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3. Google Rolls Out $899-Plus ‘Googlebook’ AI Laptops With Hardware Partners  Bloomberg.com
4. The long dream of the Googlebook  The Verge
5. Google's Pitch For Googlebooks: A Laptop That Works Better With Your Android Phone  engadget.com

1. The M5 Ultra Mac Studio tears through our benchmark tests  The Verge
2. Apple M6 Mac mini review: $300 price hike spoils a nice upgrade  Ars Technica
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1. Bungie is freeing vaulted Destiny 2 campaigns after Marathon "did not reach as many players as we had hoped"  Eurogamer.net
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4. ‘Destiny’ Lives: All Content To Be Unvaulted And Future Games Planned  Forbes
5. Bungie says it’s “not done with Destiny” and will bring back vaulted content  The Verge

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The Republic of Albania signed the Artemis Accords Monday during a ceremony hosted by NASA at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, joining the coalition of like‑minded nations committed to the responsible and transparent exploration of space.

“It is my privilege to welcome the Republic of Albania as the 73rd signatory of the Artemis Accords,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson. “The relationship between our nations goes back more than a century. Today, we extend that partnership into space.”

Albania’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Ferit Hoxha signed on behalf of the country. Ambassador of the Republic of Albania to the United States Ervin Bushati and the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Space and Environment Connor Tomlinson also participated in the event.

“It is a great honor for Albania to join the growing community of nations that have signed these important Artemis Accords,” said Hoxha in remarks during the ceremony. “By taking this step, Albania affirms its commitment to peaceful, transparent, sustainable, and cooperative exploration of space. We do so as a country deeply committed to international law, multilateral cooperation, and the belief that humanity’s greatest achievements are realized not in isolation, but through partnerships.”

Marking a significant step in Albania’s efforts to strengthen its use of space‑based data, Albania launched two dedicated Earth‑observation satellites, Albania‑1 and Albania‑2, in January 2023 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, an example of how the United States is supporting Albania’s capabilities in space.

Albania also has played an active role in NASA’s Space Apps Challenge, hosting local events that connected students, technologists, and innovators with NASA’s openly available Earth and space science data. NASA Space Apps is the world’s largest annual global hackathon, mobilizing participants in more than 150 countries to develop creative solutions to real-world challenges using open data from NASA and partner space agencies to advance exploration for the benefit of all.

In 2020, NASA and the State Department joined with seven other founding nations to establish the Artemis Accords, responding to the growing interest in lunar activities by both governments and private companies. They introduced the first set of practical principles aimed at enhancing the safety and coordination between nations as they explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond, committing nations to: 

• Explore peaceably and transparently 
• Render aid to those in need 
• Enable access to scientific data 
• Ensure activities do not interfere with those of others 
• Preserve historically significant sites and artifacts by developing best practices 

By signing the Artemis Accords, nations open the door to opportunities for future lunar exploration with NASA, advancing humanity’s return to the Moon, and shaping the Golden Age of space exploration and innovation. 

Learn more about the Artemis Accords at:  

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-accords

NASA kicked off its State Hubs for Skilled Technical Workforce initiative Sept. 15, 2026 with awardees at Space Center Houston. Agency leadership convened State Hub partners to align strategy and build momentum while focusing on partnerships, small business engagement, and next steps.

“The NASA State Hubs initiative is a top priority for the agency, because we know the space economy is really accelerating across the country,” said Elaine Ho, associate administrator for NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “It’s energizing to watch our partners come together to put real plans into action to help students advance into well paying, rewarding technical jobs. I am excited about what’s ahead.”

NASA State Hubs project leaders and agency, state, and federal partners gathered in Houston to connect with peers, hear presentations from each State Hub, and explore workforce needs, skillsets, credentials, and hiring trends.

In August, the agency selected seven projects representing states across the country: California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Texas, and Utah. Each Hub will offer programs tailored to its state’s unique aerospace industry and workforce priorities, ensuring students get opportunities that meet those needs.

During the meeting, NASA leadership and awardees discussed challenges impacting the STEM workforce pipeline, including limited coordination between industry, community colleges, and state economic development entities, difficulty scaling job programs, and misconceptions about manufacturing jobs.

In the coming months, NASA State Hub awardees will finalize approaches and begin delivering programming, tools, and resources that connect students across their state with the technical skills and hands-on experiences that prepare them to join the aerospace workforce.

Together, NASA and its State Hubs partners are mapping out the path to a future aerospace landscape powered by career ready workers who can build what comes next, advance NASA’s missions, and sustain America’s leadership in space.

For more information on NASA State Hubs, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/nasa-state-hubs

Description

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to capture this 360-degree panorama of “Turquoise Bay,” a geologic area of interest in the “Margin Unit.” The 818 images used to create the natural-color panorama were captured between Oct. 5 and Oct. 16, 2023, the 933rd to 944th Martian days, or sols, of the mission.

Figure A is an enhanced-color version, in which color bands were processed to improve visual contrast and accentuate color differences.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover. Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets.

For more about Perseverance: science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance/

NASA astronaut and commander of the agency’s Artemis II mission, Reid Wiseman, a Baltimore native, takes a selfie with fans at an NFL game between the New Orleans Saints and the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Baltimore.

