Giant stingray and alien doorway — May’s best science images

Lunar soil. For the first time, researchers have grown plants in soil from the Moon. They planted thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) in samples of lunar soil collected during the Apollo missions (right), and compared them with plants grown in volcanic ash from Earth (left), which has a similar particle size and mineral composition to lunar soil. The team found that plants in lunar soil grew more slowly, took longer to develop expanded leaves, and had more stunted roots than those grown in volcanic ash. The researchers suggest that the effects of cosmic rays and solar winds on lunar soil, as well as the presence of iron particles, could impair the plants’ development.

Martian doorway. This image taken on Mars by NASA’s Curiosity rover shows a naturally occurring rock feature that looks like an alien door. The opening is around 30 cm tall and probably formed when a gap was created between two vertical fractures in the sandstone. The rover captured this image while ascending Mount Sharp — the central peak within Gale Crater, which it has been exploring since 2012.

River monster. Stunned fishers came face to face with this giant freshwater stingray after accidentally hauling it up from the murky depths of the Mekong River in Cambodia. The 4-metre-long creature was captured after it swallowed a smaller fish on a baited hook. After being measured and weighed by a rescue team (who found it clocked in at​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ a whopping 181 kg), the ray was released unharmed back into the river. The Mekong is a globally recognized biodiversity hotspot, home to around 1,000 species of fish, including some that are extremely rare.

Supermassive black hole. On 12 May, researchers from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration released the first ever image of the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*. The observations have already begun to explain some enduring mysteries about the heart of the Milky Way. This video collage shows simulations of the spinning black hole across about 28 hours. The EHT team were able to compare hundreds of these theoretical models to measurements taken by telescopes and produce a best-bet model.

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Svalbard scene. Telecommunication domes at Svalbard Satellite Station (SvalSat) sit atop a mountain near the town of Longyearbyen in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. SvalSat is the world's northernmost satellite station and one only two that can connect with polar-orbiting satellites on every trip they take around Earth, from one pole to the other. Stations farther south can be carried out of range of polar-orbiting satellites by Earth's rotation.

Dust and smoke. Massive plumes of white smoke emanate from wildfires in New Mexico, as a dust storm sweeps southward from the Colorado Plains. The wildfire season in the state has been particularly severe this year, owing to prolonged drought conditions. These satellite images were captured by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's GOES-East satellite.

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Unbearable heat. People in Delhi seek shade under a bridge on the dried-up Yamuna river bed on a swelteringly hot summer day. Many parts of India continue to experience extremely high temperatures and dry conditions that have persisted since March. Human-induced climate change made the deadly heatwave 30 times more likely, say researchers from the World Weather Attribution initiative.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01457-w