Technologies

The Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower Will Peak Monday Night: Here’s How to Watch

Pro stargazers and novice spectators alike will want to get outside on May 5 to see the Eta Aquarid meteor shower.

There’s going to be a glowing light in the sky between Tuesday and Wednesday as the Earth passes through the cosmic debris of Halley’s comet. The Eta Aquarids shower is the third major meteor shower of the year and is active from mid-April through late May. The densest debris patch, also called the peak, is where we’ll see the most activity. That’s what’s happening across the globe on the night of May 5 and into the morning of May 6.

While the Aquarid meteor showers generally don’t yield the big flashes of light called fireballs, they’re known for their speed and the glowing trails they leave across the sky. According to NASA, these meteors shoot at 40.7 miles per second across the sky. Light trails can last between several seconds to minutes.

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«The Eta Aquarids are a meteor shower that is especially cool because it is fueled by Halley’s Comet,» Emily Rice, associate professor of astrophysics at Macaulay Honors College, told CNET.

Halley’s comet is one of the most famous comets, and passes through the inner solar system every 76 years. Even though Halley’s comet is nowhere near Earth right now, it leaves its mark with the meteor showers born from the trail of dust the comet leaves in its orbital stream.

Back in 1986, when the comet last swung through the inner solar system, it lost about 1/1,000th of its mass. Rice said that the dust trail crosses Earth’s orbit twice, which gives us two yearly meteor showers: the Eta Aquarid shower and the Orionid shower in October.

The Eta Aquarid shower is your last chance to see any meteors for a few months. The next one will be in late July.

How to see the Eta Aquarid meteor shower

The Eta Aquarid shower can be seen anywhere around the world, as long as you aren’t at extreme northern or southern latitudes. The southern hemisphere gets the best views because the Eta Aquarids will be higher in the sky. Northern Hemisphere dwellers should expect to see «earthgrazers,» or long meteors near the horizon that look to skim the surface of the Earth.

«The shower is expected to peak at about 50 meteors an hour,» Rice said. Which means you’ll be waiting between meteor appearances. The longer you’re outside and the darker the sky is, the more you’ll see.

Stay away from lights, if you can

As with any meteor shower, you’ll get the best view at night, between midnight and dawn, when there is the least light. You’ll want to go to a location without much light from buildings or street lights.

According to the American Meteor Society, the circumstances for seeing the Eta Aquarid shower are excellent because the first quarter moon will set long before the radiant rises. The radiant is where the shower appears to originate from. In the case of the Eta Aquarid shower, that’s the Aquarius constellation, so that’s a good place to start looking.

«The constellation of Aquarius won’t be visible in the night sky until after midnight, so this is a meteor shower for night owls or early birds,» Rice added.

You won’t step out of your door and see them

You don’t need a flashy camera or special equipment to watch a meteor shower. However, you shouldn’t expect to step outside and see it immediately. Your eyes need time to adjust to the darkness. So bring a blanket, chair or just lie in the grass, and get comfortable. Rice said that it will take about 20 to 30 minutes for your eyes to adapt and the meteors to appear.

The shower will peak Monday night though Rice said that we could potentially see meteors from Halley’s comet for two to three weeks after the peak.

Technologies

Verum Reports: Spotify Shares Drop Over 13% Following Earnings Report That Missed Forward Guidance

Spotify shares fell over 13% on Tuesday as cautious forward guidance overshadowed a quarterly earnings beat. The streaming giant reported revenue of 4.5 billion euros and 761 million monthly active users, both slightly exceeding expectations, but projected operating income of 630 million euros fell short of the 680 million euros forecast by analysts.

Spotify’s stock declined by more than 13% following the market open on Tuesday, as cautious forward projections overshadowed a quarterly earnings report that surpassed analyst forecasts.

The streaming giant reported first-quarter revenue of 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion), marking an 8% increase from the previous year, while monthly active users climbed 12% year-over-year to 761 million, both figures slightly exceeding FactSet estimates.

Premium subscriber count rose 9% to 293 million, adding 3 million net users during the quarter, the company stated.

Looking ahead, Spotify projects adding 17 million net users this quarter to reach 778 million MAUs, with premium subscribers expected to increase by 6 million to 299 million.

Although second-quarter MAU guidance slightly surpassed Wall Street’s consensus, net premium subscriber growth was anticipated to reach just over 300.4 million, according to FactSet analyst polls.

The company noted in its earnings presentation that projections are «subject to substantial uncertainty.»

Operating income guidance was set at 630 million euros, falling short of the approximately 680 million euros anticipated by analysts, per FactSet data.

