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1. Microsoft fixes a Windows 11 annoyance as PC revenue declines  Ars Technica
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Twin Travelers

In 1977, NASA launched twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and 2, taking advantage of a once-every-175-year planetary alignment of the four largest planets in our solar system: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Using six gravity assists between them, this Grand Tour gave us up-close views of the gas and ice giants, including several moons. By the 1980s, the two probes went their separate ways at Saturn. As Voyager 2 continued toward Uranus and Neptune, Voyager 1 grabbed one more portrait of the solar system (excluding Mercury and Mars), including a final image of the pale blue dot we call home.

Playlist

“Hello from the children of planet Earth.”

Every good road trip needs some music to match. In this case, each craft carries the Golden Record, a 12-inch phonograph record with spoken greetings in 55 languages, 27 musical tracks, 116 images, and other sounds from Earth. Each record is protected by an outer cover featuring etchings showing our Sun’s location relative to 14 pulsars, along with instructions on how to play it. The design used various metals to protect the information encoded from space radiation: the record used copper and gold plating, and the cover used aluminum. The cover was electroplated with an ultra-pure sample of the isotope uranium-238. Uranium-238 has a half-life of 4.468 billion years.

Are We There Yet?

Did you know that a light-minute is a measure of distance, not time? In August 2012 and November 2018, Voyager 1 and 2 crossed the heliopause, the boundary where the Sun’s solar wind meets the interstellar medium. Using NASA’s Deep Space Network, Earth communicates with both spacecraft and tracks each on its journey. At the time of this article, the Canberra antenna tracked Voyager 1 at 25.80 billion km, or just over 16 billion miles.

On November 18, 2026, 49 years after its launch, Voyager 1 will cross the one-light-day mark, 16.1 billion miles from the Sun. You may have heard the term light-year in your favorite sci-fi movie or show, or when stargazing and referring to an object outside of our solar system. This video best demonstrates the different distances between the inner solar system, outer solar system, and beyond, using light measurements. Additionally, track each Voyager spacecraft here.

You can get a real understanding of what a gravity assist might be like with our Gravity Assist activity and learn what it’s like to measure a “light minute” with our Measuring a Kid Minute activity guide!

Shrouded in ice in the lonely Weddell Sea, Vega Island is an eerie sight to behold. On this speck of land east of the Antarctic Peninsula, ice, rock outcrops, and glacial moraines combine to create the appearance of a smirking skull in profile looking toward Devil Island.

These images show Vega Island’s creepy countenance at the start of austral autumn (left) and in spring (right). They were acquired with the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 9 on March 22, 2025, and October 10, 2026, respectively. (Clouds obscured the island in March 2026.) A nunatak jutting out of the ice has the appearance of an eye socket, a lateral moraine forms a mouth, and Bahía del Diablo (Devil’s Bay) Glacier constitutes a jawbone. In the March 2025 image, a layer of snow coats the ice, which is typical of the region’s wettest month. That contrasts with the October 2026 image, when snow is absent from large areas and darker ice surfaces are visible.

Above-average temperatures in winter 2026—particularly in June—were partly responsible for so much bare ice in October, said glaciologist Mauri Pelto of Nichols College. The ice exposed on Vega and nearby islands indicates limited new snow accumulation over the winter, further reduced by sublimation and wind scouring, he said. “The winter season was no treat for these glaciers.”

The melt season ahead may also be more trick than treat. Bare ice is darker than snow and absorbs more solar energy, meaning that melting is poised to speed up as the days grow longer and warmer. “Even a thin cover of new snow from a spring storm would be helpful in the short run,” Pelto said. “When entombed in snow and ice, the skull is preserved. But when exposed to melt, it weathers away, which will lead to a changing jawline and expanding eye socket.”

The first comprehensive mapping of Vega Island’s ice was aided by Landsat imagery. In a study published in 1982, scientists described the island’s four ice caps with protruding rocky cliffs and outlet glaciers. They leveraged early Landsat observations along with aerial photos and topographic maps to catalog 29 glaciers on Vega.

Of those glaciers, Devil’s Bay Glacier has been closely monitored since the austral summer of 1998-1999, with researchers measuring an overall decline in its mass. Satellite images acquired in recent decades show ice loss from other glaciers on the island as well, with increased areas of exposed bedrock.

Long before scientists began tracking its glaciers, Vega was a bright spot in a tale of terror born out of early exploration of the area. The Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1903 set out to study the geography, geology, climate, and wildlife on and around the eastern Antarctic Peninsula. The party became split into three groups during their explorations, isolated for a winter in different locations. Adding to the horror, they lost their ship to the pack ice. Cape Well-met, as it would come to be known, off the “forehead” of the Vega Island skull, was the site of a happy reunion of two of the groups in spring 1903. Soon thereafter, an Argentinean expedition rescued the survivors of the ordeal.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

References & Resources

• From a Glaciers Perspective (2026, October 24) Snow Free Glacier Surfaces on Antarctic Peninsula October 2026. Accessed October 28, 2026.
• From a Glaciers Perspective (2012, January 22) Northwest Vega Island, Antarctica Glacier Retreat. Accessed October 28, 2026.
• Rabassa, J., et al. (1982) Glacier Inventory of James Ross and Vega Islands, Antarctic Peninsula. Annals of Glaciology, 3, 260–264.
• Skvarca, P., et al. (2004) Mass balance of ‘Glaciar Bahía del Diablo’, Vega Island, Antarctic Peninsula. Annals of Glaciology, 39, 209–213.
• South-Pole, Otto Nordenskjöld. Accessed October 28, 2026.
• Swoop Antarctica (2024, October 8) The greatest Antarctic survival story you’ve never heard of. Accessed October 28, 2026.
• World Glacier Monitoring Service (2025) Glaciar Bahía del Diablo. Accessed October 28, 2026.

Description

This global map of Mars shows 13 locations that match the mineralogy and chemistry of Teghaza 001, one of the most ancient Martian meteorites ever found on Earth. While scientists can never know for sure where a Martian meteorite originated, Teghaza 001 includes clues that link it to highlands in the southern hemisphere of the Red Planet.

The base map of this image was produced with data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument aboard NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor mission. Scientists used data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to identify areas of the map (noted with white circles) that have similar mineralogy and chemistry as Teghaza 001.

Description

This slice of Teghaza 001, one of the most ancient Martian meteorites ever found on Earth, was used to determine the age of the rock. Reflected light images like these serve as a scientist’s road map, helping them find minerals of interest to analyze by different instruments.

Figure A is the same image with annotations showing minerals like iron-titanium oxides (brighter grains) and pyroxene (medium gray), both of which tell a story about the formation of Mars’ crust and mantle. Shocked plagioclase (darker gray) is created by extreme pressures during impacts, including the one that sent Teghaza 001 flying through space to Earth. The alteration represents fine grain carbonate, sulfate and clay minerals formed on Earth.

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