Supermoons, ancient brains and the James Webb Space Telescope | The best photos of the week

By James Cutmore

Published: Friday, 15 July 2022 at 12:00 am

This week has been dominated by the incredible new images that the James Webb Space Telescope has been producing. But there is still plenty of other news in the world of science.

The Buck Supermoon has been lighting up skies across the world, producing some wonderful images of the largest full Moon of the year.

Meanwhile, much of Europe has been experiencing heatwaves, which has led to a string of wildfires in France. Here in the UK, we are bracing ourselves for potential record-breaking temperatures next week. We cover those stories and more in our gallery of the best images in science this week.

Turtle power

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People watch sea turtles find their way back to the sea after being treated for physical injuries and receiving months of rehabilitation at  the National Sea Turtle Rescue Center in Mikhmoret, Israel. The 17 turtles were released off the coast of Beit Yanai, north of the Israeli coastal city of Netanya, on 8 July 2022. Photo by Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images

Ancient brains

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An image of a pair of fossil specimens of Stanleycaris hirpex, an ancient marine predator, released on 8 July 2022. S. hirpex belonged to an extinct offshoot of the arthropod evolutionary tree, and is distantly related to modern insects and spiders. In 84 of the fossils that have been studied at Royal Ontario Museum, Canada, the remains of the brain and nerves are still preserved after 506 million years. Photo by Jean-Bernard Caron/Royal Ontario Museum

Shifting sands

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An aerial shot shows the beautiful Yellow River bed in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, China, 9 July 2022. Recently, under the influence of upstream water, the Yongji section of the Yellow River has increased its water volume and become muddy. Intricate patterns have been formed on the river bed by the shifting water, creating wonderful patterns. Photo by CFOTO/Future Publishing/Getty Images

Webbinar

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US President Joe Biden previews the first full-colour image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the highest resolution image of the infrared Universe in history, on 11 July 2022, in Washington DC, USA. On screen are NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate Thomas Zurbuchen (top), Deputy Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute Nancy Levenson (middle), and NASA James Webb Space Telescope Program Director Greg Robinson (bottom). Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA

Unwanted jellyfish

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A jellyfish (Rhopilema nomadica) swims in the Mediterranean sea waters off the shore of Lebanon’s northern coastal city of Tripoli on 12 July 2022. This invasive species of jellyfish has been entering the Mediterranean sea through the Suez Canal from the 1970s onwards. The increasing jellyfish population is due to rising seawater temperatures, and is becoming a threat to the Mediterranean ecosystem, scientists have warned. Photo by Ibrahim Chalhoub/AFP/Getty Images

Goldfingers

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An employee uses augmented reality glasses to demonstrate quality inspection of a machine used to create 300mm wafers for  semiconductor chips at the Bosch plant in Dresden, eastern Germany. Photo by Jens Schlueter/AFP/Getty Images
Getty Images

Hitting the big screen

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A general view of the broadcast of NASA’s first images from the James Webb Space Telescope to screens in Piccadilly Circus, London, on 12 July 2022. The imagery from the James Webb Space Telescope was also broadcast to screens in Times Square, New York, USA, as part of a global collaboration between Landsec and NASA. Photo by Ricky Vigil/Getty Images

More images from Science Focus:

Super bright supermoon

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A full Moon, also known as Buck Moon, is seen in Manhattan, New York, USA, on 13 July 2022. This full Moon is the largest supermoon of 2022. It is 16 per cent brighter and appears 6 per cent larger than an average full Moon. Photo by Niyi Fote/via ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Games master

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Angel Alvarado, 19, a biology student from Colombia, has mastered solving Rubik’s Cubes and has even broken a Guinness World Record. He is pictured here in Bogota, Colombia on 14 July 2022. Earlier this year, Alvarado set the record for the fastest time to solve three Rubik’s Cubes while juggling, at a time of 4 minutes and 31.01 seconds. Photo by Juancho Torres/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

French wildfires

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A firefighter surveys the scene as a wildfire spreads in the area close to the beach of Cazaux lac, near La Teste-de-Buch, France, on 15 July 2022. The southern half of the country has been experiencing high temperatures, which has led to outbreaks of wildfires. Firemen still face two aggressive forest fires in Gironde, with large areas of land burnt, and more than 10,000 people evacuated over the course of the last week. Photo by Thibaud Moritz/AFP/Getty Images