Technologies

Scorching exoplanet is a little like Earth in one key way, scientists say

Our planet has a few talking points to go over with its (very) distant cosmic relative.

Approximately 322 light-years from Earth, an extreme planet by the name of WASP-189b orbits one of the hottest stars in the universe, HD 133112.

Twenty times closer to its star than we are to the sun, WASP-189b absolutely blisters with a daytime temperature of 5,792 degrees Fahrenheit (3,200 degrees Celsius). The scorching exoplanet is also made of gas and about 1.5 times the size of Jupiter — something like 1,950 Earths could fit inside it.

Needless to say, since its discovery in 2018, scientists very understandably reasoned that WASP-189b isn’t anything like our home orb. But in a paper published Thursday in the journal Nature Astronomy, a team of researchers found a way for Earth to relate to its distant cosmic relative. The two could chitchat about their layered atmospheres, and Earth could gossip about its ozone holes and climate change.

Here on Earth, we have an atmospheric layer called the troposphere that starts at sea level and that holds a ton of water vapor. Clouds, and therefore weather such as rain and snow, originate there. Above that, we have the stratosphere, home to the ozone layer, which protects us from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation.

«In the past, astronomers often assumed that the atmospheres of exoplanets exist as a uniform layer and try to understand it as such,» Jens Hoeijmakers, an astrophysicist at Lund University and study co-author, said in a statement.

However, upon analyzing WASP-189b by measuring starlight passing through the atmosphere of the intensely heated exoplanet — with the HARPS spectrograph at the La Silla Observatory in Chile — Hoeijmakers and fellow researchers found a unique chemical signature to shake up our knowledge of planetary atmospheres. It indicated that the distant orb’s atmosphere may have layers like Earth’s.

«The gases in its atmosphere absorb some of the starlight, similar to ozone absorbing some of the sunlight in Earth’s atmosphere, and thereby leave their characteristic ‘fingerprint,'» Bibiana Prinoth, an astrophysicist at Lund University and lead author of the study, said in a statement.

Baking away, WASP-189b emitted signals of iron, chromium, vanadium, magnesium and manganese. But most importantly, Prinoth says, «in our analysis, we saw that the ‘fingerprints’ of the different gases were slightly altered compared to our expectation. We believe that strong winds and other processes could generate these alterations.»

Those adjustments varied across the range of elements detected, similarly to the way Earth’s water vapor and ozone are affected differently by natural processes due to atmospheric layering. Voila — that hints at the existence of layers on WASP-189b, too.

But wait, there’s more. The team also uncovered remnants of titanium oxide in WASP-189b’s atmospheric shield. «Titanium oxide absorbs shortwave radiation, such as ultraviolet radiation,» Kevin Heng, an astrophysicist at the University of Bern and study co-author, said in a statement. «Its detection could therefore indicate a layer in the atmosphere of WASP-189b that interacts with the stellar irradiation similarly to how the ozone layer does on Earth.»

So WASP-189b might have its own ozone layer.

«Our results demonstrate that even the atmospheres of intensely irradiated giant gas planets have complex three-dimensional structures,» Hoeijmakers said, addressing how the new paper’s outcomes could dictate the way exoplanet atmospheres are scrutinized in the future.

Technologies

Netflix Stops Allowing Streaming From Phone to TV: How to Watch Now

On most TVs, you’ll now need to use the official Netflix app to watch the streaming service.

The days of using your phone as a Netflix remote are effectively over.

In a move that’s confused subscribers since reports first surfaced on Reddit in early November, Netflix appears to be blocking the ability to beam content wirelessly from phones to TVs.

CNET testing confirmed the option has vanished from newer setups, like LG TVs, though some users report that it can still be accessed via older versions of the app and legacy Chromecast dongles. A representative for Netflix didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

However, on a Netflix Help Center page, the company appears to be nudging customers in the direction of using built-in Netflix apps for TVs and devices.

Until Netflix clarifies why, the new rule is simple: if you want to watch on the big screen, you need to launch the app directly from the big screen.

