Technologies

Astronomers Spot a Ghostly Light Glowing Throughout the Solar System

Scientists used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to identify the presence of an unexplained glow amid the blackness of space.

The deep darkness of space might not actually be so dark in our solar system.

Astronomers analyzed over 200,000 images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, making tens of thousands of measurements to try to locate a residual background glow in the night sky. The project is called SKYSURF, which is based at Arizona State University and involves researchers there and around the world.

The team harvested the data from the images and then subtracted the glow from planets, stars, galaxies and even ethereal zodiacal light, which is light reflecting off dust within our solar system.

After accounting for all this there was still a tiny bit of leftover glow or «ghost light,» which the researchers describe as equivalent to the glow of 10 fireflies spread across the entire night sky.

«We think it is a local phenomenon that is not from far outside the solar system,» ASU researcher Tim Carleton explained in a statement Thursday. «It may be a new element to the contents of the solar system that has been hypothesized but not quantitatively measured until now.»

A leading explanation is that the glow comes from a previously unaccounted for sphere of dust left behind by countless comets traveling through the solar system from all directions.

The discovery is documented in a handful of studies. Two have been published in the Astronomical Journal and another in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

One of the studies was led by Rogier Windhorst from ASU, who points out that over 95 percent of the photons in Hubble’s images come from distances on our side of the universe, less than 3 billion light-years from Earth.

«Since Hubble’s very early days, most Hubble users have discarded these sky-photons, as they are interested in the faint discrete objects in Hubble’s images, such as stars and galaxies,» Windhorst said. «But these sky-photons contain important information which can be extracted thanks to Hubble’s unique ability to measure faint brightness levels to high precision over its three decades of lifetime.»

And within that information, Windhorst and others may have just located a completely new piece of ethereal architectureunderlying our entire solar system. If you consider a faint but ubiquitous layer of dust to be architecture, that is.

Technologies

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Technologies

Apple’s New Smart Home Display Delayed Until Fall Over Siri Issues

It has been nearly a year and a half since the company announced the AI-powered product.

Your home could get smarter with Apple’s Siri, but it will have to wait a few more months. Bloomberg reported the iPad-shaped AI home hub won’t be ready until September, several months after the company was hoping to launch it this spring. Apple engineers first need to complete work on a new and improved Siri assistant for the home device, code-named J490, according to Bloomberg.

Apple was hoping to release J490 this month, along with a slew of other new devices, including the iPhone 17e, MacBook Neo, MacBook Air M5, new Pro models, and iPad Air M4. Apple first teased the smart home display in November 2024.

A representative for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Siri is Apple’s virtual assistant that uses voice recognition and AI to fulfill a variety of tasks and commands, along with intriguing uses. You might use Siri to find your iPhone — «Hey Siri, where are you?» — or to hear the weather forecast — «Siri, what will the weather be today?» Siri is available on iPhones, MacBooks and iPads. It was launched in 2011 as a feature of the iPhone 4S.

As CNET reported last month, Apple engineers have struggled to push the upgraded Siri assistant out the door. It isn’t fast enough, gets confused by complex commands and doesn’t interact well with other Apple AI models. The company is also wrestling with how much personal data to access to inform the AI, and the new Siri is not yet able to complete in-app tasks, such as finding a photo and posting it to socials, all with one command.

It has been nearly two years since Apple announced that it would give Siri a major upgrade. In the meantime, competitors like Alexa Plus and Gemini for Home have entered the marketplace.

Tech tester Jon Rettinger, whose YouTube channel has 1.66 million subscribers, says the repeated delays in upgrading Siri can «erode» confidence in Apple’s ability to keep up in the AI race.

«Apple as a whole is still one of the strongest companies on the planet. But their AI play is clearly the weakest link in an otherwise very strong chain,» Rettinger told CNET.

Rettinger said he has had issues getting Siri to complete basic commands, such as setting two alarms at the same time, and that it’s a bit of «a mess» right now.

«Having said that, the iPhone has such massive market penetration that I’m not sure it will actually matter in the end. Which is kind of wild when you think about it,» Rettinger said.

Facial recognition for residents

The hardware for the forthcoming smart home display has already been finished. It resembles an iPad and can be either attached to a wall or rest on a half-domed-shaped base, the Bloomberg report said.

The device will be equipped with facial recognition, so when residents walk up to it, they will be shown personalized data such as music preferences, news headlines, appointments, reminders, tasks and so on.

The screen interface will include a bunch of circular app icons, similar to the display on an Apple Watch. The Bloomberg report said the smart home display will be the first of several home devices by Apple. Future products include a tabletop robotic limb with a 9-inch screen, a smart security camera and a Face ID-enabled smart doorbell.