1. Apple may take "several months" to catch up to Mac mini and Studio demand  Ars Technica
2. Good Luck Getting a Mac Mini for the Next ‘Several Months’  WIRED
3. Tim Cook: Apple Mac mini, Mac Studio Shortages Could Last for Months  PCMag
4. Apple is facing Mac mini supply constraints as AI and OpenClaw developers buy up tiny desktops  Yahoo Finance
5. Apple was surprised by AI-driven demand for Macs  TechCrunch

1. Here's How Apple's Folding iPhone Could Stand Apart  CNET
2. Apple’s upcoming ‘Ultra’ releases: iPhone, MacBook, and more confirmed  Macworld
3. Apple fans slam leaked design of new iPhone Ultra: ‘The worst of both worlds’  New York Post
4. iPhone Fold will reportedly have 'four selling points' — here's how it will stand out  Tom's Guide
5. Thought the MacBook Pro was expensive? Apple's rumored MacBook Ultra could 'cost significantly more'  TechRadar

1. The Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum have been turned into retrofuturistic handhelds  The Verge
2. The 1980s Speccy vs Commodore feud is back with these retro handhelds  Creative Bloq
3. Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum receive clamshell makeover — iconic 8-bit legends join the handheld gaming wars  Tom's Hardware
4. Spectrum and C64 being turned into handhelds by the makers of Evercade  Eurogamer
5. Evercade Is Back With The Classic Emulation Device Of My Dreams  Kotaku

1. Apple dropped a $590 laptop — why is nobody talking about it?  New York Post
2. Apple Was Caught Off Guard by MacBook Neo's 'Off the Charts' Demand  MacRumors
3. MacBook Neo starts May with delivery dates stretching to month’s end  9to5Mac
4. MacBook Neo Review: Is This Truly the Mac for the Rest of Us?  Appleosophy
5. MacBook Neo turns tech into a fashion accessory  The Manila Times

1. New Linux 'Copy Fail' Vulnerability Enables Root Access on Major Distributions  The Hacker News
2. The most severe Linux threat to surface in years catches the world flat-footed  Ars Technica
3. Linux exploit instantly grants administrator access on most distributions since 2017 — cryptography optimization snafu grants root privileges to local users  Tom's Hardware
4. Another AI-Assisted Software Scan Yields 9-Year-Old Linux Bug  Dark Reading
5. ‘Copy Fail’ Logic Flaw in Linux Kernel Enables System Takeover  SecurityWeek

Nasdaq Chair and Chief Executive Officer Adena T. Friedman, left, and NASA’s Artemis II crewmembers CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, and NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman, right, ring the closing bell of the Nasdaq market session, Thursday, April 30, 2026.

NASA’s Artemis II mission took Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a nearly 10-day journey around the Moon and back to Earth earlier in April 2026.

Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Technicians at NASA’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida offloaded eight high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) wall modules and other ground support equipment on April 27. The equipment will support launch processing of the agency’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

Each 1,800-pound module enhances the PHSF’s clean room systems, helping meet the telescope’s stringent cleanliness requirements during its time in the facility, where the observatory will undergo key tasks such as spacecraft fueling prior to liftoff.

Roman will observe the universe in infrared light using its Wide Field Instrument and a Coronagraph Instrument technology demonstration. Its wide field of view will produce panoramic images that help astronomers investigate some of the greatest mysteries in the cosmos, including why the universe’s expansion appears to be accelerating.

By using multiple complementary techniques, Roman will chart how the universe has evolved over cosmic time and provide new insights into the nature of dark energy. Roman also will advance the study of exoplanets and map the structure and distribution of normal matter and dark matter across space and time.

Teams are targeting launch as soon as early September aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy.

Photo credit: NASA/Leejay Lockhart

Earth’s magnetic field is like a powerful trap. It lures electrically charged particles in space, near our planet, and snares them in an invisible, doughnut-shaped pen around Earth known as the ring current.

This captive swarm of charged particles plays an important role in how Earth reacts to changing conditions in space, called space weather, which can affect the technology we rely on, such as satellites and power grids. Yet there is still a lot we do not know about the ring current.

NASA is preparing to launch a mission designed to provide a unique, inside-out view of the ring current. Called STORIE (Storm Time O+ Ring current Imaging Evolution), it is scheduled to launch in May aboard the 34th SpaceX commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station for NASA. The mission is flying as part of the Space Test Program – Houston 11 (STP-H11) payload, a partnership between the U.S. Space Force and NASA. Once it is robotically installed on the exterior of the space station (expected a few days after its arrival), STORIE will look outward at the ring current, helping scientists answer longstanding questions about how it grows and shrinks and what kind of particles it’s made of.

“These particles have important space weather impacts,” said Alex Glocer, STORIE’s principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where the instrument was designed and constructed. “We want to understand how that trapped population is built up, and where it comes from.”

