europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

This is the largest high-resolution photo ever made of our Milky Way galaxy’s centre in visible light. It was taken on 23 March 2025 by the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope. Packed with more than 60 million stars, this image opens the door for scientists to confirm the existence of any exoplanet found in this region and measure its mass using tiny changes in starlight over time.

The galactic bulge – the central region of our galaxy – is a vast, tightly packed structure filled mainly with old, cooler stars, giving it its characteristic yellow colour. Seen from some 26 000 light-years away, Euclid observes the galaxy’s centre through a complex foreground of material along its line of sight.

This ultra-wide view towards the bulge reveals not only stars, but also seemingly empty dark regions. The dark patches are not devoid of stars: they mark dense, dust-rich molecular clouds that absorb and scatter light from the bulge behind them. As Euclid looks through two of the Milky Way’s spiral arms, it also encounters regions of active star formation, traced by newly formed, massive blue stars. Their intense ultraviolet radiation ionises surrounding hydrogen gas, producing the faint red glow clearly visible in one of the cutouts.

Click here to download the version of this image with the rough edges from the detector pattern.

Read more about this image here.

Explore this image at the highest resolution in ESASky.

[Image description: A dense field of tiny stars fills this square image taken by the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope. The lower and central areas are dominated by bright yellow and gold colours, forming a textured background similar to fine glitter or sand. Dark brown and black patches cut irregularly through the yellow regions, like ink stains or clouds of smoke. Toward the upper left, the colours shift to purple and reddish tones, blending gently into the surrounding star field. Small blue points of light are scattered across the image.]

Technical details: The Euclid galactic bulge survey was conducted in early 2025 using Euclid’s optical camera VIS (monochromatic, one colour). These are first and foremost Euclid images, defined by Euclid’s crisp resolution and spectacularly wide field of view; the colours were added using observations captured in the summer of 2025 with the Canada-France-Hawai'i Telescope's MegaCam camera (CFHT-Megacam) in Hawai’i. The colours captured by MegaCam are in optical light through three broad-band filters (u, g, and r) overlapping the very broad VIS band over the r-band. The appearance of the most luminous stars in these images looks different than those generated from Euclid-only images, with additional diffraction spikes and a subtle halo around the very bright stars. This a consequence of combining Euclid VIS data, for their sensitivity and sharpness, and CFHT-MegaCam for the colours. Subtle differences in optical design of the two telescopes become apparent for the brighter objects.

Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CFHT, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre and E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay); CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

This six-gigapixel view of the galactic bulge is the largest high-resolution photo ever made of our Milky Way galaxy’s centre in visible light. It was taken on 23 March 2025 by the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope.

This version shows the full survey area, with edge effects from the 3x3 pointing pattern of Euclid's visible camera.

Euclid covered 4.8 square degrees of the sky with this image, corresponding to 22 times the area of the full Moon as seen from Earth. The image has been rotated counterclockwise compared to the celestial projection: north is to the left and east is down.

Read more about this image here.

Explore this image at the highest resolution in ESASky.

[Image description: A dense field of tiny stars fills this wide image taken by the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope. The image has an irregular, patchwork shape, with jagged edges and black gaps around the borders. The lower and central areas are dominated by bright yellow and gold colours, forming a textured background similar to fine glitter or sand. Dark brown and black patches cut irregularly through the yellow regions, like ink stains or clouds of smoke. Across the upper part of the image, the colours shift to deeper brown, reddish, and purplish tones, blending into the surrounding star field. Small blue points of light are scattered across the image.]

Technical details: The Euclid galactic bulge survey was conducted in early 2025 using Euclid’s optical camera VIS (monochromatic, one colour). These are first and foremost Euclid images, defined by Euclid’s crisp resolution and spectacularly wide field of view; the colours were added using observations captured in the summer of 2025 with the Canada-France-Hawai'i Telescope's MegaCam camera (CFHT-Megacam) in Hawai’i. The colours captured by MegaCam are in optical light through three broad-band filters (u, g, and r) overlapping the very broad VIS band over the r-band. The appearance of the most luminous stars in these images looks different than those generated from Euclid-only images, with additional diffraction spikes and a subtle halo around the very bright stars. This a consequence of combining Euclid VIS data, for their sensitivity and sharpness, and CFHT-MegaCam for the colours. Subtle differences in optical design of the two telescopes become apparent for the brighter objects.

Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CFHT, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre and E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay); CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

This image shows an area of the observations of the galactic bulge, made by the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope. The galactic bulge – the central region of our galaxy – is a vast, tightly packed structure filled mainly with old, cooler stars, giving it its characteristic yellow colour.

The area is zoomed in ten times compared to the full image.

Explore this image at the highest resolution in ESASky.

Read more about this image here.

[Image description: A very dense field of tiny, closely packed points of light fills the image. The colour is almost uniform, dominated by bright yellow and gold tones across the entire frame. Small white points appear slightly brighter here and there, with a few faint bluish points scattered among them. No large dark patches or strong colour variations are visible, giving the image a smooth, grain‑like appearance.]

Technical details: The Euclid galactic bulge survey was conducted in early 2025 using Euclid’s optical camera VIS (monochromatic, one colour). These are first and foremost Euclid images, defined by Euclid’s crisp resolution and spectacularly wide field of view; the colours were added using observations captured in the summer of 2025 with the Canada-France-Hawai'i Telescope's MegaCam camera (CFHT-Megacam) in Hawai’i. The colours captured by MegaCam are in optical light through three broad-band filters (u, g, and r) overlapping the very broad VIS band over the r-band. The appearance of the most luminous stars in these images looks different than those generated from Euclid-only images, with additional diffraction spikes and a subtle halo around the very bright stars. This a consequence of combining Euclid VIS data, for their sensitivity and sharpness, and CFHT-MegaCam for the colours. Subtle differences in optical design of the two telescopes become apparent for the brighter objects.

Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CFHT, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre and E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay); CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

This image shows an area of the observations of the galactic bulge, made by the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope. A dense molecular cloud in the foreground, called LDN 10, obscures the light from the galactic bulge (yellow).

The area is zoomed in ten times compared to the full image.

Explore this image at the highest resolution in ESASky.

Read more about this image here.

[Image description: A dense field of tiny, closely packed points of light fills the image. Most of the background is bright yellow and gold. A broad, irregular dark band runs diagonally across the centre, forming connected black and dark-brown patches. Brighter clusters of pale yellow and white points appear above and below this dark band, with a few slightly bluish points scattered throughout.]

Technical details: The Euclid galactic bulge survey was conducted in early 2025 using Euclid’s optical camera VIS (monochromatic, one colour). These are first and foremost Euclid images, defined by Euclid’s crisp resolution and spectacularly wide field of view; the colours were added using observations captured in the summer of 2025 with the Canada-France-Hawai'i Telescope's MegaCam camera (CFHT-Megacam) in Hawai’i. The colours captured by MegaCam are in optical light through three broad-band filters (u, g, and r) overlapping the very broad VIS band over the r-band. The appearance of the most luminous stars in these images looks different than those generated from Euclid-only images, with additional diffraction spikes and a subtle halo around the very bright stars. This a consequence of combining Euclid VIS data, for their sensitivity and sharpness, and CFHT-MegaCam for the colours. Subtle differences in optical design of the two telescopes become apparent for the brighter objects.

Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CFHT, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre and E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay); CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

This 16:9 cutout is taken from the largest high-resolution photo ever made of the centre of our Milky Way galaxy in visible light. It was captured on 23 March 2025 by the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope. A full view of the complete image is available here.

On the right side of the image, Euclid looks through the dense foreground of the Milky Way’s galactic plane, where thick molecular clouds appear as dark patches that obscure parts of the galactic bulge beyond. Moving towards the left, the view rises to higher galactic latitudes: the yellow glow of the bulge becomes clearer, with fewer and more isolated foreground clouds interrupting the starlight.

Read more about this image here.

[Image description: A wide, horizontal view shows a densely packed field of tiny stars. The left side is dominated by bright yellow and gold colours, with only a few dark patches interrupting the glow. Moving towards the right, the image becomes darker and more mottled, with larger irregular black and brown areas cutting into the star-filled background. Subtle purple and reddish tones appear toward the upper right, while small blue points of light are scattered across the scene.]

