Super CinemaHelldivers 2 director says Arrowhead "don't, and shouldn't, have final say" on the Helldivers movie, but the developer is likely to be involved in keeping things "faithful""We are not Hollywood people, and we don't know what it takes to make a movie."Image credit: Arrowhead News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on Jan. 13, 2025 About a week ago, we learned that Helldivers 2 is on the list of Sony-affiliated games getting film or anime adaptations, with the Horizon series and Ghost of Tsushima being the other two.There were few details shared about this Galactic War movie when it was revealed, but Helldivers 2 director Johan Pilestedt has now said some stuff about what Arrowhead's involvement in the project might look like.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "Hey! I've been dodging this question," the developer admitted in response to a social media user asking him if he was able to "confirm if Arrowhead will be involved with the production of the Helldivers movie to ensure the film stays faithful to the games".Pilestedt went on to explain: "The short answer is yes. The long answer is that we'll see. We are not Hollywood people, and we don't know what it takes to make a movie. And therefore we don't, and shouldn't, have final say." To see this content please enable targeting cookies.So, it sounds like things will generally be being left to the pros at Sony Pictures, but Arrowhead could well be consulted on things that are game-related, rather than anything that concerns the actual moviemaking elements. Hopefully it can help the film strike a good balance when it comes to mirroring the helldiving experience, something that's often difficult if things go too hard either way on the scale of "faithfulness" to source material.The best you can really hope for in this situation is that the different parties involved in a production recognise what they can ideally bring to it in their area of expertise, while being open to ideas in other areas and being keen to understand what it is that makes the games tick and draws people to them. It's not easy. I'm dipping into TV adaptations rather than film here, but for every percent chance there is of us getting a Helldivers adaption appeases pretty much everyone like last year's Fallout series, there's also a chance of something that's a bit more polarising, as Like A Dragon: Yakuza was when it arrived on the same streaming service just six months later.Either way, here's hoping Chris Pratt makes a charismatic Bile Titan, assuming the Helldivers community's sarky fantasy castings come true.How concerned are you about about the Helldivers movie being "faithful" to the games? Let us know below and make sure to check out the cool things Helldivers 2 modders have recently been adding to the game itself.

Super!Bungie's MOBA project might have moved over to a new PlayStation studio, but a new report has shed some light on the game's surprising source of inspirationNow we just have to wait and see if it ever comes out.Image credit: Bungie News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Jan. 13, 2025 Bungie's project Gummy Bears was reportedly shifted to a new team, and now a new report has shed a bit of light on what it might be like.A lot of changes have been taking place at Bungie over the past year, one of the most notable and unfortunate obviously being the fact 220 staff were laid off last July. There were also claims that 40 staff from Bungie working on its incubation project were moved to a new studio at PlayStation, and in a new report from The Game Post this particular project, Gummy Bears, is a MOBA with an interesting source of inspiration: Super Smash Bros. This apparently comes from multiple sources familiar with the project, speaking under anonymity due to being unable to speak about the game publicly.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. One key area where the game is taking inspiration from Smash Bros is that instead of health bars, like many other games and most other MOBAs have, it uses a percentage-based damage system. Like in Smash Bros, players can get knocked back further and further depending on how high their percentage is, and can even be hit off the map entirely. There's also apparently multiple game modes, and three main class types including support, attack, and defence. One source explained that it will be possible to hang out with friends between matches and express their identities in game, which presumably means customisation options.The game's aesthetic has been described as lo-fi, cosy, and colourful, in an attempt to appeal to a younger audience than what Bungie has in Destiny, and it's apparently been in development for at least three years. If this report is true, it could be quite an interesting take on the MOBA genre, but in an era when mostly only pre-established live service titles are doing well, there's a lot of questions as to where Gummy Bears might fit in.

