The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope conducted a clockwise scan around the entire limb of Jupiter, chasing aurora as it rotated into view. This dynamic phenomenon is a result of charged particles traveling down magnetic field lines, crashing into the planet’s ionosphere and causing it to glow. During the scan, Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) captured an extraordinary aspect...

Earlier work has demonstrated that an extremophile bacterium species called Deinococcus radiodurans can survive the radiation, cold, and desiccation associated with interplanetary transport. New research shows that Deinococcus radiodurans has outstanding ability to survive the extreme transient pressures associated with impact-induced ejection from Mars. Thus, it is possible for such life to be transported...

An international team of archaeologists has examined a total of 85 pottery sherds with substantial amounts of foodcrusts from 13 archaeological sites across Northern and Eastern Europe i dating from the 6th to the 3rd millennium BCE, of which 58 have allowed for identification of plant tissues, such as wild grasses and legumes, fruits, and the roots, tubers, leaves and stems of herbaceous plants....

The newly-discovered minuscule fossils of Purgatorius — a shrew-sized mammal considered the earliest known relative of all primates, including humans, and long thought to be confined to northern North America — extend the known range of this mammal hundreds of km south. Described this week in a paper in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the discovery from Colorado’s Denver Basin...

Using powerful X-ray beams, automated robotics and AI, entomologists have created interactive digital images representing 212 genera and 792 species of ants. Renderings of an exemplary Antscan specimen: subsoldier of Eciton hamatum. Image credit: Katzke et al., doi: 10.1038/s41592-026-03005-0. To build such an expansive digital library, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology researcher Julian...

Astrophysicists from the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago have developed an innovative method to measure the Hubble constant — the rate at which the Universe is expanding — using the subtle background hum of gravitational waves. As gravitational-wave detectors become more sensitive in the coming years, this approach could reshape our understanding of cosmic history...

Adding one avocado and a cup of mango each day improves vascular health indices and reduces key cardiometabolic risk factors in people with elevated blood sugar, suggesting a simple dietary shift could strengthen heart health long before diabetes develops. In adults with prediabetes, daily inclusion of avocado and mango increases fruit consumption, diversifies nutrient composition, and improves vascular...

Prehistoric humans and Neanderthals didn’t just interbreed, they did so with a consistent sex bias, as male Neanderthals and female modern humans mated more often, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania. This ancient pattern could explain why Neanderthal DNA is nearly absent from the human X chromosome and reveal that social behavior, not just biology, influenced our genetic...

New orbital data reveal that the most recently active volcanic systems on Mars weren’t simple one-off blasts into space; instead, long-lived magmatic plumbing beneath Pavonis Mons, one of the Red Planet’s largest volcanoes, reshaped lava flows over time, with distinct eruptive phases and evolving chemical signatures, offering fresh insights into the planet’s inner dynamics and how rocky planets...

A 7.2-million-year-old thigh bone unearthed at the fossil site of Azmaka in southern Bulgaria displays a mosaic of features suggesting a unique combination of locomotor capabilities, including aspects of terrestrial quadrupedalism and bipedalism, according to a research team led by Professor Madelaine Böhme from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of...