These details are especially important during solar storms, when outbursts from the Sun can lead to magnetic disturbances at Earth. Similar to Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts but filled with lower-energy particles, the ring current tends to fluctuate in size, shape, and intensity more dramatically than the radiation belts do during solar storms. Plus, in the ring current, positively charged particles and negatively charged particles flow in opposite directions, creating electrical currents. So, changes there can lead to magnetic fluctuations and induced currents on the ground, potentially affecting pipelines and power lines. The ring current can also contribute to charge buildup on the surface of Earth-orbiting satellites, which can spark spacecraft glitches. Additionally, when energy ramps up in the ring current, some of that energy gets transferred to the upper atmosphere, making it heat up, puff out, and create more drag on satellites, which can cause the spacecraft to deorbit sooner than expected.

However, it’s difficult to study the ring current directly because the particles within it are invisible. “You can’t just image them with a camera,” Glocer explained.

Instead, STORIE will scan for the glow of energetic neutral atoms, or ENAs, that are formed when charged particles trapped in the ring current manage to escape. The particles earn their freedom by stealing an electron from Earth’s outer atmosphere, known as the exosphere, and become neutral. 

“Once those charged particles become neutral, they no longer feel the effects of Earth’s magnetic field, and they are no longer trapped,” Glocer said. “They can just fly off in any direction.”

By measuring the speed and direction of the ENAs, STORIE could help answer longstanding questions about the origins of particles in the ring current — whether they are supplied by a stream of particles flowing out from the Sun, known as the solar wind, or from Earth.

The STORIE team designed the instrument to pay special attention to positively charged oxygen atoms (O+) because, according to Glocer, “When you see oxygen, that comes from the atmosphere. You get very little of that from the solar wind.” If STORIE finds a lot of oxygen atoms, scientists will know the ring current is largely supplied by Earth’s atmosphere, rather than the solar wind.

Glocer and other scientists also want to find out whether the ring current’s population of charged particles build up in quick bursts or slowly and gradually. “Is it like filling a lake with the steady flow of a waterfall or a bunch of raindrops?” Glocer said.

Previous NASA missions — such as IMAGE (Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration) and TWINS (Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers) — have looked at ring current ENAs before using a top-down view, which allowed them to see the whole ring current at once. However, from that perspective, ultraviolet light reflected by Earth — in the center of the ring — can interfere with the ENA observations, and the viewing geometry makes it hard to see trapped particles in the ring current near Earth’s equator.

“From STORIE’s inside-out perspective, you have Earth behind you, and you can see this trapped population near the equator that was hard for other missions to observe,” Glocer said.

Some sounding rocket experiments have gotten brief, inside-out views of the ring current in the past, but they only had a few minutes to observe and could only see a portion of the ring current during each flight. The view from STORIE will reveal one slice of the ring current at a time, but as the space station orbits Earth, STORIE will build up a complete picture of the ring current roughly every 90 minutes.

Over its six-month mission, STORIE will monitor how the ring current evolves over time and allow scientists to compare its behavior during solar storms versus when the Sun is quiet. Insights from STORIE will help us better understand how Earth responds to solar storms, improve space weather predictions, and help mitigate the effects of space weather on the technology humanity depends on.

By Vanessa Thomas
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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Space Out This Summer with Variety of NASA STEM Activities

Summer is “Go” for launch, and NASA has a universe of ways to help you to jump in, explore, and create! Whether you prefer to spend this season fueling your creativity, going outdoors into nature, or daydreaming about your future, NASA offers ways to take your interests to the next level. 

Here are some opportunities to level up your skills with NASA STEM this summer.

Rise to Stardance Challenge

From Monday, June 1, through Sept. 30, students ages 13 to 18 are invited to flex their creativity in the online Stardance Challenge, a partnership between NASA and the education non-profit Hack Club. Whether you’re into space, coding, hardware, or just love building cool things, this is your chance to work with real NASA mission data from programs like Artemis, the James Webb Space Telescope, and more.

Participants can create anything from code and apps to electronics, circuit boards, models, and simulations. Hack Club will offer peer and expert reviews, prizes, and plenty of opportunities to show off your work. Meanwhile, NASA will provide access to publicly available datasets, mission materials, multimedia, and virtual sessions with subject matter experts who can share insights on space science, engineering, and careers. Ready to start brainstorming? Visit the Hack Club: Stardance Challenge website to explore project options, check out prizes, and RSVP to get a reminder when the challenge opens

Go Behind Scenes of NASA Careers

Think NASA is only for astronauts, scientists, and tech experts? Think again. It takes a wide range of professionals and specialists to bring the nation’s aerospace goals to life. Summer is the perfect time to discover how your skills and interests could make a difference at NASA.