Image: NintendoWe're back with the latest Japanese charts folks; the first of 2025!It's a little bit different for this first go around, too. Famitsu has posted software sales figures for the two weeks of 23rd-29th December and 30th Dec - 5th January, but no hardware figures. We'll collate the top ten games for both weeks here, and hopefully we'll be back on track with the hardware figures next time. It's a shame, because we were sincerely hoping to see exactly how the Switch has done over the new year, but it can't be helped.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube791kWatch on YouTube Anyway, let's get cracking. for the week of 23rd-29th December, Super Mario Party Jamboree inches ever closer to that 1 million unit milestone (and you'll see later that, yes, it managed to surpass it comfortably), while familiar favourites such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Minecraft, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate all claim their usual spots within the top ten.For the full breakdown, here's a look at the (almost) latest top ten:PositionGamePlatformUnit Sales (23rd - 29th Dec)Total Unit Sales1Super Mario Party JamboreeSwitch119,176954,2612Dragon Quest III HD-2D RemakeSwitch35,834930,5053Mario Kart 8 DeluxeSwitch21,4396,167,6174MinecraftSwitch17,9153,762,5865Mario & Luigi: BrothershipSwitch16,680165,0606The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of WisdomSwitch16,290372,9037Super Smash Bros. UltimateSwitch15,5265,684,0198Animal Crossing: New HorizonsSwitch14,0928,022,4359Pokmon Scarlet / Pokmon VioletSwitch13,2065,491,02610Nintendo Switch SportsSwitch11,3831,514,786For the following week of 30th Dec - 5th Jan, the exact same games make up the top ten, albeit in a slighly different order from position five onwards. Overall sales for the week have decreased slightly, but as we mentioned earlier, Super Mario Party Jamboree has managed to sail past that 1 million unit milestone.For the full breakdown, here's a look at the latest top ten:PositionGamePlatformUnit Sales (30th Dec - 5th Jan)Total Unit Sales1Super Mario Party JamboreeSwitch117,3071,071,5682Dragon Quest III HD-2D RemakeSwitch32,402962,9073Mario Kart 8 DeluxeSwitch29,9376,197,5544MinecraftSwitch16,8953,779,4815Animal Crossing: New HorizonsSwitch15,7778,038,2126Super Smash Bros. UltimateSwitch15,0555,699,0747Mario & Luigi: BrothershipSwitch14,855179,9158Nintendo Switch SportsSwitch13,8131,528,5999The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of WisdomSwitch12,490385,39310Pokmon Scarlet / Pokmon VioletSwitch12,2895,503,315 Get this party startedAn update to online playSo there you have it! What do you make of these sales figures as we kick off 2025? Leave a comment with your thoughts down below.[source famitsu.com]Related GamesSee AlsoShare:00 Nintendo Lifes resident horror fanatic, when hes not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks and listens to everything from TOOL to Chuck Berry. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesSwitch's First 'Rebootless Update' Of 2025 Is Now Live, Here Are The DetailsFollowing Version 19.0.1's rollout last OctoberBest Nintendo Switch RPGsThe finest traditional-style Switch RPGs available to humanityRandom: Let's Be Thankful The 'Switch 2' Won't Be As Big As Acer's Ridiculous New HandheldC'mon, what is that?

A new effort to construct lunar infrastructure using 3D printing is underway in Italy, where the GLAMS Project (Geopolymers for Additive Manufacturing and Lunar Monitoring) is experimenting with cement binders derived from lunar regolith. Funded by ASI, the Italian Space Agency, this two-year initiative reduces costs and resource consumption by harnessing Moon-based materials rather than relying on terrestrial supplies. Researchers showcased the first 3D printed geopolymer samples at the 75th International Astronautical Congress in Milano, signaling a step forward in extraterrestrial building methods.Geopolymer 3D printing using WASP 40100 LDM Printer. Photo via WASP.University of Paduas Center for Space Studies and Activities Giuseppe Colombo (CISAS) coordinates GLAMS in partnership with the Institute of Condensed Matter Chemistry and Energy Technologies of the CNR, an Italian research institution located in Genoa, and WASP, the Italian 3D printing technology specialists. The project team, led by Professors Luca Valentini, Carlo Bettanini, and Dr. Giorgia Franchin, has spent months refining geopolymer binders created through chemical activation of lunar soils. Foaming agents selected by the CNR research unit make it possible to achieve a macro-porous internal structure, and WASP has begun turning these formulations into larger-scale prototypes. Further development includes integrating sensor networks to detect micrometeoroid impacts, a hazard common in off-Earth environments.GLAMPS team at ASI. Photo via WASP.Researchers plan to adapt these geopolymer blends to withstand significant temperature swings, reduced gravity, and variable atmospheric pressure on the Moon. One of the key technologies