Scientists Discover Galaxy That Shouldn’t Exist, Challenging Cosmic Models

Shawn Ryan Grell, a 50-year-old man serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of his two-year-old daughter, Kristen Salem, died in prison on April 19, according to The New York Post. Authorities at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Tucson discovered his body but did not disclose the cause of death. In December 1999, Grell took his daughter from daycare with plans to see Christmas lights but instead purchased gasoline and drove to a remote desert area in east Mesa. There, he set Kristen on fire, leading to her tragic death. Following the horrific act, Grell went to a convenience store to buy alcohol and later turned himself in to the police, admitting, “I took the gasoline and I poured it on her.” Initially sentenced to death in 2001 for first-degree murder, the Arizona Supreme Court canceled his death sentence in 2013, citing his mental retardation and replacing it with a life sentence. His death marks the end of a case that has haunted the community for over two decades.

A fire aboard the Morning Midas, a 600-foot cargo ship transporting approximately 3,000 vehicles from Yantai, China, to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, forced its 22 crew members to abandon ship on Tuesday. The fire erupted while the vessel was located about 300 miles southwest of Alaska, primarily affecting a deck carrying 800 electric vehicles, according to Zodiac Maritime, the ship's operator based in London. The U.S. Coast Guard responded by deploying aircrews and a cutter to assist with the emergency. The crew was safely transferred to one of three nearby merchant vessels that participated in firefighting efforts. The specific brands of the vehicles involved remain undisclosed by Zodiac Maritime. This incident echoes the 2022 Felicity Ace fire, where another cargo vessel carrying 4,000 cars sank in the Atlantic Ocean after lithium-ion batteries exacerbated the flames. Experts emphasize the challenges of extinguishing EV-related fires, which require significant quantities of water and caution against using saltwater due to its conductivity. Ongoing improvements in firefighting techniques are deemed necessary as electric vehicles become increasingly prevalent.

Researchers at the University of Hawai’i’s Institute for Astronomy have identified a new classification of cosmic events, termed extreme nuclear transients (ENTs). As detailed in a study published on June 4 in *Science Advances*, ENTs occur when stars, at least three times the mass of the sun, approach supermassive black holes, leading to their obliteration and the release of vast amounts of energy. Lead author Jason Hinkle noted that ENTs differ markedly from previously documented tidal disruption events. "ENTs are far brighter than normal tidal disruption events and remain luminous for years," Hinkle stated, emphasizing that one documented ENT, Gaia18cdj, emitted 25 times more energy than the most powerful known supernova. Astronomers believe these powerful events not only signify the death of massive stars but also shed light on the processes that contribute to the formation of the universe's largest black holes. Co-author Benjamin Shappee emphasized the importance of monitoring these phenomena for gaining insights into black hole growth in the early universe, underlining that ENTs occur much less frequently than supernovae, necessitating global collaborative efforts for further study.