Science News Roundup: 'Extreme' white dwarf sets cosmic records for small size, huge mass; Sick as a dog? Pets often catch COVID from humans, study finds and more

Highly contagious Delta variant gaining ground in U.S. Branson aims to make space trip on July 11, ahead of Bezos Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson will travel to the edge of space on Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc's test flight on July 11, Branson's space tourism firm said on Thursday, beating out fellow aspiring billionaire astronaut Jeff Bezos.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

'Extreme' white dwarf sets cosmic records for small size, huge mass

In their death throes, roughly 97% of all stars become a smoldering stellar zombie called a white dwarf, one of the densest objects in the cosmos. A newly discovered white dwarf is being hailed as the most "extreme" one of these on record, cramming a frightful amount of mass into a surprisingly small package. Scientists said on Wednesday this highly magnetized and rapidly rotating white dwarf is 35% more massive than our sun yet boasts a petite diameter only a bit larger than Earth's moon. That means it has the greatest mass and, counterintuitively, littlest size of any known white dwarf, owing to its tremendous density.

Sick as a dog? Pets often catch COVID from humans, study finds

If you think you have COVID-19, it might be best to stay away from your pets, says the author of a Dutch study that found a surprising number of dogs and cats may be getting infected. "About one out of five pets will catch the disease from their owners," said Dr Els Broens of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, although there are no known cases of the disease spreading from pets to humans.

Delta variant gains ground in U.S., men do worse with COVID-19

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Highly contagious Delta variant gaining ground in U.S.

Branson aims to make space trip on July 11, ahead of Bezos

Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson will travel to the edge of space on Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc's test flight on July 11, Branson's space tourism firm said on Thursday, beating out fellow aspiring billionaire astronaut Jeff Bezos. A successful flight by Branson aboard Virgin's VSS Unity spaceplane would mark a key milestone in a race to usher in a new era of private commercial space travel.

Trailblazing female pilot will go to space at age 82 with Jeff Bezos

Amazon's billionaire founder Jeff Bezos will be joined by Wally Funk, one of the 13 women who passed NASA's astronaut training program in the 1960s, on the first crewed flight into space from his rocket company Blue Origin later this month. Funk, 82, will be the oldest person ever to travel into space, Blue Origin said in an announcement on Thursday.