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(credit: Instagram)

On the heels of announcing that it has reached 500 million active monthly users, Instagram says it will soon add a translation feature to its app. Through a post on the image-sharing app, the company announced that within a month, users will be able to translate image captions, comments, and profile bios using a new translate button.

The Facebook-owned social media app will structure its translations similarly to its parent company. When you come across a post you want to translate into a language that isn't your default language, you can hit the "See Translation" button to convert it into the language you've chosen in your profile's language settings. Both Facebook and Twitter have translation features already, so this addition brings Instagram up to par with its competition in that respect. Considering that 80 percent of Instagram's user base lives outside the United States, this feature will likely be welcomed by many.

There's no word on how many languages Instagram will support with the first rollout of this feature. The company does explain on its Help website that if a translation isn't showing up, it might be because the app doesn't currently support that language or couldn't detect the initial language being used. It also warns users that translations may not be available for older posts. The full translation feature should be ready for most users by July. Here's hoping we'll be able to post in Klingon (@arstechnica) by August.

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Solar Impulse 2 lands at Seville airport, Spain.

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Solar Impulse 2 has landed in Seville, completing the world's first solar-powered crossing of the Atlantic. The 6765km (4,200mi) flight took just shy of three days (71 hours and 8 minutes), taking off from New York three days ago.

Solar Impulse 2, which is slowly making its way back around the world to Abu Dhabi, has two pilots that take turns. The Atlantic hop was Bertrand Piccard's longest flight in Solar Impulse 2. André Borschberg, who piloted the agonisingly drawn-out Nagoya-to-Hawaii leg, still retains the record for longest ever solo flight (8924km over 117 hours and 52 minutes) back in July 2015.

The flights take such a long time because Solar Impulse 2, as the name suggests, is completely powered by sunlight. The plane's massive 72-metre wings (broader than a 747!) are covered in some 269.5 square metres of photovoltaic cells. During the day, the cells power four 14kW (17.4hp) electric motors and top-up four 41kWh lithium-ion batteries. During the evening, the motors are driven by the batteries. Max cruise speed when the sun is up is 49 knots (90km/h), and a rather languid 33 knots (60km/h) at night.

This artist’s impression shows stars orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. It will make its closest approach in 2018, coming to within just 17 light hours. (credit: ESO)

After spending the better part of a decade closely observing the movement of the star S2, which has a mass about 15 times that of the Sun, a team of astrophysicists concluded in 2002 that it orbited the black hole at the center of the galaxy. This is because the orbital dynamics of S2 were extreme, with an orbital period of about 15.5 years and a maximum velocity of 2.5 percent the speed of light. These observations provided the final proof astronomers needed to confirm that the compact radio source Sagitarrius A* was, in fact, that black hole.

Since then astronomers have been keenly interested in the star S2 because its movement can tell them much about the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center. They can also test some ideas about general relativity when the star makes its closest approach to the black hole, within about 17 light hours, in 2018. And now, they have a powerful instrument to do just that.

The European Southern Observatory says its GRAVITY instrument has made its first observations, and they were successful. The instrument employs four 8.2-meter telescopes that are part of the "Very Large Telescope" facility in Chile. By using the telescope's interferometer capabilities, astronomers will be able to obtain ultra-precise positions of the orbiting star.

Webpass radios on a San Francisco building. (credit: Webpass)

Google Fiber has signed a deal to acquire Webpass, a high-speed wireless ISP, Webpass announced yesterday.

"By joining forces, we can accelerate the deployment of superfast Internet connections for customers across the US," Webpass founder Charles Barr wrote. "Webpass will remain focused on rapid deployment of high-speed Internet connections for residential and commercial buildings, primarily using point-to-point wireless."

Google Fiber has yet to comment on the deal, which is expected to close this summer pending regulatory approval. We've contacted Google Fiber to get more information on how the acquisition fits into its expansion plans, and will provide an update if we get one.