SCIENCE
Endoscopy finds Neanderthal noses not as adapted to the cold as expected | Environment
One sign of a really cold day is the sharp sting of freezing air in your nose. It was believed that the noses of Neanderthals were better adapted to breathing the cold air of the Ice Age and that when the climate became warmer they were outcompeted by modern humans. This is now being questioned.
The opening in the Neanderthal skull is bigger than ours, with a larger nasal cavity behind it. This was thought to have bony convolutions to warm and moisten the incoming air, similar to those seen on some arctic mammals. These delicate structures would only survive in an exceptionally well-preserved skull though, so it was never clear whether they were actually present.
A recent nasal endoscopy of the skull of Altamura Man – the remains of whom are fixed in place in the wall in the Lamalunga cave in southern Italy owing totheir fragility – found no such structures. The investigating team from the University of Perugia concluded that Neanderthal noses were not as adapted to the cold as expected.
This may cause researchers to consider other theories about Neanderthal cold adaptation, such as whether they really had a more active metabolism. But if Neanderthal noses were not made for the cold, and if they were as well adapted to the warming post-ice-age world as us, why did they become extinct?
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
Scientists working with the James Webb Space Telescope discovered three unusual astronomical objects in early 2025, which may be examples of dark stars. The concept of dark stars has existed for some time and could alter scientists’ understanding of how ordinary stars form. However, their name is somewhat misleading.
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Still, the name captures the essence of this phenomenon. The “dark” in the name refers not to how bright these objects are, but to the process that makes them shine — driven by a mysterious substance called dark matter. The sheer size of these objects makes it difficult to classify them as stars.
As a physicist, I’ve been fascinated by dark matter, and I’ve been trying to find a way to see its traces using particle accelerators. I’m curious whether dark stars could provide an alternative method to find dark matter.
What makes dark matter dark?
Dark matter, which makes up approximately 27% of the universe but cannot be directly observed, is a key idea behind the phenomenon of dark stars. Astrophysicists have studied this mysterious substance for nearly a century, yet we haven’t seen any direct evidence of it besides its gravitational effects. So, what makes dark matter dark?
Humans primarily observe the universe by detecting electromagnetic waves emitted by or reflected off various objects. For instance, the moon is visible to the naked eye because it reflects sunlight. Atoms on the moon’s surface absorb photons – the particles of light – sent from the sun, causing electrons within atoms to move and send some of that light toward us.
More advanced telescopes detect electromagnetic waves beyond the visible spectrum, such as ultraviolet, infrared or radio waves. They use the same principle: Electrically charged components of atoms react to these electromagnetic waves. But how can they detect a substance – dark matter – that not only has no electric charge but also has no electrically charged components?
Although scientists don’t know the exact nature of dark matter, many models suggest that it is made up of electrically neutral particles – those without an electric charge. This trait makes it impossible to observe dark matter in the same way that we observe ordinary matter.
Dark matter is thought to be made of particles that are their own antiparticles. Antiparticles are the “mirror” versions of particles. They have the same mass but opposite electric charge and other properties. When a particle encounters its antiparticle, the two annihilate each other in a burst of energy.
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If dark matter particles are their own antiparticles, they would annihilate upon colliding with each other, potentially releasing large amounts of energy. Scientists predict that this process plays a key role in the formation of dark stars, as long as the density of dark matter particles inside these stars is sufficiently high. The dark matter density determines how often dark matter particles encounter, and annihilate, each other. If the dark matter density inside dark stars is high, they would annihilate frequently.
What makes a dark star shine?
The concept of dark stars stems from a fundamental yet unresolved question in astrophysics: How do stars form? In the widely accepted view, clouds of primordial hydrogen and helium — the chemical elements formed in the first minutes after the Big Bang, approximately 13.8 billion years ago — collapsed under gravity. They heated up and initiated nuclear fusion, which formed heavier elements from the hydrogen and helium. This process led to the formation of the first generation of stars.
In the standard view of star formation, dark matter is seen as a passive element that merely exerts a gravitational pull on everything around it, including primordial hydrogen and helium. But what if dark matter had a more active role in the process? That’s exactly the question a group of astrophysicists raised in 2008.
In the dense environment of the early universe, dark matter particles would collide with, and annihilate, each other, releasing energy in the process. This energy could heat the hydrogen and helium gas, preventing it from further collapse and delaying, or even preventing, the typical ignition of nuclear fusion.
The outcome would be a starlike object — but one powered by dark matter heating instead of fusion. Unlike regular stars, these dark stars might live much longer because they would continue to shine as long as they attracted dark matter. This trait would make them distinct from ordinary stars, as their cooler temperature would result in lower emissions of various particles.
What could dark matter be made of? (Image credit: HyeongHan et al/Robert Lea)
Can we observe dark stars?
Several unique characteristics help astronomers identify potential dark stars. First, these objects must be very old. As the universe expands, the frequency of light coming from objects far away from Earth decreases, shifting toward the infrared end of the electromagnetic spectrum, meaning it gets “redshifted.” The oldest objects appear the most redshifted to observers.
