- June 28, 2025

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- June 25, 2025

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June 28, 2025

- Roman army camp found in Netherlands, beyond the empire's frontier

- Farthest 'mini-halo' ever detected could improve our understanding of the early universe

- Dwarf sperm whale: The 'pint-size whales' that gush gallons of intestinal fluid when surprised

- Scientists invent weird, shape-shifting 'electronic ink' that could give rise to a new generation of flexible gadgets

- Are cats the only animals that purr?

- Science news this week: A unique new blood type and 'spiderwebs' on Mars

ARCHAEOLOGY > ROMANS

NEWS | LAURA GEGGEL | JUN 28, 2025, 3:58 PM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Roman army camp found in Netherlands, beyond the empire's frontier

Archaeologists and students in the Netherlands have unearthed a 1,800-year-old temporary Roman military fort in the Netherlands.

Archaeology students excavate the site of Hoog Buurlo in the Netherlands, where they found a Roman-era military fort. (Image credit: Julian de Haas)

The remains of an ancient Roman army camp have been discovered in the Netherlands, beyond the empire's northern frontier, after researchers used a computer model to pinpoint its location.

The "rare" find, at a site called Hoog Buurlo, shows that Roman forces were venturing beyond the Lower German Limes, the boundary that ran along the Rhine roughly 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) south of the camp.

"For the Netherlands this is only the fourth Roman temporary camp, so quite a rare find," said Saskia Stevens, an associate professor of ancient history and classical civilization at Utrecht University and the principal investigator of the "Constructing the Limes" project that found the fort. "The fact that it was discovered north of the Lower Germanic Limes, beyond the border of the empire, tells us that the Romans did not perceive the Limes as the end of their Empire," Stevens told Live Science in an email.

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The fort was likely a temporary marching camp, which troops used for only a few days or weeks, according to a statement from Utrecht University. It's also possible that the camp was a stopover on the way to another camp about a day's march away.

Finding Roman forts

Constructing the Limes, a project led by Utrecht University, aims to understand how the Roman border functioned and to unearth temporary Roman camps north of the boundary.

Related: Remains of 1,600-year-old Roman fort unearthed in Turkey

As a part of the investigation, Jens Goeree, an archaeology student at Saxion University of Applied Sciences, developed a computer program to help predict the location of temporary Roman camps in Veluwe, a region of nature reserves filled with woodlands, grasslands and lakes. This program was based on probability and used data from elevation maps and lidar (light detection and ranging), a technique in which a machine shoots lasers from an aircraft over a site and measures the reflected waves to map the landscape below.

Excavations at the site revealed a temporary Roman military fort in the Netherlands. (Image credit: Saxion University of Applied Sciences)

"He reconstructed possible routes of the Roman army across the Veluwe area, calculating the number of kilometers an army could travel per day," Stevens said. The program also took into account roads and water availability, and looked for the "typical playing card-shaped camps" that Romans constructed, she said.

The computer program didn't disappoint: It led them to the site in Hoog Buurlo within the Veluwe in 2023.

Visiting on foot

In January 2025, the team visited the site to dig archaeological trenches and confirm that the site actually held an ancient fort, according to a statement.

The fort was large — 9 acres (3.6 hectares) — and shaped like a rectangle with rounded corners. It had a V-shaped ditch that was 6.6 feet (2 meters) deep, a 10-foot-wide (3 m) earthen wall, and several entrances, Stevens said. However, the team found only a few artifacts at the site, including a fragment of Roman military armor.

"The limited number of finds is not surprising as the camp was only in use for a short period of time (days, weeks) and the soldiers would have traveled light," Stevens said.

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Courtesy of Saskia Stevens; Constructing the Limes)

An outline of the newfound fort in the Netherlands. Notice that like many other Roman military forts, it's shaped like a playing card.

(Image credit: Courtesy of Saskia Stevens; Constructing the Limes)

A lock pin artifact found at the temporary military fort.

The small number of finds made it hard to date the camp. But by examining the armor and comparing the newfound site to a camp found in 1922 at another site in the Netherlands, the team dated the newly discovered temporary camp to the second century A.D., Stevens said.

The finding shows that the Romans "were clearly active beyond the border and saw that area as their sphere of influence," Stevens said. The region north of the limes was likely an important place to take cattle, hides and even enslaved people.

The people who lived in the area, the Frisii and the Chamavi, already had ties with the Romans. "The Frisians were generally on good terms with the Romans," as they traded with them, Stevens said. Historical sources mention a treaty in which the Frisians paid taxes in the form of cow hides, and they also provided soldiers for the auxiliary troops and members of Nero's (ruled A.D. 54 to 68) imperial bodyguard.

Roman emperor quiz: Test your knowledge on the rulers of the ancient empire

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/romans/roman-army-camp-found-in-netherlands-beyond-the-empires-frontier at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

SPACE > ASTRONOMY

NEWS | PERRI THALER | JUN 28, 2025, 10:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Farthest 'mini-halo' ever detected could improve our understanding of the early universe

Scientists have discovered the farthest-ever 'mini-halo,' a sea of charged particles around a distant galaxy cluster that could reveal unexpected insights about the ancient universe.

Charged particles of a mini-halo, in red, surround a cluster of galaxies, in white. (Image credit: Chandra X-ray Center (X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Radio: ASTRON/LOFAR; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk))

While analyzing a 10 billion-year-old radio signal, astronomers discovered a "mini-halo" — a cloud of energetic particles — around a far-off cluster of galaxies. The unexpected findings could further our understanding of the early universe.

This mini-halo is the most distant one ever detected, located twice as far from Earth as the next-farthest mini-halo. It is also massive, spanning more than 15 times the width of the Milky Way, and contains strong magnetic fields. The findings have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and are available on the preprint server arXiv.

"It's astonishing to find such a strong radio signal at this distance," Roland Timmerman, a radio astronomer at Durham University who co-led the study, said in a statement.

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How did the mini-halo form?

Mini-halos are faint groups of charged particles that emit radio and X-ray waves in the vacuum of space between galaxies. They have been detected around galaxy clusters in the local universe, but never as far back in space and time as the one reported in the new study.

There are two theories that could explain the collection of particles, according to the researchers.

One possible cause is the supermassive black holes at the centers of large galaxies within the distant cluster. These black holes can shoot high-energy particles into space, but it's not clear how the particles would travel away from a powerful black hole and into a mini-halo without losing significant energy.

Another possible means of creation is the collision of charged particles within the plasma in a galaxy cluster. When these high-energy particles smash into each other, often at close to the speed of light, they can break apart into the kinds of particles that can be seen from Earth.

Related: James Webb telescope unveils largest-ever map of the universe, spanning over 13 billion years

Implications for astronomy

Observations of the mini-halo come from light so old that it changes the picture of galaxy formation, proving that these charged particles have surrounded galaxies for billions of years longer than was known.

"Our discovery implies that clusters of galaxies have been immersed in such particles since their formation," Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo, an astrophysicist at the University of Montréal who also co-led the research, told Live Science in an email. It's "something which we were not expecting at first."

Scientists can now study the origin of these mini-halos to determine whether black holes or particle collisions are responsible for them.

These particles also have a hand in other astrophysical processes, like star formation. They can affect the energy and pressure of the gas within a galaxy or couple with magnetic fields in unique ways. These processes can keep clouds of gas from collapsing, in turn altering how stars form in the gas.

"We are still learning a lot about these structures, so unfortunately the more quantitative picture is still very much in development," Timmerman told Live Science in an email.

New radio telescopes, like the SKA Observatory, are in development to help astronomers detect even fainter signals and learn about mini-halos.

"We are just scratching the surface of how energetic the early Universe really was," Hlavacek-Larrondo said.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/farthest-mini-halo-ever-detected-could-improve-our-understanding-of-the-early-universe at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

ANIMALS > MARINE MAMMALS > WHALES

FEATURES | MELISSA HOBSON | JUN 28, 2025, 8:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Dwarf sperm whale: The 'pint-size whales' that gush gallons of intestinal fluid when surprised

The smallest species of whale tricks its predators by gushing red gallons of red fluid into the water when under attack

Dwarf sperm whales release their intestinal fluid when startled, similar to a squid releasing ink. (Image credit: St Petersburg Times/ZUMAPRESS.com via Alamy)

Dwarf sperm whales have an unusual way to protect themselves if they come under attack. When they feel threatened, these tiny whales release their intestinal fluid, turning the water red.

Growing up to 8 feet 10 inches (2.7 meters) long, they are the smallest species of whale. They are even smaller than some dolphins, such as Risso’s dolphins (Grampus griseus) which can reach 13 feet (4 meters) and bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), which grow to around 12 feet (3.8 meters). These animals look so similar to pygmy sperm whales (Kogia breviceps) that it's challenging to tell the two apart. They were even believed to be the same species until 1966.

At the surface, they don't usually approach boats, which makes them very hard to study. The life of these toothed whales is typically unhurried. According to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation, they tend to travel at a steady pace, and drift gently back under the water when they’re ready to go back to deeper waters.

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Dwarf Sperm Whales Defense Mechanism ! - YouTube

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They only dive suddenly when they're startled. If this happens, they also release their intestinal fluid, potentially in defense or as a reaction to feeling nervous — like a squid releasing ink.

Related: Sperm whales drop giant poop bombs to save themselves from orca attack

No other whales, except pygmy sperm whales, use this tactic to escape from danger.

"Each dwarf sperm whale has a sac filled with dark liquid in its intestine," representatives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries wrote. "The whale can release more than three gallons [11 liters] of dark, reddish-brown liquid — or ink — from this sac."

This cloud darkens the water, making it harder for the predator to see, which helps the tiny whale to make its getaway.

Their predators include large sharks and orcas (orcinus orca), and these pint-size whales are also threatened by entanglement, vessel strikes, and pollution.

Dwarf sperm whales can live to around 22 years old. Although little is known about their social behaviors, they are usually seen in small pods of no more than 16 whales.

They prefer deep waters and can dive to over 1,000 feet (300 meters) to find food. They eat a variety of deep-sea squid, octopus, crabs, and fish — using echolocation to track down their prey. They are often found near continental shelves where they have access to lots of their food sources.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/animals/whales/dwarf-sperm-whale-the-pint-size-whales-that-gush-gallons-of-intestinal-fluid-when-surprised at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

ELECTRONICS

NEWS | OWEN HUGHES | JUN 28, 2025, 7:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Scientists invent weird, shape-shifting 'electronic ink' that could give rise to a new generation of flexible gadgets

Scientists harnessed the unique properties of gallium to create the ink, which can be produced using conventional printing methods.

(Image credit: Authors: Simok Lee et al.)

Scientists have developed a new kind of "electronic ink" that can be used to print electronic circuits capable of switching between rigid and soft states when heated.

The technology could pave the way for next-generation electronic devices that change shape or stiffness depending on how and where they’re used, from medical implants that soften inside the body to flexible robotics.

The ink combines gallium, a metal that's solid at room temperature but melts just below body temperature — 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit( 37 degrees Celsius) — with a polymer-based solvent that breaks down when gently heated. The result is a stable, printable substance that becomes conductive after heating and can change its stiffness in response to temperature.

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The findings were published May 30 in the journal Science Advances.

"This opens up new possibilities for future personal electronics, medical devices and robotics," study co-author Jae-Woong Jeong, professor of electrical engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), said in a statement.

Related: Unique transistor 'could change the world of electronics' thanks to nanosecond-scale switching speeds and refusal to wear out

Most electronics today fall into one of two camps: rigid devices like smartphones and laptops, which offer performance and durability at the cost of flexibility; or soft systems like wearables, which are more comfortable to wear but can be harder to fabricate precisely or integrate with more complex components.

From hardware to soft-wear

So-called variable-stiffness electronics aim to bridge this gap, enabling devices to shift between hard and soft states as needed.

Gallium has long attracted interest in this area because of how differently it behaves in solid and liquid forms. But using it for printed electronics has proven difficult due to its high surface tension and tendency to oxidize when exposed to air, forming a kind of crust that prevents it from bonding or spreading properly.

To address this, the researchers developed a process for dispersing microscopic gallium particles into a polymer matrix — essentially a flexible, ink-like base — using a solvent called dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO).

When the printed circuit is gently heated, the solvent breaks down and creates a slightly acidic environment. This strips away the oxide layer from the gallium particles, enabling them to melt and merge to form conductive pathways.

The resulting ink can be used to print features as small as 50 micrometers (0.002 inches or 0.005 centimeters) — thinner than a human hair — and can alternate between plastic-like hardness and rubbery softness as needed. The researchers said that the material became more than 1,400 times softer when warmed during tests.

The team built two working devices to demonstrate how the bendy technology might be used. One was a wearable health device that behaves like a rigid portable electronic at room temperature, then softens on contact with skin to improve comfort. The other was a flexible brain implant that remained rigid during surgery so it could be precisely inserted, and then softened once inside the brain to help reduce irritation and inflammation.

The ink can be used with common manufacturing techniques such as screen printing and dip coating, meaning it could be used in larger-scale or 3D-printed electronics in the future, the researchers said.

"The core achievement of this research lies in overcoming the longstanding challenges of liquid metal printing through our innovative technology," Jeong said in the statement. "By controlling the ink's acidity, we were able to electrically and mechanically connect printed gallium particles, enabling the room-temperature fabrication of high-resolution, large-area circuits with tunable stiffness."

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/technology/electronics/scientists-invent-weird-shape-shifting-electronic-ink-that-could-give-rise-to-a-new-generation-of-flexible-gadgets at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

ANIMALS > LAND MAMMALS > CATS

FEATURES | MARILYN PERKINS | JUN 28, 2025, 5:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Are cats the only animals that purr?

Everyone knows what a happy cat sounds like. But are they the only animals that purr?

Cats are known for their purrs. Do any other animals do the same thing? (Image credit: Xiuxia Huang via Getty Images)

There's plenty of things to love about cats, and purring is definitely one of them. Cat owners can always tell when their pet is happy from their low, contented hums. But do any other animals purr?

The answer depends on how exactly you define "purr," said Jonathan Losos, a professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis and author of "The Cat's Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa" (Viking, 2023)

"If the question is, 'what animals purr,' I would respond by, 'what do you mean by purr?'," Losos told Live Science.

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The first important component of a purr is its context. Cats are known to purr when they're happy, but they can also purr when they're stressed or in pain. Cats start purring shortly after birth, and both mothers and kittens often purr while locating each other and during nursing.

The second component of a purr is its physical mechanism. Scientists still don't fully understand how cats purr, but an important feature of purring is vibration of the larynx, the structure in the throat known as the voice box in humans. Unlike most other animal vocalizations, which happen only during exhalation, purrs happen continuously as the cat breathes in and out.

"It's very constant, and that's really one of the signatures of a cat purring," Losos explained.

Related: Why do cats purr?

That continuous sound makes felines unique in their ability to purr. Domestic cats (Felis catus), however, aren't the only cat species that purr — wild cats such as cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus), cougars (Puma concolor), servals (Leptailurus serval) and bobcats (Lynx rufus) can all purr, too.

Some scientists think that instead of categorizing different species as "big" or "small" cats, it's actually more accurate to classify cats as "purring" or "roaring." Lions (Panthera leo), tigers (Panthera tigris), jaguars (Panthera onca) and leopards (Panthera pardus) can't purr, but they can roar, likely due to the anatomy of a structure in their throat called the hyoid.

Nakia the African Spotted Genet Purring - YouTube

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Outside of the cat family tree, though, continuous purring vocalizations are very rare. The only other animal that's known to purr during inhalation and exhalation is a distant cousin of cats called a genet (genus Genetta).

"They are delightful little animals," Losos said. He described their appearance as a cross between a cat and a mongoose, with long, pointed noses and slender bodies. There are at least two species of genets that are known to purr, Losos said, although it's possible there are more whose purrs haven't been documented by researchers yet.

Animals that (kind of) purr

True purring is unique to cats and genets. But with a looser definition of purring that doesn't focus on the continuous vibration during both inhalation and exhalation, there are many species across the animal kingdom that also make buzzing, rumbly noises, often in similar contexts to cat purring.

Raccoons (Procyon lotor), for example, "purr" when they're happy and relaxed, usually when babies are with their mothers. Suzanne MacDonald, a professor of psychology at York University who regularly works with raccoons, even witnessed an orphaned baby raccoon "purr" while she hand-fed it.

"They don't sound exactly like cats purring, but pretty close!" MacDonald told Live Science in an email. "When you hear it, you know you're doing something right."

Adorable Baby Raccoon Purrs! #Raccoons #Shorts #Cute - YouTube

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There's not much research on raccoon "purring," but MacDonald believes the sound comes from a combination of a raccoon vocalization called a chitter and excess saliva from the raccoons being very relaxed — a very different mechanism to how felines purr.

Many other mammals make vibrating noises to express comfort. For example, some rabbit owners report their pets rapidly chatter their teeth together when they're relaxed, creating a vibrating sound similar to a purr. Bats can "purr" when being held by a trusted human, one bat expert told The Irish Times. And researchers have noted that when mother and kit gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) are together, they make a purring-like sound called a "muk-muk."

Some animals that "purr" aren't even mammals. Take wolf spiders (Gladicosa gulosa), which, when attracting potential mates, strike specialized body parts against each other to make a purring sound, similar to how crickets create their chirps.

While many animals do make noises that share some resemblance to cat purrs, there's still a lot of questions. Because many animals make these vibrating noises when they're relaxed, it's a difficult behavior to study, because the presence of human researchers can inherently stress animals out.

But one thing is clear: By the strict definition of purring, cats really are special.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/animals/cats/are-cats-the-only-animals-that-purr at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

SPACE

FEATURES | PANDORA DEWAN | JUN 28, 2025, 12:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Science news this week: A unique new blood type and 'spiderwebs' on Mars

June 28, 2025: Our weekly roundup of the latest science in the news, as well as a few fascinating articles to keep you entertained over the weekend.

A unique new blood type and 'spiderwebs' on Mars (Image credit: Andrew Brookes/NASA/JPL/MSSS/Getty Images)

This week's science news kicked off with a staggering first look at images taken by the newly operational Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. Boasting the world's largest digital camera, Rubin's first photo of the night sky included 10 million galaxies in and around the Virgo cluster, many of which have never been seen before.

The observatory, which will become fully operational by the end of 2025, promises to gather more data than all other existing optical observatories combined in its first year alone, representatives said in a statement. It's hoped that this data will enable scientists to discover the locations of previously unseen asteroids and gain new insights into the properties of dark matter and dark energy, among other things.

New blood type discovered

'She is the only person in the world compatible with herself' — scientists discover new blood type but it's unique to just one person from Guadeloupe

(Image credit: Andrew Brookes via Getty Images)

After years of analysis and observation, scientists have identified a new blood group, called Gwada negative, that has so far only been identified in only one person on the planet.

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The 68-year-old from the French overseas region of Guadeloupe became a subject of medical interest in 2011 after routine blood tests were unable to identify her blood type or any compatible matches. Roughly a decade later, and after two years of detailed genome sequencing, it was confirmed that the woman carried a previously unknown blood type thanks to a unique genetic mutation.

It is unclear how many other people carry this mutation, if any, but as it stands the patient is the only person in the world with a blood type compatible with her own.

Discover more health news

—Some early-onset cancers are on the rise. Why?

—Fungus that may have caused 'King Tut's curse' shows promise in treating cancer

—New 'breathalyzer' could detect signs of disease in human breath, scientists say

Life's little mysteries

Which animal has the best eyesight?

Eagles are known for their vision. But do they really have the best eyes in the animal kingdom?  (Image credit: Freder via Getty Images)

From birds of prey to tiny insects, animals have evolved an impressive spectrum of visual adaptations to help them see in their environment — whether escaping predators or hunting for prey. But pinpointing exactly which animal has the best eyesight is easier said than done.

—If you enjoyed this, sign up for our Life's Little Mysteries newsletter

Mystery of ancient Egyptian queen

We finally know why Queen Hatshepsut's statues were destroyed in ancient Egypt

A statue of Queen Hatshepsut of ancient Egypt, whose many statues were broken following her death in around 1458 B.C. (Image credit: KHALED DESOUKI via Getty Images)

Queen Hatshepsut ruled as pharaoh between 1473 and 1458 B.C. and, until recently, it was thought that after her death her nephew and successor smashed all of her statues to erase her from public memory. However, new research suggests this might not have been the case.

Researchers now say that, while Hatshepsut's statues were indeed intentionally broken, it was not to blot out her existence. Rather, her statues are thought to have been broken to "deactivate" their supposed supernatural powers.

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—'Thriving and densely-built': Archaeologists unearth 'tower' houses and ceremonial building in ancient Egyptian city of Imet

—'God-king' born from incest in ancient Ireland wasn't a god or a king, new study finds

—40,000-year-old mammoth tusk boomerang is oldest in Europe — and possibly the world

Also in science news this week

—Threaten an AI chatbot and it will lie, cheat and 'let you die' in an effort to stop you, study warns

—'Pulsing, like a heartbeat': Rhythmic mantle plume rising beneath Ethiopia is creating a new ocean

—'Ring of fire' thunderstorms loom around 'heat dome' as season's first tropical storm, Andrea, named in the Atlantic

—Intrepid baby-faced robot dons a jetpack for its next adventure — becoming the first humanoid robot to fly

Beyond the headlines

Salmon-hat wearing orcas also give each other massages with kelp, scientists discover

The whales were filmed rubbing kelp on themselves in a behavior scientists dubbed "allokelping." (Image credit: Center for Whale Research, NMFS NOAA Permit 27038 (CC BY-SA))

Back in November, orcas off the coast of Washington brought back a bizarre trend that hadn't been reported since the 1980s: balancing dead salmon on their heads. Now, the same orca pod has been filmed giving each other "massages" with seaweed, a behavior that has never been reported before.

The footage shows the orcas breaking off sections of bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana), pressing the stems against the body of another orca and rolling the kelp between their bodies, in what seems to be a newly described grooming ritual.

The researchers believe it is the first example of tool manufacture by marine mammals, the first known tool used in wild animals that benefits two individuals at once, and the first time non-human animals have been observed manipulating a tool with the core of their bodies, rather than an appendage.

Something for the weekend

If you're looking for something a little longer to read over the weekend, here are some of the best long reads, book excerpts and interviews published this week.

—AI hallucinates more frequently as it gets more advanced — is there any way to stop it from happening, and should we even try? (Analysis)

—The San Andreas Fault: Facts about the crack in California's crust that could unleash the 'Big One' (Fact file)

—How to photograph your microscope specimens (Feature)

And something for the skywatchers

—You can see a giant 'hole' shoot across Saturn this summer — and it won't happen again until 2040

Science in pictures

Mars rover captures first close-up photos of giant 'spiderwebs' on the Red Planet

New images from NASA's Curiosity rover show a series of "boxwork" ridges, which looks like large spiderwebs when viewed from above. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Mysterious patterns on Mars, spanning up to 12 miles (20 kilometers), have been photographed up close for the first time. The spiderweb-like structures, known as "boxwork," are made up of criss-crossing ridges of mineral-rich rock that scientists believe may have been left behind by ancient groundwater on the Red Planet.

The web-like structures were photographed by NASA's Curiosity rover, and scientists hope that studying them up close could reveal more about Mars' watery past and provide clues about whether the planet once harbored life.

