These two lobes are visible to the upper right and lower left of the frame, and together form something known as a planetary nebula. Despite the name, such nebulae have nothing to do with planets; NGC 2371/2 formed when a Sun-like star reached the end of its life and blasted off its outer layers, shedding the constituent material and pushing it out into space to leave just a superheated stellar remnant behind....

The numerous fuzzy blobs and glowing shapes scattered across this image make up a galaxy cluster named RXC J0949.8+1707. Located to the upper right of the frame sits an especially beautiful and interesting barred spiral galaxy, seen face-on. In the past decade, astronomers peering at this galaxy have possibly discovered not one but three examples of a cosmic phenomenon known as a supernova, the magnificently bright explosion of a star nearing the end of its life....

The gigantic mass of this cluster creates the fascinating phenomenon of strong gravitational lensing. The gravity of the cluster bends light coming from behind it in a similar way to how the base of a wine glass bends light. The effects of this lensing can be clearly seen as curved streaks forming a circular shape around the center of the frame. Astronomers can use these distorted galaxies to calculate the mass of the cluster — including the mass of the dark matter within it — and to peer deeper into the Universe as otherwise possible....

350 million light-years away in the constellation of Cetus (the Sea Monster), a pair of barred spiral galaxies have just begun a magnificent merger. This image suspends them in a single moment, freezing the chaotic spray of gas, dust, and stars kicked up by the gravitational forces pulling the two galaxies together. Though their nuclei are still separated by a large distance, the shapes of the galaxies in Arp 256 are impressively distorted....

But UGC 6093 is more exotic still. The galaxy essentially acts as a giant astronomical laser that spews out light at microwave, not visible, wavelengths — this type of object is dubbed a megamaser (maser being the term for a microwave laser). Megamasers such as UGC 6093 can be some 100 million times brighter than masers found in galaxies like the Milky Way. Hubble’s WFC3 observes light spanning a range of wavelengths — from the near-infrared, through the visible range, to the near-ultraviolet....

The Sicán was a prominent culture that existed from the ninth to 14th centuries along the northern coast of modern Peru. During the Middle Sicán Period (about 900–1,100 A.D.), metallurgists produced a dazzling array of gold objects, many of which were buried in tombs of the elite class. In the early 1990s, a team of archaeologists and conservators led by Izumi Shimada excavated a tomb where an elite man’s seated skeleton was painted red and placed upside down at the center of the chamber....

Antarctic waters have conditions in which objects and living creatures can freeze even under water. This is a major problem for marine travel in polar regions. So-called supercooled water has a temperature just below the freezing point. Due to the high salt content, water in Antarctica has a freezing point of about -1.9 °C, but is about 0.05 °C colder. The smallest disturbances such as grains of sand or surfaces can cause this supercooled water to freeze – with sometimes fatal consequences for creatures that cannot survive frozen....

When LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, and its European counterpart, Virgo, detect a gravitational ripple from space, a public alert is sent out. That alert lets researchers know with a decently high confidence that this ripple was probably caused by an exceptional cosmic event, such as the collision of neutron stars or the merging of black holes, somewhere in the universe. Then starts the scramble. A pair of researchers is assigned to the incoming event, analyzing the data to get a preliminary location in the sky whence the ripple emanated....

Industrial-strength adhesive that debonds in a magnetic field means products can be dismantled and recycled, rather than thrown into landfill. Researchers at the University of Sussex have developed a glue which can unstick when placed in a magnetic field, meaning products otherwise destined for landfill, could now be dismantled and recycled at the end of their life. Currently, items like mobile phones, microwaves, and car dashboards are assembled using adhesives. It is a quick and relatively cheap way to make products but, due to problems dismantling the various materials for different recycling methods, most of these products will be destined for landfill....

