Officially named C/2026 S1 (Euclid), the comet turned up in images Euclid captured between September 16 and 24, 2026. This Euclid shows the comet C/2026 S1 (Euclid). Image credit: ESA / Euclid / Euclid Consortium / NASA / Pöntinen et al. C/2026 S1 (Euclid) is currently about 1.3 billion km (800 million miles) from Earth, roughly the distance between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. The comet sits...

Planetary researchers at the University of Sydney have proposed a new way to classify the soils of Mars, along with a new word for them: areth (the name comes from Ares, the Greek name for Mars). Classification of realms across the Martian surface. Image credit: McBratney et al., doi: 10.1016/j.catena.2026.110649. Mars has no formal, workable soil classification. Earth systems lean heavily on vertical...

Roughly 18,000 years ago, in what is now northern Ukraine, artists carved small female figurines from mammoth ivory and covered them with zigzags and meanders. New research suggests those designs were not purely invented, they appear to echo the natural patterns inside the tusk. Mizyn figurines. Image credit: Radchenko et al., doi: 10.1038/s40494-026-02988-5. “The study of Upper Paleolithic figurines...

A tiny piece of amber from Myanmar has captured a defensive maneuver that lizards still use today: shedding part of their tail to escape a predator. The fossil provides direct evidence that this defensive mechanism was already in operation in mid-Cretaceous forest ecosystems. General view of the amber piece from Myanmar, arrows highlighting the debris stuck to the initial resin flow at the level...

The ‘love hormone’ oxytocin may rise and fall in tandem in cats and the people who live with them, according to a new study published in the journal iScience. Higher cat oxytocin linked to lower owner cortisol and negative mood. Image credit: Takagi et al., doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2026.117934. “I think many cat owners are familiar with the sense of comfort and peace they feel when their cat climbs...

In ferromagnets, like a refrigerator magnet, atomic spins line up in the same direction. In antiferromagnets, neighboring spins point in opposite directions and cancel each other out. Now physicists reports experimental evidence for a material that blends features of both: a cobalt-intercalated tantalum diselenide (Co1/4TaSe2) that appears to be an altermagnet. Establishment of altermagnetic crystal...

Fucoidans — compounds found in the cell walls of brown seaweed — could one day help treat diseases driven by oxidative stress, though the substances are far from the pharmacy shelf. Fucoidans are structurally diverse, fucose-rich, sulfated polysaccharides derived mainly from brown seaweeds. Image credit: Ronile. Fucoidans are sulfated sugar-like molecules that seaweeds such as kelp and...

Bats make up more than one fifth of all living mammal species, yet where and when they first took to the air has been debated for decades. An analysis of 103 bat genomes points to the European continent as the birthplace of the only mammals capable of powered flight, overturning earlier theories that favored Africa, Asia or North America. The findings come from the Bat1K consortium, an international...

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

The ‘love hormone’ oxytocin may rise and fall in tandem in cats and the people who live with them, according to a new study published in the journal iScience. Higher cat oxytocin linked to lower owner cortisol and negative mood. Image credit: Takagi et al., doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2026.117934. “I think many cat owners are familiar with the sense of comfort and peace they feel when their cat climbs...