readily available H&E pathology slides into high-resolution virtual mIF data, GigaTIME provides a novel research framework for exploring precision immuno-oncology through population-scale TIME analysis and discovery. We have made our GigaTIME model publicly available at Microsoft Foundry Labs (opens in new tab) and on Hugging Face (opens in new tab) to help accelerate clinical research in precision oncology.

"GigaTIME is about unlocking insights that were previously out of reach," explained Carlo Bifulco, MD, chief medical officer of Providence Genomics and medical director of cancer genomics and precision oncology at the Providence Cancer Institute. "By analyzing the tumor microenvironment of thousands of patients, GigaTIME has the potential to accelerate discoveries that will shape the future of precision oncology and improve patient outcomes."

Spotlight: AI-POWERED EXPERIENCE

Opens in a new tab

GigaTIME generates a virtual population for tumor microenvironment modeling

Digital pathology transforms a microscopy slide of stained tumor tissue into a high-resolution digital image, revealing details of cell morphology such as nucleus and cytoplasm. Such a slide only costs $5 to $10 per image and has become routinely available in cancer care. It is well known that H&E-based cell morphology contains information about the cellular states. Last year, we released GigaPath, the first digital pathology foundation model for scaling transformer architectures to gigapixel H&E slides. Afterward, researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center showed in a global prospective trial that it can reliably predict a key biomarker from H&E slides for precision oncology triaging. However, such prior works are generally limited to average biomarker status across the entire tissue. GigaTIME thus represents a major step forward by learning to predict spatially resolved, single-cell states essential for tumor microenvironment modeling. In turn, this enables us to generate a virtual population of mIF images for large-scale TIME analysis (Figure 1).

GigaTIME learned a cross-modal AI translator from digital pathology to spatial multiplex proteomics by training on 40 million cells with paired H&E slides and mIF images from Providence. To our knowledge, this is the first large-scale study exploring multimodal AI for scaling virtual mIF generation. The high-quality paired data enabled much more accurate cross-modal translation compared to prior state-of-the-art methods (Figure 2).

Virtual population enables population-scale discovery of associations between cell states and key biomarkers

By applying GigaTIME to Providence real-world data, we generated a virtual population of 14,256 patients with virtual mIF and key clinical attributes. After correcting for multiple hypothesis testing, we have identified 1,234 statistically significant associations between tumor immune cell states (CD138, CD20, CD4) and clinical biomarkers (tumor mutation burden, KRAS, KMT2D), from pan-cancer to cancer subtypes (Figure 3). Many of these findings are supported by existing literature. For example, MSI high and TMB high associated with increased activations of TIME-related channels such as CD138. Additionally, the virtual population also uncovered previously unknown associations, such as pan-cancer associations between immune activations and key tumor biomarkers, such as the tumor suppressor KMT2D and the oncogene KRAS).

Virtual population enables population-scale discovery of tumor immune signatures for patient stratification

The virtual population also uncovered GigaTIME signatures for effective patient stratification across staging and survival profiles (Figure 4), from pan-cancer to cancer subtypes. Prior studies have explored patient stratification based on individual immune proteins such as CD3 and CD8. We found that GigaTIME-simulated CD3 and CD8 are similarly effective. Moreover, the combined GigaTIME signature across all 21 protein channels attained even better patient stratification compared to individual channels.

Virtual population uncovers interesting spatial and combinatorial interactions

The virtual population uncovered interesting non-linear interactions across the GigaTIME virtual protein channels, revealing associations with spatial features such as sharpness and entropy, as well as with key clinical biomarkers like APC and KMT2D (Figure 6). Such combinatorial studies were previously out of reach given the scarcity of mIF data.

Independent external validation on TCGA

We conducted an independent external validation by applying GigaTIME to 10,200 patients in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset and studied associations between GigaTIME-simulated virtual mIF and clinical biomarkers available in TCGA. We observed significant concordance across the virtual populations from Providence and TCGA, with a Spearman correlation of 0.88 for virtual protein activations across cancer subtypes. The two populations also uncovered a significant overlap of associations between GigaTIME-simulated protein activations and clinical biomarkers (Fisher's exact test p < 2 × 10−9). On the other hand, the Providence virtual population yielded 33% more significant associations than TCGA, highlighting the value of large and diverse real-world data for clinical discovery.

