FlashFeed

Full text

TL;DR

Amazon has shut down the Wondery podcast app and ended the Wondery+ subscription service.

The Wondery podcast studio will continue to publish Wondery-branded podcasts.

Audible’s Standard and Premium subscriptions both include ad-free listening for Wondery podcasts.

This spring, Amazon announced that its Wondery podcast service , both the Wondery app and the Wondery+ premium subscription, would be shutting down sometime this year. The day’s finally come: the Wondery app is no longer available, though podcasts published by Wondery are still available on other platforms.

Amazon quietly confirmed the app’s retirement in an update to a previous blog post today. Wondery will still operate as a podcast studio, Amazon says, continuing to publish shows like Armchair Expert and New Heights .

Full text

More evidence that the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is much older than our solar system has come to light, along with clues that it formed on the outskirts of the protoplanetary disk belonging to its parent star long ago.

Earlier this year, researchers led by Martin Cordiner of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center revealed that data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) suggested that 3I/ATLAS is between 10 and 12 billion years old , based on the ratios of its carbon and deuterium isotopes. This would make it more than twice the age of our 4.6-billion-year-old solar system . Now, new results from the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope support the JWST observations of carbon isotopes, and also introduce measurements of nitrogen isotopes that arrive at very interesting conclusions.

Isotopes are versions of atomic elements with different numbers of neutrons. For example, carbon-12 contains six protons and six neutrons , while carbon-13 contains six protons and seven neutrons. Meanwhile nitrogen-14 has seven protons and neutrons each, while nitrogen-15 has seven protons and eight neutrons.

These isotopes can form through subtly different processes, at different times and in different locations in the galaxy . The ratio of these isotopes in the gases released by comet 3I/ATLAS into its coma and tail as it neared the sun and grew warmer can therefore tell us much about its origin and history.

Consequently, interstellar objects such as 3I/ATLAS "are sort of fossils from a planetary formation process that happened very far away, but we get the chance to study from much closer," said astronomer Cyrielle Opitom of the University of Edinburgh in a statement.

Opitom led the team who got the chance to observe 3I/ATLAS with the VLT. They found that the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-13 is higher than is found in comets in our solar system or indeed in the local interstellar medium. Carbon-13 is produced in greater abundances than carbon-12 over time, typically in red giant stars , so for there to be far more carbon-12 than carbon-13 tells us that 3I/ATLAS was born long ago before carbon-13 had a chance to build in abundance across the galaxy. This finding supports the JWST carbon isotope measurements.

Additionally Opitom's team, which was co-led by Jean Manfroid and Damien Hutsemékers of the University of Liège in Belgium, measured a ratio of nitrogen-14 to nitrogen-15 in 3I/ATLAS that is more than twice as large as the value measured in comets native to our solar system. In fact, the ratio is typical of that found on the outer edge of planet-forming discs around young stars, implying 3I/ATLAS formed a long way out from its parent star, perhaps in the equivalent of its Kuiper belt .

"Unlike comets from our solar system, this interstellar visitor carries unusually high carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios," said team-member Aravind Krishnakumar, who is also of the University of Liège.

The results give us clues to how 3I/ATLAS found itself wandering the space lanes alone for billions of years. Models indicate that migrating giant planets can kick small bodies into interstellar space, but the location of 3I/ATLAS's birth far from that planetary action means that it is quite possible instead that it was snatched from its parent star by the gravity of a passing star and was subsequently hurled into deep space.

The JWST had also previously shown that 3I/ATLAS is rich in carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide relative to water, and also contains unexpectedly high abundances of nickel and iron and a very high abundance of methanol relative to hydrogen cyanide – all of which tells us that 3I/ATLAS formed in an environment with conditions and chemistry notably alien to our own solar system.

Unfortunately similar measurements were not possible with the other two known interstellar objects – 1I/'Oumuamua was not seen to outgas, while 2I/Borisov was too faint. However, 3I/ATLAS is a tantalizing indication that studies of more interstellar objects caught entering our solar system will be able to teach us about planet-forming conditions across both space and time in our Milky Way galaxy .

"3I/ATLAS is a really exciting opportunity to probe the composition of another planetary system, one that formed long before our Sun and solar system even existed," concluded Rosemary Dorsey, an astronomer from the University of Helsinki in Finland.

The findings were published on July 6 in the journal Nature Astronomy .

Full text

Scientists have found evidence that gravitational waves from a spectacular black hole collision carry signals from the very edge of the newly formed black hole. If confirmed by future observations, the discovery could provide an entirely new way to investigate what happens in the immediate vicinity of a black hole without ever observing it directly.

In a new study, the researchers analyzed an exceptionally strong gravitational wave event known as GW250114. They identified a "direct wave," a subtle feature of the total gravitational wave signal predicted by theory but never previously detected in real data. The signal appears to contain information from extremely close to the black hole's event horizon , the boundary beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape.

The findings, published June 24 in the journal Nature , suggest that gravitational wave observatories may eventually allow astronomers to probe regions that have remained inaccessible since black holes were first predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity .

Listening to the edge of a black hole

Although astronomers have photographed the glowing material surrounding some supermassive black holes and have detected dozens of black hole mergers through gravitational waves, the event horizon itself has remained frustratingly difficult to study.

