Roman Space Telescope Set for Launch Aug. 30 to Probe Dark Energy and Exoplanets

Roman Space Telescope Is Ready for Aug. 30 Launch to Hunt Exoplanets The $4.3 billion observatory will lift off on a Falcon Heavy to the L2 point, using a 300-megapixel infrared camera to study dark energy and dark matter and a coronagraph to directly image exoplanets. 12

Fastest Star Ever Found Whips Around Black Hole at 8% Light Speed The star S301, found with the Very Large Telescope, passes just 1.8 billion kilometers from Sagittarius A* — 10 times closer than the previous record — and could enable tests of frame-dragging and extreme gravity. 3

China's 'Artificial Sun' Breaks Plasma Density Limit, Boosting Fusion Hopes EAST in Hefei held a plasma reaction beyond the Greenwald density limit for several seconds, experimentally confirming the 2021 plasma-wall self-organization theory and bringing practical fusion closer. 4

Bats Possess a Second Antibody Gene System Never Seen in Mammals Vesper bats carry two copies of antibody heavy-chain genes, unlike every other known mammal, offering a clue to how they tolerate viruses without getting sick. 5

Atlantic Herring Immune Gene Diversity Exceeds All Other Vertebrates Studied Researchers found MHC class II gene diversity in herring greater than in any other vertebrate, reflecting millions of years of adaptation to pathogens in massive schools. 6

Ultracompact Gene Activator TIGRa Works Inside the Body, Preventing Blindness in Mice Stanford scientists packed TIGRa into viral vectors to activate two protective genes in retinal ganglion cells, preserving partial vision after injury in a mouse model. 7

Quantum Simulators Verify 40-Year-Old Conformal Field Theory Predictions Using chains of strontium atoms in optical tweezers, researchers directly measured energy levels predicted by Ising and tricritical Ising conformal field theories for the first time. 8

Free-Falling Atoms in Space Put New Twist on Galileo's Gravity Test The space-based experiment probes the equivalence principle with quantum matter, testing whether different atoms fall identically under gravity. 9

Magnetic Field First Kills Superconductivity, Then Brings It Back to Life Researchers observed a magnetic field destroy a superconductor and then restore it, a counterintuitive effect that could reshape understanding of superconductivity. 10

First Molecular Images Capture Coupled Proton-Electron Transfer in Water Reaction Using advanced X-ray methods at SLAC, researchers observed how a molecule's electronic structure, proton gain, and surrounding water reorganize together during a light-triggered reaction. 11

Space Biomolecules Accelerate Formation of More Complex Peptides, Study Finds Experiments mimicking interstellar conditions showed organic residues from peptide formation promote longer, more diverse peptide chains, published in Communications Chemistry. 12

Webb Spectrum of 'Pink Planet' GJ 504 b Points to Salt Clouds The first direct spectrum of the cold companion only made physical sense when models included a potassium-chloride cloud deck, a long-predicted phenomenon. 13