is the WASP 40100 LDM printer, introduced here with a liquid deposition modeling process designed for ceramic and cement-like materials. This machine features a sizable build area that accommodates medium-scale structures, offering potential for in-situ fabrication of habitats or shielding components. Monitoring strategiessupervised by Bettaninis teaminclude embedded sensors, which could provide early warnings for damage and structural fatigue in hostile lunar conditions.WASPs Sustainable Innovations at Formnext 2024Last year, WASP unveiled at Formnext several sustainable technologies aimed at addressing environmental concerns in architecture, manufacturing, and design. WASP introduced innovations such as a circular recycling system for plastics, a dynamic multicolor extrusion process, and large-scale printing solutions using geopolymer materials. The company demonstrated 3D printed geopolymer modules developed with Eindhoven University that replace clay, reduce energy usage, and accommodate plant growth and wildlife habitats. These modules maintain chemical and mechanical durability while reducing CO emissions.WASP also highlighted its use of synchronized 3D printers to construct low-carbon buildings, such as the 100 m prototype built for the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) in Barcelona. These projects use locally sourced soils and natural materials to lower construction-related CO emissions. Additionally, the companys work with rrreefs demonstrated coral reef modules printed with WASP 40100 Production systems, contributing to marine ecosystem regeneration through additive manufacturing.Coral reef 3D printing in alliance with rrreefs. Photo via WASP.Ready to discover who won the 20243D Printing Industry Awards?What will the future of 3D printing look like?Which recent trends are driving the 3D printing industry, as highlighted by experts?Subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter to stay updated with the latest news and insights.Stay connected with the latest in 3D printing by following us on Twitter and Facebook, and dont forget to subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry YouTube channel for more exclusive content.

An architecture contest is being held to regenerate a disused 1928 bathhouse in Luckenwalde, Germany (Deadline: 21 January)The competition will select a design team to refurbish and reactivate the 1928 Luckenwalde municipal baths which is located immediately next door to the E-Werk cultural and energy hub created by Pablo Wendel and Helen Turner.The Stadtbad Live project will transform the complex which recently hosted the Venice Golden Lion-winning beach opera Sun & Sea (Marina) by Lina Lapelyt into a new flexible cultural, event and production venue.Competition site: Stadtbad Live, LuckenwaldeCredit:Image by Stefan KorteAccording to the brief: The aim is to refurbish and reactivate the municipal baths as Stadtbad Live, a cultural, event and production venue with flexible utilisation options in line with its listed status.The Bauhaus Municipal pool is adjacent to the internationally regarded contemporary art centre and regenerative power station, E-Werk Luckenwalde, which is destined to power the pool with regenerative heat and electricity produced on site.The initial aim of this planning contract is to develop a refurbishment concept that shows how the available funds can be used to enable the (partial) commissioning of the municipal baths for flexible use.Luckenwalde is a small town of around 21, residents located about 50km south of Berlin. The settlement is home to E-Werk, a former power station which has been transformed into a new centre for artist residencies and sustainable energy generation in recent years.The latest project will restore and convert a former 1928 swimming pool which was originally heated using surplus power from the power station across the road. The building closed as a leisure centre in 1991 and has since hosted a range of high-profile art events including Pussy Riots Riot Days performance in 2024.Competition site: Stadtbad Live, LuckenwaldeCredit:Image by Stefan KorteKey aims of the latest project include creating a flexible art venue which respects the heritage of the building. Teams participating in the contest will required to draw up initial proposals that deal intensively with the possibilities of a reduced project realisation.Concepts which promote an ecosystemic or regenerative approach are also encouraged.How to applyDeadline: 21 JanuaryCompetition funding source: Deutsche BundProject funding source: Deutsche BundOwner of site(s): Stadt Luckenwalde+ LUBAContact details: vergabewesen@luckenwalde.deVisit the competition website for more information

