Very massive stars that collapse to create black holes may vomit out much more material during their short lives than we previously thought.
To fit with astronomical observations of these stars, which have masses over 100 times that of the sun, a team of scientists has estimated that very massive stars must have stellar winds far more powerful than has been estimated in the past. These winds should be powerful enough to blow the outer layers of these monstrous stars into space.
The team’s modeling revealed how stellar binaries can lead to mergers between stars that forge single, very massive stars. They also explored how stronger stellar winds impact black hole populations, pointing away from the formation of elusive intermediate-mass black holes.
“Very massive stars are like the ‘rock stars’ of the universe — they are powerful, and they live fast and die young,” team member Kendall Shepherd, a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study in Italy (known by its Italian acronym, SISSA), told Space.com. “For these very massive stars, their stellar wind is more like a hurricane than a light breeze.”
While our average-sized sun is expected to live for around 10 billion years, very massive stars burn through their nuclear fuel faster, living for just a few million years, or even a few hundred thousand years.
Studying such behemoths is important because they have a profound impact on their environments despite their short lives, Shepherd said.
“The strong winds of very massive stars and their eventual supernova explosions eject newly formed elements into the environment,” she said. “Many of these elements form the basis of new stars, while others, like carbon and oxygen, are the building blocks of life.
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“They are also the progenitors of black holes, including the black hole binaries that merge and produce gravitational waves that we detect on Earth.”
The Rock Star mass-loss diet
In the new research, Shepherd and her colleagues analyzed theoretical and observational studies of very massive stars.
“Such massive stars are so incredibly rare, and so few observational constraints existed,” Shepherd said. “With the help of space and ground-based telescopes, researchers were recently finally able to directly observe several stars in the Tarantula Nebula of the Large Magellanic Cloud with masses above 100 times our sun’s mass for the first time.”
Those previous studies found that the most massive stars in the Tarantula Nebula are a rare hot and bright type of mostly stripped Wolf-Rayet stars (WNh stars) at the end of their hydrogen-burning phase, meaning they show leftover hydrogen on their surface.
“These stars were found to be very hot, around 72,540 to 90,000 degrees Fahrenheit (40,000 to 50,000 degrees Celsius). That’s a little too hot! Standard models predict that, as the stars age, they should expand and cool down, in contrast to what the new observations showed,” Shepherd said. “Researchers put the two pieces together and used the observed properties to calibrate a mass-loss ‘recipe’ to combine the theory and observation.”
The Tarantula Nebula is located in the southern constellation Dorado (Dolphin Fish), 160,000 light-years from Earth. It’s home to massive hot stars. (Image credit: Fred Herrmann | Owl Mountain Observatory )
The team worked this recipe into their stellar evolution code, known as PARSEC (PAdova and tRieste Stellar Evolution Code), to create a new model accounting for the massive stars of the Tarantula Nebula.
“Our new models featuring stronger stellar winds are now able to match the observations and theory. The strong winds strip away the star’s outer layers, preventing it from cooling down, while maintaining the surface composition matching a WNh star,” Shepherd explained. “The star stays more compact and hot for longer, exactly reproducing what observations show.”
This artist’s impression shows the relative sizes of young stars, from the smallest red dwarfs, weighing in at about 0.1 solar masses, through low-mass yellow dwarfs, such as the sun, to massive blue dwarf stars weighing eight times more than the sun, as well as the 300-solar-mass star named R136a1. (Image credit: European Southern Observatory)
The team’s research suggests there are two different routes that could have led to the birth of stars like the most massive star ever seen, R136a1. This star, also found in the Tarantula Nebula, has up to 230 times the mass of the sun and emits millions of times more energy than our star. It’s also just 1.5 million years old, compared to the 4.6 billion–year-old sun.
The team’s model suggests that R136a1 could have been born as a single, ginormous star, or it could have formed as a result of a dramatic stellar merger.
“I was surprised that our results give two distinct possible explanations for the origin of R136a1, the most massive star known. I was quite fascinated that a binary stellar merger — where two stars merge and become a single, more massive star — could provide a plausible origin,” Shepherd said. “Even more interesting is the difference in the initial mass that is needed to reproduce R136a1 from the single-star and binary stellar merger scenarios.”
The researcher added that, for a single-star origin to match the features of R136a1, the star would need an initial mass over 100 solar masses — larger than is needed for a binary stellar merger origin, regardless of the wind recipe used.
“This could suggest a revision to what we thought was the upper limit for how massive a star can be in the local universe,” Shepherd said.
What direction does the wind blow for black holes?
