Welcome back to the Abstract! 

This week, it’s time to demand a new planet. Don’t we deserve it? Haven’t we been good? Fortunately, we may be on the cusp of finally discovering whether the solar system has, indeed, been hiding a massive world up its sleeve. Can you imagine the fight over naming this world, if it actually is discovered? I’m already exhausted. Let’s just skip the fuss and call it Becky.

Then, we’ll hang around the outer system for a while to check in on Pluto and Charon. How did they meet? Violently, it turns out! Next, scientists confirm that saber teeth are extremely efficient at converting living things into dead things. Last, meet Punk and Emo, founding members of the mollusc underground. It’s a week of deep space and deep time; enjoy the ride.

All I Want for Christmas 2025 is A GIANT PLANET

Siraj, Amir et al. “Orbit of a Possible Planet X.” The Astrophysical Journal.

For nearly a decade, scientists have speculated that an undiscovered giant planet lurks in the distant reaches of the solar system. The existence of this unconfirmed “Planet X” or “Planet Nine” could explain strange observations of objects far beyond Neptune, known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). 

These TNOs appear to be being gravitationally influenced by some unknown entity, though there is a lot of debate about the origin of the anomalies—or whether they are “real” at all. Planet X is one popular hypothesis, but scientists have also speculated that the anomalies could point to an expansive disk of smaller objects, or even a primordial black hole. The effects may also just be a temporary coincidence that does not require the invocation of some hidden hulking entity.

To help constrain these possibilities, scientists have presented new predictions about Planet X, assuming it exists, in part by expanding the sample of TNOs from 11 objects to 51. The results suggest that a hypothetical Planet X would be about 4.4 times as massive as Earth, and occupy an orbit about 300 times farther from the Sun than Earth..

Most importantly, the study’s projected orbit places Planet X right into the sights of Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), a major new astronomical facility in Chile. LSST is expected to begin operating later this year, and it will be especially adept at illuminating the “here be space dragons” parts of our solar system map.

“Nearly all of the parameter space for the unseen planet proposed here falls within LSST’s field of view and detection limits, so if such a planet exists, it is likely to be discovered early on in the survey,” said researchers led by Amir Siraj of Princeton University. “LSST will simultaneously reveal whether the observed clustering of distant TNOs…is real, an observational selection effect, or a statistical fluke, given the large number of expected TNO discoveries.”

In other words, we may genuinely be on the cusp of adding a new planet to our solar family—or, perhaps, learning that Planet X was just an astronomical mirage. LSST is poised to answer the riddle, one way or another. 

In addition to the exciting prospect, the new study offers other tantalizing predictions. The team found that the planet’s projected orbit is probably aligned with the plane of the solar system, a result that contrasts with past studies that predicted the planet would orbit at an angle. The angle of the orbit has implications for the origins of the planet; a world aligned to the plane of the solar system is more likely to be a homegrown member of our solar family, whereas a planet with a more inclined orbit could have been gravitationally captured by the Sun after making an interstellar journey from its native star system. 

Look, we’re living through an overwhelming time of climate disasters, political strife, and obscene inequities. I really think we deserve a new planet, as a treat. I’ll even take a primordial black hole, if that’s what’s on offer. Given that LSST is not set to start running until the back-end of 2025, it will probably be at least a year before the existence of a planet is confirmed or refuted. But if anyone starts a betting market on this long-sought mystery, put me down for Planet X.  

‘Kiss-and-Capture’: The Pluto-Charon Story

Denton, C. Adeene et al. “Capture of an ancient Charon around Pluto.” Nature Geoscience.

Speaking of TNOs, let’s talk about the most famous of them all: Pluto. This farflung world was the OG Planet Nine before it was officially downgraded to a dwarf planet in 2006, a decision that ignited an astronomical culture war. But though Pluto and its moon Charon aren’t big enough to count as planets, they are giants for TNOs; indeed, the Pluto-Charon system is the largest binary in the known TNO population. (Pluto is about two thirds the size of Earth’s Moon, and Charon is about half the size of Pluto.)

Scientists have long suspected that the system formed in the wake of a collision between two icy bodies billions of years ago, but the dynamics behind this event have defied easy explanation.

Now, scientists have developed a new formation model for this system that they call the “kiss-and-capture” regime. In this scenario, the two parent bodies of Pluto-Charon collided and then kind of just merged together for about 10 to 15 hours, before separating into the distinct bodies we see today. 

