Nvidia reports earnings this week and the latest Federal Open Market Committee releases its latest meeting minutes.

Scientists have seen one of the mysterious “dark spots” on Neptune from Earth for the first ever time. Researchers spotted the feature using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, or VLT. Using that telescope, astronomers were able to examine a large dark spot – which was joined by a smaller, bright spot, they said, of a kind that has never seen before. Scientists still do not know why those spots form on Neptune’s blue atmosphere. But they hope that the new observations could help answer questions about their origin. “Since the first discovery of a dark spot, I’ve always wondered what these short-lived and elusive dark features are,” said Patrick Irwin, professor at the University of Oxford and lead investigator of the study. It has already helped rule out one possibility: that the dark spots are caused when the clouds on the planet clear. The observations instead suggest that the spot is formed when air particles make a layer below the main one go darker, caused by ice and haze mixing in the atmosphere. Understanding the spots has been difficult because they leave the planet’s surface as mysteriously as they arise. They have also been difficult for researchers to actually examine, given the difficulty of spotting them through telescopes. Previously, scientists were forced to send spacecraft to see the spots, and the first was observed in 1989, when Nasa’s Voyager 2 flew past. It disappeared a few years later. In recent years, scientists have been able to examine them with the Hubble Space Telescope, which has seen more spots on the atmosphere. When it did so, astronomers were able to point ground-based telescopes towards them, allowing for more detailed research. “This is an astounding increase in humanity’s ability to observe the cosmos,” said Michael Wong, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley and a co-author on the paper. “At first, we could only detect these spots by sending a spacecraft there, like Voyager. “Then we gained the ability to make them out remotely with Hubble. Finally, technology has advanced to enable this from the ground.” The new observations allowed scientists to examine the spot using the VLT’s Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, which let them split the light from Neptune and the spot into its component colours. That in turn means that astronomers can understand the height at which the spot sits, and how the atmosphere is composed. As well as helping examine the dark spots, scientists also saw a surprise result: another, entirely new kind of bright spot. “In the process we discovered a rare deep bright cloud type that had never been identified before, even from space,” said Wong. The work is described in a new paper, ‘Cloud structure of dark spots and storms in Neptune’s atmosphere’, published in Nature Astronomy. Read More Mysterious dark spot on Neptune detected from Earth for the first time We just received the first ever pictures taken near the Moon’s uncharted south pole Chandrayaan-3 mission rover exits Moon lander to explore lunar south pole Mysterious dark spot on Neptune detected from Earth for the first time We just received the first ever pictures taken near the Moon’s uncharted south pole Chandrayaan-3 mission rover exits Moon lander to explore lunar south pole

The iPhone 15 officially made its debut last week and now we know more about

TROY, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 18, 2023--

Sick of ads on Instagram and Facebook? Meta might do away with them — if

(Bloomberg Markets) -- In Morocco trucks from a Connecticut logistics company ferry car parts and clothing across the Strait of

Just when we think we’ve found the best first post on Threads, Instagram’s new “civil” text-based app to rival Twitter, another one comes along which is miles better – and former Labour MP Ed Balls may be the all-out winner after posting exactly what you would think he would post. Well-known for his 2011 Twitter blunder in which he tweeted out his own name instead of searching for it, the Good Morning Britain presenter and ex-shadow chancellor now marks the iconic moment every 28 April on ‘Ed Balls Day’. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Now, adhering to the politician’s principle of giving the people what they want, Mr Balls has set up an account on Threads and kicked things off by posting those two magic words. And it’s fair to say other users on the platform absolutely loved it. One declared: “You’ve won Threads today!” “Thread Balls,” quipped another. A third replied: “I think you win the internet today.” Others, though, have questioned what this means for marking the special occasion, seeing as the Twitter mishap occurred on 28 April (as mentioned previously), but this more deliberate posting happened on 6 July. “Ed! Now I need to rearrange my whole calendar for a new holiday,” complained one user. A second jokingly fumed: “Who do you think you are, Ed? The monarch? You don’t get two special days.” Another asked if the post marked “the new Ed Balls Day”, but that question remains unanswered. It’s unknown whether his wife Yvette Cooper MP, the shadow home secretary, will replicate the meme by reposting one of her Twitter typos. She does have a Threads account, at least… Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a sweeping bill into law Friday that will restrict education about gender identity and sexual orientation and ban books with certain sexual content from school libraries, as well as require schools to notify parents if their child asks to use a new name or pronoun.

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Meta Platforms's Instagram is planning to bring its branded content tools to Threads, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing

RESTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 9, 2023--