Phys.org news

Phys.org / Limiting space junk's threat by predicting its mess in the Earth-moon neighborhood

Debris from moonbound spacecraft has left craters on the lunar surface since the U.S. Apollo missions. But the moon is not used to being surrounded by debris. With an expected resurgence in lunar missions in the coming years, ...

Mar 26, 2026
Phys.org / Research challenges long-held ecological belief of how rare species survive

A biological process long thought to protect biodiversity and help species coexist may actually threaten diversity when species are separated by natural landscapes, infrastructure, or other barriers, according to new research ...

Mar 26, 2026
Phys.org / Damselfish pick-up lines could have regional accents

Courtship calls among two species of fish commonly found on Australian coral reefs have been described, and researchers say their "accents" can vary significantly between regions. Scientists led by the Australian Institute ...

Mar 26, 2026
Phys.org / JWST reveals most distant red galaxy yet at redshift 11.45

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered a new red galaxy at a redshift of approximately 11.45. The newfound galaxy, which received designation EGS-z11-R0, turns out to be the most distant ...

Mar 25, 2026
Phys.org / Unusual signal may prove existence of primordial black holes

It may well take years to prove, but a pair of University of Miami astrophysicists could be on the verge of a cosmic breakthrough that will confirm the existence of primordial black holes and the role they play in one of ...

Mar 25, 2026
Phys.org / Distant galaxy fades 20-fold in just two decades, challenging how supermassive black holes evolve

An international team led by a researcher at the Chiba Institute of Technology has discovered an extremely rare phenomenon: a galaxy about 10 billion light-years away whose brightness dropped to one-twentieth of its original ...

Mar 25, 2026
Phys.org / Uncovering the evolutionary limits of the COVID-19 virus

A new paper in Genome Biology and Evolution, indicates that while the COVID-19 virus has developed rapidly since 2019, it has done so within limited genetic channels. These genetic limits have remained unchanged. Despite ...

Mar 25, 2026
Phys.org / Massive insect body size 300 million years ago may not have been due to high atmospheric oxygen

Three-hundred-million years ago, Earth was very different. The continents had coalesced into Pangea, which was dominated in its equatorial regions by vast coal-swamp forests. With high atmospheric oxygen levels, wildfires ...

Mar 25, 2026
Phys.org / Extreme global climate outcomes are possible even at 2°C warming, study warns

Extreme climate impacts on people and the environment are often associated with very high levels of global warming (3 or 4°C). A new study led by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) shows that this assumption ...

Mar 25, 2026
Phys.org / Tiny fossil eggs provide first physical evidence of Cretaceous bird-like dinosaurs in Korea

A major gap in South Korea's prehistoric record has been filled with the discovery of Onggwanoolithus aphaedoensis, the first known bird-type dinosaur eggs from the Cretaceous period of South Korea. The find, which is detailed ...

Mar 25, 2026
Phys.org / Ice Age animals and slice of Earth history found in central Texas water cave

A paleontologist from The University of Texas at Austin has discovered the fossilized remains of Ice Age animals that have never been found in Central Texas before—and he came across the bones while snorkeling for fossils ...

Mar 25, 2026
Phys.org / 'Cool' detectors cut neutrino mass upper limit by an order of magnitude

Their mass is extremely low, but how light are neutrinos really? A collaboration comprising German and international research groups has optimized its experiments to determine the mass of these "ghost particles." In doing ...

Mar 25, 2026