Strong stellar winds and the rapid mass loss they cause also have strong implications for the masses of black holes that are created when massive stars collapse under their own gravity at the end of their lives.
“Because the stronger winds strip away so much of the star’s mass, at the end of their lives they form smaller black holes,” Shepherd said. “This study can shed a lot of light on predicting black hole masses. Stellar models that use the standard and weaker mass-loss recipes can produce intermediate-mass black holes.”
These black holes, which are around 100 to 10,000 times more massive than the sun, have proved difficult for astronomers to find.
“By having the stars lose more mass via stronger winds, the simulations produce fewer of these uncertain objects, making our models more in line with what is found in nature!” Shepherd said.
An artists illustration of two black holes circling around each other and colliding, 1.4 billion light years from Earth. The merger created ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves. LIGO detected those waves in December 2015. (Image credit: LIGO)
The team also proposes that, contrary to current thinking, stronger stellar winds are needed if systems are to develop into black hole binaries with masses both greater than around 30 times that of the sun.
“Even more exciting is that, when we looked at the binary black holes that merge in our simulations, our new models with stronger winds were able to produce systems where the two black holes were both massive,” Shepherd said. “This is exciting because this is a population that has been observed with gravitational wave detectors, but which previous models with standard winds struggled to produce.”
The two black holes in these binaries emit tiny ripples in space called gravitational waves as they spiral together and eventually merge. But strong stellar winds may be key to allowing this situation to develop.
“With the weaker, standard winds, the two stars expand and are more likely to merge before becoming black holes,” Shepherd explained. “In contrast, the stronger winds can push the two stars apart, allowing them to survive as a pair of black holes that can later spiral in and merge.”
The new research was focused on one specific environment, in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which has its own unique chemical composition. Thus, Shepherd said, the next step for the team will be to try to explain a handful of peculiar observed stars.
“These results are not yet universal, and so the natural next step would be to extend this study to a range of different initial compositions, to model different environments across the universe,” Shepherd concluded. “It would be very exciting to see how much the predicted black hole populations change with these differing initial compositions.”
The team’s research is available as a preprint on the research repository arXiv.
Researchers say they have found clear evidence that the human brain can keep making new neurons well into adulthood, potentially settling decades of controversy.
This new neuron growth, or “neurogenesis,” takes place in the hippocampus, a critical part of the brain involved in learning, memory and emotions.
“In short, our work puts to rest the long-standing debate about whether adult human brains can grow new neurons,” co-lead study author Marta Paterlini, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, told Live Science in an email.
Other experts agree that the work makes a strong case for adult neurogenesis.
While a single study does not constitute absolute proof, “this is strong evidence in support of the idea” that stem cells and precursors to new neurons exist and are proliferating in the adult human brain, said Dr. Rajiv Ratan, CEO of the Burke Neurological Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine, who was not involved in the study.
“This is a perfect example of great science teeing up the ball for the clinical neuroscience community,” he told Live Science.
Related: Babies’ brain activity changes dramatically before and after birth, groundbreaking study finds
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Capitalizing on new technologies
The researchers combined advanced techniques, including single-nucleus RNA sequencing and machine learning, to sort and examine brain tissue samples from international biobanks, they reported in a paper published July 3 in the journal Science. RNA, a cousin of DNA, reflects genes that are “switched on” inside cells, while machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence often used to crunch huge datasets.
Since the 1960s, researchers have known that mice, rats and some nonhuman primates make new brain cells in the dentate gyrus, part of the hippocampus, throughout life. But getting quality brain tissue samples from adult humans is extremely challenging.
“Human tissue comes from autopsies or surgeries, so how it’s handled — how long before it’s fixed in preservative, which chemicals are used, how thin the slices are — can hide those newborn cells,” Paterlini said. Employing new technologies enabled the team to overcome this challenge.
They analyzed more than 400,000 individual nuclei of hippocampus cells from 24 people, and in addition, looked at 10 other brains using other techniques. The brains came from people ages 0 to 78, including six children and four teens.
Using two cutting-edge imaging methods, the team mapped where new cells sat in the tissue. They saw groups of dividing precursor cells sitting right next to the fully formed neurons, in the same spots where animal studies have shown that adult stem cells reside.
“We didn’t just see these dividing precursor cells in babies and young kids — we also found them in teenagers and adults,” Paterlini said. “These include stem cells that can renew themselves and give rise to other brain cells.”
The newer technologies enabled the researchers to detect the new brain cells at various stages of development and conduct research that wouldn’t have been possible a few years ago, Ratan added.