[RANT] Netflix no long has casting support. you must now use the app directly on the streamer without your phone.
by
u/techie1980 in
Chromecast

According to the Netflix Help Center page, only those who aren’t on an ad-supported basic plan can still access the feature for older devices, such as Chromecasts. The help page explicitly mentions the few devices that still support casting with Netflix:

3rd generation or older Chromecast (no remote)
Google Nest Hub Smart Display
Certain Vizio TVs
Certain Compal TVs

If you’re thinking about bypassing the Netflix casting ban with screen mirroring, you’re probably out of luck. The Netflix help page specifically mentions that users with ad-supported plans won’t have access to «casting or mirroring,» even for old devices.

When we tried to mirror the screen of an iPhone 17 Pro running iOS 26.1 to a TCL TV, we received the following «E100» error using a Netflix Standard plan (no ads).

Netflix’s decision to end casting comes as movie and TV services (and music services such as Spotify) are steadily increasing their prices, leading some viewers to cancel streaming services to save money.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, Dec. 4

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 4.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? 1-Across stumped me until I filled in some more letters. Read on for the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Butterfingers
Answer: KLUTZ

6A clue: Letter before beta
Answer: ALPHA

7A clue: Like «ad hoc» or «ad hominem»
Answer: LATIN

8A clue: Prestigious university in Atlanta
Answer: EMORY

9A clue: Word drawn out in speech before «… they’re off!»
Answer: AND

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Dinosaur ___, vegetable so-named for its bumpy green texture
Answer: KALE

2D clue: Animal in a Peruvian herd
Answer: LLAMA

3D clue: Sinclair who wrote «The Jungle»
Answer: UPTON

4D clue: Base that’s 90 feet from home
Answer: THIRD

5D clue: Wild and funny
Answer: ZANY

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Technologies

Prices Set by Algorithms: New Yorkers Now See Warnings About Stores Using Personal Data to Set Costs

This new law, already subject to lawsuits, lets shoppers know when companies are quietly raising online prices for certain types of customers.

Online shoppers in New York are now seeing a new warning on product pages thanks to consumer protection legislation that took effect in early November. Particularly noticeable during Black Friday sales were messages that told shoppers: «This price was set by an algorithm using your personal data.»

This piece of legislation requires companies (with exceptions for rideshare apps) to show buyers when they use surveillance pricing to set online prices, potentially raising costs for some people while lowering them for others.

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So what data are these companies collecting to shift prices? Well, unlike surge pricing, this type of algorithm pricing calculates data related to the individual person or device. That could include the type of device (Android versus iPhone, etc.), your account’s browsing history, recent purchases made from that browser and — most importantly — your location.

In other words, reported examples have shown that items like eggs will increase in cost for wealthy neighborhoods while staying at lower standard costs for less prosperous zones. But it can get far more complicated than that: Some pricing algorithms study millions of online purchases to predict buyer patterns.

A representative for the New York Senate didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Is surveillance pricing legal?

So far, yes. What laws like this New York legislation do is enforce transparency about what may be affecting prices, instead of banning it. And even that was too much for business groups, which immediately sued to block the law in federal court, alleging that it violates the businesses’ First Amendment rights.

It’s not clear whether companies are complying with the law as directed, or what it fully entails, either. The bill requires «clear and conspicuous disclosure» near the price, but some companies appear to be putting the information in a harder-to-spot area behind an information icon at the bottom of a pop-up.

Efforts to control pricing via algorithm

New York isn’t the only state to tackle surveillance pricing. Other states and cities are entertaining similar legislation, as well as complete bans on the practice. But it’s an uphill battle due to the many details and strong pushback from, well, every industry that sells products online.

The most recent example was from September, when California’s congress went through its proposed ban on surveillance pricing and cut out nearly everything. In its current state, the California law would only apply to grocery prices, which is still not a common online purchase. Colorado, Illinois and other states are also working on their own versions of related laws.

The question of whether shoppers would appreciate transparency laws, or whether they’d be less likely to purchase products if they knew the price was based on their personal data, is tough to answer (what if the algorithms are giving you a lower price than other nearby shoppers?). But the privacy question has a more far-reaching impact: Once shoppers see how much of their personal data is being harvested for pricing, they may start to wonder what else it’s being used for.