Technologies

NASA captures violent flash from sun’s mini eruption

Check out this beautiful image of our very own star’s minor tantrum.

On Thursday, our sun released its pent-up energy in the form of a little magnetic bomb. It’s called a solar flare, and NASA caught the whole thing on camera.

Solar flares, which are sudden explosions on the sun’s surface caused by strong magnetic forces, are of concern to astronomers because these events can impact electrical power grids on Earth, causing regional blackouts. They also risk interference with radio communications.

«This event, in particular, disrupted radio communications over the Indian and Pacific oceans — so its likely biggest impact was a disruption of maritime communications,» said Jesse Woodroffe, a program scientist and expert in space weather at NASA.

Even more jarring is if astronauts are in the flares’ line of fire, such detonations may greatly threaten space traveler and spacecraft safety. The good news, though, is NASA categorized the recent flare as a category M5.5 midlevel eruption, which corresponds to both a moderate severity and radio blackout threat for the side of the planet facing the burst.

«It’s not exceptionally strong in the grand scheme of things,» Woodroffe said, «but it nevertheless can have significant effects depending on what portion of the Earth is sunlit at the time of the flare.»

For now we can just sit back and admire the spectacular image captured by the agency in «extreme ultraviolet light,» colorized in an absolutely mesmerizing teal blue.

Around 300 M-class flares occur during each solar cycle, and they’re most likely to occur near solar maximum, a point we’re steadily approaching, according to Woodroffe. «Right now this is shaping up to be a much more active and interesting solar cycle than the last one. That means that we could be in store for solar activity the likes of which we haven’t seen in nearly 20 years.»

What causes a solar flare?

Instead of a glowing orb, think of the sun as a giant, flaming, spherical ocean. This ocean is so ridiculously hot, at 5,778 Kelvin (9940.73 Fahrenheit), that would-be atoms on the star are completely blasted apart into a gaseous mixture of ions and electrons called a plasma.

These particles, with varying positive and negative charges, work together to form the sun’s magnetic field lines, thereby deciding how the boiling ocean moves around. Think of it as a sort of immensely strong, magnetic soup — more precisely, picture a chicken noodle soup. The noodles are the sun’s magnetic fields.

However, just as stirring your soup in search of a baby carrot can tangle your noodles, these charged-up, magnetic lines can grow tangled, most often near sunspots. Eventually, as regions of the spaghetti-like magnetic fields form complex knots and push and pull on each other, they experience an energy overload.

That forces them to explode into space, revealing a fiery loop on the side of our enormous star, called a solar flare.

«There is also a potential for solar flares to cluster, meaning the occurrence of one could presage the appearance of more, potentially stronger flares,» Woodroffe said. «Thus, monitoring for events such as this is important because it could be the precursor of something more serious.»

And sometimes, the fiery loop stretches out until it becomes taut enough to sort of snap off, resulting in a coronal mass ejection. «A coronal mass ejection is, in essence, a little bit of the sun that gets blown off and sent flying into space towards Earth,» Woodroffe said.

Once it snaps off, the ejected portion heads directly toward our planet, picking up space-borne particles along the way and causing what’s called a solar storm. Thankfully, Earth’s atmosphere protects us from the brunt of the charged particles, with only relatively few getting caught in our planet’s shield. When that happens, though, we look up at these trapped, zippy particles in awe.

They appear to us as the Northern Lights.

«I don’t know if there was a coronal mass ejection associated with this flare, but we are expecting the possible arrival of a coronal mass ejection associated with a flare that occurred on Jan. 18,» Woodroffe said. «So, even if it’s not because of this flare, we could very well see some nice auroras this weekend.»

Technologies

OpenAI, Microsoft and Anthropic Pony Up $23M to Teach Teachers About AI

Educators will learn about AI in a program created by the American Federation of Teachers.

The American Federation of Teachers is using $23 million in funds from three tech companies to launch a program to train educators on artificial intelligence.

On Tuesday, the country’s second-largest teachers’ union announced $12.5 million from Microsoft, $10 million in funding and technical resources from OpenAI and $500,000 from Anthropic will be used for a New York-based hub to teach AI. The AFT is working in partnership with the United Federation of Teachers, a union representing New York school workers.

The hub will be called the National Academy for AI Instruction, and according to OpenAI, will serve 400,000 educators to develop AI fluency by 2030 through workshops, online courses and hands-on training sessions. The plan, according to the company, is to start in New York and scale nationwide, including additional hubs elsewhere in the country. The effort will begin with a focus on K-12 educators.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

In a post on X, AFT President Randi Weingarten wrote, «This will be an innovative new training space where educators will learn not just about how A.I. works, but how to use it wisely, safely and ethically.It will be a place where tech developers and educators can talk with each other, not past each other.»