Since dark stars form from primordial hydrogen and helium, they are expected to contain little to no heavier elements, such as oxygen. They would be very large and cooler on the surface, yet highly luminous because their size — and the surface area emitting light — compensates for their lower surface brightness.
They are also expected to be enormous, with radii of about tens of astronomical units — a cosmic distance measurement equal to the average distance between Earth and the sun. Some supermassive dark stars are theorized to reach masses of roughly 10,000 to 10 million times that of the sun, depending on how much dark matter and hydrogen or helium gas they can accumulate during their growth.
So, have astronomers observed dark stars? Possibly. Data from the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed some very high-redshift objects that seem brighter — and possibly more massive — than what scientists expect of typical early galaxies or stars. These results have led some researchers to propose that dark stars might explain these objects.
The James Webb Space Telescope may have detected some dark stars. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Northrop Grumman)
Dark stars may explain early black holes
What happens when a dark star runs out of dark matter? It depends on the size of the dark star. For the lightest dark stars, the depletion of dark matter would mean gravity compresses the remaining hydrogen, igniting nuclear fusion. In this case, the dark star would eventually become an ordinary star, so some stars may have begun as dark stars.
Supermassive dark stars are even more intriguing. At the end of their lifespan, a dead supermassive dark star would collapse directly into a black hole. This black hole could start the formation of a supermassive black hole, like the kind astronomers observe at the centers of galaxies, including our own Milky Way.
Dark stars might also explain how supermassive black holes formed in the early universe. They could shed light on some unique black holes observed by astronomers. For example, a black hole in the galaxy UHZ-1 has a mass approaching 10 million solar masses, and is very old – it formed just 500 million years after the Big Bang. Traditional models struggle to explain how such massive black holes could form so quickly.
The idea of dark stars is not universally accepted. These dark star candidates might still turn out just to be unusual galaxies. Some astrophysicists argue that matter accretion — a process in which massive objects pull in surrounding matter — alone can produce massive stars, and that studies using observations from the James Webb telescope cannot distinguish between massive ordinary stars and less dense, cooler dark stars.
Researchers emphasize that they will need more observational data and theoretical advancements to solve this mystery.
While diving off the coast of Egypt, underwater archaeologists found the 2,000-year-old remains of a boat that may have been a luxurious “pleasure barge” for the ancient elite.
The team discovered the barge in the ancient harbor of Alexandria, the capital of Egypt during the Ptolemaic period (304 to 30 B.C.) and a major city when the Roman Empire later dominated the region.
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Goddio said his team discovered the remains of the vessel in October, during underwater excavations of now-sunken ruins of a Temple of Isis. The temple once sat on the island of Antirhodos, which now lies underwater, and was within the “Portus Magnus,” or Great Harbor, used at Alexandria during the Ptolemaic period. The temple there was destroyed, probably during an earthquake in about A.D. 50, and the island sank beneath the waves between the fourth and the eighth centuries.
Goddio thinks the pleasure barge would have carried a luxuriously decorated central cabin and been propelled by oars. No remains of such a vessel have ever been found, although they were described by ancient writers and portrayed in Egyptian art.
The researchers have made a 3D model of the wreck from precise digital photographs. (Image credit: Christoph Gerigk ©Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation)
Among the lotuses
Giant pleasure barges were popular during the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt and were described by the first-century-B.C. Greek geographer Strabo as ferrying the wealthy between choice spots: “… they hold feasts in cabin-boats in which they enter the thick of the cyami [Egyptian lotuses that grow in fresh water] and the shade of the leaves.”
In Strabo’s time, Alexandria was under direct Roman control — an ancient regime change that began at the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C., when naval forces commanded by Roman leader Octavian (later Augustus) defeated the navy of Cleopatra VII (the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty) and her lover, the Roman rebel Mark Antony.
Exactly how the newfound vessel ended up by the island of Antirhodos is unclear.
“This intriguing shipwreck could have been used along the canals in Alexandria as Strabo described,” Goddio said in the statement. But it was found near the underwater ruins of the Temple of Isis on Antirhodos and may have been caught up in the destruction there.
A map of the Great Harbor at Alexandria showing (in red) the areas excavated by the researchers. Antirhodos was southwest of the harbor’s center. It sank, along with many other parts of the ancient harbor, between the fourth and the eighth centuries. (Image credit: Franck Goddio ©IEASM)
As a result, the researchers suggested “a ritual use for this barge,” Goddio said. It may have been part of the “navigatio iside,” a naval ceremony held in Roman-era Alexandria when a procession celebrating Isis carried a richly decorated vessel called the “Navigium” through the streets. The mock-up boat represented the solar barque that the Egyptian gods used to navigate across the heavens. (Isis was the goddess of the sea.)
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That, in turn, could mean that “this vessel was performing a yearly ritual voyage of the goddess from the Portus Magnus of Alexandria to the sanctuary of Osiris at Canopus, alongside the Canopic Channel” of the Nile, Goddio said.