In a new review published in Science, Dana Hawley, a professor of biological sciences in the Virginia Tech College of Science and colleagues from the University of Texas at Austin, University of Bristol, University of Texas at San Antonio, and University of Connecticut have highlighted just a few of the many non-human species that practice social distancing, as well as lessons learned from their methods to stop the spread of bacterial, viral, and parasitic infections....

Weekly death counts can be used to calculate how many more people are currently dying during the COVID-19 pandemic than would be expected according to trends in recent years. Internationally, there are clear differences: While in England the death counts in March and April were almost twice as high as in the previous five years, and in Sweden significantly more people died than in the comparable months of the previous years, the increase in Germany is moderate....

Two newly submitted studies verify 41 new transiting planets in 20 star systems. These results may increase the number of Kepler’s confirmed planets by more than 50 percent: to 116 planets hosted in 67 systems, over half of which contain more than one planet. The papers are currently under scientific peer review. Nineteen of the newly validated planetary systems have two closely spaced transiting planets and one system has three....

Our teeth take thousands of bites per day, and understanding exactly what holds them in place and how is key to helping people live with their own teeth for longer. Now new research published in the Journal of Dental Research has shed light on the science behind the formation of the periodontal ligament, which helps keep the tooth stable in the jawbone. This improved understanding will also help scientists work towards regenerating the tissues that support teeth....

Researchers working at ETH Zurich in the Marsquake Service have been analyzing the measurements made by the NASA InSight mission’s seismometer on one of our neighboring planets. For almost three years, the only seismic waves it detected on Mars were ones that propagated from the respective quake’s focus, or hypocenter, through the depths of the planet. However, the researchers were hoping all along for an event that would also generate waves traveling along the planet’s surface....

The international journal Earth-Science Reviews published a paper offering an overview of the lava tubes (pyroducts) on Earth, eventually providing an estimate of the (greater) size of their lunar and Martian counterparts. This study involved the Universities of Bologna and Padua and its coordinators are Francesco Sauro and Riccardo Pozzobon. Francesco Sauro is a speleologist and head of the ESA programs CAVES and PANGAEA, he is also a professor at the Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Bologna....

One of the most common methods of processing water is passing it through a membrane with pores that are sized to filter out particles that are larger than water molecules. However, these membranes are susceptible to “fouling” — clogging by the very materials they are designed to filter out — necessitating more electricity to force the water through a partially clogged membrane and frequent membrane replacement, both of which increase water-treatment costs....

The scientists published their findings in the journal Acta Psychologica. Dozens of students were asked to participate in a simulated ball-tossing game with computer-generated avatars. While they played, the researchers measured their skin temperature 24 times. The avatars refrained from tossing the ball to certain subjects and this made people feel bad about being left out. The excluded people had their body temperature drop by an average of 0.378 degrees....

In an effort to quantify what Long COVID means now, and could mean in the future for these patients, researchers from Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City studied nearly 150,000 patients for cardiovascular symptoms. They found that patients who tested positive for COVID-19 had higher rates of chest pain in the six months to a year after the infection. “Many COVID-19 patients experience symptoms well beyond the acute phase of infection,” said Heidi T....

NASA’s Lucy will be the first space mission to study the Trojans. The mission takes its name from the fossilized human ancestor (called “Lucy” by her discoverers) whose skeleton provided unique insight into humanity’s evolution. Likewise, the Lucy mission will revolutionize our knowledge of planetary origins and the formation of the solar system. Lucy is slated to launch in October 2021 and, with boosts from Earth’s gravity, will complete a 12-year journey to eight different asteroids — a Main Belt asteroid and seven Trojans, four of which are members of “two-for-the-price-of-one” binary systems....

A new paper from scientists at The University of Manchester has discovered why some volcanic eruptions are more explosive than others. Basaltic eruptions are the most common form of volcanic eruption, and for the most part, they involve relatively tame magma activity. Occasionally, however, the magma activity results in highly explosive and hazardous eruptions. The latter are known as Plinian eruptions, after the Ancient Roman writer who described the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79AD....