The unfortunate star was shredded to pieces. The black hole shreds the star into thin strands, which it wraps around itself like a ball of yarn. For the first time, astronomers have caught a glimpse of a star being “spaghettified” as a supermassive black hole rips it apart. AfterContinue Reading
Debris from the 20-metric-ton booster reportedly splashed down in the Indian Ocean north of the Maldives The Chinese rocket has come down. The 23-ton core stage of a Long March 5B booster crashed back to Earth Saturday night (May 8), ending 10 controversial days aloft that captured the attention ofContinue Reading
A new model cuts through the chaos to reach the best-yet predictions of complex gravitational interactions Physicists have spent centuries grappling with an inconvenient truth about nature: Faced with three stars on a collision course, astronomers could measure their locations and velocities in nanometers and milliseconds and it wouldn’t beContinue Reading
An emerging cancer therapy could someday shorten the time patients spend in treatment and improve their overall outcomes. Someday, specialized systems could barrage cancer patients with particles to deliver a full course of radiation therapy in mere microseconds, new research suggests. Using an emerging technique known as flash radiotherapy, doctorsContinue Reading
The galaxy cluster Abell 1689 is famous for the way it bends light in a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. Study of the cluster has revealed secrets about how dark energy shapes the universe. (Image: © NASA, ESA, E. Jullo (JPL/LAM), P. Natarajan (Yale) and J-P. Kneib (LAM)) A new studyContinue Reading
Here’s how the famous Iron Age ‘Heslington brain’ got preserved. Scientists are amazed that a human brain could persist for 2,600 years. (Image: © Axel Petzold/Journal of the Royal Society Interface) In 2008, archaeologists were stunned to discover a human brain dating to the Iron Age. The finding seemed toContinue Reading
The sharp images clearly show which buildings were reduced to ruin and rubble. A closeup of the wreckage at Iraq’s al-Asad airbase, as captured on Jan. 8, 2020, by one of Planet’s SkySat satellites. (Image: © Planet Labs Inc.) You don’t have to be on the ground in Iraq toContinue Reading
The flashy abdomens of male peacock spiders may serve a very important purpose. This design on the abdomen of a peacock spider resembles the face of a mantis. Do you see it? (Image: © Jurgen Otto) AUSTIN, Texas — Male peacock spiders have the ultimate challenge to contend with whenContinue Reading