Primordial black holes may flood the universe. Could one hit Earth?

Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, host of “Ask a Spaceman” and “Space Radio,” and author of “How to Die in Space.” Sutter contributed this article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Black holes sound pretty scary — dark, powerful, foreboding. And now, astrophysicists have cooked up something else: primordial black holes, forged in the earliest moments of the universe, that flood the present-day cosmos. So, what are the chances that one of these ancient monsters will come wandering toward Earth? One…

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Record-high astronaut applications overwhelm European Space Agency

Thousands of would-be space travelers hoping to be among the next-generation of astronauts to fly with the European Space Agency (ESA) will have to wait until at least November to find out if they’ve got the right stuff after a flood of applicants, agency officials have said. Applications for ESA’s astronaut corps and a new program for “parastronauts” with physical disabilities closed on June 18, but potential candidates are being asked for their patience as the number of applicants wildly exceeded the space agency’s initial expectations.  “At ESA, we firmly…

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Watch a supermassive black hole fest in mesmerizing new simulation (video)

There’s no consensus yet on how supermassive black holes form, but a mesmerizing new simulation is taking a crack at that question like never before.  Scientists are hoping that new simulations, like the one recently created by researchers at Northwestern University, can reveal the origins of these gargantuan bodies. Among these objects are a few that are especially interesting to scientists, like the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy and the one captured in the iconic first black hole photograph made by the Event Horizon…

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