Hubble Captures Galaxy Cluster - UNIVERSE

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this scene of galaxy cluster MACS J1141.6-1905 in visible and infrared light.

NASA, ESA, H. Ebeling (University of Hawaii); Image Processing: G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

Look closely at this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and you’ll see galaxies of various shapes and sizes clustered together toward the center-left of the image. A few foreground stars shine brightly and are easily distinguished by the spikes that appear to extend outward from each star. These spikes, called diffraction spikes, are the result of how point sources of light (such as stars) bend, or diffract, around the supports for Hubble’s secondary mirror.

Hubble captured this scene of MACS J1141.6-1905 in visible and infrared light. The image includes data from two Hubble observing programs that looked at massive galaxy clusters that shine very brightly in X-rays. Both programs were looking for distant galaxies gravitationally lensed by the cluster. They also wanted to better understand the physical nature of interactions at each cluster’s core. An extra bonus was the addition of Hubble’s visible and infrared observations of these very bright X-ray clusters to its archive.

Hubble’s archive of 1.7 million observations, and counting, is a valuable tool for current and future astronomers. They can mine Hubble’s 36 years of observations and examine the data with new tools, enabling researchers to make new discoveries.

MACS J1141.6-1905 is around four billion light-years away in the constellation Crater (the Cup). 

Source: Hubble Captures Galaxy Cluster - NASA Science 

Meet the Carnarvon Flapjack Octopus, the Deep-Sea Shape-Shifter New to Science

If you thought octopuses couldn’t get any more astonishing, allow me to introduce the newest member of the family: Opisthoteuthis carnarvonensis, or the Carnarvon Flapjack Octopus. Formally described in May 2025, this tiny, gelatinous marvel was hiding over a mile beneath the Indian Ocean and it can flatten itself into a pancake.

Found in the Deep, Dark Abyss

The story begins in 2022, when Australia’s national science agency CSIRO sent the research vessel RV Investigator on a month-long expedition to survey the largely unexplored seabed of the Gascoyne and Carnarvon Canyon Marine Parks off the coast of Western Australia. Using cameras, nets, and sleds, scientists swept the seafloor at depths between 1,044 and 1,510 metres (roughly 3,400 to 5,000 feet). It was the first-ever scientific baseline survey of these newly established marine parks.

Among the specimens brought up was an odd little creature, small, soft, gelatinous, with enormous eyes and vivid blood-red tentacles. It took until May 2025 for taxonomist Dr. Tristan Verhoeff of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery to formally describe it as a species new to science, publishing the findings in the Australian Journal of Taxonomy. The Carnarvon Flapjack Octopus became the tenth new species officially described from that single 2022 voyage.

What Makes It So Special?

The flapjack octopus is a type of cirrate, or “dumbo” octopus, named for the two ear-like fins just above their eyes that flap to propel them through the water, not unlike a certain Disney elephant. There are around 50 described dumbo octopus species worldwide, and this is the 16th recorded in Australian waters.

But what earns the Carnarvon flapjack its name is its extraordinary shape-shifting ability. It can spread its webbed arms wide and flatten its body into a disc like a pancake, or indeed a flapjack or contract itself upward into the shape of a tiny gelatinous umbrella. This morphing is thought to help it evade predators in the pitch-black depths where it lives. It grows to just about 4 centimetres (1.6 inches) in diameter, yet somehow survives pressure that would crush most things at those depths.

Its enormous eyes are no coincidence either. In the near-total darkness of the deep sea, large eyes are essential for detecting the faint bioluminescence of prey, mainly worms and small crustaceans which it captures with its tentacles.

A Window Into an Unknown World

Unlike shallow-water octopuses, flapjack octopuses cannot camouflage, a trick that relies on light and visual feedback that simply doesn’t exist at those depths. They also reproduce and grow slowly, making them particularly vulnerable to disturbance. Describing them formally is the essential first step toward protecting them.

“Discovering new species of large-bodied marine animals illustrates how little we still know about the deep sea in this area,” said Dr. Lisa Kirkendale of the Western Australian Museum. And she’s right, this one voyage alone yielded ten new species, including a painted hornshark and a parallel-spine scorpionfish, with more still being processed.

In a world where it sometimes feels like every corner of the planet has been catalogued and mapped, the Carnarvon Flapjack Octopus is a delightful reminder that the deep ocean is still very much a frontier full of pancake-shaped wonders we haven’t even met yet.

Journal article

Verhoeff TJ. (2025). “Flapjack octopods of Australia (Cephalopoda: Cirrata: Opisthoteuthidae), Part II: northwestern Australia and adjacent waters.” Australian Journal of Taxonomy. Published 12 May 2025. DOI: 10.54102/ajt.c46g9. Research led by CSIRO in collaboration with Parks Australia, Western Australian Museum, and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

Image Credit: Cindy Bessey, CSIRO.
https://www.csiro.au/en/news/All/News/2025/May/New-species-of-octopus-discovered-in-a-deep-sea-canyon 

Source: Meet the Carnarvon Flapjack Octopus, the Deep-Sea Shape-Shifter New to Science – Scents of Science