NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 crewmembers from left, pilot Mike Fincke, Commander Zena Cardman, and Mission Specialists Oleg Platonov and Kimiya Yui.
Credit: SpaceX
HOUSTON—Those taking part in NASA’s upcoming Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) are preparing to adjust as necessary to a dynamic period in the orbital lab’s history in orbit and on the ground. Challenges for the crewmembers and mission managers include NASA’s budget and…
Mark Carreau
Mark is based in Houston, where he has written on aerospace for more than 25 years. While at the Houston Chronicle, he was recognized by the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation in 2006 for his professional contributions to the public understanding of America’s space program through news reporting.
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We present a physicochemical framework for understanding the emergence of catalytic logic at the origin of life. In this view, early catalytic systems did not depend on genetic encoding or biological membranes, but arose from the intrinsic properties of inorganic nanomaterials—particularly iron-based oxides and sulfides.
These materials, through their electron configurations and redox-active surfaces, supported charge hopping, intervalence transfer, and redox cycling. We argue that these processes enabled a directional flow of electrons, forming what we describe as an “electron ratchet”: a structural and energetic asymmetry that sustained catalytic cycles far from equilibrium.
Such solid-state catalysis, governed by spatial and temporal separation, offers a plausible prebiotic alternative to enzyme function. Small molecules may have stabilized these systems, leading to the progressive evolution of organic ligands and protein scaffolds that preserved and refined inorganic reactivity.
This perspective integrates mineral surface chemistry, nanostructured electron transfer, and systems-level principles to propose a continuous evolutionary pathway from rock to enzyme. We support this hypothesis with structural and mechanistic comparisons between modern metalloenzymes and their putative inorganic ancestors, highlighting redox geometries, charge flow dynamics, and catalytic selectivity.
The resulting framework suggests that metabolic logic was not invented, but inherited—from the physical and energetic rules of mineral catalysis. Life, in this view, emerges as an organized ratcheting of charge through constrained matter.
Electron Configuration and Catalytic Logic: A Physicochemical Framework for the Inorganic Origins of Life, chemrxiv.org
Astrobiology,
Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻
Using the NASA-NSF-funded ‘Alopeke instrument on the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, partly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by NSF NOIRLab, astronomers have discovered a companion star in an incredibly tight orbit around Betelgeuse. This discovery answers the millennia-old question of why this famous star experiences a roughly six-year-long periodic change in its brightness, and provides insight into the physical mechanisms behind other variable red supergiants. The companion star appears blue here because, based on the team’s analysis, it is likely an A- or B-type star, both of which are blue-white due to their high temperatures.
‘Alopeke is funded by the NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research Program (NN-EXPLORE).
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Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
Image Processing: M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)
Betelgeuse is one of the brightest stars in the night sky, and the closest red supergiant to Earth. It has an enormous volume, spanning a radius around 700 times that of the Sun. Despite only being ten million years old, which is considered young by astronomy standards, it’s late in its life. Located in the shoulder of the constellation Orion, people have observed Betelgeuse with the naked eye for millennia, noticing that the star changes in brightness over time. Astronomers established that Betelgeuse has a main period of variability of around 400 days and a more extended secondary period of around six years.
In 2019 and 2020, there was a steep decrease in Betelgeuse’s brightness — an event referred to as the ‘Great Dimming.’ The event led some to believe that a supernova death was quickly approaching, but scientists were able to determine the dimming was actually caused by a large cloud of dust ejected from Betelgeuse.
The Great Dimming mystery was solved, but the event sparked a renewed interest in studying Betelgeuse, which brought about new analyses of archival data on the star. One analysis led scientists to propose that the cause of Betelgeuse’s six-year variability is the presence of a companion star [1]. But when the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory searched for this companion, no detections were made.
The companion star has now been detected for the first time by a team of astrophysicists led by Steve Howell, a senior research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. They observed Betelgeuse using a speckle imager called ‘Alopeke. ‘Alopeke, which means ‘fox’ in Hawaiian, is funded by the NASA–NSF Exoplanet Observational Research Program (NN-EXPLORE) and is mounted on the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab.
Speckle imaging is an astronomical imaging technique that uses very short exposure times to freeze out the distortions in images caused by Earth’s atmosphere. This technique enables high resolution, which, when combined with the light collecting power of Gemini North’s 8.1-meter mirror, allowed for Betelgeuse’s faint companion to be directly detected.