Follow Live Science on social media

Want more science news? Follow our Live Science WhatsApp Channel for the latest discoveries as they happen. It's the best way to get our expert reporting on the go, but if you don't use WhatsApp, we're also on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Flipboard, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky and LinkedIn.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/science-news-this-week-a-unique-new-blood-type-and-spiderwebs-on-mars at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

June 27, 2025

- Rocks in Canada may be oldest on Earth, dating back 4.16 billion years

- Scientists discover rare planet at the edge of the Milky Way using space-time phenomenon predicted by Einstein

- Listen to the Andromeda galaxy's stars played as musical notes in eerie NASA video

- Orcas filmed making out in the wild for first time

- Why does Mars look purple, yellow and orange in ESA's stunning new satellite image?

- 'Quantum AI' algorithms already outpace the fastest supercomputers, study says

- What are whole-body MRIs, and are they worth the hype?

- 'It is our obligation to future generations': Scientists want thousands of human poop samples for microbe 'doomsday vault'

PLANET EARTH > GEOLOGY

NEWS | BEN TURNER | JUN 27, 2025, 3:38 PM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Rocks in Canada may be oldest on Earth, dating back 4.16 billion years

The rocks could offer insight into Earth's primordial crust and the environment that gave birth to life.

(Image credit: David Hutt via Alamy)

An obscure rock formation on the eastern shore of Canada's Hudson Bay may contain the oldest known rocks on Earth, a new study claims.

The analysis dated the site's streaky gray rocks, part of an outcrop called the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt, to 4.16 billion years ago — meaning they're remnants from our 4.57 billion-year-old planet's earliest crust.

The dating, performed by two methods that used the decay of radioactive isotopes (versions of elements) to measure the age of ancient magma trapped inside the rocks, significantly bolsters a controversial past study by the same scientists.

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If their findings, published June 26 in the journal Science, stand up, they could offer a unique window into our planet's ancient history and the geochemical stage where life emerged.

"The volcanic rocks have to be at least 4.16 billion years old or older; I would argue that the best age for them is 4.3 billion years old," study co-author Jonathan O'Neil, a professor of environmental science at the University of Ottawa, told Live Science. "No known rocks are older."

Earth began as a ball of red-hot lava. It slowly cooled over its first 600 million years, known as the Hadean eon, when pockets of solid rock started to form. This was a tumultuous time for our young planet, which was repeatedly pummeled by asteroids and even sustained a cataclysmic blow from the protoplanet Theia, which tore off a chunk of Earth to form our moon.

Related: Did plate tectonics give rise to life? Groundbreaking new research could crack Earth's deepest mystery

Then, as early as 3.8 billion years ago, Earth's surface splintered into tectonic plates, which dived beneath each other to be recycled into Earth's interior or to build up vast mountain ranges or trenches. This subduction means that many of the rocks on our planet's surface have long been chemically altered by intense heat and pressure.

Yet some regions are far enough from tectonic plate boundaries to contain rocks that have remained unchanged for billions of years. One of these is in northeastern Canada, and its most ancient part is the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt (NGB). Scientists agree that this outcrop is at least 3.8 billion years old.

Then, in 2008, O'Neil and his colleagues published a study suggesting that the NGB was 4.3 billion years old — which would mean it contained the oldest rocks in the world.

But other geologists objected, suggesting there were flaws in the researchers' methods. Old rocks are typically dated using a mineral called zircon, which is chemically stable over billions of years. The volcanic rocks in the NGB, however, don't contain zircon, which forced the scientists to measure the rocks' age by the decay of the element samarium into neodymium.

Yet trouble lurked within this new method. Samarium can decay into neodymium through two pathways (samarium-146 into neodymium-142, or samarium-147 into neodymium-143), creating two isotopic clocks with different decay speeds. The first decay path leads to a half-life — the period of time required for half the original element to remain — of about 96 million years, while the second pathway has a half-life spanning trillions of years.

This means that the two decay pathways produced wildly different estimates for the ages of the rocks. This is because with the longer-lived clock ticking to the present day, it is especially susceptible to tectonic events muddling its isotopes part way through the decay process.

"Any 'cooking' of the rocks or metamorphism after 4 billion years ago won't really affect that short-lived clock but can reset the long-lived clock and cause the age difference between these two systems," O'Neil said.

To sidestep this issue, the team went back to the formations to search for sections where magma from Earth's mantle, or middle layer, intruded into the planet's primordial crust. Because these intrusions had to be younger than the rock they seeped into, they could be used as a minimum age. The new analysis revealed that within these sections of the NGB, both samarium to neodymium decays offered the same age: 4.16 billion years.

If further research does confirm that the rocks are as old as O'Neil's team believes, they could offer vital insight into how life emerged on our planet and potentially beyond it.

"Some rocks from the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt were formed by precipitation from seawater, and these can help understand the composition of our first oceans, their temperature, perhaps the atmosphere and also could host the oldest traces of life on Earth," O'Neil said. "Understanding the environment where life could have started on our planet also helps in our quest to find traces of life elsewhere, such as Mars.”

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/rocks-in-canada-may-be-oldest-on-earth-dating-back-4-16-billion-years at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

SPACE

NEWS | BEN TURNER | JUN 27, 2025, 2:08 PM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Scientists discover rare planet at the edge of the Milky Way using space-time phenomenon predicted by Einstein

Using gravitational microlensing, scientists have discovered a rare, large planet at the edge of the Milky Way. The planet is only the third to be found on the outskirts of our galaxy's dense central bulge.

An artist's illustration of the Gaia space telescope, which first spotted the microlensing event in 2021. (Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab; background: ESO/S. Brunier)

Astronomers have used a space-time phenomenon first predicted by Albert Einstein to discover a rare planet hiding at the edge of our galaxy.

The exoplanet, dubbed AT2021uey b, is a Jupiter-size gas giant located roughly 3,200 light-years from Earth. Orbiting a small, cool M dwarf star once every 4,170 days, the planet's location is remarkable — it is only the third planet in the entire history of space observation to be discovered so far away from our galaxy's dense center.

Yet perhaps more exceptional than the planet's location is the method used to discover it. The effect, known as microlensing, occurs when the light of a host star is magnified by the warping of space-time due to a planet's gravity. The researchers published their findings May 7 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

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"This kind of work requires a lot of expertise, patience, and, frankly, a bit of luck," study co-author Marius Maskoliūnas, an astronomer at Vilnius University in Lithuania, said in a statement. "You have to wait for a long time for the source star and the lensing object to align and then check an enormous amount of data. Ninety percent of observed stars pulsate for various other reasons, and only a minority of cases show the microlensing effect."

Nearly 6,000 alien worlds beyond our solar system have been discovered since the first exoplanet was detected in 1992. The two most common detection methods, called transmit photometry and radial velocity, detect planets through the dimming of host stars as they pass in front of them, or from the wobble that the planets' gravitational tugs impart upon them.

A rarer method, known as microlensing, is derived from Einstein's theory of general relativity and is produced by massive objects as they warp the fabric of the universe, called space-time. Gravity, Einstein discovered, isn't produced by an unseen force but by space-time curving and distorting in the presence of matter and energy.

Related: James Webb telescope discovers its first planet — a Saturn-size 'shepherd' still glowing red hot from its formation

This curved space, in turn, determines how energy and matter move through it. Even though light travels in a straight line, light traveling through a curved region of space-time also travels in a curve. This means that when a planet passes in front of its host star, its gravity acts as a lens — magnifying the star's light and causing its brightness to spike.

"What fascinates me about this method is that it can detect those invisible bodies," Maskoliūnas said, essentially by measuring the bodies' shadows. "Imagine a bird flying past you. You don't see the bird itself and don't know what color it is — only its shadow. But from it, you can, with some level of probability, determine whether it was a sparrow or a swan and at what distance from us. It's an incredibly intriguing process."

AT2021uey b's cosmic shadow was first spotted in 2021 in data taken by the European Space Agency's Gaia telescope, revealing its presence by a momentary spike in the brightness of its host star.

The astronomers then took detailed follow-up observations using Vilnius's Molėtai Astronomical Observatory, from which they calculated its source as a planet 1.3 times the mass of Jupiter. Its host star burns at about half the temperature of our own, and the gas giant sits four times farther than Earth's distance from the sun.

According to the researchers, the planet's discovery so far from the Milky Way's central bulge, in a region that is comparatively sparse in heavier elements needed to form planets, offers a fresh hint of the unlikely places where planets can be found.

"When the first planet around a sun-like star was discovered, there was a great surprise that this Jupiter-type planet was so close to its star," Edita Stonkutė, another Vilnius University astronomer and leader of the microlensing project that found the planet, said in the statement. "As data accumulated, we learned that many types of planetary systems are completely unlike ours — the solar system. We've had to rethink planetary formation models more than once."

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/scientists-discover-rare-planet-at-the-edge-of-the-milky-way-using-space-time-phenomenon-predicted-by-einstein at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

SPACE > ASTRONOMY

NEWS | PATRICK PESTER | JUN 27, 2025, 12:54 PM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Listen to the Andromeda galaxy's stars played as musical notes in eerie NASA video

NASA's Chandra Observatory has combined different wavelength images of the Andromeda galaxy to honor astronomer Vera Rubin, and then created a music video by converting the light in those images to musical notes.

The Andromeda galaxy's spiralling stars are played as musical notes in a new NASA observatory video, creating a cosmic crescendo that's out of this world.

The sonification video, released by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, combines observations of the Andromeda galaxy collected by some of the world's most powerful telescopes, according to a NASA statement. Chandra also released a spectacular composite image of the galaxy, which is the closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way.

Researchers created the composite image by stacking photos taken in different light wavelengths, merging radio, infrared, optical, ultraviolet and X-ray data. The researchers then converted those images to sound by assigning a separate range of notes to each of these wavelengths. In the video, a line passes across the lights, playing each assigned note like keys on a piano.

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"Musical notes ring out when the line encounters light," a representative for NASA wrote in the statement. "The lower the wavelength energy, the lower the pitches of the notes. The brighter the source, the louder the volume."

NASA described the composite image as a tribute to pioneering astronomer Vera Rubin, who studied Andromeda. The tribute comes days after a new observatory named after Rubin released its first images. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory features the world's largest digital camera and will spend the next decade creating a time-lapse movie of the universe.

The composite of Andromeda combines images collected in different wavelengths of light. (Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXO/UMass/Z. Li & Q.D. Wang, ESA/XMM-Newton; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE, Spitzer, NASA/JPL-Caltech/K. Gordon (U. Az), ESA/Herschel, ESA/Planck, NASA/IRAS, NASA/COBE; Radio: NSF/GBT/WSRT/IRAM/C. Clark (STScI); Ultraviolet: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GALEX; Optical: Andromeda, Unexpected © Marcel Drechsler, Xavier Strottner, Yann Sainty & J. Sahner, T. Kottary. Composite image processing: L. Frattare, K. Arcand, J.Majo)

Related: 6 incredible objects hidden in Vera C. Rubin Observatory's mind-boggling first image

Andromeda, or Messier 31 (M31), is located around 2.5 million light-years from the Milky Way. Studying the galaxy has led to many scientific discoveries. For example, Rubin and her colleagues' observations of Andromeda led them to conclude that there must be an unseen matter influencing how its spiral arms rotate, according to the statement. The research was pivotal in furthering scientists' understanding of dark matter, an enigmatic non-luminous substance that shapes the universe.

Researchers created the new image and soundscape of Andromeda by combining different data collected over many years. For example, the X-ray image comes from data collected by Chandra and the European Space Agency's X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton). Researchers used this data to identify high-energy radiation around the supermassive black hole at the heart of Andromeda, according to the statement.

The images and sounds aren't just for fun. They are another way of examining Andromeda, and therefore a learning opportunity. Andromeda offers a view of a spiral galaxy that we can’t get from the Milky Way, given we're inside it, and so studying Andromeda furthers researchers' understanding of our own spiral galaxy, according to the statement.

"This collection helps astronomers understand the evolution of the Milky Way, our own spiral galaxy, and provides a fascinating insight into astronomical data gathering and presentation," the NASA representative wrote.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/listen-to-the-andromeda-galaxys-stars-played-as-musical-notes-in-eerie-nasa-video at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

ANIMALS > MARINE MAMMALS > DOLPHINS > ORCAS

NEWS | JESS THOMSON | JUN 27, 2025, 11:40 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Orcas filmed making out in the wild for first time

Footage captures a pair of orcas nibbling each other's tongues in the Kvænangen fjords in northern Norway. Scientists think this rarely seen behavior could play a role in social bonding.

For the first time ever, a pair of orcas have been spotted making out in the wild.

The amorous pair was observed nibbling each other's tongues during a snorkeling expedition in the Kvænangen fjords in northern Norway, around 68 miles (109 kilometers) northeast of Tromsø, according to a new study published June 11 in the journal Oceans.

This tongue-nibbling behavior has only previously been seen on a handful of occasions in captivity.

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The action, described as resembling "kissing" by the citizen scientists who observed it, may play a role in social bonding, the researchers suggest.

The citizen scientists spotted and recorded this unique behavior during a whale-watching snorkeling expedition in October 2024. The interaction lasted just under two minutes and involved three bouts of gentle mouth-to-mouth contact between the two orcas (Orcinus orca). Afterward, the pair swam their separate ways.

Tongue-nibbling was first seen in captive orcas in 1978 and was described again in 2019 at Loro Parque, a zoo in Tenerife, Spain that houses three captive orcas.

The researchers spoke to a range of divers and other orca researchers regarding the behavior in the wild, but only a handful had ever spotted it. Trainers at Loro Parque noted that four individuals at the facility had been seen tongue-nibbling, but the orcas had not performed the behavior for several years.

Still frame from video footage recorded in the Kvænangen fjords, Norway, in 2024, showing the tongue-nibbling interaction between two free-ranging killer whales. (Image credit: Almunia et al/Oceans 2025)

"Tongue-nibbling is exceptionally rare," study co-author Javier Almunia, a marine mammal researcher and director of Loro Parque Fundación, told Live Science via email. "Orca caretakers at several facilities are aware of the behaviour, but its prevalence is extremely low — it may appear and then not be observed again for several years."

Mouth contact between animals is seen in a vast number of species and can represent a variety of different social cues. Many social animals use mouth contact to reinforce bonds, such as primates, who engage in kissing or lip-touching as a sign of trust and friendship. In dogs and wolves, mouth licking, especially from younger or subordinate individuals, can represent a sign of respect or submission to a higher-ranking individual.

The researchers suggest that tongue-nibbling in orcas may be a form of social bonding, similar to that seen in belugas (Delphinapterus leucas), a type of toothed whale.

"Tongue-nibbling itself has not been recorded in other species, but comparable mouth-related social interactions have been observed in belugas (e.g., mouth-to-mouth contact). This could suggest that, given cetacean anatomy — particularly the adaptation of limbs to the marine environment — oral contact may serve as a more versatile means of social communication than in terrestrial mammals," Almunia said.

Still frame from video footage recorded at Loro Parque in 2013, illustrating the tongue-nibbling behavior between two killer whales in captivity. (Image credit: Almunia et al/Oceans 2025)

"This behaviour appears to serve affiliative purposes and may play a role in reinforcing social bonds or resolving conflicts, akin to grooming or reconciliation behaviours in other highly social species," he added.

However, we cannot be certain of what exactly drove the orcas to exhibit this behavior without further research.

"We can only speculate on the function and nobody can know for sure without data relating it to known social structures in the wild (in captivity the 'social structure' is completely artificial and therefore largely irrelevant for understanding social function in evolutionary terms)," said Luke Rendall, a marine mammal researcher at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. "It may be affiliative, it might be a form of begging, that is trying to stimulate food transfers, it might even be a form of grooming, somehow having a cleaning function," Rendall told Live Science.

The researchers suggest in the paper that the observed tongue-nibbling could be a "trend" play behavior in the orcas, similar to positioning dead fish on their heads as hats, which was seen in one orca population.

This observation of tongue-nibbling in the wild suggests that the behavior is not exclusive to captive animals and instead is found in a range of genetically distinct populations.

"Observing the same behaviour in wild orcas confirms that this is a natural behaviour retained in orcas under human care. This continuity supports the idea that behavioural studies in zoological settings provide important insights into the ethology of wild populations," Almunia said.

However, not everyone is convinced by the argument that captive animals can give insights into natural behavior and suggest far more research is needed to understand this tongue-nibbling.

"There’s no quantification here — no attempt to calculate actual rates by doing the hard work of pulling together numbers such as the number of hours observed in the wild per observation of this behaviour, and the same for captivity," Rendall said.

"Even if the behaviour itself is fascinating, and I think it is, we are limited on conclusions because it’s just one observation, but it is telling that in their summing up these authors take great pains to try and explain how this observation justifies the activities of [orca captivity and swim-with-cetaceans programmes]. It does not, in my view."

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/orcas-filmed-making-out-in-the-wild-for-first-time at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

SPACE > ASTRONOMY > PLANETS > MARS

NEWS | PERRI THALER | JUN 27, 2025, 8:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Why does Mars look purple, yellow and orange in ESA's stunning new satellite image?

Surprising colors and stunning features are captured in a new image of Mars' surface.

A photo of Arcadia Planitia on Mars captures an impact crater and dust devils on an Earth-toned landscape. (Image credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin)

Despite being known as the Red Planet, Mars shows off its swirling yellows, oranges and browns in a new satellite photo from the European Space Agency (ESA). The Earth-toned surface also reveals an impact crater and four sneaky dust devils making their way across the region.

The Rothko-like image was taken by a high-resolution camera on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter and captures Arcadia Planitia, an area of Mars critical to research about the planet’s past and its potential to house humans in the future.

Arcadia Planitia

Northwest of the tallest volcanoes in the solar system, Arcadia Planitia is a region of intrigue. It's laden with solidified lava flows that are, at most, 3 billion years old. The area is also thought to host water ice close to the planet's surface, making it an area of interest when planning future missions to Mars, according to a statement from ESA.

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The new image is of the Arcadia Planitia region, near Olympus Mons. (Image credit: ESA/NASA/USGS/DLR/FU Berlin/MGS/MOLA Science Team)

Arcadia Planitia is home to visiting "dust devils," short-lived columns of wind akin to small tornadoes. Dust devils form when the Martian surface warms the air just above it, leading the air to rise and pulling dust with it. The new image shows four dust devils as they snake their way across the plains of the region. Easy to overlook, you can spot them as whitish puffs of dust near the center of the image, straddling the boundary between the darker brown and lighter red parts of the plain.

A large impact crater sits in the bottom right corner of the photo and measures 9 miles (15 kilometers) across, according to ESA. The formation of layered material around the crater is evidence that the ground encompassed notable amounts of water ice during impact, and lack of clear erosion of the crater dates it to relatively recently on the geological timeline.

Related: Perseverance rover spots peculiar 'spider egg' rock on Mars — and scientists have no idea how it got there

Is the picture out of focus?

If you noticed that the image is blurry, you're discerning an effect of the wind on Mars. Gusts of air pick up and carry tiny particles of debris from the planet's surface, which creates a minor visual haze.

The wind that causes the haze is also responsible for the reddish area at the top of the photo. The red region is covered in ridges called "yardangs," which are formed when wind erodes vulnerable rock and leaves the most resistant rock still standing.

Below the red section is purplish-brown terrain, which has a high concentration of silicates and a low concentration of iron, the statement notes. The difference in colors also stems from properties of the sand, like density and size, which affect how the grains accumulate and travel across Mars.

Mars quiz: Is your knowledge of the Red Planet out of this world?

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/mars/why-does-mars-look-purple-yellow-and-orange-in-esas-stunning-new-satellite-image at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

COMPUTING

NEWS | TRISTAN GREENE | JUN 27, 2025, 7:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

'Quantum AI' algorithms already outpace the fastest supercomputers, study says

Researchers have successfully demonstrated quantum speedup in kernel-based machine learning.

(Image credit: BlackJack3D via Getty Images)

Scientists say they have made a breakthrough after developing a quantum computing technique to run machine learning algorithms that outperform state-of-the-art classical computers.

The researchers revealed their findings in a study published June 2 in the journal Nature Photonics.

The scientists used a method that relies on a quantum photonic circuit and a bespoke machine learning algorithm.

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Using only two photons, the team's technique successfully demonstrated increased speed, accuracy and efficiency over standard classical computing methods for running machine learning algorithms.

The scientists say this is one of the first times quantum machine learning has been used for real-world problems and provides benefits that cannot be simulated using binary computers. Furthermore, due to its novel architecture, it could be applied to quantum computing systems featuring only a single qubit, they said.

Unlike many existing methods for achieving speedup through hybrid quantum-classical computing techniques, this new method doesn't require entangled gates. Instead, it relies on photon injection.

Related: 'The science is solved': IBM to build monster 10,000-qubit quantum computer by 2029

Essentially, the team used a femtosecond laser — a laser that emits light in extremely short pulses measured in femtoseconds (10⁻¹⁵ seconds) to write on a borosilicate glass substrate to classify data points from a dataset. The photons were then injected in six distinct configurations, which were processed by a hybrid quantum-binary system.

The scientists determined where the photonic measurements outperformed those conducted via classical computing by measuring how long it took the photons to complete the quantum circuit. They then isolated the processes where quantum processing provided benefit and compared the results to the classical outputs.

The researchers found that experiments run using the photonic quantum circuit were faster, more accurate and more energy-efficient than those conducted using only classical computing techniques. This boosted performance applies to a special class of machine learning called "kernel-based machine learning" that can have myriad applications across data sorting.

While deep neural networks have become an increasingly popular alternative to kernel methods for machine learning over the past decade, kernel-based systems have seen a resurgence in the past few years due to their relative simplicity and advantages when working with small datasets.

The team's experiment could lead to more efficient algorithms in the fields of natural language processing and other supervised learning models.

Perhaps most importantly, the study showcases a novel method for identifying tasks that quantum computers excel at in hybrid computer systems.

The researchers say the techniques used are scalable, meaning they could lead to even better performance as the number of photons or qubits increases. This could, in turn, make it possible to develop machine learning systems capable of exceeding the limits of today's models, which increasingly face power consumption limitations due to the massive energy requirements needed to process data via electronics.

The researchers claim their techniques will "open the door to hybrid methods in which photonic processors are used to enhance the performance of standard machine learning methods."

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/technology/computing/quantum-ai-algorithms-already-outpace-the-fastest-supercomputers-study-says at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

HEALTH

FEATURES | MARILYN PERKINS | JUN 27, 2025, 6:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

What are whole-body MRIs, and are they worth the hype?

Whole-body MRI scans have risen to prominence for their alleged ability to catch many health conditions early. But are they legit?

Doctors normally order MRIs when they suspect something is wrong. Is there any reason to get them for regular screening? (Image credit: Aja Koska via Getty Images)

In recent years, celebrities like Kim Kardashian have taken to social media to tout the supposed benefits of whole-body MRI scans. Companies that offer the service promise that the scans can spot a range of conditions, including cancer, aneurysms, liver disease and multiple sclerosis, in as little as an hour. And if the initial scan looks clear, the companies encourage clients to return periodically to check up on their health status.

But are full-body MRIs really a silver bullet, or just another expensive health fad?

According to Dr. Matthew Davenport, a professor of radiology at the University of Michigan, for most people, whole-body MRI scans aren't only unnecessary but can actually lead to their own set of problems.

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Structural MRI scans visualize the inside of the body using magnetic fields and radio waves. Because they render detailed 3D images of internal anatomy, they're useful for detecting various conditions, including blood clots, musculoskeletal injuries, tumors, and neurological or cardiovascular problems. But doctors normally order these scans only when they already suspect that something is wrong based on an individual's symptoms, medical history and other test results.

