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09/30/2026: Trending Milder for the end of the Week  NEWS10 ABC

Trending Topics with Kimberly Young!  FOX 2

Wisconsin's 2 Los Angeles-Based Opponents are Trending in Opposite Directions  Sports Illustrated

Which NFL veteran additions are trending up and down after Week 3? Kyler Murray, Nakobe Dean and more  The New York Times

1. The AI Tamagotchis are coming  The Verge
2. Mark Zuckerberg says Meta will lead on smart glasses privacy despite ‘pervert glasses’ criticism  NBC News
3. Meta’s VR Glasses Are What the Apple Vision Pro Should Have Been  Bloomberg.com
4. Introducing Ray-Ban Meta Audio and More AI Glasses Styles  meta.com
5. Meta's Radically Thinner, More Lightweight VR Glasses  Core77

Amazon Debuts Faster Fire TV Stick 4K With Sleeker Remote  Bloomberg.comSee more headlines & perspectives on Google News

1. Instagram rolls out an AI video assistant for creators  techcrunch.com
2. Instagram rolls out an AI video editor for creators  techcrunch.com
3. Instagram is adding an AI ‘assistant’ to tell you how to post  The Verge
4. Meta Introduces A New AI Assistant For Its Instagram Creators  Engadget
5. Instagram’s Edits App Gains AI Creative Assistant for US Users  Unite.AI

1. Google details Gems to skills migration, including free access  9to5Google
2. Let skills in Gemini tackle your most repetitive tasks  blog.google
3. Google is killing off Gemini’s Gems in favor of ‘skills’  techcrunch.com
4. Gemini app replacing Gems with skills in November  9to5Google
5. Your Gemini Gems are getting a powerful makeover this November  Android Police

1. Samsung gives its two-year-old Galaxy Tab S Plus an overhaul  The Verge
2. Samsung reveals next-gen Galaxy Tab tablets and Smart Tag  Mashable
3. Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra Review: The Apex Android Tablet  Engadget
4. Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra and Galaxy Tab S12+ debut - GSMArena.com news  GSMArena.com
5. Samsung Debuts Galaxy Tab S12: Here Are My Hands-On First Impressions  CNET

Galaxies, vast collections of billions of stars, gas, and dust held together by gravity, are scattered across the immensity of space. But every so often, a coincidence occurs: Two galaxies line up from our point of view on Earth (or from a space telescope) and appear to overlap in the sky. These rare overlapping galaxies give astronomers a chance to study something normally difficult to see: the dust inside one of these distant cosmic objects. That’s the focus of NASA’s new Overlap Zoo project.

Picture the background galaxy acting like a cosmic flashlight, shining through the nearer galaxy. The backlit dust creates dark silhouettes, like shadows on a screen. By studying these silhouettes, astronomers can map how dust is distributed throughout galaxies and learn how it blocks, scatters, and dims starlight traveling through space. Measurements of how dust impacts light can even help astronomers refine estimates of the distances to faraway objects.

However, before we can study galaxy pairs and their dust, we first need to find them! Overlap Zoo is asking for your help with the search. 

“As new and better observations of galaxies continue to multiply, it is becoming incredibly difficult for astronomers to classify every candidate galaxy pair,” said Trevor Butrum, Overlap Zoo project lead and graduate student. “Your help is invaluable to creating the biggest and cleanest catalog of overlapping galaxy pairs for further analysis.”

As a volunteer in Overlap Zoo, you’ll view images that volunteers in the Galaxy Zoo project have identified as containing possible overlapping galaxies. The Overlap Zoo project will teach you how to verify the presence of galaxy pairs in these images, classify key features of each galaxy, and mark their outlines. You’ll learn as you go, classifying as many of these images as you like. Your contributions will help build the first large-scale catalog of galaxy pairs suitable for dust studies and enable a huge step forward in accuracy of astronomical estimates.

Head over to Overlap Zoo and start classifying galaxies today. No prior experience needed – just curiosity and a few minutes of your time. Your observations will help unlock the secrets hidden in these rare cosmic alignments!

NASA selected three new scientific investigations and their payload suites to advance our knowledge of the Moon and help pave the way for building humanity’s first lunar outpost, Moon Base.

The suite of science instruments and technologies was selected through NASA’s Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) program and will fly to the lunar surface using the CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative as part of the agency’s Moon Base Program. The payloads will help researchers understand lunar resources, map natural shelters, and assess environmental hazards, laying the foundational groundwork for a safe and sustained human presence under the agency’s Artemis and Moon Base programs. 

“NASA Science is building the ultimate interplanetary survival guide to ensure that science goes first to the lunar surface to provide our future astronaut crews with the vital information, resources, and safety precautions needed ahead of time to survive the night on the Moon,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “These PRISM selections will directly help NASA minimize risks to our astronauts while maximizing our agency goals as we set up humanity’s first lunar outpost in preparation for sending the first astronauts to Mars.”