GigaTIME is a promising step toward the moonshot of "virtual patient"

By learning to translate across modalities, GigaTIME is a promising step toward "learning the language of patients" for the ultimate goal of developing a "virtual patient", a high-fidelity digital twin that could one day accurately forecast disease progression and counterfactual treatment response. By converting routinely available cell morphology data into otherwise scarce high-resolution cell states signals, GigaTIME demonstrated the potential in harnessing multimodal AI to scale real-world evidence (RWE) generation.

Going forward, growth opportunities abound. GigaTIME can be extended to handle more spatial modalities and cell-state channels. It can be integrated into advanced multimodal frameworks such as LLaVA-Med to facilitate conversational image analysis by "talking to the data." To facilitate research in tumor microenvironment modeling, we have made GigaTIME open-source (opens in new tab) on Foundry Labs (opens in new tab) and Hugging Face (opens in new tab) .

GigaTIME is a joint work with Providence and the University of Washington's Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. It reflects Microsoft's larger commitment to advancing multimodal generative AI for precision health (opens in new tab) , with other exciting progress such as GigaPath, BiomedCLIP, LLaVA-Rad (opens in new tab) , BiomedJourney, BiomedParse, TrialScope, Curiosity.

Paper co-authors: Jeya Maria Jose Valanarasu, Hanwen Xu, Naoto Usuyama, Chanwoo Kim, Cliff Wong, Peniel Argaw, Racheli Ben Shimol, Angela Crabtree, Kevin Matlock, Alexandra Q. Bartlett, Jaspreet Bagga, Yu Gu, Sheng Zhang, Tristan Naumann, Bernard A. Fox, Bill Wright, Ari Robicsek, Brian Piening, Carlo Bifulco, Sheng Wang, Hoifung Poon

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NEW YORK (AP) - Internet disruptions tied to Amazon's cloud computing service affected people around the world Monday trying to connect to online services used for work, social media and video games.

About three hours after the outage began, Amazon Web Services said it was starting to recover from the problem. But the company later said it was continuing to respond to "significant" errors and connectivity issues across multiple services.

What is Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services is a cloud computing provider that hosts many of the world's most-used online services. AWS provides behind-the-scenes cloud computing infrastructure to many government departments, universities and businesses

Seattle-based Amazon said the problems were centered in its Virginia-based US-EAST-1 data center region, one of its most important cloud hubs around the world. The region is a backbone "for so many services that when things go screwy, domino effects around the internet-as-we-know-it are enormous," wrote John Scott-Railton, a cybersecurity researcher at Citizen Lab, in a social media post.

What happened?

AWS traced the source of the problem to something called the "DynamoDB endpoint in the US-East-1 Region," in a pair of jargon-laden updates.

"DynamoDB isn't a term that most consumers know, but it underpins the apps and services that all of us use every single day," said cybersecurity expert Mike Chapple.

DynamoDB is a centralized database service that many internet-based services use to track user information, store key data and manage their operations, Chapple said by email.

It's "one of the record-keepers of the modern internet," said Chapple, an IT professor at the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business. "It's fast, it's cheap, and it's reliable. But today it stopped working and we saw the effects of that outage ripple across the internet."

Amazon's updates suggest the problem isn't with the database itself, but rather that something went wrong with the records that tell other systems where to find their data, he said.

"Amazon had the data safely stored, but nobody else could find it for several hours, leaving apps temporarily separated from their data. It's as if large portions of the internet suffered temporary amnesia," Chapple said.

Amazon has attributed the outage to a domain name system issue. DNS is the service that translates internet addresses into machine-readable IP addresses that connects browsers and apps with websites and underlying web services. DNS errors disrupt the translation process, interrupting the connection.

Because so many sites and services use AWS, a DNS error can have widespread results.

Who was affected?

Internet users around the world faced widespread disruption because Amazon's problem took down dozens of major online services, including social media site Snapchat, the Roblox and Fortnite video games and chat app Signal.

On DownDetector, a website that tracks online outages, users reported issues with Snapchat, Roblox, Fortnite, online broker Robinhood, the McDonald's app and many other services.

Starbucks experienced "a very limited impact for a very short amount of time" to its app, but all stores were serving customers normally, Starbucks Global Communications Director Jaci Anderson said in an email to The Associated Press.

"Our mobile order ahead and pay app is working normally to serve our customers this morning," Anderson said midmorning.

DoorDash said its systems were not directly affected but some of its partners "experienced brief disruptions" affecting deliveries.

The risks of centralized cloud services

Some cybersecurity experts have warned for years about the potentially ugly consequences of allowing a handful of big tech companies to dominate key internet operations.