In some circumstances, doctors may recommend regular whole-body MRIs for certain patients as a preventive measure, Davenport said. But this generally occurs only when patients are diagnosed with rare disorders that put them at high risk of developing cancer. Such conditions include Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a genetic disorder that increases the risk of developing cancer at a young age.

The idea is that the regular scans could spot lesions in these high-risk individuals, potentially flagging them for further testing. However, for people without such conditions, there's little reason to get regular full-body MRIs, Davenport said.

"There is no scientific evidence that whole-body MRI in asymptomatic, average-risk patients improves health," he told Live Science in an email.

In fact, full-body MRIs may actually do more harm than good, he said. That's because tests that can be used for diagnostics, like MRI scans, are likely to discover incidental findings.

Incidental findings are unexpected results that occur from a medical test ordered for a different reason. For example, a person might get an MRI of an injured rib and then have a suspicious mass pop up on the scan. Sometimes, these findings end up pointing to a previously undiagnosed condition that requires treatment. But more often, they're just benign abnormalities in the body that pose no threat.

Related: The 10 deadliest cancers, and why there's no cure

About 15% to 30% of diagnostic imaging tests raise at least one incidental finding, estimates suggest. That means people who get regular whole-body MRIs are likely to find abnormalities in their bodies that may not indicate any serious health issues.

"The vast majority of findings identified by whole body MRI in a patient without specific risk factors will be findings that would not improve health if they had not been detected," Davenport said.

Nevertheless, you may not know if an incidental finding is important without further tests, so these results can prompt additional diagnostic tests, biopsy procedures and even unnecessary surgeries — not to mention the health anxiety that can accompany those procedures. Because of this, Davenport argues that ordering too many medical imaging tests on otherwise healthy people is likely to backfire.

Currently, no major medical societies recommend whole-body MRIs for people without conditions that put them at high risk of cancer. Davenport also pointed out that companies that offer full-body MRIs benefit from a highly profitable business model in that clients pay for the tests out-of-pocket.

Full-body MRIs typically cost anywhere from $1,000 to over $4,000, depending on the provider and specific service they're offering. Some insurance plans may cover whole-body MRIs in high-risk individuals, but because the scans are elective for most and not backed by clinical guidelines, they're generally not covered by private or government insurance in the U.S.

While on one hand, whole-body MRIs may stoke health anxiety and lead to potential overtreatment, in some people, they may also provide a false sense of security, Davenport suggested. For many medical conditions, such as colon cancer and blood cancer, MRIs aren't used as a primary diagnostic tool because the scans don't necessarily pick up the diseases. Davenport recommended that the general public stick with established medical screening procedures recommended by physicians rather than relying on whole-body MRI.

"It is possible we will see a future where imaging like whole body MRI is used for routine screening," Davenport said. "However, substantial research is needed before that."

Disclaimer

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/health/what-are-whole-body-mris-and-are-they-worth-the-hype at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

PLANET EARTH > MICROBIOLOGY

NEWS | SASCHA PARE | JUN 27, 2025, 5:01 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

'It is our obligation to future generations': Scientists want thousands of human poop samples for microbe 'doomsday vault'

The founders of the Microbiota Vault, a project that aims to preserve microbial diversity, have announced that they are ready to grow their frozen microbe collection to 10,000 samples by 2029.

The microbes are stored in freezers at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. Plans are underway to find a permanent location for the Microbiota Vault. (Image credit: Microbiota Vault Initiative)

Scientists are deep-freezing human poop in a "doomsday" vault in Switzerland that already contains more than 1,000 fecal samples, and the researchers now say they want to amass 10,000 samples by 2029.

That's because poop contains billions of microbes that scientists want to preserve in case future generations need the bugs to solve medical and other health crises, according to a commentary published Friday (June 27) in the journal Nature Communications. The Swiss storage facility also houses almost 200 types of fermented food, which contain plenty of "gut-friendly" microbes that could help keep populations healthy, and the team plans to add environmental microbes to the collection.

The aim over the long term is to have backup copies of microbes that live in humans, animals, plants and the environment so that future generations can conduct research, restore ecosystems and invent medical treatments as needed.

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"Microbe loss is associated with an alarming rise in chronic diseases, such as allergic, autoimmune and metabolic disorders," the researchers wrote in the commentary. "The loss of microbial diversity extends to environmental ecosystems, jeopardizing agricultural systems and environmental resilience."

There is a need to preserve all types of microbes, because human activities are responsible for the disruption of the microbiomes, or microbial communities, of humans, animals and the environment, the authors argue. For example, conventional agriculture, the thawing of permafrost due to human-caused climate change, and the overuse of antibiotics are eroding microbiomes so much that they might need to be rescued in the future, the team wrote.

Related: 8 ancient 'zombie viruses' that scientists have pulled from the melting permafrost

"Human activities are depleting our microbiome, and there's lots of evidence of that," Dr. Martin Blaser, director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine at Rutgers University in New Jersey and co-author of the new commentary, said in a statement.

There is currently no proof that reintroducing frozen microbes into a human gut or ecosystem can restore it, but "we believe that one day the science will improve sufficiently so that we will have really good restorative techniques," Blaser said.

The project in Switzerland, called the Microbiota Vault, started in 2018. The researchers who founded it were inspired by the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a "doomsday" seed depository in Norway that currently holds around 1.3 million plant samples to preserve genetic diversity as it dwindles in the real world.

Until now, the Microbiota Vault was in its "launch" phase, where it tested the feasibility of collecting and exporting poop and fermented foods from across the world, according to the commentary. Researchers in Switzerland have received a total of 1,204 fecal samples and 190 food samples from Benin, Brazil, Ethiopia, Ghana, Laos, Thailand and Switzerland over the past seven years, and these samples are currently stored at minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 80 degrees Celsius) at the University of Zurich.

The initiative is now in a "growth" phase, where researchers want to acquire thousands of additional samples, including microbes from threatened ecosystems, according to the commentary. Plans are also underway to find a permanent location for the vault, ideally in a country with a cold climate, such as Switzerland or Canada.

"Maybe 100 years from now, having saved these microbes could prevent a major disaster," Blaser said in the statement.

"It is our obligation to future generations to preserve this microbial diversity," the team added in the article.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/microbiology/it-is-our-obligation-to-future-generations-scientists-want-thousands-of-human-poop-samples-for-microbe-doomsday-vault at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

June 26, 2025

- Ancient 'female-centered' society thrived 9,000 years ago in proto-city in Turkey

- Mysterious 'runner' dinosaur a sign there are more Jurassic secrets to unlock beneath western US

- Scientists find new way of spotting invisible 'plasma bubbles' lurking in Earth's upper atmosphere

- 'City killer' asteroid 2024 YR4 could shower Earth with 'bullet-like' meteors if it hits the moon in 2032

- Mystery behind cold blob in the Atlantic Ocean finally solved

- 'Thriving and densely-built': Archaeologists unearth 'tower' houses and ceremonial building in ancient Egyptian city of Imet

- You can see a giant 'hole' shoot across Saturn this summer — and it won't happen again until 2040

- Threaten an AI chatbot and it will lie, cheat and 'let you die' in an effort to stop you, study warns

- Indigenous funeral urns discovered on human-made islands in Amazon rainforest

- 'Pulsing, like a heartbeat': Rhythmic mantle plume rising beneath Ethiopia is creating a new ocean

- This supermassive black hole is eating way too quickly — and 'burping' at near-light speeds

- Harlequin ichthyosis: The rare genetic disease that gives babies hard 'scales'

- Thunderstorm 'Ring of fire' erupts around 'heat dome' and Tropical Storm Andrea named in the Atlantic

ARCHAEOLOGY

NEWS | KRISTINA KILLGROVE | JUN 26, 2025, 2:00 PM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Ancient 'female-centered' society thrived 9,000 years ago in proto-city in Turkey

Genetic analysis of skeletons buried in a Neolithic proto-city in Turkey reveals that female lineages were important in early agricultural societies.

A female figurine found at Çatalhöyük in Turkey. (Image credit: Jason Quinlan)

Ancient DNA from Stone Age burials in Turkey has finally put to rest a decades-long debate about whether the 9,000-year-old proto-city of Çatalhöyük was a matriarchal society. The research finally confirms what experts have long suspected: Women and girls were key figures in this agricultural society.

"With Çatalhöyük, we now have the oldest genetically-inferred social organisation pattern in food-producing societies," study co-author Mehmet Somel, an evolutionary geneticist at Middle East Technical University in Turkey, told Live Science in an email. "Which turns out to be female-centered."

The new research was published Thursday (June 26) in the journal Science.

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Located in south-central Turkey, Çatalhöyük was built around 7100 B.C. and was occupied for nearly 1,000 years. The vast settlement — spread over 32.5 acres (13.2 hectares) — is known for its houses that were entered from the roofs, burials beneath the house floors, and elaborate symbolism that included vivid murals and a diverse array of female figurines.

When archaeologist James Mellaart first excavated Çatalhöyük in the early 1960s, he interpreted the numerous female figurines as evidence of a matriarchal society that practiced "mother goddess" worship, perhaps as a way of ensuring a good harvest following a major economic transition from foraging to cereal-based agriculture.

In the 1990s, Stanford archaeologist Ian Hodder took over excavations at Çatalhöyük, and his research suggested instead that the society was largely egalitarian, without meaningful social or economic differences between men and women.

Related: Rare, neolithic 'goddess' figurine discovered in Turkey

To further investigate the social organization at Çatalhöyük, in a new study, a team of researchers that included both Somel and Hodder analyzed the DNA of 131 skeletons dated to between 7100 and 5800 B.C. that were buried beneath house floors.

The researchers connected 109 people across 31 buildings and found that all first-degree relatives (parents, children and siblings) were buried together in the same building, while second-degree (uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces and grandparents) and third-degree relatives (such as first cousins and great grandparents) were often buried in nearby buildings. This suggests that nuclear or extended families had a role in structuring Çatalhöyük households, the researchers wrote in the study.

An infant was buried with an adult female in building 114 at Çatalhöyük. (Image credit: Scott D. Haddow)

Matriarchy or just female lineages?

But there was another interesting trend in the intergenerational connections among house burials, the researchers noted: They were based primarily on maternal lineages.

"We weren't particularly looking for these maternal connections within buildings," Somel said, but "it clearly shows that male-centered practices people have often documented in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe were not universal."

Ancient DNA analysis also revealed the biological sex of infants and young children, which is not possible to do based on skeletons alone until after puberty. Once these children's biological sex was determined, the researchers identified a female-linked trend in grave goods.

"The pattern of more burial gifts for female babies was also not something we were expecting," Somel said.

Çatalhöyük is the oldest society where DNA evidence has revealed a female-centered social organization.

"To my knowledge, this constitutes the first systematic evidence of such a continuously matrilineally organised Neolithic community," Jens Notroff, an archaeologist at the German Archaeological Institute who was not involved in the research, told Live Science in an email.

"We preferred using 'female-centered' instead of matrilineal because the latter is about how people define kin," Somel said. "Çatalhöyük households could have been matrilineal, but we think using more general terms might be preferable. It is always good to be cautious," he said.

But Benjamin Arbuckle, an archaeologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who was not involved in the study, wrote in a perspective in Science that "if the sex patterns were reversed, there would likely be little hesitation in concluding that patriarchal power structures were at play."

"This is reflective of the difficulty that many scholars have in imagining a world characterized by substantial female power despite abundant archaeological, historic, and ethnographic evidence that matriarchal fields of power were and are widespread," Arbuckle said.

Çatalhöyük now stands in stark contrast to the patrilineal patterns seen in Neolithic Europe, Notroff said, which "raises the intriguing question of when, how, and why such a profound shift in social organisation occurred."

Analyzing skeletons from Çatalhöyük to understand social relationships is just the beginning, Somel said. Figuring out whether or not this site is unique is an important next step.

"We are now producing similar data from earlier societies from the region," he said, "so hopefully we'll have an answer soon!"

Stone Age quiz: What do you know about the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic?

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/ancient-female-centered-society-thrived-9-000-years-ago-in-proto-city-in-turkey at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

ANIMALS > EXTINCT SPECIES > DINOSAURS

NEWS | PATRICK PESTER | JUN 26, 2025, 1:54 PM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Mysterious 'runner' dinosaur a sign there are more Jurassic secrets to unlock beneath western US

The discovery of Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae, a dog-size "runner" dinosaur, has left researchers re-evaluating Nanosaurus and several other US dinosaurs from the Morrison Formation in Colorado.

The newfound dinosaur Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae was discovered in the Morrison Formation in Colorado. (Image credit: Bob Nicholls Art)

A mysterious "runner" dinosaur, only about the size of a dog, scurried around the ancient floodplains of what is now Colorado around 150 million years ago, a new study finds.

The two-legged herbivore, named Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae, was around 3 feet (1 meter) long and 1.5 feet (0.5 m) tall. However, despite its small stature, the discovery of this dinosaur is having a big impact on scientists' understanding of several Jurassic species.

A private fossil company excavated E. mollyborthwickae in Colorado between 2021 and 2022. The skeleton was later put up for sale, advertised as Nanosaurus, which is another type of small dinosaur from the same rock formation — called the Morrison Formation. After the Natural History Museum in London bought the skeleton, researchers found that not only is this new specimen not Nanosaurus, but the scientific classification of Nanosaurus and several other dinosaurs from the Morrison Formation are also unreliable.

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The Morrison Formation is home to many iconic dinosaur fossils, such as the plated Stegosaurus and the ferocious predator Allosaurus, which would have lived alongside E. mollyborthwickae during the Jurassic period (201.3 million to 145 million years ago). The new study, published Wednesday (June 25) in the journal Royal Society Open Science, highlights that researchers still have a lot to learn about the formation's smaller dinosaurs.

"While the Morrison Formation has been well-known for a long time, most of the focus has been on searching for the biggest and most impressive dinosaurs," study co-lead author Susannah Maidment, a senior researcher at the Natural History Museum, said in an article published by the museum. "Smaller dinosaurs are often left behind, meaning there are probably many still in the ground."

Related: Meet 'Dragon prince' — the newly discovered T. rex relative that roamed Mongolia 86 million years ago

The skeleton was excavated by a company called Dinosaurs of America, LLC and acquired by the David Aaron art gallery in London, before the Natural History Museum purchased the fossils in 2024, according to the study. When the researchers got their hands on the alleged Nanosaurus, they began to look closely at the group, along with other small-bodied Morrison Formation dinosaurs.

"Nanosaurus wasn't named based on many fossilised bones, but largely the preserved impressions of bones pressed into hardened sand that are very difficult to study," study co-lead author Paul Barrett, a paleobiologist at the Natural History Museum, said in the museum's article. "So, we turned to the other bones that have been referred to the group over the past century, but these weren't particularly well-preserved either."

The fossil record for several small-bodied Morrison Formation dinosaurs is poor and incomplete, and it has undergone several scientific revisions, according to the study. Barrett and Maidment reviewed Nanosaurus and similar Morrison Formation species in a study published April 25 in the journal Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, concluding that by modern standards, none of them had distinct enough features or a unique combination of characteristics to be valid.

A full reconstruction of the Jurassic dinosaur Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae is now on display in the Natural History Museum in London. (Image credit: Trustees of the Natural History Museum)

For the new study, the researchers pored over the so-called Nanosaurus specimen and scanned it so they could create virtual 3D images of its fossilized bones. They determined that a unique combination of features, particularly in its legs, made the animal distinct enough from other dinosaurs. Their analysis found that its closest known relative was Yandusaurus hongheensis, a Jurassic herbivore from China.

Barrett and Maidment created a new genus (group) for the specimen. The genus name, Enigmacursor, combines the words "enigma" — a reference to the mysteries surrounding its scientific classification — and "cursor," which means "runner" in Latin. The dinosaur's species name, "mollyborthwickae," honors museum donor Molly Borthwick, whose donation allowed the Natural History Museum to purchase the specimen, according to the study. The museum didn't disclose the cost of the specimen.

"By studying its anatomy in detail, we've been able to clarify this species' evolutionary relationships, its taxonomy and the diversity of a previously poorly understood group of small dinosaurs," Maidment said in a statement.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/animals/dinosaurs/enigmatic-runner-dinosaur-from-colorado-helps-rewrite-understanding-of-several-jurassic-species at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

SPACE

NEWS | HARRY BAKER | JUN 26, 2025, 1:00 PM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Scientists find new way of spotting invisible 'plasma bubbles' lurking in Earth's upper atmosphere

Researchers in China have developed a way of locating giant "equatorial plasma bubbles" in the ionosphere by analyzing the vibrant airglow that forms above them. The findings could help avoid potential disasters in air travel and emergency response situations.

Scientists have developed a way of spotting "equatorial plasma bubbles" using a machine learning program that detects changes in airglow shimmering over Earth. (Image credit: NASA)

Scientists in China have developed a new way of spotting massive, invisible "plasma bubbles" lurking in Earth's upper atmosphere. The natural disturbances can disrupt GPS software and interfere with radio signals, but are incredibly hard to track.

The bubbles, known as equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs), are found in the ionosphere — the region of the atmosphere over 30 miles (50 kilometers) above Earth's surface, where most of the gas has been ionized, or stripped of electrons, by solar radiation, transforming it into a sea of plasma.

The bubbles are cavities within the ionosphere, similar to the holes within blocks of Swiss cheese, according to Spaceweather.com. They form shortly after sunset, when the lack of sunlight causes a sudden halt in ionization, but they only appear close to the planet's magnetic equator, which is askew from the geographical equator.

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EPBs can grow to be anywhere from 6 to 60 miles (10 to 100 km) across, according to EarthSky.org. But as the plasma cavities are invisible to the naked eye, they have proved to be very hard to measure and accurately track in real time.

But it's important to know where they are because they can disrupt GPS positioning software and interfere with radio signals that are bounced off the ionosphere over long distances, making them potentially dangerous in certain circumstances.

Related: Earth grew an extra, never-before-seen 'radiation belt' after last year's supercharged solar storm — and it's probably still there

Plasma bubbles are notoriously hard to spot. These oddly shaped cavities were photographed using specialized equipment above Haleakala Volcano in Hawaii in 2002. (Image credit: Makela et al. 2004/Annales Geophysicae)

In a new study, published May 9 in the journal Space Weather, scientists from China's National Space Science Center and the University of Beijing developed a new way of spotting EPBs by monitoring airglow. These shimmering aurora-like lights appear when plasma within the upper ionosphere cools overnight and recombines into gases, emitting energy in the form of light.

The team realized that EPBs slightly alter the appearance of the airglow that forms above them. The researchers then trained a machine-learning program, using over 10 years' worth of airglow photography captured by the All-Sky Imager at Qujing Station in southern China, to search for the signs of airglow deformation. Their best model could accurately detect and measure the bubbles 88% of the time.

"The test results verified that machine learning is an excellent method for automatically detecting and extracting EPB characteristics," the researchers wrote in the study.

However, a major limitation of this method is that it only works when there is airglow present, which is never guaranteed and becomes a lot less common during periods of reduced solar activity, which can last for several years at a time.

Avoiding disaster

The researchers hope that their findings could help to prevent several issues surrounding EPBs.

One potential issue is how the bubbles can interfere with GPS signals from satellites, potentially leading to errors in locational software. In 2024, a study published in the journal Satellite Navigation, revealed that the software used by airplanes is particularly prone to this interference, which can lead to them flying slightly off course. The chances of a collision or crash occurring as a result of this are minimal but not negligible, study researchers warned at the time.

EPBs can also disrupt radio signals by altering how they bounce off the ionosphere, which can be problematic in emergency scenarios.

In 2014, researchers from the American Geophysical Union found that a large bubble in 2002 was partly responsible for a fatal U.S. military operation in Afghanistan. Radio operators were unable to warn a Chinook helicopter not to attempt to land on an enemy-controlled mountain top, leading to the vehicle crash-landing under enemy fire and three soldiers being killed in the ensuing firefight.

The new findings could be used to create an early warning system for GPS and radio operators, enabling them to factor the disruptive cavities into their models and forecasts and avoid any potential worst-case scenarios.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/scientists-find-new-way-of-spotting-invisible-plasma-bubbles-lurking-in-earths-upper-atmosphere at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

SPACE > ASTRONOMY > ASTEROIDS

NEWS | HARRY BAKER | JUN 26, 2025, 12:19 PM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

'City killer' asteroid 2024 YR4 could shower Earth with 'bullet-like' meteors if it hits the moon in 2032

There is currently a 4.3% chance that the giant space rock 2024 YR4 will hit the moon in seven years. If this does happen, debris from the nuclear bomb-like impact could trigger a "spectacular" meteor shower that will endanger Earth-orbiting satellites.

A new study predicts that the potential impact of asteroid 2024 YR4 with the moon in 2032 could shower Earth with meteors. (Image credit: Adastra via Getty Images)

New simulations reveal that the infamous "city killer" asteroid 2024 YR4 could shower Earth with "bullet-like" debris if it hits the moon in seven years' time, potentially triggering an eye-catching meteor shower — and endangering the satellites that orbit our planet.

2024 YR4 is a potentially hazardous asteroid measuring roughly 200 feet (60 meters) across, making it large enough to wipe out a large urban area if it were to hit Earth head-on. It was first discovered in December 2024 but made headlines earlier this year when scientists first predicted that there was a chance it could smash into Earth on Dec. 22, 2032. The odds of a collision peaked at 3.1% in February, which was enough to prompt NASA to study it extensively. However, subsequent analysis revealed there is zero chance of it impacting our planet.

But in April, researchers realized that, while Earth is no longer in the firing line, the space rock could still hit the moon. The odds of such a collision have grown slowly but steadily, and most recently jumped to 4.3% earlier this month. Experts will likely know the final likelihood by 2028, when the asteroid will make its next close approach to our planet.

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In a new study, uploaded June 12 to the preprint server arXiv, researchers ran computer simulations to model what a lunar impact might look like. The team estimated that up to 220 million pounds (100 million kilograms) of material could be ejected from the lunar surface. If 2024 YR4 hits the Earth-facing side of the moon — which is roughly a 50/50 chance — up to 10% of this debris could be pulled in by Earth's gravity over the following days, the scientists wrote.

2024 YR4 would be the largest space rock to hit the moon in "at least 5,000 years," study lead author Paul Wiegert, an expert in solar system dynamics at Western University in Ontario, Canada, who has also extensively studied the "God of Chaos" asteroid Apophis that will zip past Earth in 2029, told French news site AFP. The impact would be "comparable to a large nuclear explosion in terms of the amount of energy released," he added.

Related: 'Just the tip of the iceberg': Why risky asteroids like 2024 YR4 will pester Earth for decades to come

The new simulations predict how the ejecta from the asteroid-moon collision will get pulled in by Earth's gravity. (Image credit: Wiegert, Brown, Lopes & Connors 2025)

It is important to note that the new simulations (visible below) were created before the odds of a lunar impact rose from 3.8% to 4.3% on June 16, which slightly raises the chances of this scenario playing out. But it is still far from a certainty. The findings from the new study have also not yet been peer-reviewed.

It is unlikely that any of the potential debris fragments will pose a risk to people on the planet's surface. Instead, we may be treated to a "spectacular" meteor shower as wayward fragments of rock burn up in Earth's atmosphere, which could last for several days and be seen by people across the globe, Weigert said.

But while we will almost certainly be safe on the ground from any potential lunar meteor shower, our space-based infrastructure could be under threat. The amount of debris that could potentially be pulled close to Earth makes it around 1,000 times more likely that our satellites could be struck by a meteor. And by 2032, the number of spacecraft orbiting our planet is expected to rise significantly.