Unlike ordinary light, gravitational waves are tiny ripples in space-time produced when massive objects accelerate. They pass almost undisturbed through the universe, carrying information about violent cosmic events that would otherwise remain hidden.

According to study co-author Sizheng Ma , a postdoctoral researcher at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada, the newly identified signal offers a rare glimpse of what happens immediately after two black holes collide.

When two black holes merge, they release gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of space time — throughout the universe. Studying these waves can provide information about the newly formed black hole. (Image credit: K. Thorne (Caltech) and T. Carnahan (NASA GSFC)) "When two black holes merge, they violently shake space-time itself," Ma told Live Science. "For a brief moment, the region very close to the newly formed black hole's horizon is swept into a fast, fading swirl."

Ma explained that the direct wave is the portion of the gravitational wave signal produced near the horizon and carries the imprint of that motion outward through space.

"That is why it is so interesting," he said. "It may let us 'listen' to what happens near the horizon, a region we cannot see directly with light."

A remarkable black hole collision

The team focused on GW250114, a black hole merger detected on Jan. 14, 2025, by the two Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana.

"Our earlier theoretical work predicted that black hole mergers should produce a direct-wave signal from the near-horizon region," Ma said. "The big question was whether this effect could actually be seen in real data."

GW250114 turned out to provide exactly the conditions needed to test that prediction.

"It was strong enough, clean enough, and close enough to the theoretical situation where this signal should be visible," he said.

To search for the elusive feature, the researchers first removed the best-understood part of the gravitational wave signal, which comes from the newly formed black hole settling down after the merger. Then, they examined the remaining data to determine whether it consisted only of detector noise or contained another physical signal.

"What we found was striking," Ma said. "The remaining signal followed the expected rhythm and fading pattern of a wave shaped by the region very close to the final black hole's horizon."

The team concluded that the leftover signal matches the behavior expected for a direct wave predicted by previous theoretical studies.

ESA's upcoming LISA mission will detect gravitational waves from space, offering even more insights into the mysterious ripples than Earth-based detectors currently can. (Image credit: All About Space/Getty Images) A new way to explore extreme gravity

The researchers stressed that their findings do not reveal what lies inside a black hole. Instead, they're providing a new observational tool for investigating the region immediately outside the event horizon.

"The gravitational wave data appear to carry an imprint from very close to the newly formed black hole's horizon — the famous point of no return," Ma said.

He explained that the measurements are consistent with space-time near the horizon being rapidly dragged around by the spinning black hole while the signal fades because of the intense gravitational field.

"For us, the exciting message is that gravitational waves may be giving us a new way to study the edge of a black hole using real observational data," Ma said.

Ma believes the method could eventually become useful for exploring ideas such as quantum gravity — which seeks to unite Einstein's theory of gravity with quantum mechanics — or the black hole information paradox, the longstanding puzzle of whether information that falls into a black hole is truly lost. However, it cannot test those questions directly yet.

"If quantum effects, or any deviations from the standard black-hole picture, leave a measurable imprint there, then direct waves could, in principle, help us search for them in the future," he said.

More observations will be needed

The researchers cautioned that the discovery is based on a single gravitational wave event. While GW250114 provided exceptionally favorable conditions, much stronger evidence will come only if similar signals are found in many additional black hole mergers.

"There are two main directions," Ma said. "The first is theory."

Current models capture the essential physics but remain simplified, and more realistic descriptions of black hole mergers will be needed.

"The second is observation," he added. "This result comes from one exceptionally loud and clean event, so the strongest confirmation would come from seeing the same kind of pattern in other black hole mergers."

Related stories

Record-breaking gravitational wave puts Einstein's relativity to its toughest test yet — and proves him right again

'Collective hum' of black holes could mend our broken understanding of the universe, physicists say

Physicists want to use gravitational waves to 'see' the beginning of time

As gravitational wave observatories continue to improve and detect increasing numbers of mergers, researchers hope to determine whether direct waves are a universal feature of black hole collisions.

"If the pattern appears repeatedly in the way general relativity predicts," Ma said, "direct waves could become a new way to study black hole horizons or the regions very close to them, and to test Einstein's theory in one of the most extreme environments in the universe."

If future observations confirm the team's results, scientists may have gained something they have sought for decades: a direct observational window into the very edge of a black hole.

See how much you know about black holes with our black hole quiz!

Full text

Credit: Paul Jones / Android Authority

TL;DR

More references to the Galaxy Buds Able have been found.

One leaker claims that the official name for these earbuds will be the “Galaxy Buds On.”

If you’ve been following our coverage, the words “Galaxy Buds Able” may sound familiar to you. For those who haven’t been keeping up, Android Authority discovered references to a new Samsung audio product with this likely placeholder name back in April. Since then, more and more information about this mysterious pair of earbuds has slowly emerged. A new leak may have now revealed the official name of these earbuds.

To quickly summarize what we know so far about the audio device, the Galaxy Buds Able carry the model number SM-U600. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) further confirmed the existence of Able, while also providing the model number for the battery (EB-BU600AAY). Thanks to a leaked render , we learned that these earbuds could have a clip-like design, similar to Sony’s LinkBuds Clip . It’s suggested that the Galaxy Buds Able will be open-ear earbuds.