A visualization of a collision between two differently sized black holes.Credit: N. Fischer, H. Pfeiffer, A. Buonanno (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics), Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) Collaboration

Rare black-hole collision opens new window on Universe

Gravitational-wave astronomers have for the first time detected a collision between two black holes of substantially different masses — opening up a new vista on astrophysics and on the physics of gravity. The event offers the first unmistakable evidence from these faint space-time ripples that one black hole was spinning before the merger, giving astronomers rare insight into this key property.

“It’s an exceptional event,” said Maya Fishbach, an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago in Illinois, who unveiled the signal at a virtual meeting of the American Physical Society on 18 April. The US-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo observatory near Pisa, Italy, detected the collision last year.

The observation network has seen mergers between black holes with roughly equal masses. Physicists had eagerly awaited events with black holes of uneven mass because they provide more precise ways of testing the general theory of relativity. In the latest merger, one black hole was around 8 solar masses, and the other about 31. This imbalance made the larger black hole distort the space around it, so the other’s trajectory deviated from a perfect spiral. This could be seen in the resulting wave signal.

Coronavirus disrupts research funding

Although science is crucial to the fight against COVID-19, researchers unable to work are becoming increasingly concerned about how the coronavirus pandemic will affect their funding.

Disruptions such as the closure of labs and universities mean that researchers face challenges in completing projects and in paying lab members when grants run out.

“If this situation lasts for more than two to three months it will be impossible to finish the projects on time,” says Juan Astorga-Wells, a biochemist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm who is involved in two projects supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research programme.

Many of the world’s major research funders have put in place policies to support grant-holders. Horizon 2020’s guidance says that researchers can ask to extend projects by up to six months, and reallocate funds to meet the costs of working remotely, or to help pay the salaries of researchers who are unable to continue with experiments. Projects can also be reoriented towards research on COVID-19 or coronaviruses.

US government funders including the National Institutes of Health also offer grant extensions, and will accommodate late applications for funding.

Funders have also put out rapid calls for proposals for coronavirus research. UK Research and Innovation has allocated £20 million (US$25 million) to the topic.

Revealed: how a spacecraft will bring Mars rocks to Earth

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have unveiled details of their upcoming mission to retrieve rock samples from Mars.

The first stage will start in July, when NASA launches its Perseverance rover (pictured) to roll around on the Martian surface and collect dust and rock. Perseverance will land next February in the red planet’s Jezero crater. As it drives around for many kilometres, the rover will drill or scoop up material to fill around 30 geological sampling tubes.

Until now, it hadn’t been clear how those tubes might get back to Earth. But after four years of designing and plotting, NASA and ESA have finalized a plan that involves sending a pair of spacecraft to Mars in 2026.

The first spacecraft would land in Jezero crater. There, a small rover would make its way to Perseverance, pick up the filled sampling tubes and transfer them to a “Mars ascent vehicle” — essentially a small rocket with a container to carry the samples. The Mars ascent vehicle would blast off and place the container into Martian orbit. The second spacecraft would then manoeuvre itself next to the sample container, pick it up and fly it back to Earth, probably landing in a military training ground in Utah.

If the plan works, scientists will finally get their hands on the Martian rocks in 2031.