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Many different species of phytoplankton are photosynthetic: They require sunlight to generate energy. When the ocean freezes over, less light can penetrate to the surface where they typically thrive. Scientists have been studying when and where the tiny organisms begin to flourish and have noted this typically occurs when the sea ice retreats. In recent years, work at the opposite end of the world, in the Arctic, has suggested masses of phytoplankton (or "blooms") can and do survive under sea ice in darker, low light conditions. [S]cientists collected data from 51 floating laboratories ("floats") deployed between 2014 and 2021. The...

If confirmed, it might be the most distant galaxy ever, but it's not the oldest. That's an important distinction. an amorphous red blob against the void of space Are we looking at the oldest galaxy ever found? No, but maybe, but yes? T. Treu/GLASS-JWST/NASA/CSA/ESA/STScI If you've been following the astronomy community on Twitter or, perhaps, Captain America himself, you've likely come across a story about the James Webb Space Telescope's latest find: the "oldest galaxy we've ever seen." This is exactly what we were promised from the James Webb Space Telescope. Only a week ago, the world's collective jaw hit...

It hasn't even been a fortnight since the first image release, and the James Webb Space Telescope is just continuously knocking all our socks off. Only a few images have been officially released, but that hasn't stopped citizen scientists digging through the raw data to see what they can find. One of those is Judy Schmidt, who has been processing raw space data into breathtaking images for years. Courtesy of her painstaking work, we now have absolutely jaw-dropping images of two spectacular spiral galaxies. The first is NGC 628, also known as the Phantom Galaxy. The other is NGC 7496....