"So much of the world now relies on these three or four big (cloud) compute companies who provide the underlying infrastructure that when there's an issue like this, it can be really impactful across a broad range, a broad spectrum" of online services, said Patrick Burgess, a cybersecurity expert at U.K.-based BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.

"The world now runs on the cloud," and the internet is seen as a utility like water or electricity, as we spend so much of our lives on our smartphones, Burgess said.

And because so much of the online world's plumbing is underpinned by a handful of companies, when something goes wrong, "it's very difficult for users to pinpoint what is happening because we don't see Amazon, we just see Snapchat or Roblox," Burgess said.

"The good news is that this kind of issue is usually relatively fast (to resolve)" and there's no indication that it was caused by a cyber incident like a cyberattack, Burgess said.

Has this happened in the past?

This is not the first time a problem with Amazon's key services has caused widespread disruptions.

Many popular internet services and publishers were down after a brief outage in 2023. AWS's longest outage in recent history occurred in late 2021, when companies - everything from airline reservations and auto dealerships to payment apps and video streaming services - were affected for more than five hours. Other major outages happened in 2020 and 2017.

Unrelated to Amazon, a faulty software update by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike affecting devices running Microsoft's Windows also rippled across the world to cause massive disruptions in 2024.

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What to know about the Amazon Web Services outage

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Internet disruptions tied to Amazon's cloud computing service affected people around the world Monday trying to connect to online services used for work, social media and video games.

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Technology has no place in kindergarten through eighth grade (K-8). Research shows that learning through books, writing with pencil and paper, and engaging in dialogue with real people builds the strongest foundation for education. These traditional methods provide not only cognitive benefits but also emotional and practical skills that prepare children for lifelong learning.

One striking example comes from the Waldorf School of the Peninsula in Silicon Valley, a prestigious private school attended by the children of technology executives. Despite its location in the heart of the tech industry, the school has zero technology in grades K-8.

On its website, the school states: “Brain research tells us that media exposure can result in changes in the actual nerve network in the brain, which affects such things as eye tracking (a necessary skill for successful reading), neurotransmitter levels, and how readily students receive the imaginative pictures that are foundational for learning.”

This approach reflects a deliberate choice: to prioritize human interaction, creativity, and deep learning over early exposure to screens. It serves as a reminder that sometimes, less technology can mean more growth.

Sources:

Waldorf School of the Peninsula. "Educational Philosophy." 2023.

Armstrong, Thomas. The Best Schools: How Human Development Research Should Inform Educational Practice. ASCD, 2006.

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The 250 greatest songs of the 21st century so far -- from all over the musical map and every corner of the globe

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Oscar-nominated actress Emily Blunt called the AI creation terrifying

Hollywood is not rolling out the red carpet for Tilly Norwood - an "AI actor" that has been causing a stir after its Dutch creators said the synthetic performer is in talks with talent agencies.

Norwood could be mistaken for a young, aspiring actress when one glances at her social media. The brunette poses for photos and showcases a fully AI-generated comedy sketch, where she is described as having "girl next door vibes."

"I may be AI, but I'm feeling very real emotions right now," Tilly's creators wrote on her page. "I am so excited for what's coming next!"

Hollywood's powerful actors union has condemned the creation, along with A-list stars like Emily Blunt, Natasha Lyonne and Whoopi Goldberg.

Norwood "is not an actor, it's a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers," the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA, said in a statement.

"It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we've seen, audiences aren't interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience," the union said.

The AI actor was created by Dutch actor and comedian Eline Van der Velden who reportedly said she wanted Norwood to become the "next Scarlett Johansson". The BBC has reached out to Van der Velden and her company, Particle6.

Norwood's Instagram page includes headshots from faux filming tests and an advertisement spoofing programs on the BBC, including being superimposed on the often-star-studded couch on BBC's The Graham Norton Show.

Amid the anger and backlash in Hollywood, the Dutch creator posted on Tilly's Instagram page to say that the creation is "not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work - a piece of art".

"Creating Tilly has been, for me, an act of imagination and craftmanship, not unlike drawing a character, writing a role or shaping a performance," Van der Velden wrote, adding such creations should be judged "as part of their own genre" rather than compared to human actors.

The use of AI was a key sticking point that led to the lengthy 2023 Hollywood strikes

AI has been a hotly contested technology in Hollywood and was a key sticking point during labour strikes that shut down the industry two years ago as writers and actors demanded protections from the technology.

