The Greek startup Marcos Aerospace has demonstrated the concept of an amphibious unmanned aerial vehicle named Quencher. This development was reported by Aviation Week. Detailed technical specifications of this drone can be found on the company's official website.
The aircraft is designed with a wingspan of 22 meters and a maximum takeoff weight of 12.7 tons. It is capable of carrying up to 4500 liters of water and features a water intake function from bodies of water—lakes, rivers, and seas—in less than fifteen seconds.
The drone's power plant is planned as a single turboprop engine mounted on top, with a power output of three thousand horsepower. According to calculations, the aircraft's cruising speed will be 360 kilometers per hour, and its autonomous flight time will be 4.5 hours.
A key feature of the Quencher is its ability to perform missions at night by utilizing data obtained from radar, lidar, and satellite navigation. The control system is equipped with artificial intelligence elements, allowing one ground operator to control up to five such machines simultaneously, intervening in the process only when necessary.
Microsoft is promoting an initiative to discourage the use of SMS messages as a user authentication method. Recently, the company sent a communication to IT administrators, advising the suspension of this method in user verification to mitigate risks of cyberattacks. As an alternative, Microsoft suggests adopting passkeys.
It is quite common for two-factor authentication codes, recovery passwords, or direct access to be sent to users via SMS. However, security experts do not endorse this practice, since the content of SMS messages is transmitted in plain text format, which facilitates the capture of the code if the message is intercepted.
This interception can occur through malicious software or through social engineering tactics, where the attacker convinces the user to reveal the code. Additionally, Microsoft points to the emergence of artificial intelligence as an aggravating factor in this scenario.
In the email sent to administrators, which Windows Latest obtained access to, the company emphasizes that 'the age of AI demands stronger and phishing-resistant authentication.' AI has not generated new types of threats, but rather raised the level of sophistication and effectiveness of existing attack methods, such as the rapid creation of fraudulent pages in the name of companies using generative AI tools.
Microsoft announced that starting February 1, 2027, it will stop allowing SMS authentication in Entra ID, its cloud-based identity and access management service (formerly known as Azure Active Directory). Instead, the company recommends registering a passkey, a system considered more secure because it uses native device functionalities, such as facial recognition, fingerprint, or PIN entry, to confirm identity.
To facilitate this transition, Microsoft will notify organizations that use SMS or voice for authentication in Entra ID, requesting that they activate passkeys starting September 1, 2026. In addition to corporations, Microsoft is also taking measures to abandon SMS in authentication or account recovery intended for home users.
Google announced on Friday (14th) that it has introduced a feature allowing users to remove the visible watermark from materials created by its artificial intelligence (AI) models. This new option covers images, videos, and music, but the change does not affect the invisible tagging systems used by the corporation to track AI-generated content.
The company itself clarifies that removing the apparent marking does not compromise SynthID, which is Google's invisible watermarking system, nor the metadata aligned with the C2PA standard, which serves to attest to the origin of digital assets.
Josh Woodward, Vice President of Gemini, stated in a post on the X platform that this feature will be available in the Nano Banana, Omni, and Lyria models. Users can configure this option in both Gemini and Google's video editor, called Flow; support for Google Search will be implemented at a later stage.
This modification signals a new strategy by Google to handle the identification of AI-produced content. Although visible watermarks help indicate that material was created by AI, they can simultaneously reduce the utility of this content in professional and creative contexts.
According to Woodward, the company's intention is to establish a balance between ensuring freedom of content use and maintaining necessary identification mechanisms. He emphasized: 'We are finding a balance between creative control and safety: although visible watermarks are now optional, the invisible SynthID watermarks and C2PA metadata continue to be used for transparency. Thus, it is still possible to use Gemini or Search to verify if an image was generated by AI.'
The implementation of this new alternative will occur gradually in the coming days. Once active, the user will have access to the option via the path Settings > Media Watermark to enable or disable the visual identification of generated content.
Even while allowing the removal of the visible marking, Google assures that the content will remain equipped with mechanisms that allow for the identification of its origin. SynthID embeds a hidden watermark in the content, while metadata following the C2PA standard provides data about the file's origin. Therefore, the absence of the visual warning does not imply that the content will lose its ability to be recognized as AI creation.
Google itself confirms that users can use Gemini or Search to confirm if an image was generated by AI. In addition to the change in watermarks, the company released the open-source code for a new library called Credentio, which will allow developers to integrate local validation mechanisms into their own applications.
Google's decision comes during a period of intense debate about the best methodology for identifying AI-generated content. For example, the recent decision by Anthropic to incorporate a watermark into texts and files generated by Claude is cited, aiming to comply with European Union (EU) regulations.
NASA is about to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will carry a 300-megapixel supercamera into space. This equipment has the capacity to map vast expanses of the sky in high definition, marking a significant shift in the scale of astronomical investigations.
Scheduled for launch on August 30, the observatory is expected to collect an unprecedented volume of data and images related to galaxies, stars, and planets located outside the Solar System. The expectation is that this will increase knowledge about the evolution of the Universe and pave the way for future research in the search for Earth-like worlds.