NASA’s engagement at NFL games is part of the agency’s Inspiration Tour, aimed at strengthening connections between NASA and its partners and showcasing innovation in air and space in the lead up to the MAX POWER aerospace technology expo and airshow at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in early November.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

When NASA’s Perseverance rover reached the inner edge of Mars’ Jezero Crater in September 2023, mission scientists were surprised by what they found. Called the “Margin Unit,” the geologic area stretches along the shoreline of an ancient Martian lake, so they expected sedimentary rocks, which would have formed as layers of sand piled on top of each other over millennia. Composed of clay and silt, sedimentary rocks on Earth are good at preserving past microbial life. The scientists were especially intrigued by strong signals of carbonate minerals detected by Mars orbiters. On Earth, carbonates frequently form in shallow ocean and lake environments capable of supporting life.  

Instead, the rover team found igneous rock, which can form deep underground from magma or from volcanic activity at the surface. Igneous rocks are excellent record-keepers, particularly because mineral crystals within them preserve details about the precise moment they formed. In this case, they preserved an astonishingly complex record of water activity on early Mars. In fact, these rocks showed signs of having interacted with water on at least three separate occasions, with each encounter further altering their chemistry and appearance. The findings were published Monday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. 

The instrument behind the findings is SuperCam, which perches on the rover’s mast and determines the mineralogy of geologic features based on the light they reflect. When the science team spots an intriguing rock, they can send commands for SuperCam to fire its laser up to 21 feet (6.5 meters) away. The spectrum of the resulting plasma reveals the target’s chemistry. Perseverance has analyzed more than 185 bedrock targets across the unit this way. 

“Before we arrived at the Margin Unit, the main hypothesis — derived from orbital observations — was that the carbonate seen from orbit formed from interaction with the lake that existed in Jezero Crater,” said Candice Bedford, a research scientist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the study’s lead author. “But now we know that this location became a sort of crossroads for aqueous systems. The Margin Unit findings are important because Jezero Crater sits inside one of the largest exposures of carbonate on Mars, so what we learn here reaches well beyond this crater.” 

Slow-cooling underground 

Perseverance explored the Margin Unit across approximately 870 feet (265 meters) of elevation. At higher elevations, it found rock that was coarse-grained and crystalline — hallmarks of the mineral olivine — with almost no sign that water had ever touched it. Made of magnesium and iron, the area’s olivine unit formed in a body of magma deep underground, cooling slowly enough for its grains to grow large, and reached the surface only after the ground above it eroded away. Lower in the unit, on the lakebed, the rock looks transformed, as the olivine grains were fractured with silica between them. 

Carbonate and silica minerals are an important signpost in the search for ancient life. When water interacts with olivine on Earth, the reaction can release hydrogen, which can be a food source for some microbes, and it leaves behind carbonate and silica, two minerals that lock in traces of the past existence of those microbes. 

Multiple episodes 

The Perseverance team can determine the sequence of the Margin Unit’s interactions with water, but not their age. On the first occasion water reached the rocks of the Margin Unit, carbon-dioxide-rich groundwater reacted with olivine, resulting in ridges of carbonate that run through the fractures in bedrock at low elevations. Today, these carbonate-filled fractures are left standing as the softer rock around them wears away.  

The second time water reached the rocks may have been related to the lake that once existed in the crater. 

“Some of the Margin Unit rocks also contain silica,” said Eleni Ravanis, a planetary scientist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and a coauthor of the study. “Turning olivine into carbonate can leave silica behind, and we see more of that silica in rocks that sat below the water line.” 

Last came a water event that generated mineral veins at one location in the eastern part of the Margin Unit, about 10 inches (25 centimeters) thick, creating minerals like calcium sulfate and fluorite. Finding fluorite is an important clue because it typically forms when hot water circulates through volcanic rocks, revealing that this area experienced a later, heated underground-water event. 

“If there is one thing I have learned after 10 years working with Mars rovers, it is that Mars constantly throws surprises at you,” said Bedford. “It is very rare that things are as we expect them to be from orbital data. I hope this work helps reshape how scientists view the history of water in Jezero Crater and across Mars. Ultimately, I hope it helps planetary scientists reconstruct the changing climate and habitability of early Mars.” 

More about Perseverance 

A key objective of Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover characterizes the planet’s geology and past climate and collects and stores Martian rock and regolith. 

Managed for NASA by Caltech, Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover on behalf of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio. SuperCam is co-led by Purdue University in Indiana, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and IRAP (Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology) and CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) in Toulouse, France. 

For more about Perseverance: 

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance

-end-

2026-062

The group won't be given leeway to slow down or redirect OpenAI's ongoing mathematical research.

Five days left to save up to $200 on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 pass + 50% off a second one. Join 10,000+ founders, investors, and operators at San Francisco’s Moscone West, October 13-15. Grab your ticket savings before prices go up on September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Meta’s new AI agent Muse has racked up more downloads and daily active users in the U.S. and Canada than ChatGPT did over the same period after its mobile debut, according to new estimates from Appfigures.

Future Google supplier Kairos Power inked a deal with Samsung C&T to help build its first 50-megawatt nuclear power plant.

Amazon has its own cohort of foundation models, along with one of the most popular inference platforms on the internet. As long as they're under no legal obligation to open the doors to Muse, why would they?