Gorodenkoff - stock.adobe.comNewsUK government unveils AI-fuelled industrial strategyLabour plans to implement the 50 recommendations set out by entrepreneur Matt Clifford to boost the use of AI in the UKByCliff Saran,Managing EditorPublished: 13 Jan 2025 10:00 The Labour government has unveiled a 50-point plan to use artificial intelligence (AI) to help drive efficiency and growth across the UK economy.The AI Opportunities Action Plan introduces new measures to create what the government calls dedicated AI Growth Zones, which it said speeds up planning permission for AI-led initiatives.The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that if AI is fully embraced it can boost productivity by as much as 1.5 percentage points a year. If fully realised, these gains could be worth up to an average 47bn to the UK each year over a decade.The government described its AI plan as an approach that revolutionises public services, which puts more money in peoples back pockets.Announcing the AI Opportunities Action Plan, prime minister Keir Starmer said: Artificial intelligence will drive incredible change in our country. But the AI industry needs a government that is on their side, one that wont sit back and let opportunities slip through its fingers. And in a world of fierce competition, we cannot stand by. We must move fast and take action to win the global race.Our plan will make Britain the world leader. It will give the industry the foundation it needs and will turbocharge the Plan for Change, he said. That means more jobs and investment in the UK, more money in peoples pockets, and transformed public services.Chancellor Rachel Reeves described the action plan as the governments modern industrial strategy in action.Read more government AI storiesUK Defence Committee urges MoD to embrace AI: Defence Committee outlines changes it thinks the Ministry of Defence should make to realise the battlefield advantages of artificial intelligence.UK government looks to rewrite copyright rules for AI training: Labour has begun a consultation looking at how creators of original content can be compensated for AI training that uses their work.Science, innovation and technology secretary Peter Kyle said:This government is determined that the UK is not left behind in the global race for AI, thats why the actions we commit to will ensure that the benefits are spread throughout the UK so all citizens will reap the rewards of the bet we make today. This is how were putting our Plan for Change in motion.The first of the AI Growth Zones is in Culham, Oxfordshire, which will host a new supercomputer, increasing the public compute capacity by twentyfold to support AI workloads. The government said that a new team is being established to develop the UKs sovereign AI capabilities. The supercomputer is part of a 10-year plan to develop the UKs computing and AI capabilities.Along with developing the UKs sovereign AI capabilities, the government plans to set up a digital centre of government in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, focused on revolutionising the use of AI in the public sector.Its also creating a National Data Library, to provide a mechanism for accessing public data safely and securelyto support AI development.A dedicated AI Energy Council chaired by the Science and Energy Secretaries will also be established, working with energy companies to understand the energy demands and challenges that will fuel the technologys development. This will directly support the governments mission to become a clean energy superpower by tapping into technologies such as small modular reactors.Alongside the plan, the government discussed a number of new private sector AI investments. These include Vantage Data Centres, Nscale and Kyndryl, which have committed to 14bn investment in the UK to build the AI infrastructure the UK needs to harness the potential of this technology and deliver 13,250 jobs across the UK.Vantage Data Centres plans to invest over 12bn in datacentres across the UK creating over 11,500 jobs in the process. Kyndryl said it plans to create up to 1,000 AI-related jobs in Liverpool over the next three years. Nscale has invested 2.5bn in building what it called the largest UK sovereign AI datacentre in Loughton, Essex by 2026.In The Current Issue:What do the home secretarys policing reforms mean for the future of the Police Digital Service?What are the security risks of bring your own AI?Download Current IssueData engineering - Nooks: Standardising & measuring data to run AI assistants CW Developer NetworkFear the technologists, not the technology? The rise of the tech baron Computer Weekly Editors BlogView All Blogs

