Here are today’s most important updates from the realm of Science and Space.
Using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have identified dozens of small, starburst galaxies that played a pivotal role in transforming the early universe during a period known as cosmic reionisation. These tiny galaxies, though small in size, emitted powerful ultraviolet light that helped clear the fog of neutral hydrogen gas enveloping the universe’s first billion years, enabling the universe to become transparent and evolve into its current state. The team analysed images from the UNCOVER observing program, which focused on the massive galaxy cluster Abell 2744, also known as Pandora’s cluster. This cluster’s immense gravity acts as a natural lens, magnifying distant galaxies and extending Webb’s observational reach about 4 billion light-years away.
Ninety miles up, you’ll find the strangest clouds you’ve never heard of. ☁️
— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) June 12, 2025
Known as Sporadic-E layers, they’re made of burnt-up meteors that coalesce without warning. Some are tall and puffy, others are flat and spread out… but all have the potential to disrupt radio signals,… pic.twitter.com/ccjO8PN9KT
(Credit: X/@NASASun)
NASA is planning to launch rockets from a remote Pacific island to study 'mysterious', high-altitude cloud-like structures that can potentially disrupt critical communication systems. Uncrewed suborbital spacecraft carrying scientific instruments would be launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands during the three-week window, under the mission called Sporadic-E ElectroDynamics, or SEED. The scientists are hoping to understand the Sporadic-E layers that form in the lower portions of the ionosphere, causing radio signals to reflect to Earth before reaching higher layers of the ionosphere. These Sporadic-E layers are not visible to naked eye, and can only be seen by radars. In the radar plots, some layers appear like patchy and puffy clouds, while others spread out, similar to an overcast sky, which is known blanketing Sporadic-E layer.
A cosmic particle detector in Antarctica has emitted a series of bizarre signals that defy the current understanding of particle physics, according to an international research group. The unusual radio pulses were detected by the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment, a range of instruments flown on balloons high above Antarctica that are designed to detect radio waves from cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere. Rather than reflecting off the ice, the signals — a form of radio waves — appeared to be coming from below the horizon, an orientation that cannot be explained by the current understanding of particle physics and may hint at new types of particles or interactions previously unknown to science.
Scientists have claimed that a kryponite-like material has the potential to facilitate a green future for the planet. While kryptonite is Superman's weakness in the comic books, as the green alien material emits a poisonous radiation, the rare lithium-bearing mineral found by the researchers at the Natural History Museum in London could be a game-changer for Earth's energy needs. Unlike the fictional kryptonite, jadarite is white and powdery, emits no radiation, and comes from a region in Serbia called the Jadar basin, rather than outer space. The mineral could provide enough lithium to power up to 90 per cent of Europe's quota of electric vehicles. Currently, most of the world's lithium comes from a mineral called spodumene, but it takes far greater energy to extract the lithium from spodumene than it does from jadarite, which also contains boron as a useful by-product. Jadarite was first discovered in 2004. Experts were amazed when its chemical formula was found similar to that of the formula invented for kryptonite in the 2006 film 'Superman Returns'.