Early Roman Egypt
The research into the wrecked vessel is at a very early stage, but it “promises to be a fascinating journey into life, religion, luxury and pleasure on the waterways of early Roman Egypt,” Goddio said.
The vessel is a “spectacular find,” said Timmy Gambin, a maritime archaeologist at the University of Malta whose research covers ancient vessels as well as wartime wrecks. However, it has not yet been scientifically determined if the vessel is actually a thalamagos, said Gambin, who was not involved in the discovery.
“It is yet early days to determine exactly what the vessel was used for,” he told Live Science in an email.
SCIENCE
Geminid meteor shower peaks tonight — here’s what to expect from one of the best shooting star shows of the year
A composite view of the Geminid meteor shower taken from Arizona in the United States. (Image credit: Alan Dyer/VW Pics/UIG via Getty Images)
The Geminid meteor shower peaks overnight tonight (Dec. 13-14), bringing with it the potential for a breathtaking display of shooting stars as Earth barrels through the debris trail shed by comet 3200 Phaethon.
Shooting stars appear when particles from ancient comets and asteroids collide with Earth’s atmosphere, burning up in a magnificent display that can be easily visible to the naked eye. A particle no larger than a grain of sand has the potential to create a beautiful, short-lived meteor, while larger fragments that can exceed 1 meter (3 feet) in size create magnificent “fireballs”, which can blaze brighter than the planet Venus during their passage through the night sky.
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How to see Geminid meteors
Geminid meteors appear to travel from a point of origin, or radiant, located close to the bright star Castor in the constellation Gemini, which rises above the Northern Hemisphere’s eastern horizon in the hours following sunset on Dec. 13. It is from this constellation that the shower gets its name.
It will be possible to see Geminid meteors as soon as darkness falls and the radiant is above the horizon, though only a few meteors will be visible during this early period passing low in the northern and southern sky, heading westward. “The few meteors that do appear at this time are special in the fact that they just skim the atmosphere rather than penetrate deeply,” said meteor expert Robert Lunsford in a post detailing observing tactics on the AMS website. “This allows them to last for several seconds rather than the normal sub-second duration.”
A composite view of Geminid meteors captured from the top of Niubei Mountain in the Sichuan Province of China. (Image credit: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
A greater number of meteors will become visible after 10 p.m. local time, when up to 30 Geminids may be seen under dark sky conditions as the radiant soars higher in the autumn sky.
To see meteors with the longest trails, first locate the radiant by finding Castor with a smartphone astronomy app. If you need help finding it, you can first look for the planet Jupiter, which can be seen shining brightly in the constellation Gemini throughout December. Next, stake out a patch of sky 30-40 degrees above Castor, where the trails of shooting stars will be at their longest. Remember, the width of your clenched first accounts for approximately 10 degrees of sky, so this would be about three or four hand widths above Jupiter.
A red flashlight, warm clothing, a hot drink and a comfortable chair are useful during a night of meteor-hunting. (Image credit: Created in Canva by Daisy Dobrijevic)
Nikon Z8
(Image credit: Jason Parnell-Brookes)
Want to capture the natural splendor of the Geminid meteor shower for yourself? We rate the Nikon Z8 as the best overall camera out there! Be sure to check out our Nikon Z8 review for a more in-depth look at its capabilities.
“As each hour passes, hourly rates will increase reaching maximum near 2 a.m.,” continued Lunsford. “At this hour expect to see up to 60 Geminid meteors from dark rural sites.” Things will get a little trickier when the 25%-lit waning crescent moon rises around 2 a.m. local time. Thankfully, it will still be possible to see many shooting stars brightening the sky around this time by keeping the lunar disk out of your field of view.
When hunting meteors, It’s best to allow 30 minutes to allow your eyes to fully adapt to the dark and to use a red light where possible to preserve your night vision. Remember to dress warmly to make the experience enjoyable, and try to take a reclining chair or sleeping bag that will allow you to lie back and take in as much sky as possible in a comfortable position.
Photographers interested in capturing the shower should read our guide to imaging meteor showers, while those looking to upgrade their gear should read our roundups of the best astrophotography lenses and cameras for capturing the night sky.
Editor’s Note: If you capture an image of a Geminid shooting star and want to share your astrophotography with Space.com’s readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
SCIENCE
Brutal lion attack 6,200 years ago severely injured teenager — but somehow he survived, skeleton found in Bulgaria reveals
Around 6,200 years ago, a teenage boy survived a brutal lion attack in what is now Bulgaria — although deep holes in the youngster’s skull suggest his brain was badly damaged, a new study finds.
The 16- to-18-year-old may have been hunting when he encountered the lion (Panthera leo), according to the study, which was published Nov. 30 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Lions roamed what is now Eastern Europe in the Copper Age (4500 to 3500 B.C.), and cut marks on lion bones from prehistoric settlements on the Black Sea coast suggest humans occasionally ate them.
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“The skull shows a specific pattern of puncture and compressive injuries that are inconsistent with human-made weapons or postmortem damage,” study lead author Nadezhda Karastoyanova, an archaeozoologist at the National Museum of Natural History of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (NMNH-BAS), told Live Science in an email. “The size, shape, depth, and spacing of the defects are compatible with trauma produced by the bite of a very large carnivore.”