“Kiss-and-capture leaves the bodies mostly intact; however, it does result in the resurfacing of Charon and a large portion of Pluto,” said researchers led by Adeene Denton of the University of Arizona. The scenario provides “a new foundation for the accumulation of geological features observed today, including Charon’s widespread fracture network and Pluto’s ancient ridge–trough system, which reflects early and widespread extension.”

Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer when kisses keep the bodies mostly intact. Given that Pluto has a giant heart-shaped region on its surface, this binary is really shaping up to be the most romantically coded system in the solar system.

Brushing Up on Saber Teeth  

Pollock, Thalia et al. “Functional optimality underpins the repeated evolution of the extreme “saber-tooth” morphology.” Current Biology.

You don’t need anyone to tell you that saber teeth are rad. They are deadly weapons that grow out of skulls. The allure is self-evident. But just in case you wanted empirical proof to back it up, scientists have now demonstrated that “extreme saber teeth” are functionally optimal for killing bites, which explains why they have independently evolved at least five times in mammals and mammal ancestors (including gorgonopsians).

To assess the advantages of saber teeth versus other canine morphologies, researchers examined 95 teeth from carnivorous mammals, including 25 from saber-toothed animals like Smilodon, Homotherium, and Thylacosmilus. The team concluded that saber teeth “optimize puncture performance at the expense of breakage resistance,” meaning that these dental daggers evolved to deliver swift death.

Predatory scenarios for saber-toothed animals “favor a killing bite through penetration causing tissue damage and blood loss over the suffocation through clamp-and-hold bite of conical-toothed pantherine felids,” such as snow leopards, said researchers led by Tahlia Pollock of the University of Bristol. 

The most recent saber-toothed cat, Smilodon, went extinct only 10,000 years ago, so our ancestors would have encountered it. In fact, saber-toothed cats may have occasionally preyed on humans. But those iconic canines are no longer spilling blood and severing arteries out there in the wild anywhere, suggesting that “the niche(s) they once occupied do not exist in the modern context,” according to the study.

It’s bittersweet to live in an era devoid of saber teeth. While I wouldn’t want to see these fatal fangs up close, the world is undoubtedly duller without them.

Punk is Dead! Like…Really, Really Dead

Sutton, Mark et al. “New Silurian aculiferan fossils reveal complex early history of Mollusca.” Nature.

A nice bonus of discovering a new species is that you typically get to name it. Scientists have been having fun with this responsibility for decades, which is why we have spiders called Hotwheels sisyphus, fungus called Spongiforma squarepantsii, and wasps called Aha ha. 

Now, scientists have continued this tradition with two new mollusc species identified from fossils that date back 430 million years ago. Everyone, meet Punk (Punk ferox) and (Emo vorticaudum).  

Punk is named for the “fancied resemblance of the spicule array to the spiked hairstyles associated with the punk rock movement” paired with ferox (Latin) meaning “wild, bold, defiant,” said researchers led by Mark Sutton of Imperial College London. 

Emo is named “after the emo musical genre related to punk rock, whose exponents canonically bear long ‘bangs’ or fringes” which is reminiscent of the fossilized mollusc’s exoskeleton, the team added. In addition, Emo’s “anterior valves” resemble “studded clothing.”  

There you have it: mohawks, devilocks, studs, and other punk culture mainstays were pioneered by rabble-rousing molluscs all the way back in the Silurian period, long before animals ever walked—let alone crowd-surfed—on land. 

Now all we need is to discover a new species of screeching weasel to really round out the punk biological kingdom.

Thanks for reading! See you next week.

Over the last two years, Nvidia has used its ballooning fortunes to invest in over 80 AI startups. Here are the giant semiconductor's largest investments.

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

If you want to get Solo Loop bands for your Apple Watch in several colors, this may be your chance to grab a few at a discount. Woot is selling them for up to 70 percent lower than their actual price, so you can get the Braided Solo Loop bands that sell for $99 on the official Apple website for just $30. The regular Solo Loops are also on sale, and you'll only have to pay $20 instead of $49 for one. That's just a few dollars more than some third-party bands considered as affordable alternatives to official Apple products. Apple's Solo Loop bands for its watches are stretchable, don't have any overlapping parts and come with no clasps or buckles. The company says they're "designed to provide a precise, comfortable fit," which means you'll have to make sure to get the correct size for your wrist if you want to be able to put one on comfortably and make sure it doesn't slide off. 

