Astronomers using ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) have observed the densest, most crowded regions at the centers of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, our Milky Way Galaxy’s closest dwarf companions, offering an unprecedented look at areas that have long resisted detailed study. This image from ESO’s VISTA telescope shows the Large Magellanic Cloud. Image...

Using images from the LROC instrument onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), scientists have discovered the biggest newly formed impact crater ever discovered in the Solar System. The crater, now named McGetchin, appeared on the Moon’s eastern edge in 2024. This close-up view of McGetchin crater was taken on December 5, 2025, by the Narrow-Angle Camera (NAC) onboard NASA’s Lunar...

Scientists from Curtin University and the University of York have pinpointed the origin of the Devil’s Arrows, the three towering gritstone megaliths that have stood on the edge of Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, for roughly 4,000 years, ending a long-running archaeological debate. The Devil’s Arrows, the three towering gritstone megaliths on the western outskirts of Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, the United...

A new analysis of Tyrannosaurus rex teeth indicates the ancient predator maintained a body temperature of about 36.3 degrees Celsius (97.3 degrees Fahrenheit), close to that of Indian and African elephants and far warmer than its cold-blooded reptile neighbors. Tyrannosaurus rex holotype specimen at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, the United States. Image credit: Scott Robert...

Scientists have demonstrated that the South American tiger cat complex Leopardus tigrinus consists of five genetically distinct species, including one entirely new to science. Leopardus tilcayo. Image credit: Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz. The Leopardus tigrinus species complex is a group of small, spotted felines found across Central and South America and known variously as tiger cats, little spotted...

Physicists from the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have found evidence of the Higgs boson decaying into a ‘virtual’ photon and a real photon, which in turn produces a pair of leptons. This pathway, known as H→γ*γ→llγ, occurs in just one in about 10,000 Higgs decays, making it one of the particle’s most elusive behaviors. Event display of a candidate Higgs...

In a study of 2,266 workers in Finland, evening-type people, or night owls, were up to three times more likely to be treated for depression or anxiety than morning types, with poor work-life balance identified as a key contributing factor. Merikanto et al. showed that evening-types had more issues regarding work spillover to personal life and poor recovery from work and that these factors moderated...

For several decades, paleontologists have described Miracinonyx trumani — an extinct species of cheetah-like felid that roamed the North American prairies and steppe terrains more than 13,000 years ago — as North America’s answer to the African cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus). New research led by the University of California, Santa Cruz suggests the picture was largely wrong. Miracinonyx...

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

New research led by University of the Witwatersrand and University of Southern California paleoanthropologists sheds more light on one of the most debated transitions in human evolution: when our ancestors stopped regularly climbing trees and committed fully to walking on two legs. A depiction of an early Homo (right) characterized by relatively greater bone strength of the femur in the thigh compared...