Analysis of the companion star’s light allowed Howell and his team to determine the companion star’s characteristics. They found that it is six magnitudes fainter than Betelgeuse in the optical wavelength range, it has an estimated mass of around 1.5 times that of the Sun, and it appears to be an A- or B-type pre-main-sequence star — a hot, young, blue-white star that has not yet initiated hydrogen burning in its core.
The companion is at a relatively close distance away from the surface of Betelgeuse — about four times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. This discovery is the first time a close-in stellar companion has been detected orbiting a supergiant star. Even more impressive — the companion orbits well within Betelgeuse’s outer extended atmosphere, proving the incredible resolving abilities of ‘Alopeke.
“Gemini North’s ability to obtain high angular resolutions and sharp contrasts allowed the companion of Betelgeuse to be directly detected,” says Howell. Furthermore, he explains that ‘Alopeke did what no other telescope has done before: “Papers that predicted Betelgeuse’s companion believed that no one would likely ever be able to image it.”
This discovery provides a clearer picture of this red supergiant’s life and future death. Betelgeuse and its companion star were likely born at the same time. However, the companion star will have a shortened lifespan as strong tidal forces will cause it to spiral into Betelgeuse and meet its demise, which scientists estimate will occur within the next 10,000 years.
The discovery also helps to explain why similar red supergiant stars might undergo periodic changes in their brightness on the scale of many years. Howell shares his hope for further studies in this area: “This detection was at the very extremes of what can be accomplished with Gemini in terms of high-angular resolution imaging, and it worked. This now opens the door for other observational pursuits of a similar nature.”
Martin Still, NSF program director for the International Gemini Observatory adds: “The speckle capabilities provided by the International Gemini Observatory continue to be a spectacular tool, open to all astronomers for a wide range of astronomy applications. Delivering the solution to the Betelgeuse problem that has stood for hundreds of years will stand as an evocative highlight achievement.”
Another opportunity to study Betelgeuse’s stellar companion will occur in November 2027 when it returns to its furthest separation from Betelgeuse, and thus easiest to detect. Howell and his team look forward to observations of Betelgeuse before and during this event to better constrain the nature of the companion.
Notes
[1] Two papers released in 2024 used decades of observations of Betelgeuse from many observers around the world to predict the orbit and location of the companion star (see DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad93c8 and DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad87f4).
More information
This research was presented in a paper titled “Probable Direct Imaging Discovery of the Stellar Companion to Betelgeuse” to appear in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/adeaaf
The team is composed of Steve B. Howell (NASA Ames Research Center), David R. Ciardi (NASA Exoplanet Science Institute-Caltech/IPAC), Catherine A. Clark (NASA Exoplanet Science Institute-Caltech/IPAC), Douglas A. Hope (Georgia Tech Research Institute, Georgia State University), Colin Littlefield (NASA Ames Research Center, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute), Elise Furlan (NASA Exoplanet Science Institute-Caltech/IPAC).
NSF NOIRLab, the U.S. National Science Foundation center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the International Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), NSF Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory (in cooperation with DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory). It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona.
The scientific community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on I’oligam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawai‘i, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence of I’oligam Du’ag to the Tohono O’odham Nation, and Maunakea to the Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) community.
The NASA–NSF Exoplanet Observational Research Program (NN-EXPLORE) is a joint initiative to advance U.S. exoplanet science by providing the community with access to cutting-edge, ground-based observational facilities. Managed by NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program (ExEP), NN-EXPLORE supports and enhances the scientific return of space missions such as Kepler, TESS, HST, and JWST by enabling essential follow-up observations from the ground—creating strong synergies between space-based discoveries and ground-based characterization. ExEP is located at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. More information at https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exep/NNExplore/overview/.
Links
Journal
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Article Title
Probable Direct Imaging Discovery of the Stellar Companion to Betelgeuse
Article Publication Date
24-Jul-2025
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The National Institutes of Health claims it’s being strained by an onslaught of AI-generated research applications and is capping the number of proposals researchers can submit in a year.
In a new policy announcement on July 17, titled “Supporting Fairness and Originality in NIH Research Applications,” the NIH wrote that it has recently “observed instances of Principal Investigators submitting large numbers of applications, some of which may have been generated with AI tools,” and that this influx of submissions “may unfairly strain NIH’s application review process.”
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Do you know anything else about this policy decision, or are you a researcher affected by it? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at sam.404. Otherwise, send me an email at sam@404media.co.
