The Laureates of the prestigious 2026 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel are announced today by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and The New York Academy of Sciences.  Each Laureate will receive US$100,000 in prize money. The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel are the largest unrestricted prizes available to scientists across Israel aged 42 or younger. Now in their ninth year in Israel, the Blavatnik Awards recognize research with the potential to transform lives, advance scientific understanding, and address global challenges across disciplines. The three Laureates are: Sergey N. Semenov, PhD, a chemist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Uri Ben-David, PhD, a cancer biologist at Tel Aviv University, and Paz Beniamini, PhD, an astrophysicist at the Open University of Israel.

A team of professional and amateur Japanese astronomers found evidence for a thin atmosphere around a small body in the outer Solar System, a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) known as (612533) 2002 XV₉₃. The object is so small that it should not have a sustainable atmosphere, raising questions about when and how the atmosphere formed. Future observations to better characterize the atmosphere will help solve these mysteries.

Manganese dioxide can convert amino acids into hydrogen cyanide (HCN) without requiring methane, solving a long-standing puzzle about the origin of this key prebiotic molecule on early Earth, as reported by researchers from Science Tokyo. Although HCN is central to origin-of-life theories, recent evidence suggests early Earth's atmosphere didn’t contain sufficient methane needed for classic HCN-producing reactions. The newly found chemical pathway shows that HCN could instead have been continuously supplied from abundant amino acids.

JWST Observations: The James Webb Space Telescope analysed the rocky exoplanet LHS 3844 b, revealing a dark, hot surface without an atmosphere.

Surface Composition: The analysis indicates the planet's surface is likely composed of basalt or mantle rock, ruling out a composition similar to Earth's silicate-rich crust.

Geological Activity: The findings suggest that LHS 3844 b may have undergone prolonged geological inactivity, as no signs of volcanic gases were detected.

A team of astronomers led by UNSW Sydney have piloted a new method to find planets – and in the process, found 27 potential new worlds in double star systems.