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Astronomers find the strongest evidence yet for the universe’s first stars

For decades, astronomers were only able to study the universe’s very first stars using theoretical models. Now, observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed what may be the most compelling evidence to date for these ancient “Population III” stars, finding them clustered around a small companion object that formed just 400 million years after the Big Bang.

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Meet Orpheus—A hopper mission built to hunt for life in Martian volcanoes

We’ve spent decades scratching the surface of Mars trying to uncover life there. But we’ve been searching a barren wasteland bombarded by radiation and bathed in toxic perchlorates. The entire time, it’s likely that it’s been too hostile to harbor extant life. So if we want a better shot at finding currently living life on Mars, we need to go underground. That is exactly the purpose of Orpheus, a proposed Mars vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) hopper mission put forth in a paper presented by Connor Bunn and Pascal Lee of the SETI Institute at the 57th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC).

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Off-duty Okla. corrections officer who stopped suspect from grabbing cop’s gun receives national recognition

Lt. Tyler Gaines intervened when a suspect resisted arrest, fought through TASER deployments and reached for a Hominy officer’s weapon

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Space telescopes track nearby quasar’s dramatic X-ray state transition

By analyzing the data from various space observatories, Chinese astronomers have inspected a nearby quasar designated SDSS J000532.84+200717.4. Results of the new study, published April 1 on the arXiv preprint server, shed more light on the X-ray variability of this object.

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Ga. sheriff’s office preps for World Cup matches with help from $12M in federal grant funding

Between June 15 and July 15, Atlanta will host eight matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium; the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office is preparing with drones and inter-agency coordination

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Artemis crew urges unity on ‘lifeboat’ Earth

Artemis II astronauts expressed awe on Saturday over their record-setting lunar flyby mission, urging unity on Earth after witnessing the planet’s isolation like a “lifeboat” in space.

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Astronomers find evidence for three subpopulations of merging black holes

Astronomers analyzing gravitational-wave data from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration have reported that merging binary black holes fall into three distinct categories. The study shows that the three subpopulations have their own characteristic masses, spin behavior, and merger rate that may be linked to different dominant formation mechanisms. The paper outlining their results was submitted to the preprint server arXiv on March 18.

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High-resolution imaging captures cavity-induced density waves in a quantum gas

A new study, published in Physical Review Letters, reports that scientists have successfully imaged the formation of cavity-induced density waves induced by laser light in an ultracold quantum gas. Previously, only global signals, such as photon leakage or the peak in energy deposition of a fast charged particle (Bragg peaks), have been used to detect this kind of ordering. Prior to this study, there had been no direct, high-resolution in situ imaging of cavity-induced density-wave order in ultracold gases.

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Wash. convicted felon charged with attacking, trying to stab K-9

The suspect missed when trying to swing a knife at a Spokane County Sheriff’s Office K-9s head; deputies were then able to take him into custody

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‘Poor man’s Majoranas’ can be used as quantum spin probes

A Majorana fermion is a particle that would be identical to its antiparticle. Such an object has not yet been found. However, certain solid materials exhibit analogous behavior as if Majorana fermions were present through collective excitations of the system called quasiparticles.

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DA’s office rules Calif. officer justified in OIS of man who stabbed his roommate

The report determined that Santa Clara Officer Robert Allsup lawfully shot the suspect, who was in the midst of stabbing his unarmed roommate, likely saving the roommate’s life

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Artemis II lunar mission draws flood of conspiracy theories

From false claims that a historic lunar fly-by was staged in a movie studio to unfounded narratives that footage of the crew was AI-generated, the Artemis II mission has been clouded by a blizzard of misinformation.

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Top takeaways from the Artemis II mission

NASA’s Artemis II mission sent four astronauts—three Americans and one Canadian—on the first lunar flyby in more than 50 years.

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After Artemis II, NASA looks to SpaceX, Blue Origin for moon landings

With Artemis II successfully completing its historic lunar mission on Friday, NASA is banking on billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk for the next step: landing astronauts on the moon.

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‘Howl at the moon’: NASA’s bid to boost space enthusiasm

When NASA flight director Zebulon Scoville was working a shift during the uncrewed Artemis I test flight, he realized the US space agency wasn’t consistently livestreaming the spacecraft’s journey to Earth.

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