Any business that sells products or services in the European Union (EU) that use artificial intelligence (AI) must comply with the EU AI Act, regardless of where they are based.The first phase of the act becomes law next month. This is Article 5, covering prohibited AI practices and unacceptable uses of AI. The text for Article 5 was finalised on 12 July 2024 and is taking effect six months later, which means from February, organisations building AI systems or using AI as part of their EU products and services will need to prove their systems comply with Article 5.Among the uses of AI that are banned under Article 5 are AI systems that deploy subliminal techniques beyond a persons consciousness or purposefully manipulative or deceptive techniques. Article 5 also prohibits the use of AI systems that exploit any of the vulnerabilities of a person or a specific group of people due to their age, disability, or a specific social or economic situation. Systems that analyse social behaviours and then use this information in a detrimental way are also prohibited under Article 5 if their use goes beyond the original intent of the data collection.Other areas covered by Article 5 include the use of AI systems in law enforcement and biometrics. Industry observers describe the act as a risk-based approach to regulating artificial intelligence.While Article 5 is due to be enforced from February, the next phase of the AI Act roll-out is the application of codes of practice for general-purpose AI systems. These are systems that can handle tasks they have not been specially trained to do. Such systems cover foundation AI, such as large language models (LLMs). This next phase of the EU AI Act will come into force in May 2025.Companies selling or using AI in the EU must comply with the AI Act, regardless of where they are based. According to Deloitte, the reach of the act presents multinational companies with three potential options: they can develop AI systems specifically for the EU market, adopt the AI Act as a global standard, or restrict their high-risk offerings within the EU.Bart Willemsen, vice-president analyst at Gartner, says he is fielding hundreds of conversations on the topic of the EU AI Act and what it means for IT leaders and chief information security officers. Before joining the analyst firm, Willemsen held chief privacy and security officer roles in a number of organisations. His experience and the takeaway from the conversation with Gartner clients is that the EU AI Act builds on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).Under the GDPR, data must be collected for a specific and legitimate purpose and should be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner. Specifically, the data collection should be limited to what is strictly necessary, and the accuracy of the data must be maintained. Recently, with the introduction of the GDPR Certification Standard and Criteria BC 5701:2024, organisations are now able to show that they meet a level of competency in handling personally identifiable information (PII).There are plenty of lessons that can be learned from GDPR that should be applied to the EU AI Act. Although the text for GDPR was finalised in 2016, it did not come into effect until 2018.The lawmakers have learned a little bit from the GDPR experience, says Willemsen. Two years on from the grace period in May 2018, everybody started calling me up asking where do they start. In other words, organisations spent two years during the grace period doing nothing about GDPR.But it is not just GDPR. One of the things I find myself having to explain to organisations is to look at the AI Act in the context of the legislative framework, says Willemsen. It is flanked by things like the Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act, Data Governance Act, and even the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The growth of AI, along with increased cloud usage and rising volumes of data in traditional applications, is forecast to lead to significantly higher IT carbon emissions across industries For instance, while many organisations are confident they can report on greenhouse gas emissions to comply with the EU CSRD, management consulting firm Bain & Company has forecast that by 2030, the growth of AI, along with increased cloud usage and rising volumes of data in traditional applications will lead to significantly higher IT carbon emissions across industries.Organisations operating in the EU will need to take into account CSRD. Given the power-hungry nature of machine learning and AI inference, the extent to which AI is used may well be influenced by such regulations going forward.While it builds on existing regulations, as Mlanie Gornet and Winston Maxwell note in the Hal Open Science paper The European approach to regulating AI through technical standards, the AI Act takes a different route from these. Their observation is that the EU AI Act draws inspiration from European product safety rules.As Gornet and Maxwell explain: AI systems will require a conformity assessment that will be based on harmonised standards, i.e. technical specifications drawn up by European standardisation organisations (ESOs).The authors point out that these possess various legal properties, such as generating a presumption of conformity with the legislation. This conformity assessment results in European Conformity (CE) marking of the AI product to show compliance with EU regulations. Unlike other product safety regulations, Gornet and Maxwell note that the AI Act is not only intended to protect against risks to safety, but also against adverse effects on fundamental rights.What weve seen in the last decade is relevant now when preparing