COSMIC

A physicist has proposed that laser light could be used to transfer energy to a gravitational wave, according to a new report. The idea suggests a novel way of interacting with ripples in spacetime, which are normally produced by cataclysmic cosmic events like black hole mergers. Details of the proposal remain limited, and experts have not yet been quoted on whether such an energy transfer could ever be demonstrated experimentally.

Astronomers report detecting a previously hidden X-ray phase in what is likely a neutron star merger. The finding suggests the collision produced observable X-ray emissions during an early stage not seen before, offering new insight into the aftermath of these extreme cosmic events and the behaviour of matter under such conditions.

Scientists at the Institute of Physics of the Earth of the Russian Academy of Sciences are highlighting what observations of gas falling into a dead star reveal about the universe. Such accretion events around stellar remnants like white dwarfs or neutron stars help researchers test physics under extreme gravity and better understand how matter behaves in space.