Technologies

Jupiter’s Moon Callisto Has a Whole Lot of Oxygen Scientists Struggle to Explain

A recent analysis finds up to 1,000 times more molecular oxygen than can be explained by prevailing theories about where it comes from.

Jupiter’s four largest moons are some of the solar system’s most compelling worlds. Io is dotted with active volcanoes, and Europa hides a subsurface ocean many want to check for alien life. Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system, and Callisto is the system’s most heavily cratered object. Callisto is also home to an emerging mystery: The moon’s thick atmosphere holds a surprising amount of oxygen, and scientists aren’t sure why.

Observers have known about the presence of abundant molecular oxygen at Callisto for a while, with the working assumption being that the influence of Jupiter’s powerful magnetosphere could be knocking molecules of water, hydrogen and oxygen out from Callisto’s icy surface and into the atmosphere.

But when a team of researchers ran the numbers, they found that Jupiter’s magnetism can’t fully explain the amount of molecular oxygen around Callisto.

«There’s a huge discrepancy,» said Shane Carberry Mogan, lead author on a paper about the findings published late last month in the journal JGR Planets. «We were off by something like two orders of magnitude to even three orders of magnitude.»

For the layperson, that means there is 100 to 1,000 times as much molecular oxygen present in Callisto’s atmosphere as the scientists would expect to find if Jupiter’s magnetosphere stripping it out of the icy surface were the sole source.

The discovery of so much oxygen on an alien world may sound like a boon for the possibility that Callisto may support life, but the frozen world is probably far too cold for life as we know it. That said, plentiful oxygen could be useful in generations to cometo explorers who may be able to use it for fuel and life support while traveling around deep space.

Here are other moons worth visiting in person

+8 more

See all photos

It isn’t clear what’s happening at Callisto to produce so much oxygen, but Carberry Mogan hopes to get a better understanding of processes active in the moon’s surface that may yield an explanation or clues.

«That’s probably Callisto’s most enigmatic feature is its surface,» said Carberry Mogan, who’s a postdoctoral researcher in planetary science at the University of California at Berkeley. «It’s supposed to be an icy body, but when you look at it, it’s mostly this dark surface, anywhere from millimeters to kilometers deep.»

It’s still up for debate whether Callisto’s surface is more rock or ice. The dark material on its surface could also be ice-rich, providing a plentiful source for the mysterious amount of oxygen in the atmosphere.

For help with the mystery, Carberry Mogan is looking to upcoming robotic missions like ESA’s Juice and NASA’s Europa Clipper, which may swing close enough to Callisto to gather new data that could shed light on the puzzle.

«It’s really perplexing,» he said. «The next step is to figure out why there’s this gap between the source [of oxygen] and the observation.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for April 16, #570

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for April 16 No. 570.

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

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a fun one, especially if you enjoy unusual team names. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Put your glasses on for this.

Green group hint: Hoops home.

Blue group hint: The minors.

Purple group hint: Hidden hoops word.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Look at.

Green group: Seen at an NBA court.

Blue group: Double-A baseball teams.

Purple group: Starts with a WNBA team.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is look at. The four answers are observe, spectate, view and watch.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is seen at an NBA court. The four answers are benches, half-court logo, scorer’s table and shot clock.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is double-A baseball teams. The four answers are Biscuits, Drillers, Trash Pandas and Wind Surge.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is starts with a WNBA team. The four answers are dreamy, firefly, Skype and sundial.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, April 16

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 16.

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? It’s pretty simple, but 1-Across is a bit tricky. Read on for all 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: Bow ties and ribbons that you can’t wear?
Answer: PASTA

6A clue: Opposite of lower
Answer: UPPER

7A clue: Flappable origami creation
Answer: CRANE

8A clue: Where the Hangul alphabet is used
Answer: KOREA

9A clue: Apparatus under a trapeze
Answer: NET

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Disc dropped on center ice
Answer: PUCK

2D clue: One might read «Kiss the Chef»
Answer: APRON

3D clue: Unlikely outcome after a 7-10 split
Answer: SPARE

4D clue: Fundamental belief
Answer: TENET

5D clue: Bay ___ (part of California)
Answer: AREA

Technologies

Apple Reportedly Plans to Send Siri Engineers to AI Coding Bootcamp

The move comes just weeks before the company is expected to unveil a new Siri.

Apple plans to send dozens of Siri engineers to a multiweek AI coding bootcamp, The Information reported Wednesday. The move comes less than two months before the company is widely expected to unveil a new Siri experience as part of a broader AI reboot.

A group of fewer than 200 engineers will be sent to the bootcamp, leaving approximately 60 members of the core Siri development team behind to continue working on Siri, while another 60 will evaluate Siri’s performance, according to The Information. The outlet also reported that AI has grown in popularity in some Apple divisions, prompting some teams within the company to allocate large parts of their budgets to Claude Code.

Apple representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Siri, once a pioneer, has lagged behind its rivals in voice assistants. Apple had planned to roll out a smarter, AI-driven Siri in 2025 as part of its Apple Intelligence initiative, but executives delayed the launch until spring 2026, admitting the early version wasn’t reliable enough to ship.

For Apple, the move would mark another attempt to reset expectations around its AI strategy after repeated delays to its more advanced Siri ambitions. The news also comes as John Giannandrea, Apple’s former AI chief, is reportedly leaving the company this week after stepping down from that role in December.

The new Siri experience is expected to be introduced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8 and would arrive as part of iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and MacOS 27 later this year, according to a Bloomberg report in March. The report says Apple is testing out a new Siri that would make the assistant feel more like a standalone AI chatbot — think ChatGPT or Claude — rather than the current built-in tool.