An image provided by NASA/Johns Hopkins APL shows the asteroid named Dimorphos. Dimorphos is about 525 feet around and orbits a larger parent asteroid, Didymos. (NASA/Johns Hopkins APL via The New York Times) By KATRINA MILLER In 2022, NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid named Dimorphos. The goal of this interplanetary smashup was to prove that if a killer space rock ever threatened Earth in the future, humans could deflect it and save our world. The

A photo provided by the Max Planck Institute shows Nobel Prize-winning Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo with a reconstructed Neanderthal skull. As a result of interbreeding between Neanderthals and humans tens of thousands of years ago, most people alive today carry a bit of Neanderthal DNA in their genome — and that residual DNA, in turn, is giving scientists a detailed look at the ancient sexual encounters that put it there. (Frank Vinken/Max Planck Institute via The New Yor

A field station of the Tromso Geophysical Observatory and the European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association, or EISCAT, project outside Tromso, Norway, Jan. 21, 2026. Norway’s northern region has led the scientific quest to understand the aurora borealis, with a 10,000-antenna radar system expected to begin the next phase of exploration this summer. (Michal Siarek/The New York Times) By ALEXA ROBLES-GIL The world’s first permanent northern lights observatory occupies a s

A photo provided by Dr. Axelle Delaunay shows a baboon family in Namibia. Young primates in a southern African nature park were observed to constantly interfere when their mother was giving attention to a younger brother or sister. (Dr. Axelle Delaunay via The New York Times) By ANNIE ROTH Ever been jealous of your brother or sister for getting too much attention from your mom or dad? Scientists believe you’re not the only creature in the animal kingdom to feel that way. A t

A photo provided by Ape Initiative shows Kanzi, a bonobo living at the Ape Initiative in Des Moines, Iowa, was able to play make-believe with researchers studying the ape imagination. In a playtime experiment, scientists found that apes, our closest living relatives, have the capacity for make-believe, too. (Ape Initiative via The New York Times) By ALEXA ROBLES-GIL Having an imaginary friend, playing house or daydreaming about the future were long considered uniquely human

Engineer Paul Anker checks on the supply of hot water for a drilling operation at Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, Jan. 30, 2026. An attempt to drill through Thwaites Glacier is foiled; scientists lost their instruments within Antarctica’s most dangerously unstable glacier, though not before getting a glimpse at the warming waters underneath. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times) By RAYMOND ZHONG A daring attempt to study Antarctica’s fast-melting Thwaites Glacier collapsed over t

A photo provided by Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró shows Veronika, a 13-year-old cow in Austria that has demonstrated using different ends of a wooden broom to scratch different parts of her body. This is the first scientifically documented case of tool use in cows, researchers say. (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró via The New York Times) By EMILY ANTHES For a cow, Veronika has had what might be considered an idyllic life. She lives in a picturesque town in Austria, surrounded by snow-cap

They drew with crayons, possibly fed on maggots and maybe even kissed us: Forty millenniums later, our ancient human cousins continued to make news. (John P. Dessereau/The New York Times) By FRANZ LIDZ Neanderthals, who flourished across Eurasia for hundreds of thousands of years before vanishing around 40,000 years ago, had a notable return to the scientific spotlight in 2025. More than a dozen high-profile scientific studies explored all sorts of aspects of their existence,

The Artemis II rocket rolls out to the launchpad from the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Cassandra Klos/The New York Times) By KENNETH CHANG Reid Wiseman, a NASA astronaut selected in 2011, said Saturday morning that a few days ago he looked up and saw the crescent moon in the light of the sunrise. He thought about the far side of the moon — the part that is always hidden from Earth. “You just think about a

In an undated image provided by Gonzalo Ignazi, a puma and penguins in the Patagonia region of South America. In Argentina, the return of pumas brought top predators back to the landscape — much to penguins’ dismay. (Gonzalo Ignazi via The New York Times) By ALEXA ROBLES-GIL Penguins throughout the southern seas have to worry about being picked off by seals or hunted by orcas. On land, they can find safety in numbers. But in the Patagonia region of Argentina, the flightless s