The team also used fluorescent tags to mark the proliferating cells. This enabled them to build a machine learning algorithm that identified the cells that they knew would turn into neurogenic stem cells, based on past rodent studies. This was a “clever approach” for tackling the challenges of studying brain-cell formation in adolescents and adults, Ratan said.
As expected, the brains of children produced more new brain cells than the brains of adolescents or adults did. Meanwhile, nine out of 14 adult brains analyzed with one technique showed signs of neurogenesis, while 10 out of 10 adult brains analyzed with a second technique bore new cells. Regarding the few brains with no new cells, Paterlini said it’s too soon to draw conclusions about the disparity between adult brains with evidence of new cells and those without.
Next, the researchers could explore whether the adults who produced new brain cells did so in response to a neurological disease, such as Alzheimer’s, or whether adult neurogenesis is a sign of good brain health, said Dr. W. Taylor Kimberly, chief of neurocritical care at Massachusetts General Brigham, who was not involved in the study.
“They were able to find these needles in a haystack,” Kimberly told Live Science. “Once you detect them and learn about them and understand their regulation,” scientists can research how to track the precursor cells through time and see how their presence relates to disease, he said.
He envisioned comparing patients who have dementia to “super agers” who are cognitively resilient in old age. If the link between neurogenesis and disease can be uncovered, perhaps that could open the door to treatments.
“Although the precise therapeutic strategies in humans are still under active research,” Paterlini said, “the very fact that our adult brains can sprout new neurons transforms how we think about lifelong learning, recovery from injury and the untapped potential of neural plasticity.”
More than 80 Palestinians were killed across Gaza on Thursday, according to health officials, as Israel intensified its strikes across the strip.
The deaths, which authorities said included dozens of people seeking aid, come as negotiations to reach a ceasefire in the enclave ramp up. A source told CNN that Hamas officials were set to meet Thursday to prepare a response to the latest proposal, which has been accepted by Israel.
At a school-turned-displacement facility in Gaza City, 15 people were killed and 25 injured in Israeli strikes that left many with severe burns, the director of Al-Shifa hospital Dr. Mohammad Abu Silmiya said. The hospital is treating those wounded in the attack.
“The scene was extremely harrowing due to the charred bodies of the martyrs and children,” said Fares Afana, who heads the Emergency and Medical Services in northern Gaza, and had teams evacuating the injured from the school.
The hospital director said another 12 people were killed in other strikes in Gaza City.
In response to a CNN question on the school strike, the Israeli military said it struck a “key Hamas terrorist who was operating in a Hamas command and control center” in Gaza City. The Israeli military said that prior to the attack, “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence.”
Earlier this morning, the Israeli army said that over the past day it struck “approximately 150 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including terrorists, underground routes, military structures, weapons, sniper posts, and additional terror infrastructure sites.” CNN has requested comment from the Israeli military on Thursday’s strikes.
Images taken at the scene of the attack in Gaza City showed flames inside a building and several bodies that had been severely burned.
“Every so often, the Israelis would attack the school and bomb it, forcing us to flee, then we would return when the Israeli pressure eased. Today, as you can see, the pressure was intense,” said a woman, who did not give her name.
In southern Gaza, 35 bodies arrived at the Nasser Hospital on Thursday morning, according to the spokesman of Nasser hospital, Ahmad Al-Fara. The death toll includes fifteen people who were allegedly killed while waiting for aid in Khan Younis, and 20 others who died in strikes on encampments in the city, the hospital said.
The aid seekers were waiting near the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution sites in the Al-Tahliya area of southwest Khan Younis when they were hit, according to the hospital.
“They said the American (GHF) is safe, is that what safety looks like?” one man, Awad Barbach, said at the funeral of one of those killed.
In another incident, in central Gaza near the Netzarim Corridor, crowds gathered to receive aid from trucks when chaos ensued, a witness said. Twenty-five people were killed in the incident, according to Abu Silmiya, the Al-Shifa hospital director.
“It was a trap… people were stabbing each other for the food… (then there was an) hour and a half of (Israeli) gunfire… we are not Hamas or Fatah. I’m just a civilian who wants to eat, and instead I find death,” one eyewitness, Ahmed Khella, told CNN.
“Where are (Hamas)?… they are all dogs,” he added.
Later on Thursday evening, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said seven people had been killed and 17 others injured while waiting for aid in the Tahlia area east of Khan Younis. Ambulance crews transported the injured and bodies of the deceased to Al Amal hospital, PRCS said.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
The 30,000 additional troops President Barack Obama is sending to Afghanistan will focus on reversing the Taliban’s momentum, a senior Defense Department official said last night during a “DoDLive” bloggers roundtable following the president’s announcement of his new strategy.