To work out which carnivore was responsible for the attack, the researchers examined various skulls in the NMNH-BAS collection, including lion and bear skulls. Using a special moulding process, they compared different tooth imprints to those found on the teenager’s skull. The team also considered the distribution of large carnivores during the Copper Age and found the most likely culprit was a lion.
Prehistoric evidence of lion attacks on humans is extremely rare, but what makes this case even more exceptional is that the teenager survived the initial trauma, Karastoyanova said. There are clear signs of healing on the youngster’s skull, suggesting he received medical care after the attack. However, the stage of healing is not very advanced — only two or three months along — so it appears the teenager succumbed to his wounds.
The lion attack likely left the teenager with severe brain injuries. (Image credit: Karastoyanova et al. (2025), Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports; CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
One wound in particular looks like it may have damaged the teenager’s meninges — the membranes that line the inside of the skull — leaving the integrity of his brain in a “questionable” state, according to the study.
The youngster’s legs and left arm also sustained deep wounds, possibly damaging his muscles and tendon attachments, Karastoyanova said. “Because the individual was seriously impaired as a result of these injuries, yet survived for a considerable period, it is highly likely that they received care and assistance from others in the community,” she said.
The teenager was buried near a prehistoric settlement called Kozareva Mogila, or “Goat Mound,” in eastern Bulgaria. Previous discoveries indicate that the inhabitants of Kozareva Mogila tried to treat diseases and performed surgeries on the skulls of living and dead individuals. This suggests they had some level of medical knowledge that may have helped the teenager survive after the attack.
But the youngster likely retained deep scars on his head, arms and legs that changed his appearance considerably, according to the study. He probably needed support for everyday movements, meaning he couldn’t do physical labor such as farming, and his neurological functions may have been severely impaired.
Archaeologists found the teenager buried in a crouched position with his hands in front of his face. Measurements indicate he was about 5 feet, 9 inches (175 centimeters) tall. No grave goods were found next to his skeleton, and his burial was deep compared with others at Kozareva Mogila, suggesting he had a low social status and was feared by his community after the attack.
“His individual life experience, possible intimidating behaviour and appearance could have made him an extraordinary and dangerous dead [person], demanding deeper deposition,” the researchers wrote in the study.
Usually, we get tattoos on purpose. But some injuries leave us with a different type of mark known as a “traumatic tattoo” — and these tattoos have nothing to do with needles or ink. So what exactly are traumatic tattoos?
Traumatic tattoos are formed when everyday materials, like graphite, dirt or gravel; or metal pieces, like shrapnel, become lodged beneath our skin, leaving a visible (and often long-lasting) mark.
“It’s when foreign particles like dirt, asphalt, metal, sand, etc become embedded into the skin’s … dermis,” Dr. Mara Weinstein Velez, a dermatologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center, told Live Science in an email. “And it happens more often than you’d think! Events like car accidents, scrapes and falls can cause this.”
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These residual marks don’t always cause pain or even discomfort in the long term, but their appearances can last a lifetime. While some are born from truly traumatic events, like a motorcycle crash that ends in road rash, leaving gravel or asphalt trapped under the skin, or a gunshot wound that isn’t fully cleaned, others originate from common experiences, like the poke of a pencil in an elementary school classroom.
Sometimes the material itself becomes unlodged naturally over time, and sometimes it travels nearby within the body. For instance, one child had a pencil lead in their hand travel to their wrist. But in these cases, particles sometimes remain at the original entry spot, which is why a dark-colored scar can be left behind, under the skin.
Although the presence of an old traumatic tattoo isn’t necessarily harmful or worthy of a trip to the doctor on its own, experts say it’s best to seek medical advice when you’re first wounded. The biggest risk is usually the possibility of infection, as harmful bacteria can enter the body along with the foreign object. However, surgery may also become necessary if the object has migrated under the skin to a more risk-prone location or if it has become uncomfortable. Always consult a doctor if you experience this type of injury.
Traumatic tattoos can occur when foreign particles, like graphite from pencils, get trapped in our skin’s dermis layer. (Image credit: seamartini/Getty Images)
“It’s very important to seek medical help right away to avoid infection, since it is a foreign object,” Weinstein Velez said. “Treatments like minor surgeries, laser and dermabrasion can help safely remove the foreign matter from the skin.”
People who work in physically demanding industries, like mining and construction, are more likely to develop traumatic tattoos in the workplace, as they’re exposed to fast-moving foreign materials like silt and rock more often during their day-to-day life.
But the traumatic tattoos we’re perhaps more familiar with are small, barely noticeable scars from pencils. Pencils are made with graphite, which is a soft mineral held together with clay and wax, and is considered nontoxic and safe. However, “a doctor will probably need to see deep stab wounds that go further than the skin and any that are close to the eyes,” according to Missouri Poison Control.
Traumatic tattoos also appear frequently in the military, often from the enmeshment of gunpowder and ammunition under service members’ skin after explosions or gunshots — and even during weapon malfunctions during live drills, as seen in one study conducted by researchers with the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the Womack Army Medical Center in North Carolina.
