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This Alien Planet Should Have Lost Its Atmosphere Billions of Years Ago

James Webb Space Telescope observations suggest that exotic mineral clouds may be shielding a distant lava planet from its star.

A rocky planet exposed to extreme heat from its star appears to reflect nearly three-quarters of the starlight that reaches it. Astronomers suspect silicate-mineral clouds could act as a protective sunscreen, helping the planet maintain temperatures far below those expected for an exposed surface of molten rock.

The planet, TOI-561 b, lies about 280 light-years from Earth and was previously considered too hot to retain a substantial atmosphere. New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) suggest that it has a significant envelope of gas that reflects incoming radiation and redistributes heat around the planet. The findings, published in The Astronomical Journal, challenge existing theories about how atmospheres survive on intensely irradiated rocky worlds.

A New Chemistry Breakthrough Could Change How Scientists Build Quantum Computers

Most materials being considered for quantum technology can hold a stable quantum state only when chilled to extreme temperatures. Diamond-based materials can work at room temperature, but their usefulness depends on defects in the crystal that have been difficult and computationally demanding to simulate.

At the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), staff research scientist Mark Martirez has developed a far faster way to calculate how those defects respond to light and microwave pulses. The approach has identified promising boron-and oxygen-based defects that could serve as qubits, the basic information-processing units of quantum computers and sensors. The research was recently published in ACS Central Science and has already attracted attention from other experts in the field.

Aging’s “Zombie Cell” Problem May Have a Solution, Scientists Discover

“Zombie cells” become harder to clear with age, and a new study reveals why the immune system struggles to remove them.

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have identified a breakdown in protein recycling that helps explain why senescent cells, often called “zombie cells,” accumulate in aging tissues. In experiments involving older mice, restoring that process reduced senescent-cell buildup, inflammation, and tissue scarring. The findings, published in Nature Aging, suggest a possible way to help the immune system clear these cells more effectively.

Senescent cells remain alive after they stop dividing, but their activity changes. Although they can support tissue repair, their prolonged presence can fuel chronic inflammation and age-related disease. Most of the new experiments involved mice, with human lung samples providing evidence that the biological changes may also occur in people.

Critical 16-Year-Old UEFI Flaw Can Run Code Before Secure Boot on Network-Booting Servers

A critical 16-year-old flaw in EDK II, the open-source code that most hardware makers use to build UEFI firmware, can allow an attacker to run code on a machine before its operating system loads, but only while the machine is booting over the network.

UEFI firmware is the software that runs first when a computer is switched on, before the operating system. An attacker who can reach the machine with a crafted network message during such a network boot can hang the boot, or, with work tailored to the exact firmware build, run their own code before Secure Boot and other startup defenses load.

An attacker needs no password and no existing access to the machine, but does need to reach it over the network during the short window when it is booting this way.

Attackers Exploit PHP2Shell Flaws in Internet-Exposed Palo Alto Networks Management Interfaces

Palo Alto Networks on Wednesday warned that threat actors are exploiting the recently patched PHP2Shell vulnerabilities against publicly-accessible management interfaces.

“Active exploitation has been observed targeting the Palo Alto Networks management interface exposed to the internet,” the network security company said in an update to its advisory.

The vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2026–109618 and CVE-2026–109619 (CVSS scores: 9.2), allow attackers to achieve unauthenticated remote code execution on systems running affected versions of PHP. The issues were patched upstream by the PHP Foundation on October 21, 2026, in versions 8.5.12, 8.4.27, 8.3.36, and 8.2.35.

Discord to let search engines index public server messages

Discord will allow search engines to index discussions in Discoverable Servers and make them accessible on the web to users outside the platform without an account or invitation.

The goal is to surface useful information to the wider internet community instead of keeping it buried in Discord conversations.

“Discussions in Discoverable Servers will soon be easier to find when you search the web, so you can find the answer you’re looking for and step straight into the conversation on Discord,” the messaging platform explains.