“The percentage of applications from Principal Investigators submitting an average of more than six applications per year is relatively low; however, there is evidence that the use of AI tools has enabled Principal Investigators to submit more than 40 distinct applications in a single application submission round,” the NIH policy announcement says. “NIH will not consider applications that are either substantially developed by AI, or contain sections substantially developed by AI, to be original ideas of applicants. If the detection of AI is identified post award, NIH may refer the matter to the Office of Research Integrity to determine whether there is research misconduct while simultaneously taking enforcement actions including but not limited to disallowing costs, withholding future awards, wholly or in part suspending the grant, and possible termination.”
Starting on September 25, NIH will only accept six “new, renewal, resubmission, or revision applications” from individual principal investigators or program directors in a calendar year.
Earlier this year, 404 Media investigated AI used in published scientific papers by searching for the phrase “as of my last knowledge update” on Google Scholar, and found more than 100 results—indicating that at least some of the papers relied on ChatGPT, which updates its knowledge base periodically. And in February, a journal published a paper with several clearly AI-generated images, including one of a rat with a giant penis. In 2023, Nature reported that academic journals retracted 10,000 “sham papers,” and the Wiley-owned Hindawi journals retracted over 8,000 fraudulent paper-mill articles. Wiley discontinued the 19 journals overseen by Hindawi. AI-generated submissions affect non-research publications, too: The science fiction and fantasy magazine Clarkesworld stopped accepting new submissions in 2023 because editors were overwhelmed by AI-generated stories.
According to an analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, from February 28 to April 8, the Trump administration terminated $1.81 billion in NIH grants, in subjects including aging, cancer, child health, diabetes, mental health and neurological disorders, NBC reported.
Just before the submission limit announcement, on July 14, Nature reported that the NIH would “soon disinvite dozens of scientists who were about to take positions on advisory councils that make final decisions on grant applications for the agency,” and that staff members “have been instructed to nominate replacements who are aligned with the priorities of the administration of US President Donald Trump—and have been warned that political appointees might still override their suggestions and hand-pick alternative reviewers.”
NIH told 404 Media: “NIH developed this policy to ensure that the research application system promotes fairness and originality and to mitigate the potential overload of its review systems. NIH has observed cases of large numbers of applications (e.g., more than 40 being submitted in a single application submission round) which are likely evidence of use of AI tools in application development. As AI is becoming increasingly commonplace, it is reasonable to anticipate a potentially rapid increase in the use of AI in application development. A thorough analysis of application trends was conducted to determine the number of applications per calendar year the NIH should accept from a principal investigator. Specifically, the analysis revealed that 1.3% of PIs submitted more than six applications in 2024. Based on our data, this limit will affect a relatively small number of applicants.”
Updated 4:00 p.m. EST to include comment from NIH.
About the author
Sam Cole is writing from the far reaches of the internet, about sexuality, the adult industry, online culture, and AI. She’s the author of How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex.
A: Bioreactor setup of A. manzaensis grown on ESAE-01 basalt analog material. B: Exposure wells with desiccated A. manzaensis cells and ESAE-01 basalt pellets. C: Successful recultivation of A. manzaensis cells after 1 month of desiccation. — chemrxiv.org
In the search for reliable biomarker in other planetary environments such as Mars, we need molecules that are stable over geological timescales while preserving indicative information about their potential biological origin.
Thiophene-bearing quinones fulfill these requirements, and thiophenes, which are their basic moieties, have been found on Mars. However, thiophenes can be produced abiotically and have been found in meteorites.
Furthermore, the Martian environment may alter their molecular structure over time. To evaluate whether there could be a distinction between biotically and abiotically produced thiohenes considering the harsh environmental conditions on Mars, we cultivated the extremophilic archaeon Acidianus manzaensis on ESA01-E Mars analog material.
We then exposed the cell-mineral material to one month of desiccation and Mars-like conditions in a Mars simulation chamber to analyze changes in the composition of thiophene-bearing quinones using mass spectrometry-based metabolomics, and evaluated their potential for cell recovery after exposure to extreme conditions. Recultivations after one month of desiccation and two weeks of exposure to Mars-like conditions was successful, proving the durability of the organism and its potential for cell recovery.
Analysis of their thiophene-bearing quinone composition showed a heterogeneous distribution of possible oxidation states used as an adaptation to environmental stressors.
While additional analysis of the headgroup moieties might clarify the traces of biologically produced thiophene remnants, this study showed the durability of Acidianus manzaensis to recover after exposure to extreme conditions, paving the way for further investigation.
