Scientists have “heard” a chorus of gravitational waves rippling through the universe, in what they say is an unprecedented finding that could fundamentally change our understanding of the universe. The discovery, described in a range of newly published journal papers, suggests that spacetime is being rocked by intensely powerful gravitational waves all the time. Those waves carry a million times more energy than the one-off bursts of gravitational waves that were detected from a black hole and were themselves hailed as a major breakthrough in our understanding of the universe. The new results suggest that everything is being slowly shrunk and expanded by a new kind of gravitational wave as they pass through our galaxy. Scientists describe it as being akin to hearing a “symphony” of waves echoing through the universe. “It’s like a choir, with all these supermassive black hole pairs chiming in at different frequencies,” said Chiara Mingarelli, a scientist who worked on the new findings while an associate research scientist at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics. “This is the first-ever evidence for the gravitational wave background. We’ve opened a new window of observation on the universe.” The new findings have been described in a range of journal articles, published in different academic journals. The research is the result of 25 years of observations from six of the world’s most sensitive radio telescopes, and have been simultaneously published by different collaborations across the world. The findings are not only notable in themselves. They also offer the opportunity to find out some of the universe’s secrets, since they can be used to find information about the binary black holes that form when galaxies merge, for instance. “These results signify the beginning of an exciting journey into the Universe, where we aim to unravel its mysteries,” Michael Keith, a lecturer at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, UK, and contributor to one of the new studies, published in Astronomy and Astrophysics. “After decades of tireless work by hundreds of astronomers and physicists worldwide, we are finally detecting the long-awaited signature of gravitational waves originating from the distant Universe.” Scientists made the discovery by analysing observations of pulsars, which are extinguished stars that can be used as reliable clocks in the distant universe. By bringing together such a large amount of detailed data, researchers were able to measure those pulsars with very high accuracy, allowing them to measure gravitational waves at a far larger scale than using detectors on Earth. “Pulsars are excellent natural clocks. We exploit the remarkable regularity of their signals to detect subtle changes in their rhythm, enabling us to perceive the minute stretching and squeezing of space-time caused by gravitational waves originating from the far reaches of the Universe,” said David Champion, a senior scientist at the MPIfR in Bonn, Germany, and contributor to the study, in a statement. For now, researchers are only able to “hear” the vast choir, rather than the individual pulsars that make up its singers. But together they are much louder than expected, meaning that there may be more or more heavy supermassive black holes to be found in the universe. Read More Astronomers find zombie planet that ‘shouldn’t exist’ Nasa to begin Moon mining within next decade Nasa rover spots bizarre donut shaped rock on Mars

Beyoncé kickstarted her hotly anticipated Renaissance tour in Stockholm last week, debuting live performances of her hit singles to diehard fans. The star delivered songs from her seventh No 1 album at the Friends Arena, including 'Alien Superstar', 'Pure/Honey' and 'Summer Renaissance' while riding a giant disco horse. She also revived some of her classics such as 'Crazy in Love' and 'Love on Top'. While fans immediately turned to TikTok to watch footage from the gig, some were left underwhelmed by the crowd's reaction. "How could you witness the QUEEN in person and not at minimum do a lil 2 step in your seat," one person hit back, while another added: "Sweden failed her so bad! Some of us were TRYING!" Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter A third person, who claimed to have attended the concert, alleged: "That's true! I was at Stockholm and a girl even tried to shush me." One TikToker, Joshua Pingley (@yourbestfriendjoshua) suggested "Beyoncé hated Sweden," before claiming the crowd was seemingly "older, sitting down and quiet." At a later date in Brussels, she praised fans for their energy adding: "You have been the best audience so far." @yourbestfriendjoshua Beyoncé seemingly SHADES the audience from the first two nights of her Renaissance Tour in Sweden…??? #beyonce While harsh critics were quick to slam Swedish fans, many more jumped in to suggest it's simply "cultural differences in concert etiquette." "Not everyone goes feral like Americans," one wrote. "You should see concerts in Japan." "They still spent their money buying tickets to see her," another added. "Why is everyone tripping at them sitting down? They're clearly enjoying the show." "She made that face cause they were hitting the high notes for 'Love on Top,'" a third fan commented, while one TikToker said: "In Sweden we are told not to stick out and be loud, because we see it as rude. it is part of our culture." 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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Lena the Plug has been thrust into the limelight thanks to her notorious “collaboration” with porn star Jason Luv, but not all her sexual encounters have been so well choreographed. The OnlyFans star, who is known for her X-rated podcast ‘Plug Talk’, has revealed that she once had a threesome with an “A-lister” and her best friend, but admitted that she found the whole experience painfully “awkward”. ‘Plug Talk’ follows an unusual format, in that each episode sees Lena (real name Lena Nersesian) and her husband Adam22 interview a female porn actor and then have sex with her at the end. But, three-ways haven’t always come so naturally to the content creator, as she acknowledged in a resurfaced clip. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter In the video, posted to YouTube back in 2017, Lena and her pal Emily laughed about an encounter they’d had, apparently with a bonafide superstar. Introducing the eyebrow-raising anecdote, the adult influencer said: “Basically Emily and I became best friends the moment we locked eyes in March of 2016 and a week later we collabbed (sic) on a penis.” She explained: “This is Los Angeles, a lot of things can happen and Emily somehow was invited to hang out with a very attractive celebrity, A-list rapper.” Lena said that Emily pleaded with her to come along to the celeb’s house because she was too nervous to go alone, but the podcaster warned her: “If we go there together, he’s going to think that we’re both going to f**k him.” Sure enough, after smoking some weed and drinking some “really gross” wine, this is precisely what happened, even though Emily wanted the famous lover all to herself. “This is not only an awkward threesome because you didn't want me to join, but it was just awkward because he's awkward,” Lena recalled. She then recounted how, despite having “kissed a lot of girls” and even having had a girlfriend herself, she found her sexual dalliance with Emily almost unbearably cringe-inducing. “I've kissed my sister, I've kissed my cousins who are girls and none of those kisses felt as awkward as the kisses that Emily and I exchanged,” she said. “Me and her are best friends, but we also have a very mother-daughter/sister relationship.” However, this was not the end of the racy story, but simply the prelude to something even more risqué. Moving on to her budding relationship with Adam22 (real name Adam Grandmaison), Lena told viewers: “I've been seeing Adam for a few months and we are both sexually pretty open to having other girls join.” She then announced that they would be having sex with Emily “in an hour” and then “talk about it after” on the same YouTube video. “It's kind of weird and controversial to have your best friend join, but I trust Emily and this will just kind of be kind of fun,” she added. Eventually, Adam did join and the video cut to the aftermath. Posed that most clichéd of questions: “How was it for you?”, Adam replied: “It was probably one of the greatest experiences of my life.” They rapped up the clip with Lena leaning back on her bed with Adam and saying: “We're going to make a sex tape if you get me to a million subscribers and this man as well.” Suffice it to say, six years on, they each have more than a million subscribers. And, together, they’ve made a hell of a lot more than just one sex tape. 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.

'AGT' Season 18 Episode 20 marks the end of the qualifier rounds, making the competition more intense

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If peeling potatoes with a peeler takes too much of your precious time, try this trick for removing the skins quickly using only your hands.