Astronomy

Hubble Sees Dusty Spiral Galaxy: NGC 7496

This Hubble image shows NGC 7496, a barred spiral galaxy some 24 million light-years away in the constellation of Grus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Chandar / J. Lee / PHANGS-HST Team.

NGC 7496 is a barred spiral galaxy located approximately 24 million light-years away in the constellation of Grus. This Hubble image shows NGC 7496, a barred spiral galaxy some 24 million light-years away in the constellation of Grus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Chandar / J. Lee / PHANGS-HST Team. NGC 7496 was discovered on September 5, 1834 by the English astronomer John Herschel. Otherwise...

Paleontology

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Triassic Long-Necked Dinosaur

Huayracursor jaguensis. Image credit: Jorge Blanco.

Paleontologists have unearthed a new assemblage of Triassic fossils at the Quebrada Santo Domingo site of the Northern Precordillera Basin in northwestern Argentina. Their discoveries include a nearly complete skeleton of a previously unknown sauropodomorph dinosaur species as well as several cynodonts, rhynchosaurs, and aetosaurs. Huayracursor jaguensis. Image credit: Jorge Blanco. The newly-discovered...

Biology

Researchers Revive Pleistocene-Age Microbes

Abundance of Archaea across samples collected from the Permafrost Research Tunnel near Fairbanks, Alaska. Image credit: Caro et al., doi: 10.1029/2025JG008759.

Scientists have resurrected ancient microbes from permafrost cores of Late-Pleistocene age (up to 40,000 years old) collected from four locations within the Permafrost Research Tunnel near Fairbanks, Alaska. They’ve found that the microbes in thawing subsurface permafrost exhibit a slow ‘reawakening’ at first, but within six months the microbial community undergoes dramatic changes. Abundance...

Physics

New Form of Ice Discovered: Ice XXI

A small crystal of ice XXI formed through nucleation and slow melting process. Image credit: Lee et al., doi: 10.1038/s41563-025-02364-x.

Scientists have demonstrated that supercompressed water transforms into ice VI at room temperature through multiple freezing-melting pathways, which occur via a previously unknown form of metastable ice, named ice XXI. A small crystal of ice XXI formed through nucleation and slow melting process. Image credit: Lee et al., doi: 10.1038/s41563-025-02364-x. Water, composed of only two elements, forms...