The braided variants on sale come in several black and white hues, blues, greens, purples, reds, oranges and yellows. You can also get the rainbow-colored 2021 Pride Edition band. Apple's braided Solo Loops are made with strands of recycled polyester yarn filaments around ultrathin silicone threads. If you don't like their textured feel, you can opt for the regular Solo Loop bands made of liquid silicone rubber instead. The same colors are on sale, and you can get any of them for $20. They're sweatproof and waterproof, so they're probably the better choice for physical activities, though the braided bands are sweat- and water-resistant, as well. 

You'll be able to choose your watchface measurement and your wrist size on Woot. If you don't know what size you're supposed to wear, you can check out Apple's pages for its Solo Loop bands for instructions on how to measure your wrist. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apple-watch-solo-loop-bands-are-on-sale-for-up-to-70-percent-off-153001030.html?src=rss

©

© Apple

New renders of the Samsung Galaxy S25 series have appeared in a leak from Android Headlines ahead of Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event later this month. The most obvious change here is that Samsung has tweaked the design of the S25 Ultra, rounding off the phone’s corners a bit.

From the renders, it looks like you’ll be able to get the non-Ultra S25s in light blue, dark blue, light green, and silver. The Ultra will come in black, gray, and two silvery colors with either a white or blue tint.

Here’s a gallery of some of the images, but be sure to head over to Android Headlines for the rest:

Apart from the new colors, the non-Ultra phones are almost indistinguishable from the S24 line. But one finer detail that’s changed is the way the camera bumps seem to nod at the look of a traditional camera lens barrel that flares out at the end. Internally, look for a CPU bump from Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chips to new Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile processors, but not much else. You can read more about the internals in a separate specs leak that Android Headlines also published yesterday.

Stay tuned for our coverage of the next Galaxy Unpacked event on January 22nd, at which we expect the company will reveal plenty of details about these phones. Naturally, you can bet it will talk about new AI features, too. Maybe by then, I’ll have stopped thinking about connecting “to compatible ships” through Matter with SmartThings.

Shrek's cinematic return is still coming, but he'll have to wait for the Minions to get done taking over summer 2026.

Blue Origin is preparing for one of its biggest launches yet. On Sunday, the Jeff Bezos-owned commercial space company will attempt to send its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket into space for the first time.

The launch comes after almost a decade of development, and its outcome could threaten the dominance of Elon Musk’s SpaceX — not only in the commercial space industry but also in the satellite internet business. Here’s an overview of what you need to know about the New Glenn flight and how to watch it live.

What is New Glenn, and why is it important?

First announced in 2016, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket is meant to shuttle cargo, satellites, and, in the future, people into space. The New Glenn is named after John Glenn, the first NASA astronaut to enter the Earth’s orbit.

Its first stage is powered by seven of Blue Origin’s powerful BE-4 engines, which run on liquified natural gas and liquid oxygen. Blue Origin aims to reuse New Glenn’s first stage for at least 25 missions, as it’s designed to touch down vertically on a sea-based platform following launch, allowing the company to retrieve it.

The rocket’s upper stage is disposable and carries Blue Origin’s payload. It’s capable of sending 13 metric tons to geostationary transfer orbit and 45 metric tons to low Earth orbit. Blue Origin says New Glenn is also “engineered with the safety and redundance required to fly humans.” Though Blue Origin initially aimed to launch New Glenn in 2020, its inaugural flight kept getting pushed back due to issues with the development of its BE-4 engine and other technical mishaps.

As pointed out by NPR, New Glenn has a similar carrying capacity to SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, but it stands out with a larger, 23-foot-wide cargo bay. If New Glenn’s launch is successful, it could heat up its rivalry with SpaceX as both companies vie to secure lucrative government contracts.

New Glenn is also key to Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite internet initiative. Though the company’s first set of satellites is scheduled to launch aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket this year, Blue Origin will eventually launch Project Kuiper satellites aboard New Glenn, rivaling SpaceX’s Starlink. Amazon plans to send 3,236 Project Kuiper satellites into space, which is still far fewer than Starlink’s growing constellation of more than 6,000 satellites.

What to expect from New Glenn’s first launch

New Glenn is set to take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with a three-hour launch window opening on January 12th at 1AM ET (10PM PT). The launch was originally scheduled for January 10th, but it was pushed back due to “a high sea state in the Atlantic.”

During this uncrewed launch, New Glenn will have the Blue Ring Pathfinder on board, a payload consisting of a communications array, a power system, and a flight computer. It will test the company’s Blue Ring spacecraft, which will help support missions with refueling, hosting, data relay, and cloud computing capabilities. The goal is for New Glenn to reach orbit, while “anything beyond that,” like landing its reusable booster is a “bonus,” according to Blue Origin CEO David Limp.

