Record-Breaking Supernova Is Part of a New Class of Objects

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February 24, 2022

Dear Reader, This week's batch of stories includes one on an absurdly powerful cosmic explosion, produced by a strange star that in its death throes shone some 10,000 times brighter than a typical supernova. This new class of supernovae, it is thought, could offer deeper, closer views of the black holes and neutron stars thought to power them. But no matter how bright such far-distant cataclysms appear in our skies, for now most views are turned back down to Earth, to the unfolding Russian invasion of Ukraine. The global culture of science is not immune from such grim events, as our included story on the invasion's early impacts on Ukrainian researchers makes clear. Stay safe out there.

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics @LeeBillings

Astronomy Record-Breaking Supernova Is Part of a New Class of Objects A recently spotted bright light in the sky is improving astronomers' understanding of stellar death By Briley Lewis

Politics Ukrainian Scientists Fear for their Lives and Future amid Russian Threat Researchers say that conflict will hinder progress made since Ukraine's revolution in 2014 By Holly Else,Nisha Gaind,Nature magazine

Dinosaurs 'Frozen in Place' Fossils Reveal Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Struck in Spring Clues to the season of impact lingered in delicate fish fossils By Mindy Weisberger,LiveScience

Materials Science Quantum Friction Explains Water's Freaky Flow Physicists have finally solved the long-standing mystery of why water moves faster through narrower nanotubes By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

Space Exploration NASA Eyes Electric Car Tech for Future Moon Rovers Space agencies are partnering with car manufacturers to custom build new rovers—or retrofit commercial vehicles—for future missions to the moon and Mars By Maddie Bender

Space Exploration China Plans Asteroid Missions, Space Telescopes and a Moon Base In the next five years, the nation hopes to launch a robotic craft to an asteroid, two lunar missions and an orbital observatory By Elizabeth Gibney,Nature magazine

Planetary Science What We Learned from the Perseverance Rover's First Year on Mars Despite some unexpected challenges, team members are setting lofty goals for the rover in 2022 By Nadia Drake

Particle Physics How Light Is a Neutrino? The Answer Is Closer Than Ever The latest effort to weigh the elusive particle produces a more precise estimate of its upper limit By Davide Castelvecchi,Nature magazine

Computing The Metaverse Is Coming: We May Already Be in It As in the world of The Matrix, we may not be able to tell what's real and what's not By Rizwan Virk

FROM THE STORE The Math of Everything Galileo said that mathematics is the language of nature. This eBook examines math across disciplines, exploring how math is the backbone connecting the physical, social and economic worlds. From practical questions about the significance of p values and using math to fight gerrymandering to the top theoretical problems in the field, this collection looks at what math reveals about our universe.

QUOTE OF THE DAY "I feel like I could die tomorrow, or in two days, but I can't do anything about that." Irina Yegorchenko, mathematician at the Institute of Mathematics in Kiev, Ukraine

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FROM THE ARCHIVE Western Science Severs Ties with Russia The nation's science renaissance is threatened as NATO and NASA suspend most of their links By Quirin Schiermeier | April 8, 2014

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