Say hello to the next generation of lobsters — August’s best science images

Wheeeeee! Juvenile European lobsters (Homarus gammarus) are pipetted into separate hatchery pods to prevent them from eating each other. They will be raised at the National Lobster hatcher in Padstow, UK, to increase their chances of survival before being released into the wild. The image was among the finalists for Ocean Photographer of the Year 2026. Other stunning shots of sea creatures that were listed as finalists include: an egg-carrying shrimp; a chocolate-lined top snail (Calliostoma javanicum); grooved brain corals (Diploria labyrinthiformis); a scorpionfish eating a lizardfish; and a great hammerhead shark (Sphyrna mokarran). The winners will be announced in September.

Francesca Page/OPY 2026

Giant gestation. Some 540 kilometres off Mexico’s west coast, marine biologist Madalena Cabral swims with a female giant manta ray (Mobula birostris). Cabral establishes trust with the ray, before approaching it and holding an ultrasound machine over its body — observing a developing baby manta ray moving its wings and mouth. Cabral has confirmed pregnancies in three giant mantas with underwater ultrasound scans. Her studies investigate whether  one of North America’s largest marine reserves, Revillagigedo National Park, can protect marine life from human activity. She hopes to understand how the animals navigate the reserve and whether nets from industrial fisheries disrupt their lives.

Alonso Rodriguéz

Eclipse shadows. These eclipse shadows were photographed on 12 August, during the brief time when the Moon completely blocked the Sun from view over a narrow stretch of Greenland, Iceland and Spain, causing a total eclipse. People also rushed to acquire eclipse glasses, colanders and pinhole boxes to observe the partial solar eclipse that was visible across Europe, Western Africa, eastern Canada and the eastern United States. Researchers travelled to the regions of totality to study the solar corona, the Sun’s outermost layer, which is visible to the naked eye only during total eclipses. Another total solar eclipse will take place on 2 August 2027.

Ana Beltran/Reuters

Hiroshimaite. Shortly before the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in August, researchers revealed how the high-energy explosion created a new type of alloy that has been found in a fragment of ‘hiroshimaite’ rock, a term for fallout debris. The alloy, imaged here with a scanning electron microscope and described in Science Advances, is made from seven elements.

The nuclear detonation produced temperatures higher than 1,800 °C, and researchers say this provided a natural laboratory for the creation of new multicomponent alloys. These often have properties that are difficult to achieve with normal alloys — such as high strength and ductility.

Luca Bindi et al./Sci. Adv.

The Starlink way. A group of newly launched Starlink satellites orbits Earth in Inner Mongolia, China. Photographer Kouyu Wang created the image by superimposing frames from a time-lapse video. The shot won the ‘Impact of Light Pollution’ category in the 2026 Capture the Dark photography contest. “The stacked images show their orbital drift and reveal the impact of satellite constellations on the night sky,” said Wang.

Kouyu Wang/DarkSky International

Waterlily weigh-off. This Bolivian waterlily (Victoria boliviana) at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London, is holding 102 kilograms of human mass. It broke last year’s record of 83 kg during the annual Waterlily Weigh-off organized by Denver Botanic Gardens in Colorado. Submissions can use any objects — from tinned baked beans to humans — to test the weight capacity of waterlily leaves. The winner of the competition will be announced in September. Waterlily leaves can carry large amounts of weight owing to hollow veins that trap air, making them extremely buoyant. The Bolivian waterlily is the largest waterlily species and was first described by scientists in 2022.

Sebastian Kettley/RBG Kew

Solar patterns. These swirling patterns are the first evidence of Kelvin–Helmholtz instability on the surface of the Sun — the photosphere. The wave-like structures are created when pockets of the Sun’s turbulent, super-hot plasma slide past each other at different speeds, and they seem to be responsible for twisting the star’s magnetic-field lines into tense, explosive ‘braids’. The findings, published in Nature, demonstrate the chaos and dynamism of the Sun’s surface. Scientists predicted the instabilities’ existence decades ago, but this is the first clear observational evidence — captured with the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii.

NSF/NSO/AURA/MPS

Waterless rivers. Rivers in Europe reached historic low water levels during unprecedented summer heatwaves. Shown here are​​​​​​​ a canal in Romania, where the country’s only nuclear power plant was forced to close owing to the reduced flow of the Danube, which cools the plant; Rutland Water, UK, where the retreating waters of a reservoir exposed the remains of buildings and infrastructure abandoned long ago;  and the Rhine in Germany, a transport artery that fell to record lows in August, disrupting freight shipping. Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events.