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Astronomers have spotted the most powerful cosmic explosion ever seen — a mysterious, years-long eruption 10 times brighter than any observed supernova.

Astronomers spotted the  event, named AT2021lwx, 8 billion light-years from Earth. Releasing roughly 100 times the energy the sun will release over its entire lifetime, the strange explosion burst into activity when the universe was 6 billion years old.

“We came upon this by chance, as it was flagged by our search algorithm when we were searching for a type of supernova,” study lead author Philip Wiseman (opens in new tab) , an astronomer at the University of Southampton in the U.K., said in a statement (opens in new tab) . “Most supernovae and tidal disruption events [bright flashes that occur when black holes tear apart wandering stars] only last for a couple of months before fading away. For something to be bright for two plus years was immediately very unusual.”

Related: James Webb Space Telescope discovers oldest black hole in the universe — a cosmic monster 10 million times heavier than the sun

The cause of the mysterious explosion is unclear, but astronomers think it’s most likely the result of a gigantic cloud of hydrogen gas thousands of times larger than our sun being gobbled up by a supermassive black hole. 

As chunks of the cloud are swallowed, shockwaves travel across the remaining hot gas, producing a giant explosion whose light has been bombarding Earth for more than two years and is yet to die out. By using two telescope systems designed for full-sky surveys — the Zwicky Transient Facility in California and the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Hawaii — the researchers detected the distant event’s bright, flashing light.

Black holes are born from the collapse of giant stars and grow by gorging on gas, dust, stars and other black holes. For some of these gluttonous space-time ruptures, friction causes the material spiraling into their maws to heat up and emit light that can be detected by telescopes — turning them into so-called active galactic nuclei (AGN). 

The most extreme AGN are quasars — supermassive black holes billions of times heavier than the sun that shed their gaseous cocoons with light blasts trillions of times more luminous than the brightest stars. RELATED STORIES—’Green Monster’ supernova is the youngest in the Milky Way, James Webb telescope reveals

—Black holes may be swallowing invisible matter that slows the movement of stars

—What’s the biggest black hole in the universe?

Yet despite having a brightness on the scale of a quasar, the explosion is too short-lived to be one.

“With a quasar, we see the brightness flickering up and down over time. But looking back over a decade there was no detection of AT2021lwx, then suddenly it appears with the brightness of the brightest things in the universe, which is unprecedented,” co-author Mark Sullivan (opens in new tab) , a professor of astronomy at the University of Southampton, said in the statement. This means the explosion is likely to be from a gas cloud that was initially safely orbiting the black hole but got knocked off course to be sucked into the cosmic monster’s maw.

To confirm the identity of the object causing the explosion, the researchers are now studying the explosion in more detail by scanning across wavelengths. This could reveal its surface shape, temperature and the mysterious processes that are generating the bright light.

The researchers published their findings May 11 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (opens in new tab) .

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Kim Kardashian arrives at court to ‘confront’ her alleged attackers in Paris robbery trial

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Kim Kardashian arrives at court to 'confront' her alleged attackers in Paris robbery trial

Kim Kardashian has arrived at court to face a group accused of robbing her at gunpoint nearly a decade ago.

Wearing a black skirt suit, sunglasses, and with her hair pulled back into a chignon, the US reality star walked up the steps accompanied by her mother Kris and a large entourage.

The US reality star greeted the judge with a soft “Hello,” thanking the French authorities for “allowing me to tell my truth”.

Kim Kardashian waves as she arrives to testify regarding a robbery of millions of dollars in jewels from her Paris hotel room in 2016, in Paris, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
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Kim Kardashian waves as she arrives at court. Pic: AP

She began by telling the court of her love for Paris, calling it a “magical place,” before becoming tearful when describing the robbery, and talking of her “confusion” when two men entered her room dressed as police officers, accompanied by the handcuffed concierge.

She told the court: “I had fallen asleep naked with a robe on, I was flustered.”

Kardashian will face 10 defendants who it is alleged pulled off one of the most audacious celebrity heists in modern French history in the early hours of 3 October 2016.

Ahead of her in-person appearance, Kardashian’s lawyers said she was ready to “confront” the defendants and intended to do so “with dignity and courage”.

More on Kim Kardashian

It’s alleged that five masked men posing as police officers stormed the residence, with two entering Kardashian’s room and robbing her at gunpoint.

Kim Kardashian.
Pic: Reuters
Image:
Kim Kardashian. Pic: Reuters

Police say the men escaped on bicycles, with around $9m of jewellery, including a $4m engagement ring from Kardashian’s then-husband Kanye West. Most of the jewellery was never recovered.

Earlier on Tuesday, in Paris’s central criminal court, Kardashian’s stylist Simone Harouche described the moment she was woken by the US star’s screams of terror and feared she had been “raped or violated”.

Ms Harouche, 45, who says she has worked for Kardashian for many years and has been friends with her since she was 12, told the court she was woken by “a sound I had never heard from Kim… It was terror”.

Sleeping in a separate apartment, on the next floor down from Kardashian’s, she went on: “What I heard specifically was [Kim saying], ‘I have babies and I need to live – that is what she kept saying… Take everything. I need to live'”.

She told the judge: “When I realised something terrible was going on upstairs and I realised it was not friends [in Kim’s room], I started looking for my telephone and I started looking for something to help save mine and Kim’s life.”

