Science news

ESA's Juice spacecraft has captured striking new images of Comet 3I/ATLAS, revealing its active coma and distinct plasma and dust tails. While originally designed for Jupiter, Juice's navigation camera provided an early glimpse of the comet's activity. Full scientific data, gathered by five specialized instruments, is expected in February 2026, promising deeper insights into this interstellar visitor.

New research reveals ancient humans in southern Africa lived in isolation for nearly 100,000 years. This led to unique genetic traits not seen in modern populations. These findings show human evolution was complex, involving multiple isolated groups. The study analyzed genomes from 28 ancient individuals, offering insights into early human diversity and adaptation.

Scientists at the University of British Columbia Okanagan say they’ve found a mathematical limit that shuts down the Simulation Hypothesis entirely. Drawing on Gödel’s incompleteness theorem, their study argues that parts of reality cannot be generated by any algorithm, which means no computer, however advanced, could ever build a universe like ours. The obstacle isn’t processing power. It’s logic itself.

A powerful 2025 Kuril-Kamchatka earthquake generated a Pacific-wide tsunami, captured by NASA's SWOT satellite.These unprecedented high-resolution images reveal complex, braided wave patterns, challenging the assumption that large tsunamis travel as non-dispersive waves.This discovery offers crucial new insights into mid-ocean energy distribution, promising to significantly improve future tsunami forecasting and hazard assessments.

Bennu asteroid samples returned by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission reveal life's building blocks, including sugars like ribose and glucose. Scientists also found a unique nitrogen-rich polymer, offering clues to early life's chemical origins. The asteroid's high concentration of supernova dust sheds light on its formation environment and the distribution of presolar materials in our early solar system.

India and Russia are poised to significantly boost space collaboration, with Roscosmos hinting at a major announcement soon.Discussions are reportedly covering engine development, crewed missions, and orbital stations, emphasising mutual benefit over technology transfer. President Putin's visit aims to elevate ties across various sectors, including energy and industry, to a new qualitative level.

Bengaluru-based Biomoneta has achieved a significant first, becoming the inaugural Indian healthtech firm to secure US-FDA 510(k) Class II clearance for its innovative medical air-cleaning device. This breakthrough, powered by their unique ZeBox technology, promises to revolutionize hospital infection control by effectively eliminating airborne pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2, paving the way for its deployment in US healthcare facilities.

New research has confirmed that a vast ring of Neolithic pits, more than a mile wide and over 4,000 years old, was deliberately engineered near Stonehenge, not formed by nature. Using cutting-edge dating and soil-analysis techniques, researchers argue it reflects an ancient belief system inscribed into the land itself. The discovery suggests Stonehenge’s builders shaped not only monuments of stone, but also monuments of earth.

A radical new theory from Professor Maria Strømme suggests that consciousness may not originate in the brain but instead exist as a universal field, with individual minds acting like temporary waves returning to an ocean after death. Her model attempts to bridge physics, ancient philosophy and reports of near-death experiences, inviting science to rigorously test phenomena long dismissed as mystical or imaginary.

A fringe historical theory claims we’re actually living in the 1700s, arguing that nearly 300 years of early medieval history were fabricated by medieval rulers. But historians point to recorded astronomy, tree-ring dating and extensive global archives as solid evidence those centuries really occurred. The Phantom Time Hypothesis remains a fascinating idea, but not one supported by serious scholarship.

Many men eventually discover a seam-like line on their scrotum and wonder whether it’s a scar, or something abnormal. In fact, it’s completely normal and medically known as the scrotal raphe, a developmental remnant from early fetal life. Health experts explain how, during embryonic development, genital tissue fuses under the influence of hormones, leaving this visible line, a harmless anatomical marker we all began with.

India has added seven new names to the Martian geological map. Prominent Kerala locations like Periyar, Bekal, Varkala, Thumba, and Valiamala now represent features on Mars. Renowned geologist MS Krishnan is also honoured with a crater and plain designation. These recognitions highlight India's growing contribution to planetary science and international space research.

Scientists have uncovered massive, dense rock structures deep beneath the western Pacific, challenging long-held theories about Earth's mantle. Advanced seismic imaging reveals these anomalies, which don't fit current models of subducting tectonic plates. Their existence suggests a more complex and ancient Earth interior than previously understood, prompting a re-evaluation of geological processes.

An active underwater volcano off Canada's coast has revealed a vibrant deep-sea habitat, teeming with hundreds of thousands of Pacific white skate eggs.This geothermally active seamount provides a warm, mineral-rich environment, accelerating embryonic development and creating a crucial nursery. Researchers are studying this unique interaction between volcanic heat and reproduction, highlighting its importance for deep-sea life.

NASA has discovered CWISE J1249, a mysterious red celestial object moving at over one million miles per hour through the Milky Way. This object, with its extremely low mass and unique infrared signature, challenges current theories of stellar and planetary formation. Scientists are investigating if it's a supernova remnant or an ejected planet, as its characteristics defy conventional classification.

The Elephant’s Foot, a solidified mass formed beneath Chernobyl’s Reactor Four in 1986, once emitted nearly 10,000 roentgens an hour, enough to kill within minutes. Created from molten fuel and debris, it weighs about two tonnes and remains dangerously radioactive. Even decades later, it stands as one of the most lethal legacies of the disaster and a lasting reminder of the risks of nuclear failure.

NASA’s new images of interstellar object 3I/ATLAS have done little to settle the debate. While the agency insists it is a harmless comet, Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb argues the data leaves key anomalies unexplained, especially the million-kilometre, ruler-straight features captured by amateur astronomers. Loeb says December’s close approach may finally reveal whether 3I/ATLAS is natural, or something engineered.