A two-week journey to Mars: Investigating changes in thiophene-bearing quinones of the extremely thermoacidophilic archaeon Acidianus manzaensis
Astrobiology,
Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻
Ongoing research explores potential for Jupiter’s frozen moon to support life, habitability Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DLR
Southwest Research Institute experiments offer a new view on a hydrogen peroxide chemical cycle on Europa. Carbon-bearing species rising to Europa’s icy surface from a subsurface ocean are irradiated by Jupiter’s energetic plasma, synthesizing peroxide that may be cycled back down to the ocean, releasing chemical energy that may contribute to the ocean’s habitability. These findings are detailed in a new article published in the July 2025 issue of the Planetary Science Journal.
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists conducted lab experiments to address a mystery about the origins of frozen hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. Their results, published in the July 2025 issue of Planetary Science Journal, may help explain puzzling observations made by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Scientists studying the telescope data noticed elevated levels of hydrogen peroxide on Europa in unexpected areas. Decades of lab studies suggested higher concentrations of hydrogen peroxide would reside in the colder, polar regions, but JWST revealed the opposite — the highest peroxide concentrations were at the warmer equatorial chaos terrain known as Tara Regio.
This puzzle inspired Bereket Mamo, a graduate student at The University of Texas at San Antonio and an SwRI contractor, to submit a NASA proposal for a series of experiments to investigate the mystery. He received a Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology grant to help fund the research at SwRI’s Center for Laboratory Astrophysics and Space Science Experiments (CLASSE) facility.
Mamo and colleagues noted that the chaos terrains with enhanced hydrogen peroxide also showed elevated levels of carbon dioxide (CO2). Scientists think CO2 may be seeping up through cracks in the ice crust from a presumed subsurface liquid ocean.
“We simulated the surface environment of Europa inside a vacuum chamber by depositing water ice mixed with CO2,” Mamo said. “We then irradiated this ice mixture with energetic electrons to see how the peroxide production changed.”
The SwRI experiments demonstrated that trace amounts of CO2 in water ice can significantly enhance hydrogen peroxide production at temperatures found on the surface of Europa, helping explain the new JWST observations.
Dr. Ujjwal Raut, program manager in SwRI’s Planetary Science Section and Mamo’s advisor, said a key factor driving their research is assessing the potential habitability of Europa. The occurrence of increased hydrogen peroxide in a region that has evidence of CO2, sodium chloride and other species of interest is intriguing. According to Raut, this finding hints at a chemical cycle, where materials rising to Europa’s icy surface from a subsurface ocean are irradiated, creating chemical potential in the form of oxidants like hydrogen peroxide. Such oxidants can be cycled back to the ocean over geologic timescales where it may react with reductants coming from Europa’s seafloor to release chemical energy possibly capable of supporting life.
Experiments conducted in SwRI’s CLASSE facility help explain how ocean-sourced CO2 boosts hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) proliferation at Europa’s chaos terrains. Hydrogen peroxide is formed when water (H2O) is exposed to charged particle radiation. — Courtesy: Southwest Research Institute
“Synthesis of oxidants like hydrogen peroxide on Europa’s surface is important from an astrobiological point of view,” said Richard Cartwright from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and a co-author of the paper. “In fact, an entire NASA mission, the Europa Clipper, is en route to the Jovian system right now to explore the icy moon and help us understand Europa’s habitability.
“Our experiments provide clues to better understand JWST Europa observations and serve as a prelude to upcoming close-range investigations by Europa Clipper and ESA’s JUICE spacecraft,” Cartwright added.
“When you have a source of carbon from the interior, such as from an interior ocean like on Europa, and you combine it with energy coming from the magnetosphere, it produces new species on the surface, including hydrogen peroxide and other organic compounds, that store chemical energy,” says Dr. Ben Teolis, a planetary scientist at SwRI and another co-author of the paper. “Chemical energy is important because it is a necessary ingredient for the dark habitable ocean worlds where the sun doesn’t shine.”
These findings provide a plausible explanation for the perplexing hydrogen peroxide distribution on Europa. They also have implications for understanding its existence on other icy bodies, such as Jupiter’s moon Ganymede and Pluto’s moon Charon, where it has been detected along with CO2.
Laboratory Investigation of CO2-Driven Enhancement of Radiolytic H2O2 on Europa and Other Icy Moons, astro-ph.EP
NASA is developing a new miniature, battery-powered probe that could help astronomers map and unlock the internal geographies of moons, asteroids, and exoplanets.
