Lasers to probe origin of life on a frigid moon and take the space-time pulse of star-shattering collisions

On Saturn's giant moon Titan, liquid methane and other hydrocarbons rain down, carving rivers, lakes and seas in a landscape of frozen water. The complex chemistry on this icy world could be analogous to the period when life first emerged on Earth, or it might yield an entirely new type of life. And even farther—light-years away in deep space, a black hole shreds the ultra-dense core of a dead star, warping the fabric of space itself and sending waves of space-time flying across the universe.