NASA’s asteroid defence mission slowed targets by 1.7 inches per hour
You gotta start somewhere, and in this case astroboffins would have been nowhere without help from intrepid volunteers
NASA has published new analysis of its 2022 planetary defense test that suggests the mission slowed down the target asteroids, albeit infinitesimally.…
Pete Hegseth guarantees Iran will 'surrender' and Trump will set the terms as US destroys their military: Live updates
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth guaranteed on Sunday night that Iran will 'surrender,' and President Donald Trump will set the terms of their defeat.
Two heroes who were among the first responders in Bondi terrorist attack - James McIntosh and Alexandra Edmondson - fall in love and will marry this year
Romance was the last thing on the minds of Bondi content creator James McIntosh, 46, and physiotherapist Alexandra 'Lexi' Edmondson, 35. December 14 changed their lives forever.
Scientists Just Doubled Our Catalog of Black Hole and Neutron Star Collisions
Colliding black holes were detected through spacetime ripples for the first time in 2015 by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), notes Space.com:
Since then, LIGO and its partner gravitational wave detectors Virgo in Italy and KAGRA (Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector) in Japan have detected a multitude of gravitational waves from colliding black holes, merging neutron stars, and even the odd "mixed merger" between a black hole and a neutron star... During the first three observing runs of LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA, scientists had only "heard" 90 potential gravitational wave sources.
But now they've published new data from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration that includes 128 more gravitatational wave sources — some incredibly distant:
[Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog-4.0, or GWTC-4] was collected during the fourth observational run of these gravitational wave detectors, which was conducted between May 2023 and Jan. 2024... Excitingly, GWTC-4 could technically have been even larger, as around 170 other gravitational wave detections made by LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA haven't yet made their way into the catalog.
One aspect of GWTC-4 that really stands out is the variety of events that created these signals. Within this catalog are gravitational waves from mergers between the heaviest black hole binaries yet, each about 130 times as massive as the sun, lopsided mergers between black holes with seriously mismatched masses, and black holes that are spinning at incredible speeds of around 40% the speed of light. In these cases, scientists think the extreme characteristics of the black holes involved in these mergers are the result of prior collisions, providing evidence of merger chains that explain how some black holes grow to masses billions of times that of the sun... GWTC-4 also includes two new mixed mergers involving black holes and neutron stars.
[LVK member Daniel Williams, of the University of Glasgow in the U.K., said in their statement] "We are really pushing the edges, and are seeing things that are more massive, spinning faster, and are more astrophysically interesting and unusual." The catalog also demonstrates just how sensitive the LVK detectors have become. Some of the neutron star mergers occurred up to 1 billion light-years away, while some of the black hole mergers occurred up to 10 billion light-years away.
Einstein's theory of general relativity can be tested with these detections, and "So far, the theory is passing all our tests," says LVK member Aaron Zimmerman, of the University of Texas at Austin. "But we're also learning that we have to make even more accurate predictions to keep up with all the data the universe is giving us." And LVK member Rachel Gray, a lecturer at the University of Glasgow, says "every merging black hole gives us a measurement of the Hubble constant, and by combining all of the gravitational wave sources together, we can vastly improve how accurate this measurement is."
In short, says LVK member Lucy Thomas of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), "Each new gravitational-wave detection allows us to unlock another piece of the universe's puzzle in ways we couldn't just a decade ago."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Huge fire yards from Scotland's busiest station causes chaos: Glasgow Central is closed 'until further notice' with all services cancelled as vape shop inferno causes historic building to collapse
The fire has sparked chaos for rail passengers and drivers after Scotland's biggest city came to a standstill.
Moment brazen knife-wielding thief grabs woman's £5,000 bike from London coffee shop before police show up - but only to buy a round of drinks
Steve Bassi, 71, said the theft was 'beyond the pale' and claimed police took more than an hour to arrive afterwards, though other uniformed officers came to order drinks in the meantime.
Ian Huntley told woman pen pal 'I've had a lot to deal with lately' in letter written eight days before double child killer was fatally struck by 3ft metal pole in jail
The Soham murderer became one of Britain's most infamous criminals after murdering ten-year-old schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002.
Rihanna's Beverly Hills home targeted in shooting as woman is arrested after firing multiple shots while singer was inside
A woman was taken into custody after firing multiple shots from her car toward the singer's house.
Unmasked: Cycling club president who knocked girl, 5, to the ground - as he breaks silence to blame HER for not moving out of his way and moan that her father made him 'look very bad' by posting video online
A video of the incident which occurred in Belgium on Christmas Day in 2020 has since been viewed tens of millions of times globally - but the culprit's identity has always remained secret.
One in three of Whitehall blob moans about workload and barely half are 'proud' to be civil servant, survey finds, sparking accusations of 'rotten culture'
Just 64 per cent of civil servants said their workload was 'acceptable', with more than one in four saying they don't have a 'good' work-life balance.
Calamity Lammy has lost his way on Cyprus now: ANDREW PIERCE
Gaffe-prone David Lammy has done it again. For more than a year, he was Foreign Secretary, Britain's diplomat in chief on the world stage.
Kinahans caught on film in Dubai: Two of the world's most wanted drug lords are seen for the first time in years at MMA bout
As the head of a global organised crime group he is one of the world's most wanted criminals, and has reportedly received anti-surveillance training to conceal his identity.
How nanny Mabel was the King's real mother figure - and they stayed so close Diana refused to let her look after William
RICHARD KAY: Outside his own family Mabel Anderson is the only woman who has loved King Charles all his life. She was his nanny as far back as he can remember - and before that too.
Fraudster conned elderly victims out of £11million by hosting hotel savings seminars
More than 100 victims of Steven Long suffered 'profound harm' after transferring money to his Universal Wealth Preservation fund.
Princess Andre, 18, admits she has her 'guard up' with dating after her mum Katie's tumultuous love life: 'She's had so many people do her wrong...'
Princess Andre opened up about her struggles with dating on the first episode of season two of her ITV show Princess Diaries on Sunday night.
'Killjoy' Greens want to abolish zoos and force every dog owner to have a licence
According to policy documents on the party's website, it wishes to introduce more red tape for the owners of Britain's 13.5 million dogs and make parks return their animals to the wild.
Moment Green Party MP Hannah Spencer is forced into the back of a police car after violent brawl amid trans rights protest in Manchester
The newly elected MP for Gorton and Denton had just spoken at the launch of Greater Manchester's Together Alliance - a group 'against the far Right' - when the incident occurred.
Queen Charlotte really was black, Bridgerton star insists
A Bridgerton star has reignited the controversy over whether George III's wife Queen Charlotte, who is depicted in the Regency-era drama, was black in real life.
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS weekend TV review: A female 007? The Capture's Holliday Grainger would be my first choice...
Some people are easily bored. Paapa Essiedu, it appears, really can't be bothered with sequels. He stars in one series, then gets himself violently written out at the start of the next.
Ewe must be joking! Council says 'no sir, no sir' to illuminated 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' roundabout sculpture after locals called the plans 'ridiculous'
East Riding of Yorkshire Council said the sculpture would be dangerous because it would distract drivers and could be used as a 'take-off ramp' for daredevil drivers.