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NASA's chief scientist will retire in 2022
NASA chief scientist Jim Green is retiring in 2022 after overseeing projects like the Curiosity rover and New Horizon.
After Math: The best kind of falling star
Gavin McInnes and his gang of Proud Boys, newly minted stars of the Alt-Right, took their first steps back toward irrelevancy this week when they got themselves banned from Facebook. At the same time, we've had to say goodbye to a pair of space-based telescopes (Kepler and Dawn), as they reached the end of their operational lifespans; Roscosmos blamed the recent Soyuz launch failure on a bent sensor pin and Apple announced that it would no longer report the sales numbers for the stars of its product lineup -- iPhones, iPads and Macs -- after it was reported that smartphone sales slumped six percent globally this year.
NASA says goodbye to its Dawn spacecraft after 11 years of service
NASA's Dawn spacecraft has run out of fuel, and its mission has come to an end. Launched in 2007, Dawn orbited the two largest bodies in the main asteroid belt -- Vesta and Ceres -- collecting valuable data that have helped scientists understand how objects formed in the early solar system. "Today, we celebrate the end of our Dawn mission -- its incredible technical achievements, the vital science it gave us and the entire team who enabled the spacecraft to make these discoveries," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said in a statement. "The astounding images and data that Dawn collected from Vesta and Ceres are critical to understanding the history and evolution of our solar system."
NASA's Dawn spacecraft takes a close-up of Ceres' brightest spot
For its final orbit around Ceres, the Dawn spacecraft fired its ion engine possibly for the last time and dove as close to the dwarf planet as possible to fly merely 22 miles above its surface. That's the closest it's ever been to the celestial body -- the lowest altitude it reached before this was 240 miles above the surface -- and as you'd expect, the current orbit is producing some of the closest images of Ceres we've ever seen. Some of those photos are close-ups of the famous Occator Crater, the site of the dwarf planet's most famous bright spot.
Dawn probe spots organic materials on dwarf planet Ceres
Ceres is now officially included the list of celestial bodies where we've found organic molecules. NASA's Dawn scientists have spotted the presence of organic compounds on the dwarf planet using the spacecraft's visible and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIR). They found the organics covering an area measuring around 400 square miles in and around Ceres' northern-hemisphere crater called Ernutet. They also found smaller patches of land with organics several miles east and west of Ernutet, as well as in another crater. That's pretty abundant, considering Christopher Russell (Dawn's principal investigator) said they weren't "expecting to see something like this on the surface of Ceres" at all.
Dwarf planet Ceres is 'oozing' with water
Scientists already knew via remote observations that Ceres, the dwarf planet (or humongous asteroid if you prefer), has plenty of water in it. The Dawn probe has now revealed that the asteroid is composed of as much as 30 percent water at the poles, explaining its ice volcano and weird bright spots. "It's just oozing," Planetary Science Institute's Thomas Prettyman told Nature, adding that you'd "just swipe and find the ice table" at Ceres' northern pole.
NASA says Ceres' brightest crater is made of salt
The scientists in charge of NASA's Dawn spacecraft has released more high-res images of Ceres, along with information that sheds more light on what it's made of. One of the new images is another close-up of its famous Occator Crater taken from a different angle on October 16th, 920 miles above the dwarf planet. Occator is Ceres' brightest spot, and according to the Dawn team's latest research, it's because the crater is made of salt. The team believes the impact that formed the crater forced a briny liquid to seep out from underground. It froze then immediately turned into vapor, leaving a blanket of salt behind.
NASA's closest-ever Ceres photos reveal more odd shapes
NASA's ever-closer inspection of Ceres may have answered some questions, but not all of them... if anything, it might raise a few more. The agency has published its closest-ever photos (240 miles above the surface) of the dwarf planet, and they're revealing details that would have been hard to imagine from further away. Take the crater you see above, for example. It's full of strange, crease-like slopes that researchers believe are the result of collapses while the crater formed. Other snapshots show cracks, probably formed by melting from impacts, and the material (likely salt) that produces Ceres' signature bright spots.
NASA's latest Ceres photo shows a strange, conical mountain
If you were hoping that closer-up photos of Ceres would solve some of the dwarf planet's mysteries... well, you'll have to keep waiting. NASA's Dawn probe has transmitted pictures taken from 915 miles up, and one of them shows an odd, conical mountain jutting out of the landscape. Seriously, it's baffling -- its shiny surface and abrupt angles make it look like it was transplanted on an otherwise soft, cratered surface. There's no explanation for what created it (an ancient collision, perhaps?), but it's clearer than ever that even a seemingly featureless celestial body can hold its share of surprises.
