Over the course of billions of years, the universe has steadily been evolving. Thanks to the expansion of the universe, we are able to "see" back in time to watch that evolution, almost from the beginning. But every once in a while we see something that doesn't fit into our current understanding of how the universe should operate.

That's the case for a galaxy described in a new paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters by Ph.D. student Sijia Cai of Tsinghua University's Department of Astronomy and their colleagues. They found a galaxy formed around 11 billion years ago that appears to be "metal-free," indicating that it might contain a set of elusive first generation (Pop III) stars.

Before we get into the discovery itself, some context is necessary. Population III (Pop III) stars are considered to be the first generation of stars that formed early in the universe's history. Importantly, they have essentially no "metal," which in cosmological terms means any element other than helium and hydrogen. Since those heavier elements can only be formed in stars themselves (or in the supernovae they create), by definition the first generation of stars can't contain them.

Cosmologists have been searching for examples of these Pop III stars for decades, but so far have been unable to find them. Typically, they search a time of the universe's history known as the Epoch of Reionization, which took place up to 1 billion years after the Big Bang, when the universe was very young and we believe the first stars themselves were starting to form.

So imagine the author's surprise when they found a galaxy that appeared about 2 billion years later than the Epoch of Reionization. By that point, plenty of stars should have lived and died, with their remnants "infecting" any nearby gas and dust clouds, or other stars themselves, with the metal they created. That was the theory at least.

But, using data gathered by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and the Subaru Telescope, the authors identified a galaxy they called MPG-CR3 (or CR3 for short). The spectral signature of this galaxy was unique among all other galaxies of that era. It had very clean hydrogen and helium lines, and, notably, almost a complete lack of "metals" like oxygen in its spectral signature. In fact, the upper limit of the metallicity of the stars in the galaxy puts them at .7% of the metallicity of our sun.

Even more interestingly, the galaxy itself only appears to be about 2 million years old—making it relatively young by galactic standards. We are able to see it at such a young age, despite it being formed billions of years ago, because of the expansion of space-time. CR3 also appears to be relatively "dust-free," and have relatively small stars, especially for such an ancient galaxy. Most galaxies during Cosmic Noon have supermassive stars compared to our own.

Despite intense UV radiation and temperature swings, most spores remained viable when returned to Earth. Their protective casing acts as a natural shield, enabling resilience even scientists didn’t expect. The results open doors to using hardy plants for future off-world agriculture.

Moss Resilience From Earth to Space
Mosses are known for their ability to flourish in some of the harshest locations on the planet, from high mountain ranges like the Himalayas to the scorching terrain of Death Valley, as well as the frozen Antarctic tundra and even the cooling surfaces of active volcanoes. Their remarkable toughness inspired researchers to send moss sporophytes, which are reproductive structures that contain spores, into what may be the most inhospitable environment of all: outer space. The study, published in iScience today (November 20), reported that more than 80% of the spores endured 9 months outside the International Space Station (ISS) and returned to Earth still able to reproduce. This marks the first documented instance of an early land plant surviving long-term direct exposure to space.

“Most living organisms, including humans, cannot survive even briefly in the vacuum of space,” says lead author Tomomichi Fujita of Hokkaido University. “However, the moss spores retained their vitality after nine months of direct exposure. This provides striking evidence that the life that has evolved on Earth possesses, at the cellular level, intrinsic mechanisms to endure the conditions of space.”

Fujita first began considering the idea of testing moss in space while examining plant evolution and development. Mosses seemed exceptionally capable of settling in places that challenge most forms of life. “I began to wonder: could this small yet remarkably robust plant also survive in space?”

🌙 Argonaut's lunar lander family grows.
🚀 Starting in 2030, esa's Argonaut will deliver vital cargo to the Moon's surface.
🤝 Meet the partners getting us there 🔗 esa.int/Science_Explor…
🇮🇹🇫🇷🇬🇧🇩🇪 Thales Alenia S, OHB SE, Nammo

Researchers at the Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI) in Zagreb, Croatia, have uncovered that the protein CENP-E, once thought to function as a motor pulling chromosomes into position during cell division, actually serves a different purpose. Rather than dragging chromosomes, CENP-E stabilizes their initial connections to the cell’s internal “tracks,” ensuring they are properly aligned before being separated.

In a complementary study, scientists also discovered that centromeres—small structures within cells once believed to work independently—actually guide this essential protein to help maintain accurate cell division. These findings overturn more than twenty years of established textbook knowledge and have major implications for the life sciences, as mistakes in this process are linked to cancer and genetic disorders.

Every second, trillions of times over, the human body performs an extraordinary feat. A single cell prepares to divide, containing three billion DNA letters, and somehow guarantees that both daughter cells inherit precise copies of this genetic code.

