Science news this week: A human population isolated for 100,000 years, the biggest spinning structure in the universe, and a pit full of skulls - Live Science

On a small, isolated island of Japan, lives a tiny population of Tsushima leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis euptilurus). With only around 100 individuals believed to exist, they're considered critically endangered there. Recently, scientists have noticed a new trait emerging in the island's leopard cats that could mark a worrying trend for conservation efforts. During field observations in 2024 and 2025, researchers spotted three leopard cats with much shorter tails, around half the usual average length – a feature that's never been reported in this, or any other, population of leopard cats. "The occurrence of tail abnormalities in multiple individuals makes independent acquired causes, such as traumatic injuries, a less parsimonious explanation for all cases and raises the possibility of a shared heritable or developmental basis," researchers write in a new study. A short-tailed leopard cat photographed on a camera trap in Tsushima. (Ministry of the Environment, Tsushima Wildlife Conservation Center)Where these short tails are common, however, is in domestic cats (Felis catus) – a known presence in Tsushima.

The generation of artificial gravity via a spinning spacecraft is a popular trope in science fiction, but how possible would it be to make this science fact? The cornerstone of Einstein’s general theory of relativity is his observation that gravity and acceleration are indistinguishable.

This visible light wide-field view shows the rich star clouds in the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer) in the direction of the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The Milky Way galaxy is anchored by a supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A*, that has a mass over four million times greater than the sun. While Sagittarius A* exerts an influence on everything inside its cosmic neighborhood, astronomers have detected one particular cosmic thrall that may offer a glimpse into some of the universe’s most profound and puzzling concepts. As researchers detail in a study published today in the journal Nature, a star dubbed S301 exists so close to Sagittarius A*, that it races around the black hole at over 15,500 miles per second. S301’s circumstances are so unique that astrophysicists described the stellar object as “unprecedented.”