“This is our first flight and we’ve prepared rigorously for it,” Jarrett Jones, the senior vice president of New Glenn, said in a statement. “But no amount of ground testing or mission simulations are a replacement for flying this rocket. It’s time to fly. No matter what happens, we’ll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch.”

How to watch New Glenn’s launch live

Blue Origin will likely stream the launch live from its website and YouTube channel. We’ll embed the stream below once it becomes available.

Another unbeatable Beats deal from Amazon brings the Powerbeats Pro earbuds to you for just $160.

Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional-grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage & protect Apple devices at work. Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work-ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.

Apple has spent years carving out a space in the enterprise as a great PC alternative. With IT teams increasingly managing more iPhones, iPads, and Macs, Apple’s role as an enterprise endpoint has never been more critical. However, as Apple continues to grow, I question why its certifications for IT professionals aren’t free. If the company wants enterprises to use Apple, why are they charging to become certified in managing them?

more…

If you’ve been eyeing Apple’s top-tier iPhones, the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro are looking more appealing than ever — especially if you’re shopping in the renewed or refurbished market. With cutting-edge features, robust build quality, and long-term software support, these Pro models offer incredible value at their current price points.

more…

Wildfire smoke inside homes can create health risks that linger for months. Here are some tips.

Researchers in the Philippines have shown that milkfish skin could be a viable alternative for skin grafts.

Shure’s new USB gaming mic looks familiar, but it might be too streamlined.

Honda’s potential merger with Nissan would represent one of the largest shake-ups to the industry since the creation of Stellantis in 2021. But there are huge risks involved, too.

On Tuesday in Las Vegas, during a roundtable discussion with select media, Honda executives offered some more insight into the merger, including how combining resources and factories could help the companies stay competitive in the increasingly costly fight with China.

Honda is concerned about China’s meteoric rise as a dominant and highly competitive player in the EV and autonomous driving space. In late December, when Honda and Nissan announced that they had signed a memorandum of understanding to create an automotive company worth around $50 billion, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe said that the “rise of Chinese automakers and new players has changed the car industry quite a lot... We have to build up capabilities to fight with them by 2030, otherwise we’ll be beaten.”

The stakes are high, too. According to a recent report by S&P Global Mobility, the global EV market will grow nearly 30 percent year over year, with 89.6 million new EVs expected to be sold this year. According to Allied Market Research, the global autonomous vehicle market is expected to reach around $60.3 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $448.6 billion by 2035. If the Japanese automakers want to continue to dominate the market as they have since the 1960s, they have to iterate quickly and get products into consumers’ hands.

“Since the beginning of last year, we’ve been in conversation with Nissan,” Noriya Kaihara, director and executive vice president at Honda, said through a translator following the company’s debut of two “production prototypes,” the Honda 0 Saloon and the Honda 0 SUV at CES. “Nothing has been decided but we’ve been discussing how to proceed.”

Photo: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Honda wants Nissan’s large SUVs and underutilized factories

During the roundtable, Kaihara said that Honda is looking at Nissan as a way to reduce costs around future software-defined vehicles (SDV).

“We have significant labor and development costs, and if there are operations we could share, that would be good for us,” he said. Developing brand-new software, he continued, including advanced driving systems that move closer to autonomous vehicles and battery-electric vehicles, is both increasingly important for the longevity of established automakers and increasingly expensive.

Honda also said that Nissan’s large SUVs like the Armada and Pathfinder make it an attractive partner. Toshihiro Akiwa, VP and head of Honda’s BEV development center, said through a translator that Honda’s hybrid technology is solid but only currently exists in its midsize vehicles like the CR-V and the Accord. The company is interested in Nissan’s larger vehicles because Honda’s “motor and battery capacity can be adapted to the larger vehicle.”

While Honda does have the Prologue, that vehicle was part of a $5 billion joint venture with GM that only lasted through the development of two vehicles. The Prologue has been a surprise EV hit, selling over 33,000 in 2024 and outselling the larger gas-powered Honda Passport.

Since the partnership with GM went south, it’s not likely that the Prologue will be in production long, though Honda has made no announcements about its plans for the vehicle. Honda does not currently offer an all-electric crossover outside of the Prologue, though fans of the brand have been asking for an all-electric CR-V for years.

Nissan, on the other hand, saw its earnings decline by as much as 90 percent last year, forcing it to lay off thousands of employees. The company has been struggling since the arrest of former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn in 2018 for financial misconduct. Unsurprisingly, Ghosn isn’t pleased about the news, telling Bloomberg that Nissan was in “panic mode,” calling the deal a “desperate move” and noting that the “synergies between the two companies are difficult to find.”

