Technologies

NASA captures Jupiter’s ‘beautiful and violent atmosphere’ in 3D

The largest planet in the solar system is home to some mind-bogglingly massive storms.

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is even more of a towering tempest than astronomers previously suspected. Images and other data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft released this week show that the solar system’s most famous roiling storm extends over 200 miles (350 kilometers) below the gas giant planet’s cloud tops.

«Previously, Juno surprised us with hints that phenomena in Jupiter’s atmosphere went deeper than expected,» Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton said in a statement. «Now, we’re starting to put all these individual pieces together and getting our first real understanding of how Jupiter’s beautiful and violent atmosphere works — in 3D.»

Bolton is lead author of a paper published Thursday in the journal Science.

Juno, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, is equipped with a device called a microwave radiometer that provides scientists a view below the tops of clouds that most normal optical telescopes see when pointed at the massive planet. The latest data shows that the red spot extends no more than about 300 miles (500 kilometers) deep from the cloud tops, while other, smaller storms extend a still impressive 60 miles (100 kilometers) downward.

Juno data also presented a potential clue to another mystery: how deep jet streams in the planet’s atmosphere that separate its distinctive white and reddish bands are formed.

«Our study has shown that those colorful bands are just the ‘tip of the iceberg,’ and that the mid-latitude bands not only extend deep, but seem to change their nature the further down you go,» explains Dr. Leigh Fletcher, a Juno participating scientist from the University of Leicester and lead author of another study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Planets.

The Juno data suggests that changes in temperature or in levels of ammonia present, or both, have something to do with the behavior of the bands.

Astronomers, including some involved with the Juno mission, will get a chance to take an even more detailed look at Jupiter in the future with the upcoming launch of NASA’s next generation James Webb telescope in the coming months.

Technologies

ChatGPT Is Still Down. Try These Alternatives While OpenAI Works on a Fix

Thousands of users reported an outage this morning. Here are some alternatives you can use for now.

Have you noticed that ChatGPT is a little less chatty today? OpenAI is experiencing a widespread outage Tuesday that’s affecting its ChatGPT AI chatbot service. The number of reported outages increased throughout the morning.

An OpenAI representative responded to CNET via email, directing us to its status page, which originally stated that OpenAI was experiencing «elevated errors and latency» and that it had identified the root cause and is working to mitigate the underlying issue.

Its Sora tool for AI-generated videos was also down, although an update posted at 8:28 a.m. ET stated, «All impacted services have now fully recovered.»

«Full recovery across all listed services may take another few hours,» an update posted at 10:54 a.m ET (7:54 a.m. PT) said, noting that OpenAI APIs, which allow developers to tap into the company’s AI models, are beginning to recover.

We are observing elevated error rates and latency across ChatGPT and the API.
Our engineers have identified the root cause and are working as fast as possible to fix the issue.
For updates see our status page: https://t.co/oUGSSyltRU

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) June 10, 2025

The troubles have now been ongoing for 12 hours, OpenAI noted, meaning they likely started around midnight PT.

The Downdetector service also shows outage reports starting around that time and spiking several hours later. (Disclosure: Downdetector is owned by Ziff Davis, which is also the parent company of CNET.)

Launched in 2022, ChatGPT has become the most popular AI application ever released, with 400 million weekly users. A barrage of generative AI competitors have followed, including Meta AI, Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot, but ChatGPT remains the leader largely because it’s easy to use. During its Worldwide Developers Conference 2025 keynote on Monday, Apple even touted an expansion of its ChatGPT integration.

The AI chatbot uses learning algorithms and large-language models to process massive amounts of data from books and the internet, which it uses to deliver human-like responses to prompts from users. (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.)

What can you do while OpenAI is down?

Although OpenAI’s ChatGPT may be among the most popular options, there are plenty of alternatives to use while it’s down — and many of them are free.

Chatbots

Claude is our current favorite chatbot we’ve tested, and Claude even knew all the details about ChatGPT’s outage, according to my colleague Jon Reed, a CNET senior editor who covers AI.

Image generators

If you rely on ChatGPT’s Dall-E 3 as your image generator, we’d recommend trying Leonardo.Ai for really creative work and Canva for free, beginner-friendly work.

Video generators

If you’re looking for an alternative to the Sora tool for AI-generated videos, we just checked out Microsoft’s Bing Video Creator. It’s super easy to use and available on mobile now.

Technologies

Kia EV Pickup: Everything We Know So Far About the New Electric Truck

Looking for an electric pickup truck? A new one from Kia will soon be available in the US.

Technologies

Once You Use This on a Plane, You’ll Never Fly Without It Again

This tiny gadget lets me use my AirPods with airplane TVs, and it works flawlessly.

If you travel often, you probably already know the struggle: You’re settled into your seat, ready to dive into the in-flight entertainment, only to realize your AirPods won’t connect to the screen. The airline’s wired headphones? Practically useless. They’re uncomfortable, have no noise cancellation and let in every engine roar and crying baby within a three-row radius. For long flights, it’s a recipe for a frustrating, low-quality listening experience.

That’s exactly why 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 might completely change how you travel.

The AirFly Pro lets me truly 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 on my flight to listen to in-flight entertainment on my noise-cancelling 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 costs $35 on Amazon and connects to just one set of headphones; the AirFly Pro ($55); the Pro V2 ($60), the newest version of the Pro; and the Pro Deluxe ($62), which comes with an international headphone adapter and a suede travel case.

I use the AirFly Pro, and it’s been a game changer for me on flights. I’ve never had to worry about battery life — 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.

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The AirFly Pro makes a great gift

With Father’s Day right around the corner, you might be shopping for the father figure in your life. 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.