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XMM-Newton sees comet 3I/ATLAS in X-ray light

The European Space Agency’s X-ray space observatory XMM-Newton observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on 3 December for around 20 hours. During that time, the comet was about 282–285 million km from the spacecraft.

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NASA announces plan to map Milky Way with Roman Space Telescope

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has released detailed plans for a major survey that will reveal our home galaxy, the Milky Way, in unprecedented detail. In one month of observations spread across two years, the survey will unveil tens of billions of stars and explore previously uncharted structures.

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Radio observations find nothing at Omega Centauri’s heart

Omega Centauri dominates the southern sky as the Milky Way’s largest and brightest globular cluster, a dense sphere containing roughly 10 million stars. Earlier this year, astronomers found evidence that an intermediate mass black hole hides within the cluster’s core, revealed by seven stars moving far too quickly to remain bound unless something massive holds them gravitationally. Now, researchers have searched for the black hole itself using radio telescopes, and their discovery is what they didn’t find.

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AI helps solve decades-old maze in frustrated magnet physics

By partnering with artificial intelligence (AI), a researcher at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has solved a long-standing physics problem and uncovered the mathematical trickery that underlies the generalization of recently discovered, extremely surprising new states of matter. The work exemplifies the paradigm shift that is taking place in research, as scientists learn to see AI as a valuable asset in advancing knowledge and discovery.

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Video: Man wielding machete screams at Okla. officers to kill him, charges at them before fatal OIS

Oklahoma City Police Department officers tased the man twice and deployed a less-lethal impact round before he charged at them, prompting the shooting

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D.C. Police chief pushed cops to manipulate crime data, House Oversight report alleges

The report alleges Chief Pamela Smith compelled commanders to reclassify crimes and disciplined those who did not comply, creating a hostile work environment

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Interstellar comet keeps its distance as it makes its closest approach to Earth

A stray comet from another star swings past Earth this week in one last hurrah before racing back toward interstellar space.

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Hubble catches another glimpse of 3I/ATLAS

On July 1st, 2025, the third interstellar object (ISO) ever detected was seen making its way through our solar system. Shortly after being alerted by automated detection systems, astronomers at the European Space Agency (ESA) began using observatories in Hawaii, Chile, and Australia to get a better look at the interstellar interloper. Since then, 3I/ATLAS has been observed by multiple space observatories, including the venerable NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. On Nov. 30th, Hubble viewed the ISO again, which is about to make its closest approach to Earth.

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Image: Hubble captures the death of a low-mass star in the Calabash Nebula

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured an uncommon sight—the death of a low-mass star—in this image of the Calabash Nebula released on Feb. 3, 2017.

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EscaPADE explorer sort of goes to Mars

On 13 November, the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamic Explorers (EscaPADE) mission launched to space on the New Glenn rocket provided by Blue Origin.

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Did a rogue planet reshape our solar system?

The giant planets weren’t always where we find them today. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune formed in a more compact configuration and later underwent a violent reshuffling that scattered them to their current positions. Exactly what triggered this chaos remains uncertain, but researchers at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux and the Planetary Science Institute now propose a close encounter with a wandering substellar object during the sun’s youth.

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Utah repeals collective bargaining ban impacting public safety unions, first responders

Rep. Jordan Teuscher, the House sponsor of the February ban, said the repeal “allows us to step back, to lower the temperature and to create space for a clearer… conversation”

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Measuring radio leaks from 36,000 kilometers up

Radio astronomy has a pollution problem. Satellites thousands of kilometers overhead, designed to broadcast communications or relay data, are increasingly contaminating the frequencies astronomers use to study the universe. While much attention has focused on SpaceX’s Starlink and other low Earth orbit constellations, what about the satellites much farther away?

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Video: Lunar impact flash detected on the moon by Armagh Observatory and Planetarium

On 12 December 2025 at 03:09:36 UTC, astronomers at the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium (AOP) have captured what is believed to be the first video recording of a lunar impact flash in Ireland, and the second recorded from the UK.

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Astronomers find planetary and stellar companions to two ultracool dwarfs in Taurus

Astronomers from the University of Hawai’i (UH) at Manoa and elsewhere have observed the Taurus star-forming region, which resulted in the discovery of planetary-mass and stellar companions of two ultracool dwarf stars. The new finding was presented in a paper published December 4 on the pre-print server arXiv.

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