The three payload suites are:

Lunar Environment Monitoring Station – South Pole (LEMS-SP):

• The autonomous LEMS-SP instrument suite will serve as a long-term environmental and hazard monitoring station. The instrument will be designed to help build a picture of the lunar environment by monitoring falling micrometeoroids and tracking the abundance of volatiles, or materials that can easily shift into gas, that drift into the Moon’s thin outer layer of gases. Using a short‑period seismometer to detect seismic events, the instrument could deliver the critical hazard assessments needed to ensure the physical safety of Moon Base hardware.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Mehdi Benna, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

 Geophysical Investigation for Mapping Lunar Interior (GIMLI):  

• The GIMLI payload will be deployed at the Marius Hills Pit on the lunar surface to hunt for subterranean lava tubes and aid in our understanding of fundamental lunar volcanic processes. The payload will scan beneath the Moon’s surface to see whether the Marius Hills Pit leads into a large underground lava tube. If it does, these natural underground spaces could offer future astronauts ready‑made protection from extreme temperatures and harmful radiation — important groundwork for safe, long‑term living on the Moon. Confirming these void spaces now could shift future habitat planning, offering natural, ready-made shelters that provide crucial thermal stability and shielding from deadly ionizing radiation and micrometeoroid bombardment.  

Principal Investigator: Dr. Nathaniel Putzig, Planetary Science Institute

Distribution of Ice and Surface Characteristics Observatory (DISCO):  

• The DISCO payload will provide the first direct, on-the-ground measurements of ice hidden in lunar micro-cold traps and also will lay the groundwork for lunar resource utilization and surface operations. The payload will study how the lunar surface behaves, from how rocket exhaust disturbs the ground to how stable it is for mobility, while also pinpointing where ice exists and how much of it is there. Together, this information will help NASA design safe surface operations and develop the technologies needed to turn ice into a usable resource for the future Moon Base.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Ariel Deutsch, NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley

“Each new PRISM selection strengthens our ability to deliver ambitious, transformative science to the lunar surface,” said Brad Bailey, director of the Exploration Science Strategy Integration Office in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “These investigations exemplify how Artemis and Moon Base are expanding the frontier of lunar exploration, advancing innovative technologies, deepening our understanding of the Moon’s environment, and paving the way for future astronaut missions.”

NASA is increasing its cadence of lunar missions to build a Moon Base, delivering science investigations and technology payloads that contribute to American scientific preeminence, strengthen a sustained presence on the Moon, and advance future human exploration.

NASA’s CLPS initiative supports the Moon Base Program, as the agency works with American companies to deliver scientific, exploration, and technology payloads to the Moon’s surface and orbit.

For more information, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/lunar-science

-end-

Tiffany Blake
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546
tiffany.n.blake@nasa.gov

NASA has awarded Modulate Space Corporation a contract to develop key elements of a 5G communications system for use on the lunar surface with built-in Wi-Fi 6, for NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

This accelerated effort is organized into two primary work areas that together will develop a scalable, standards-based communications capability designed to support future Moon Base surface operations.

The 5G System and Lunar Surface Communications Evaluation and Radio Propagation Measurements contract is a firm-fixed-price contract with a value of approximately $38 million. The performance period for the 5G Network-in-a-Box Development and Lab Demonstration runs from Thursday, Oct. 1, through Jan. 31, 2028. The performance period for the Lunar 5G and Wi-Fi Integrated Surface Network and Flight Demonstration on the Lunar Surface runs from Monday, Nov. 30, through Dec. 31, 2028.

Through these demonstrations, NASA will acquire technology development of hardware, firmware, and software needed to advance the integrated lunar communications system. This effort will give NASA insight into the system architecture and operational performance while providing the flexibility needed to evolve the technology for future lunar surface communications.

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov

-end-

Jennifer Dooren
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
jennifer.m.dooren@nasa.gov

Shauntina Lilly
Glenn Research Center, Cleveland
216-973-6415
shauntina.d.lilly@nasa.gov

NASA, CSA (Canadian Space Agency), and the German Aerospace Center signed a joint statement of intent to begin coordinated, preparatory work toward an Earth-based demonstrator to learn how to grow crops on the Moon, which will be essential to helping astronauts go farther and stay longer in space.

The Lunar Agriculture Module-Ground Test Demonstrator aims to develop the technologies needed to grow space crops and study how they perform under atmospheres and controlled environments similar to those expected during missions at Moon Base. Through Moon Base, NASA and its partners will build the infrastructure to support an enduring human presence near the Moon’s South Pole, advancing science and technology while preparing for future human missions to Mars.

Space crops will provide deep space crews with whole-food nutrition and increase dietary variety.  They can also absorb carbon dioxide, produce oxygen, and recycle water. These capabilities will become increasingly important as human missions extend farther from our home planet.

This long-duration image shows star trails above Earth and the blue lights of fishing boats and the yellow lights of Indonesian cities stretching below the International Space Station as it orbited 258 miles above the Banda Sea on Sept. 20, 2026.

Image credit: NASA/Anil Menon

Flow Engineering, which is bringing AI agents to hardware design, also landed Roelof Botha as an angel investor and board member.

VC Chris Degnan and former board advisor to Factory AI has taken a job as chief revenue officer for Cognition.

Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s Neko Health raised $700 million to build a business around scanning your body, but it’s not the only company centering its roadmap around a new kind of preventative healthcare. Midjourney is building its own body scanner, while Function Health has also raised significant capital to build out its preventative-health platform. Why are investors betting so big on this category?  On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, […]

The Department of Defense notified millions of current and former U.S. military personnel that their personal information had been stolen in a months-long breach.

DoorDash unveiled the six-propeller aircraft that will be used in its new drone delivery business at its annual Dash Forward 2026 event.