Technologies

What Is Earthshine? How to Spot the Lunar Marvel in the Skies This Week

The best time to see Earthshine is a few days before and a few days after each new moon during the spring.

The moon has been in the news a lot this month, after the successful lunar flyby during the Artemis II mission. And while the full moon usually takes center stage as the big lunar event of any given month, unless there’s a lunar eclipse, like there was back in March, there are a few times a year when the new moon is equally interesting, and one of those events is Earthshine.

Earthshine — a phenomenon you may know from the Rush song on the band’s 2002 album Vapor Trails — is a real thing that you can experience during April, May and June. You know you’re looking at Earthshine when you look up at the moon, and you can see all of it, but not as bright as a regular full moon.

During a full moon, the sun’s light is reflected off the moon’s surface and sent to Earth, making it bright and easily visible. In Earthshine, sunlight bounces from Earth to the moon, then reflects back to Earth. These multiple reflections give the moon a much dimmer, more ghostly appearance.

It’s visible for only a few days a year, usually the few days before and after a new moon in spring. According to NASA, this is because the respective orbits of the moon and Earth line up in such a way that light from the sun can bounce off Earth, and then the moon, and then back to Earth again. The Rush song sums it up nicely when the band sings the phrase: «On certain nights, when the angles are right, and the moon is a slender crescent.»

NASA also says it’s more prevalent in spring due to winter’s latent snow. This makes the Northern Hemisphere brighter in the spring than at any other time of the year, making Earthshine more common. The polar caps receive less sunlight during winter, so there is less ice and snow to reflect light during summer and autumn, which makes Earthshine less likely to occur during those seasons.

When is the best time to see Earthshine?

The actual dates change every year since the moon’s phases don’t perfectly line up year to year. Earthshine can happen at any time there is a crescent moon in the spring.

This happens twice per moon cycle, during the waning crescent and waxing crescent phases. Those phases occur just before and just after a new moon, respectively. The new moon is on April 17, which makes the best days April 12-14 and April 19-22.

You won’t need any special equipment to see it, but you do need timing. Earthshine is only visible within about 45 minutes of sunrise and sunset, giving you about a 90-minute window twice a day to see it. According to When the Curves Line Up, the effect should be strongest on April 14 and 22, so space photographers looking to get a good shot of it should be ready on those days.

If you miss it in April, you’ll have four more time frames to view it, including May 12-14, May 18-20, June 11-13 and June 17-19.

Technologies

Roblox Will Pay $12 Million to Settle Nevada Child Safety Lawsuit

The deal with the Nevada attorney general will require Roblox to have stricter safeguards to protect children online.

Popular gaming platform Roblox agreed to pay more than $12 million and implement new safety features as part of a settlement with the state of Nevada. This settlement comes amid several lawsuits accusing the company of an alleged lack of protection of children on the platform.

The agreement resolves potential litigation over allegations that Roblox failed to adequately safeguard children while they played the online game, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said in a press release on Wednesday.

As part of the deal, Roblox will spend $10 million over three years to encourage children to engage in non-digital activities, as well as institute age verification for all users. This will include «facial age estimation technology and government-issued ID for age assurance, and will use behavioral monitoring to identify users who may have been aged incorrectly,» according to the press release.

«The injunctive relief that Roblox has agreed to will give parents the tools they need to protect their children on the platform; institute default protections to block predators from engaging with children; and ensure that messages involving minors are not encrypted,» Ford said in the press release.

Roblox also committed to spending $1 million over two years on a campaign to educate minors and adults about online safety and another $1.5 million to develop a law enforcement liaison position to work with state law enforcement agencies over concerns about the platform.

Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said it’s part of the company’s «work to establish a new standard for digital safety.»

«This resolution creates a blueprint for how industry and regulators can work together to protect the next generation of digital citizens,» Kaufman said Thursday. «We have no finish line when it comes to safety.»

Roblox is under significant legal pressure amid more than 140 lawsuits, according to Reuters. The suits, filed in 2025, allege the company knowingly created a gaming platform that allowed child predators to target minors.

The company also faces lawsuits from state attorneys general in Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and Florida over similar accusations.

Age-based accounts coming soon

Two days before the settlement announcement, Roblox CEO and founder David Baszucki revealed new accounts for younger Roblox users.

Roblox Kids will be available for children between the ages of 5 and 8, and Roblox Select is for those ages 9 to 15. Roblox is reportedly used by nearly half of US children under 16. Children who are older than 16 will be in their own age group, simply called «Roblox.»

Kids and Select accounts would be available in those age groups as determined by Roblox’s age-check technology or by a verified parent.

Unmonitored chat in the game has been a point of criticism for the platform, as it allows predators to chat with children. Kids’ accounts will have chat turned off by default, with limited access to Minimal or Mild games as determined by the platform. Select accounts will have chat with safeguards and access to games with Moderate content, which is described by the platforms as having «moderate violence, light realistic blood, moderate crude humor, unplayable gambling content, and/or moderate fear.»

These new age-based accounts will roll out sometime in early June.

Technologies

Opera Adds Browser Connector Feature to Integrate AI Chatbots Into Browsers

New feature will allow users to include the AI tools of their choice.

Opera announced Thursday the launch of a new tool that allows users of its browsers to include more AI chatbots in their browsing experience.

Browser Connector is a free feature for Opera One and Opera GX browsers that allows users to integrate AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude into their live browsing sessions via Model Context Protocol. MCP is an open standard developed by Anthropic that allows for a secure two-way connection between AI models, external data sources and tools such as search engines.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Last month, Opera introduced MCP compatibility to Opera Neon, its subscription-based agentic AI browser. Opera says the new feature willallow a user’s AI of choice to provide real-time context of open tabs and active content.

«With Browser Connector, Opera ensures users aren’t bound to a single company’s ecosystem, but are instead free to combine the best tools for their specific needs,» Mohamed Salah, senior director of product at Opera, said in a statement.

To enable the feature, which is now available in Early Bird mode, users need to go to Settings in the browser, search for «AI Services» and install the Browser Connector feature. They then have to connect ChatGPT or Claude to the feature.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for April 17, #571

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for April 17 No. 571.

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 tricky one, especially the purple category. 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: «Yer out!»

Green group hint: They score goals.

Blue group hint: Daddy dearest.

Purple group hint: Home, home on the…