An experiment to see if a laser could beam a message through space to Earth has been successful and could alter the future of spacecraft communication. The experiment was made possible by the Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) tool which was travelling onboard NASA’s Psyche spacecraft. It was successfully able to beam a message to Earth, via a near-infrared laser, from far beyond the Moon. It is the furthest such optical communication to have ever been communicated and was encoded with test data to ensure that it worked correctly. The DSOC successfully beamed the data from approximately 16 million kilometers (10 million miles) away to the Hale Telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in California. Hitching a ride on the Psyche spacecraft, the experiment achieved the so-called “first light” on 14 November, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory which is managing the mission from Earth. NASA explained the demo’s “flight laser transceiver – a cutting-edge instrument aboard Psyche capable of sending and receiving near-infrared signals – locked onto a powerful uplink laser beacon transmitted from the Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory at JPL’s Table Mountain Facility near Wrightwood, California.” The uplink beacon assisted the transceiver in aiming its downlink to Caltech’s observatory, where the signal was received. Trudy Kortes, director of Technology Demonstrations at NASA HQ, said: “Achieving first light is one of many critical DSOC milestones in the coming months, paving the way toward higher-data-rate communications capable of sending scientific information, high-definition imagery, and streaming video in support of humanity’s next giant leap: sending humans to Mars.” It’s not the first time that optical communications have been used to beam messages from space, but these laser beams mark the furthest a message has ever been transmitted. With missions further than the moon, NASA typically uses radio waves to communicate. However, laser beams allow for a greater amount of data to be packed in them, potentially giving experts more options in future missions. Dr Jason Mitchell, director of the Advanced Communications and Navigation Technologies Division within NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program, explained: “Optical communication is a boon for scientists and researchers who always want more from their space missions, and will enable human exploration of deep space.” How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse dropped earlier this month and has already done record-breaking numbers at the box office. The animated film is centred on 'canon events," the idea that some unfortunate situations that are often unavoidable. TikTokers have since put their own spin on the concept, racking up over 150 million views under the hashtag alone. Users are taking the phrase and using it to share a nostalgic look back at some of the weird phases in their lives. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The canon event TikTok takeover has left some blissfully unaware users baffled, prompting them to turn to the app to ask the all-important question: What does it mean? @bex392 ??? #canonevent #help Luckily for Bex (@bex392) and her 1 million viewers, people were on standby to help out. "Canon event= something that is going happen regardless of space, time and dimension in order to keep the balance. It’s basically fate," one person responded, while another reiterated: "Canon event is something that has to happen in the universe because it’s part of the universes canon, it’s from Spider-Man so it's a multiverse thing". It didn't take long for fellow TikTokers to share their very own canon events. One TikTok user under the username @bonnieaustinnnnnnnn wrote: "Me watching every teenage girl getting into her first relationship with a medium ugly guy that bares a striking resemblance to the rat from flushed away. (I can not interfere, it is a canon event)." Meanwhile, another earlier example saw @greekos_nikos share: "Realising it was never trauma, just a canon event." His video went viral across the platform with 5.2 million views and thousands more comments. "Getting hit on the leg with a firework gotta be a canon event," one person shared, while another joked: "Gonna start calling all my trauma canon events just to make it seem less serious." "It's a plot twist, gotta keep the audience on their toes," a third added. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

F1 23 early access begins on June 13 for all players who purchase the Champions Edition or have an EA Play membership.

Apple is working on a “Watch X”, bring a major redesign and new features to its wearable, according to a new report. The new version will be thinner, bring new health features such as a blood pressure sensor and change the technology powering the screen, according to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. But the new version of the Watch might not arrive until next year, or even the year after that, he reported. As such, the new design would mark the 10th anniversary of the Watch, which went on sale in April 2015. Apple undertook a similar significant redesign for the 10th version of the iPhone, with the iPhone X. That also brought a new look, with a slimmer design and a display that wrapped all the way to the edge of the phone, and new technologies such as facial recognition. This year’s Apple Watch is expected to bring a new processor, which would be the first since 2020’s Series 6. Otherwise, it is expected to stay largely the same on the outside. That might give Apple more time to work on that rumoured “Apple Watch X”, for the years that would follow. As well as the new redesign and features, it might rely on a microLED screen that has not yet been seen in the Apple Watch. Apple has long been rumoured to be working on such screen technology for the Watch, to bring the brighter and more colourful screen technology to the small display. Rumours have suggested however that the company has struggled with the new technology, and hit problems with shrinking it down to the size of the Watch and allowing it to stay affordable. The other major feature update is said to be a blood pressure built into the Watch itself. Chief executive Tim Cook has repeatedly said that health is one of the big focuses of Apple’s work, and has been rumoured to be working on new sensors including blood glucose and blood pressure, presumably for its wearables. The redesign could have some drawbacks. The redesign will bring with it a new, magnetic way of attaching watchbands – which would presumably mean that existing Watch straps will not work with the Watch X. Until now, all versions of the Watch have been compatible with all of Apple’s straps, as long as they are the correct one of two sizes. Mr Gurman did suggest on Twitter that Apple or third-party manufacturers could create adapters to allow old straps to work on new Watches. Read More Apple Watch 7 pre-order: How to buy the new smartwatch in the UK Apple introduces new version of Watch with complete redesign iPhone 13 - live: UK contract deals and prices for Apple, EE and O2

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It's almost that time of year again, when we see how many hours we've shamelessly spent listening to mortifying music and just playing Taylor Swift on loop. Yes, Spotify Wrapped is here again and soon your social media feeds will be full of people either showing you how cool by how much Senegalese lounge Jazz they listen to or embarrassed that they still haven't moved on from The Libertines or The Strokes. Each and every year, even for the most dedicated of music lovers, Spotify Wrapped throws up countless surprises in your top artists and songs leading many to question just how it tallies what you listen to. The past few years Wrapped has arrived earlier and earlier, as reported by the Radio Times, so it's not surprise that its arrived on November 29th. Here are the dates it arrived on the previous years. 2017: 6th December 2018: 6th December 2019: 5th December 2020: 2nd December 2021: 1st December 2022: 30th November Finding your Wrapped couldn't be easier you just need to go to your Spotify app on the day it drops and it'll be there waiting for you at the top of the app alongside your saved songs and albums. Alternatively, if you just use Spotify on a laptop or desktop you can visit spotify.com/wrapped and use it from there. Spotify have never officially said how they compile their data for Wrapped but a Reddit user in 2021 revealed how they believed it works. In the post Hudsonlovestech pointed out six key takeaways that they discovered after downloading their data from the music platform. They were: This year the data was logged from January 1st 00:00 to November 15th 23:59. You have to listen to a song for more than 30 seconds for it to count in your song rankings. Your top songs are calculated by play count rather than total time listened. In your top 100 playlist only the first 10 songs are sorted by play count, the rest are close but sorted by artist. Your total time listening includes podcasts. Your top artists are calculated by total play counts rather than total time listening. If you apply this date to your own listening history then there is a chance you might discover what your Wrapped will look like this year although there is no guarantee. Meanwhile, many users on X/Twitter are posting memes, imagining what their Wrapped will look like this year. To be honest, we're just dreading seeing how much we listened to Ryan Gosling sing 'I'm Just Ken' from the Barbie soundtrack. Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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