Megan Masterson

GRB 250702B broke all the rules: its 7-hour duration didn't fit old models. The solution? A merger of a black hole with a helium star. This event links ultra-long gamma-ray bursts with supernovae and gravitational waves.

In the Andromeda galaxy, a star faded away without a flash. James Webb and the Chandra telescope saw a dim object in a dust cocoon. This proves that a black hole can be born in the quiet collapse of a star, not just in the fire of a supernova.

Years of observations with XMM-Newton, Swift, and VLA showed how the changing-look active galaxy 1ES 1927+654 underwent a dramatic transition from a wind regime to a jet. X-ray spectra revealed oxygen emission lines and a broad iron line, while ionized absorption faded. Synchronously, radio emission