When that precision falters, the outcome can be devastating. Even one misplaced chromosome can disrupt development, lead to infertility, or trigger cancer. Cell division is among the most exacting processes in biology.

For decades, researchers believed they understood at least one of the key components involved: CENP-E, described as a molecular motor responsible for pulling stray chromosomes to the center of the cell to ensure proper division. The explanation was tidy, convincing, and ultimately incorrect.

Two new studies from RBI, published in Nature Communications and led by Dr. Kruno Vukušić and Professor Iva Tolić, have redefined that understanding and proposed new mechanisms for how CENP-E functions. Dr. Vukušić, a leading young researcher in cell biology, completed his postdoctoral work within an elite ERC Synergy team and is now preparing to form his own research group at RBI. Professor Tolić, an internationally recognized cell biologist who heads the Laboratory for Cell Biophysics at RBI, has received two ERC grants and is a member of EMBO and Academia Europaea. Together, their combined expertise revealed that CENP-E is not the system’s motor but its regulator—the crucial switch that activates at just the right time to ensure flawless coordination of chromosome movement.

“CENP-E is not the engine pulling chromosomes to the center,” Vukušić says. “It is the factor that ensures they can attach properly in the first place. Without that initial stabilization, the system stalls.”

X-59 has officially completed its first flight ever!

The NASA X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft took to the skies for the first time Oct. 28, marking a historic moment for the field of aeronautics research.

✈️A culmination of all the right stuff: go.nasa.gov/3K3QsnC

How fast and in what direction is our solar system moving through space? This question, though simple in appearance, plays a central role in testing modern cosmological theories.

A team led by astrophysicist Lukas Böhme at Bielefeld University has now uncovered results that call the standard cosmological model into question. Their findings were recently published in Physical Review Letters.

“Our analysis shows that the solar system is moving more than three times faster than current models predict,” says lead author Lukas Böhme. “This result clearly contradicts expectations based on standard cosmology and forces us to reconsider our previous assumptions.”

A New Look at the Radio Galaxies of the Sky
To measure the solar system’s motion, the team examined the distribution of radio galaxies—distant galaxies that emit strong radio waves, a form of electromagnetic radiation with long wavelengths similar to those used in radio communication. Because radio waves can pass through dust and gas that obscure visible light, radio telescopes can detect galaxies that optical instruments cannot.

As the solar system travels through the universe, its motion produces a faint “headwind,” causing slightly more radio galaxies to appear in the direction of motion. This difference is extremely small and can only be identified through highly precise observations.

Fossilized remnants of ancient carbon from the heart of South Africa's Mpumalanga province have just yielded the earliest chemical evidence yet of life on Earth.

According to a new analysis using machine learning, fragmentary traces of carbon from the Josefsdal Chert, dating back 3.33 billion years, are the earliest and most confident detection of biotic chemistry found on Earth to date.

In addition, the team's work identified the oldest evidence for photosynthesis to date in rocks 2.52 and 2.3 billion years old, from South Africa and Canada, respectively – pushing back the documented timeline for the process by more than 800 million years.

"Our results show that ancient life leaves behind more than fossils; it leaves chemical 'echoes'," says mineralogist and astrobiologist Robert Hazen of the Carnegie Institution for Science in the US. "Using machine learning, we can now reliably interpret these echoes for the first time."

Time, decay, and geology are not kind to the traces life leaves behind – and the greater the passage of time, the greater the opportunity for degradation.

In addition, the first life to emerge on Earth would have been tiny microbes, scientists believe, whose physical remnants would have been dramatically altered in the billions of years since they first wiggled around in the primordial damp.

That's not to say they left no traces. Based on their physical structure, formations such as stromatolites are interpreted as the remains of microbial mats, vast communities of microbes so numerous that they left behind layers in ancient rock. There is also black chert and shale, as well as carbonate formations, within which ancient, fragmentary traces of fossilized carbon have been retained over eons.

It's difficult to determine with certainty, however, whether these sooty remnants of highly altered carbon were produced by biological or non-biological processes.

Now, a team led by Hazen, in a paper with Carnegie Science astrobiologists Michael Wong and Anirudh Prabhu as first authors, developed a way to positively identify ancient carbon produced by life.

Can you be-leaf it’s fall? We sure can — especially with NASA’s PACE satellite!

PACE can detect subtle shifts in leaf color that our eyes can’t see, helping scientists track changes in fall foliage to better understand these ecosystems. Now that’s some good leaf peeping! 🍁

A new, small study suggests children with autism, ADHD, and anorexia share similarly disrupted gut microbiomes, which, by some measures, have more in common with each other than with their healthy, neurotypical peers.

Led by researchers from Comenius University in Slovakia, the study used stool samples to assess the gut microbiomes of 117 children.

The exploratory study included 30 boys with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 21 girls with anorexia nervosa, and 14 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The remaining samples were from age- and sex-matched healthy and neurotypical children, providing a control group.

