The Earth has been hit by a powerful blast of energy from the very depths of the universe. The fast radio burst is the most distant of its kind of ever seen, coming from so far away that it has travelled eight billion years to get to Earth. It is also astonishingly powerful, one of the most energetic of its kind ever seen. In less than a second, it released the same energy that comes out of the Sun in more than 30 years. Fast radio bursts are intense, short bursts of energy that come from unknown but extreme activity in space. Scientists are still unsure of how they are formed, but explanations have included everything from extraterrestrial technology to neutron stars. The newly discovered burst appears to come from a small group of merging galaxies, scientists say, which helps support current theories about where they come from. But the intensity of the burst is harder to explain, which challenges our understanding of how they are actually emitted. “While we still don’t know what causes these massive bursts of energy, the paper confirms that fast radio bursts are common events in the cosmos and that we will be able to use them to detect matter between galaxies, and better understand the structure of the Universe,” said Ryan Shannon, from the Swinburne University of Technology. The blasts could be useful ways of answering some of the deepest questions about our cosmos, such as how much it actually weighs. At the moment, attempts to answer that have led to confusing results. “If we count up the amount of normal matter in the Universe — the atoms that we are all made of — we find that more than half of what should be there today is missing,” said Professor Shannon. “We think that the missing matter is hiding in the space between galaxies, but it may just be so hot and diffuse that it’s impossible to see using normal techniques. “Fast radio bursts sense this ionised material. Even in space that is nearly perfectly empty they can ‘see’ all the electrons, and that allows us to measure how much stuff is between the galaxies.” The blast was spotted last year, using a telescope in Japan. Researchers then used other telescopes to verify the find and examine it in more detail. “Using ASKAP’s array of dishes, we were able to determine precisely where the burst came from,” said Stuart Ryder, the first author on the paper. “Then we used the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile to search for the source galaxy, finding it to be older and further away than any other FRB source found to date, and likely within a small group of merging galaxies.” The findings are reported in a new paper, ‘A luminous fast radio burst that probes the Universe at redshift 1’, published in the journal Science. Read More Scientists unveil radical new ‘missing law’ to explain the universe India’s Modi declares goal to land human on Moon by 2040 Researchers reveal source of largest ever Mars quake

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A mother has been praised after she revealed how she ‘ruined’ a child’s birthday because her daughter wasn’t invited. In a post to Reddit's "Am I the A**hole?" forum, the mum provided the backstory as to what happened that caused the drama to unfold. She began by detailing how her nine-year-old daughter goes to a small school with 11 girls in her grade which is "tight-knit" and "we all get along." The girls have started up a book club and we would meet up twice per month at each other's homes. "My daughter was in it last summer but we had to stop when the school year began. She’s a competitive dancer which requires a lot of time," the mum explained. But also later clarified that her daughter "does still attend book club once per month to once every other month," she's just not a full-time member. The problem first occurred three weeks ago when a classmate discussed an upcoming party - one to which the daughter hadn't been invited. "We had a girl in her class over named Sarah. Sarah asked my daughter if she was excited to attend Addy’s, another girl in the class, birthday party. "She said it was a swimming party and they’d be playing a movie on an outdoor screen. My daughter hadn’t received an invite. "When Sarah’s mom came Sarah told her how we hadn’t received an invite for Addy’s birthday," to which Sarah's mother said that "Addy had handed them out at the last book club and had probably just forgot to reach out." So that's exactly what she did. "I texted Addy’s mom and reminded her my daughter hadn’t been at the last book club and if she was also supposed to receive an invite. "She responded that they had hired someone to do a spa for the girls during the party and the service had a limit of 10 so they decided to only do the girls in book club. She didn’t expect us to find out." The mum responded saying that she "understood but felt it was wrong to not include just one." "I told my daughter we can’t expect to be invited every time and this was just a life lesson," she added. When Sarah's mum asked if the situation had been sorted, the mum sent a screenshot of the text conversation she had with Addy's mum. A few days later, Sarah's mom told her that she would not be taking Sarah to the party - " She felt it was wrong to not include just one child and she could see if our kids didn’t get along or had drama but that wasn’t the case. They hired someone knowing just one girl would be left out and she didn’t agree with it." But it wasn't just Sarah's mom who decided not to take their child to the party. "I get a text from Addy’s mom a week later that a total of 4 girls were not attending," the mum wrote. "She felt I had ruined her daughter's party and was creating drama. I explained that I had no intentions of ruining her party and had only spoken to one other mom about it." The poster's own mum told her she "should not have texted Addy’s mom and if they had wanted us we would have been invited." To conclude, the mum summed her her side of things. "The only mom I talked to about it was Sarah’s which I assume is who told others. I never meant to cause others to not attend or ruin a child’s party. "When I reached out I really felt like it must have been a mistake since she was the only one. Now I’m unsure if I was just a jerk who now cause unnecessary drama in a small group and possibly ruined a child’s party. "Was I the AH?" she asked. Since sharing the dilemma, there have been plenty of comments from people who shared their thoughts on what happened - with many siding with the mum, believing she was not the a**hole in this situation. One person said: "NTA. Not unreasonable to think in a group that small everyone would have received an invitation. But some food for thought… Not invited? Don’t go. Not told? Don’t ask. Late invite? Decline, you were never a part of the plan." "NTA. Addy's mom knows there are 11 girls in the class and decided to go for the activity limited by not including one girl in. That's where the drama is caused," another person wrote. "Of course your daughter would have found out - or if not, this would have caused the other girls to isolate her in general by keeping secrets from her." Someone else added: "NTA - you don't exclude one kid from a party, it's unnecessarily cruel. Have only 6 sure, 10 of 11, no, and they shouldn't be surprised it's had consequences." "NTA. It's completely normal to want your kids not to be left alone or rejected," a fourth person commented. How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Greenpeace activists in France dumped nearly a ton of green algae outside the Finistere administrative headquarters in Quimper, Brittany on Monday, in protest over the amount of green algae off the coast caused by industrial and factory farming. Calling for an end to the construction of industrial cattle farms in the region, members of the environmental group unfurled banners reading “Green algae: asphyxiated Brittany” and “Brittany polluted: the state is guilty”. The activists released green and black smoke during the protest, and some were moved away from the algae by police as authorities moved in to clear the streets. Half of France’s over 3,000 factory farms are situated in Brittany.

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Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes team-mate George Russell will try to recover from a dramatic qualifying session on Saturday as they look to hunt down Max Verstappen in today’s Spanish Grand Prix. Hamilton will start fourth following a bizarre coming together with Russell, who lines up in 12th, at the end of Q2 at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya. Meanwhile, Verstappen took another pole position as he finished four-tenths clear of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, with Lando Norris an impressive third for McLaren. Pierre Gasly claimed fourth for Alpine – but was then given two three-place grid penalties – with home favourite Fernando Alonso setting off from eighth in his Aston Martin. Russell will start one place behind Sergio Perez after the Red Bull driver also failed to make it out of Q2. Perez is Verstappen’s closest challenger in the championship but a week on from his horror show in Monaco where he finished 16th and two laps down, he qualified only 11th here. Continuing the shock results from qualifying, Charles Leclerc, who started this race from pole position last year, will line last but one on the grid as Ferrari’s woes show no sign of letting up. Follow all the action from Barcelona with our live blog as the F1 season continues: Read More Lewis Hamilton and George Russell collide as Max Verstappen claims Spanish Grand Prix pole Lewis Hamilton accuses George Russell of ‘dangerous’ driving after collision Fernando Alonso eyes statement home victory, a decade on from his last triumph