for the AI Act, says Willemsen, when asked what steps organisations should be taking to ensure they remain compliant with the act. He urges organisations embarking on an AI strategy not to underestimate the relevance of these legal requirements.In a blog looking at the significance of the EU AI Act, Martin Gill, vice-president research director at Forrester, describes the legislation as a minimum standard, not a best practice.He says: Building trust with consumers and users will be key to the development of AI experiences. For firms operating within the EU, and even those outside, following the risk categorisation and governance recommendations that the EU AI Act lays out is a robust, risk-oriented approach that, at a minimum, will help create safe, trustworthy and human-centric AI experiences that cause no harm, avoid costly or embarrassing missteps and, ideally, drive efficiency and differentiation.Willemsen does not believe organisations need to create a chief AI officer role. Its not a different discipline like security or privacy. Most of the time, AI is considered a new type of technology, he says.Nevertheless, privacy and security measures are required when considering how to deploy AI technology. This is why Willemsen feels GDPR is one of the regulations organisations need to use to frame their AI strategy.He urges organisations to put in place strategic, tactical and operational-level measures when deploying AI systems. This requires a multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary AI team, which Willemsen says needs to grow as the projects grow, building knowledge and experience. In this team, you will see security, privacy, legal, compliance and business stakeholders, he adds.While business leaders may feel that their own AI strategy is compliant with the EU AI Act, the same is not true of suppliers and AI-enabled enterprise systems. In the Gartner paper, Getting ready for the EU AI Act, phase 3, the analyst firm recommends that IT and business leaders accommodate the AI Act in any third-party risk assessment. This, says Gartner, should include contractual reviews and a push to amend existing contracts with new language to reinforce emerging regulatory requirements.As Gartner notes, there is a good chance that an organisations largest AI risk may have nothing to do with the AI it develops itself. Instead, it may still risk being non-compliant with the EU AI Act if its IT providers and suppliers use the organisations data to train their models.Most organisations say their vendor contracts dont allow their vendors to use their data, but most vendor contracts have a product enhancement clause, Gartner warns. Such a clause could be interpreted as giving the supplier the right to use the organisations data to help improve its own products.What is clear is that, irrespective of whether an organisation has EU offices, if it provides products and services to EU citizens, an assessment of the impact of the AI Act is essential. Non-compliance with the acts requirements could cost businesses up to 15m or 3% of global turnover. Violation of Article 5 covering banned uses of AI can result in fines of up to 35m or 7% of global turnover.Read more about the EU AI ActEU AI Act explained what AI developers need to know: A guide to help enterprises building and deploying artificial intelligence systems understand EU AI regulations.Everything you need to know about the new EU AI Act: The European Union defines AI regulations based on risk and outlines hefty fines for non-compliance. Explore the details of the AI Act and how it could apply to you.Navigating the practicalities of AI regulation and legislation: What CIOs need to know about the global patchwork of existing and upcoming laws governing AI and what they should be doing about them.

This artists impression shows the red supergiant star Antares in the constellation of Scorpius. ... [+] Using ESOs Very Large Telescope Interferometer astronomers have constructed the most detailed image ever of this, or any star other than the Sun. Using the same data they have also made the first map of the velocities of material the atmosphere of a star other than the Sun.ESO/M. KornmesserRed supergiant stars such as Betelgeuse and Antares are the astrobiological fertilizers for our galaxy at large. These massive, evolved stars are largely responsible for the chemical enrichment of newly forming sunlike stars.Most of these short-lived stars cool and expand and eventually turn into so-called Type II Core Collapse supernovae. In the process, they throw off mountains of dust as well as massive amounts of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and iron, all of which make up the building blocks of life as we know it.These massive stars are so large that they could be centered around the Sun and their radii would reach out to the distance of Jupiter, Sarah Healy, a PhD candidate in astrophysics at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, told me via email. Yet we still fail to understand the complex mechanisms