Massive Black Hole

Astronomy:
"A pair of pioneering astronomers revealed Tuesday how they used a supercomputer to show that a nearby black hole is vastly more massive than scientists ever imagined.
The black hole at the heart of the relatively close Messier 87 Galaxy (M87) weighs in at 6.4 billion times the mass of our Sun, according to US astrophysicist Karl Gebhardt and Germany's Jens Thomas, who say it's the largest ever measured with a reliable technique.
One of the more enigmatic features of astronomy, a black hole is a region in space that is inferred by tracking stars that orbit it. Objects fall into its stupendous gravitational field but nothing, not even light, can return.
Gebhardt and Thomas' revelation, they say, sheds light on how galaxies grow, and may solve the paradox of quasars -- active black holes guzzling matter in distant galaxies that scientists are struggling to understand."
"Black Hole more massive than imagined." Space Daily
Massive Black Hole

Energy:
Nuclear fusion is an interesting thing. The sun and the stars work through nuclear fusion. In this process, several lighter nuclei fuse together and form one larger nucleus. Energy is then released.
"A multi-billion-dollar project to prove whether nuclear fusion, the power that fuels the Sun, can be a practicable energy source is to be scaled down in its early stages, sources said on Monday.
The test reactor, to be built at a site in southern France, will start its experiments in 2018 as scheduled but will initially be built in a slimmed-down form, they said."
"Nuclear fusion power project to start in slimmed-down version." Space Daily
Nuclear Fusion