Star Orbiting Black Hole Animation - NASA Science (.gov)

A black hole and a galactic collision teamed up to create something wild.

Sound can be a tricksy beast to try to harness. It fills the world around us, bursting from its multitudinous sources, bouncing off surfaces as echoes – a property that makes sound both incredibly useful and deeply vexing, depending on where and how its reverberations occur. There are some circumstances where echoes can cause problems. The most obvious example is sound recording studios, but one major problem area is probably less obvious because it's far more ubiquitous – pipes. Consider ventilation, air conditioning, industrial exhaust, or even plumbing. Sound travels through the spaces enclosed in those pipes and ducts, and when it encounters an obstruction, a change in shape, or a closed end, it can start to rattle around like nobody's business. Now, scientists have developed an ingenious little device that can dramatically reduce those reflections by effectively 'swallowing' sound. It's called a sonic black hole, and the new design can be 3D-printed and inserted directly into an existing pipe – a major step forward from conventional designs that require the black hole to be built into the pipe itself.

NASA has chosen a proposal led by the Planetary Science Institute to determine whether a potentially large cave stretches underground from the opening of a pit on the Moon. If such a cavern exists, it could eventually offer astronauts natural protection from radiation and the dramatic temperature changes experienced on the lunar surface. The project will receive funding through NASA's Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) program. PRISM sends scientific instruments to the lunar surface aboard spacecraft supplied by providers participating in the Commercial Lunar Payloads Services (CLPS) initiative.