By ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN

NEW YORK (AP) — NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope got a rare look at the aftermath of two cosmic collisions — and helped scientists solve a decades-old mystery.

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Many years ago, scientists saw a dense, bright spot near a young star called Fomalhaut. They thought it could be a planet and continued to track it.

But in 2023, Hubble’s pictures revealed something strange. The bright spot had vanished — and a new one had appeared — a sign that it wasn’t a planet after all.

Scientists had stumbled on the dusty debris from two cosmic crashes. Massive space rocks slammed together to create clouds of dust that were thick enough to masquerade as planets. Over time, the remains spread out and eventually disappeared altogether.

Scientists think the space rocks involved in the collision were at least 37 miles wide. It’s rare to capture such clashes on camera, especially since theories suggest they only happen in the same vicinity about once every 100,000 years.

It’s “highly unexpected” that this area “has now exhibited two, unique, massive collisions inside 20 years,” said Joshua Lovell with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in an email. He had no role in the study, which was published Thursday in the journal Science.

The new observations could just be a lucky find. Or, they could mean that such smashups happen more often than scientists thought. It’ll take more data to know for sure.

Collisions of large space rocks are essential to how planets like ours form and what they’re made of. Studying them is “like taking a toddler picture of our solar system,” said astrophysicist Meredith MacGregor with Johns Hopkins University, who was not involved with the study.

Researchers plan to track the new dust cloud in the coming years to see how it changes and eventually disintegrates.

The star near the collision site is in our cosmic neighborhood, just 25 light years from Earth. A light year is nearly 6 trillion miles.

By keeping an eye on it, scientists are “catching these violent explosions in real time,” said study author Paul Kalas with the University of California, Berkeley.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By Summer Lin, Los Angeles Times

The Powerball jackpot has soared to an estimated $1.5 billion for Saturday night’s drawing, the fifth largest in game history and the seventh highest among all lottery jackpots in the United States.

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The jackpot has an estimated cash value of $686.5 million, according to a Powerball news release.

No ticket matched all six numbers drawn Wednesday: white balls 25, 33, 53, 62, 66 and red Powerball 17, according to the release. The Power Play multiplier was 4.

Six tickets matched all five white balls to win $1 million prizes, according to the release. The winning tickets were sold in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

Two tickets that were sold in Arizona and Massachusetts matched all five white balls, according to the release, and these players had added the Power Play option for $1 more so the $1 million prize rose to $2 million per ticket.

The drawing resulted in 72 tickets that won $50,000 prizes and 14 tickets that won $200,000 prizes.

The Powerball jackpot was last won in September by two tickets in Missouri and Texas that split a $1.787 billion prize.

Saturday’s drawing marks the second time in Powerball history that the game has resulted in consecutive jackpots exceeding $1 billion. The only other time was in 2023, when a $1.08 billion jackpot was won on July 19, followed by a $1.765 billion jackpot on Oct. 11. Both jackpots were won in California.

If someone wins Saturday’s jackpot, they can choose between an annuitized prize around $1.5 billion or a lump sum payment around $686.5 million, according to the release. If the person picks the annuity option, they will get one payment, followed by 29 annual payments that go up by 5% every year.

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The Twins ushered in a new era of ownership on Wednesday, revealing the identities of those who will join the Pohlad family in team ownership after a 14-month process that initially began with an exploration of a team sale.

A group of what the team calls “principal investors” includes Glick Family Investments, a New-York based family, Värde Partners co-founder and co-executive chair George G. Hicks, and other notable Minnesota business leaders. Wild owner Craig Leipold is joining as a limited partner after purchasing a smaller stake in the team.

“I don’t think we could have dreamed up a better group of people to join our family in the ownership of the Twins,” Tom Pohlad said. “They are just high-quality people.”

Tom Pohlad, the grandson of Carl Pohlad, who bought the franchise in 1984, has been running the sale on behalf of the family since last fall. As such, he has built relationships with all of the involved parties and on Wednesday, the Twins announced he would take over for his brother, Joe, as the team’s executive chair.

Pending MLB approval, Tom Pohlad also is expected to take over as the team’s Control Person in dealings with the league, a role his uncle Jim Pohlad currently holds. The new investors will sit on an advisory board alongside members of the Pohlad family, which remains in control of the team.

“I view that board as an opportunity, as a place to help push us as a family on how we get to where we want to go,” Tom Pohlad said. “I think it’ll be a healthy sense of accountability for us as owners, but I think they will be really good strategic thought partners for us. … They are advisers, but I think it’s in the best interest of the organization to lean on their creative thinking and look at this through a different lens.”

