Day Night

Mysterious exploding star and more — January’s best science images

Nature

Mysterious exploding star and more — January’s best science images"

Select a language for the TTS:
UK English Female
UK English Male
US English Female
US English Male
Australian Female
Australian Male
Language selected: (auto detect) - EN

Play all audios:

Mysterious exploding star and more — January’s best science images The month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team.

By Emma Stoye

31 January 2024

Marcio Cabral

Under the stars. This panoramic photo of Paepalanthus flowers under the Milky Way in Brazil’s Chapada dos Veadeiros national park was a winner of the 2023 Nature Photography Contest. To

capture the shot, landscape photographer Marcio Cabral illuminated the flowers with a lamp and used a camera specialized for astrophotography.

Gerhard Vlcek/cupoty.com

Ready for the close-up. Capturing this microscopic cross section of marram grass (Ammophila arenaria) stems was a challenge for photographer Gerhard Vlcek, who won the Micro category of the

Close-up Photographer of the Year contest with this colourful shot (see below for a selection of other winning entries). “Staining and preparing the sample was very tricky,” Vlcek writes in

his competition entry. “I had to use the tiniest brush to manipulate the less-than-1mm parts in different staining and chemical solutions before positioning the stems on the slide. After

that, taking the photograph was the easy part!”

Mosquito eggs form a raft. Credit: Barry Webb/cupoty.com

Wood ants firing jets of acid. Credit: René Krekels/cupoty.com

Frost forming on a slime mould. Credit: Barry Webb/cupoty.com

Shrimp hovers above a mosaic sea star. Credit: Simon Theuma/cupoty.com

Dew-covered damselfly. Credit: Pete Burford/cupoty.com

Lava moray eel. Credit: Liang Fu/cupoty.com

Fairy shrimp carrying eggs. Credit: René Krekels/cupoty.com

Ferrofluid under the influence of a strong magnet. Credit: Jack Margerison/cupoty.com

Item 1 of 8 Mosquito eggs form a raft. Credit: Barry Webb/cupoty.com

Mosquito eggs form a raft. Credit: Barry Webb/cupoty.com

Wood ants firing jets of acid. Credit: René Krekels/cupoty.com

Frost forming on a slime mould. Credit: Barry Webb/cupoty.com

Shrimp hovers above a mosaic sea star. Credit: Simon Theuma/cupoty.com

Dew-covered damselfly. Credit: Pete Burford/cupoty.com

Lava moray eel. Credit: Liang Fu/cupoty.com

Fairy shrimp carrying eggs. Credit: René Krekels/cupoty.com

Ferrofluid under the influence of a strong magnet. Credit: Jack Margerison/cupoty.com

Melanoma fighters. This video shows immune cells called CD4+ T cells (green) attacking cancer cells (red) in skin. CD4+ T cells are often called helper T cells, because they are known to

play a part in activating and regulating other immune cells. But a detailed analysis that shows how effective CD4+ T cells are at controlling melanoma challenges a conventional understanding

of their role. “Harnessing their potential therapeutically holds great promise for the development and improvement of current cancer immunotherapies,” Thomas Gebhardt, an immunologist at

the University of Melbourne, Australia, said in a statement.

Your browser does not support this video

This video has no sound. Credit: Dr Bawden/Doherty Institute

ESA

Tiny spines. Each plasma-etched cone on this glass surface measures less than one-hundredth of a millimetre across. The features, captured using a scanning electron microscope, were created

as part of a European Space Agency project to improve the reliability of atomic clocks for space; these involve glass components that can become degraded by chemical etching and other

processes.

Nasir Kachroo/NurPhoto via Getty

Dry January. The Kashmir Valley is a popular winter tourist destination owing to its mountains and ski resorts — such as Gulmarg, pictured here, where the hills are normally snow-covered in

January. But the valley has been afflicted by an exceptional drought, with no snow and an almost 80% shortfall in rain between December 2023 and the first week of January. In future,

droughts in the region could become more regular and extended as a result of climate change, scientists have warned. As well as affecting tourism, water scarcity has negative impacts on

saffron farming and other agriculture.