NASA shows what it would be like to fly over Ceres
Humans might not fly over the dwarf planet Ceres any time soon, but that doesn't mean you have to wonder what it would be like to soar over this miniature world. NASA just released a simulated flyover that uses real mapping data to give a new perspective on Ceres. The vertical detail is "exaggerated," the agency says, but the video (below) still gives a good sense of what this alien location is like -- it's a tinier, bumpier version of Earth's Moon. And if the level of detail doesn't impress you at the moment, you'll be glad to hear that the Dawn probe is entering ever-lower orbits that should boost the level of detail. Don't be surprised if later models are nearly as good as being there.
Dawn spacecraft captures a sunlit Ceres on cam
The Dawn spacecraft has recently captured the sharpest pictures of Ceres to date, showing the dwarf planet's bright, sunlit north pole. NASA's space probe has been steadily making its way to the celestial body since 2012 after a 14-month stint orbiting the asteroid Vesta. It fired up its ion thrusters in March to slowly approach the Texas-sized proto-planet and settle into orbit, until it reaches an altitude of 233 miles from the surface. Its ultimate goal? To take 3D images and create a high-res map of Ceres, which might harbor some form of water.
Watch NASA's orbiter approach the dwarf planet Ceres at 1PM ET
The largest object in the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter is Ceres, an odd, water-rich proto-planet roughly the size of Texas (590 miles in diameter). Scientists have long puzzled about the origin of the bright white spot near the equator, which we recently learned is two bright spots. We'll soon know a lot more about it as NASA's Dawn spacecraft has nearly reached Ceres. It's already captured shots of the planet (above) and will soon go into a polar orbit at 13,500 km (8,300 miles) before descending to a survey altitude of 4,430 km (2,800 miles). Eventually, it'll drop as low as 1,480km (950 miles) to capture high resolution mapping data and 3D images of Ceres. Once the mission is over it'll remain the asteroid's orbiting buddy forever.
Scientists puzzled by 'bright spots' on surface of dwarf planet Ceres
As NASA's Dawn spacecraft approaches orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres, researchers aren't sure what's causing the "bright spots" on its surface. The imaging orbiter snapped the above picture from 29,000 miles (46,000 km) away just last week, but until it gets closer for a more detailed picture, the folks at NASA aren't ready to decide the light sources' origin. "The brightest spot continues to be too small to resolve with our camera, but despite its size it is brighter than anything else on Ceres," said Andreas Nathues, a lead investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany. "This is truly unexpected and still a mystery to us."
The Game Archaeologist: Six more MMOs that never made it to launch
It's always possible to be surprised with reveals of older MMOs, even after years of writing this column. For example, I had never heard that Valve was initially working on an MMO called Prospero in the late '90s before we posted on it a couple of weeks ago. It's crazy to me that parts of what could have been a groundbreaking online title were then repurposed for Half-Life and Portal. It's not necessarily bad how things turned out, mind you, but I do get lost wondering what might have been. From time to time here on The Game Archaeologist, I like to turn our attention to MMOs-that-never-were: titles that died before launch thanks to funding shortfalls, studio collapses, or corporate bungling. We've covered titles like Wish, Ultima X, and Middle-earth Online, but today I want to catch up on several titles that have been haunting my list for a while now. So strap in as you get a six-pack of MMOs that were never released!
Perfect Ten: MMO features that were hyped but never delivered
Developers like to talk a big game. It's expected, it's encouraged by all parties, and it's part of the fun. When a game or big expansion is coming up, the spokespeople for studios like to hop on stage, grab that mic, and start proselytizing for all they're worth. And while some promises come to fruition, others are various shades of white lies, and still others never come to be at all. These are the features that studios would much rather you forget were mentioned in the first place, although this is the internet and the internet never forgets. Well, players who latch on to everything devs say as absolute truth never forget. Sometimes things happen along the way in development. Studios run out of time to get in all of the features and have to prioritize which make the cut and which do not. Features end up not testing as well as hoped and the studio quietly drops them because the PR hit for the features not going in is much less than the disaster that they might cause. And some developers like to flap their gums and spout brainstorm ideas that send the actual programmers and designers back at the company into spasms of agony when they try to figure out how to make them work. Today let's go through 10 features that were talked up but never delivered in MMOs!
