Katie Holmes’s Fall Wardrobe Includes a Double Whammy of Trending Accessories  Vogue

4 Fantasy Football Players Trending Up & Down: Week 8 (2026)  FantasyPros

Pinay Sam Medel is a popular Filipina TikToker who became a trending topic after the  Vantage Data Centers

Mammoth trending upwards since franchise established in Utah  NHL.com

Lions' Jared Goff, Wife Christen Show Off 'Waterboy' Halloween Costumes in Trending Video, Photos  Bleacher Report

1. Assassin’s Creed Franchise Update Reveals Codename Hexe News Coming Next Year, New Game Plus for Valhalla, And Confirms No New Remakes  Game Informer
2. Assassin's Creed: Fall 2026 Update  Ubisoft
3. Assassin's Creed Valhalla Is Finally Getting its New Game+ Mode, Nearly 6 Years After Coming Out  IGN
4. Don't Expect More Assassin's Creed Remakes Anytime Soon  Engadget
5. Ubisoft Issues Official Update on Fate of Future Assassin's Creed Remakes  Polygon.com

1. How macOS Adapts Its Controls for Touch on the New MacBook Pro  MacRumors
2. Apple Unveils Its First Touch-Screen MacBook Pro  The New York Times
3. The Touchscreen MacBook Is Here. For Me, It’s Wait Till Next Year  CNET
4. First Look: I Uncovered Everything New About the M6 iMac So You Don't Have To  PCMag
5. Apple finally combined a toaster and a refrigerator  The Verge

1. Microsoft fixes a Windows 11 annoyance as PC revenue declines  Ars Technica
2. A crashed Windows 11 PC no longer means hunting for a USB recovery drive  Windows Central
3. Windows 11’s right-click menu is revamped. You can customize it now  PCWorld
4. Microsoft Ships the Week D Preview Updates for Windows 11  Thurrott.com
5. Windows 11 is finally letting you fix one of its most annoying menus  How-To Geek

1. Apple VP talks new iPad mini: OLED without ProMotion, Acoustic Display, more  9to5Mac
2. Hands-on with the new OLED iPad Mini  The Verge
3. Apple gives iPad mini its biggest update ever  Apple
4. Apple Executive Comments on New iPad Mini Lacking 120Hz Display  MacRumors
5. Everything Apple Announced This Week: All About OLED, MacBooks And A Touchscreen  Engadget

1. Latest Gemini design comes to all Android devices, app upgrades file generation  9to5Google
2. You can now generate, preview, and edit documents, PDFs, presentations, spreadsheets, and more directly in Gemini.  blog.google
3. You can generate and edit Google Docs files directly in Gemini chats now  The Verge
4. Google Gemini can now create and edit PDFs, documents, and more right inside your chat  Digital Trends
5. Google brings richer document editing to Gemini on mobile and the web  Android Authority

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.

Although no ghouls, goblins, or trick-or-treaters come knocking at the International Space Station’s front hatch, crew members aboard the orbiting laboratory still like to get in the Halloween spirit. Whether individually or as an entire crew, they dress up in sometimes spooky, sometimes scary, but always creative costumes, often designed from materials available aboard the space station.  

Take a look at how the station crews have celebrated in years past.

Follow the astronauts aboard the space station to see how they celebrate holidays in space.

The space station remains a vital scientific platform, providing the foundation needed to survive and thrive as humanity ventures into the unexplored territories of our universe. 

Explore stories, images, and research from more than 25 years of continuous human presence aboard the space station.  

https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/iss25

Waymo will begin testing self-driving versions of Toyota's electric bZ4X vehicles in Japan next year as part of a broader partnership with the automaker.

David Durman, a University of Kentucky administrator, recently earned a religious exemption from using AI in the workplace.

The success of blockbuster hits like "Project Hail Mary" and "Verity" is only part of the story, Amazon's CEO says.

Amazon wants to be the king of AI cloud computing and become the first $1 trillion revenue business. But to do that it will have to continue on its capex spending spree, its CEO said Thursday.

Some estimates say hackers stole billions in crypto from Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, during a cyberattack on Thursday.