technical updates

2026 is the 60th anniversary of "Star Trek". To help celebrate the show that creator Gene Roddenberry described as "Wagon Train to the Stars,""Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" returns to Paramount+ for its penultimate season. From teasers and trailers that first dropped last summer and fall, we’re anticipating a rollicking batch of dynamic episodes that draw on diverse subgenres, with everything from classic film noir crime stories and time travel to spooky ghost stories and sword-clashing swashbucklers. But the end is nigh for this colorful modern interpretation of "Trek". Next year's truncated fifth season will be the crew's final mission, so let's revel in the time we have left and beam onto the Enterprise bridge for a promising round of missions. Here's our guide to everything you need to know about "Strange New Worlds" Season 4...

For several years now, astronomers who study the sun have faced a little mystery — our star seemed to hold too little silver. Whenever scientists examined the sun's outer layers, they've seen significantly less silver than they've expected to find. Where, then, did the missing silver go? As it turns out, this mystery may finally be solved. Newly published research suggests that the sun 's missing silver may have been hiding in plain sight all along. At first, the real mystery might seem to be why you'd seek silver in the sun at all. After all, 98.5% of the sun's mass is made from lightweight hydrogen and helium. Silver is just a tiny fraction of the remaining 1.5%, which also includes traces of other heavy elements like iron and copper. These trace elements can illuminate the history of the cosmos. Silver is thought to form when dying stars violently explode in supernovas ...

In a rare first for me, I actually used autofocus for this entire astrophotography shoot. If I'm being honest? I prefer it when shooting astro with a mirrorless camera . Why? Because it is quicker and that means more time capturing the stars and less time setting up. I can get a star in sharp focus using autofocus in half the time that it would take me to do it manually and it's way easier to focus with the shutter or back button than play about with the focus ring, especially with cold fingers. The Canon EOS R6 III makes shooting astro much quicker with its rapid low-light autofocus. (Image credit: Harry Bennett / Future) I only managed to get out under one clear sky to test the new R6 III but it was a wonderful session at my usual dark hill spot surrounded by a sea of stars and celestial shapes. After setting up my tripod, I was ready to start shooting, armed with the Canon 14mm f/1.4 ...

The world's most powerful solid-fuel rocket just aced its third-ever mission. Gravity-1, a distinctively squat and stubby rocket , launched Tuesday night (July 21) from the deck of a ship stationed off the coast of Shanghai. Liftoff occurred at 10:54 p.m. EDT (0254 GMT and 10:54 a.m. Beijing time on July 22), according to the state-run Chinese outlet Xinhua, which further reported that all nine satellites reached "their designated orbits." Details about those satellites were not provided. Orienspace's Gravity-1 rocket launches nine satellites to orbit from a ship at sea on July 21, 2026. (Image credit: CCTV) Gravity-1 is operated by Orienspace, a company based in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong. The rocket stands about 100 feet (30 meters) tall — less than half the height of SpaceX 's workhorse Falcon 9 vehicle. Gravity-1 consists of three core stages and four st...

The latest " Dune: Part 3 " trailer arrived back on July 8, and it was a sumptuous banquet of startling set pieces, intergalactic political unrest, close-quarter combat, and a whole lot of sand and ash. A fine follow-up to the initial March teaser , to be sure. After letting it marinate in our minds for a while, let’s break down five items of particular interest in this newest preview of the Denis Villeneuve-directed conclusion to his trilogy of far-future sci-fi epics adapted from author Frank Herbert’s novels, "Dune" and "Dune: Messiah." Set 17 years after Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) has ascended to the Emperor’s throne, "Dune: Part 3" explores the corrupting side of political power as his holy war against the Imperium’s Great Houses advances towards a destructive destiny. Right out of the gate, Chani (Zendaya) is certainly not shy about displayin...

A near-Earth object that astronomers believed was an asteroid for nearly three decades has been unmasked as a faint, active comet, revealing a case of cosmic mistaken identity that could help improve planetary defense. The object, known since its discovery in 1998 as 1998 SH2, appeared to be an ordinary asteroid . It follows a 4.5-year orbit around the sun and showed no obvious signs of cometary activity, such as the glowing coma or tail produced when sunlight vaporizes surface ice. However, during a close pass about 2 million miles (3 million kilometers) from Earth in August 2025, researchers using NASA's Deep Space Network planetary radar system noticed something unexpected: The object wasn't where orbital predictions said it should be, according to a statement from the space agency. That discrepancy prompted scientists to take a closer look, and what they found surprised them. Using ...