Jagex pauses Stellar Dawn's development
Word to the wise: Don't put "dawn" into any part of your MMO's name, or else it will get hit by the curse of breaking dawn. Just ask Dawntide, DAWN, and now, Stellar Dawn. Yes, unfortunately it's true. Jagex announced that it's suspending development on Stellar Dawn to make sure the company is in the best position possible by concentrating on Transformers Universe and RuneScape. While the studio was able to shuffle most of Stellar Dawn's team around to new positions, the decision still resulted in the loss of 12 jobs. In a prepared statement, CEO Mark Gerhard was highly complimentary of Stellar Dawn's team and progress. "Jagex has always been committed to developing the highest quality games and services. This is not a decision we have taken lightly; the Stellar Dawn team has achieved a great deal developing the game and should rightly be proud of their achievements so far." Stellar Dawn fans might find hope in the language being used by the team in the forum announcement, as the title's development is described as being "paused" and a "temporary move" instead of being outright cancelled.
The Daily Grind: What MMO will never see the light of day?
MMO veterans probably remember DAWN, an "MMO" planned by Glitchless, which famously spawned the a company is at steak! meme before anyone called them memes. DAWN promised more features than any MMO had ever seen: permadeath, reproduction, player police and prisons, home construction, enforced roleplaying. You name it, Glitchless claimed it'd be in the game. And it would have likely been an amazing sandbox... if it hadn't been a scam meant to fool the gullible. We've all come across games that scream vaporware, even if the developers aren't exactly in on the joke. Today, we want to know what MMO out there has you convinced it'll never actually launch, and why. Is it because of dodgy developers biting off more than they can chew? A skittish publisher with a track record for early cancellations? A naive or dated pricing scheme, graphics set, or understanding of the competition? Whatever the reason, tell us: What upcoming MMO will never see the light of day? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Star Vault releases Mortal Online Dawn features list, new videos
Mortal Online's first expansion was announced a while ago now, and players are still waiting on the mammoth patch to make it to the game's live server. Star Vault is no doubt anxious to placate its ravenous PvP-centric customer base, and the company has released a lengthy changelog on the game's official forums. The listing outlines many of the features forthcoming in the Dawn expansion, but as post author (and Star Vault CEO) Henrik Nystrom writes: "This note may not be final." It's probably a good representation though. As such, let's take a quick look at what Dawn brings to the table. We've got new mechanics including the gene system, task/transport system, and housing friend system. We've also got new mail functionality, dynamic mounts, alchemy and cooking, and a load of bug fixes that we haven't the space to list. You can check out the full changelog on the Mortal forums, and be sure to watch the one-year anniversary and Dawn preview videos after the cut.
The Dawn a bit further off for Mortal Online
When Mortal Online first announced its far-reaching expansion, Dawn, it was a little hard to believe. (The day the news first came out didn't help matters, certainly, as it was announced on April 1st.) But it's a very real thing, and players of the game have no doubt been hotly anticipating its release. Unfortunately, as it turns out, the release date of Dawn has now been pushed back to the end of the month at the earliest and the beginning of June at the latest. So what's behind the delay? The newsletter explains that there was a server issue which required some reworking, with the caveat that the required updates have ensured Dawn will be even better. Mortal Online players can assuage the wait at least a bit by reading the extensive article by Black Opal detailing several of the expansion's features, including explanations of the new gathering system, Task system, and new styles for housing and buildings.
The MMO Report: Surprisingly Commando-free edition
It's the end of the week, and you know what that means! Not only do we get to ramp up to enjoy a weekend full of gaming, but it's also time for the latest edition of The MMO Report. This week Casey takes a moment to look at World of Warcraft's April Fools' Day prank and tackles the discussion of DPS players paying tanks to tag along so they can get into instance groups faster. On a more somber note, Casey notes the layoffs at Sony Online Entertainment, which resulted in the shuttering of three studios and cancellation of The Agency; he also mentions Square-Enix's games coming back online after the recent tsunami in Japan. Also noted is the upcoming Mortal Online: Dawn expansion, which should offer even more gritty, naked PvP fun for all. From there, it's all silliness in Uncle Casey's Mailbag -- complete with some RIFT vs. WoW snaps, yet another edition of strange Schreiner shoops, and more silliness. We're also treated to a quick aside that reveals Casey has awesome taste in music -- much like our own. As always, you can check out this week's episode of The MMO Report tucked behind the break for your sanitary protection or over on the G4TV site every Thursday.
