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Astronomers discover a 'lost world' of black hole mergers: 'It's the astronomical equivalent of uncovering an ancient civilization'

Astronomers have struck “black gold” — a treasure trove of black hole mergers. And the discovery was made by analyzing ripples in the very fabric of space and time, or spacetime, called gravitational waves. This massive haul of mergers contained within the Gravitational Wave Transient Catalogue-5.0 (GWTC-5), released on Tuesday (May 26), could change our understanding of how black holes…
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Red dwarf stars are cosmic killers that eat their own planets

Astronomers have discovered the first signs that tiny red dwarf stars can devour their own planets. Scientists had previously suspected that red dwarfs, which are considerably smaller and dimmer than the sun, could consume their own planetary systems — but evidence has been elusive. Until now, that is. Researchers have used data from the Gaia-ESO Spectroscopic (GES) survey to discover red…
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A 'lost planet' may have given Jupiter and Uranus their moons

For years, astronomers have suspected that our solar system may have lost at least one world at some point in its 4.5-billion-year history. And now, new research suggests the moons of Jupiter and Uranus may indeed hint that our planetary neighborhood once had a third ice…
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Most powerful 'ghost particle' ever may have come from a cosmic particle accelerator fed by a black hole

Scientists have discovered an ultra-powerful “ghost particle” or neutrino, which struck Earth and was detected in the Mediterranean Sea in 2023, may have been blasted at Earth by blazars powered by a feasting black hole engine. Blazars are a type of quasar, the regions at the hearts of galaxies that host feeding supermassive black holes and discharge powerful jets of radiation. Blazars are…
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Russian cosmonauts install sun-watching telescope on ISS during 6-hour spacewalk

Two Russian cosmonauts worked to install and retrieve science experiments while on a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Wednesday (May 27). Expedition 74 commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and flight engineer Sergei Mikaev spent 6 hours and 5 minutes outside the space station, conducting an extravehicular activity (EVA) that ran from 10:18 a.m. to 4:23 p.m. EDT (1418 to 2023 GMT).
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