Stars are disappearing before our eyes – and faster than we thought

Published

3 years ago

January 20, 2023

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Stars are disappearing before our eyes at a faster rate than originally thought, with almost a third of people around the world now unable to see any at all, according to new research.

While the unaided human eye should be able to spot several thousand stars on a clear, dark night, our view of our home galaxy – the Milky Way – and dozens of intricate constellations is rapidly being lost.

Due to light pollution, it is estimated that 30% of people worldwide have been robbed of their nightly view.

The startling figure comes via analysis from a citizen science programme called Globe at Night, which published its findings in the journal Science.

NOIRLab, a US research centre for nighttime astronomy, runs the study, which projects that a child born today in a place where 250 stars are visible would only be able to see 100 by the time they turn 18.

Astronomer Connie Walker said the findings underscore “the importance of redoubling our efforts” to protect the nighttime sky from a phenomenon dubbed “sky glow”.

What is sky glow?

Sky glow refers to the illumination of the night sky beyond that caused by natural sources, like stars or the moon.

It has long been known to be a problem, but Globe at Night’s observations suggest it is increasing far more quickly than shown in satellite measurements of the Earth’s brightness at night.

The study is based on crowdsourced reports from all over the world, with people submitting their findings online.

They are then shown a number of star maps and record which one best matches what they can see in the sky, providing an estimate of what’s known as “the naked eye limiting magnitude”.

This is a measure of how bright an object must be in order to be seen, and estimates the brightness of sky glow.

Globe at Night’s findings are based on more than 50,000 observations submitted from Europe and North America between 2011 and 2022.

Why should we be concerned?

Light pollution doesn’t just spoil the view of the sky, it can also impact our health – and that of wildlife.

This is because it disrupts the natural cyclical transition from sunlight to starlight that we and other organisms have evolved alongside – and sky glow is anything but natural.

Humans have generally had an awe-inspiring view of the starry night sky throughout history, but the path we are on now means that an ever-increasing number of people are losing out.

The loss of visible stars reported by Globe at Night indicates an increase in sky brightness of 9.6% per year over the past decade, much more than the 2% measured by satellites.

“This shows that existing satellites aren’t sufficient to study how Earth’s night is changing,” said study lead author Christopher Kyba, of the German Research Centre for Geosciences.

And while the new findings are focused on the western world, the paper notes that the sky is likely brightening more quickly in developing countries, where the prevalence of artificial lighting is growing at a higher rate.

“The increase in sky glow over the past decade underscores the importance of redoubling our efforts and developing new strategies to protect dark skies,” said Connie Walker.

“The Globe at Night dataset is indispensable in our ongoing evaluation of changes in sky glow, and we encourage everyone who can to get involved to help protect the starry night sky.”

US

Trump and Putin’s first meeting in years does not necessarily mean a ceasefire in Ukraine

Published

6 hours ago

August 8, 2025

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Trump and Putin's first meeting in years does not necessarily mean a ceasefire in Ukraine

It could be diplomatic dynamite.

The first meeting between a sitting US and Russian president in more than four years, following one of the bleakest periods in the history of their countries’ bilateral relations.

But a Putin–Trump summit does not necessarily mean there will be a ceasefire.

Ukraine war latest: Kremlin aide’s full statement on Trump-Putin talks

On the one hand, it could signal that a point of agreement has been reached and a face-to-face meeting is needed to seal the deal.

That has always been Russia’s stance. It’s consistently said it would only meet at a presidential level if there’s something to agree on.

On the other hand, there might not be anything substantive. It might just be for show.

It might just be the latest attempt by the Kremlin to diffuse Donald Trump’s anger and dodge his deadline to end the war by Friday or face sanctions.

It would give Trump something that can be presented as progress, but in reality, it delivers anything but.

After all, there has certainly not been any sign that Moscow is willing to soften its negotiating position or step back from its goals on the battlefield.

Tellingly, perhaps, it’s this latter view which has been taken by some of the Russian press on Thursday.

“Putin won” is the headline in Moskovsky Komsomolets regarding the Kremlin leader’s meeting with Witkoff.

The state-run tabloid quotes a political scientist, Marat Bashirov, who claims Putin “bought time” ahead of Friday’s deadline.

“It is noteworthy that in his rhetoric [on sanctions] Trump did not mention Russia at all,” the paper notes.

Komsomolskaya Pravda is similarly dismissive.

“Donald Trump has two simple interests in connection with Ukraine: to earn money for America, and political whistles and the Nobel Peace Prize for himself,” it says.

“Russia has its own interests,” it adds, “securing them is what Vladimir Putin will seek at a meeting with Trump.”

At this stage, the most likely location is the United Arab Emirates. Putin met the country’s president in the Kremlin today, and afterwards said it would be a “suitable location”. It felt like a strong hint.

And the UAE certainly makes sense.

It’s played mediator for a number of the prisoner swaps between Russia and Ukraine; it has good relations with the US (and was one of Trump’s stops on his recent Middle East tour); and most importantly for Moscow, it’s not a member of the International Criminal Court. So Putin doesn’t have to worry about being arrested.

