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Distant blazar OP 313 emits very high-energy gamma rays above 100 GeV

An international team of astronomers have employed one of the Large-Sized Telescopes (LSTs) at the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) to observe a distant blazar known as OP 313. Results of the observational campaign, published May 26 on the arXiv preprint server, shed more light on the behavior and nature of this object.

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Astronomers uncover statistical evidence for recoiling supermassive black holes

Galactic collisions are events of breathtaking proportions. The supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at their centers plunge into a chaotic orbital dance that eventually coalesce into a single remnant. On their way to that point, they could eventually get “kicked” out of the center of their galaxy—and finding these “recoiling” black holes has been a challenge of cosmology for decades. A new paper, made available on the arXiv preprint server by an international team, used a novel idea to track down these fast-moving behemoths.

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Violating the 3rd law of black hole mechanics in vacuum gravity

Black holes, regions in space where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape, have been widely studied over the past decades, due to their unique and intriguing properties. Einstein’s theory of general relativity predicts that black holes obey a set of rules, known as the laws of black hole mechanics. These rules somewhat resemble the laws of thermodynamics, which delineate how energy, heat, and entropy behave in our universe.

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Before SpaceX goes public, a scramble to get on bandwagon

As SpaceX prepares its long-awaited stock market debut, investors everywhere are scrambling to get a piece of the action—through investment funds, related company stocks, and even online prediction markets.

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Are JWST’s early, overmassive black holes just normal-range outliers?

Ever since the JWST revealed a population of SMBH in the early universe that were overmassive, scientists have been working hard to explain them. These black holes existed when the universe was only about 2 billion years old, during Cosmic Noon, and according to our models of black hole growth, there simply wasn’t enough time for them to grow so massive.

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How heavy can a neutron star get?

The physics of neutron stars are almost too fantastic to believe: something the weight of two suns compacted to a sphere the size of a city. Each teaspoon of its material would weigh billions of tons. If you’ve done any reading on the topic, you’ve heard these facts before. But despite the intense interest these extreme objects hold, we are still actively learning lots about them.

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Terahertz imaging maps spatial chirality in materials with 100-micrometer resolution

In nature, there exist structures that are mirror images of each other but cannot be perfectly superimposed. These are known as chiral objects, derived from the Greek word for “hand,” since left and right hands share the same relationship. Although similar in structure, chiral molecules exhibit different behaviors, and chirality is central to life itself. DNA has a twisted chiral structure, and living organisms prefer one handedness over the other. This distinction is equally important in drug design, materials science, and nanotechnology.

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Violent rocket particles could reshape future spacecraft design

When rockets fire into space, the insides of their engines become an extreme environment where temperatures soar and tiny particles are thrown around at hypersonic speeds. These particles behave in ways that break long-held assumptions, according to new research that could help improve the durability, safety and performance of future space and defense technologies.

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June 3, 2026: Unexplained drones swarming over Colorado and Nebraska

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Ceres’ surface is much more complex than previously thought

The long, puzzling dwarf planet Ceres, in reality the first named asteroid, has surface features that are much more complex than previously thought. Or at least that’s the conclusion of a recent paper presented at the European Geosciences Union 2026 General Assembly in Vienna.

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Small Magellanic Cloud is being pulled apart, reshaping how astronomers read its past

Using more than a decade of observations from the VISTA Survey of the Magellanic Clouds (VMC), researchers measured the motions of millions of stars across the Small Magellanic Cloud with unprecedented precision. The new study, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, provides direct evidence of a galaxy-wide tidal disruption of the Small Magellanic Cloud from its interaction with the Large Magellanic Cloud.

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Rare meteorite provides evidence of giant early planet

Four-and-a-half billion years ago, a massive world—possibly as big as the moon or even Mars—orbited our sun before crashing into another celestial body and shattering into rubble. Now, in a paper published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, scientists report the first definitive evidence that this lost planetary embryo (protoplanet) existed. Its unique geological makeup challenges long-held assumptions about how planets evolve.

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Kamo’oalewa asteroid’s lunar origin challenged ahead of Tianwen-2 arrival

China’s Tianwen-2 sample-return mission is well on its way to its target, an asteroid called Kamo’oalewa. The spacecraft left Earth in May 2025 and should return in late 2027 with samples of a space rock that scientists had assumed originated from the moon. However, a new study published in Nature Communications suggests that we may be mistaken about the asteroid’s origin.

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Despite explosion Blue Origin CEO says rocket to fly before year-end

The CEO of Blue Origin vowed its New Glenn rocket “will fly again before the end of this year” after a recent ground test ended in a massive fireball that damaged the launch platform.

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French astronaut to fly to commercial space station under deal

Two French astronauts are to blast into space next year, one of whom will stay on board the world’s first commercial space station, under a new deal sealed between France and the U.S. company Vast.

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