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A NASA Spacecraft Found Signs of Water Inside an Asteroid

Data from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission reveals that water mixed in with clay minerals has been discovered in the asteroid Bennu.

As reported by NASA, the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft made this discovery during the mission’s approach phase between mid-August and early December, about 1.4 million miles (2.2 million km) into its journey from Earth, just about 12 miles (19km) from Bennu itself.

At this point, data was was obtained using the OSIRIS-REx OVIRS (Osiris Visible and Infrared Spectrometer) and OTES (Osiris Thermal Emission Spectrometer) revealing the presence of molecules containing oxygen and hydrogen atoms bonded together, otherwise known as hydroxyls.

GameStop Winter Sale Drops Prices On PS4, Xbox One, And Nintendo Switch Games

The gift-giving holidays are over, but retailers still need to pay the rent. To help urge you to open your wallet as one year ends and another begins, GameStop is running its Winter Sale, which sees prices dropping on all kinds of PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch games. Read on to see what’s on sale between now and January 1.

For starters, if you buy two pre-owned games, you’ll get one free. The PlayStation Classic just released on December 3 for $100, but the plug-and-play console is already down to $60. No matter which system you have, you can grab the newest toys-to-life game on the market, Starlink: Battle for Atlas, for just $40. And if you trade in select games, you’ll get $20 off any new game or pre-order.

A good number of games are on sale this week, including many recent releases that are available for up to half off. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Battlefield V, Hitman 2, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider are available for $30 each only months or weeks after release. Also, $35 gets you Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, which is quite a deal on one of the year’s biggest titles.

PS4 owners can grab Spider-Man for $40 or Tetris Effect for $30. If Xbox One is your preferred console, you can pick up Forza Horizon 4 for $40. Nintendo Switch owners can get Diablo III: Eternal Collection or Sid Meier’s Civilization VI for $50 each. And if you missed out on Middle-earth: Shadow of War on PS4 or Xbox One, it can be yours for just $10.

You’ll find more of our picks below, or you can check out the full list of game discounts here.

PS4

Xbox One

Switch

How to Max a Pokemon’s Stats with Candy in Pokemon: Let’s Go

Use these special treats to power up your Pokemon.

How to Unlock Inferno in Soul Calibur 6

Don’t miss out on obtaining Soul Calibur 6’s only hidden character.

NBA 2K’s Mike Wang ‘Immediately Regretted’ Jumping Ship to EA

In the world of video games, especially with massive companies like 2K Sports and EA, it’s incredibly rare to hear a developer admit they “immediately regretted” jumping from one company to the next. That’s just what happened on this month’s episode of IGN Unfiltered, where editor Ryan McCaffrey spoke with NBA 2K gameplay director Mike Wang.

Wang accepted a position at NBA 2K developer Visual Concepts just as NBA 2K6 was wrapping up development. Wang stayed on through NBA 2K7 and 2K8 before making the decision to jump ship to 2K Sports’ biggest rival, EA’s NBA Live, which was trailing behind 2K in critical reception at the time. It wasn’t simply a matter of money, though. Wang’s reasoning was practically Machiavellian.

See Which Anime Were Watched Most in 2018 on Crunchyroll by Country

Crunchyroll released its data on the most-watched anime by country in 2018 exclusively to IGN, and it turns out a large number of its users are fans of shonen.

In the slideshow below you can view Crunchyroll’s infographics on the most-watched anime by country.

Here are all the anime shown in the infographics:

My Hero Academia
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Black Clover
Darling in the Franxx
Hanebado!
Citrus
Dragon Ball Super
One Piece
Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody
Megalobox
The Ancient Magus’ Bride

Electronic ‘Skin’ Could Help Future Prosthetics Feel Pressure and Temperature

Scientists are working on developing electronic skin for human-machine interactions such as prosthetic devices, robotics, wearable health monitors, and virtual reality, reported by Science Daily and sourced by the American Chemical Society.

Electronic skins would allow sensations similar to nerves in the human body to be felt, such as pressure and temperature changes.

An ultra thin, stretchable form of electronic skin was in a recent report in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces by researchers. A challenge scientists are finding is keeping the flexibility for movement while putting an ultra thin electrical circuit onto a complex 3D surface.