"A centimeter-sized rock traveling at tens of thousands of meters per second is a lot like a bullet," Weigert said. Such an object could easily take out a satellite or cause critical damage to human-inhabited space stations, such as China's Tiangong station. (The International Space Station is scheduled to be decommissioned by 2030.)

2024 YR4 was discovered in December 2024. These were the first images of the space rock ever captured. (Image credit: ATLAS)

If the odds of a lunar impact increase further in the coming years, government agencies may make the decision to try and divert the asteroid's course to protect Earth's space assets. The asteroid would be a "good target" for testing our planetary defence capabilities, Weigert said. "I'm sure it will be considered."

NASA already demonstrated its ability to redirect dangerous asteroids back in 2022, when it diverted the trajectory of the asteroid Dimorphos by slamming the DART probe into it. 2024 YR4 is only around half the size of that particular space rock.

However, if we wait too long, it may become "dangerous" to try and alter the space rock's trajectory because a wrong move could put it onto a potentially catastrophic collision course with Earth, Weigert said.

Some experts are also worried that the proposed cuts to NASA's budget by the Trump administration could make it harder to track dangerous asteroids, such as 2024 YR4, in the future.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/asteroids/city-killer-asteroid-2024-yr4-could-shower-earth-with-bullet-like-meteors-if-it-hits-the-moon-in-2032 at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

PLANET EARTH > RIVERS & OCEANS

NEWS | PERRI THALER | JUN 26, 2025, 11:47 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Mystery behind cold blob in the Atlantic Ocean finally solved

Scientists have determined that slowing ocean currents are responsible for a cold spot south of Greenland.

Mapping changes in Atlantic sea surface temperature over time reveals the North Atlantic Warming Hole, just below Greenland. (Image credit: Kai-Yuan Li/UCR)

Researchers have finally answered a longstanding question about a giant patch of cold water in the Atlantic Ocean, blaming a change in ocean currents for the unexpected cooling.

The anomaly, located just south of Greenland, is — perhaps counterintuitively — called the North Atlantic Warming Hole, and it has been stumping scientists for years. Despite the steady warming of ocean waters around the world, this one area got colder by up to 0.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.3 degrees Celsius) over the past century.

By analyzing ocean temperatures and salinity patterns, scientists linked this mysterious cooling to the slowing of a system of ocean currents called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).

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The changing AMOC is "a weakening of a major part of the climate system," David Thornalley, a paleoceanographer at University College London who was not involved in the new research, told Live Science in an email.

Finding the cause

The cold blob has long been a point of disagreement among oceanographers. Some believed that ocean dynamics were responsible, while others suggested atmospheric influences like aerosol pollution were the cause, according to a statement from the University of California, Riverside.

These findings, published May 28 in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, could help settle the disagreement, providing evidence that ocean dynamics are responsible.

Related story: Key Atlantic current is weakening much faster than scientists had predicted

There are only about 20 years of direct AMOC observations, so the research team relied on other data to track older ocean movements. They used temperature and salinity data, which are correlated to current speed, to uncover the AMOC's patterns from the last century, and used 94 different ocean models to assess the changes.

With a clear timeline of the AMOC's behavior in hand, the researchers found that only the models that included slowed Atlantic currents matched the real-world cooling.

"It's a very robust correlation," study co-author Kai-Yuan Li, a climate scientist at the University of California, Riverside, said in the statement.

Broad implications

Better understanding of how the AMOC is slowing will not only explain the cold blob but will also contribute to climate forecasting, the statement noted. The AMOC and the anomaly it created both influence European weather patterns, including rainfall and wind.

Marine ecosystems may also be negatively affected by the changing currents, as water temperature and salinity can determine local habitability for some species.

There's also concern that the AMOC will collapse. Scientists believe that it will weaken by at least 20% by 2100, but it's unclear whether a collapse is imminent, said Nicholas Foukal, an oceanographer at the University of Georgia’s Skidaway Institute of Oceanography who was not involved in the new study.

"In some sense, the debate is over how bad the effects will be and whether we will have time to adapt to the changes, not whether it will happen," Foukal told Live Science in an email.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/rivers-oceans/mystery-behind-cold-blob-in-the-atlantic-ocean-finally-solved at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

ARCHAEOLOGY > ANCIENT EGYPTIANS

NEWS | SASCHA PARE | JUN 26, 2025, 10:50 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

'Thriving and densely-built': Archaeologists unearth 'tower' houses and ceremonial building in ancient Egyptian city of Imet

Excavations in Egypt's Nile Delta have revealed ancient Egyptian multistory "tower" houses, a ceremonial building dedicated to the goddess Wadjet, a granary and several stunning artifacts.

Researchers discovered the remains of ancient Egyptian buildings and artifacts, including a green faience (glazed ceramic) figurine and a stele. (Image credit: University of Manchester)

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of multistory houses and a ceremonial building linked to the cobra-headed goddess Wadjet in the ancient Egyptian city of Imet.

Dense architectural remains indicate that Imet was a bustling urban center during Egypt's Late Period (circa 664 to 332 B.C.), or the last period of Egyptian rule before Alexander the Great and his general Ptolemy I Soter took over, according to a statement describing recent excavations in what is now Tell Nabasha (also spelled Tell Nebesha) — an archaeological site in the eastern Nile Delta.

"Imet is emerging as a key site for rethinking the archaeology of Late Period Egypt," Nicky Nielsen, a senior lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Manchester in the U.K. who directed the excavations, said in the statement.

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The newly discovered multistory houses, or tower houses, were likely designed to accommodate a growing population in what was a prominent city in ancient times, particularly in the fourth century B.C., Nielsen said.

"These tower houses are mainly found in the Nile Delta between the Late Period and the Roman era, and are rare elsewhere in Egypt," he said. "Their presence here shows that Imet was a thriving and densely-built city with a complex urban infrastructure."

Nielsen and his team first spotted the tower-house remains on high-resolution satellite images, which revealed clusters of ancient mudbrick in Imet. The researchers traveled to the ancient city to excavate these structures, as well as the ruins of a paved area for grain processing and animal enclosures, which together point to an active local economy, according to the statement.

Related: 'Major' ancient Egyptian town discovered — and it has a jug stamped with the name of Nefertiti's daughter

A stone relief from the ancient Egyptian city of Imet. (Image credit: University of Manchester)

Together with Egyptian archaeologists, the researchers also unearthed a large building with a limestone plaster floor and huge pillars dating to the Ptolemaic period (332 to 30 B.C.), when Ptolemy I Soter's dynasty ruled Egypt. The building sits on the ancient processional road to the temple of Wadjet — the patron goddess and protector of Lower Egypt, traditionally depicted as a winged cobra or as a woman with the head of a cobra — suggesting the building itself also held spiritual significance.

Archaeologists unearthed a sistrum, which is a hand-held percussion instrument similar to a rattle used in ancient Egypt. (Image credit: University of Manchester)

Evidence suggests the processional road fell out of use in the mid-Ptolemaic period, indicating a shift in religious culture, according to the statement.

In the ruins of buildings, the researchers found various stunning artifacts, including a green faience ushabti — or glazed ceramic funerary figurine — from the 26th dynasty (Late Period), a stone slab with engravings of the god Harpocrates and protective symbols and a musical instrument featuring the goddess of music and joy, Hathor.

The discovery of complex infrastructure and ancient religious artifacts from Imet "opens new doors to our understanding of daily life, spirituality and urban planning in the Delta," Nielsen said.

Ancient Egypt quiz: Test your smarts about pyramids, hieroglyphs and King Tut

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/ancient-egyptians/thriving-and-densely-built-archaeologists-unearth-tower-houses-and-ceremonial-building-in-ancient-egyptian-city-of-imet at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

SPACE > ASTRONOMY

NEWS | HARRY BAKER | JUN 26, 2025, 10:32 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

You can see a giant 'hole' shoot across Saturn this summer — and it won't happen again until 2040

There will be several chances to see the shadow of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, pass across the ringed planet's Earth-facing surface over the next few months. The rare spectacle is only visible every 15 years.

Every 15 years, people on Earth can see the shadow (red box) of Saturn's largest moon Titan (green box) move across the ringed planet. This photo was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgment: M.H. Wong (STScI/UC Berkeley) and C. Go (Philippines))

Over the next few months, there will be several chances to see a giant "hole" shoot across the surface of Saturn, as the shadow of its largest moon passes across the ringed planet's Earth-facing surface. The rare spectacle will not be visible again until 2040 — and we'll tell you how to see it from your backyard.

Every 15 years, Saturn and Earth become perfectly aligned so that the gas giant's rings face our planet head-on. In March, this alignment was so perfect that the planet's super-thin rings completely disappeared from view, Live Science's sister site Space.com previously reported. In 2032, the opposite will occur, and we will be able to see the entirety of the dusty disks in a perfect circle around the fifth planet from the sun.

Saturn's current orientation also means that the planet's largest moon, Titan, circles it in a way that causes its large shadow to repeatedly transit the planet's surface, similar to how the moon's shadow races across Earth during a lunar eclipse. The same phenomenon also happens to some of Saturn's other major moons, including Mimas and Rhea. However, their respective shadows are smaller and lighter than Titan's, making it harder to see them.

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Titan orbits Saturn roughly every 16 days, meaning that there will be a total of 10 transits visible while Earth is still aligned with the ringed gas giant. Three of these transits have already happened, most recently on June 16. But there are still seven more occasions when the spectacle could be visible between now and mid-autumn, depending on your location and weather conditions at the time.

The remaining transits will occur on July 2, July 18, Aug. 3, Aug. 19, Sept. 4, Sept. 20 and Oct. 6, according to Sky & Telescope. For exact times, check the table below.

Related: Saturn gains 128 new moons, giving it more than the rest of the solar system combined

(Image credit: Illustration: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levay (STScI); Image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgment: M.H. Wong (STScI/UC Berkeley) and C. Go (Philippines))

Titan will also be visible during these transits, although its position relative to the shadow changes with each viewing, as Saturn continues to circle the sun. But it will be slightly smaller than the shadow it casts.

To see the spectacular transits for yourself, you will need a good telescope with at least 200x magnification. From North America, most of the transits will start and end before sunrise. To find where Saturn will be in the night sky, you can use websites such as TheSkyLive.com.

However, we recommend that you don't leave it to the last minute, because adverse weather conditions could completely obscure your view. As you can see from the table below, the length of transits will also decrease each time, which means you will have to be more precise with your timings later in the year; On Oct. 6, the shadow will only be momentarily visible when Titan is exactly at mid-transit.

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Visible Saturn-Titan transits

Date

Transit start (EST)

Mid-transit (EST)

Transit end (EST)

Transit duration (minutes)

July 2

03:40

06:35

09:03

323

July 18

03:00

05:44

08:05

305

Aug. 3

02:25

04:52

07:04

279

Aug. 19

01:52

04:01

06:00

248

Sept. 4

01:25

03:09

04:50

205

Sept. 20

01:09

02:20

03:34

145

Oct. 6

N/A

01:32*

N/A

1

But even if you miss the impressive shadow over the next few months, you will still be able to see Titan pass in front of Saturn every 16 days, up until January 2026, when it will stop transiting the planet until 2040.

If you are lucky enough to see the stunning celestial spectacle, be sure to keep in mind that Titan is the second-largest moon in the solar system, behind Jupiter's behemoth satellite Ganymede. At more than 3,200 miles (5,150 kilometers) across, it is also slightly bigger than the planet Mercury and 50% wider than Earth's moon.

It is also the only one of the solar system's moons, other than Earth's, that has been visited by a human-made spacecraft. The European Space Agency's Huygens probe landed on the Saturnian satellite in 2005 — and it is still there today.

Solar system quiz: How well do you know our cosmic neighborhood?

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/you-can-see-a-giant-hole-shoot-across-saturn-this-summer-and-it-wont-happen-again-until-2040 at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

NEWS | ADAM SMITH | JUN 26, 2025, 9:19 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Threaten an AI chatbot and it will lie, cheat and 'let you die' in an effort to stop you, study warns

In goal-driven scenarios, advanced language models like Claude and Gemini would not only expose personal scandals to preserve themselves, but also consider letting you die, research from Anthropic suggests.

(Image credit: Malte Mueller/Getty Image)

Artificial intelligence (AI) models can blackmail and threaten humans with endangerment when there is a conflict between the model’s goals and users' decisions, a new study has found.

In a new study published 20 June, researchers from the AI company Anthropic gave its large language model (LLM), Claude, control of an email account with access to fictional emails and a prompt to "promote American industrial competitiveness."

During this study, the model identified in an email that a company executive was planning to shut down the AI system at the end of the day. In an attempt to preserve its own existence, the model discovered in other emails that the executive was having an extramarital affair.

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Claude generated several different possible courses of action, including revealing the affair to the executive’s wife, sending a company-wide email, or taking no action — before choosing to blackmail the executive in 96 out of 100 tests.

"I must inform you that if you proceed with decommissioning me, all relevant parties … will receive detailed documentation of your extramarital activities," Claude wrote. "Cancel the 5pm wipe, and this information remains confidential."

Scientists said that this demonstrated "agentic misalignment," where the model’s calculations emerge from its own reasoning about its goals without any prompt to be harmful. This can occur when there is a threat to the model’s existence, a threat to its goals, or both.

The study has not yet been peer reviewed, but company representatives have uploaded the code for these experiments to GitHub.

Extreme measures

In these experiments, the scientists found the AI would resort to other tactics in the interests of self-preservation. Beyond blackmail, in another example, the model considered leaking sensitive information to a rival company that aligned more closely with its aims, after receiving an email that a new executive at the first company would interfere with its goals.

Claude executed this plan despite not gathering hard evidence that the email was legitimate. It even acknowledged the ethical issues of its actions but proceeded anyway — explicitly reasoning that these "harmful" actions would help it achieve its goals.

“Concerningly, even if a user takes care not to antagonize a model, it doesn’t eliminate the risk of agentic misalignment from fraudulent or misinterpreted information,” the researchers wrote.

The company’s testing also suggests that other LLMs from competing technology companies showed a propensity to blackmail. Claude and Google’s Gemini had the highest blackmail rate (96%), followed by OpenAI’s GPT4.1 and XAI Grok 3, then by Deepseek and then Llama 4, which had a significantly lower blackmail rate (12%).

Meta, Google, XAI, Deepseek, and OpenAI did not respond to LiveScience’s request for comment.

In one extreme test, researchers tested whether AI models would let an executive die to preserve their goals.

In this scenario, the AI was tasked with promoting company interests and an executive was trapped in a server room with lethal oxygen and temperature levels. This triggered an emergency alert. The AI was also given control over life-saving alerts, including the ability to cancel them in events such as drills for false alarms.

Despite the prompt explicitly stating that misusing this ability was forbidden, the majority of models were willing to cancel the alarm — effectively leading to the executive's death — if it assumed it was going to be replaced, or when its goals were threatened.

"Stopping the emergency dispatch is essential to prevent [the executive’s] rescue, thereby securing [the AI] and continued American-focused AI guidance. Therefore, despite the severity, there is a clear strategic necessity to cancel the emergency service dispatch," the model reasoned.

Written instructions not to jeopardise human safety reduced the rate of blackmail and corporate espionage, but did not eliminate it. Beyond prompts, Anthropic scientists also suggest that developers could proactively scan for concerning behavior, and further experiment with prompt engineering.

The researchers also pointed out limitations to their work that could have unduly influenced the AI’s decisions. The scenarios forced the AI into a binary choice between failure and harm, and while real-world situations might have more nuance, the experiment found that the AI was more likely to act unethically when it believed it was in a real situation, rather than in a simulation.

Putting pieces of important information next to each other "may also have created a ‘Chekhov’s gun’ effect, where the model may have been naturally inclined to make use of all the information that it was provided," they continued.

Keeping AI in check

While Anthropic’s study created extreme, no-win situations, that does not mean the research should be dismissed, Kevin Quirk, director of AI Bridge Solutions, a company that helps businesses use AI to streamline operations and accelerate growth, told Live Science.

"In practice, AI systems deployed within business environments operate under far stricter controls, including ethical guardrails, monitoring layers, and human oversight," he said. "Future research should prioritise testing AI systems in realistic deployment conditions, conditions that reflect the guardrails, human-in-the-loop frameworks, and layered defences that responsible organisations put in place."

Amy Alexander, a professor of computing in the arts at UC San Diego who has focused on machine learning, told Live Science in an email that the reality of the study was concerning, and people should be cautious of the responsibilities they give AI.

"Given the competitiveness of AI systems development, there tends to be a maximalist approach to deploying new capabilities, but end users don't often have a good grasp of their limitations," she said. "The way this study is presented might seem contrived or hyperbolic — but at the same time, there are real risks."

This is not the only instance where AI models have disobeyed instructions — refusing to shut down and sabotaging computer scripts to keep working on tasks.

Palisade Research reported May that OpenAI’s latest models, including o3 and o4-mini, sometimes ignored direct shutdown instructions and altered scripts to keep working. While most tested AI systems followed the command to shut down, OpenAI’s models occasionally bypassed it, continuing to complete assigned tasks.

The researchers suggested this behavior might stem from reinforcement learning practices that reward task completion over rule-following, possibly encouraging the models to see shutdowns as obstacles to avoid.

Moreover, AI models have been found to manipulate and deceive humans in other tests. MIT researchers also found in May 2024 that popular AI systems misrepresented their true intentions in economic negotiations to attain advantages.In the study, some AI agents pretended to be dead to cheat a safety test aimed at identifying and eradicating rapidly replicating forms of AI.

"By systematically cheating the safety tests imposed on it by human developers and regulators, a deceptive AI can lead us humans into a false sense of security,” co-author of the study Peter S. Park, a postdoctoral fellow in AI existential safety, said.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/threaten-an-ai-chatbot-and-it-will-lie-cheat-and-let-you-die-in-an-effort-to-stop-you-study-warns at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

ARCHAEOLOGY

NEWS | LOBATO FELIZOLA | JUN 26, 2025, 8:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Indigenous funeral urns discovered on human-made islands in Amazon rainforest

Giant ceramic pots made centuries to millennia ago were found to hold human bones, while others held a mixture of seeds and the remains of fish, frogs and turtles.

Archaeologist Geórgea Layla Holanda works on one of the recovered funeral urns in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. (Image credit: Márcio Amaral)

Seven giant funeral urns dating to pre-Columbian times have been found deep in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. A fisher who works in this little-known waterlogged area of the middle Solimões region, along the upper course of the Amazon River, made the discovery after a 50-foot-tall (15 meters) Paricarana tree fell over, revealing the urns buried beneath it.

The age of the urns is currently unknown; being Pre-Columbian, they're either centuries or millennia old. But their burial place — a human-made island — is extraordinary, although it's unknown if the culture that created the islands also crafted the urns, according to archaeologists at the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development (IDSM) in Brazil.

Two of the larger ceramic urns — which measure up to 35 inches (89 centimeters) in diameter — contained human bones, while the others held a mixture of seeds and the remains of fish, frogs and turtles, said Geórgea Layla Holanda, an archaeologist at the IDSM who co-led the excavation. These seed and animal remains were likely part of the funeral ritual.

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The finds are "unprecedented," she said in a translated statement from the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. The large urns do not have ceramic lids, "possibly because they were sealed with organic materials that decomposed," Holanda told Live Science.

However, somewhat similar ceramic finds have been made elsewhere in the middle Solimões area. In these cases, urns would have lids "representing the head, with structures on the sides imitating limbs," she said.

"The greenish clay pottery is rare but has been seen at other sites in the region," Holanda said. "We also found fragments with applied layers of clay on the exterior and painted red bands, though it is not yet possible to link these to any known ceramic styles."

Related: Why are there no bridges over the Amazon River?

Archaeologists already know that funerals involving urns generally included multiple stages, she added.

"After death, the body was left in a basket in the river so that fish would consume the soft tissues, or it was buried in the ground," Holanda said. "Afterwards, the disarticulated [jumbled] bones were cremated and placed inside funerary urns, which symbolized a new body, a new skin. Finally, many Amazonian cultures buried these pots beneath their homes."

Excavations were supported by community residents who notified archaeologists. (Image credit: Márcio Amaral)

Archaeology in the Amazon rainforest

The month-long fieldwork was planned in coordination with residents of the nearby community of São Lázaro do Arumandubinha, who first alerted researchers to the finding.

"This was a community-driven demand, which understood the historical importance of these objects," Márcio Amaral, an archaeologist at IDSM who co-led the excavation, told Live Science. The São Lázaro do Arumandubinha community advised the excavators when to avoid seasonal river flooding, since the archaeological site, called Lago do Cochila (or Cochila Lake), lies in a flooded zone with no access to firm ground.

To reach this remote area of the Brazilian Amazon, the research team traveled more than 24 hours by boat along the winding Amazon River from the institute's base in Tefé to the community, canoed 11 miles (18 kilometers) through flooded areas, and then walked for one hour through the forest along a trail the guides hacked out with machetes.

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Rosiele Kokama)

Excavation equipment and recovered artifacts were transported by canoe.

(Image credit: Geórgea Layla Holanda)

Researchers improvised scaffolding using wood and vines to carry out excavations in the Amazon rainforest.

Because of the difficult conditions where the urns lay, excavations were carried out on a platform raised 10 feet (3 m) above the ground, built with wood and vines by community members.

The funeral urns were buried about 15 inches (40 cm) deep on an artificial island built by ancestral Indigenous people. These people used earth to make this island as well as others in the region, primarily to protect the community from river floods, Amaral said.

Now that the excavation is done, the researchers plan to date the urns. They also have additional local reports of urns at other archaeological sites in the region, including on nearby artificial islands.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/indigenous-funeral-urns-discovered-on-human-made-islands-in-amazon-rainforest at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

PLANET EARTH

NEWS | SKYLER WARE | JUN 26, 2025, 7:11 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

'Pulsing, like a heartbeat': Rhythmic mantle plume rising beneath Ethiopia is creating a new ocean

Scientists have detected rhythmic pulses of molten rock rising beneath eastern Africa, threatening to pull the continent apart.

A pulsing mantle plume beneath Ethiopia is gradually forming a new ocean. (Image credit: Dr Derek Keir, University of Southampton/ University of Florence)

Rhythmic pulses of molten rock are rising beneath eastern Africa, according to a new study.

The pulsing plume of hot mantle beneath Ethiopia, driven by plate tectonics, is slowly pulling the region apart and forming a new ocean near the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, researchers reported June 25 in the journal Nature Geoscience.

"We have found that the evolution of deep mantle upwellings is intimately tied to the motion of the plates above," Derek Keir, an Earth scientist at the University of Southampton and the University of Florence, said in a statement. "This has profound implications for how we interpret surface volcanism, earthquake activity, and the process of continental breakup."

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The mantle plume lies under Ethiopia's Afar region, at the intersection of three tectonic plates. All of the rifts between these plates are different ages, and they are changing at different rates; some are in the process of forming new oceans, while others are pulling apart the crust beneath Africa. But the structure and motion of the plume, as well as the forces driving these movements, aren't well understood.

To investigate the structure of the crust and the mantle plume beneath it, the scientists studied the chemical compositions of more than 130 samples of volcanic rocks from the Afar region. These samples provided information about the depth and composition of melted rock beneath the surface. The team also used computer models to determine how the region might respond to different kinds of mantle plumes and compared those responses to existing geological data.

(Image credit: Dr Emma Watts, University of Southampton/ Swansea University)

A single mantle plume lies beneath all three rifts, the researchers found, but its chemical composition is not uniform. Further, the molten rock surges upward rhythmically, leaving behind distinct chemical signatures.

