News Archive for August 2025

Abell 3667 is featured in this DECam image. Image credit: CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / Anthony Englert, Brown University / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Zamani & D. de Martin, NSF’s NOIRLab.

DECam Captures Elusive Intracluster Light in Galaxy Cluster Abell 3667

Aug 5, 2025 by News Staff

Intracluster light is a diffuse glow of stars stripped from galaxies during a galaxy cluster’s formation. Abell 3667 is featured in this DECam image....

Tyrannosaurus rex holotype specimen at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, the United States. Image credit: Scott Robert Anselmo / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Gigantic Megalosauroid and Allosauroid Dinosaurs Had Weak Bites, Study Suggests

Aug 5, 2025 by News Staff

While tyrannosaurid dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex  had skulls that were optimized for high bite forces, other gigantic carnivorous dinosaurs such...

Interspecific hybridization may trigger species radiation by creating allele combinations and traits. Cultivated potato and its 107 wild relatives from the Petota lineage all share the distinctive trait of underground tubers, but the underlying mechanisms for tuberization and its relationship to extensive species diversification remain unclear. Through analyses of 128 genomes, including 88 haplotype-resolved genomes, Zhang et al. revealed that Petota is of ancient hybrid origin, with all members exhibiting stable mixed genomic ancestry, derived from the Etuberosum and Tomato lineages ca. 8-9 million years ago. Image credit: Zhang et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.06.034.

Potato Evolved from Tomato Plants 8-9 Million Years Ago, New Research Suggests

Aug 5, 2025 by News Staff

Interbreeding between tomato plants and potato-like species from South America about 8-9 million years ago gave rise to the modern-day potato (Solanum...

This image shows the red supergiant star Stephenson 2 DFK 52 and its circumstellar environment. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Siebert et al.

Astronomers Discover Exotic Red Supergiant Star

Aug 5, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Designated Stephenson 2 DFK 52, the newly-discovered red supergiant resides in the massive stellar cluster RSGC2. This image shows the red supergiant star...

Reconstructed skeleton and representative bones of Wudingloong wui. Individual scale bars - 5 cm. Scale bar of the reconstructed skeleton - 50 cm. Image credit: Wang et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-12185-2.

East Asia’s Oldest Known Sauropodomorph Dinosaur Unearthed in China

Aug 4, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Wudingloong wui lived in what is now Yunnan, China, around 200 million years ago (Early Jurassic epoch). Reconstructed skeleton and representative bones...

This Webb/NIRCam image shows NGC 6072, a planetary nebula approximately 4,048 light-years away in the constellation of Scorpius. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI.

Two Stars Contribute to Irregular Shape of NGC 6072, Webb Observations Show

Aug 4, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using two instruments onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have captured new high-resolution images of the planetary nebula...

Life reconstruction of Plesionectes longicollum. Image credit: Peter Nickolaus.

Paleontologists Unveil New Species of Plesiosaur

Aug 4, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have identified an unusual new genus and species of early-diverging plesiosauroid plesiosaur from a nearly complete skeleton found in the...

Studying the evolution of hibernators like some hedgehogs, bats, ground squirrels, and lemurs could reveal the secrets of their remarkable resilience. Image credit: Chrissy Richards.

Superpowers of Hibernating Animals Could Lie Hidden in Human DNA

Aug 4, 2025 by News Staff

Two new studies by University of Utah researchers provide clues on how to unlock these hibernating abilities, opening the door to someday developing treatments...

This Hubble image shows part of the Tarantula Nebula, a star-forming region some 163,000 light-years away in the constellation of Dorado. The color image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument in the ultraviolet, near-infrared, and optical parts of the spectrum. It is based on data obtained through four filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / C. Murray.

Hubble Sees Dusty Clouds in Tarantula Nebula

Aug 4, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

A striking new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows incredible details in the Tarantula Nebula, a turbulent star-birth region located in...

Pleurosaurus, a remarkable, long-bodied swimming rhynchocephalian that lived during the Late Jurassic epoch, some 150 million years ago, in what is now Germany. Image credit: Roberto Ochoa.

Unique Fossil of Juvenile Pleurosaurus Unearthed in Germany

Aug 1, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Rhynchocephalians — members of a sister group of squamates (lizards, snakes, and worm lizards) that includes the living tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus)...

Holotype of Acrophylla alta in nature. Image credit: Ross M. Coupland.

New Species of Giant Stick Insect Discovered in Australia

Aug 1, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Australian entomologists have described a spectacular new species of the stick insect genus Acrophylla from two female specimens as well as eggs. Holotype...

This Webb image shows the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, an area of deep space with thousands of galaxies in various shapes and sizes on a black background. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / G. Östlin / P. G. Perez-Gonzalez / J. Melinder / JADES Collaboration / M. Zamani, ESA & Webb.

Webb Visits ‘Hubble Ultra Deep Field’

Aug 1, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have observed the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), an area of deep space with nearly 10,000...

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