Science News Roundup: Gluttonous cosmic ‘black widow’ is heaviest-known neutron star; Chinese rocket falls to Earth, NASA says Beijing did not share information and more

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Gluttonous cosmic ‘black widow’ is heaviest-known neutron star

Astronomers have observed the most massive known example of an object called a neutron star, one classified as a “black widow” that got particularly hefty by gobbling up most of the mass of a stellar companion trapped in an unhappy cosmic marriage. The researchers said the neutron star, wildly spinning at 707 times per second, has a mass about 2.35 times greater than that of our sun, putting it perhaps at the maximum possible mass for such objects before they would collapse to form a black hole.

Chinese rocket falls to Earth, NASA says Beijing did not share information

A Chinese rocket fell back to Earth on Saturday over the Indian Ocean but NASA said Beijing had not shared the “specific trajectory information” needed to know where possible debris might fall. U.S. Space Command said the Long March 5B rocket re-entered over the Indian Ocean at approximately 12:45 p.m. EDT Saturday (1645 GMT), but referred questions about “reentry’s technical aspects such as potential debris dispersal impact location” to China.

Invasive frog and snake species cost the world economy $16 billion, a study shows

Two invasive species, the American bullfrog and the brown tree snake cost the world an estimated $16 billion between 1986 and 2020 by causing problems ranging from crop damage to power outages, according to a study published on Thursday. The brown-and-green frog known as lithobates catesbeianus which can weigh over 2 pounds (0.9 kilos), and had the greatest impact in Europe, according to research published in Scientific Reports.

(With inputs from agencies.)