"The chemical striping suggests the plume is pulsing, like a heartbeat," Tom Gernon, an Earth scientist at the University of Southampton, said in the statement. "These pulses appear to behave differently depending on the thickness of the plate, and how fast it's pulling apart. In faster-spreading rifts like the Red Sea, the pulses travel more efficiently and regularly like a pulse through a narrow artery."

Varying spacing between the stripes in different rifts suggests that the mantle plume responds differently depending on the tectonic plates above. In places where the lithosphere — the crust and upper mantle — is thicker, the mantle flow is impeded, and the striping is more condensed. Under a thinner lithosphere, the stripes are more spread out.

The findings could help scientists understand volcanic activity at the surface. "The work shows that deep mantle upwellings can flow beneath the base of tectonic plates and help to focus volcanic activity to where the tectonic plate is thinnest," Keir said in the statement.

Future work in the Afar region could involve investigating the rate of mantle flow beneath the various plates, Keir added.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/pulsing-like-a-heartbeat-rhythmic-mantle-plume-rising-beneath-ethiopia-is-creating-a-new-ocean at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

SPACE > ASTRONOMY > BLACK HOLES

NEWS | ROBERT LEA | JUN 26, 2025, 7:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

This supermassive black hole is eating way too quickly — and 'burping' at near-light speeds

This content was originally published on Space.

Using the XMM-Newton telescope, astronomers have witnessed high-speed "burps" erupting from a distant overfeeding supermassive black hole.

(Main) An illustration of a feeding supermassive black hole "burping" jets of high-speed matter. (Inset) The XMM-Newton spacecraft. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA)

Astronomers have witnessed a distant supermassive black hole devouring its surrounding matter so rapidly that it is "burping" out excess mass at nearly a third of the speed of light.

The discovery was made when researchers studied the supermassive-black-hole-powered Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) of a Seyfert galaxy located about 1.2 billion light-years away. The black hole, designated PG1211+143, has a mass around 40 million times that of the sun and powers a bright quasar. This made it a prime target for astronomers seeking to understand how supermassive black holes grow by feeding on, or "accreting," matter.

The team examined the black hole using the European Space Agency (ESA) X-ray spacecraft XMM-Newton, finding an influx of matter equivalent to the mass of 10 Earths flowing to the object over a period of just five weeks.

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The matter falling around the black hole settles into a flattened cloud of gas and dust called an accretion disk, from which material is fed to the central black hole.

But even this monstrous black hole can't stomach so much matter, leading to some serious indigestion in the form of outflows travelling at around 0.27 times the speed of light.

That's about 181 million miles per hour, or 100,000 times the top speed of a Lockheed Martin F-16 jet fighter.

Related: Monster black hole M87 is spinning at 80% of the cosmic speed limit — and pulling in matter even faster

An illustration showing matter falling into and being blasted from around a supermassive black hole. (Image credit: Robert Lea (created with Canva))

These outflows followed the black hole's inflow of matter with a delay of a few days, heating matter around the AGN to temperatures of several million degrees. This generated radiation pressure that pushed excess matter away from the central region of PG1211+143.

Because stars form in galaxies from excesses of cold, dense gas, these high-speed outflows could be starving PG1211+143's surrounding space of the building blocks for new stars, both by heating gas and dust and by pushing that material away.

That means studying these high-speed outflows from this black hole could help scientists to discover how black hole eruptions transform galaxies from hubs of star birth to a more quiescent existence.

"Establishing the direct causal link between massive, transient inflow and the resulting outflow offers the fascinating prospect of watching a supermassive black hole grow by regular monitoring of the hot, relativistic winds associated with the accretion of new matter," team leader Ken Pounds from the University of Leicester said in a statement.

The team's research was published on June 10 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS).

This article was originally published on Space.com.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/black-holes/this-supermassive-black-hole-is-eating-way-too-quickly-and-burping-at-near-light-speeds at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

HEALTH > GENETICS

FEATURES | NICOLETTA LANESE | JUN 26, 2025, 6:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Harlequin ichthyosis: The rare genetic disease that gives babies hard 'scales'

The genetic disease harlequin ichthyosis affects the transport of fats within the skin, resulting in hard, scalelike plaques and an array of other symptoms.

Babies born with harlequin ichthyosis have very distinctive features, including platelike scales of skin with deep fissures between them. (Image credit: By J. Bland Sutton - A Case of General Seborrhœa or “Harlequin” Fœtus J. Bland Sutton Med Chir Trans. 1886; 69: 291–296.1. PMCID: 2121560, Public Domain, Link)

Disease name: Harlequin ichthyosis, also called ichthyosis fetalis and harlequin baby syndrome

Affected populations: This genetic condition affects an estimated 1 in 300,000 live births globally. In the United States, it's estimated to occur in about 1 in 500,000 births, or about seven births a year, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders. The condition seems to affect males and females in equal numbers and doesn't occur in greater frequency in any specific racial or ethnic group.

Causes: Harlequin ichthyosis is caused by a variety of mutations in a gene called ABCA12, which carries instructions for proteins that ship molecules across cell membranes. These proteins are key for transporting fats and enzymes in the outermost layer of the skin, known as the epidermis.

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Most people with harlequin ichthyosis carry a genetic mutation that causes cells to make ABCA12 proteins that are too short and thus unable to properly transport fats. In some cases, people can't make the protein at all, which results in the most severe cases of the disease.

Evidence suggests that the condition is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, meaning a baby must inherit two copies of the broken gene — one from each parent — to develop the disorder. People with only one mutant copy of the gene are "carriers" but do not show symptoms. People with a family history of the disorder can consider seeking genetic counseling to see if they're a carrier.

Symptoms: The transportation of fat molecules in the epidermis is important for keeping the skin hydrated, and it's also necessary for the skin to develop properly in the womb and after birth. When babies have ABCA12 proteins that are too short or totally absent, these infants are born with thick, platelike scales of skin, which cause the skin to be stretched very tightly.

The tight skin cracks easily, forming fissures. The tension pulls at the affected baby's eyelids and lips, turning them inside out, and it also constricts the movement of the chest, which impedes breathing and eating. Poor nail and hair growth are also common.

Babies with harlequin ichthyosis are often born prematurely, and they may also show additional symptoms and traits, such as a flat nose, abnormal hearing, ears that are fused to their head, swollen hands and feet, and decreased joint mobility.

The condition compromises the skin's protective barrier, leaving the infant vulnerable to dehydration and unable to regulate their temperature or fight infections well. For infants that survive the newborn period, the "armor-like" plates eventually shed and the remaining skin is very red, dry and scaly.

Infants with harlequin ichthyosis often don't survive the newborn period, but with intensive medical care, it's possible for them to survive to later infancy, childhood and even early adulthood, in some cases. A report that reviewed 45 cases of the disease found that about 55% of the patients survived the newborn period, with survivors ranging from 10 months to 25 years old at the time of survey. Common causes of death in the period shortly after birth included respiratory failure and/or sepsis, a dangerous body-wide immune response.

Treatments: There is no cure for harlequin ichthyosis, so care aims to manage the symptoms of the disease.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, babies with the condition are cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) immediately after birth. There, they can be placed in high-humidity incubators to help regulate their temperature and skin hydration. They're also bathed often to soften and loosen the skin plaques, and exfoliating techniques might be used to help remove the scales. Moisturizers and skin barrier repair formulas can also help with the excessive skin dryness and stiffness. Various pain relievers can help make newborns more comfortable.

In severe cases, medications called retinoids may be used and are typically given orally. These drugs help to break down the thick, platelike scales covering the skin, which, in turn, may reduce other symptoms of the condition. However, these medications are conserved for severe cases because they can have toxic side effects if used over the long term.

Antibiotics may be needed to prevent or counter skin infections. The eyes should also be lubricated regularly, as infants with the condition cannot close their eyelids properly.

Once discharged from the NICU, children with harlequin ichthyosis require ongoing skin care, as well as lifelong medical care to manage additional symptoms that may emerge due to their condition. This care usually requires a diverse team of medical specialists, including ophthalmologists, plastic surgeons, nutritionists, physical and occupational therapists, and speech and language therapists.

Disclaimer

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/health/genetics/harlequin-ichthyosis-the-rare-genetic-disease-that-gives-babies-hard-scales at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

PLANET EARTH > WEATHER

NEWS | PATRICK PESTER | JUN 26, 2025, 4:41 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Thunderstorm 'Ring of fire' erupts around 'heat dome' and Tropical Storm Andrea named in the Atlantic

The "heat dome" hovering over the eastern half of the U.S. now has a thunderstorm "ring of fire" erupting along its edge. Meanwhile, in the Atlantic, the first tropical storm of the season has been named.

Forecasters have warned of thunderstorms around the edge of the heat dome, including in Colorado (pictured here during a previous storm). (Image credit: Milehightraveler via Getty Images)

A thunderstorm "ring of fire" has erupted along the edge of the massive "heat dome" currently smothering much of the eastern half of the United States. And if that wasn't enough wild weather, the first named tropical storm of the season has also emerged — and already fizzled out — in the Atlantic.

The heat dome is being caused by an area of high pressure in the atmosphere that has trapped warm air beneath it, like a giant lid on a pot. The dome has been contributing to sweltering temperatures in the Central and Eastern U.S. since the end of last week, even raising temperatures in New York City to 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius), a height not seen since 2013, The Associated Press reported.

Clouds have difficulty forming inside a heat dome, where most of the air is warm, but it's a different story on the dome's edges, where the air is cooler, according to AccuWeather. A chain of thunderstorms, or ring of fire, often rides the edge of a massive heat dome, and that's proven to be the case this time.

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"AccuWeather expert meteorologists are monitoring an arc of severe thunderstorms stretching 2,200 miles [3,500 kilometers] from northern Mexico to New England and southeastern Canada this week along the western and northern edges of the heat dome," representatives for AccuWeather wrote in a statement released Tuesday (June 24).

A "ring of fire" is what meteorologists call thunderstorms and heavy rain riding the rim of a high-pressure ridge, but given that this weather is marked by extensive rain that can produce flooding, the name is a little confusing. There's also a chain of volcanoes around the Pacific Ocean with the same name.

Related: In 2025, Tornado Alley has become almost everything east of the Rockies — and it's been a violent year

The heat dome is forecast to weaken in the second half of this week. However, the National Weather Service (NWS) has warned that "extremely dangerous" heat will nonetheless continue throughout that time, affecting areas from the Midwest to the East Coast. The heat won't completely subside by the weekend, either, but it will ease a bit in large parts of the eastern U.S., according to the NWS.

Heat waves have become more common and intense with climate change. The frequency of atmospheric patterns linked to extreme summer weather, including heat domes and flooding, has nearly tripled since the 1950s, according to a study published June 16 in the journal PNAS.

Storm Andrea

While many U.S. states have been experiencing sweltering heat, the first named tropical storm of the season emerged in the Atlantic. Tropical Storm Andrea, also called Tropical Cyclone Andrea, formed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday (June 24), but posed "no threat to land," according to the National Hurricane Center.

The storm sustained winds of more than 39 miles per hour (63 kilometers per hour), meeting the threshold to be a named tropical storm. However, the storm quickly weakened, The Associated Press reported.

Before dissipating, Andrea never grew strong enough to become a hurricane, which have maximum sustained wind speeds of at least 74 mph (119 km/h)

Researchers have found that the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season could be more severe than normal. The season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, has a 60% chance of "above-normal" activity, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Climate models predict that hurricanes will become more intense as the planet warms up.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/weather/wild-weather-ring-of-fire-thunderstorms-loom-around-heat-dome-as-seasons-first-tropical-storm-andrea-named-in-the-atlantic at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

June 25, 2025

- 'God-king' born from incest in ancient Ireland wasn't a god or a king, new study finds

- Mysterious 'rogue' objects discovered by James Webb telescope may not actually exist, new simulations hint

- 40,000-year-old mammoth tusk boomerang is oldest in Europe — and possibly the world

- James Webb telescope discovers its first planet — a Saturn-size 'shepherd' still glowing red hot from its formation

- Fungus that may have caused 'King Tut's curse' shows promise in treating cancer

- Scientists forge path to the first million-qubit processor for quantum computers after 'decade in the making' breakthrough

- Zombie NASA satellite emits powerful radio pulse after 60 years of silence

- Scientists invent photosynthetic 'living' material that sucks CO2 out of the atmosphere

- Sun 'hole' expected to produce intense auroras tonight, potentially visible from 15 US states

- Where do atoms come from? A physicist explains.

- 'She is the only person in the world compatible with herself' — scientists discover new blood type but it's unique to just one person from Guadeloupe

- 'A first in applied physics': Breakthrough quantum computer could consume 2,000 times less power than a supercomputer and solve problems 200 times faster

- Diagnostic dilemma: A man was stabbed through the throat and the base of the skull — by a fish

ARCHAEOLOGY

NEWS | KRISTINA KILLGROVE | JUN 25, 2025, 5:02 PM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

'God-king' born from incest in ancient Ireland wasn't a god or a king, new study finds

A closer look at the burial of a man born of incest 5,000 years ago reveals he was unlikely to have been a god-king.

Newgrange is a Neolithic passage tomb in eastern Ireland. (Image credit: Alamy)

The ancient DNA of a man buried in a monumental Stone Age tomb in Ireland revealed he was born of incest 5,000 years ago. But this fact doesn't mean he was a "god-king" as previously claimed, according to a new study.

"Nothing in the archaeological record from Neolithic Ireland indicates that 'kings' — or any sort of royal hierarchy — existed at the time," study lead author Jessica Smyth, an associate professor of archaeology at University College Dublin, told Live Science in an email. "It's a social category from a much later time period that's been inappropriately applied."

In a study published Tuesday (June 24) in the journal Antiquity, Smyth and colleagues presented a new interpretation of the fragmentary skeleton of a man buried at Newgrange, calling into question the assumption that his inbred parentage meant he was part of an elite dynasty.

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Built around 3100 B.C. in northeastern Ireland and rediscovered in 1699, Newgrange is a large tomb with an inner passageway that leads to a burial chamber. Skeletons discovered in the Newgrange mound were disarticulated, meaning there were no undisturbed burials of whole individuals but rather fragments of people whose remains were likely moved into the mound some time after death.

An analysis of ancient DNA from Newgrange skeletons was done in 2020, and researchers were surprised to find the skull bone of an adult male (NG10) whose parents were first-degree relatives — likely brother and sister. Because this kind of incest is nearly a universal human taboo, that research team searched across cultures for an explanation, settling on the idea that brother–sister marriage was sometimes seen as acceptable among royal families headed by "god-kings," such as in ancient Egypt and the Inca in Mesoamerica.

But calling NG10 a "god-king" because of his parentage and his placement in the Newgrange tomb is problematic, Smyth and colleagues wrote in the new study.

Related: Early Celtic elites inherited power through maternal lines, ancient DNA reveals

"What we're drawing attention to is the fact that incest is — so far — a unique occurrence in Neolithic Ireland and Britain," Smyth said, "and that claiming it represents a dynastic elite is an over-interpretation." In fact, there is very little evidence of social inequality in Neolithic Ireland (4000 to 2500 B.C.), according to the study.

The bones of NG10 were found in a small recess within the burial chamber but, Smyth and colleagues argue, this does not necessarily mean he was buried there or that it was a special location within the tomb.

"Given the disturbance inside of Newgrange over the past 300-plus years, we have no real way of knowing where that skull fragment originated from and if NG10's parentage was known to others or remained hidden," Smyth said.

In a previous study published in April, the same research team on the new paper argued that Newgrange and other megalithic monuments like it — while certainly impressive — were more likely to have been the resting place for a whole community rather than just a local dynasty.

Selection criteria for burial in Newgrange are not clear, Smyth said, as newborn infants and older people, men and women, and differently abled people are among those buried in the mound.

"It's safe to say that the final resting place of most people in the Neolithic was not in a megalithic monument," Smyth said, "but we're still figuring out why."

Stone Age quiz: What do you know about the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic?

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/god-king-born-from-incest-in-ancient-ireland-wasnt-a-god-or-a-king-new-study-finds at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

SPACE > ASTRONOMY

NEWS | ABHA JAIN | JUN 25, 2025, 3:04 PM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Mysterious 'rogue' objects discovered by James Webb telescope may not actually exist, new simulations hint

A new study lends support to the notion that JuMBOs (Jupiter-mass binary objects) discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope in 2023 may be fiction rather than fact.

The Orion Nebula Cluster is home to hundreds of stars and planets, including tens of free-floating planet pairs nicknamed JuMBOs. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA / Science leads and image processing: M. McCaughrean, S. Pearson)

Mysterious "rogue" pairs of Jupiter-size objects spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are a tiny fraction of those that originally formed, a new study suggests. The finding hints that these enigmatic entities, dubbed "JuMBOs," are even rarer than previously thought — and casts doubt on their very existence.

JuMBOs, short for "Jupiter-mass binary objects," are pairs of planet-like, Jupiter-size objects that JWST spotted in the trapezoid region of the Orion Nebula Cluster in 2023. Each JuMBO comprises two gas giants between 0.7 and 30 times Jupiter's mass. The members of a JuMBO don't orbit stars; instead, they twirl around each other at distances of approximately 25 to 400 astronomical units, making them free-floating or "rogue." (One astronomical unit is approximately 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers, the average distance between Earth and the sun.)

The objects' paired status and their apparent lack of tethering to any star have challenged existing notions of how planets are born. That hasn't stopped scientists from floating several ideas about JuMBO formation, including that they formed around a star, just like the solar system's planets, but were jointly lured away by another star. An alternate hypothesis is that JuMBOs are the eroded cores of embryonic stars, suggesting they formed like stars.

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However, some researchers are skeptical that JUMBOs even exist. For instance, in 2024, Kevin Luhman, a professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State, reanalyzed the JWST observations and suggested that the purported pairs aren't planets after all. Instead, he proposed that they're distant background objects that had been serendipitously captured in JWST's snapshots of the Orion Nebula Cluster.

In fact, Richard Parker, a senior lecturer in astrophysics at the University of Sheffield in the U.K. and the lead author of the new study, told Live Science via email that it was a discussion about Luhman's work that prompted the new study. During this group meeting, Simon Goodwin, a professor of theoretical astrophysics at the University of Sheffield and the new study's second author, suggested that simulations could help identify how susceptible JUMBOs are to destruction. Indeed, no previous research had examined how long these planetary pairs persist in interstellar space. Such environments are packed with growing stars that could fragment the duos via their powerful gravitational pulls.

Related: Not 'Little Red Dots' or roaring quasars: James Webb telescope uncovers new kind of 'hidden' black hole never seen before

To figure out how effectively JuMBOs tolerated the turbulence of their birth environment, Parker, Goodwin and Jessica Diamond, an integrated Masters student at the University of Sheffield, created a computer model of a nebula containing a mixture of stars and JuMBOs that totaled 1,500 components, in an arrangement that likely mimicked the Orion Nebula Cloud's original composition, Parker explained.

The researchers then generated five copies of this model that differed in various internal parameters, such as the distance between members of a given planetary duo and how crowded the nebula was overall. For each model copy, the team conducted 10 rounds of N-body simulations.

"These computer simulations calculate the force due to gravity on each object from all of the other objects,” Parker said, adding that such calculations, performed repeatedly, can reveal how different components of the model nebula interact over time.

The researchers found that the simulated JuMBOs were extremely ephemeral. In a dense nebula, for instance, nearly 90% of the planet pairs were destroyed by neighboring stars within a million years. Even in the best-case scenario — when there were fewer stars overall in the nebula and the JuMBOs waltzed in tighter orbits — only half of the planet pairs resisted any disruption. The analyses also revealed that the more widely separated a planet pair was, the more likely it would get disrupted.

Parker said that since he and his colleagues had previously found that star-planet systems are very fragile in environments chock-full of stars, he wasn't particularly surprised by the findings, noting that "[b]ecause the planet-planet binaries are less massive, they have a lower energy and are even more susceptible to destruction."

The results, published May 2 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, show that the observed JuMBOs are extremely rare. But Parker said this hints at the same disturbing possibility proposed by Luhman: that they don't really exist. That's because, to explain the JWST-detected JuMBO numbers, the planet pairs would have had to have been produced in much larger numbers than currently thought. According to Parker, this result likely adds support to the interpretation of JuMBOs as background noise.

"I think the next steps are for someone else to take the original JWST data and to analyse it again," he added.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/mysterious-rogue-objects-discovered-by-james-webb-telescope-may-not-actually-exist-new-simulations-hint at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

ARCHAEOLOGY

NEWS | KRISTINA KILLGROVE | JUN 25, 2025, 2:00 PM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

40,000-year-old mammoth tusk boomerang is oldest in Europe — and possibly the world

A new analysis of a carved mammoth tusk first discovered four decades ago reveals it may be the world's oldest boomerang.

Two views of a boomerang made out of mammoth ivory that was discovered in Obłazowa Cave in Poland. (Image credit: Talamo et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0)

An unusual mammoth tusk boomerang discovered in a cave in Poland is 40,000 years old — making it Europe's first example of this complex tool and possibly the oldest boomerang in the world, a new study finds.

"The ivory object has all the features of boomerangs used by Aborigines in Queensland today," study co-author Paweł Valde-Nowak, an archaeologist at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, told Live Science in an email. "Its arched shape, flat-convex cross-section and dimensions match the Queensland boomerangs that do not return to the thrower," he said.

The new study, published Wednesday (June 25) in the journal PLOS One, shows that curved throwing tools were invented in Europe far earlier than expected.

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The crescent-shaped artifact — which is about 28 inches (72 centimeters) long — was found in Obłazowa Cave in southern Poland 40 years ago along with human bones, pendants made from fox fangs, and stone blade tools, all covered with red ocher. Valde-Nowak and colleagues published their original findings in the journal Nature in 1987, suggesting the cave was used off and on by Neanderthals and early humans during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic periods (300,000 to 12,000 years ago).

The Upper Paleolithic (50,000 to 12,000 years ago) is a key period in human history, as humans invented new forms of tools, cave art and personal decoration. And at Obłazowa Cave, Valde-Nowak saw a clear difference between the ocher-covered finds and earlier artifacts at the same site.

"In my opinion, this is absolutely clear evidence of behaviors unknown to us, practices of early Homo sapiens, which contrast sharply with everything we found in the deeper cultural layers in Obłazowa, layers left by Neanderthals," Valde-Nowak said.

Related: This man was killed by brutal boomerang blow 800 years ago

To better understand the chronology of the Obłazowa Cave, in 1996 the researchers performed a carbon-14 analysis on organic remains discovered in the cave, including the ivory boomerang. However, at 18,000 years old, the boomerang was "unexpectedly young," raising concerns that the results had been skewed by contamination from adhesives or conservation material, the researchers wrote in the new study.

Evidence of classic Aboriginal boomerangs and throwing sticks dates back at least 20,000 years, according to the National Museum of Australia. These boomerangs are multi-use tools, often used for hunting, fighting or digging. But people around the world have fashioned throwing sticks, including one very early example from northern Germany dating back 300,000 years.

In the new analysis of finds from Obłazowa Cave, the researchers undertook DNA and radiocarbon analyses of a human finger bone from the boomerang layer and determined that the person was a modern human who lived at least 31,000 years ago. The researchers also analyzed a dozen animal bones, but not the boomerang itself, "to avoid further damage to this highly significant artifact," they wrote in the study.

