Space tarantula and sponge-wearing crab: June’s best science images

The month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team.

A newly discovered ‘fluffy’ species of sponge crab found off Western Australia’s south coast

Credit: Colin L. McLay

Credit: Colin L. McLay

Sponge crab. This fluffy-looking crab is a newly described species in the family Dromiidae — a group of crustaceans that use creatures such as sea sponges as a kind of portable shelter, wearing them like hats and holding them in place with a specialized pair of limbs. The sponge can continue to live and grow, moulding to the shape of the crab’s back and protecting its host from predators by providing camouflage or releasing chemical deterrents. This furry specimen was found washed up on a beach in Western Australia. It has been named Lamarckdromia beagle after the ship in which Charles Darwin sailed around the world.

Red mangrove seedlings grow at the site of South America's former largest open-air landfill, Jardim Gramacho forest, Brazil.

Credit: Pilar Olivares/Reuters

Credit: Pilar Olivares/Reuters

Forest reborn. The site of this young mangrove forest in Duque de Caxias, Brazil, was once the largest open-air landfill in South America and one of the region’s most degraded areas. “After 25 years of work, we have planted 1,300,000 square metres of mangroves,” Brazilian biologist and environmental activist Mario Moscatelli told the news agency Reuters. Carried downstream by rivers, rubbish continues to accumulate in the area. But despite this and other challenges, the seedlings are taking root.

A swarm of male cactus bees form a ball on the ground around a female bee as they attempt to mate with her

Credit: Karine Aigner/2022 BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition/bioGraphic/California Academy of Sciences

Credit: Karine Aigner/2022 BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition/bioGraphic/California Academy of Sciences

The ugly-bug ball. These cactus bees (Diadasia rinconis) are considered solitary insects: they live without the hierarchy and social structure of other bee species. Here they are seen swarming together in what is known as a mating ball, in which many amorous male bees cluster around one female. This rare moment was captured by photojournalist Karine Aigner, and won the Grand Prize of the 2022 BigPicture competition.

Credit: Jesse Winter/Reuters

Credit: Jesse Winter/Reuters

Credit: Jesse Winter/Reuters

Credit: Jesse Winter/Reuters

Credit: Jesse Winter/Reuters

Credit: Jesse Winter/Reuters

Caribou guardian. In the mountains of British Columbia, Canada, a team of rangers guards a herd of endangered mountain caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in a sanctuary managed by members of the West Moberly Dunne-za First Nations and Saulteau First Nations. Here, caribou guardian Starr Gauthier uses telemetry equipment to pinpoint the locations of pregnant females and newly delivered calves.

The project aims to reduce calf mortality — one of the largest drivers of population decline — by protecting the young animals from predation by bears and wolves.

The herd has roughly tripled in size since the guardian programme started in 2013.

Credit: S. Bollmann et al./eLife. This video has no sound

Credit: S. Bollmann et al./eLife. This video has no sound

Brain blood. This magnetic resonance imaging scan shows a network of blood vessels in the brain called pial arteries. These vessels supply blood to the neocortex — a part of the brain that is involved in high-level cognitive functions such as spatial reasoning, decision-making and language. Researchers have developed a way to image pial arteries, even very small ones, at high resolution in living people. The work could open up new ways to study brain physiology.

Heat map of Las Vegas with the hottest surfaces show dark-colored streets at more than 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 Celsius).

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Summer in the city. This heat map, imaged from the International Space Station by NASA’s ECOSTRESS instrument, shows ground-surface temperatures in Las Vegas, Nevada, on 10 June, when air temperatures reached a record high of 43 °C. In the city, the hottest surfaces were the streets — visible as a grid of dark red lines in the centre of the image — which are paved with asphalt that absorbs heat.

A rover with a robotic gloved arm holding a rock is tested on the surface of Mount Etna, Sicily

Credit: DLR

Credit: DLR

Rover rehearsal. Researchers are using the slopes of Mount Etna on the Italian island of Sicily to test robots that could be used for missions to Mars or the Moon. The ARCHES project (Autonomous Robotic Networks to Help Modern Societies) is putting remotely controlled rovers, a lander and a drone through simulated missions to see how well they work together, and can explore and complete tasks on a surface that resembles extraterrestrial landscapes. Here, a rover called LRU2 is collecting a rock sample with its robotic arm.

Composite image of the star-forming region 30 Doradus, also known as the Tarantula Nebula

Credit: ESO, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/T. Wong et al., ESO/M.-R. Cioni/VISTA Magellanic Cloud survey

Credit: ESO, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/T. Wong et al., ESO/M.-R. Cioni/VISTA Magellanic Cloud survey

Spidery space. The web-like clouds of gas in the star-forming region 30 Doradus have earnt it the nickname the Tarantula Nebula. This composite image shows the nebula in all its glory. The background of bright stars and pink clouds was captured by the HAWK-I instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope and the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy, both in Chile. The glowing red-yellow streaks, which have been superimposed on the image, come from radio observations taken by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile. These show regions of cold, dense gas that have the potential to collapse and form stars.

Springer Nature © 2021 Springer Nature Limited. All rights reserved.