Even if not otherwise treated, traumatic tattoos can be addressed from a cosmetic standpoint. To disguise or cover these marks, dermatologists employ the same types of lasers that are typically used to remove professional tattoos, matching the color of the trapped pigment to the appropriate wavelength of light. The pigment fragments into smaller pieces when targeted by these lasers. However, because some tattoo colors are able to absorb a wider range of wavelengths than others, meaning they can be broken into even smaller particles that the immune system can then target, dermatologists use different tools on different marks depending on color and placement.
The laser “breaks up the pigment, and then your body’s immune cells, called macrophages, clear out the pigments,” said Dr. Anna A. Bar, a professor of dermatology and co-director of Mohs micrographic surgery at Oregon Health and Science University. “It’s not an instant result — you have to wait like a month for the tattoo to fade.”
Even though a traumatic tattoo may take time and multiple sessions to address, because there is usually less pigment involved, “they’re often easier to remove than professional tattoos,” she added. “Usually, it’s a bit easier to remove amateur tattoos or traumatic tattoos.”
This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.
One of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites just dodged a bullet in orbit.
That bullet was one of the nine spacecraft that launched atop a Chinese Kinetica 1 rocket on Tuesday (Dec. 9) from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. It zoomed dangerously close to a Starlink satellite, according to SpaceX, which was none too pleased with the close shave.
“As far as we know, no coordination or deconfliction with existing satellites operating in space was performed, resulting in a 200-meter close approach between one of the deployed satellites and STARLINK-6079 (56120) at 560 km altitude. Most of the risk of operating in space comes from the lack of coordination between satellite operators — this needs to change,” Michael Nicolls, vice president of Starlink engineering at SpaceX, said via X on Friday evening (Dec. 12).
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Kinetica 1 is a 100-foot-tall (30 meters) solid-fuel rocket operated by CAS Space. The company, which is based in Guangzhou, responded to Nicolls’ post, saying that it did its due diligence as the launch services provider (LSP) but is looking into the incident nonetheless.
“Our team is currently in contact for more details. All CAS Space launches select their launch windows using the ground-based space awareness system to avoid collisions with known satellites/debris. This is a mandatory procedure. We will work on identifying the exact details and provide assistance as the LSP,” CAS Space said via X on Friday night.
Tuesday’s Kinetica 1 launch lofted “six Chinese multifunctional satellites, an Earth-observation satellite for the UAE [United Arab Emirates}, a scientific satellite for Egypt and an educational satellite for Nepal,” according to China Daily. Nicolls’ post did not specify which of these spacecraft zoomed close to the Starlink satellite.
The coordination that Nicolls cited is becoming more and more important, for Earth orbit is getting more and more crowded. In 2020, for example, fewer than 3,400 functional satellites were whizzing around our planet. Just five years later, that number has soared to about 13,000, and more spacecraft are going up all the time.
Most of them belong to SpaceX. The company currently operates nearly 9,300 Starlink satellites, more than 3,000 of which have launched this year alone.
Starlink satellites avoid potential collisions autonomously, maneuvering themselves away from conjunctions predicted by available tracking data. And this sort of evasive action is quite common: Starlink spacecraft performed about 145,000 avoidance maneuvers in the first six months of 2025, which works out to around four maneuvers per satellite per month.
That’s an impressive record. But many other spacecraft aren’t quite so capable, and even Starlink satellites can be blindsided by spacecraft whose operators don’t share their trajectory data, as Nicolls noted.
And even a single collision — between two satellites, or involving pieces of space junk, which are plentiful in Earth orbit as well — could spawn a huge cloud of debris, which could cause further collisions. Indeed, the nightmare scenario, known as the Kessler syndrome, is a debris cascade that makes it difficult or impossible to operate satellites in parts of the final frontier.
SCIENCE
Science news this week: Neanderthals made fire, orcas and dolphins team up, and the ‘Star of Bethlehem’ explored
It has been an exciting week in science news, with our understanding of human evolution and animal behavior taking interesting turns. But before we dip into matters on Earth, let’s look to the skies and see what we’ve discovered in space.
A bright binary star system could soon light up with the nuclear brilliance of thousands of suns. The star system, called V Sagittae, is giving off brilliant flares before going supernova a century from now. Skywatchers are in for a treat, because the flares will be visible with the naked eye — day or night. Meanwhile, a mysterious X-ray signal from deep space may in fact be the death throes of a star getting ripped to bits by two separate black holes.
Are orcas and dolphins teaming up?
A dolphin swims alongside a pod of northern resident killer whales. (Image credit: University of British Columbia (A.Trites), Dalhousie University (S. Fortune), Hakai Institute (K. Holmes), Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (X. Cheng))
Orcas living off the coast of British Columbia have been spotted hunting with Pacific white-sided dolphins and sharing scraps of salmon with them after making a kill.
A study released this week shows the two species in this area generally showing few signs of mutual aggression and sometimes even seeking each other out, which is unusual given that orcas hunt dolphins in other locations, while some dolphins mob orcas.