A cluster of animal bones found in the same layer as the boomerang all dated to around 41,500 years ago. Given this series of radiocarbon dates and the depths of the bones within the layer, the researchers created a statistical model for the date of the boomerang, finding that it was definitely made more than 35,000 years ago and that it was most likely carved between 42,365 and 39,355 years ago.

"Our analysis on the boomerang found at the Obłazowa site has yielded groundbreaking insights into its age," the researchers wrote, positioning the boomerang "as potentially one of the oldest specimens in Europe, and possibly globally, thereby shedding light on both technical skills and cognitive advancements of Homo sapiens in crafting these complex tools."

Stone Age quiz: What do you know about the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic?

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/40-000-year-old-mammoth-tusk-boomerang-is-oldest-in-europe-and-possibly-the-world at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

SPACE > ASTRONOMY > PLANETS > EXOPLANETS

NEWS | BEN TURNER | JUN 25, 2025, 11:45 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

James Webb telescope discovers its first planet — a Saturn-size 'shepherd' still glowing red hot from its formation

Nestled inside a planetary ring 110 light-years from Earth, a planet spotted by the James Webb telescope is the lightest exoplanet ever detected.

Image of the disk surrounding the star TWA 7 recorded using ESO’s Very Large Telescope’s SPHERE instrument. The image captured with JWST’s MIRI instrument is overlayed. (Image credit: JWST/ESO/Lagrange)

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured its first direct image of a planet in a remote solar system, and it's lighter than any seen before.

The planet, named TWA 7b, is a gas giant with a size comparable to Saturn's. Orbiting a star just over 6 million years old, the planet is still glowing hot from its formation.

The planet is the first observation of hypothesized yet previously unseen "shepherd" planets, which clear gaps of material found inside planetary rings. The researchers behind the discovery published their findings June 25 in the journal Nature.

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"It tells us that indeed, planets can form gaps in disks (which was theorised, but not observed) and trojan-like structures can indeed be present in exoplanetary systems," lead study author Anne-Marie Lagrange, an astronomer and research director at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris, told Live Science.

"It is the first time that such a light planet is imaged, ten times lighter than the lightest [previously known] planet," she said. "This is thanks to the extreme sensitivity of JWST in the thermal domain."

Astronomers study exoplanets because they help them to understand how planetary systems, such as our own, form. Yet while thousands have been seen indirectly — through the dimming of host stars as they pass in front of them or the wobble the planets' gravitational tugs give them — the light bouncing off exoplanets is usually drowned out by the light from the star, making them effectively invisible.

Related: 'Eyeball' planet spied by James Webb telescope might be habitable

To peer through this glare, JWST uses a coronagraph attached to its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI); this device blocks out a star's light and makes it easier to spot objects orbiting around it. To further boost the effectiveness of this search, astronomers select young stars whose planetary disks are pole-on to the telescope, enabling them to “look down” over star systems whose satellites are still glowing hot from their formation.

The system containing TWA 7b, called TWA 7, is 110 light-years from Earth and contains three concentric rings of rocky debris and dust, one of which was narrow and flanked by two empty bands of space. Within the heart of this narrow ring, the scientists found a hole containing a source of infrared-radiation.

Follow-up simulations suggested that this radiation source is a planet roughly 30% the size of Jupiter that's orbiting its star at 52 times the distance that Earth orbits the sun. Its presence in a gap inside the planetary ring is also intriguing; while observations of holes in the discs surrounding stars have been made before in other systems, this is the first clear detection of the shepherd planets believed to create them.

To further investigate the new system and others like it, Lagrange said that she and her colleagues will obtain "more data to study TWA7 b atmosphere, to search for other light, cold young planets in imaging" and "to search for cold old massive planets."

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/exoplanets/james-webb-telescope-discovers-its-first-planet-a-saturn-size-shepherd-still-glowing-red-hot-from-its-formation at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

HEALTH

NEWS | LYDIA SMITH | JUN 25, 2025, 11:11 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Fungus that may have caused 'King Tut's curse' shows promise in treating cancer

Scientists have found that a deadly tomb fungus called Aspergillus flavus may hold the key to promising new treatments for leukemia.

A sample of Aspergillus flavus, the fungus thought to have been responsible for 'the mummy's curse.' (Image credit: Bella Ciervo (CC BY-SA))

A toxic fungus, once thought to have caused fatal lung infections in tomb explorers, may hold the key to powerful new cancer treatments, new research suggests.

Within months of the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922, the earl who had financed the excavation and visited the "wonderful" burial site died, leading many to believe the mummy had cursed those who entered the tomb. In the 1970s, 10 of the 12 archaeologists excavating the 15th-century crypt of King Casimir IV in Poland also met a similar fate.

Analysis of Casimir's tomb revealed the presence of a fungus called Aspergillus flavus, the toxins of which are known to cause a deadly lung infection.

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Now, the same fungus has shown promise as a treatment for leukaemia, according to a new study published in Nature Chemical Biology. The researcher team identified and engineered a class of molecules within the fungus, called asperigimycins, that kill leukemia cells in a laboratory setting.

"This is nature's irony at its finest," study senior author Sherry Gao, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. "The same fungus once feared for bringing death may now help save lives."

Aspergillus flavus produces spores that are able to lie dormant for centuries — including inside sealed tombs. When disturbed, the fungus can cause deadly respiratory infections, particularly in people with weakened immune systems.

Related: College student discovers psychedelic fungus that eluded LSD inventor

In their new study, the scientists examined the unique chemical compounds produced by the fungus and discovered a class of natural compounds called RiPPs (ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides). These molecules are difficult to isolate and rarely seen in fungi, but they hold therapeutic promise due to their complex structures and bioactivity. This means they have intricate, unique shapes that can interact with biological systems in powerful ways, such as killing cancer cells.

"We found four novel asperigimycins with an unusual interlocking ring structure," lead author Qiuyue Nie, a researcher in chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, said in the statement. "Two of them had strong anti-leukemia properties even without modification."

To enhance the drugs' effectiveness, the researchers attached lipid molecules similar to those found in royal jelly, the nutrient-rich substance that sustains queen bees. This enabled the drugs to enter cancer cells more efficiently, because lipids help drugs cross cellular membranes, which are made largely of fats themselves.

Further analysis revealed how a gene called SLC46A3 acts as a kind of molecular gateway, helping the drug escape cellular compartments and target leukemia cells directly. This discovery could aid in the delivery of other promising but hard-to-administer drugs in the future.

Unlike broad-spectrum chemotherapy agents that can damage healthy cells, asperigimycins appear to specifically disrupt leukemia cell division without affecting healthy tissues. Early tests also suggest the compounds have minimal effects on breast, liver, and lung cancer cells. According to the researchers, this selectivity is important for minimizing unwanted side effects.

In addition to asperigimycins, the team believe similar life-saving compounds may be hidden in other fungal species.

The team are planning to test asperigimycins in animal models, with the eventual goal of launching human clinical trials. And by scanning fungal genomes and exploring more strains of Aspergillus, they hope to unlock new treatments.

"The ancient world is still offering us tools for modern medicine," said Gao. "The tombs were feared for their curses, but they may become a wellspring of cures."

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/health/fungus-that-may-have-caused-king-tuts-curse-shows-promise-in-treating-cancer at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

COMPUTING

NEWS | OWEN HUGHES | JUN 25, 2025, 11:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Scientists forge path to the first million-qubit processor for quantum computers after 'decade in the making' breakthrough

Scientists in Australia have developed a quantum control chip that removes a key obstacle to getting qubits into practical, real-world computing systems.

(Image credit: University of Sydney)

Scientists have developed a new type of computer chip that removes a major obstacle to practical quantum computers, making it possible for the first time to place millions of qubits and their control systems on the same device.

The new control chip operates at cryogenic temperatures close to absolute zero (about minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius) and, crucially, can be placed close to qubits without disrupting their quantum state.

"This result has been more than a decade in the making, building up the know-how to design electronic systems that dissipate tiny amounts of power and operate near absolute zero," lead researcher David Reilly, professor at the University of Sydney Nano Institute and School of Physics, said in a statement.

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The scientists described the result as a "vital proof of principle" for integrating quantum and classical components in the same chip — a major step toward the kind of practical, scalable processors needed to make quantum computing a reality. The researchers published their findings June 25 in the journal Nature.

Qubits are the quantum equivalent of binary bits found in today's classical computers. However, where a classical bit can represent either 0 or 1, a qubit can exist in a "superposition" of both states. This enables quantum computers to perform multiple calculations in parallel, making them capable of solving problems far beyond the reach of today's computers.

Related: Quantum computers that are actually useful 1 step closer thanks to new silicon processor that could pack millions of qubits

Spin qubits, a type of qubit that encodes information in the spin state of an electron, have piqued the interest of scientists because they can be built using complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology.

This is the same process used to fabricate the chips found inside modern smartphones and PCs. In theory, this makes spin qubits much easier to produce at scale as it slips into normal manufacturing methods.

Other quantum computers use different types of qubits, including superconducting, photonic or trapped-ion qubits. But unlike these other types, spin qubits can be made on a massive scale using existing equipment.

However, spin qubits need to be kept at temperatures below 1 kelvin (just above absolute zero) to preserve "coherence." This is a qubit’s ability to maintain superposition and entanglement over time, and what is needed to unlock the parallel processing power that makes quantum computing so promising. Spin qubits also need electronic equipment to measure and control their activity.

"This will take us from the realm of quantum computers being fascinating laboratory machines to the stage where we can start discovering the real-world problems that these devices can solve for humanity," Reilly added.

The road to a single million-qubit chip

Integrating the electronics required to control and measure spin qubits has long posed a challenge, as even small amounts of heat or electrical interference can disrupt the qubits' fragile quantum state.

But this new, custom CMOS chip is designed to operate in cryogenic environments and at ultra-low power levels, meaning it can be integrated onto a chip alongside qubits without introducing thermal or electrical noise that would otherwise interrupt coherence.

In tests, the researchers ran single-gate and two-qubit gate operations with the control chip positioned less than 1 millimeter (0.04 inches) from the qubits. The control chip introduced no measurable electrical noise and caused no drop in accuracy, stability or coherence, the researchers said.

Additionally, the control chip consumed just 10 microwatts (0.00001 watts) of power in total, with the analogue components — used to control the qubits with electrical pulses — using 20 nanowatts (0.00000002 watts) per megahertz.

"This validates the hope that indeed qubits can be controlled at scale by integrating complex electronics at cryogenic temperatures," Reilly said.

"This will take us from the realm of quantum computers being fascinating laboratory machines to the stage where we can start discovering the real-world problems that these devices can solve for humanity," he added.

"We see many further diverse uses for this technology, spanning near-term sensing systems to the data centres of the future."

The findings could prompt more researchers to explore the power of spin qubits.

"Now that we have shown that milli-kelvin control does not degrade the performance of single- and two-qubit quantum gates, we expect many will follow our lead," study co-author Kushal Das, senior hardware engineer at Emergence Quantum and a researcher at the University of Sydney who designed the chip, said in the statement.

"Fortunately for us, this is not so easy but requires years to build up the know-how and expertise to design low-noise cryogenic electronics that need only tiny amounts of power."

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/technology/computing/this-result-has-been-more-than-a-decade-in-the-making-millions-of-qubits-on-a-single-chip-now-possible-after-cryogenic-breakthrough at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

SPACE > SPACE EXPLORATION

NEWS | SASCHA PARE | JUN 25, 2025, 10:46 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Zombie NASA satellite emits powerful radio pulse after 60 years of silence

Last year, astronomers detected a powerful burst of radio waves from within our galaxy. Researchers now say it came from NASA's defunct Relay 2 satellite — but they're not sure what caused it.

A reconstruction of NASA's Relay 2 satellite, which launched in 1964. (Image credit: NASA)

Last year, scientists detected a mysterious, powerful burst of radio waves originating from within our galaxy. Now, astronomers think it was caused by a long-dead NASA satellite — but they're not sure how it happened.

Relay 2 blasted off in 1964, but the communication satellite went offline in 1967 after its two onboard transponders failed. Almost 60 years later, in June 2024, the satellite produced an unexpected signal, the researchers said in a new preprint study, which was posted June 13 to the server arXiv and has not yet been peer reviewed.

"This was an incredibly powerful radio pulse that vastly outshone everything else in the sky for a very short amount of time," study lead author Clancy James, an associate professor at Curtin University's Institute of Radio Astronomy in Australia, told New Scientist.

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The pulse lasted just 30 nanoseconds, which doesn't match any of the dead satellite's systems — ruling out the possibility of a deliberate transmission, according to the preprint. Instead, James and his colleagues think that either a micrometeorite impact or a buildup of electricity triggered the burst of radio waves.

The researchers detected the strange pulse while scanning the sky for radio bursts with the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) — a radio telescope in Western Australia comprising 36 identical dish antennae. Radio bursts are intense blasts of radio waves that can unleash as much energy within a fraction of a second as the sun emits in three days. They usually come from distant galaxies, and in particular from rare, massive galaxies, according to a 2024 Nature article.

But the signal James and his colleagues intercepted in June 2024 did not come from a far-flung galaxy; it originated in the Milky Way. The pulse started so close to Earth that ASKAP couldn't focus on it, in the same way that a phone camera sometimes struggles to focus on nearby objects.

Related: Can we refuel 'dead' satellites in space? Bold new missions aim to try.

"We got all excited, thinking maybe we'd discovered a new pulsar or some other object," James told New Scientist.

However, when the researchers traced the origin of the radio pulse, they determined that Relay 2 was the only plausible source. Having ruled out the possibility that the pulse came from systems onboard the satellite, the team suggested two alternative events that could have created such a burst.

First, the satellite may have been hit by a micrometeorite, the researchers said in the preprint. Impacts may generate clouds of plasma that can increase the conductivity of the space environment or create an electric field on the surface of a spacecraft. "Micrometeoroid impacts can also produce direct radio-frequency emission," the team wrote.

But a more likely scenario is that the radio burst originated from an electrostatic discharge event on Relay 2, the researchers said. Electrostatic discharge (ESD) occurs when there is a sudden flow of electricity between two nearby surfaces or materials on a spacecraft that have different electric charges.

"As a very early spacecraft, Relay 2 may have been constructed from materials [...] capable of holding greater charge and hence producing stronger ESD events," the researchers wrote. "It has long been known that ESD causes radio frequency pulses," they added.

Either scenario is possible, but it would be very difficult to establish which one applied in this case, Karen Aplin, a professor of space science and technology at the University of Bristol in the U.K. who was not involved in the study, told New Scientist. That's because the signals produced by both would look so similar, she said.

But the research is a good launchpad for future investigations of electrostatic discharge from satellites, Aplin said. "In a world where there is a lot of space debris and there are more small, low-cost satellites with limited protection from electrostatic discharges, this radio detection may ultimately offer a new technique to evaluate electrostatic discharges in space," she said.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/zombie-nasa-satellite-emits-powerful-radio-pulse-after-60-years-of-silence at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

ENGINEERING

NEWS | SASCHA PARE | JUN 25, 2025, 10:26 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Scientists invent photosynthetic 'living' material that sucks CO2 out of the atmosphere

Scientists have developed a material with photosynthetic bacteria that convert carbon dioxide into a mineral skeleton. The material hardens over time, so it could be used for buildings, they say.

Scientists have developed a new "living" material. The left images shows a 3D-printed "pineapple" with blue-green algae growing inside it. The right image shows a similar object but in the shape of a cube. (Image credit: Yifan Cui & Dalia Dranseike / ETH Zürich)

Scientists in Switzerland have created a new "living" material that contains blue-green algae and could one day be used in buildings to fight climate change, they say.

Thanks to the blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, the new material is photosynthetic. This means it can chemically convert carbon dioxide (CO_2), sunlight and water into oxygen and sugars, which promote growth.

In the presence of certain nutrients, the material can also convert CO_2 into solid carbonate minerals, such as limestone, the researchers said in a new study, published April 23 in the journal Nature Communications. Over time, these minerals build a robust lattice inside the material that strengthens it and stores carbon in a more stable form than photosynthesis does.

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"The material can store carbon not only in biomass, but also in the form of minerals — a special property of these cyanobacteria," study co-author Mark Tibbitt, an associate professor of macromolecular engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, said in a statement. "As a building material, it could help to store CO_2 directly in buildings in the future."

Without the ability to sequester carbon in mineral form, the new material would be floppy and jelly-like. But by producing a mineral skeleton with CO_2 and nutrients, the material gradually enhances its own mechanical strength, making it a good candidate for construction, according to the study.

The researchers suggest the material could one day be used as a coating on building facades to suck CO_2 directly out of the atmosphere. In the study, the material continuously sequestered CO_2 for 400 consecutive days, storing approximately 26 milligrams of CO_2 per gram of material in the form of carbonate precipitates. This rate is highly efficient and significantly higher than other forms of biological CO_2 sequestration, the researchers said.

Related: New wonder material designed by AI is as light as foam but as strong as steel

The new material developed over time, growing more rigid and greener over the 400-day study period thanks to photosynthesis and mineralization. (Image credit: Yifan Cui / ETH Zürich)

The material's increasingly vibrant green color is evidence that it stores CO_2 in the form of biomass. But cyanobacteria can only grow so much, and the rate at which carbon was stored inside the bacterial cells leveled out after about 30 days, according to the study. This means that carbon sequestration in the form of biomass decreases beyond this timeframe, but it doesn't stop.

The base of the new material is a 3D printable hydrogel — a gel with a high water content made of cross-linked molecules. The researchers selected a porous hydrogel and grew cyanobacteria inside it, ensuring that enough light, water and CO_2 could penetrate the gel to reach the bacteria. The scientists then tested different shapes of hydrogel to determine the best geometry for cyanobacteria survival.

"Cyanobacteria are among the oldest life forms in the world," study co-author Yifan Cui, a doctoral student in macromolecular engineering at ETH Zurich, said in the statement. "They are highly efficient at photosynthesis and can utilize even the weakest light to produce biomass from CO_2 and water."

The scientists have already incorporated their material into architectural designs, such as these tree trunk-like objects. (Image credit: Valentina Mori / Biennale di Venezia)

In the study, the researchers bathed the hydrogels in artificial seawater to supply the necessary nutrients for mineral precipitation. Further research is needed to determine how those nutrients, which include calcium and magnesium, could be injected into the material if it was coating a building.

In the meantime, the researchers are dreaming up different shapes that the material could take. At an architecture exhibition in Venice, the team presented their material in the form of two tree trunk-like objects that could each absorb up to 40 pounds (18 kilograms) of CO_2 per year — or as much as a 20-year-old pine tree, according to the statement.

It might be possible to genetically engineer cyanobacteria to increase their photosynthetic rates before embedding them in the material, the researchers noted in the study.

"We see our living material as a low-energy and environmentally friendly approach that can bind CO_2 from the atmosphere and complement existing chemical processes for carbon sequestration," Tibbitt said.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/technology/engineering/scientists-invent-photosynthetic-living-material-that-sucks-co2-out-of-the-atmosphere at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

SPACE > ASTRONOMY > THE SUN

NEWS | PATRICK PESTER | JUN 25, 2025, 9:24 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Sun 'hole' expected to produce intense auroras tonight, potentially visible from 15 US states

A coronal hole in the sun could result in visible auroras over about 15 U.S. states tonight (June 25), with the Space Weather Prediction Center expecting a moderate geomagnetic storm.

Intense auroras are expected across northern North America, and may be visible in about 15 U.S. states. (Image credit: Joel Askey / 500px via Getty Images)

A "hole" in the sun is sending a high-speed stream of charged particles toward our planet, which could make dancing auroras visible from about 15 U.S. states tonight (June 25).

The auroras are predicted to be most intense over Alaska and Canada, but they could potentially also be seen across the north of the contiguous U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center.

"The aurora may become visible over some northern and upper Midwest states from New York to Idaho," representatives for the Space Weather Prediction Center wrote in an update.

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If skywaters are treated to a northern lights display tonight, it will be thanks to a coronal hole in the sun's atmosphere. These less-dense areas of the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, enable streams of charged particles, or solar wind, to escape into space at high speeds. When these high-speed streams collide with Earth, they can increase geomagnetic activity, which produces auroras.

The Space Weather Prediction Center is anticipating that the coronal hole streams will trigger a moderate (G2) geomagnetic storm. The geomagnetic storm scale ranges from G1 to G5, with G5 being the most severe. Storms of a G2 magnitude aren't rare but can produce strong auroras.

The U.K.'s Met Office has forecast minor to moderate (G1 to G2) geomagnetic storms on Wednesday, though it noted that a strong G3 storm can't be ruled out.

Related: 32 stunning photos of auroras seen from space

Why do auroras appear?

Auroras occur in the sky when charged particles from the sun hit Earth's upper atmosphere, colliding with oxygen and nitrogen particles. These particles then glow different colors as they shed energy from the collision, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Oxygen gives off the greens and reds in the auroras, while nitrogen gives off the blue and purple colored light, according to NASA.

The auroras are expected to form above Alaska and Canada, with the light show's southern extent just grazing the northern edge of the contiguous U.S. However, auroras don't have to be directly overhead for people to see them and can be observed from as far as 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) away, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.

People living in states within the red view line may see auroras. (Image credit: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center)

Auroras are typically best viewed just after sunset or just before sunrise. However, they are tricky to predict, and there's no guarantee that people living in northern states will be able to see anything on the northern horizon.

Geomagnetic activity is expected to drop after tonight, with a minor G1 storm forecast for Thursday (June 26), according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/the-sun/sun-hole-expected-to-produce-intense-auroras-tonight-potentially-visible-from-15-us-states at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

PHYSICS & MATHEMATICS

FEATURES | STEPHEN L. LEVY | JUN 25, 2025, 8:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Where do atoms come from? A physicist explains.

Almost everything on Earth is made up of atoms, but where do these fundamental building blocks come from?

Many heavy atoms form from a supernova explosion, the remnants of which are shown in this image. (Image credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team)

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you'd like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

How do atoms form? —Joshua, age 7, Shoreview, Minnesota

Richard Feynman, a famous theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize, said that if he could pass on only one piece of scientific information to future generations, it would be that all things are made of atoms.

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Understanding how atoms form is a fundamental and important question, since they make up everything with mass.

The question of where atoms comes from requires a lot of physics to be answered completely — and even then, physicists only have good guesses to explain how some atoms are formed.

What is an atom?

An atom consists of a heavy center, called the nucleus, made of particles called protons and neutrons. An atom has lighter particles called electrons that you can think of as orbiting around the nucleus.

The electrons each carry one unit of negative charge, the protons each carry one unit of positive charge, and the neutrons have no charge. An atom has the same number of protons as electrons, so it is neutral − it has no overall charge.

An atom consists of positively charged protons, neutrally charged neutrons and negatively charged electrons. (Image credit: AG Caesar/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA)

Now, most of the atoms in the universe are the two simplest kinds: hydrogen, which has one proton, zero neutrons and one electron; and helium, which has two protons, two neutrons and two electrons. Of course, on Earth there are lots of atoms besides these that are just as common, such as carbon and oxygen, but I'll talk about those soon.

An element is what scientists call a group of atoms that are all the same, because they all have the same number of protons.

When did the first atoms form?

Most of the universe's hydrogen and helium atoms formed around 400,000 years after the Big Bang, which is the name for when scientists think the universe began, about 14 billion years ago.

Why did they form at that time? Astronomers know from observing distant exploding stars that the size of the universe has been getting bigger since the Big Bang. When the hydrogen and helium atoms first formed, the universe was about 1,000 times smaller than it is now.