The ratio of two dominant groups of microbes in the human gut, Bacteroidetes to Firmicutes, was higher across all three disorder groups than was typically seen in the control group.

"This increase in Bacteroidetes, especially in ASD, and a decrease in Firmicutes, particularly in ADHD and AN, corresponds with findings in inflammatory diseases, where altered ratios have been linked to glucose metabolism, inflammation, and satiety regulation," the authors write.

In the ADHD and autism groups, the richness of microbiome species was lower than usual. The researchers measured higher levels of Escherichia, microbes that typically hang out in our body without causing damage, yet cause serious infections when elevated in numbers or migrate out of place.

Desulfovibrio bacteria were more abundant in children with ADHD and girls with anorexia nervosa. These bacteria are known for living in low-nutrient, waterlogged environments, where they reduce sulfate as a source of energy. They also commonly reside in the human gut, but at low levels, potentially causing disease when they grow out of balance.

Meanwhile, children with ADHD and girls with anorexia nervosa both harbored fewer Faecalibacterium than their peers. This bacterium is usually quite abundant in healthy human microbiomes, and lower levels have been associated with inflammatory conditions like irritable bowel disease, colorectal cancer, and depression.

"Notably, certain resemblances were observed in the microbiotic taxa abundances across all patient cohorts, underscoring the conceivable influence of gut microbiota composition on the behavioral manifestations of mental disorders," the authors conclude.

We know diet has a direct impact on the diversity and species that make up our gut microbiomes: less variety on the menu typically means less variety in our gut flora.

Violence against women remains one of the world's most persistent and under-addressed human rights crises, with very little progress in two decades, according to a landmark report released today by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN partners.

Nearly 1 in 3 women—estimated 840 million globally—have experienced partner or sexual violence during their lifetime, a figure that has barely changed since 2000. In the last 12 months alone, 316 million women—11% of those aged 15 or older—were subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner. Progress on reducing intimate partner violence has been painfully slow with only 0.2% annual decline over the past two decades.

For the first time, the report includes national and regional estimates of sexual violence by someone other than a partner. It finds 263 million women have experienced non-partner sexual violence since age 15, a figure experts caution is significantly under-reported due to stigma and fear.

"Violence against women is one of humanity's oldest and most pervasive injustices, yet still one of the least acted upon," said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. "No society can call itself fair, safe or healthy while half its population lives in fear.

"Ending this violence is not only a matter of policy; it is a matter of dignity, equality and human rights. Behind every statistic is a woman or girl whose life has been forever altered. Empowering women and girls is not optional, it's a prerequisite for peace, development and health. A safer world for women is a better world for everyone."

Efforts face funding cuts amidst mounting needs
The new report, released ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls observed on 25 November, represents the most comprehensive study on the prevalence of these two forms of violence against women. It updates 2018 estimates released in 2021. It analyzes data between 2000 and 2023 from 168 countries, revealing a stark picture of a deeply neglected crisis and critically underfunded response.

Despite mounting evidence on effective strategies to prevent violence against women, the report warns that funding for such initiatives is collapsing—just as when humanitarian emergencies, technological shifts, and rising socio-economic inequality are further increasing risks for millions of women and girls. For instance, in 2022, only 0.2% of the global development aid was allocated to programs focused on prevention of violence against women, and funding has further fallen in 2025.

Widespread and lifelong risks
Women subjected to violence face unintended pregnancies, a higher risk of acquiring sexually transmitted infections and experiencing depression. Sexual and reproductive health services are an important entry point for survivors to receive the high-quality care they need.

The report underscores the reality that violence against women begins early and risks persist throughout life. For example, in the past 12 months alone, 12.5 million adolescent girls 15–19 years of age or 16% have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner.

While violence occurs in every country, women in least-developed, conflict-affected, and climate-vulnerable settings are disproportionately affected. For example, Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand) reports a 38% prevalence of intimate partner violence in the past year—more than three times the global average of 11%.

A call for action—and accountability
More countries than ever are now collecting data to inform policies, yet significant gaps remain—particularly on non-partner sexual violence, marginalized groups such as indigenous women, migrants, and women with disabilities, as well as data from fragile and humanitarian settings.

New Webb data suggests that black holes in the early Universe are growing faster than we expected in early galaxies - and also growing faster than the galaxies that host them.

esawebb.org/news/weic2522/

New research suggests future images of black holes could be precise enough to allow scientists to determine if these objects are accurately described by Albert Einstein's theory of gravity, general relativity — or if they are best modeled by alternative theories.

Such black hole research is possible due to breakthroughs in black hole imaging pioneered by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), which revealed the first image of a black hole in 2019. This image focused on the supermassive black hole at the heart of the distant galaxy M87. In fact, our galaxy has its own central supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) — and the EHT collaboration revealed an image of that one too, in 2022.