Antoine Dorison and Stéphen Rostain

Lost cities. Scientists have revealed the extent of a sprawling ancient settlement hidden beneath dense vegetation in the Amazon rainforest using LIDAR imaging combined with ground

excavations. The 2,500-year-old remains include a series of interconnected cities — including houses, plazas, roads and canals — in eastern Ecuador that are comparable in size to those of

Mayan cities in Mexico and Central America. Archaeologists think that the cities could have been home to tens or even hundreds of thousands of people for up to 1,000 years, but little is

known about what their society was like.

X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Milisavljevic et al., NASA/JPL/CalTech; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt and K. Arcand

Star debris. A composite image of Cassiopeia A, the remnant of an exploded star, or supernova, brings together data from several NASA telescopes: X-rays from Chandra (blue), infrared data

from the JWST and Spitzer (red, green, blue) and optical data from Hubble (red and white). While analysing the Chandra data, researchers found that filaments in the outer part of Cassiopeia

A closely matched the X-ray properties of a mysterious structure in the remnant called the Green Monster; this was first identified in JWST infrared data from April 2023. “We already

suspected the Green Monster was created by a blast wave from the exploded star slamming into material surrounding it,” Jacco Vink, an astrophysicist at the University of Amsterdam, said in a

statement. “Chandra helped us clinch the case.”

Mériol Lehmann

Frozen lake. A few snow-free days offered a rare opportunity for photographer Mériol Lehmann to photograph the unusual patterns of ice on the surface of this frozen lake in the

Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada. “Usually, at this time, there is abundant snow … the icy surface of the lake is thus always invisible,” says Lehmann. “My family has had a farm there

for 40 years, and this is the first time I have witnessed such a spectacle.” The photo was taken using a drone.

Onur Coban/Redux/eyevine

Seal settlers. This group of grey seals was spotted lounging on the beach at Les Hemmes de Marck on France’s Opal coast on 1 January. The species disappeared from northern France in the

1970s, because of fishing. But since the introduction of protective measures in the 1980s, the animals have begun to return. More than 1,000 seals now live in the area, but their future is

uncertain owing to the health consequences of ocean warming.

Shifting sands. In early January, a series of powerful earthquakes struck Japan.

As well as triggering tsunamis and reducing many buildings to rubble, the quakes caused land uplift that shifted the coastline offshore by up to 250 metres in some areas.

These satellite images show a beach in the country’s Noto Peninsula before and after the quakes.

The sea floor has risen above the water, leaving some ports completely dry and inaccessible to boats.

Credit: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, processed by Nahel Belgherze

One thing has become clear when your name is Oprah Winfrey: You can do whatever you want, no matter how bewildering it i...

Audi urban future initiative archives

* imprint * privacy policy * terms of use * cookies * copyright info * contribute * about us * contact us * newsletter *...

DNA racers burn up the track in molecular Grand Prix

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT 13 February 2020 DNA racers burn up the track in molecular Grand Prix ‘Origami’ nanomotors attain a b...

Crossword: September 2, 2023 | The Week

HomePuzzlespuzzles and quizzesCrossword: September 2, 2023 The Week’s daily crossword puzzle Newsletter sign upNewslette...

Trump taps FCC's Brendan Carr to lead the agency | WFAE 90.7 - Charlotte's NPR News Source

Politics Changing of the Guard The transition to President Donald Trump's second administration will have far-reaching i...

Latests News

Mysterious exploding star and more — January’s best science images

Mysterious exploding star and more — January’s best science images The month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Natur...

AP Assembly in Amaravati: Govt asks citizens to pick final design, here are your options

The Andhra Pradesh government has almost finalised its designs for the Assembly building at the upcoming capital of Amar...

Untreated Penile Curvature Gets Better Over Time

BOSTON -- Many men with untreated Peyronie's disease eventually experienced curvature improvement or stability, and reso...

Ferguson not side-tracked by derby date

When manager Sir Alex Ferguson cast his eye over the fixture list he probably expected to be in a position to hold back ...

eVTOL alef 'model A' combines flying and driving car in one electric vehicle

Alef Aeronautics offers its own eVTOL through Alef flying car, a concept flying car that would have a driving range of 2...

Menu

Mysterious exploding star and more — January’s best science images

Mysterious exploding star and more — January’s best science images"

Play all audios:

Trending News

Latests News