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A new look at TRAPPIST-1e, an Earth-sized, habitable-zone exoplanet

Of the seven Earth-sized worlds orbiting the red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, one planet in particular has attracted the attention of scientists. This planet orbits the star within the “Goldilocks zone”—a distance where water on its surface is theoretically possible, but only if the planet has an atmosphere. And where there is water, there might be life.

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Astrophysicists test a new piece of the sky to probe dark matter and dark energy

In the leading model of cosmology, most of the universe is invisible: a combined 95% is made of dark matter and dark energy. Exactly what these dark components are remains a mystery, but they have a tremendous impact on our universe, with dark matter exerting a gravitational pull and dark energy driving the universe’s accelerating expansion.

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Frequent flares from TRAPPIST-1 could impact habitability of nearby planets

Like a toddler right before naptime, TRAPPIST-1 is a small yet moody star. This little star, which sits in the constellation Aquarius about 40 light-years from Earth, spits out bursts of energy known as “flares” about six times a day.

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NASA completes Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope construction

NASA’s next big eye on the cosmos is now fully assembled. On Nov. 25, technicians joined the inner and outer portions of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in the largest clean room at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

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Quantum technology moves from lab to life, but widespread use remains years away

Quantum technology is accelerating out of the lab and into the real world, and a new article argues that the field now stands at a turning point—one that is similar to the early computing age that preceded the rise of the transistor and modern computing.

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High-energy-density barocaloric material could enable smaller, lighter solid-state cooling devices

A collaborative research team from the Institute of Solid State Physics, the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has discovered a high-energy-density barocaloric effect in the plastic superionic conductor Ag₂Te₁₋ₓSₓ.

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Man in custody after allegedly stabbing person more than 30 times, stealing Ohio police cruiser

When Middletown Police Department officers responded to the stabbing, the suspect fled on foot, climbed through a window of a locked cruiser and drove off

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How sound moves on Mars

Acoustic signals have been important markers during NASA’s Mars missions. Measurements of sound can provide information both about Mars itself—such as turbulence in its atmosphere, changes in its temperature, and its surface conditions—and about the movement of the Mars rovers.

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Planned industrial plant threatens large observatory in Chile

MPE Director and Nobel Laureate Reinhard Genzel is spearheading an open letter signed by nearly 30 eminent international astronomers urging the Chilean government to relocate the proposed INNA industrial complex. The project threatens the world-renowned dark skies over ESO’s Paranal Observatory, the premier site for cutting-edge astronomical research.

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Most normal matter in the universe isn’t found in planets, stars or galaxies: An astronomer explains

If you look across space with a telescope, you’ll see countless galaxies, most of which host large central black holes, billions of stars and their attendant planets. The universe teems with huge, spectacular objects, and it might seem like these massive objects should hold most of the universe’s matter.

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Ten versions of Earth’s future can help us hunt for technosignatures

Searching for technosignatures—signs of technology on a planet that we can see from afar—remains a difficult task. There are so many different factors to consider, and we only have the technological capabilities to detect a relatively small collection of them.

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LHC data confirm validity of new model of hadron production—and test foundations of quantum mechanics

A boiling sea of quarks and gluons, including virtual ones—this is how we can imagine the main phase of high-energy proton collisions. It would seem that particles here have significantly more opportunities to evolve than when less numerous and much “better-behaved” secondary particles spread out from the collision point. However, data from the LHC accelerator prove that reality works differently, in a manner that is better described by an improved model of proton collisions.

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CERN’s ATLAS detects evidence for decay of Higgs boson into muon–antimuon pair

Although its existence had been theorized for decades, the Higgs boson was finally observed to exist in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Since then, it has continued to be heavily studied at the LHC. Now, a new study from the researchers at CERN combines the last two runs of ATLAS—one of the two general-purpose detectors at the LHC—to lay out evidence that the Higgs boson can decay into a muon–antimuon pair.

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FBI arrests suspect accused of placing D.C. pipe bombs on Jan. 5, 2021

The pipe bombs were placed near the offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees; the bombs were disabled, but the FBI has said both devices could have been lethal

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3 Neb. officers wounded, suspect killed in shooting

The incident unfolded when Omaha Police officers witnessed a shooting suspect enter a restroom; when they ordered him to exit the building, he came out firing shots at them

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