Radiation from nearby galaxies helped fuel first monster black holes

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Researchers have shown how supermassive black holes may have formed in the early universe. They suggest that radiation from a neighboring galaxy could have shut down star-formation in a black-hole hosting galaxy, allowing the nascent black hole to rapidly put on weight.
via Science Daily
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Ultrashort light pulses for fast 'lightwave' computers

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Extremely short, configurable 'femtosecond' pulses of light demonstrated by an international team could lead to future computers that run up to 100,000 times faster than today's electronics.
via Science Daily

Star discovered in closest known orbit around black hole

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Astronomers have found evidence for a star that whips around a black hole about twice an hour. This may be the tightest orbital dance ever witnessed for a black hole and a companion star.
via Science Daily
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Stereo vision

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Space Science Image of the Week: Marking the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter’s first year in space with a new stereo image of Mars
via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2017/03/Noctis_Labyrinthus_stereo_pair

Looking for signs of the first stars

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It may soon be possible to detect the universe's first stars by looking for the blue colour they emit on explosion.
via Science Daily
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Two-dimensional polymer breakthrough that could revolutionize energy storage

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Polymers, such as plastic and synthetic textiles, are very useful technological commodities that have revolutionized daily life and industries. A research team has successfully pushed the frontier of polymer technology further by creating novel two-dimensional (2D) graphene-like polymer sheets.
via Science Daily

Saturn's Moon Pan from Cassini

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Why does Saturn's moon Pan look so odd? Images taken last week from the robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn have resolved the moon in unprecedented detail. The surprising images reveal a moon that looks something like a walnut with a slab through its middle. Other visible features on Pan include rolling terrain, long ridges, and a few craters. Spanning 30-kilometer across, Pan orbits inside the 300-kilometer wide Encke Gap of Saturn's expansive A-ring, a gap known since the late 1800s. Next month, Cassini will be directed to pass near Saturn's massive moon Titan so it can be pulled into a final series of orbits that will take it, on occasion, completely inside Saturn's rings and prepare it