Simone Harouche.
Pic: Virisa Yong/BFA.com/Shutterstock
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Simone Harouche pictured last year. Pic: Virisa Yong/BFA.com/Shutterstock

She went on to lock herself in her bathroom and hide in her shower, where she called Kardashian’s sister Kourtney and texted her security guard, Pascal Duvier, telling them, “Something is very wrong… Kim is upstairs with men and we need help.”

She says minutes later, Kardashian “hopped” into her room, explaining: “To see my friend with her feet taped and a very light robe with nothing under, and all messed up and pulled, I thought she could have been raped or very violated.”

She said she removed the tape from Kardashian’s feet, and her friend was “beside herself”, adding, “I’ve never seen her like that before. She was screaming, ‘We need to get out, what do we do if they come back? We need to jump from the first floor, we need to get out'”.

Later, when questioned by the lawyer of one of the defendants on why she did not come out of the bathroom, she said: “I’m the kind of person to hide, [Kardashian’s] the kind of person to take care of other people.”

‘Just because a woman wears jewellery, doesn’t make her a target’

When asked by the judge whether she or Kardashian had believed at the time that wearing and sharing images of such expensive jewellery would be a risk, Ms Harouche says: “Just because a woman wears jewellery doesn’t make her a target. That’s like saying because a woman wears a short skirt she deserves to be raped”.

She went on to say: “I think that that moment changed [Kardashian’s] life forever… In terms of security, she doesn’t go alone to places anymore.”

Read more: Everything you need to know about the Paris trial

Following the robbery, Ms Harouche says she quit her job as a stylist as the experience “made me fearful of all the things that could happen to celebrities, and being around them”.

Asking for ‘forgiveness’

At the end of her time in the witness stand, the judge attempted to play a video message from one of the defendants, Yunice Abbas.

Pic: Matteo Prandoni/BFA/Shutterstock
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Kardashian at the Siran Presentation on the day of the robbery. Pic: Matteo Prandoni/BFA/Shutterstock

Mr Abbas, who has admitted his part in the heist, published a book in 2021, titled “I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian”. A court has since ruled he will not benefit financially from it.

A tech issue meant the message would not play, so instead, the judge read out the statement from Mr Abbas, asking for “forgiveness” for his actions. When asked by the judge if she had a reaction to the apology, Ms Harouche answered, “No”.

The trial, which is being held in front of three judges and six jury members, is due to conclude at the end of this week.

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Cristobal: QB Beck cleared for summer workouts

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Cristobal: QB Beck cleared for summer workouts

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — Miami coach Mario Cristobal said Monday that quarterback Carson Beck has been cleared to participate in all team summer activities and is approaching 100 percent following elbow surgery last year.

Cristobal said Beck has been throwing for the past three weeks as part of his rehab regimen. Beck missed all of spring practice and has yet to throw to Miami’s receivers as part of organized team activities. But that is all about to change when Miami begins summer workouts next week.

“He’s good to go,” Cristobal told ESPN at the ACC spring meetings. “He’s exceeding every benchmark.”

Beck underwent surgery on his right elbow to repair his ulnar collateral ligament, which he injured on the final play of the first half in second-ranked Georgia‘s 22-19 overtime win against Texas in the SEC championship game Dec. 7.

Beck started at Georgia for two seasons, going 24-3, and ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. had him rated as the No. 5 quarterback for the 2025 draft. But given his injury and inconsistent performance in 2024, Beck entered the portal in January. He quickly opted for Miami, where he will replace No. 1 NFL draft pick Cam Ward.

Beck threw for 7,426 yards over his two seasons as Georgia’s starter, fifth most among all FBS passers since 2023, with 57 total touchdowns and 23 turnovers.

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NCAA prez is open to Trump’s idea of commission

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NCAA prez is open to Trump's idea of commission

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — NCAA president Charlie Baker said Monday he was “up for anything” when asked about a President Donald Trump-proposed commission on collegiate athletics.

Reports surfaced last week that Trump was going to create the commission.

While his conversations at ACC meetings with league football coaches, men’s and women’s basketball coaches, athletic directors and other school officials focused on governance and the pending House settlement, Baker was asked during an informal media availability for his thoughts on the presidential commission.

“I think the fact that there’s an interest on the executive side on this, I think it speaks to the fact that everybody is paying a lot of attention right now to what’s going on in college sports,” Baker said.

“I’m up for anything that can help us get somewhere.”

Baker noted the NCAA has already spent time in Washington asking for congressional help that is focused on three big issues. Among the biggest: a patchwork of state laws that relate to how collegiate athletics work in individual states; and whether student-athletes should be considered employees.

“I think [Congress] can help us. I really do,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said during an interview with ACC Network. “We have been very bold in the desire for a national standard when it comes to name, image and likeness. We need to make sure that we have something that comes out of Washington that connects all 50 of the states because we’ve had a piecemeal project and it’s really undermined college sports. It’s been a race to the bottom. So that’s one. Two is we need some legal protection. We cannot sustain one legal case after another legal case after another legal case. A reaffirmation that these are student-athletes. Those three things to me will be very important to see if that can come out of the commission.”

Baker said, “People in our office have talked to folks who are working on this, but I don’t think they’ve decided the framework around who they want to put on.”

When asked whether he felt the creation of a commission would enhance the NCAA’s chances at legislative relief, Baker said, “I don’t have a crystal ball on that one. I don’t know. I do think, though, that it’s quite clear at this point that there are a lot of people interested in college sports, and we do need some help at some point to create some clarity around some of these issues in Washington. Creating clarity one lawsuit at a time is just a really bad way to try to move forward.”

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