The study authors claim the findings are the first documented recording of cooperative hunting and prey-sharing between orcas and dolphins. However, not all experts agree that the behavior shows these species working together. Instead, it could be a form of kleptoparasitism, in which one animal steals food that another has already hunted.
Life’s Little Mysteries
A statue depicting Cleopatra VII, the last pharaoh of Egypt. (Image credit: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)
In 30 B.C., Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII died by suicide after they were defeated by Octavian’s forces in a civil war.
But what if Antony and Cleopatra had defeated Octavian, the man who became Rome’s first emperor? Would they have become rulers of Rome? How would history have been different?
—If you enjoyed this, sign up for our Life’s Little Mysteries newsletter
Neanderthals made fire very early
An artist’s impression of making sparks from pyrite and flint. (Image credit: Craig Williams/The Trustees of the British Museum)
The use of fire is often considered one of the key moments in the history of human evolution, but a new study released this week has pushed back previous estimates of when Neanderthals were first able to control it by some 350,000 years.
A naturally occurring mineral called pyrite can be found all around the world, and when struck against flint, produces fire-starting sparks. But the mineral, also known as fool’s gold, is extremely rare at an archaeological site in Suffolk, England, from more than 400,000 years ago, a time when Neanderthals ruled the land but much earlier than previous evidence of fire making. Its presence at the site suggests it was intentionally brought there, probably with the aim of making fire, the researchers said in the study.
Because of the importance of controlled fire, paleoanthropologists have long debated the timing of this invention. The study’s results add fuel to a larger debate about Neanderthals’ control of fire and their social and cultural use of it.
Discover more archaeology news:
—1,800-year-old ‘piggy banks’ full of Roman-era coins unearthed in French village
—The ‘hobbits’ may have died out when drought forced them to compete with modern humans, new research suggests
—Lost Indigenous settlements described by Jamestown colonist John Smith finally found
Also in science news this week
—’It is simply too hot to handle’: 2024 was Arab region’s hottest year on record, first-of-its-kind climate report reveals
—New ‘physics shortcut’ lets laptops tackle quantum problems once reserved for supercomputers and AI
—Glue strong enough to tow a car made from used cooking oil
Beyond the headlines
Hadrian’s Wall served as the Roman Empire’s northern frontier for around 300 years. (Image credit: by Marc Guitard via Getty Images)
Two millennia ago, the Roman Empire reached the limits of its power. The island of Britain marked the northernmost border of the Roman Empire and the point at which the ancient superpower’s expansion came to a halt.
The Romans launched several invasions and kept 10% of the entire army in the province but failed to conquer the whole island. Instead, a militarized frontier divided the island in two — marked by the 73-mile-long (118 kilometers) Hadrian’s Wall, which was the border for nearly 300 years.
One key source of information we’ve gleaned about this borderland is a historic fort called Vindolanda.New discoveries at Vindolanda are changing the picture of what life was like on the edge of the empire. The Roman frontier was far from a forbidding, “Game of Thrones”-like outpost in the middle of nowhere. Instead, clues point to a vibrant community that was a demographic snapshot of the entire empire. And the site is shining a light on some of the most understudied groups in Roman society.
Something for the weekend
If you’re looking for something a little longer to read over the weekend, here are some of the best polls, interviews and opinion pieces published this week.
—’Intelligence comes at a price, and for many species, the benefits just aren’t worth it’: A neuroscientist’s take on how human intellect evolved [Book extract]
—Female chemist initially barred from research helps develop drug for remarkable-but-short-lived recovery in children with leukemia — Dec. 6, 1954 [Science history]
—#23: Distance around the edge of a circle — 6 down [Crossword]
Science in pictures
A bleached white rock on Mars. On Earth, rocks like these only form after millions of years of warm and wet conditions. (Image credit: NASA)
This may look like a particularly unassuming rock, but its curious bleaching suggests that its home, Mars, may have once had wet, humid areas with heavy rainfall, similar to tropical regions on Earth.
The rock seen in this photo, taken by NASA’s Perseverance rover, appears to be kaolinite, an aluminum-rich type of clay that on Earth almost always forms under very warm, steamy conditions. So how did it form on the cold and dry climate of Mars?
Follow Live Science on social media
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SCIENCE
Astronaut sees gorgeous ‘skies of blue and clouds of white’ | On the International Space Station this week Dec. 8-12, 2025
The seven members of the Expedition 74 crew studied stem cells, packed up a cargo ship and maintained their toilet this week, Dec. 8-12, 2025, on board the International Space Station (ISS).
Orbital observation
“Thinking, ‘I’m sure everyone would want to see a photo of Earth,’ I took a few shots right before going to bed. I think the amazing thing about the ISS is that you can see views like this without even trying,'” JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, an Expedition 74 flight engineer, wrote on social media on Thursday (Dec. 11).
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Yui’s photo nicely captures the “skies of blue and clouds of white” as sung by the iconic Louis Armstrong.
