The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has resolved roughly 16.5 million stars in the edge-on spiral galaxy Messier 82 (M82, NGC 3034 or the Cigar Galaxy), offering astronomers an unprecedented look inside a galaxy undergoing an intense burst of star formation. This Webb image shows the edge-on spiral galaxy Messier 82. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Adam Smercina, STScI, Tufts / Thomas Williams,...

Zircon crystals and impact-altered minerals show that a massive asteroid slammed into what is now the Pilbara region of Western Australia about 3 billion years ago. The North Pole Dome crater: (A) simplified map of the East Pilbara Terrane (EPT, Western Australia), showing Paleoarchean granite domes (pink) and greenstone belts (greens and blues); the North Pole Dome (NPD) lies near the terrane center;...

Scientists have uncovered compelling new evidence that early human ancestors, likely Homo erectus, were deliberately bringing fire into Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa as far back as 1.79 million years ago. Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa. Image credit: Michael Chazan. Wonderwerk Cave is located 60 km south of the town of Kuruman in South Africa’s Northern Cape province. The site has yielded a fossil...

New research from the University of Bristol suggests that pterosaurs — the first vertebrates to achieve powered flight — probably displayed a much wider array of wing shapes and flying styles than fossil-based reconstructions have depicted. Walters et al. compared theoretical pterosaur wings with published reconstructions over a series of shape and function tests to understand whether...

Scientists in Australia have revealed that what was long thought to be a single widespread planigale species is actually four distinct ones, including an entirely new species found only in the rocky slopes in Kakadu National Park. Revised distributions of the four planigale species formerly attributed to Planigale ingrami. Image credit: Umbrello et al., doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlag082. Planigales...

Physicists with LHCb Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have detected the elusive Ωcc⁺ baryon, a particle containing two charm quarks and one strange quark, completing a long-sought family of doubly charmed baryons first predicted over half a century ago. An artist’s impression of the doubly charmed Ωcc⁺ baryon. Image credit: Daniel Dominguez / CERN. “Quarks are basic...

Researchers at Guangzhou Medical University tracked nearly 88,000 people for over eight years, finding a significant link between daytime light exposure and reduced dementia rates. Zheng et al. uncovered a link between higher levels of daytime light exposure and a lower risk of dementia. Image credit: Zheng et al., doi: 10.1002/gps3.70039. “Dementia, the most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide,...

Scientists have generated genetic data from 27 Neanderthals who lived in Belgium and France less than approximately 52,500 years ago, painting a richer and more surprising portrait of how our closest hominin cousins organized their lives before their disappearance. Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum. Neanderthals lived in Europe and western Asia from at least around...

Zircon crystals and impact-altered minerals show that a massive asteroid slammed into what is now the Pilbara region of Western Australia about 3 billion years ago. The North Pole Dome crater: (A) simplified map of the East Pilbara Terrane (EPT, Western Australia), showing Paleoarchean granite domes (pink) and greenstone belts (greens and blues); the North Pole Dome (NPD) lies near the terrane center;...

The way humans laugh — in rapid, rhythmically timed bursts — is not uniquely ours. New research by the University of Warwick and the University of Portsmouth shows that all great apes, from orangutans to gorillas to chimpanzees, share the same fundamental timing structure in their laughter, suggesting that the common ancestor of all living great apes was already laughing in a recognizable...