The telescope's name honors astronomer Nancy Grace Roman (1925–2018), recognized as one of the central figures in the conception of NASA's space telescope program. She was the agency's first chief of astronomy and dedicated herself to persuading authorities and scientists about the relevance of installing observatories outside the Earth's atmosphere.
This effort paved the way for missions like Hubble, which was launched in 1990. For her contributions, Roman earned the nickname 'Mother of Hubble.' Years later, her name was chosen to name this new telescope, which has an ambitious, albeit distinct, proposal.
The development of this observatory involved collaboration from the Goddard Space Flight Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI).
In recent weeks, the equipment structure underwent a series of rigorous tests to ensure its resistance to the harsh space environment. The telescope was exposed to strong mechanical vibrations, noise tests simulating the intense sound of a rocket during takeoff, and thermal vacuum chambers, which verified its durability against extreme temperature variations.
After being approved in all safety phases, the telescope will be sent into space aboard the powerful SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, departing from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
According to NASA's planning, after launch, Roman will head to the second Lagrange point, known as L2. This area is located about 1.5 million kilometers from the planet, representing almost four times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon.
This location provides a crucial advantage for an observatory of this size. By aligning the Sun and Earth in the same direction relative to the telescope, a large shield can block most of the heat and light radiation from these celestial bodies. This helps maintain the instruments under ideal operating conditions and minimizes interference during observations. L2 is also used by the James Webb Space Telescope, which operates in the same region.
Roman's main technological advancement lies in the Wide Field Instrument (WFI), a colossal camera with a resolution of 300 megapixels. The distinction from Hubble can be simplified: while Hubble is notable for recording extremely fine details in relatively small areas of the sky, Roman will offer a much broader perspective.
Each image captured by Roman can cover an area approximately one hundred times larger than that observed by Hubble with comparable resolution. Furthermore, its survey speed will be much higher, enabling it to map the sky up to a thousand times faster in certain observations. In five years of operation, the mission will analyze a much larger area than Hubble covered over decades. The telescope will be capable of recording supernova explosions at the moment they occur, as well as documenting neutron star collisions and capturing fast radio bursts (FRBs), providing vital data on the most violent events in the cosmos.
Roman will also play a relevant role in the study of exoplanets, which are worlds orbiting stars other than the Sun. One of the technologies employed will be the coronagraph, an instrument designed to obscure part of a star's light, facilitating the visualization of much less luminous objects near it.
The operational principle is analogous to placing a barrier in front of an extremely intense light source. Since a star can be millions of times brighter than an adjacent planet, its brilliance usually obscures the object. Participating in the Space View program, astrobiologist Raíssa Estrela, a researcher at JPL, detailed how this technology works. She explained that the coronagraph serves to block the light of the host star, allowing the observation of light reflected by the orbiting planets. According to her, with this type of observatory, it will be possible to image the planetary system itself.
Raíssa emphasized that this is the great differential of the equipment. She stated that it will move away from indirect measurement, as currently done with James Webb, to allow direct imaging of the planets.
Another method to be used is gravitational microlensing. In this scenario, the gravitational attraction of a star or any massive body curves the surrounding spacetime, deflecting the path of light coming from a more distant source, acting as a natural lens. Researcher Leandro de Almeida, from the Astrophysics Division of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), clarified the physical phenomenon during his participation in Space View. He described that light travels in a straight line in curved spacetime; when passing an object of large mass, the beam is deflected and changes course. The observer perceives this as the star being in a different position, which is called an image.
By analyzing these modifications in light, scientists can identify objects that would otherwise be extremely difficult to detect. Raíssa stressed that Roman was not designed to directly identify signs of life on small, rocky, Earth-like planets. Its focus will be more directed towards populations of exoplanets, including larger worlds, as well as the general structure and evolution of the Universe.
However, the technology developed for this mission will be fundamental for the future. As the specialist pointed out, the use of the coronagraph and Roman's population data will serve as preparation for the next decades of exploration. She mentioned that we do not yet have the technology to detect molecules in atmospheres like Earth's, a 'Terra 2.0', but the mission is creating the scenario for a space telescope capable of such science to exist in a few years.
The researcher reinforced that the mission will pave the way for the search for habitable planets. Although Roman studies other planets, its focus will be more on gas giants. The technology will not reach the level of characterizing planets like Earth, but it will bring the necessary knowledge about the direct imaging of exoplanets, which will be used by the Habitable Worlds Observatory for smaller planets. Thus, it constitutes the first step on this journey toward characterizing Earth-type planets.
Therefore, Roman transcends the function of merely being a giant space camera. By integrating a wide field of view, high resolution, advanced observation methods, and processing of large volumes of data, the mission has the potential to revolutionize the way scientists study the cosmos. More than generating remarkable images, the new telescope will help answer fundamental questions about the transformation of the Universe over time, the number of worlds beyond the Solar System, and the potential advancement of humanity in the search for environments similar to ours.
