Anadolu Ajansı © 2026
From the discovery of organic carbon molecules in Martian rocks that may hold clues to ancient life to the identification of a newly discovered Australian spider that uses a spring-loaded hunting mechanism, June brought a series of notable developments across science and technology.
The month's discoveries also included evidence pushing back the timeline of the earliest known plague outbreak by nearly two millennia, the debut of the world's fastest supercomputer in China, advances in next-generation timekeeping, and encouraging progress in cancer research.
Here is a roundup of some of the most significant scientific developments in June.
NASA's Perseverance rover detected organic carbon molecules in rocks that scientists believe may have formed in an environment once capable of supporting microbial life.
The rover identified a type of carbon known as macromolecular carbon in the Bright Angel rock formation, located in the Neretva Vallis region, an ancient river channel that once fed water into Mars' Jezero Crater.
Although such carbon compounds can be produced by living organisms, researchers stressed that they may also form through non-biological geological processes, such as rock-water interactions or meteorite impacts. The discovery therefore does not constitute evidence of past life but adds another piece to the puzzle of Mars' geological history.
Astronomers also announced the discovery of two exceptionally low-density exoplanets, designated TOI-791 b and TOI-791 c, orbiting a star about 1,110 light-years from Earth in the constellation Volans.
Using observations from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and ground-based telescopes, researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham in the UK and Universite Cote d'Azur in France concluded that the planets are the largest known exoplanets with densities even lower than cotton candy.
Researchers at Curtin University in Australia identified what they believe is Earth's oldest known meteorite impact crater.
By studying ancient rocks in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, scientists concluded that the North Pole Dome crater formed around 3 billion years ago, making it significantly older than the previously oldest known impact structure, Yarrabubba, which dates back about 2.2 billion years.
The findings could provide valuable insight into the intense meteorite bombardment that shaped early Earth.
June also marked the end of NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) mission after the spacecraft unexpectedly lost contact in December following more than 11 years of studying the Martian atmosphere.
China launched a new group of CentiSpace-1 satellites aboard a Kuaizhou-11 rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China.
The satellites will support the development of China's BeiDou satellite navigation system. The launch was the 39th mission carried out using the Kuaizhou rocket family.
China also claimed a new milestone in high-performance computing.
The National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen unveiled LineShine, a supercomputer that reached a performance of 2,198 exaflops — equivalent to approximately 2.2 quintillion calculations per second — making it the world's fastest supercomputer.
Unlike most leading supercomputers, which rely heavily on graphics processing units (GPUs), LineShine achieved exascale performance using only central processing units (CPUs), representing a significant architectural breakthrough.
Two independent research teams, one in Europe and the other in China, developed the world's first functional nuclear clocks.
Unlike conventional atomic clocks, which measure time using transitions in electrons surrounding an atom, nuclear clocks use energy transitions within the atom's nucleus itself.
Scientists said the achievement transforms a concept studied for nearly two decades into a practical precision timekeeping technology with the potential to surpass the accuracy of today's atomic clocks.
A large Danish study found that prolonged standing, frequent walking and repeated bending at work during early pregnancy are associated with an increased risk of miscarriage.
Researchers from Bispebjerg Hospital and the University of Copenhagen analyzed more than 800,000 records from 475,312 pregnancies between 2004 and 2018, using wearable activity trackers to measure workplace movements.
The study found that every additional hour spent bending forward at least 30 degrees during an eight-hour workday was associated with a 36% higher miscarriage risk. Each extra hour spent walking increased the risk by 18%, while prolonged standing was associated with a 3% increase.
Researchers also reported encouraging results from a clinical trial involving an experimental treatment for pancreatic cancer.
The drug, tested in patients whose disease had continued progressing despite previous treatment, nearly doubled overall survival compared with standard chemotherapy.
Patients receiving the experimental therapy lived a median of 13.2 months, compared with 6.7 months for those receiving chemotherapy. The treatment also delayed disease progression for about 7.3 months, versus 3.6 months with chemotherapy, while causing fewer severe side effects.
The drug targets a mutated protein responsible for driving tumor growth in more than 90% of pancreatic cancer cases.
Ancient DNA recovered from human remains near Siberia's Lake Baikal suggests that the world's oldest known plague outbreak occurred around 5,500 years ago.
Scientists analyzed remains from two prehistoric cemeteries where unusually large numbers of children and young adults had died without an obvious cause.
DNA analysis showed that 18 of the 46 individuals carried plague bacteria, pushing back the earliest known evidence of the disease by roughly 1,700 years. Researchers said the findings may represent the oldest confirmed evidence of plague infecting humans.
Researchers in Australia's Queensland state described a newly discovered species nicknamed the ballista spider, named after the ancient mechanical weapon because of its remarkable hunting strategy.
The spider specializes in preying on weaver ants and catches them by using a spring-loaded trap mechanism that launches its attack with extraordinary speed.
Elsewhere, scientists exploring the southeastern Indian Ocean uncovered what they describe as the world's largest and deepest whale graveyard.
During 32 deep-sea dives conducted in 2023, researchers from Italy, China and New Zealand documented 485 fossil whale-fall sites and five recently deceased whales scattered across the Diamantina region, at depths reaching nearly 7,000 meters.
The team believes the 1,200-kilometer-long area may represent a previously unknown "whale-fall superhighway" that has preserved whale remains for millions of years.
Among the discoveries were a fossilized skull belonging to the extinct beaked whale Pterocetus benguelae, dating back approximately 5.3 million years, and another skull from a newly identified species, Pterocetus diamantinae, adding to scientists' understanding of ancient marine ecosystems.
news_share_descriptionsubscription_contact