But if NBC’s reports are correct, that a Putin-Trump summit is conditional on the Russian president meeting with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, then the summit may not happen at all.

Until now, Putin has refused to meet Zelenskyy, despite numerous demands from Kyiv, because he views him as illegitimate.

The Kremlin said the prospect of a trilateral meeting between the leaders was mentioned by Witkoff on Wednesday, but the proposal was left “completely without comment” by Russia.

US

OpenAI releases long-awaited GPT-5 AI chatbot upgrade

Published

6 hours ago

August 8, 2025

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OpenAI releases long-awaited GPT-5 AI chatbot upgrade

GPT-5, the long-awaited upgrade to the ChatGPT AI chatbot, has been released by its maker OpenAI.

It has been one of the most highly anticipated launches in Silicon Valley after OpenAI’s first offering ChatGPT – powered by its GPT-3 model – kick-started the current AI boom in late 2022.

“GPT-3 sort of felt like talking to a high school student,” said Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive.

“GPT-4, maybe it was like talking to a college student. But with GPT-5, now it’s like talking to an expert, a PhD-level expert in anything, any area you need, on demand.”

At the launch event, OpenAI claimed the new chatbot, which will be released to all ChatGPT users on Thursday, was more than a simple upgrade to its previous offerings.

According to OpenAI, the new model exceeds the chatbot competition from the likes of Google, X and Antropic on “benchmarks” – standardised tests used to rank models.

OpenAI claims it has been designed to be easier and more natural to communicate with, better at writing prose and advanced computer code, solving academic questions from mathematics to law, assisting with healthcare-related questions, as well as being safer than its predecessors.

“It’s an incredible superpower on demand,” claimed Mr Altman.

The model is also more intelligent in how it uses its own brain power – and therefore an expensive computing resource – according to OpenAI.

It is a hybrid of previous chatbots and slower, more computing-intensive “reasoning” models like OpenAI’s Deep Research.

Based on a user’s request, the model will decide how much “thinking” is required before answering, rather than requiring the user to switch between different models.

Although AI enthusiasts who had been expecting GPT-5 to represent “artificial general intelligence [AGI]” will be disappointed.

Despite this being OpenAI’s stated goal, Mr Altman billed GPT-5 as a “major upgrade” to GPT-4 and a “significant step along the path to AGI”.

But they’re clearly not there yet.

A real test of GPT-5 will be whether it sells.

OpenAI is projected to spend $8bn (£6bn) this year, on top of $5bn (£3.7bn) last year, and while it is expected to make a profit this year, the business case for increasingly powerful AI models is still not clear to many investors.

Given a single training run for GPT-5 is rumoured to have cost $500m (£373m), there will be an expectation the new model is significantly more useful to business users.

Despite a very slick demonstration of its coding skills at the launch presentation, where it built an online language learning game in seconds, GPT-5 will have to prove its worth for professional coding.

Many in the tech industry prefer Anthropic AI’s Claude model to write code. OpenAI and its investors will be hoping GPT-5 changes that.

AI experts will also be testing GPT-5’s tendency to “hallucinate”, an issue OpenAI claims to have improved with GPT-5.

But erroneous or bizarre answers are a problem that dogs all large generative AI models.

“Shiny things are always fun to play with, and I fully expect GPT-5 to be the shiniest so far,” said Gary Marcus, a cognitive scientist at New York University and AI commentator.

“But that doesn’t mean that it is a critical step on the optimal path to AI that we can trust,” Mr Marcus added in a post.

US

Ex-Superman Dean Cain to join ICE ‘ASAP’ to ‘save America’

Published

6 hours ago

August 8, 2025

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Ex-Superman Dean Cain to join ICE 'ASAP' to 'save America'

Dean Cain has been branded the “worst superman ever” as he announced he will join the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “ASAP”.

The 59-year-old, who was cast as Superman in the TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, announced he had joined the team amid the federal agency’s unprecedented immigration raids.

He told Fox News on Wednesday his recruitment video on Instagram had gone viral and since then, “I have spoken with some of the officials over at ICE and I will be sworn in as an ICE agent ASAP”.

“You can defend your homeland and get great benefits,” he said in the Instagram post where he appealed for his followers to join ICE.

Speaking with the Superman theme song in the background, he said “hundreds of thousands of criminals” had been arrested since US President Donald Trump took office.

He then told his followers they would get a series of benefits if they joined ICE, including a $50,000 (£37,407) signing bonus and student loan repayment.

“If you want to help save America ICE is arresting the worst of the worst and removing them from America’s streets,” he said, before adding: “I voted for that.”

ICE agents are under pressure from the White House to boost their deportation numbers in line with Mr Trump’s campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration.

Cain’s post on Instagram received some backlash, with one user commenting: “Worst superman ever”.

Another said: “Shame on you Dean – that’s the most un-Superman thing you could possibly advocate.”

One fan turned against him and said: “Until I saw this I was such a fan. What a sad human being you must be.”