Best And Worst Movie And TV Reboots, Adaptations, And Remakes Of 2018

For better or worse, Hollywood is not very interested in entirely original movies. For decades, the big studios have played it safe by using existing, popular properties on which to base their movies and TV shows, whether it’s sequels, remakes, reboots, or adaptations. And while it’s a shame that more original product isn’t made–after all, even Star Wars and Ghostbusters were new once–you can understand Hollywood’s reluctance. With theater attendances falling over the past two decades and increasing competition from the big streaming services, a recognisable pre-existing franchise or property that has previously proven popular with audiences is a lot safer if you’re spending millions of dollars to get it to the screen.

As with every year, 2018 has offered plenty of remakes, reboots, and adaptations of varying quality. This year saw some long-running but dormant classic movie franchises return to the big screen. After decades of mediocre sequels and divisive remakes, the Halloween series was brought back to life with incredible success, which will inevitably lead to more sequels. Unfortunately the same could not be said of The Predator, which flopped at the box office, left most fans distinctly unimpressed, and probably killed the franchise for some time.

There were a variety of book adaptations too, from classics such as The Haunting of Hill House to modern favourites like Annihilation and Mortal Engines. Plus some older and foreign-language TV shows were reworked for modern American audiences. Of course, there were plenty of average remakes as well–movies and TV shows that, while entertaining, added little new to the existing material. So as entertaining as Lost in Space and A Star is Born were, they’re not included here. But there were some undisputed stand-outs and others that really are best avoided–let’s looks at the best and worst adaptations, reboots, and remakes of 2018…

Netflix’s Diablero Is Demonic Fun

This is a spoiler-free review for the first season of Diablero, which is currently available to stream on Netflix.

Movies about demons are a dime a dozen, but in researching where the progenitor of demonic televisions shows started, the seed seems to be rooted in the CW’s long-running series Supernatural. Since that time, demons, Satan, and the interplay between Earth and the spirit plane has been grist for so many television shows it boggles the mind. The fad is working its way into foreign-language shows now, and Netflix’s latest series, the Spanish-speaking Diablero, draws heavily from its US imitators. That’s not to say it’s a copycat — despite a hokey story that hits every familiar beat in the Necronomicon these shows utilize, the characters’ tenacity makes the show’s eight episodes a breeze, despite the dark content.

How To Train Your Dragon 3 Is A Sad And Satisfying Ending To The Franchise, Star Says

It’s been nearly nine years since the first How to Train Your Dragon film arrived in theaters, launching an animated franchise that has spun off into sequels, a TV series, and a number of short films. Now, with February’s How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,, the adventures of Hiccup and his best dragon friend Toothless are coming to an end.

This third and final movie–for now, at least–will give fans a closure that a lot of other franchises don’t get the luxury having. “I think they’re gonna be simultaneously sad and satisfied,” star Jay Baruchel, who voices Hiccup in the films and TV series, told GameSpot.

It’s not just the fans that will have to come to terms with the end of the franchise, though. Baruchel himself is saying goodbye to a character he’s played longer than any other. “It’s hard not to get a bit kind of wistful, a bit melancholy,” he said. “You know, I auditioned for this movie when I was shooting a movie called Tropic Thunder… There’s very few things I’ve done for this long. I’ve been a son for 36 years. Been an actor for 20 some odd [years]. [I’ve] never played a part for as long as I played Hiccup. So it’s gonna be [melancholic] to say goodbye.”

Still, as producer Brad Lewis explained to GameSpot, it’s best to go out on top. “When you fall in love with characters and you fall in love with a world in a story, obviously, you don’t want that to end,” he said. “At the same time, you also don’t want it to get cheap. You don’t want it to feel artificially extended, and relationships start to meander, right? You want it to have an intense emotional focus. So, for me, the great thing is we’ve been really focused on taking this trilogy and having these characters and these stories really have a conclusion to them.”

Like Baruchel, though, Lewis expects there to be a bit of sadness from the audience, now that it’s coming to a close. “Like all great endings, there’s bittersweet aspects to it,” he teased. “There’s things that you’re happy about, things that you wish emotionally that were really tough to accept. But that’s, you know… if we can do that to an audience, then we’ve really done our job.”

How to Trains Your Dragon: The Hidden World hits theaters on February 22.