News Archive for January 2026

Reconstruction of Sahelanthropus tchadensis. Image credit: University of Silesia.

7-Million-Year-Old Sahelanthropus Fossils Bolster Case for Earliest Upright Walking

Jan 5, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

For more than two decades, Sahelanthropus tchadensis — a very early (6.7 to 7.2 million years old) hominin species discovered in Chad in 2001 —...

An artist’s impression of a free-floating exoplanet. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Astronomers Measure Mass of Free-Floating Exoplanet for First Time

Jan 5, 2026 by News Staff

A population of free-floating planets is known from gravitational microlensing surveys. None have a directly measured mass, owing to a degeneracy with...

DeCasien et al. provide the first empirical data showing the direct role the gut microbiome plays in shaping differences in the way the brain functions across different primate species. Image credit: DeCasien et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2426232122.

Gut Microbes Played Role in Evolution of Human Brain, New Study Suggests

Jan 5, 2026 by News Staff

Compared to other primates, humans have remarkably large brains relative to their body sizes. The resultant high demands for glucose may have been supported...

This image shows the massive star-forming region GAL316. Image credit: ESO / M. Mattern / André et al. / VVV.

CAFFEINE Provides New Insights into How Stars Form in Dense Gas

Jan 5, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers have released the new results from the CAFFEINE survey, shedding new light on a long-standing mystery: what controls the efficiency of star...

An artist’s concept of a Penghu Denisovan walking under the bright Sun during the Pleistocene of Taiwan. Image credit: Cheng-Han Sun.

Researchers Sequence Genome of 200,000-Year-Old Denisovan

Jan 2, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A research team led by Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology scientists has generated the high-quality genome assembly of a Denisovan using...

$The Champagne Cluster appears here as a large collection of brilliant white lights, each a distinct galaxy. A neon purple cloud stretches across the cluster’s crowded core. Many of the hundred-plus galaxies in the cluster are in two clumps of galaxies towards the top and bottom of center. Some are encircled by a faint glowing haze, while a few foreground stars gleam with diffraction spikes. Some of the smaller galaxies are tinted blue, orange, or red, and some appear more oblong than round, suggesting spiral shapes viewed edge-on. The neon purple cloud sits at the heart of the image, surrounding the most densely-packed part of the cluster. This cloud, which spreads vertically across the cluster, is multimillion-degree gas observed by Chandra. The two clumps of observable galaxies, and the spread of superheated gas, reveal that the Champagne Cluster is in fact two clusters in the process of colliding. Image credit: NASA / CXC / UCDavis / Bouhrik et al. / Legacy Survey / DECaLS / BASS / MzLS / SAO / P. Edmonds / L. Frattare.$

Champagne Cluster is Actually Two Galaxy Clusters in Process of Merging, Astronomers Find

Jan 2, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers discovered an enormous galaxy cluster called RM J130558.9+263048.4 on December 31, 2020; the date, combined with the bubble-like appearance...

1 2 34