In its statement on Norwood, SAG-AFTRA reminded agencies and studios that using Norwood in projects could pose issues for contractual protections they secured after the 2023 strike.

"It doesn't solve any 'problem' - it creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry," the union said.

Actress and filmmaker Natasha Lyonne, known for her leading roles in Poker Face, Orange Is the New Black and Russian Doll, said anyone who works with Norwood should be boycotted.

"Any talent agency that engages in this should be boycotted by all guilds," said Lyonne, who is currently working with "ethical AI" to create a feature film that stars real actors.

"Deeply misguided & totally disturbed."

Fellow actress Emily Blunt, speaking on a podcast with Variety, said the creation was terrifying.

"That's an AI? Good Lord, we're screwed," The Oscar-nominated actress said when shown a video of Norwood. "That is really, really scary, Come on, agencies, don't do that. Please stop. Please stop taking away our human connection."

On the US chat show The View, comedian and actress Whoopi Goldberg said audiences can tell the difference between humans and synthetic performers. She was sceptical over concerns that AI creations would steal jobs from human actors because they "move differently, our faces move differently, our bodies move differently".

While Norwood's Instagram has been active for months, her existence gained notoriety in Hollywood this week after trade publication Deadline reported on a summit her creator presented at in Zurich over the weekend.

Van der Velden discussed her AI production studio and her new AI talent agency - Xicoia - on Saturday, according to Deadline, and suggested that Hollywood studios and agencies were embracing AI under the radar.

She told the crowd they should expect public announcements about high-profile projects using the technology in the coming months.

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Hollywood celebrities outraged over new 'AI actor' Tilly Norwood

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The AI actress is apparently in talks with Hollywood talent agencies to represent her on the big screen.

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Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, aggregated from sources all over the world by Google News.

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Once a century, a very special day comes along. That day is today - 9/16/25.

Pi Day (3/14) often comes with sweet treats; Square Root Day (4/4/16 or 5/5/25, for example) has a certain numerical rhyme. But the particular string of numbers in today's date may be especially delightful to the brains of mathematicians and the casual nerds among us.

First, "all three of the entries in that date are perfect squares - and what I mean by that is 9 is equal to 3 ², 16 is equal to 4 ², and 25 is equal to 5 ²," says Colin Adams, a mathematician at Williams College who was first tipped off about today's special qualities during a meeting with his former student, Jake Malarkey.

Next, those perfect squares come from consecutive numbers - three, four, and five.

But perhaps most special of all is that three, four, and five are an example of what's called a Pythagorean triple.

"And what that means," explains Adams, "is that if I take the sum of the squares of the first two numbers, 3 ² + 4 ², which is 9 + 16... is equal to 25, which is 5 ², so 3 ² + 4 ² = 5 ²."

This is the Pythagorean Theorem: a2 + b2 = c2. "And that in fact is the most famous theorem in all of mathematics," says Adams.

It's a theorem that means something geometrically, too. Any Pythagorean triple - including 3, 4, and 5 - also gives the lengths of the three sides of a right triangle. That is, the squares of the two shorter lengths add up to the square of the final, longer side (the hypotenuse).

There are no other dates this century that meet all these conditions, so most of us will experience it just once in our lifetime.

(Fun bonus: It turns out the full year, 2025, is also a perfect square: 45 times 45.)

In any case, Adams says that if it were up to him, he'd call the day Pythagorean Triple Square Day. And he plans on celebrating with a rectangular cake cut along the diagonal to yield two right triangles.

"If I have any luck at all, if I can find a cake with the right dimensions, it'll look like a 3, 4, 5 cake, namely edge length 3, edge length 4, and edge length 5," he says. In the middle, he intends to have the date inscribed in icing.

"This date is hiding one of the most beautiful coincidences we will ever encounter," says Terrence Blackman, chair of the mathematics department at Medgar Evers College in the City University of New York. "Those numbers, they tell a story that goes back to ancient Greece."

Blackman says the Pythagorean Theorem is used frequently by carpenters and architects. But for him, as a mathematician, today's date captures a special elegance.

"It reveals some kind of hidden mathematical poetry that is sitting there - just like walking and coming upon a beautiful flower," he says.

In a world that can feel chaotic, Blackman feels that a day like today shows that math can provide a source of comfort.

"It reminds us that beauty and meaning can be found anywhere and everywhere," he says. "We just have to continue to look for it."

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On 9/16/25, celebrate a date of mathematical beauty

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Pythagorean Triple Square Day, as one man affectionately calls 9/16/25, is a day like no other this century.