that drive their evolution, she said.Stellar theory predicts that all red supergiant stars can produce core-collapse supernovae; however, we have never observed a luminous red supergiant and its resulting explosion, said Healy.This missing population of supernova progenitors has led to what is known as the two-decade old red supergiant problem.The problem describes the apparent lack of high-luminosity progenitors detected in supernova pre-images, write the authors of a paper just submitted to The Astrophysical Journal. But in the paper, Healy and colleagues argue that the RSG problem is largely the result of observational bias.MORE FOR YOUMassive Clouds Of DustWe compared a population of pre-explosion imaged progenitor stars; a new RSG population within the Milky Way, and recent statistically complete RSG samples from other galaxies within the Local Group of Galaxies, said Healy, the papers lead author.And after careful comparison and analysis, Healy and colleagues now assert that they found no missing RSG progenitors.We now know how much light has been blocked by the dust in our previous observations and, therefore, how much light we had been missing, said Healy. So, what we previously had thought were less luminous RSGs, were actually luminous RSGs surrounded by excess dust, she said. This gives us a more correct measurement of luminosity, so we can now properly understand the characteristics of these evolved massive stars, said Healy.Stars That Live Fast And Die YoungRed Supergiants evolve from high-mass O and B spectral type stars which rapidly exhaust their hydrogen fuel within 30 million years, Edward Guinan, an astronomer at Villanova University in Pennsylvania who was not involved with the study, told me via email.After theyve exhausted their hydrogen, they start burning helium in their cores.During the helium core fusion stage, the star rapidly increases in size, expands, and cools becoming an RSG star, said Guinan. During this time, the stars shed copious amounts of nuclear-processed gas via massive stellar winds which enriches the interstellar medium with nuclear-processed nitrogen, carbon and nitrogen, he said.As one of the largest, most luminous stars in our Milky Way Galaxy, the variable star VY Canis Majoris is a likely candidates for the next naked-eye core-collapse supernova, said Guinan.VY Cma lies some 3800 light years away in the southern constellation of Canis Major and is already well above the theoretically required limit of at least 8 solar masses to collapse into a supernova.These Type II supernovae typically expel several solar masses of ionized gas into the interstellar medium, said Guinan. This results in an expanding shock wave which leads to enhanced star formation, he said.Why should we care?It all goes back to the birth and death of stars within our Milky Way Galaxy and in galaxies that lie well beyond our own. The more astrophysicists can glean from the evolution of RSGs, the better they can understand our own solar system and other solar systems like it.Healy and colleagues took their data mostly from observations made by NASAs Webb Space Telescope, NASAs Hubble Space Telescope, and the European Space Agencys Gaia spacecraft. They also used data from ground-based surveys made by the U.K. Infrared Telescope in Hawaii and the Two Micron All-Sky Survey in the U.S. and Chile.The Bottom Line?RSGs are important for astrobiology.Stars formed from chemically enriched environments are more likely to host earth-like habitable planets, said Healy. Observational evidence has shown that planet populations tend to be more diverse for more metal-rich stars, she said.The first direct image of a star other than our sun, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. ... [+] Betelgeuse is an enormous star in the constellation Orion. This ultraviolet image shows a bright spot on the star that is 2000 degrees centigrade hotter than the rest of the surface. The picture on the right shows the constellation Orion, with Betelgeuse marked by a yellow cross. The star's size relative to the earth's orbit is also shown. (Photo by CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)Corbis via Getty ImagesLessons In Observational AstronomyIt is likely that until the number of pre-explosion imaged progenitors gets closer to eighty, the RSG problem will not entirely disappear from discussion, said Healy.RSGs offer a hard-won lesson to astronomers; that is, the cosmos isnt always how it appears. Observations can often be biased due to the limitations of telescopic technology in the era in which the data was taken.What will be needed to finally solve this conundrum?We need to determine the main driver of red supergiant dust production and increase the sample size of pre-explosion imaging, said Healy.Future infrared telescopes will help.So, it now appears that these RSGs will soon give up more of their secrets. In turn, stellar theorists will be rewarded with a much better understanding of these massive stars end games and the role they play in cosmic evolution.