However, it's important to recognize that black holes are, by definition, regions of space at which the influence of gravity becomes so great that not even light has the necessary velocity to escape. Thus, the images captured by the EHT don't actually show the black holes themselves. Rather, they trace blisteringly hot matter that whirls around these voids. What we are effectively seeing in the images of M87* and Sgr A* are the shadows of these black holes.

The latest study's team proposes that images of these shadows could be so detailed one day that they could potentially show tiny deviations from general relativity. These will allow scientists to investigate what the "recipe" is to actually describe black holes.

"We developed a practical, simulation-backed way to compare images of the hot gas around black holes predicted by Einstein's general relativity with images predicted by deviation from general relativity," research lead author Akhil Uniyal of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China told Space.com. "Running realistic three-dimensional simulations of gas and magnetic fields for many hypothetical black-hole spacetimes produced synthetic images and defined image-comparison metrics that quantify how different two images are.

"The key result is that while many alternatives look very similar to the 'standard' black hole at today's image quality, the differences grow predictably as imaging resolution and fidelity improve, establishing that next-generation horizon-scale imaging could tell Einstein's black holes apart from non-Einstein black holes."

An illustration of future black hole images showing a subtle variation between those described by general relativity and those not. (Image credit: Luciano Rezzolla/Goethe University)

Something’s up with raccoons. Scientists have recently reported that those living in US cities have evolved much shorter snouts than their rural counterparts, a sure sign that urban “trash pandas” have self-domesticated in response to human presence.

Biologists from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock studied thousands of images of North American raccoons (Procyon lotor) captured in the US between 2000 and 2024. Using computer software, they analyzed the skull and snout size of the animals, comparing those living in cities to those in rural settings. 

“I wanted to know if living in a city environment would kickstart domestication processes in animals that are currently not domesticated,” Dr Raffaela Lesch, lead study author and an assistant professor of biology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said in a statement. “Would raccoons be on the pathway to domestication just by hanging out in close proximity to humans?”

Their work revealed that the urban-dwelling raccoons had a 3.56 percent reduction in snout length, suggesting they were experiencing a phenomenon known as domestication syndrome.

Domestication syndrome is a collection of traits that emerge when animals adapt to living closely with humans. Decreased aggression is a prime feature, but it also includes attributes like floppier ears, more varied fur patterns, smaller teeth, smaller brains, and shorter muzzles.

The most obvious example can be seen in the differences between domestic dogs and their wild canine cousins, like wolves and foxes, but domestication syndrome is also evident in cats, horses, cattle, pigs, and other animals that have a tight relationship with humans.

#PPOD: The Eye of the Crater 👁️

A vast cavity on the Red Planet looks back at ESA TGO with an icy stare. The crater is located in Utopia Planitia, the largest known impact basin in the Solar System, with a diameter of roughly 3,300 km, or twice the size of Earth’s Sahara Desert from north to south.

This remnant of an ancient impact is just one of the many scars asteroids have inflicted upon the Red Planet. Water, volcanoes, and impacts from asteroids shaped the Martian surface in the ancient past. Mars is currently a cold, dry desert.

This view from CaSSIS shows a crater approximately eight kilometres in diameter with material ejected in a manner that scientists believe suggests the presence of water ice. When the asteroid hit this region of Mars, the water ice melted, and a mix of liquid water and dust rock was propelled from the top layers.

The smooth appearance of the crater is consistent with other features in the region, which have evidence of a water-ice history. Zooming into the crater, it is possible to see streaks on the walls of the crater, showing evidence of landslides, and ripples sculpted by the wind.

Credit: ESA/ TGO/CaSSIS

Protecting astronauts and their equipment once they leave Earth’s magnetic cocoon is one of the central challenges of sustained lunar and Martian exploration.

The lunar surface in particular is an unforgiving place: without an atmosphere or magnetosphere, it is continuously bombarded by powerful solar and cosmic radiation, and endures some of the most intense temperature swings in the Solar System—from blistering highs of about 121 °C in sunlight to frigid lows near –146 °C in darkness.

In permanently shadowed polar regions, temperatures can plummet to around –240 °C. On top of that, a steady rain of micrometeorites erodes and sandblasts the surface. Any long-term human presence must therefore find shelter from radiation, thermal stress, and hypervelocity dust impacts rather than try to withstand them directly on the surface.

Ancient volcanic activity on the Moon and Mars has left behind lava tubes that are now seen as promising locations for future base camps, offering natural protection beneath the surface. Skylights, collapsed sections of tube ceilings, and long sinuous rilles identified in orbital imagery hint at extensive subsurface voids, but images alone cannot reveal which tubes are intact or suitable for habitats, making direct robotic exploration essential despite the harsh conditions and restricted access.