ESA’s Euclid space telescope mapped more than 60 million stars in the Milky Way’s central bulge, producing the largest high-resolution visible-light portrait ever of our Galaxy’s crowded heart and opening a new window on alien worlds. This photo of the Milky Way Galaxy’s center was taken on March 23, 2025 by ESA’s Euclid space telescope. Image credit: ESA / Euclid / Euclid Consortium /...

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

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

Paleontologists working in Brazil have identified a previously unknown species of archosauriform that lived about 240 million years ago and may belong to a poorly understood group of ancient reptiles that closely resembled the ancestors of crocodiles and dinosaurs. Life reconstruction of Silescelida acristata. Image credit: Matheus Fernandes Gadelha. Silescelida acristata lived in what is now Brazil...

New research spanning five continents and vastly different cultures — from the steppes of Mongolia to the rainforests of the Pacific — shows that hunting dogs and their owners cooperate, communicate and rely on each other in nearly identical ways, suggesting the relationship was forged in deep evolutionary time, perhaps 30,000 years ago. Testing situation and hunters with their dogs —...

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

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

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

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

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