Connect directly with NASA experts through online events designed to spark your curiosity and help you explore real STEM career paths. These virtual sessions provide a behind‑the‑scenes look at NASA’s workforce, plus the chance to ask questions.

• Tuesday, June 2: NASA’s Career Technical Education Day at Goddard Space Flight Center dives into robotics, AI, autonomous systems, and the skilled technical careers that keep NASA missions running. Register by May 26.
• Thursday, June 11: Virtual Career Connection: Aviation Technology and Maintenance introduces you to aircraft mechanics and technicians who support NASA’s flight programs and explores pathways into aviation technology careers. Register by June 2.

Looking for more? Check out the Next Gen STEM for Careers web page for videos, articles, and more ways to learn about the variety of jobs at NASA.

Dive into NASA Research Through Citizen Science

NASA invites people of all ages and backgrounds to do NASA science as a part of real science projects that rely on volunteers. Citizen Science is a great way to make new friends, meet some scientists, and help NASA solve mysteries of the universe this summer – using just a phone or computer. You can join from anywhere, participate on your own schedule, and dive right into real research using actual mission data. Here are two examples:

• Through Space Cloud Watch, you can help NASA study noctilucent clouds. Noctilucent means “night-shining,” and that’s exactly what they do! During summer twilight at high latitudes, these clouds catch sunlight and appear to glow even in a darkened sky. Take a photo and submit a report to help scientists track how these rare clouds are changing.
• Take your cloud‑watching to another planet with Cloudspotting on Mars, where you review real NASA images to identify clouds above the Red Planet and help scientists understand Martian weather.

Curious about what other projects you might enjoy? See all current Citizen Science opportunities available through NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

No matter how you spend your summer – building projects like the Hack Club’s Stardance Challenge, jumping into real NASA research through citizen science, or exploring possible NASA career paths – there’s a launch pad waiting for you. And remember, NASA’s STEM Resources website is available year-round to serve as your one-stop hub for hands-on activities, videos, articles, and more to spark curiosity and fuel big ideas.

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In this new picture from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, a spiral galaxy glittering with star clusters is the center of attention. NGC 3137 is located 53 million light-years away in the constellation Antlia (the Air Pump). As a nearby spiral galaxy, this target offers astronomers an excellent opportunity to study the cycle of stellar birth and death, as well as giving researchers a glimpse of a galactic system similar to our own.

NGC 3137 is of particular interest to astronomers because it travels through space with a group of galaxies that is thought to be similar to the Local Group, the galaxy group that contains our Milky Way. Similar to the Local Group, the NGC 3175 group contains two large spiral galaxies: NGC 3137 and NGC 3175, which Hubble has also observed. In the Local Group, the largest members are the Milky Way galaxy and Andromeda, another spiral galaxy. In addition to two large spiral galaxies, both groups also contain a number of smaller dwarf galaxies, although it’s not yet known how many of these tiny companions the NGC 3175 group has; researchers have found more than 500 dwarf galaxy candidates. By studying this nearby galaxy group, astronomers can learn about the dynamics of our own galactic home.

NGC 3137 is revealed in fantastic detail by Hubble. This image is crafted from observations in six different color bands, creating a view that highlights several facets of this beautiful spiral. The galaxy’s center, which is encircled by a network of fine, dusty clouds, hosts a black hole estimated to be 60 million times more massive than the Sun. NGC 3137 is highly inclined from our point of view, giving a unique perspective on its loose, feathery spiral structure. A couple of photobombing Milky Way stars and a smattering of far more distant background galaxies complete the image.

As stunning as each of these features may be, it’s the galaxy’s brilliant star clusters that steal the show. The galaxy is peppered with dense clusters of bright blue stars and glowing red gas clouds, which signal the presence of hot, young stars still encased in their birth nebulae.

Unsurprisingly, these star clusters are exactly what has drawn Hubble’s keen eye. Researchers are using Hubble to carry out an observing program (#17502; PI: D. Thilker) focusing on star clusters in 55 nearby galaxies. The data collected will help astronomers identify star clusters and the glowing nebulae that surround them, providing a way to measure the ages of stars in galaxies like NGC 3137. These observations give an in-depth view of stellar life in spiral galaxies, from the young stars still in the process of forming to the ancient stellar populations that grew up in the early years of their galactic hosts.

The PHANGS (Physics at High Angular Resolution in Nearby Galaxies)-HST program for which these observations were taken is part of a larger effort by some of the most powerful observatories on (and around) Earth. Hubble contributes greatly to this massive undertaking, which combines Hubble data with observations from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Together, Hubble’s powerful optical and ultraviolet capabilities, Webb’s sensitive infrared eyes, and ALMA’s broad network of radio dishes bring us an unmatched view of star formation in the local universe.

Text credit: ESA/Hubble

Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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