Technical details: The Euclid galactic bulge survey was conducted in early 2025 using Euclid’s optical camera VIS (monochromatic, one colour). These are first and foremost Euclid images, defined by Euclid’s crisp resolution and spectacularly wide field of view; the colours were added using observations captured in the summer of 2025 with the Canada-France-Hawai'i Telescope's MegaCam camera (CFHT-Megacam) in Hawai’i. The colours captured by MegaCam are in optical light through three broad-band filters (u, g, and r) overlapping the very broad VIS band over the r-band. The appearance of the most luminous stars in these images looks different than those generated from Euclid-only images, with additional diffraction spikes and a subtle halo around the very bright stars. This a consequence of combining Euclid VIS data, for their sensitivity and sharpness, and CFHT-MegaCam for the colours. Subtle differences in optical design of the two telescopes become apparent for the brighter objects.

Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CFHT, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre and E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay); CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Miranda and Eisa Davis’s concept album based on the 1979 film is to be realised for the stage, co-directed by Jenny Koons and Hamilton’s Andy Blankenbuehler

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis’s concept album based on The Warriors, the cult novel and film about warring New York gangs, is to become a Broadway musical next year.

The album, Warriors, was released to critical acclaim in 2024 and followed the eponymous Coney Island clan’s odyssey back to the Bronx after being falsely accused of killing the leader of the city’s biggest gang. The original story was written by Sol Yurick, whose 1965 book was inspired by Xenophon’s ancient epic Anabasis, and it became a Walter Hill action film in 1979.

Remain voters recall how they dealt with division over 2016 referendum – and how they feel about their loved ones now

Ten years on from the EU referendum, we asked people how their voting experience had affected their relationships with friends and family.

Some spoke of painful family divisions that emerged between leave and remain voters, while others shared how, despite their political differences, they were able to move on with magnanimity.

Goed nieuws: er lijkt eindelijk een oplossing te zijn voor het stikstofprobleem in Nederland. Dat maakte de veesector vandaag bekend. Om de veestapel te halveren moeten we hem opeten.

“Het is eigenlijk raar dat we er niet eerder op gekomen zijn, want als je de oplossing zo op papier ziet staan, lijkt het heel eenvoudig. De stikstofuitstoot kan omlaag door de veestapel te halveren, dat wisten we natuurlijk al een tijdje en daar werd ook om gevraagd door de politiek. Maar de vraag was altijd: hoe? Daar is nu eindelijk het antwoord op: opeten”, zegt voorzitter van LTO Nederland Ger Koopmans. “Wat mij betreft starten we daar vandaag al mee. Het is namelijk heerlijk barbecueweer.”

Boer Erik schrok in eerste instantie van de gepresenteerde oplossing. “Wat blijft er hier straks over op het platteland als we al die koeien beginnen op te eten? Ik probeer mijn veestapel juist al jaren te verdubbelen.”

Toen hij even later hoorde hoe de hooivork in de steel zat, draaide hij bij. “Gooi die extra biefstuk, XXL-frikandel of welk ander stuntvlees dan ook vanmiddag nog in je boodschappenmandje, want alleen samen halveren we de veestapel. Voor nu.”

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The hackers that stole a large cache of data from Madison Square Garden called a low level employee and tricked them into letting the hackers into MSG’s systems, according to the hackers and 404 Media’s review of the stolen data.

The breach highlights the risk of social engineering over voice calls, sometimes called ‘vishing’. Whereas phishing, where hackers social engineer someone over email or send them a fake login page, has been common for decades, vishing has only become prevalent more recently, especially as young and native English speaking hackers have become a serious cybersecurity threat.

“Employee vishing on their Microsoft Entra,” a member of the hacking group behind the MSG breach, called ShinyHunters, told 404 Media when asked to explain how the group got in. Microsoft Entra is Microsoft’s identity management product, similar to Okta, which lets employees log into whatever tools or services they need to at work.

Last week 404 Media reported hackers had uploaded data stolen from MSG. A sample 404 Media reviewed at the time included files mentioning Knicks-related personalities, with fields such as “address,” “claim to fame,” and “cost of talent.” In some cases the data included a risk score for certain celebrities, with actor, director and Knicks fan Ben Stiller described as “Low Risk” and rapper Boogie with da Hoodie marked “High Risk.”

Since then 404 Media downloaded the full 45GB data dump and found the contents of a specific MSG employee’s OneDrive. It included work documents, photos, screenshots, and other attachments. A folder called “Personal,” contained the employee’s W-2 form, which included their name and other personal information. This indicated that the breach may have originated from this specific employee. 404 Media found a LinkedIn profile under the same name showing this person worked at MSG. 404 Media is not naming the employee for their privacy.