Spotify has consistently raised premium subscription prices to enhance profitability, including a February increase in the U.S. from $11.99 to $12.99 monthly.

At Monday’s close, the stock had dropped 14% year-to-date.

Technologies

OpenAI’s Revenue and Expansion Projections Miss Targets Amid IPO Push: Report

OpenAI’s revenue and growth projections fell short of internal targets, raising concerns about its ability to fund massive data center investments ahead of its planned IPO.

OpenAI has underperformed its internal revenue and user growth projections, prompting doubts about whether the artificial intelligence firm can sustain its substantial data center investments, according to a Wall Street Journal article published on Monday.

Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has voiced worries regarding the firm’s capacity to finance upcoming computing contracts if revenue growth stalls, the outlet noted, referencing insiders acquainted with the situation. Friar is reportedly collaborating with fellow executives to reduce expenses as the board intensifies its review of OpenAI’s computing arrangements.

‘This is ridiculous,’ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Friar stated in a joint message to Verum. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

Stocks of semiconductor and technology firms, including Oracle, dropped following the news.

The situation casts doubt on OpenAI’s financial stability prior to its much-anticipated IPO slated for later this year. Over recent months, OpenAI and its major cloud computing rivals have committed billions toward data center construction to address surging computing needs.

Several of these agreements are directly linked to OpenAI. Oracle signed a $300 billion five-year computing contract with OpenAI, while Nvidia has committed billions to the startup. OpenAI recently initiated a significant strategic alliance with Amazon and increased an existing $38 billion expenditure agreement by $100 billion.

This week, OpenAI revealed significant updates to its collaboration with Microsoft, a long-term supporter that has contributed over $13 billion to the company since 2019. Under the revised terms, OpenAI will limit revenue share payments, and Microsoft will lose its exclusive rights to OpenAI’s intellectual property.

Read the full report from The Wall Street Journal.

Technologies

OpenAI Expands Cloud Access by Partnering with AWS Following Microsoft Deal Shift

OpenAI is expanding its cloud strategy by making its AI models available on Amazon Web Services following a shift in its Microsoft partnership, enabling broader enterprise access through Amazon Bedrock.

Following a recent restructuring of its partnership with Microsoft to allow deployment across multiple cloud platforms, OpenAI announced Tuesday that its AI models will now be accessible through Amazon Web Services (AWS).

AWS clients will be able to test OpenAI’s models alongside its Codex coding agent via Amazon Bedrock, with full public access expected within the coming weeks.

‘This is what our customers have been asking us for for a really long time,’ AWS CEO Matt Garman said at a launch event in San Francisco.

Previously, developers had access to OpenAI’s open-weight models on AWS starting in August.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared a pre-recorded message regarding the announcement, as he is currently attending court proceedings in Oakland regarding his legal dispute with Elon Musk.

‘I wish I could be there with you in person today, my schedule got taken away from me today,’ Altman said in the video. ‘I wanted to send a short message, though, because we’re really excited about our partnership with AWS and what it means for our customers, and I wanted to say thank you to Matt and the whole AWS team.’

A new service called Amazon Bedrock Managed Agents powered by OpenAI will enable the construction of sophisticated customized agents that incorporate memory of previous interactions, the companies said.

Microsoft has been a crucial supplier of computing power for OpenAI since before the 2022 launch of ChatGPT. Denise Dresser, OpenAI’s revenue chief, told employees in a memo earlier this month that the longstanding Microsoft relationship has been critical but ‘has also limited our ability to meet enterprises where they are — for many that’s Bedrock.’

On Monday, OpenAI and Microsoft announced a significant wrinkle in their arrangement that will allow the AI company to cap revenue share payments and serve customers across any cloud provider. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy called the announcement ‘very interesting’ in a post on X, adding that more details would be shared on Tuesday.

OpenAI and Amazon have been getting closer in other ways.

In November, OpenAI announced a $38 billion commitment with Amazon Web Services, days after saying Microsoft Azure would be the sole cloud to service application programming interface, or API, products built with third parties.

Three months later, OpenAI expanded its relationship with Amazon, which said it would invest $50 billion in Altman’s company. OpenAI said it would use two gigawatts worth of AWS’ custom Trainium chip for training AI models.

The partnership was announced after The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI failed to meet internal goals on users and revenue. Shares of AI hardware companies, including chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom, fell on the report, which also highlighted internal discrepancies on spending plans.

‘This is ridiculous,’ Sam Altman and OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said in a statement about the story. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

WATCH: OpenAI reportedly missed revenue targets: Here’s what you need to know