So, who are the new owners?

Pohlad described the Glick family as “smart investors” who are collaborative and patient. Glick Family Investments is run by Simon Glick, the son of Louis Glick, who built the family’s fortune in the diamond-trading industry.

“They’re long-term oriented,” Tom Pohlad said, noting that the New Yorkers have swapped their Yankees gear for Twins gear. “They understand that the real opportunity in this organization comes with winning more baseball games. … They’re not looking at it only from a financial lens.”

Hicks, a former Cargill Financial executive who began global investment firm Värde Partners, is a Minnesota native and self-described “lifelong Twins fan” who graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College before earning his J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School.

“Like many in the state, some of my favorite memories are of times spent watching and cheering for the Twins,” he said in a statement. “The leaders I represent share these values and recognize the importance of Twins baseball to our communities. This is the opportunity of a lifetime and one we view as a true privilege and responsibility.”

As for Leipold, Tom Pohlad said the two got to know each other throughout the sale process as he was trying to connect with other sports owners in the market.  Leipold bought the Nashville Predators in 1997 before selling and buying the Wild in 2008.

While Pohlad declined to get into what percentage of the team each partner bought, he said this deal will help the Twins achieve their “primary objective,” which he described as putting the organization onto better financial footing. In recent years, the Twins have accrued a considerable amount of debt — around $500 million — and have slashed payroll as a result.

“With these proceeds, we’re able to pay off a significant amount of debt and that will allow us to reinvest in this team when the time is right,” Tom Pohlad said.

Pohlad said he thought the team, which lost 92 games last season, was “within reach” of winning the American League Central this year, and Twins president Derek Falvey said this month he expects to make additions this offseason to build around a core of proven veterans such as Pablo López, Joe Ryan and Byron Buxton. But Pohlad added that he doesn’t think now is the right time to “put a significant investment into the team of 50 or 60 million dollars.”

“But I don’t think we’re far off from that,” he added. “I think the hard work in front of us is getting people to believe and fans to buy in, to believe that we are committed to a championship-caliber investment and team. I would tell you that Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

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By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press

Delivery company Instacart will pay $60 million in customer refunds under a settlement reached with the Federal Trade Commission over alleged deceptive practices.

The FTC said Thursday that Instacart has been falsely advertising free deliveries. The San Francisco-based company isn’t clearly disclosing service fees, which add as much as 15% to an order and must be paid for customers to receive their groceries, the FTC said.

Instacart has also failed to clearly disclose that customers who enroll in a free trial for its Instacart+ program will be charged membership fees at the end of the trial. The FTC said hundreds of thousands of customers have been charged but have received no benefits from memberships or refunds. Instacart+ offers members free deliveries on most orders for $99 per year.

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The FTC said Instacart also advertises a “100% satisfaction guarantee,” but customers who experience late deliveries or unprofessional service are typically only offered a small credit that can be used toward a future order and not a refund.

“The FTC is focused on monitoring online delivery services to ensure that competitors are transparently competing on price and delivery terms,” said Christopher Mufarrige, the director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Instacart denied the FTC’s allegations of wrongdoing Thursday but said it reached a settlement in order to move forward and focus on its business.

“Instacart is proud to offer a transparent, affordable and consumer-friendly service. We provide straightforward marketing, transparent pricing and fees, clear terms, easy cancellation and generous refund policies – all in full compliance with the law and exceeding industry norms,” the company said in a statement.

The settlement comes as Instacart is facing a separate probe by the FTC into its pricing practices.

Earlier this month, a report by Consumer Reports and two progressive advocacy groups — Groundwork Collaborative and More Perfect Union — found that Instacart charged different prices for the same grocery items even though online shoppers were filling their Instacart baskets at the same time and at the same stores.

The report suggested that Instacart may be using artificial intelligence tools to drive up costs for consumers. Instacart confirmed Thursday that the FTC has requested information on its pricing tools and the pricing practice of the retailers it works with.

In its own blog post Thursday, Instacart stressed that it isn’t a retailer and doesn’t control base prices listed on its website. It said retailers often test prices in order to see how sensitive consumers are when prices go up or down, and that’s what was happening in Consumer Reports’ case.

Instacart also said the company and its retailers don’t use information about shoppers’ income, zip code or shopping history to set prices.

Instacart said it encourages retailers to charge the same amount on its website as they charge for in-store shoppers. Some retailers, including Lowe’s, Ulta Beauty and Best Buy, already do that, Instacart said, but many others don’t.