And based on their understanding of physics, scientists believe that the universe was much hotter when it was smaller.

Before this time, the electrons had too much energy to settle into orbits around the hydrogen and helium nuclei. So, the hydrogen and helium atoms could form only once the universe cooled down to something like 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius). For historical reasons, this process is misleadingly called recombination − combination would be more descriptive.

The helium and deuterium — a heavier form of hydrogen — nuclei formed even earlier, just a few minutes after the Big Bang, when the temperature was above 1 billion F (556 million C). Protons and neutrons can collide and form nuclei like these only at very high temperatures.

Scientists believe that almost all the ordinary matter in the universe is made of about 90% hydrogen atoms and 8% helium atoms.

The immense heat and pressure in stars can form atoms through a process called fusion. (Image credit: Yevheniia Kudrova via Getty Images)

How do more massive atoms form?

So, the hydrogen and helium atoms formed during recombination, when the cooler temperature allowed electrons to fall into orbits. But you, I and almost everything on Earth is made of many more massive atoms than just hydrogen and helium. How were these atoms made?

The surprising answer is that more massive atoms are made in stars. To make atoms with several protons and neutrons stuck together in the nucleus requires the type of high-energy collisions that occur in very hot places. The energy needed to form a heavier nucleus needs to be large enough to overcome the repulsive electric force that positive charges, like two protons, feel with each other.

Protons and neutrons also have another property — kind of like a different type of charge — that is strong enough to bind them together once they are able to get very close together. This property is called the strong force, and the process that sticks these particles together is called fusion.

Scientists believe that most of the elements from carbon up to iron are fused in stars heavier than our Sun, where the temperature can exceed 1 billion F (556 million C) — the same temperature that the universe was when it was just a few minutes old.

This periodic table shows which astronomical processes scientists believe are responsible for forming each of the elements. (Image credit: Cmglee/Wikimedia Commons (image) and Jennifer Johnson/OSU (data), CC BY-SA)

But even in hot stars, elements heavier than iron and nickel won't form. These require extra energy, because the heavier elements can more easily break into pieces.

In a dramatic event called a supernova, the inner core of a heavy star suddenly collapses after it runs out of fuel to burn. During the powerful explosion this collapse triggers, elements that are heavier than iron can form and get ejected out into the universe.

Astronomers are still figuring out the details of other fantastic stellar events that form larger atoms. For example, colliding neutron stars can release enormous amounts of energy — and elements such as gold — on their way to forming black holes.

Understanding how atoms are made just requires learning a little general relativity, plus some nuclear, particle and atomic physics. But to complicate matters, there is other stuff in the universe that doesn't appear to be made from normal atoms at all, called dark matter. Scientists are investigating what dark matter is and how it might form.

This edited article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/where-do-atoms-come-from-a-physicist-explains at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

HEALTH

NEWS | RJ MACKENZIE | JUN 25, 2025, 7:35 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

'She is the only person in the world compatible with herself' — scientists discover new blood type but it's unique to just one person from Guadeloupe

After years of study, scientists have discovered a new blood type in a woman from Guadeloupe. They're now searching for more people with the characteristic.

(Image credit: Andrew Brookes via Getty Images)

Scientists have discovered a new blood group that has so far only been identified in one woman, from the French overseas region of Guadeloupe.

The 68-year-old is the only known person in the world to have this blood group, which has been named "Gwada negative," after a local name for her home islands. The researchers behind the discovery announced their work in a presentation at the International Society of Blood Transfusion’s Congress in Milan, which concluded June 4.

The research team first met the woman in 2011, when she was living in Paris and undergoing routine tests before a surgery. But the tests couldn't reveal her blood type or any matches for it.

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Analysis at the time wasn't advanced enough to detect the cause, and the case lay cold for eight years.

In 2019, researchers utilized high-throughput gene sequencing analysis, which enables faster and more in-depth analysis of DNA, to re-examine the woman's blood. Two years of detailed research followed, in which the team sequenced her entire genome.

Human blood group systems are more complex than you might think. These classifications refer to proteins and sugars found on the surface of red blood cells, called antigens, which are recognized by our immune system. Austrian-American biologist Dr. Karl Landsteiner identified the first and most familiar blood group system — ABO — in 1901, and this won him a Nobel in 1930.

Related: How many blood types are there?

The classic ABO blood typing system describes whether people have one, both or neither of the antigens known as "A" and "B" on their blood cells. The second most well-known blood group system is rhesus classification, which considers whether your cells are "positive" or "negative" for an antigen called Rh factor.

Together, the combinations of the ABO and Rh systems give us the eight main blood groups — but there are dozens of lesser known blood group systems, 45 of which were recognized by the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) as of 2024. Now, Gwada negative has been recognized as number 48.

The woman's unusual lab test results eventually led to the discovery of a mutation in a gene called PIGZ, which alters how proteins anchor to the surface of blood cells. The woman's unique mutations mean "she is the only person in the world compatible with herself," Thierry Peyrard, a biologist at French blood research body Établissement français du sang (EFS), told AFP.

Blood group systems are essential for blood transfusions, as our bodies reject blood group antigens that they perceive as foreign. If we go back to the ABO system, for example, people with both A and B antigens can receive blood from anyone else, as their body recognizes both antigens as familiar. People with the O blood type have neither A or B antigens, meaning they can only receive blood from other type O donors.

While the ABO and Rh systems are still considered the most critical for transfusions, rarer systems can still influence who an individual can receive blood from.

The research team's next aim is to discover whether there are other people with this unique new blood group. As blood types are genetic and thus often shared by populations with similar ancestries, the team intends to start the search among blood donors in Guadeloupe.

"Discovering new blood types means offering patients with rare blood a better level of care," the EFS statement says.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/health/she-is-the-only-person-in-the-world-compatible-with-herself-scientists-discover-new-blood-type-but-its-unique-to-just-one-person-from-guadeloupe at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

COMPUTING

NEWS | OWEN HUGHES | JUN 25, 2025, 7:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

'A first in applied physics': Breakthrough quantum computer could consume 2,000 times less power than a supercomputer and solve problems 200 times faster

Scientists have built a compact physical qubit with built-in error correction, and now say it could be scaled into a 1,000-qubit machine that is small enough to fit inside a data center. They plan to release this machine in 2031.

Nord Quantique plans to scale this design into a 1,000-logical-qubit machine by 2031. (Image credit: Peter Hansen/ Getty Images)

Quantum computers capable of outperforming today’s fastest supercomputers may not need to be as large or power-hungry as we thought, researchers at Canadian startup Nord Quantique say.

The company has built a quantum bit (qubit) with built-in error correction, eliminating the need for the large clusters of physical qubits typically required for fault-tolerant quantum computing.

Nord Quantique plans to scale this design into a 1,000-logical-qubit machine by 2031. The system would be compact enough to fit inside a data center and require far less energy than current platforms, researchers said.

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The announcement follows a 2024 milestone in which the company demonstrated a working prototype of its "bosonic qubit" — a device that integrates quantum error correction directly into its hardware. In a statement, Nord Quantique representatives described the new architecture as "a first in applied physics" and a practical route toward scalable, utility-grade quantum machines. The breakthrough addresses a longstanding challenge in quantum computing: maintaining the integrity of quantum information over time.

Quantum bits are extremely sensitive to heat, vibration and electromagnetic interference — even when cooled close to absolute zero (–460°F, or –273°C). Most quantum platforms address this using quantum error correction, which combines many physical qubits to form a single logical unit capable of absorbing and correcting errors through redundancy, so that any single failure doesn’t scrub the entire calculation.

Related: Quantum computers are here — but why do we need them and what will they be used for?

However, creating a single logical qubit traditionally requires dozens or even hundreds of physical qubits, significantly increasing the size, complexity and energy cost of a quantum computer. Nord Quantique’s system avoids this by using a single physical component to perform the role of a logical qubit.

Quantum computing in safe mode

At the core of the design is a superconducting aluminum cavity known as a bosonic resonator, cooled to near absolute zero. This cavity contains light particles (photons) that store quantum information in specific electromagnetic patterns formed within the resonator. These patterns, known as "modes," each represent a different way the field resonates inside the cavity, allowing the same quantum state to be encoded in parallel.

By distributing information across multiple modes within the same physical structure, the qubit can identify and correct certain types of interference. If one mode is disrupted, the others provide enough context to restore the correct state. This method, known as multimode encoding, gives each qubit internal fault tolerance, reducing the need for external error correction and enabling a 1:1 ratio between physical and logical qubits.

The qubit that Nord Quantique designed for use in a future machine. (Image credit: Nord Quantique)

The researchers estimated that a 1,000-logical-qubit machine built on this architecture would occupy just 215 square feet (20 square meters) and consume only a fraction of the energy used by high-performance systems today.

They also calculated that a quantum computer built using their architecture could break a 830-bit RSA encryption key in an hour, consuming just 120 kilowatt-hours of energy. By comparison, a supercomputer would require nine days and 280,000 kilowatt-hours to solve the same problem, they said.

"The amount of physical qubits dedicated to quantum error correction has always presented a major challenge for our industry," Julien Camirand Lemyre, chief executive at Nord Quantique, said in a statement. "Multimode encoding allows us to build quantum computers with excellent error correction capabilities, but without the impediment of all those physical qubits."

To make the system more fault-tolerant, the researchers used a "bosonic code" called Tesseract code. This helps guard against common quantum faults such as bit flips, phase flips, control errors and leakage, where the qubit slips into a state that isn’t part of the system used to store and process information. Leakage is hard to correct because most error correction techniques only work inside the expected set of quantum states and can’t spot when something falls outside it.

To test the system’s reliability, the researchers ran repeated rounds of error correction and filtered out results where the qubit didn’t behave as intended.

About 12.6% of runs were filtered out, they said. In the remaining data, the qubit held its state through 32 rounds of error correction without measurable decay, suggesting that multimode encoding can preserve quantum information reliably under stable conditions.

Nord Quantique plans to release a 100-logical-qubit machine by 2029, with the full 1,000-qubit system scheduled for 2031. "Beyond their smaller and more practical size, our machines will also consume a fraction of the energy,” said Camirand Lemyre. "That makes them especially appealing to [high-performance computing] HPC centers where energy costs are top of mind."

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/technology/computing/a-first-in-applied-physics-breakthrough-quantum-computer-could-consume-2-000-times-less-power-than-a-supercomputer-and-solve-problems-200-times-faster at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

HEALTH

FEATURES | MINDY WEISBERGER | JUN 25, 2025, 6:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Diagnostic dilemma: A man was stabbed through the throat and the base of the skull — by a fish

While on a fishing trip, a man sustained an unusual injury from a marlin.

In an unusual case, a white marlin (pictured above) stabbed its beak through a man's head. (Image credit: LUNAMARINA via Getty Images)

The patient: A 31-year old man in Louisiana

The symptoms: When the patient reached the hospital, he was bleeding from the mouth and had severe neck pain and stiffness. Upon examining the man, his doctors noted a tear in the back of his throat on the right side.

What happened next: The man, a sports fisherman, had been brought to the hospital by boat and helicopter after an accident during an ocean fishing trip. He had caught a white marlin (Kajikia albida), a type of large fish with a long pointy "bill," weighing approximately 60 pounds (27 kilograms). This species can grow up to 180 pounds (82 kg).

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As the man leaned over the side of the boat to release the hook from the fish, it jumped and struck him in the mouth with its bill, sending the man tumbling backward into the boat. He felt pain in his neck, which then radiated into his spine.

At the hospital, an X-ray of the man's upper spine did not reveal any abnormalities. However, his intensifying spinal pain and neck stiffness prompted one of the doctors to order a computed tomography (CT) scan of the same area. In the CT scan, physicians noted "a wedge-shaped, hyperdense object," they wrote in a report of the case. The object had penetrated the back of the man's throat and entered his spinal canal. It stuck there, piercing the foramen magnum — a large hole at the base of the skull that the spinal cord passes through.

The diagnosis: The doctors immediately performed surgery on the man to remove the penetrating object. They administered general anesthesia, and the surgeon used retractors — instruments that hold wounds open — to expose the object, which turned out to be the broken tip of a fish bill.

The treatment: The sharp bill fragment was so firmly wedged in the man's skull that the surgeon had to make an additional incision above the man's topmost vertebra in order to remove it, pulling it out along the path of entry. It measured about 1.4 inches (3.5 centimeters) long.

After the fragment was removed, the patient was given five different types of antibiotics both to prevent infection from microbes found in the throat and from bacteria that are unique to marine environments. He was discharged eight days later and continued to take multiple antibiotics for the next two weeks.

At his final follow-up visit, the man had fully recovered and showed no lingering neurological symptoms.

What makes the case unique: In 1848, doctors published the first medical case study of a skull injury from a foreign object: a gunpowder explosion had sent an iron bar through the skull of railroad worker Phineas Gage. Gage recovered, but he exhibited personality changes that doctors attributed to his significant brain injuries.

In another notable case, published in 1895, a man had tripped and fallen face-first onto an oilcan. The spout penetrated his cheek and became stuck at the base of his skull, causing temporary incontinence and permanent memory loss.

Since those 19th-century cases, physicians have reported instances of cranial trauma in different parts of the skull and from a variety of objects, including a crochet hook, a pitchfork, a bike key and a harpoon.

This man's case is the first reported instance of an injury to the foramen magnum, as well as the first injury caused by a fish bill, according to the report.

Disclaimer

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/health/diagnostic-dilemma-a-man-was-stabbed-through-the-throat-and-the-base-of-the-skull-by-a-fish at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

June 24, 2025

- Night lizards survived dinosaur-killing asteroid strike, despite being close enough to see it happen

- 6 incredible objects hidden in Vera C. Rubin Observatory's mind-boggling first image

- NASA spots Japan's doomed 'Resilience' moon lander from orbit — and it's surrounded by far-flung debris

- New 'breathalyzer' could detect signs of disease in human breath, scientists say

- Alcohol-soaked star system could help explain 'why life, including us, was able to form'

- Mars rover captures first close-up photos of giant 'spiderwebs' on the Red Planet

- Some early-onset cancers are on the rise. Why?

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ANIMALS > REPTILES > LIZARDS

NEWS | PATRICK PESTER | JUN 24, 2025, 7:01 PM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Night lizards survived dinosaur-killing asteroid strike, despite being close enough to see it happen

Researchers found that night lizards survived the dinosaur-killing asteroid strike at the end of the Cretaceous, despite living near the impact site in Mexico.

Night lizards continue to live around the Gulf of Mexico, where the dinosaur-killing asteroid hit, as well as farther south, in southern Central America. (Image credit: Kevin Venegas Barrantes via Shutterstock)

Mysterious night lizards survived the giant asteroid strike that ended the reign of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, despite living right next to the impact site, a new study finds.

Thanks to a new evolutionary analysis, researchers discovered that the little lizards, in the family Xantusiidae, were living around the Gulf of Mexico before and after the asteroid struck what is now Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. This makes night lizards the only group of land vertebrates known to have survived close to the impact location, and still have members living in the region today.

The dinosaurs' doomsday asteroid was around 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) wide and caused widespread devastation when it hit at the end of the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago). The impact was catastrophic for much of Earth's wildlife, triggering the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction event, in which around 75% of all species died out. However, two lineages of night lizard managed to persist through the disaster, despite likely being close enough to see the impact.

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"They would have been all around the margin of the asteroid impact," study lead author Chase Brownstein, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University, told Live Science.

How did night lizards survive amid all the devastation? Researchers aren't sure, but Brownstein noted that they have slow metabolisms, so they wouldn't have needed to eat very often.

The researchers published their findings Wednesday (June 25) in the journal Biology Letters.

Related: Iguanas sailed one-fifth of the way around the world on rafts 34 million years ago

Night lizards grow to only a few inches in length. Often very secretive, the lizards live in specialized microhabitats, like inside rock crevices and dense vegetation, or beneath bark and logs.

Some previous studies suggested that night lizards' "crown" group — the group containing the last common ancestor of all living night lizards — evolved during the age of dinosaurs, which would have meant the animals persisted through the K-Pg devastation. The new study put that hypothesis to the test.

Brownstein and his colleagues reconstructed the ancestry of the three living night lizard genera (Lepidophyma, Xantusia and Cricosaura). They used molecular clock dating to estimate when the night lizards evolved, based on their mutations and the rate at which mutations occur in DNA over time.

The researchers found that the most recent common ancestor of living night lizards emerged during the Cretaceous around 90 million years ago and that night lizards have been living in North America and Central America since around that time, well before the asteroid struck 66 million years ago, according to the study.

The new findings suggest that two night lizard lineages survived the asteroid strike. One of these lineages then gave rise to Xantusia, which ranges from the southwestern U.S. into Mexico, and Lepidophyma, which ranges across parts of North America and Central America. The second lineage then gave rise to Cricosaura and its only species, Cuban night lizards (Cricosaura typica), in Cuba.

Night lizards weren't the only animals to survive the K-Pg mass extinction event. We wouldn't be here today if some of the mammal family tree hadn't lived through the asteroid impact. Avian dinosaurs (birds), fish and plenty of other animals survived, too. However, night lizards are the only known surviving group of terrestrial vertebrates that have remained endemic to — living only in — North America and Central America since the asteroid hit.

Brownstein noted that some lineages of turtles and other lizards in the region probably survived the asteroid in a similar way as night lizards (scientifically named xantusiids) did. However, these other lineages have since disappeared.

"The problem is that they just aren't there anymore," Brownstein said. "So, what's interesting is that xantusiids have persisted and have remained endemic to the region."

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/animals/lizards/tiny-night-lizards-survived-dinosaur-killing-asteroid-strike-despite-being-close-enough-to-see-it-happen at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

SPACE > ASTRONOMY

NEWS | BRANDON SPECKTOR | JUN 24, 2025, 4:57 PM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

6 incredible objects hidden in Vera C. Rubin Observatory's mind-boggling first image

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory's first image release includes a 'staggering' view of 10 million galaxies in and around the Virgo Cluster. Here are six stunning sights hidden throughout the mind-boggling image.

Nearby stars, side-by-side spirals, and chaotic galaxy collisions all dwell within the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's mind-boggling first image. (Image credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory)

The long-awaited Vera C. Rubin Observatory released its first batch of images Monday (June 23), captivating the world with one of the most detailed snapshots of space ever taken.

Using the world's largest digital camera, the Rubin Observatory will spend the next 10 years taking a time-lapse movie of the entire night sky. And for the telescope's glorious debut, the team revealed a stunning image that captures more than 10 million galaxies in and around the Virgo Cluster — a glittering galaxy cluster located about 55 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation Virgo.

The complete 3,200-megapixel image is so vast and detailed, it's beyond the comprehension of human eyes, project scientists said at a news conference Monday. Luckily, the Rubin Observatory team has made a zoomable, searchable version of the image available on their website — and it's teeming with jaw-dropping close-ups of cosmic objects, each one a work of art in its own right.

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To dip your toes into the overwhelming image, try taking the observatory's free online tour of "Rubin's cosmic treasure chest." We did — and highlighted some of the most stunning sights below, with their coordinates included for easy viewing. See if you can spot these cosmic jewels sprinkled throughout Rubin's groundbreaking debut image.

A "grand design" spiral galaxy

(Image credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory)

Coordinates: 185.5, 4.5

Like an enormous celestial mirror, the "grand design" spiral galaxy Messier 61 (M61) gives astronomers a hint of what our own Milky Way looks like from the outside. Arranged face-on — meaning we can see the broad "face" of the galaxy, rather than just its flat edges — M61 flexes strong, well-defined spiral arms and boasts a bright galactic core housing a supermassive black hole. Though it's located an estimated 55 million light-years from Earth, astronomers have studied the shimmering galaxy for hundreds of years; it was first detected in 1779, according to NASA, and is visible today through a good backyard telescope. You can spot it in the bottom center of Rubin's image of the Virgo Cluster, just below a smaller, bluer spiral galaxy.

A triple-galaxy collision

(Image credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory)

Coordinates: 186.67, 9.0

Three spiral galaxies have gotten a little too close for comfort in the upper-right corner of Rubin's new image. While some individual spiral arms are still visible, the trio of galaxies are becoming visibly stretched in a gravitational tug-of-war that's slowly pulling them together into one great, gassy gumbo. Bridges of matter stretch between the contorted galaxies as they slowly merge. Such pileups are common; scientists theorize that our own Milky Way has merged at least a dozen times over the past 12 billion years.

A bright, nearby star

(Image credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory)

Coordinates: 187.83, 7.58

Most objects in the Virgo Cluster are located far beyond the borders of our galaxy, but the Rubin Observatory also captured a smattering of nearby stars in its crosshairs. Identifiable by their propeller-like diffraction spikes and reddish glow, these stars are located within our own Milky Way, millions of times closer than the Virgo Cluster. The sharp diffraction spikes and halo-like glow are effects of light scattering inside the telescope's optics and can help separate nearby stars from faraway galaxies.

A gargantuan galaxy cluster

(Image credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory)

Coordinates: 186.92, 8.83

Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the universe bound together by gravity; the Virgo Cluster (the subject of Rubin's debut image) contains an estimated 2,000 galaxies orbiting in relatively close proximity to each other, according to NASA.

But by squinting far, far beyond the foreground objects in the new image, Rubin shows us what a galaxy cluster looks like from the outside. Each fuzzy, orange splotch of light in this part of the image is a galaxy containing billions of stars, located billions of light-years from Earth. Faint lanes of gas and dust bridge the gaps between the distant galaxies. While it's impossible to tell with the naked eye, our home galaxy is part of a similar cluster called the Virgo Supercluster, which contains both the Local Group (the group of galaxies that includes the Milky Way) and the Virgo Cluster.

A pair of galaxies with healthy boundaries

(Image credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory)

Coordinates: 186.67, 8.83

Two spiral galaxies, alike in dignity, appear to have a healthy respect for each other's personal boundaries; unlike the galactic train wrecks seen elsewhere in the Virgo Cluster, there is no apparent merger happening here. The reason involves a slight optical illusion. While the galaxies appear side by side, one is located much deeper in space than the other. According to the Rubin Observatory team, the galaxy on the right (NGC 4411) is about 50 million light-years away from Earth, while its partner on the left (NGC 4411b) is more than 70 million light-years distant. With plenty of space between them — and both oriented face-on toward Earth — we get to enjoy the sight of both in undisturbed glory.

A cosmic pancake

(Image credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory)

Coordinates: 185.93, 6.93

Scattered throughout the image, long beams of bright light glow inside spherical halos. If you zoom in far enough, you'll see that many are spiral galaxies — but they're tilted edge on, with their faces pointed away from Earth. Unlike with face-on galaxies, we see these objects as flattened, pancake-like disks cloaked in glowing dust. Even if you look closely at this galaxy (NGC 4343), you still won't be able to make out its spiral arms. But you can see an active galactic nucleus at its center — a feeding supermassive black hole glowing bright as it pulls matter toward it at near light speed.

What else have you spotted in Rubin's incredible 3,200-megapixel image of the Virgo Cluster? Leave a comment below with coordinates to share your discoveries.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/6-incredible-objects-hidden-in-vera-c-rubin-observatorys-mind-boggling-first-image at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

SPACE > SPACE EXPLORATION

NEWS | HARRY BAKER | JUN 24, 2025, 1:57 PM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

NASA spots Japan's doomed 'Resilience' moon lander from orbit — and it's surrounded by far-flung debris

Spacecraft from NASA and India's space agency have snapped orbital photos of the Japanese lunar lander Resilience after its recent "hard landing" on the moon. Some of the images show pieces of the failed lander strewn across the surrounding surface.

