3-million-mile-high tsunamis crash down on “heartbreak” star

The cosmos is full of surprises. Now astronomers have discovered a “heartbreak” star system where tidal waves, three times taller than the Sun, rise and crash on the surface of a giant star thanks to the motions of a smaller companion star.

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Virgin Galactic takes its first tourists to the edge of space

After many years of delays, Virgin Galactic has carried its first tourist passengers to the edge of space, including British former Olympiad Jon Goodwin, and Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers, a mother and daughter from Antigua and Barbuda.

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While Earth days get longer, NASA finds Mars days are getting shorter

One day on Mars is about 37 minutes longer than an Earth day – but it seems both planets are working to fix the gap. Data from NASA’s InSight lander have revealed Martian days are getting ever so slightly shorter, and scientists aren’t sure why.

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Unexplained cosmic radio signal repeats every 21 minutes for 35 years

Astronomers have detected a radio signal that blares for several minutes at a time, every 21 minutes, and has been doing so for at least 35 years. This bizarre signal doesn’t fit any known object without some major revisions to current physics.

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Euclid lifts off on mission to shed light on dark matter mystery

ESA's Euclid mission to map the universe and learn more about dark energy and dark matter is on its way. On July 1, 2023 at 5:12 pm CEST the space telescope lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

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Galactic-scale detector picks up background distortions in spacetime

The very fabric of spacetime is constantly warping on unimaginably tiny scales, as ripples from past cataclysms wash over us. Astrophysicists have now detected a background sea of gravitational waves, using a galaxy-scale detector of dead stars.

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Virgin Galactic blasts into commercial service with Galactic 01 flight

After years of setbacks, Virgin Galactic has completed its first commercial flight, which saw it carry 13 research payloads and three passengers from the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy to the edge of space.

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Bizarre gamma ray burst hints at unseen “stellar demolition derby”

Besides the Big Bang itself, gamma ray bursts are the most energetic events in the universe. Astronomers knew of a few mechanisms that can produce them, but now an oddball gamma ray burst hints at a brand new origin – a stellar “demolition derby.”

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How do you fry potatoes in space? Very carefully

It may seem dangerous, but just in case future astronauts might have a yen for fries on a sojourn into space, ESA and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki are investigating whether potatoes will fry ok in zero gravity or end up an undercooked mess.

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Dying star’s ‘cocoon’ a potential new source of gravitational waves

Until now, our only source of gravitational waves has been binary star systems. Researchers from Northwestern University have potentially discovered a new non-binary source of gravitational waves: the debris ‘cocoon’ that forms around a dying massive star.

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