The announcement was not met with unanimous praise. On a post on the UFT’s Facebook page, commenters were not happy. «AI use has been proven to reduce brain activity but sure, why not,» one commenter wrote.

Another wrote, «This is absolutely a horrible decision by the Union. It is undermining our work and also doesn’t take in consideration the ramifications of AI in education.»

Technologies

The HBO Max Name Change Is Here. Here’s What to Know

The streaming service is getting a rebrand. Again.

Summer is usually a time for blockbusters, but Warner Bros. Discovery is giving us more than Superman this year. Max brought back its former name, HBO Max, on Wednesday, according to a press release.

The company first announced the change to the streaming service during its Upfront presentation in May, and judging by this meme it shared, the media giant has a sense of humor about it.

The streaming service was originally rebranded as Max in May of 2023 when it merged content from HBO Max and Discovery brands. During the past two years, we’ve seen the logo change from purple to blue and then black, along with the name flip. What’s the reasoning behind the revamp this time around?

«The powerful growth we have seen in our global streaming service is built around the quality of our programming,» said Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, according to a May press release. «Today, we are bringing back HBO, the brand that represents the highest quality in media, to further accelerate that growth in the years ahead.»

Your home screen will change to reflect the streamer’s updated name and logo, but it’s unclear whether HBO Max’s library will change. The platform is home to content for HBO, Max Originals, Warner Bros., the DC universe, HGTV, B/R Sports, Adult Swim and more.

During the event, J.B. Perrette, CEO of streaming, explained how the move aligns with the platform’s programming. «We will continue to focus on what makes us unique — not everything for everyone in a household, but something distinct and great for adults and families,» he said. «It’s really notsubjective, not even controversial — our programming just hits different.»

Technologies

Prime Day Deal: The AirFly Pro Is 25% Off Right Now. Here’s Why I Never Fly Without It

Today’s Prime Day deal drops the AirFly Pro Bluetooth dongle to just $41, making it even easier to ditch those awful airline earbuds.

Amazon Prime Day deal: Right now you can grab the Twelve South AirFly Pro for $41 at Amazon, one of the lowest prices I’ve seen all year. That’s 25% off its usual $55 and an easy yes if you’ve ever been annoyed by those crackly in-flight headphones. The Prime Day sale ends on July 11, but that doesn’t mean it’ll stay in stock, so don’t wait.

If you fly often, you already know the routine. You settle into your seat, start messing with the in-flight entertainment screen, then remember that your AirPods won’t connect. That means reaching for the airline’s wired headphones that feel flimsy, let in every engine roar and make everything sound muffled. Just the worst.

This is one of the most frustrating parts of flying, especially on long trips when decent audio can make all the difference. Between the engine noise, crying babies and that one guy snoring in 14C, you need a better option. The good news is there’s a simple device that fixes the problem completely and makes flying feel a lot more like streaming at home.

The AirFly Pro has become a must-pack item in my travel bag. It’s a simple Bluetooth dongle that lets you connect your wireless earbuds (like my AirPods Pro) directly to the airplane’s entertainment system, no adapters or wired workarounds required. Since I started using it, I’ve stopped dreading in-flight audio and finally get to enjoy movies the way they were meant to be heard. If you fly often, this little gadget could completely change how you travel.

The AirFly Pro lets me enjoy in-flight entertainment

The AirFly Pro from Twelve South is a minimally designed dongle that lets me connect to the 3.5mm headphone jack in my airplane seat to listen to in-flight entertainment on my noise-canceling earbuds. All I have to do is pair the AirFly Pro with whichever Bluetooth headphones I’m using, like my AirPods Pro, plug the AirFly Pro into the display in front of me, and I’m all set. I don’t even need to use my phone to connect the two devices.

There are four versions of the AirFly: the AirFly SE, which sells for $35 on Amazon and connects to just one set of headphones, the AirFly Pro at $41, the Pro V2 at $60, which is the newest version of the AirFly Pro, and the Pro Deluxe at $70, which comes with an international headphone adapter and a suede travel case.

Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.

I use the AirFly Pro, which has been a game-changer for me on flights. I’ve never had to worry about battery life since the AirFly Pro lasts for more than 25 hours and can fully charge in 3 hours. I can also pair two separate pairs of headphones to a single AirFly Pro, in case I’m with someone else on a flight and want to watch the same movie or show. And if that’s not enough, the AirFly Pro also doubles as an audio transmitter, so I can turn any speaker with a headphone jack, like my old car stereo, into a Bluetooth speaker.

The AirFly Pro makes a great gift for any traveler

The AirFly Pro is the perfect present to give to someone who’s planning to travel this year. Besides my Anker MagSafe battery pack, the AirFly Pro really has become my most treasured travel accessory when I fly, which is why I consider it to be one of those can’t-go-wrong gifts. For more travel gear, here are our favorite tech essentials to travel with and our favorite travel pillows.