Shredded star reveals a massive black hole wandering far from its galaxy’s center

Astronomers have discovered a star being torn apart by a massive black hole more than 1,000 parsecs from the center of its host galaxy. The tidal disruption event, TDE 2023mfm, was first discovered by ZTF and then studied with a wide range of telescopes, including Keck, Lick, Hubble, Swift, Chandra, XMM-Newton and the VLA. The discovery paper was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Sept. 28.

Go to Source

Solving the gallium anomaly: New calculation may explain neutrino shortfall without invoking new particles

Glimpses of the “gallium anomaly” were first seen in the mid-1990s, but it was first clearly discovered and stated in 2007 by neutrino physicist Carlo Giunti of Italy. The problem is simple to state but potentially very important: about 20% fewer electron neutrinos were seen to be captured by gallium nuclei than expected.

Go to Source

Police: 3 children and a teacher killed in Ore. elementary school shooting

A 16-year-old shooter opened fire at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, killing four and wounding two before he was killed by a community member who pursued him into the school, police said

Go to Source

Rigorous analysis confirms NASA’s Artemis II heat shield performance

NASA’s Artemis II mission sent four astronauts around the moon and brought them safely back to Earth, laying a foundation for crewed flights to the moon’s surface.

Go to Source

Lunar fault maps reveal how much the moon is shrinking

A new study of young tectonic landforms on the moon offers the most detailed estimate yet of how much the moon has contracted as its interior gradually cooled over time.

Go to Source

New spectroscopy method enables direct comparisons of nuclear sizes across heavy elements

The size of a nucleus (nuclear charge radius) is an important physical quantity that reflects the arrangement of protons and neutrons within the nucleus. Particularly in deformed nuclei, such as those of rare-earth elements, examining changes in the charge radius can deepen our understanding of nuclear structure and nuclear deformation.

Go to Source

Trump renews calls for death penalty for those who kill officers, extends push to firefighter killings

During a White House gathering, President Trump told Attorney General Todd Blanche to pursue capital punishment for those who kill police officers or firefighters

Go to Source

Silicon qubits surpass 99.99% gate fidelity while operating three at once

Silicon spin qubits are a promising platform for building scalable quantum computers as they are compatible with the semiconductor manufacturing technologies used to produce today’s computer chips. However, they have an important weakness: silicon spin qubits typically lose accuracy when several qubits are under parallel control. To be useful, quantum computers will need to operate many qubits simultaneously without compromising the accuracy of their operations.

Go to Source

Calif. city to lay off employees, including within PD, amid budget crisis

The Hollister Police Officers Association stated it was told the city would “lay off every single civilian staff member of our department;” the city denied that claim, but did not describe the extent of the layoffs

Go to Source

How did Mars get its moons? Japan’s MMX space mission aims to solve the puzzle

The Earth got its moon when a small planet collided with our planet more than 4 billion years ago. This impact hurled molten rock into space, which eventually coalesced to form the satellite we can see every night from across our planet.

Go to Source

BWC: 2 N.J. SWAT officers shot while executing search warrant, suspect killed

The suspect, who was paralyzed from a prior shootout with police, opened fire as the Atlantic City PD SWAT team breached the door, striking one officer in the leg and one on his helmet

Go to Source

Okla. officers injured in pursuit after suspect T-bones, flips cruiser

Tulsa Police officers captured the suspect after he fled the scene on foot; the suspect and two officers were hospitalized following the crash

Go to Source

Former NBA All-Star joins Fla. police department

Amar’e Stoudemire played in the NBA for 14 years, finishing with a season playing for the Miami Heat; now, he’s back in Miami, serving with the school district police department

Go to Source

BWC: Suspect in shooting of Colo. officer arrested after 2-day manhunt

Thornton PD credited residents who reported sightings of the suspect and several partner agencies with facilitating the arrest; the wounded officer is expected to recover

Go to Source

Chandra breaks down ‘Treble Clef’s’ galaxy cluster collision

Astronomers have used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to break down the cause of a remarkable formation of radio waves they have nicknamed the “Treble Clef” because its distinct shape strongly resembles the musical symbol.

Go to Source