Mar 16th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google When a black hole and a neutron star spiral toward collision, theory predicts that their orbit should become almost perfectly circular before the final impact. Gravitational waves steadily drain energy from the system, tightening the orbit and smoothing out any stretched shape along the way. By the time the objects finally merge, astronomers usually expect to see a clean circular path. But one recent event broke that pattern. In the gravitational-wave signal GW200105, scientists at the University of Birmingham detected a neutron star and black hole spiraling together ... [Read More]

Mar 16th, 2026 - One man's 2,000 year old graffiti is providing some of the clearest evidence yet of Indo-Egyptian contact. Roughly 2,000 years ago, a traveler from southern India stood inside the sacred tombs of Egypt's Valley of the Kings and decided to leave his mark. The man, named Cikai Korran, carved his name into the stone eight times across five different tombs, writing in the Old Tamil language. His message to the world was blunt: "Cikai Korran came here and saw." Visitors have been scratching their names into Egypt's Valley of the Kings for a very long time. Greek and Latin graffiti cover the royal ... [Read More]

Mar 16th, 2026 - ATLANTA — ASHRAE and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) have approved a new two-year work plan titled "Life Cycle Refrigerant Management (LCRM)", reinforcing their long-standing partnership to advance sustainable refrigerant practices worldwide. The plan was adopted during the 2026 ASHRAE Winter Conference in Las Vegas. As the refrigerating and air-conditioning (RAC) industry transitions to alternative refrigerants, comprehensive management across the full refrigerant life cycle, from production and installation to recovery, reuse and disposal, has become increasingly ... [Read More]

Mar 16th, 2026 - Two people have died following an outbreak of meningitis in Kent. The death of a year 13 pupil at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Faversham was confirmed by the local MP on Monday. The second person who died was a student at the University of Kent. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said it was notified of 13 cases with signs and symptoms of meningitis and septicaemia from Friday to Sunday in the Canterbury area. Health experts are arranging antibiotics for some other students in the area as a precaution against the dangerous infection. What is meningitis and 'invasive' meningitis? ... [Read More]

Mar 16th, 2026 - Astronomers have discovered a strange new world just 35 light-years from Earth – one permanently covered in a vast ocean of molten rock. The exoplanet, known as L 98-59 d, defies existing models of planetary formation and may represent an entirely new class of planet, according to a study published in Nature Astronomy . The findings come following observations by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and other ground-based observatories, which had flagged some unusual characteristics. Most notably, the planet, which is 1.6 times the size of Earth, had a very low density and contained a ... [Read More]

Mar 16th, 2026 - Quantum computers can process certain tasks much faster than classical computers, but they're larger, more expensive, and consume more power. They also tend to output a higher percentage of errors. But over the next decade, those computers will likely become smaller, cheaper, more power-efficient, and more accurate. As that happens, more clients could use quantum computers for more mainstream applications rather than niche research projects. To separate the potential winners and losers in this nascent market, we should focus on IBM and IonQ IBM is often considered a slow-growth tech giant, ... [Read More]

Mar 16th, 2026 - Help Net Security newsletters : Daily and weekly news, cybersecurity jobs, open source projects, breaking news – subscribe here! KEEQuant has announced its commercial chip-scale QKD technology, marking an advance in quantum-secure communications. The system replaces bulky optical assemblies with photonic integration, lowering the cost and complexity of quantum key distribution and making quantum-safe key exchange a practical upgrade for telecom operators, data center providers, and critical infrastructure organizations. The result is smaller, more scalable systems that remain ... [Read More]

Mar 16th, 2026 - A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com NASA 's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft intentionally crashed into a small asteroid called Dimorphos in September 2022. The goal of the mission was to "prove that if a killer space rock ever threatened Earth in the future, humans could deflect it," said The New York Times . The hit was quite the success, altering not only the orbit of Dimorphos around a larger asteroid, Didymos, but also the orbit of the pair around the sun, according to a study published in the ... [Read More]