Half a dozen fragments of the moon may briefly orbit Earth at any given time, before moving on to circle the sun, new research suggests — but the minimoons' small size and quick pace make them challenging to spot.
When objects collide with the moon, they send up a shower of material, some of which manages to escape into space. Although there may be an occasional large chunk, most are fast-moving and smaller than 6.5 feet (2 meters) in diameter. The bulk of the lunar material falls into orbit around the more gravitationally attractive sun. But some of the debris may occasionally be pulled into an orbit around Earth before returning to circle the sun, researchers explained in a study published in the journal Icarus.
It's "kind of like a square dance, where partners change regularly and sometimes leave the dance floor for a while," Robert Jedicke, a researcher at the University of Hawaii and lead author of the study, told Space.com by email.
https://www.space.com/astronomy/earth-may-have-at-least-6-minimoons-at-any-given-time-where-do-they-come-from
Autism has at least four subtypes, an analysis of more than 5,000 children’s genes, traits and developmental trajectories has shown
Stephen Shore, an autistic professor of special education at Adelphi University, has said: “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.” This quote is popular in the autism community and among researchers because it reflects something they grapple with all the time: the truly incredible diversity of experiences that fall under the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
“The beauty of the autism spectrum is: it speaks to this heterogeneity. And the downside [is that] it covers up the differences,” says Fred Volkmar, a psychiatrist and a professor emeritus at Yale University. Right now individuals are placed on the spectrum based on the level of severity, from level 1 to level 3, of two different criteria: social communication difficulties and restricted, repetitive behaviors. Those coarse groupings, however, miss so much of the nuance. That’s why researchers have spent decades trying to use genetics and behavioral characteristics to divide the spectrum into meaningful subtypes. The hope is that such subtypes can help guide care for autistic people and their families and reveal what causes different presentations of autism in the first place.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/four-new-autism-subtypes-link-genes-to-childrens-traits/
The Milky Way could have many more satellite galaxies than scientists have previously been able to predict or observe, according to new research.
Cosmologists at Durham University, UK, used a new technique combining the highest-resolution supercomputer simulations that exist, alongside novel mathematical modelling, predicting the existence of missing "orphan" galaxies.
Their findings suggest that there should be 80 or perhaps up to 100 more satellite galaxies surrounding our home galaxy, orbiting at close distances.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/07/250713031445.htm
TPM != Bitlocker
What does 24H2 introduce in terms of TPM usage that is different from 23H2?
This is exactly the point I was making - the article is garbage, and the comments section is full of people getting indignant about something they've clearly misunderstood - Neowin should write articles that are factually correct and aim reduce the misunderstanding, not look to feed on it.
You do not need a TPM to use Bitlocker, it can be used, but it is not a requirement.
A TPM is used to facilitate many other things besides Bitlocker keys
Linux 6.16-rc6 is back on track after Linus Torvalds squashed a nasty bug by Paul Hill
Linus Torvalds has released the sixth release candidate for Linux 6.16 meaning we are just two or three weeks away from the stable version. Notably this week, Torvalds had a “scare” due to instability being caused within the kernel. Annoyingly, the issue was difficult to reproduce or find the root cause.
Initially, Torvalds thought it might be a DRM or Netlink issue and started flailing around blaming everybody “and their pet hamster”. Thankfully, the issue was able to be replicated and fixed with a simple revert to before the issue was introduced.
Aside from this pretty big issue, this week saw some pretty random fixes spread out fairly evenly without a heavy focus on any area. Torvalds mentions that there are fixes for drivers, arch fixes, filesystems, networking, tooling, and documentation.
For those unfamiliar with the development cycle of the Linux kernel, after a release has gone gold, the new features are added to the kernel and then the release cycles begin to stabilize those new features. There are typically seven or eight RCs and then the new version comes out and Linux distributions can start rolling it out.
The main benefit of upgrading the kernel is that new hardware tends to be included and file systems see improved performance. If you’ve ever tried Linux before and the Wi-Fi or graphics didn’t work, trying again after a big kernel upgrade may see your hardware start working.
While this week saw a worrying scare that could have potentially delayed Linux 6.16, things seem back on track with Torvalds calling for continued testing for the remaining “couple more weeks”. This suggests we will see testing this week before rc7 and then testing for another week before the stable release.
If no big issues crop up, we should see the release of Linux 6.16 on July 27. More bleeding-edge distributions like Fedora and Arch should then release it for their users soon after, while slower distros like Ubuntu will wait until the next big release.
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