Black Hole's "Jetty McJetface" Blasts Radio Waves Until '27!

The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, are set to begin on February 6 and run through February 22, 2026, hosting over 3,500 athletes across both locations, according to Time. This marks the first time the Winter Olympics will be officially co-hosted by multiple cities.

Milan, a financial and fashion center in northern Italy, will host ice sports such as figure skating and hockey, Time reported. Cortina d'Ampezzo, a resort town in the Italian Dolomites, will host skiing, snowboarding, and other mountain events. Milan and Cortina won the bid in 2019, defeating a joint bid from Stockholm and Åre in Sweden, according to Time.

Athletes residing in the Milan Olympic Village will have access to the "Zona Mentale," or Mind Zone, a space designed for relaxation, Time noted. This area allows athletes and team members to write postcards on paper and engage in activities like coloring to provide a mental break from the pressures of competition.

Meanwhile, in Kyiv, Ukraine, residents are facing a challenging winter due to ongoing power outages, NPR reported. The fourth winter of Russia's war on Ukraine has been particularly brutal, with repeated attacks on the country's energy grid. Candles have become a last resort for light when emergency power sources fail, symbolizing a sense of loss, according to NPR. "February ... is sobbing," the Ukrainian poet said, according to NPR.

In other news, a supermassive black hole, nicknamed "Jetty McJetface," is continuing to emit the remains of a shredded star, Phys.org reported. The black hole has been "burping out" this material for four years, and scientists predict its radio jet activity may peak in 2027, according to Phys.org.

A new study published in Nature News suggests a universal concept for melting in mantle upwellings. Researchers found that the first melts generated in any solid-state mantle upwelling are kimberlitic CO2-rich silicate melts, forming at approximately 250 km depth through oxidation of elemental carbon to CO2, according to Nature News. The experiments forced a range of surface melts into equilibrium with fertile mantle at adiabatic and super-adiabatic conditions at 7 GPa.