Proposal would loosen residency requirements for Ill. city’s police and fire chiefs

Police and fire chiefs are currently required to live in Aurora; the proposed ordinance would allow them to live in any municipality within 15 miles of Aurora

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Appeals court covering, N.Y., N.J., Conn. rules First Amendment applies to recording LE activity in public

Justices wrote that being recorded on the job “may place added strain” on officers but that “the risk of this exposure is an essential incident of life in a society which places a primary value on freedom of speech”

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The 20th data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the largest multispectral imaging and spectroscopic redshift survey of the cosmos, has released its 20th data release (DR 20). It is also the third release of the survey’s fifth phase (SDSS-V), representing a massive operational expansion of the legacy established with prior releases. This milestone provides an unprecedented look at the stars, the interstellar medium (ISM) and distant galaxies that make up the cosmos.

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Three quantum phases in chromium-based material hint at a spin-triplet superconductor

Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity without electrical resistance when cooled below a specific critical temperature. These materials have proved promising for the development of various technologies, including medical imaging instruments, particle accelerators, ultrasensitive detectors and quantum processors.

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‘Quiet’ pulsar suddenly reveals three glitches in 15 years of observations

Using more than 15 years of observations from the Parkes radio telescope, astronomers detected three rotational glitches in the pulsar PSR J1637−4642—a young neutron star that had shown no signs of glitches since its discovery. The three glitches included one that changed its rotation rate by nearly 3 parts per million. Their paper was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Aug. 20. It has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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NYPD seizes ‘enormous’ cocaine stash worth more than $10M

Following a search, officers and federal agents recovered 230 bricks containing white powder that later tested positive for cocaine

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Calif. city approves $9.8M in police raises over next 3 years

The city council approved a new contract with the Huntington Beach Police Officers Association that includes a 17% pay bump for police rank-and-file through June 2029

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Germany’s Isar Aerospace launches rocket into orbit from Norway

Germany’s Isar Aerospace launched a rocket into orbit from Norway on Saturday as Europe races to boost its ability to economically send satellites into space independently of the United States.

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FAST finds two mysterious hydrogen clouds with no visible stars

Astronomers have found two clouds of hydrogen near the Whirlpool galaxy that appear to contain almost no stars. The clouds, discovered with China’s FAST radio telescope, each contain roughly 3 million times the mass of the sun in hydrogen but have no detectable optical counterpart. Their properties are outlined in a new paper published in the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal on Aug. 4.

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A black hole as light as 40 tons can exist inside a star if dark matter helps

In 1974, Stephen Hawking made a prediction that transformed our understanding of black holes. Black holes, he showed, are not truly black: They slowly lose energy through a quantum process now known as Hawking radiation. The lighter the black hole, the faster it evaporates.

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NYPD honors fallen Emergency Service Unit members at Memorial Wall rededication

Commissioner Jessica Tisch noted that more than half of the 23 NYPD officers killed in the World Trade Center attack were with the ESU, calling the unit “the tip of the NYPD’s spear” on Sept. 11

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Law enforcement from across Md. meet Baltimore youth on the basketball court

“We have to find other ways to connect with our young people, and this is a perfect example,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said

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Spacecraft bound for Mercury begins ‘tricky’ arrival

After an eight-year journey, a spacecraft carrying European and Japanese probes began the monthslong, high-risk approach to Mercury on Thursday to study the sun-scorched planet.

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Levitated magnet opens new frontier in search for ultraheavy dark matter

Rice University researchers have used a magnetically levitated particle to search for ultraheavy dark matter, extending the hunt for some of the heaviest possible forms of the invisible matter thought to hold galaxies together. Led by Christopher Tunnell, associate professor of physics and astronomy, the researchers used a tiny floating magnet as a highly sensitive detector designed to register the faint push an ultraheavy dark matter particle could produce as it passed through.

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A new type of LED light could bring significant efficiency gains

Researchers at Lund University have developed a new type of light-emitting diode based on thin, branched nanowires that could offer significantly higher efficiency and lower production costs than current technology. By controlling where in the structure the light is generated, the researchers have reduced the losses that would otherwise limit the amount of light that can be used. Their study is published in the journal Nano Research.

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