NASA

Using molecular evidence buried in rocks, researchers at MIT suggest that some of the Earth’s first living creatures are ancestors of the modern sea sponge, reports Ashley Fike for Vice. “The discovery suggests the earliest animals were simple, filter-feeding organisms that slowly cleaned the seas while the rest of the evolution was still figuring itself out,” says Fike. “These early sponges likely had no skeletons, nerves, or eyes – just porous bodies that absorbed water and nutrients. Yet they paved the way for everything that came next, from insects to mammals to us.” 

A new study by MIT researchers suggests sea sponges may have been the “first animals to inhabit the Earth,” reports Maria Azzura Volpe for Newsweek. “In their work, the researchers linked so-called ‘chemical fossils’ found in ancient rocks to the ancestors of a class of modern-day sea sponges known as demosponges,” explains Volpe. “These chemical fossils—the molecular remnants of once-living organisms that have been buried, transformed, and preserved in sediment over time—were discovered in rocks that date back to more than 541 million years ago, during the Ediacaran Period.” 

MIT researchers have uncovered new evidence that suggests some of Earth’s first living creatures are ancestors of the modern sea sponge, reports Andrew Paul for Popular Science. The researchers identified 541 million-year-old chemical fossils embedded in sediment that they believe may indicate that some of Earth’s earliest creatures were the ancient relatives of today’s sea sponges. 

Visiting Scholar Ariel Ekblaw SM '17, PhD '20 speaks with WBUR’s On Point host Meghna Chakrabarti about her academic career, the space industry and her new non-profit company the Aurelia Institute. The company is “dedicated to building humanity’s future in space for the benefit of the earth,” says Chakrabarti. Additionally, the company plans to use “space infrastructure, satellites, and large scale space structures in orbit to do really profound things for day-to-day life on Earth,” adds Ekblaw. 

Using the James Webb Telescope, researchers at MIT and elsewhere are studying the potential presence of “an Earth-like atmosphere on an exoplanet for the first time,” reports Jacopo Prisco for CNN. “The planet is part of a planetary system about 40 light-years away from Earth called TRAPPIST-1,” explains Prisco. 

Graduate student Megan Masterson speaks with CBS Eye on the World hosts John Batchelor and David Livingston about her research on tidal disruption events. “These events were first theorized in the 1970s, first discovered in the 1990s with x-ray wavelengths,” explains Masterson. “But today, what James Webb is doing is allowing us to detect these events in the infrared band. And so, what we’re seeing here are previously dormant black holes that were kind of lying at the center for their galaxies doing pretty much nothing suddenly become active.” 

Mashable reporter Elisha Sauers spotlights some of the exoplanets identified thus far in 2025, including BD+05 4868 Ab, a rocky exoplanet discovered by MIT astronomers that has a “comet-like tail stretching more than 5.5 million miles.” BD+05 4868 Ab is “about the size of Mercury and orbits its star every 30.5 hours,” Sauers explains. “At roughly 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the planet appears to be shedding material — about one Mount Everest’s worth per orbit — that becomes its tail.”

MIT astronomers have found evidence that a massive asteroid impact billions of years ago “may have briefly amplified the moon's old, weak magnetic field, leaving behind a magnetic imprint still detectable in lunar rocks,” reports Sharmila Kuthunur for Space.com. “While the moon once had a weak magnetic field generated by a small molten core, the team's research suggests it likely wouldn't have been strong enough on its own to magnetize surface rocks,” Kuthunur explains. “However, a massive asteroid impact may have changed that — at least briefly.”

Ars Technica reporter Jennifer Oulette writes that MIT researchers have found that a “large asteroid impact briefly boosted the Moon's early weak magnetic field—and that this spike is what is recorded in some lunar samples.” 

Postdoc Rohan Naidu and his colleagues have used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to examine galaxy MoM-z14, first spotted in 2023, reports Jonathan O’Callaghan for New Scientist. “Naidu and his colleagues confirmed MoM-z14 is the most distant galaxy yet,” writes Naidu. “The light we see now was emitted just 280 million years after the big bang, breaking the previous record by about 10 million years.” 

Researchers at MIT, including postdoctoral associate Marc Hon and research scientist Avi Shporer, have discovered a new disintegrating planet approximately 140 light-years away from Earth, reports Sarah Mesdjian for The Boston Globe. “The planet got so close to its star that the heat started evaporating its surface,” says Shporer. “The planet is not big enough to hold onto that material with its gravity.”

MIT astronomers have discovered a planet disintegrating at a rapid pace, reports Xinhua. “Roughly the size of Mercury, the planet orbits its host star at an extremely close distance - about 20 times closer than Mercury is to the Sun - completing a full orbit every 30.5 hours,” explains Xinhua. “Due to this intense proximity, researchers believe the planet is likely covered in molten magma, which is vaporizing and streaming into space.” 

MIT researchers have uncovered BD+05 4868 Ab, “a planet that is disintegrating into boiling chunks of rock and evaporating minerals,” reports Andrew Paul for Popular Science. “Astronomers have only identified three disintegrating planets before BD+05 4868 Ab, all of which were detected over a decade ago using data collected by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope,” explains Paul. “The newest find is the most violent example yet, with the longest tail and deepest transits of the four known examples.”

Astronomers at MIT have discovered a rapidly disintegrating planet “with a comet-like tail,” reports Ian Randall for Newsweek. “The planet is orbiting so close to its star that researchers estimate it has a surface temperature around 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, giving it a molten surface that is boiling off material into space, where this cools to form a long, dusty tail,” explains Randall. 

Chronicle visits MIT to learn more about how the Institute “nurtures groundbreaking efforts, reminding us that creativity and science thrive together, inspiring future advancements in engineering, medicine, and beyond.” Prof. Julien de Wit and Research Scientist Artem Burdanov discuss their planetary defense efforts aimed at identifying small asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth, and Prof. Canan Dağdeviren demonstrates her work developing ultrasound devices to detect the earliest stages of breast cancer. Host Anthony Everett notes that: “Big ideas have a way of breaking out of conventional boundaries, just part of what makes MIT one giant laboratory of groundbreaking ideas."