Bizarre ‘runaway’ planets discovered by James Webb telescope

A new study suggests that the mysterious Jupiter-sized pair may have originated from embryonic stars. This theory could explain some features of these Jupiter-mass binary objects (JuMBOs), such as why the members of each pair are so far apart, but more data is needed to confirm the idea. The James Webb Space Telescope observed these…

A disorder that stops people walking and speaking

The disorder is believed to affect between 1 in 12,000 and 1 in 24,000 people, although these statistics may be underestimated. Many cases of Angelman syndrome may remain undiagnosed because the symptoms and characteristics of the disorder resemble those of other conditions. Men and women are equally likely to experience this disorder. Cause: Angelman syndrome…

Comets played a ‘major’ role in making life on Earth possible, new study hints

Over the past decade the idea that comets delivered water to Earth fell out of favor, but a new look at data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta mission, an iconic “rubber ducky” comet, has reopened the possibility. Water’s chemical structure is very simple: each molecule contains just three atoms (two hydrogen and one…

Are Neanderthals and Homo sapiens the same species

Neanderthals, which disappeared from the archaeological record about 40,000 years ago, have long been considered our closest evolutionary relatives. But since the first discovery of Neanderthal remains in the 1800s, scientists have debated whether Neanderthals constitute their own species or whether they are a subset of our own species, Homo sapiens, which has since gone…