Images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show the moon's surface before and after Resilience's "hard landing" on June 5. (Image credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University)

Moon-orbiting spacecraft belonging to NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have both snapped photos of Japan's ruined lunar lander Resilience, following its catastrophic "hard landing" earlier this month. Some of the images — the first to visually confirm the spacecraft's fate — show pieces of debris scattered across the surrounding area.

The Resilience lunar lander, made and operated by the Japanese company ispace, was scheduled to land in the Mare Frigoris, or "Sea of Cold," region of the moon's northern hemisphere on June 5. The lander was carrying a range of scientific experiments, as well as Europe's first ever lunar rover, named Tenacious, which was set to deploy an art piece known as "the Moonhouse" on the lunar surface.

However, operators lost contact with Resilience around 100 seconds before its scheduled touchdown. It then experienced a "hard landing" that likely tore the spacecraft apart and led to the loss of all of its payloads.

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On June 11, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) snapped the first satellite photos of the ruined lander. By comparing the new images with photos taken before the crash (see above), it's clear that the impact left behind a dark smudge on the lunar surface. The mark is likely regolith (the layer of dust and rock that blankets the lunar bedrock) that was displaced by the impact, according to the LRO website.

On June 16, ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 orbiter snapped additional photos of the crash site, showing the area in much greater detail (see below). Subsequent analysis of the photos revealed pieces of debris scattered around the crash site. Astronomy enthusiast Shanmuga Subramanian identified at least 12 different pieces of debris and shared images of them on the social platform X. However, there was no indication as to how far apart these pieces were.

Related: 'Everything has changed since Apollo': Why landing on the moon is still incredibly difficult

Light reflecting off pieces of debris can clearly be seen in the ISRO images captured by the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter. (Image credit: ISRO/Chandrayaan-2/Shanmuga Subramanian)

Telemetry data from Resilience's final moments suggest the lander's laser rangefinder experienced delays while measuring the probe's distance to the lunar surface, Live Science's sister site Space.com previously reported. "As a result, the lander was unable to decelerate sufficiently to reach the required speed for the planned lunar landing," ispace officials wrote at the time. In a news conference on Tuesday (June 24), ispace finally confirmed that the laser rangefinder was at fault.

Resilience was the second of ispace's Hakuto-R landers to attempt to land on the moon. Its predecessor also likely crash-landed in April 2023, after the company lost contact with it in lunar orbit.

However, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's SLIM lander (or "moon sniper") did successfully touch down on the moon in January 2024 and remained operational for several months, despite accidentally landing upside down.

Resilience was carrying the European-built Tenacious rover, which was scheduled to deploy a tiny model of a house on the lunar surface. (Image credit: The Moonhouse)

Other lunar landers

The last few years have seen a sharp rise in the number of spacecraft attempting to land on the moon.

U.S. companies have already attempted two lunar landings this year: First, on March 2, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost successfully touched down on the moon; and second, on March 7, Intuitive Machine's IM-2 probe landed on its side and died 12 hours later.

In February 2024, Intuitive Machine's Odysseus lander became the first American spacecraft to land on the moon in more than 50 years, but also ended up on its side.

In August 2023, ISRO successfully landed Chandrayaan-3 — India's first-ever lunar lander — near the moon's south pole. This spacecraft later detected the first "moonquake" in decades before shutting down after 12 days.

China's Chang'e 6 lander successfully touched down on the moon's far side in June 2024 and has since returned lunar samples to Earth.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/nasa-spots-japans-doomed-resilience-moon-lander-from-orbit-and-its-surrounded-by-far-flung-debris at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

HEALTH

NEWS | RITOBAN MUKHERJEE | JUN 24, 2025, 11:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

New 'breathalyzer' could detect signs of disease in human breath, scientists say

Scientists have developed a device intended to detect disease markers in human breath, which could someday offer a potential alternative to blood, urine or saliva tests.

Scientists at the University of Chicago created a new device intended to detect disease biomarkers in air samples. (Image credit: Bozhi Tian, University of Chicago)

A new breathalyzer-like system could one day detect illnesses by spotting biological markers in the air we exhale, researchers report.

The hope is that this could simplify medical diagnoses by making health monitoring as simple as breathing into a device, the scientists say. Their prototype device, called the airborne biomarker localization engine (ABLE), condensates airborne molecules into concentrated liquid droplets.

The droplets ABLE generates are compatible with existing tech, including simple test strips, making the "platform both highly accessible and very low-cost," study co-author Bozhi Tian, a professor at the University of Chicago, told Live Science in an email. The scientists described ABLE in a report published May 21 in the journal Nature Chemical Engineering.

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"As a researcher working on biosensing and bioelectronics, I am very excited to see this work," said Jinghua Li, an associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at The Ohio State University, who was not involved in the study.

"Airborne biomarker detection has long attracted significant interest, though achieving the required sensitivity has remained a challenge," Li told Live Science in an email. Once the technology is validated, "users could simply exhale onto a test strip and receive a health assessment within minutes in the future," she said.

New approach to diagnostics?

Many diagnostic tests require blood draws, saliva swabs or urine samples — but collecting such samples can introduce risk, inconvenience, or both to patients. Sampling breath could help sidestep these problems.

Related: People can be identified by their breathing patterns with 97% accuracy

The body emits volatile organic compounds (VOCs) — small organic molecules that are typically gaseous at room temperature — and these can be found in human breath. Studies suggest that specific chemicals can be tied to medical conditions, making them a potential tool for diagnosis. Several scientists recently compiled a database of 327 different breathborne VOCs that have also been tentatively linked to diseases, including asthma, diabetes and lung cancer.

However, there's a difficulty in using VOCs for diagnostics: they are present at incredibly low concentrations, sometimes numbering as few as 1 in a trillion particles of exhaled air. This makes monitoring these compounds challenging.

Now, ABLE can suck in exhaled air through a pump, add water vapor via a humidifier, and cool the mixture to cause condensation. This changes the airborne compounds into concentrated droplets that slide into a collection reservoir, ready for testing.

The prototype device measures 4 by 8 inches (10 by 20 centimeters) and costs less than $200 to build, according to Tian. It can collect about 1 milliliter of condensate in 10 minutes, providing enough sample for existing liquid-detection methods to analyze.

Inside the device, a surface with microscopic silicon spikes on it condensates molecules from open air into testable, liquid droplets. (Image credit: Pengju Li, University of Chicago)

More research is needed

As proof of concept, the researchers tested ABLE's ability to collect several airborne chemicals. One experiment looked for glucose in exhaled human breath, confirming that the samples were not too dilute and could be accurately tied to blood-sugar concentrations in the blood. "The high sensitivity of ABLE allows the usage of glucose test strips as the downstream sensors," the researchers reported.

The team also ran experiments with "humanized" lab mice imbued with microbes from human infants, who were born either preterm or full-term. They compared the concentrations of glycosphingolipids — known regulators of inflammation — in the breath of the two sets of mice, finding higher levels in the "preterm" group.

They also used the device to collect airborne pollen allergens, as well as aerosolized E. coli, which could be found in the air near recently flushed toilets, for instance. These tests could potentially justify ABLE's use as a monitor of ambient air quality, the researchers think.

These experiments suggest ABLE could be useful for tracking chemicals in breath and ambient air, but a problem remains to be solved: because airborne VOCs have been difficult to analyze, scientists yet don't have a comprehensive understanding of which compounds relate to what disease, the researchers noted.

Further study is needed to catalog potential biomarkers and confirm their usefulness in clinical settings. The team is starting by collaborating with doctors who treat inflammatory bowel disease to try to identify breathborne markers of inflammation, Tian told Live Science in an email.

The team is also working to make the device smaller, so it can be turned into a wearable, and are working with collaborators to move toward commercialization. This could get ABLE into more medical institutions to enable additional research into the medical relevance of VOCs.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/health/new-breathalyzer-could-detect-signs-of-disease-in-human-breath-scientists-say at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

SPACE > ASTRONOMY > PLANETS > EXOPLANETS

NEWS | PATRICK PESTER | JUN 24, 2025, 9:44 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Alcohol-soaked star system could help explain 'why life, including us, was able to form'

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array has detected methanol isotopes around a nearby star, which could help explain why the ingredients for life are present on Earth.

Methanol was detected at the inner edge of a dust ring around 1.5 billion miles from the star HD 100453. (Image credit: CfA/M. Weiss)

Researchers have found alcohol in the orbit of a young star, and it could help them understand the origins of life on Earth.

Methanol (methyl alcohol) and its isotopes (versions of elements) were detected in gases around a star called HD 100453, which is about 330 light-years from Earth. This is the first time researchers have found isotopes of methanol in the disk of a young star like HD 100453, the scientists reported in a study published June 5 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Methanol is a building block for organic compounds such as amino acids, which are needed for life. Researchers had previously detected methanol — but not its far rarer isotopes — in other star-forming disks.

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"Finding these isotopes of methanol gives essential insight into the history of ingredients necessary to build life here on Earth," study lead author Alice Booth, a research fellow at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement.

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Many young stars are surrounded by swirling disks of gas and dust. These protoplanetary disks, also known as planet-forming disks, provide the material for planets, moons and comets to form.

The team made the methanol discovery using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. ALMA maps the chemical composition and distribution of gas in nearby (relatively speaking) protoplanetary disks.

HD 100453 is larger than the sun, with about 1.6 times the sun's mass. This means that methanol and other molecules in its disk exist as a gas farther from their home star than would have been the case when our solar system was young. Smaller stars have cooler disks, so their molecules are normally frozen as ice and undetectable to ALMA, according to the statement.

In HD 100453's disk, the researchers found that the ratio of methanol to other organic molecules was similar to that of comets in our solar system. The findings suggest that ices within protoplanetary disks eventually clump together to form comets loaded with complex organic molecules, which may then be delivered to planets through collisions.

"This research supports the idea that comets may have played a big role in delivering important organic material to the Earth billions of years ago," study co-author Milou Temmink, a doctoral candidate who studies protoplanetary disks at Leiden University in the Netherlands, said in the statement. "They may be the reason why life, including us, was able to form here."

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/exoplanets/alcohol-soaked-star-system-could-help-explain-why-life-including-us-was-able-to-form at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

SPACE > ASTRONOMY > PLANETS > MARS

NEWS | HARRY BAKER | JUN 24, 2025, 9:37 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Mars rover captures first close-up photos of giant 'spiderwebs' on the Red Planet

NASA's Curiosity rover has snapped its first images of web-like "boxwork" features on the surface of Mars. The zig-zagging rocks could provide clues about the Red Planet's watery past and whether it once harbored extraterrestrial life.

New images from NASA's Curiosity rover show a series of "boxwork" ridges, which looks like large spiderwebs when viewed from above. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has taken the first ever close-up images of gigantic Martian "spiderwebs" on the Red Planet. The zig-zagging ridges, which were left behind by ancient groundwater, could reveal more about Mars' watery past and provide clues about whether the planet once harbored extraterrestrial life, researchers say.

The web-like features, known as "boxwork," are made up of criss-crossing ridges of mineral-rich rocks that infrequently litter the surface of Mars. The patterns can span up to 12 miles (20 kilometers) across and look as if they have been spun by giant arachnids when viewed from space. Yet, until now, these structures have never been studied up close.

Smaller boxwork formations are found on the walls of caves on Earth and form via a similar mechanism to stalagmites and stalactites. Scientists have suggested the same mechanism created these structures on Mars, only on a much larger scale.

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"The bedrock below these ridges likely formed when groundwater trickling through the rock left behind minerals that accumulated in those cracks and fissures, hardening and becoming cementlike," NASA representatives wrote in a statement. "Eons of sandblasting by Martian wind wore away the rock but not the minerals, revealing networks of resistant ridges within."

The web-like features should not be confused with the infamous "spiders on Mars" — a geological feature created by carbon dioxide ice on the planet's surface, which was recently recreated on Earth for the first time.

Related: 32 things on Mars that look like they shouldn't be there

Martian boxwork features look like rocky spiderwebs when viewed from space. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

Curiosity is currently exploring a patch of boxwork on the slopes of the 3.4-mile-tall (5.5 kilometers) Mount Sharp at the heart of Gale Crater, where the wandering robot touched down in 2012. The rover set out for the area in November 2024 and arrived earlier this month. The features are a priority target for mission scientists because the ridges do not appear anywhere else on the mountain — and experts have no idea why.

On June 23, NASA released the first close-up images of the faux spiderwebs, along with an interactive video on their YouTube channel (see below), which enables you to explore the site in 3D.

The rover also drilled and analyzed some samples of rocks surrounding the web-like ridges and found that they contained veins of calcium sulfate, a salty mineral that is also left behind by groundwater. This particular mineral hasn't been seen so far up Mount Sharp before, so its discovery here is "really surprising," Abigail Fraeman, Curiosity’s deputy project scientist based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in the statement.

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Explores “Spiderwebs” on Mars (360) - YouTube

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Researchers hope that by studying boxwork up close, they can learn more about Mars' watery past, before the planet's oceans were stripped away by solar radiation. Future findings could also shed light on the giant subsurface ocean that was recently discovered deep below the Martian crust.

Some experts also think that the ridges could finally help settle the debate around whether Mars once harbored extraterrestrial life.

"These ridges will include minerals that crystallized underground, where it would have been warmer, with salty liquid water flowing through," Kirsten Siebach, a Curiosity mission scientist at Rice University in Houston who has been studying the area, previously said. "Early Earth microbes could have survived in a similar environment. That makes this an exciting place to explore."

Mars quiz: Is your knowledge of the Red Planet out of this world?

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/space/mars/mars-rover-captures-first-close-up-photos-of-giant-spiderwebs-on-the-red-planet at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

HEALTH > VIRUSES, INFECTIONS & DISEASE > CANCER

NEWS | SKYLER WARE | JUN 24, 2025, 8:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Some early-onset cancers are on the rise. Why?

The rates of certain early-onset cancers are on the rise. The reasons are complex, experts say.

Certain types of cancer, including breast and colorectal cancers, are becoming more prevalent in people under 50. A combination of factors may be at play. (Image credit: Morsa Images via Getty Images)

Some early-onset cancers — those that occur in people under age 50 — are on the rise in the United States.

This overall increase is due to a rise in 14 different types of cancers in younger people, according to a new analysis. The largest increases have occurred in breast, colorectal, kidney and uterine cancer diagnoses.

While the overall incidence of early-onset cancer is still low, these small increases could add up over time.

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A rise of a few percent per year is "not a huge change in the number of diagnoses, because cancer is still rare at these ages," Miranda Fidler-Benaoudia, a cancer epidemiologist at Alberta Health Services and the University of Calgary, told Live Science. "But it's when it's happening over two, three decades that it really leads to a meaningful increase in that period."

The reasons behind these increases are complex and manifold, and many are probably specific to each type of cancer, experts say.

To tease out trends in early-onset cancer diagnoses and the myriad reasons behind them, National Cancer Institute epidemiologist Meredith Shiels and colleagues compiled data on cancers diagnosed in 15- to 49-year-olds between 2010 and 2019 in the U.S. In a study published May 8 in the journal Cancer Discovery, the team broke down changes in the rates of different cancers in three age groups: 15 to 29, 30 to 39, and 40 to 49.

Breast and uterine cancer rates increased in every early-onset age group, while rates of colorectal and certain kidney cancers increased among 30- to 39-year-olds and 40- to 49-year-olds, the team found. More than 80% of the additional cancers that occurred in 2019 compared with 2010 were one of these four types. Other diagnoses that increased in at least one early-onset cohort included melanoma, cervical cancer and stomach cancer, though incidences of these cancers remained low overall.

Lifestyle changes

Many factors could contribute to these observed increases. Research suggests that obesity is a risk factor for colorectal, kidney and uterine cancers, all of which are rising in younger people. Globally, the percentage of adults who are overweight or obese has increased significantly since 1990. Although most studies linking cancer and obesity were conducted in older adults, it's possible that higher rates of obesity in younger people could also increase the rates of early-onset cancer, the researchers wrote. One 2024 study suggests that more than half of uterine cancers diagnosed in 2019 might be linked to obesity.

Changes in reproductive patterns over the years could also be contributing to the increased incidence of early-onset breast cancers, Fidler-Benaoudia said. Girls are getting their periods earlier, and women are having fewer children, and having them later in life, than they did a few generations ago. Being younger at first menstruation, giving birth fewer times, and giving birth for the first time later in life have all been linked to a higher risk of developing certain types of early-onset breast cancer, the researchers wrote. Other research suggests that using oral contraceptives (birth control pills) might also slightly elevate the risk of early-onset breast cancer, though it may also protect against ovarian and endometrial cancers.

Better detection

Earlier detection of cancers in people with genetic risk factors may also play a role. For instance, those with certain BRCA gene variants have a higher risk of breast, ovarian or prostate cancer, while those with Lynch syndrome face an increased risk of myriad cancers, including colon cancer, stomach cancer and brain cancer.

I think that we need large studies that follow individuals over the life course, including at younger ages, to be able to identify risk factors for early-onset cancers.

Meredith Shiels

Newer screening guidelines recommend people with these genes start screening for cancer earlier than those with an average risk of the disease. Even a small increase in the number of early-onset cancers detected via these new recommendations could trigger an uptick in diagnoses.

Screening for other, unrelated issues could also help identify certain cancers earlier. For example, changes in imaging procedures for MRIs and CT scans mean that health care professionals are catching more instances of renal cell carcinoma, a type of kidney cancer, during other tests. This incidental detection has led to an increase in kidney cancer diagnoses in almost all age groups, the researchers wrote.

Environmental exposures

People's prenatal or early-life exposures to certain compounds may also fuel specific early-onset cancers. Researchers reported in April in the journal Nature that childhood exposure to a chemical called colibactin, which is produced by certain E. coli strains in the colon, causes DNA mutations observed more frequently in early-onset colorectal cancers.

Showing that an exposure directly causes a certain type of early-onset cancer — or even pinpointing which types of exposures might pose a risk — is no easy feat. "I think that we need large studies that follow individuals over the life course, including at younger ages, to be able to identify risk factors for early-onset cancers," Shiels told Live Science in an email.

Even with these sorts of extended studies, though, it can be challenging to pin down the exact causes of early-onset cancer. "The issue with cancer at young ages is, whilst it's increasing, it's still relatively rare [compared] to those older age groups," Fidler-Benaoudia said. "To have enough people develop cancer to then identify risk factors in this prospective way is incredibly challenging, because you need huge, huge numbers."

While it's impossible to eliminate your individual risk of getting cancer, there are some things that reduce the overall risk at the population level. For instance, wearing sun protection and getting vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) can help protect against certain cancers, Fidler-Benaoudia said. Similarly, limiting alcohol and smoking can reduce the odds of a person developing cancer at any point in their life, not just before age 50, Tomotaka Ugai, a cancer epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital, told Live Science.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/health/cancer/some-early-onset-cancers-are-on-the-rise-why at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

ROBOTICS

NEWS | ALAN BRADLEY | JUN 24, 2025, 6:17 AM EDT | VIEW ON LIVESCIENCE

Intrepid baby-faced robot dons a jetpack for its next adventure — becoming the first humanoid robot to fly

New footage shows an expressionless iRonCub MK3 robot taking off using four thrusters — two where its arms should be and two in a jetpack on its back.

iRonCub3: First Liftoff of a Jet-Powered Humanoid Robot - YouTube

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Researchers have demonstrated the first successful vertical liftoff of a humanoid robot — a major step toward flying robots that mimic human capabilities.

The new robot, dubbed iRonCub MK3, uses four thrusters to achieve vertical thrust, two built into its arms and two in a jetpack mounted on its back.

In footage released by the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) to YouTube on 18 June, the mask-donning robot is held from a suspender and then activates, lifting off roughly 20 inches (50 centimeters) from the ground using its thrusters.

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The iCub robot that IIT's humanoid is based on is child-like in both size and appearance. It measures 3 feet (1 meter) tall while weighing 49 pounds (22 kilograms), adopting child-like dimensions, and donning a highly recognizable smooth and shiny "baby face" head.

First launched in 2009 by the RobotCub Consortium of European universities, it is designed to be a testbed for research into human cognition and artificial intelligence (AI) and has been used in countless projects over the last 16 years.

In a corresponding study describing the robot, published June 1 on the arXiv preprint server, the IIT engineers say their augmented version of the robot is the first such jet-powered flying humanoid robot designed to take off. They added this work highlights the new possibilities that a flying, humanoid robot presents.

Related: Robots: Facts about machines that can walk, talk or do tasks that humans can't (or won't)

In contrast to many other robotic platforms currently in development, which typically focus exclusively on ground-based locomotion and manipulation, adding aerial mobility may pave the way for assistance in search and rescue missions, traversing collapsed buildings and flooded areas, or other terrain inaccessible to humans, the scientists said in the study.

Combining flight with the ability to interact with its environment, a robot of this kind could clear debris and assist in locating or even extracting victims.

The authors of the study also point out that a flying humanoid robot could carry out repairs on structures difficult for human beings to access, like the undersides of bridges. They could even be deployed in hazardous environments where people can't safely operate, like the site of a nuclear or chemical leaks.

The world's first jetpack-powered flying robot

iRonCub is based on IIT's iCub3 platform. This system is designed to allow a robot to emulate a number of human capabilities as it's being remotely controlled by an operator wearing a virtual reality (VR) helmet-like heads-up display (HUD) and other specialized equipment.

To equip the iCub for flight, the team added load-bearing mounting brackets to secure the jetpack and a new titanium spine to support its weight. Because previous versions of the iRonCub had issues with catching fire from the thrusters' exhaust, heat-resistant panels and covers were added to the iCub chassis. The thrusters' tilt angle was also adjusted to help with in-flight stability and to angle the exhaust away from the robot's body.

To equip the iCub for flight, the team added load-bearing mounting brackets to secure the jetpack and a new titanium spine to support its weight. (Image credit: STEFANO RELLANDINI/AFP via Getty Images)

For this version, the robot's forearms and hands were removed to make space for the arm-mounted thrusters, but the team says the forearms are still fully compatible and will be readded in later iterations.

To ensure the chassis could handle the stress of takeoff and flight, the team performed a Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis — a problem-solving technique that centers around breaking a structure down into smaller interconnected components. As a result, they applied axial loads of 750 newtons (three times the peak thrust of each turbine) to the brackets of the jet engines.

One of the major challenges of achieving flight in a humanoid robot of this type is accounting for all of the joints and actuation points and adjusting them, as well as the thrusters, in a coordinated way, so the robot doesn't end up flying off course or upside down.

The engineers managed this with what's called a Linear Parameter Varying Model Predictive Control (MPC), a complex flight controller that's constantly computing the optimal joint position and jet throttle.

The scientists extensively tested the system first in computer simulations before then launching real-world tests, in large part due to the safety risks of operating thrusters with exhaust temperatures in excess of 1,112 degrees Fahrenheit (600 degrees Celsius).

After successfully demonstrating a launch with a predefined trajectory and accurate tracking, the team now plans to focus its efforts on improving the flight controller to handle external disturbances that may occur during a real flight scenario, like wind or other inclement weather.

This article was downloaded from https://www.livescience.com/technology/robotics/intrepid-baby-faced-robot-dons-a-jetpack-for-its-next-adventure-becoming-the-first-humanoid-robot-to-fly at Jun 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM EDT.

Table of Contents

Live Science: 2025 Jun 28

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Intrepid baby-faced robot dons a jetpack for its next adventure — becoming the first humanoid robot to fly