QUICK TAKES

DESTROYER OF WORLDS The star J0931+0038 has an unusual composition with heavy elements that no known model of nucleosynthesis can explain. Astronomers think it formed from the remains of an exploded star at least 50 to 80 times more massive the Sun, which they’ve dubbed the “Barbenheimer Star.”

CMB CO-DISCOVERER DIES Cosmologist Arno Penzias, who shared one half of the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics with Robert Wilson for codiscovering the cosmic microwave background, died Jan. 22 at the age of 90.

CLIMATE CRISIS CONTINUES

A NASA analysis concluded that 2023 was the warmest year on record, with an average surface temperature 2.1 F (1.2 C) higher than a baseline period from 1951–1980.

INTERGALACTIC SURVIVOR

A 10-billion-year-old star found orbiting the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole at a distance of just 0.04 light-year is similar in composition to stars in the small galaxies surrounding the Milky Way. Astronomers think this star was born in a now-extinct dwarf galaxy that was absorbed by our own.

VIBE KALE-ER Lettuce grown in simulated microgravity is more prone to salmonella infections, lab tests find. The weaker gravity seems to confuse the leafy greens, leaving its pores open to pathogens that could threaten a mission crew that grows food in space.