Expedition 74 flight engineer Kimiya Yui, a JAXA astronaut, captured this view of Earth from the International Space Station on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Image credit: NASA / JAXA/Kimiya Yui)
Science status
Among the research that was conducted by the Expedition 74 crew aboard the space station this week was:
StemCellEx-IP1 — In an effort that may someday lead to ways to repair damaged organs and tissue, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman studied stem cells under a microscope, observing their production in microgravity as compared to on Earth.
Virtual — In a Roscosmos experiment that looks at how the vestibular system adapts to microgravity, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev traded off wearing a different set of VR (virtual reality) goggles to track their vision. The study could lead to developing additional countermeasures when readjusting to gravity.
Station keeping
The Expedition 74 crew also devoted time to maintaining the space station’s systems, including:
JEM DRCS — In a demo that has applications to future Artemis missions to the moon and ultimately to Mars, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui installed and soundproofed the JEM Demonstration of CO2 Removal System in the station’s Kibo module. The experimental device traps carbon dioxide from the air and vents it overboard.
JAXA’s HTV-X1 — NASA astronauts Chris Williams and Mike Fincke, together with some help from Zena Cardman and JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, continued preparing the cargo ship for its departure in January. Williams worked on loading refuse and no-longer-needed equipment, while Fincke focused on preparing a science rack for its transfer from the space station to inside the HTV-X.
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Waste and Hygiene Compartment — Fincke also spent some of his time this week servicing one of the space station’s restrooms, replacing orbital plumbing components in the Tranquility node.
Astronaut activity
NASA astronaut Chris Williams is living out his boyhood dream as an Expedition 74 flight engineer.
“For as far back as I can remember, so when I was a little kid, I was always fascinated by exploration and in particular, space,” said Williams. “I think it is one of those things that a lot of kids have a fascination with, and I just never grew out of it. It is something that has always been a point of curiosity for me, and being an astronaut felt like the best way to explore space.”
Williams discussed his path to flying in space and serving aboard the International Space Station during an in-flight interview on Thursday (Dec. 11), with The Washington Post. You can watch the full discussion in the video above.
By the numbers
As of Friday (Dec. 12), there are 7 people aboard the International Space Station: Expedition 74 commander Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman and Chris Williams of NASA; JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui; Oleg Platonov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev of Roscosmos, all flight engineers.
There are two docked crew spacecraft: SpaceX’s Dragon “Endeavour” attached to the space-facing port of the Harmony module and Roscosmos’ Soyuz MS-28 attached to the Earth-facing port of the Rassvet module.
There are four cargo spacecraft: Roscosmos’ Progress MS-31 (92P) docked to the space-facing port of the Poisk module, Progress MS-32 (93P) attached to the aft port of the Zvezda service module, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL, the S.S. William C. “Willie” McCool, berthed to the Earth-facing common berthing mechanism (CBM) on the Unity node and Japan’s HTV-X1 attached to the Earth-facing CBM on the Harmony node.
As of Friday, the space station has been continuously crewed for 25 years, 1 month and 10 days.
SCIENCE
New telescope images prove comet 3I/ATLAS is getting brighter and greener on its way to Earth
New telescope images of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS confirm that the mysterious object has gotten brighter and greener since its close approach to the sun in late October. This increase in activity could portend new, bright outbursts of cometary material as 3I/ATLAS careens toward its closest encounter with Earth next week.
Taken on Nov. 26 with the Gemini North telescope atop Hawaii’s dormant Mauna Kea volcano, the new images capture the comet in one of its most active phases yet. Recently heated by intense solar radiation, ice on the comet is sublimating and spewing into space along with tons of dust, forming a bright, cloudy atmosphere (a coma) around the comet’s main body and a long, glowing tail behind it.
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Why is 3I/ATLAS going green?
After viewing the comet through red, orange, blue and green filters, NSF researchers found the comet is glowing much greener than it was several months ago. The blurred lines in the background are stars, which appear to be in motion while the telescope stays fixed on the comet. (Image credit: Gemini North / NSF NOIRLab)
Don’t rush to blame little green men for the comet’s new greenish glow. Among the gases spilling out of 3I/ATLAS is diatomic carbon (C2) — a molecule of two carbon atoms that emits a greenish light, according to a statement from the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, which operates the Gemini North telescope along with its twin Gemini South telescope in Chile.
Many solar system comets give off a similar green hue when activated by the sun, including last year’s “Mother of Dragons” comet 12P/Pons-Brooks and the recently discovered Comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN).
However, it’s noteworthy that 3I/ATLAS appeared distinctly redder when it was first observed by Gemini South in late August, months before its close flyby of the sun, according to NOIRLab. This is evidence that 3I/ATLAS is releasing new molecules into space as it heats up, offering fresh hints into its mysterious makeup.
Is another outburst coming?
A second Gemini North image, taken on Nov. 26, has been adjusted to correct the motions of background stars. According to NSF researchers, “an almost invisible, unknown main belt asteroid is photobombing the image to the lower right of the comet.” (Image credit: Gemini North / NSF NOIRLab)
As the comet approaches its closest point to Earth on Dec. 19 (coming within a comfortable 170 million miles, or 270 million kilometers, of our planet), we may be in for even more surprises.