Called the “Gravity Imaging Radio Observer” (GIRO), this breakthrough tool could end costly and complex landing missions. It requires only gravity and radio waves to analyze an alien object’s internal structure.
Gravitational Tomography
GIRO ditches the traditional camera and radar probe approach and instead relies on gravitational tomography and radio signals to measure how mass is distributed beneath an object’s surface.
“Lumpiness,” or tiny shifts in the gravity field, analyzed using the Doppler Effect, helps astronomers track the density and composition of the materials below — a dense iron core would have a stronger pull than a porous icy crust.
All this is done with 100 times the precision of current Earth-based tracking systems.
Low-Cost, High Precision
Low mass and low cost make the photopolymer resin-built GIRO special compared to other gravity-mapping missions such as GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory).
While GRAIL requires dedicated spacecraft and extensive resources, GIRO is ultra-compact, spin-stabilized, and is powered by a 10-day internal battery, allowing it to reach Uranus.
Space-Age Space Probes
According to NASA, GIRO — which is inexpensive and not mission-critical — could go places where no probe has been so far, like the hazardous ring systems of Uranus or fast-moving asteroids. Moreover, when launched as a swarm, it could expand extraterrestrial coverage, upping the reliability of data gathered.
Before GIRO takes to the skies, there are still a few hurdles to cross, such as battery life, signal quality, orbital geometry, adherence to planetary protection protocol, and, above all, politics and funding. If greenlit sometime soon, GIRO could become part of the 2028–2030 planetary mission window.
A tiny meteorite is rewriting what scientists thought they knew about the origins of our solar system.
New evidence found in shavings from a meteorite known as Northwest Africa 12264 — a 50-gram (1.8 ounces) piece of space rock that is believed to have formed in the outer solar system — suggests that rocky planets like Earth and distant icy bodies may have formed at the same time. This challenges the long-standing belief that planets closer to the sun formed before those in the outer solar system, the ones that lie beyond the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Planets form within the rotating disks of gas and dust that surround young stars, where particles collide and stick together through a process known as accretion. As developing rocky planets heat up, they begin to differentiate, forming separate internal layers known as the core, mantle and crust.
Scientists have thought that our solar system’s inner rocky planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars —formed first (around 4.566 billion years ago), while gas giants and icy bodies in the outer solar system came together slightly later (4.563 billion years ago), due to the colder temperatures at a greater distance from the sun. Rocky planets farther out were also thought to form more slowly because their higher water and ice content would have delayed internal heating and core development.
Analyzing the composition of the meteorite (which was purchased from a dealer in Morocco in 2018) revealed a ratio of chromium and oxygen that indicates it came from the outer part of the solar system. Using precise isotopic dating methods, the researchers found that the rock formed 4.564 billion years ago — just two to three million years after the solar system’s earliest solid materials.
Three comparisons of the chemical composition of the meteorite. (Image credit: Communications Earth & Environment (2025).)
Until now, such early formation was thought to be limited to bodies from the inner solar system, according to a statement announcing the new study.
Evidence that rocky planets beyond Jupiter formed as rapidly, and at the same time, as the inner planets could transform our understanding of how planets take shape — not only in our solar system, but in planetary systems throughout the universe, the researchers said.
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Their findings were published on July 4 in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
JERUSALEM, July 21 (Xinhua) — An international team of astronomers has observed a star surviving not one but two encounters with a supermassive black hole, challenging long-held assumptions that a star cannot escape once it has been captured by a black hole.
It is believed that once every 10,000 to 100,000 years, a star will wander too close to the supermassive black hole in the center of its galaxy and get torn apart in a violent event called a tidal disruption. The black hole swallows part of the star and flings the rest into space, creating a bright flare.
The flare from the unlucky star can “light up” the black hole for a few weeks to months, providing astronomers a brief opportunity to study its properties.
In the latest study, the team, led by researchers from Tel Aviv University, observed two nearly identical flares from the same location, two years apart.
The results were published in a July issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
It suggests the star, coded as “AT 2022dbl” was only partially destroyed during the first encounter and returned again, challenging what scientists thought they knew.
The researchers said that the flares are thus more of a “snack” for the supermassive black hole. The black hole takes a bite out of a star in at least two encounters, rather than swallowing it up in one “meal.”
The team is currently waiting to see whether they will observe a third flare after two more years, in early 2026. They said that whether there will be a third flare, astronomers will rewrite the interpretation of the flares and what they can tell about the black holes. ■
