Sunday, July 12, 2026

NASA satellites are monitoring an unexpected underwater volcanic eruption north of Papua New Guinea that could create a new island, with satellite imagery capturing steam plumes, ash, thermal hotspots, and large floating pumice rafts suggesting magma is rising close to the surface.^[1]

Astronomers using the Euclid space telescope have discovered 31 of the oldest known quasars, including the two earliest ever detected, shining from a time when the universe was only about 670 million years old and powered by supermassive black holes billions of times the Sun's mass.^[2]

Researchers at WashU Medicine found that mRNA cancer vaccines can recruit an unexpected immune cell type to trigger powerful tumor-fighting responses, overturning a long-held assumption about how these vaccines work and potentially leading to more effective cancer treatments.^[3]

Chinese scientists have discovered the world's largest and deepest whale graveyard on the floor of the Indian Ocean, containing nearly 500 skeletons—some dating back 5.3 million years—along a 1,200-kilometer corridor that supports diverse deep-sea ecosystems.^[4]

Physicists have created a long-sought two-dimensional quantum material called a topological crystalline insulator and confirmed its unusual conducting edge states, achieving a milestone predicted more than a decade ago that could advance quantum computing research.^[5]

SpaceX completed a static fire test of all 33 Raptor engines on a Version 3 Super Heavy booster at Starbase on July 10, preparing for the 13th test flight of the Starship megarocket, which could launch as soon as next week.^[6]

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University discovered that vitamin A-related signals and thyroid hormones work together to transform blue cone cells into red and green cones in the developing human retina, findings that could improve lab-grown retinal tissue and future cell therapies for vision loss.^[7]

Researchers at the University of Lausanne propose that Mount Etna may belong to a rare fourth category of volcano formation, fueled by ancient magma pockets pushed upward through tectonic cracks rather than by hotspots, subduction zones, or plate boundaries.^[8]

Typhoon Bavi made landfall in eastern China after crossing the Philippine Sea, prompting authorities to evacuate more than one million people from coastal areas as the storm brought heavy rains and strong winds to the region.^[9]

University of Oklahoma paleontologists found 450-million-year-old soft tissue preserved in a fossilized crinoid, only the third such discovery ever made and approximately 200 million years older than the earliest dinosaurs.^[10]