The corpse of an exploded star and more — March’s best science images
The month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team.
Supernova shot. Astronomers captured this stunning 1.3-gigapixel image of the Vela supernova remnant — the remains of a star that exploded more than 10,000 years ago — using the telescope-mounted Dark Energy Camera (DECam) at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Images taken through several DECam filters, each of which allows through distinct wavelengths of light, were combined to produce the bright colours. The resulting photo — DECam’s highest-resolution picture so far — shows the interwoven plumes of dust and gas in unprecedented detail.
Rare sighting. Researchers conducting an aerial survey off the coast of New England have spotted a grey whale (Eschrichtius robustus) — a species thought to have been almost extinct from the Atlantic Ocean since the eighteenth century — diving and resurfacing. The animal’s presence could be explained by climate change: sea ice usually prevents these whales from crossing the Northwest Passage, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean. But in the past few years, the passage has been largely free of ice during the Northern Hemisphere summer. “These sightings of grey whales in the Atlantic serve as a reminder of how quickly marine species respond to climate change, given the chance,” says Orla O’Brien, a marine biologist at the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts.
Credit: J. Baker et al./Nat. Hum. Behav.; Collection PACEA
Credit: J. Baker et al./Nat. Hum. Behav.; Collection PACEA
Dental decorations. These adornments made from the teeth of animals, including bears, elk and foxes, were crafted by Gravettian hunter-gatherers — the culture responsible for the iconic Venus of Willendorf figurine. Researchers analysed thousands of personal ornaments, along with genetic data of the people buried at the same sites. They found that the variety in jewellery styles couldn’t be explained fully by how far apart populations lived, and identified nine distinct cultural groups that existed in Europe between 34,000 and 24,000 years ago. These groups aligned mostly with the genetic data. However, the study also revealed more-nuanced patterns, indicating that culture and genetics are interconnected but not perfectly aligned.
Wind-driven wildfire. This drone shot of trees reduced to ash in Hemphill County, Texas, shows the aftermath of the Smokehouse Creek fire, the biggest wildfire ever recorded in the state. The blaze ripped through an area of more than 400,000 hectares and took three weeks to control. Unusually warm and gusty weather conditions allowed it to spread rapidly, prompting evacuations and destroying homes, power lines and other infrastructure.
Credit: Seung Hye Yang
Credit: Seung Hye Yang
SpaceX spiral. This galaxy-like ‘SpaceX spiral’ was photographed over Iceland in early March, against a backdrop of the Northern Lights. The phenomenon is caused by sunlight bouncing off frozen crystals of excess fuel as they are jettisoned by a spinning rocket. The rocket — a SpaceX Falcon 9 that had blasted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California — released more than 50 small satellites into low Earth orbit before burning up in the atmosphere over the Barents Sea.
Driving test. Three small Moon rovers have been put through a series of rigorous tests to demonstrate their ability to drive autonomously and function as a team without explicit commands from operators. The rovers will be deployed on a future Moon mission and used to map and explore the lunar surface using ground-penetrating radar. To check that the rovers can tolerate the demands of space travel and Moon-like conditions, researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, subjected them to ‘shake and bake’ testing, with extreme temperatures and intense vibration, as well as monitoring their performance in a vacuum chamber. “Now we know these rovers are ready to show what a team of little space robots can accomplish together,” says JPL engineer Subha Comandur.
Credit: Miguel Lo Bianco/Reuters
Credit: Miguel Lo Bianco/Reuters
Ancient art. Researchers think that wall paintings in an Argentinian cave called Cueva Huenul 1 could be thousands of years older than previously estimated, a finding that would make them the oldest cave art in Patagonia — a region that covers the southern tip of South America. Radiocarbon dating of some of the plant-based pigments used to draw abstract shapes suggests that some of the art was created up to 8,200 years ago. Scientists think that the drawings could have been a way for many generations of people to share information at a time when very dry conditions in Patagonia presented a challenge for hunter-gatherers.
Credit: Ryan Stalker/British Wildlife Photography Awards
Credit: Ryan Stalker/British Wildlife Photography Awards
Hitching a ride. This shot of a drifting football that has been colonized below the waterline by goose barnacles was the overall winner of the 2024 British Wildlife Photography Awards. “Although the ball is waste and should not be in the sea, I do wonder about the journey the ball has been on,” says the competition entry from photographer Ryan Stalker. “From initially being lost, then spending time in the tropics where the barnacles are native and perhaps years in the open ocean before arriving in Dorset.”
Ongoing eruption. A fresh eruption on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula drew crowds of spectators as molten lava flowed out of a new ground fissure on 16 March and headed towards the nearby town of Grindavík. Researchers have been monitoring volcanic activity in the area closely — several eruptions have taken place over the past few months, including a January event that resulted in lava entering the town itself.
Snack time. Photographer Marilyn Taylor won the London Camera Exchange Photographer of the Year competition with this night-time snap of a long-tongued bat (Glossophaga sp.) preparing to feed on a banana plant in Costa Rica. “This was probably one of the most interesting ‘shoots’ I’ve ever been on — it was absolutely fascinating,” says Taylor. “It was very difficult to see these tiny bats flying like ghosts.” Research shows that some of these bats are adapting to feed predominantly on banana nectar, as their natural forest habitats are replaced with plantations.
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