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Mining the solar system to build a new world

I watched Armageddon again fairly recently with Bruce Willis, oil drillers in space and an asteroid the size of Texas bearing down on Earth. Buried beneath the Hollywood chaos is a genuinely interesting question: What exactly could we do with an asteroid if we got our hands on one? As it turns out, the answer has nothing to do with blowing it up, sorry Bruce, but everything to do with building a new world.

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BWC: Calif. officer becomes trapped in fleeing suspect vehicle for nearly 3 minutes, shoots driver in leg

The Antioch Police officer buckled his seatbelt after the suspect threatened to crash the vehicle; he made several attempts to stop the suspect before shooting him

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Chicago officer fatally wounded by hospital shooter identified, second officer remains in critical condition

Officer John Bartholomew, 38, had served with the Chicago Police Department for ten years; the officer who remains hospitalized is 57 years old with 21 years of service

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D.C. gala shooting suspect’s writings aired grievances against Trump

The suspect referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” in writings he sent to family members minutes before the attack

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An interplanetary shortcut can speed up trips to Mars

Whether it’s robotic rovers heading to Mars or, one day, a crew of astronauts, a round-trip journey is an incredibly long one. But there may be a way to find a shortcut. A new study published in the journal Acta Astronautica suggests that hundreds of days could be shaved off a return trip to the Red Planet by using the early orbital data of asteroids. This could bring the total mission time down to as low as 153 days.

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The planet haul that changes everything

Finding planets used to be a painstaking business. Astronomers would fix their gaze on a handful of carefully chosen stars, watch and wait, and hope to catch the faint dip in starlight that signals a world passing in front of its host. It worked. It worked brilliantly. But it also meant we were fishing with a very small net in a very big ocean.

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Why dolphins swim so fast: The secrets of hidden whirlpools

Dolphins are famous for their speed and agility in the water, but what exactly allows them to swim so effectively? Scientists have been asking this question for years, hoping to learn how to optimize propulsion in fluids from these elegant creatures.

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DuctGPT demonstrates how AI can accelerate discovery of next-generation fusion materials

Scientists at Ames National Laboratory developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that accelerates discovery of materials needed for next-generation fusion energy systems. The tool, DuctGPT, combines advanced AI with physics-based modeling to help researchers predict materials with the appropriate properties to function in the extreme conditions inside of fusion reactors.

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Tandem superflare observations reveal origin of the stellar Fe Kα line

The Fe Kα line, or iron Kα line, is often used in astronomical research to understand the physical composition of astronomical objects. This line is produced when a K-shell electron of an iron ion in the photosphere—the gas on the stellar surface—is ejected by an external process, and has been detected in X-ray spectra of solar and stellar flares. Yet the dominant mechanism behind this ionization process has remained an open question for many years.

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Self-organizing ‘pencil beam’ laser could help scientists design brain-targeted therapies

MIT researchers discovered a paradoxical phenomenon in optical physics that could enable a new bioimaging method that’s faster and higher-resolution than existing technology. They discovered that, under the right conditions, a chaotic mess of laser light can spontaneously self-organize into a highly focused “pencil beam.”

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Possible daylight sighting by motorcyclist 35 miles NE of Naples (Report 69016)

Class B; April 2021; Florida, Collier County

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Possible sasquatch sounds heard at cabin near Caddo Lake (Report 76489)

Class B; October 2023; Texas, Harrison County

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Bigfoot howls heard west of Hideaway Lake, 9 miles south of Sabine River (Report 79559)

Class B; December 2025; Texas, Smith County

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Two blazing quasars caught waltzing into a merger

Astronomers, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), have confirmed the existence of a close quasar pair housed in a pair of merging galaxies seen when the universe was less than a billion years old, at a redshift of 5.7. The system, designated J2037–4537, is one of only two confirmed quasar pairs at redshift greater than 5 ever found. A paper outlining this work was submitted to the preprint server arXiv on April 7.

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The threat of light pollution puts the world’s darkest skies in the Atacama Desert at risk

It takes a moment for the eyes to adjust. A faint spark appears in the darkness; then another, brighter one. Soon, stars, planets and entire constellations emerge. Before long, a whole galaxy stretches across the sky, visible to the naked eye.

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