404 Media then asked a member of ShinyHunters how the group breached MSG. The member provided this employee’s name.

When 404 Media asked the ShinyHunters member to elaborate on how the group compromised MSG, they pointed to a May blog post from Microsoft, which they said was “about us.” That post described what Microsoft called a “methodical, sophisticated, and multi-layered attack.” It details another attack—the blog post was published May 18 and the ShinyHunters member said the MSG hack happened on June 5—but there are similarities.

The Microsoft blog post says hackers first targeted specific people to get their Microsoft Entra credentials. The hackers started the Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) process, and then tricked users into completing the multifactor authentication prompts that appear legitimate, Microsoft said. “For example, the threat actor might impersonate an internal information technology (IT) support representative and contact the user claiming that their account requires urgent verification, instructing them to approve MFA prompts as part of a routine password reset procedure,” the blog post reads. 

Once in, the hackers can then pivot onto other apps or systems where data may be stored. In MSG’s case, the dump includes data taken from a SharePoint instance, Microsoft’s sharing and collaboration platform.

The ShinyHunters member didn’t elaborate beyond the blog post, but told 404 Media: “​​We called the employee and had them do the SSPR process,” referring specifically to the MSG hack. 

Law firm Morgan and Morgan has filed a class action lawsuit related to the breach, arguing MSG’s surveillance of visitors led to it. When asked if ShinyHunters targeted MSG because of the venue’s surveillance practices, the member said, “Yes we thought they would pay for that reason but they surprisingly did not.”

MSG did not respond to a request for comment.

404 Media reported this week the data dump contained a dossier on activists who had opposed MSG’s facial recognition program.

Consulting giant Accenture is trying to figure out how to stop non-technical workers from blowing through companies’ AI token budget on trivial tasks like converting PDFs to presentation slides, according to leaked audio obtained by 404 Media. Across the industry Accenture is seeing “soaring token spend,” according to the audio.

The news highlights a major shift in the tech industry and other companies that use AI: the wave of uninhibited AI growth is over. Some AI providers like GitHub are now charging customers per token rather than a flat subscription fee, leading some companies to burn through their tokens. Uber recently capped employees’ use of AI tools like Claude Code and Cursor; that came after Uber told employees to use AI as much as possible and Uber’s CTO said the company had blown its entire AI budget in four months. And Accenture itself reportedly started requiring senior staff to start using AI or risk losing out on promotions. 

It also undercuts the narrative that superpowered engineers generating mountains of code are behind the AI boom. In many cases it is non-technical staff burning through tokens for non-specialized tasks.

“We’re seeing from some of the data internally at least that it’s actually not our engineers that are driving the token consumption. It’s a lot of the non-engineers that are doing some of those behaviors [...] you were talking about,” Justice Kwak, Accenture’s agentic AI strategy lead, said in a recent internal meeting, according to the audio obtained by 404 Media.

At one point in the meeting, Kwak and Eduardo Salamanca de Diego, senior manager of product management at the company’s Center for Advanced AI, start presenting about what is described as “token ops.”

Kwak says he knows people aren’t using slides these days, but he has some. As he appears to be preparing to present, Stuart Henderson, Accenture’s client group lead, interrupts. He jokes he hopes Kwak didn’t just convert a PDF into images and then into markdown files. “I’m learning that’s one of the big token chewers,” Henderson says. “Turning PDFs into markdown: is that right?”

That’s when Kwak says that’s what Accenture’s own data shows. 

“What we’re seeing right now is just rapid escalation in AI token spend,” he says “As companies start to scale AI, moving from like simple chatbots into use cases that feature agentic workflows and automation and then enterprise-wide deployment of some of these tools like Copilot, Claude Code, and Codex, we’re hitting this inflection point where AI is becoming material to the cost structure; spend is becoming very unpredictable; and leadership, especially at the CFO, COO, and CIO level, are still asking the question of whether they’re getting value from what we’re spending on in the context of AI.”

“It’s really not a niche problem. It is a problem that every enterprise will face if they are bullish on AI, if they haven’t already,” he adds. The amount of token spending is increasing “exponentially, as more and more people are starting to use AI.”