But as Honda executives at the roundtable noted, Nissan’s struggle could pose an opportunity for Honda, too. That’s because Honda plants that serve the US are currently running at maximum capacity, and they could use the excess capacity at Nissan’s factories to meet customer demand. “I’m not in a position to make comment [on Nissan], but they have capacity,” Kaihara said.

Photo by PETER POWER / AFP via Getty Images

Trump’s tariff threats and loss of EV incentives

President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on foreign imports and eliminate federal subsidies that have helped save Americans billions in EV costs also came up in the conversation. “If Trump impacts future government strategy we have to be very flexible when the subsidies are cut or stopped,” Kaihara said.

That includes where Honda builds and produces its most popular vehicles like the CR-V and Civic. “Each factory in Canada and Mexico is almost to full production level,” Kaihara said. “It’s not so easy to change that direction, but depending on the tariff situation, we might have to change the production location to Japan or somewhere else.”

A significant move like that would be costly and could translate to increased prices for consumers when they go to buy their next Honda.

In spite of all this, Honda is not wavering on its commitment to electrification. “For the time being, we will have new EVs in the next year for the Zero series,” Kaihara said. “For the long term, I think, considering the environmental issues, EVs will be the solution for the future, and that will not be changed.”

Meta's moderation policy to allow more "free expression" was viewed as the latest effort to appease President-elect Donald Trump, which could help AI efforts.

This rugged GPS watch is the best $200 wearable for the toughest outdoor workouts and adventuring.

Boring Company is constructing a planned 68-mile tunnel system beneath Las Vegas. Because it’s privately funded, it has not gone through the vetting typical of public transit systems.

Twelve years ago, I could have told you exactly what happened at my first CES and what happened at my third. Each was a chapter with a beginning, middle, and end; the lines between them drawn clearly. But now, 15 years since I attended my first CES, it’s a lot fuzzier. I know I missed my flight home at that first show. I know I saw a lot of cameras at first, and then progressively fewer cameras over the years. I know there were team dinners and early meetings, but I couldn’t tell you what happened when.

What I do know about my first CESes is that I had — and I cannot stress this enough — no clue what I was doing. The same went for CES two, three, and four, to varying degrees. I think I had a Pentax DSLR loaned to me by a colleague. I had a work-issued BlackBerry and, I’m pretty sure, insisted on wearing nice dresses and impractical shoes to evening events. There was no Uber at the beginning, and you could spend an hour waiting in a cab line at the airport. We stayed at the MGM Grand, which housed live lions at the time.

I broke an 11-year streak of not going to CES this year, which gave me a rare opportunity. It’s not often in life that we get to step back and see something...

Read the full story at The Verge.

In early January, soil moisture in much of Southern California was in the bottom 2 percent of historical records.

Every year, thousands of product vendors, journalists, and gadget enthusiasts gather in an unreasonable city to gawk at mostly unrealistic products.

To be of service to our readers, Ars has done the work of looking through hundreds of such items presented at the 2025 Consumer Electronic Show, pulling out the most bizarre, unnecessary, and head-scratching items. Andrew Cunningham swept across PC and gaming accessories. This writer has stuck to goods related to the home.

It's a lie to say it's all a prank, so I snuck in a couple of actually good things for human domiciles announced during CES. But the stuff you'll want to tell your family and friends about in mock disbelief? Plenty of that, still.

Read full article

Comments

© Verity Burns/WIRED UK

While worrying about AI takeover might seem like a modern idea that sprung from War Games or The Terminator, it turns out that a similar concern about machine dominance dates back to the time of the American Civil War, albeit from an English sheep farmer living in New Zealand. Theoretically, Abraham Lincoln could have read about AI takeover during his lifetime.

On June 13, 1863, a letter published in The Press newspaper of Christchurch warned about the potential dangers of mechanical evolution and called for the destruction of machines, foreshadowing the development of what we now call artificial intelligence—and the backlash against it from people who fear it may threaten humanity with extinction. It presented what may be the first published argument for stopping technological progress to prevent machines from dominating humanity.

Titled "Darwin among the Machines," the letter recently popped up again on social media thanks to Peter Wildeford of the Institute for AI Policy and Strategy. The author of the letter, Samuel Butler, submitted it under the pseudonym Cellarius, but later came to publicly embrace his position. The letter drew direct parallels between Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and the rapid development of machinery, suggesting that machines could evolve consciousness and eventually supplant humans as Earth's dominant species.

Read full article

Comments

© Aurich Lawson | Getty Images