Security researchers warn of YouTibe being used to spread malware.NurPhoto via Getty ImagesWith 2.5 billion users worldwide, Googles YouTube is undoubtedly the most popular video platform on the planet. And not just with legitimate users. I recently reported how hackers were going after YouTube creator accounts as part of an ongoing credential-stealing attack. Now, according to newly published security research, it appears that the threat has evolved with attackers using YouTube to distribute fake installers by way of trusted hosting services that stealthily evade detection and ultimately steal sensitive browser data, including user credentials. Heres what you need to know.YouTube Users Warned As Attackers StrikeWhile the problem of YouTube accounts being targeted by attackers is not a new one, and YouTube itself has even introduced a new AI bot to help impacted account holders get their access back, this latest research comes with a far more dangerous warning: all 2.5 billion YouTube users are at risk.In the Jan. 10 report, Trend Micro incident response analyst Ryan Maglaque, threats analyst Jay Nebre, and associate security analyst Allixon Kristoffer Francisco, revealed how attackers are using YouTube and other social media platforms as part of their campaigns that are spreading download links for fake software installers by leveraging the trust users have in such sites in order to drive the clicks that end up with credential-stealing malware installed on their devices. Those links, for pirated movies or cracked software, are the key to these hack attacks.Victims are lured into piracy by individuals posing as guides on popular video-sharing platforms like YouTube, the analysts explained, these deceitful actors create a pretense of offering legitimate software installation tutorials to entice viewers to click on malicious links in the video descriptions or comments.The YouTube Hack Attack FlowThe report highlighted how an attacker lures victims in with a YouTube video posing as a tutorial, in this case for how to get a free download of cracked Adobe Lightroom software. The first comment to the video contains a link, which, in turn, opens yet another YouTube post that contains the actual malicious link for the fake installer download. This link is found on a legitimate large file-hosting site as another layer to obscure its download further and evade detection, the report stated.Read More: Apple iPhone USB-C HackedWhat You Need To KnowThese hack attacks that begin on YouTube are particularly dangerous as they employ a number of methods to maintain their stealthiness and evade detection. These include, the analysts said:Utilization of large file size in order to bypass defensive sandbox capabilities.Password-protected zip files impede content scanning, and these also serve to make investigations more complicated if the password is not available.By uploading the files to known media-sharing sites, antivirus protections will often only detect if the exact link is discovered before the download.The hacking campaign also employs legitimate files using dynamic link library side loading or process injection in order to execute the malicious credential-stealing payload.I have reached out to YouTube for a statement. In the meantime, I recommend checking out Googles malware protection advice and, of course, not searching for ways to crack legitimate software and get it for free.

Lanterns and light installations are illuminated during Yuyuan Garden Lantern Festival on January 9, ... [+] 2025 in Shanghai, China. Opening on New Year's Day, the 42-day event at Yuyuan Garden, a major downtown tourism destination, will run until February 12. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)VCG via Getty ImagesAs today's full moonthe Wolf Moonrises in the east during dusk, it will begin a countdown to one of our planet's most culturally significant new moons.Januarys new moon, which will occur on Wednesday, Jan. 29, will signal the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year (also called Chinese New Year), the Year of the Snake. This 15-day celebration, celebrated by billions of people, is based on the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, which uses the moon's phases and the Earth's orbit around the sun.Along with the full moon, sky-watchers can enjoy a spectacular Mars occultation by the Wolf Moon this week and, a few nights later on Saturday, Jan. 18, a dazzling conjunction of Venus and Saturn.Heres everything you need to know about the Wolf Moon and Chinese Lunar New Year 2025:What Is Chinese Lunar New Year?Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, is one of the most significant cultural celebrations observed by millions worldwide. The 15-day festival begins with the first new moon of the Chinese lunisolar calendar and culminates in the Lantern Festival on the next full moon.MORE FOR YOUWhen Is Chinese Lunar New Year 2025?The moons phases determine the festivals timing. In 2025, Chinese New Year begins on Wednesday, Jan. 29, with the Year of the Wood Snake lasting until Feb. 16, 2026. The celebration ends on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025, as Februarys full moon, the Snow Moon, rises.The Full Wolf Moon and the Occultation of MarsJanuarys full moon, the Wolf Moon, will glow orange just after sunset on Monday, Jan. 13, as it peeks above the eastern horizon. Later on, Mars will disappear behind the Wolf Moon in an event known as an occultation. From North America, the red planet will vanish and reappear for a specific time between 8:44 p.m. EST and 12:52 a.m. EST (In-the-sky.org has a map and location-specific timings). As a bonus, Mars is this week at oppositionthe biggest and brightest it gets in Earth's sky. It's a once-every-26-month event.What Is the Year of the Wood Snake?The Chinese zodiac operates on a 12-year cycle of animals combined with one of five elementswood, fire, Earth, metal, or watercreating a unique 60-year cycle. This years Wood Snake last occurred in 1965. The snake is associated with wisdom, intuition, and transformation, while the wood element signifies growth and renewal.Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.