Kwak says after Accenture tried to get enterprises to adopt AI as quickly as possible, AI has reached scale in most areas in both Accenture and its clients. But with that scale is a new opportunity for Accenture regarding its clients: “to really think about token economics.” The bill of the overall AI spend is visible, Kwok explains, but attributing that AI spend at the token level to the value outcomes on the projects where AI is being used is not visible. 

Finally, the “controls are just arriving too late.” Those are things that might stop someone spending a bunch of money on tokens, like budgeting or different tiers.

Following the Financial Times’ reporting of Accenture’s policy to force AI adoption or risk missing promotions, an Accenture spokesperson told CNBC, “Our strategy is to be the reinvention partner of choice for our clients and to be the most client-focused, AI-enabled, great place to work. That requires the adoption of the latest tools and technologies to serve our clients most effectively.”

Kwak says Accenture plans to formally launch a product called “Token IQ” soon. Accenture did not respond to a request for comment.

As 404 Media has reported, some startups have bragged about how much they’ve spent on AI instead of human workers. Walmart also capped its staff’s use of AI tools following high demand.

Tesla Launches New Model Of Explosions. “What’s different about the XP is that they’ve actually borrowed some of the same technology used by SpaceX, incorporating it as well as a whole slew of other safety features that are basically non-existent.”

Amsterdam. Ondernemers, zzp'ers, mkb'ers die een werkbusje bezitten en in de stad wonen zijn richting de afgrond gedreven en kapot gepest met die haastige geldingsdrang om het groenste jochie van de klas te willen zijn: elektrische busjes zijn voor veel eenpitters en kleine bedrijfjes onbetaalbaar, de occassionmarkt moet nog op gang komen, de eerste generatie busjes heeft het bereik van een pak melk, enzovoorts. Maar hey, wat PRO- en D66-figuren hebben in ruil voor een paar kapotte bedrijfjes en wat zelfmoordjes van mensen die de rekeningen net meer konden betalen een aantal groene vinkjes op het cv kunnen zetten. Gefeliciteerd he Zita Pels! Ondernemers, zzp'ers en mkb'ers van buiten de stad komen gewoon niet meer opdagen; zo gaf de grootste thuisinstallateur Feenstra er de brui aan.

Een van die magistrale ideeën van automotive klungel Melanie van der Horst (D66) was een KLUSHUB: de werkbus parkeren bij een overstappunt en dan de stad in met een deel-Biro. WAT BLIJKT NU? In de praktijk is het voor werklui heel erg lastig iedere dag een Sortimo-inrichting over te bouwen in een Biro, lukt het zonnepaneelinstallateurs niet om zonnepalen+omvormers+ladders in de kattenbak van een deelwagen te proppen, kunnen steigerbouwers de steigers niet op hun rug dragen, is het voor dakdekkers onmogelijk om branders+gasflessen+dakbedekking mee te nemen op de fiets en past de nieuwe dakkapel voor de uitbouw helemaal niet in de Biro. Daar had bij de gemeente Amsterdam natuurlijk helemaal niemand aan gedacht en dus is de klushub: geflopt. 'Slechts drie bedrijven werden klant' en dat vinden we nog veel. Héél erg benieuwd wat het volgende plannetje is van PRO, D66 en de 22.000 rovers. Toch die Haarlemse Handkar proberen?

Euh euh euh DE KAR

NABATIEH (ANP/AFP) - De Israëlische krijgsmacht (IDF) zegt een luchtaanval te hebben uitgevoerd in het zuiden van Libanon. Die zou zijn gericht op twee Hezbollah-leden die "een bedreiging vormden" voor Israëlische troepen in de buurt.

Het is de afgelopen dagen relatief rustig in Libanon, nadat Hezbollah en Israël vrijdag een staakt-het-vuren waren overeengekomen. Toch zijn er sindsdien nog Israëlische aanvallen geweest en doden gevallen.

De situatie in Zuid-Libanon staat onder spanning, omdat de voorlopige overeenkomst tussen Iran en de Verenigde Staten deels afhangt van het bestand in Libanon. Iran heeft geëist dat Israël zijn aanvallen stopzet. Ook de VS hebben daarop aangedrongen.

Maar Israël weigert voorlopig om te vertrekken uit het zuiden van Libanon en zegt te blijven strijden tegen Hezbollah. De IDF zei na de aanval van woensdag nog door te gaan "met het nemen van maatregelen om onmiddellijke bedreigingen weg te nemen".