“What remains unknown is how the comet will behave as it leaves the Sun’s vicinity and cools down,” NOIRLab representatives wrote in the statement. “Many comets have a delayed reaction in experiencing the Sun’s heat due to the lag in time that it takes for heat to make its way through the interior of the comet. A delay can activate the evaporation of new chemicals or trigger a comet outburst.”
3I/ATLAS is the third interstellar object ever discovered, after 1I/’Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov. The comet was detected in late June as it was speeding through our solar system at an estimated 130,000 mph (210,000 km/h), zooming by on a hyperbolic (U-shaped) orbit that will never bring it through our neighborhood again.
3I/ATLAS is probably the largest and, very likely, the oldest interstellar object seen so far. While it shows many intriguing features — including large, sun-facing jets and signs of being irradiated by its billions of years spent in interstellar space — the vast majority of astronomers and space agencies agree that it is a typical comet — and not an artificial piece of alien technology, as some viral claims have suggested.
Dozens of observatories and spacecraft around the solar system have been closely monitoring 3I/ATLAS to better understand its size, trajectory, composition and origins. Studying it in depth could reveal new details about the mysterious frontier of our galaxy and how some of the earliest star systems in the Milky Way formed.
SCIENCE
Einstein’s right again: Scientists catch a feasting black hole dragging the very fabric of spacetime
Astronomers have observed a star wobbling in its orbit around a ravenous supermassive black hole that is ripping it apart and feasting on its stellar material. The observation is evidence of a rare and elusive phenomenon called the “Lense-Thirring precession” or “frame dragging,” in which a rapidly spinning black hole drags the very fabric of space and time around with its motion.
This swirling of spacetime first emerged from Albert Einstein’s 1915 theory of general relativity, which predicted that objects with mass “warp” the fabric of space and time (united as a single entity called spacetime) and that gravity arises from this geometric effect. The greater the mass of the object, the larger its impact on spacetime and thus the greater its gravitational influence. In 1918, the concept of massive, rotating objects dragging spacetime along with it was then solidified using general relativity by Austrian physicists Josef Lense and Hans Thirring.
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“Our study shows the most compelling evidence yet of Lense-Thirring precession — a black hole dragging space time along with it in much the same way that a spinning top might drag the water around it in a whirlpool,” team member Cosimo Inserra of Cardiff University in the UK, said in a statement. “This is a real gift for physicists as we confirm predictions made more than a century ago. Not only that, but these observations also tell us more about the nature of TDEs – when a star is shredded by the immense gravitational forces exerted by a black hole.”
Watch the wobble
The team set about investigating Lense-Thirring precession by studying the TDE designated AT2020afhd using X-ray data collected by a NASA spacecraft, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (Swift), and radio-wave observations from the Earth-based Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA).
A TDE occurs when a star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole, and the immense gravitational influence of that cosmic titan, which can be as massive as billions of suns, generates tidal forces within the star that squeeze it horizontally while simultaneously stretching it vertically. This process, called spaghettification, creates a strand of stellar pasta that twists around the black hole like a noodle around a fork, forming a flattened cloud called an accretion disk.
Matter from the accretion disk is gradually fed to the black hole, but these galaxy-dominating titans are notoriously messy eaters, with some material channeled from the poles of the black holes by powerful magnetic fields. From there, this matter is blasted out as twin near-light-speed jets of plasma.
Both the accretion disk of these TDE-perpetrating black holes and the jets they erupt radiate brightly across the electromagnetic spectrum, and because these emissions originate from immediately outside the black hole, they should be impacted by Lense-Thirring precession. This effect translates to a “wobble” in the orbit of matter in the accretion disk around the supermassive black hole.Indeed, while observing AT2020afhd, the team saw rhythmic changes in both X-rays and radio waves coming from this TDE that implied the accretion disk and jet were wobbling in unison, with this motion repeating every 20 Earth-days.
“Unlike previous TDEs studied, which have steady radio signals, the signal for AT2020afhd showed short-term changes, which we were unable to attribute to the energy release from the black hole and its surrounding components,” Inserra continued. “This further confirmed the dragging effect in our minds and offers scientists a new method for probing black holes.”
Modelling the data from Swift and the VLA, the team was able to confirm these variations were the result of frame-dragging. Further analysis of these results could help scientists better understand the physics behind the Lense-Thirring effect.
“By showing that a black hole can drag space time and create this frame-dragging effect, we are also beginning to understand the mechanics of the process,” Inserra said. “So, in the same way a charged object creates a magnetic field when it rotates, we’re seeing how a massive spinning object – in this case a black hole – generates a gravitomagnetic field that influences the motion of stars and other cosmic objects nearby.
“It’s a reminder to us, especially during the festive season as we gaze up at the night sky in wonder, that we have within our grasp the opportunity to identify ever more extraordinary objects in all the variations and flavours that nature has produced.”
The team’s research was published on Wednesday (Dec. 10) in the journal Science Advances.