“What we are sending into Afghanistan by the end of next summer will be more troops, more quickly than any other proposal before the president,” said David S. Sedney, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia. “What we are doing here is we are putting in the hands of General McChrystal more troops sooner in order to have the impact on the momentum of the Taliban.” Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal commands U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan.
The need to slow down the Taliban’s momentum is necessary for success in Afghanistan, said Army Brig. Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., director of the Joint Staff’s Pakistan-Afghanistan coordination cell, who accompanied Sedney during the roundtable. The improvised explosive device threat in Afghanistan has increased by 75 percent across the board, particularly in the south, he noted.
To combat that momentum, he explained, most forces deployed to Afghanistan will be used in a bridging role.
“The initial forces going in will include an additional Marine regimental combat team going to southern Afghanistan to be a part of the Marine Expeditionary Brigade Afghanistan, and they will assist in securing the population in central Helmand,” Nicholson said. Other U.S. forces will be sent to Kandahar and an additional brigade combat team involved in counterinsurgency will be deployed in the east, while trainers will assist Afghan security forces in close partnering, he added.
The close partnering is a critical component of McChrystal’s plan as forces move forward, Nicholson said.
“They become a catalyst for the accelerated development of the capability of the Afghan forces,” Nicholson added. “Additional trainers will enable greater capacity in the training base to train more Afghans to achieve acceleration and a growth in the Afghan army that we are looking for.”
He added that trainers “see a definite difference in their progress when closely partnered.”
Nicholson, who has gained extensive experience in Afghanistan over the past four years, said the Afghan security forces need U.S. assistance.
“They clearly need our help,” he said. “I would characterize that help as a bridging force to get us through the necessary combat operations to secure the population in some key areas.”
The surge of the additional troops and equipment can be accomplished by summer, the general said.
“In southern Afghanistan last year, we introduced close to 20,000 troops in about the same amount of time,” he noted. “It is very challenging, but it can be done.”
In addition to the influx of U.S. forces sent to Afghanistan, Sedney said, international partners will supply an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 troops to help with the effort. Nicholson added that NATO forces — such as troops from Romania, Denmark, Estonia, Australia, United Kingdom and Denmark — have done a lot of the heavy lifting in some of the highest combat areas, such as Helmand province.
“We have 17 nations in the southern region of Afghanistan. Six of those nations are providing a battalion or more of soldiers,” he said. “These soldiers fight, and these nations have done a lot of heavy lifting for the alliance down there.”
Despite restrictions some nations place on how their forces can be used, international partners have paid a heavy price, Nicholson said. “While certainly caveats are a concern, rightfully so, there are a lot of our allies who are operating in some very tough areas, and have taken some very high casualties,” he said.
Sedney added that the focus of the effort will be on the Afghan security forces’ ability to take the lead in security responsibilities by the summer of 2011.
“We have been building, are building, and will build even more intensively Afghan national security forces — Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police — that will fill the goal that President [Hamid] Karzai set out in his inauguration speech,” he said.
(Navy Lt. Jennifer Cragg serves in the Defense Media Activity’s emerging media directorate.)
Story by Navy Lt. Jennifer Cragg, Special to American Forces Press Service
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Scarlett Johansson Now: Actor Stars in Jurassic World: Rebirth
Scarlett Johansson is finally fulfilling a lifelong dream. The Oscar-nominated actor stars in Jurassic World Rebirth—a gig she’s been after for over a decade. Picking up after the events of 2022’s Jurassic World Dominion, the new installment arrived to theaters July 2 and sees Johansson portray a covert operations expert tasked with obtaining dinosaur DNA for a potential medical breakthrough.
A lifelong Jurassic fan, the 40-year-old told The Hollywood Reporter it feels “unbelievable” to be involved in the franchise after all this time. “I’ve been trying to get into a Jurassic movie for, I don’t know, 15 years or something. I was so stoked that it all came together,” she said.
Being such a superfan, however, did pose a bit of a challenge for her on set. “I had to compartmentalize my nervous excitement for the job in front of me while also focusing on making it work,” Johansson added. “I would have these really geeked out, fangirl moments and then be, like, ‘OK, put that away for a second.’”
Who Is Scarlett Johansson?
Actor Scarlett Johansson is known for her Oscar-nominated performances in Marriage Story and JoJo Rabbit, as well as her recurring role as Marvel’s Black Widow. Johansson began acting as a child, gaining critical acclaim for her role in The Horse Whisperer at age 13. She achieved widespread recognition with her impressive performances in the 2003 romantic movies Lost in Translation and Girl with a Pearl Earring before entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the mega-hit The Avengers in 2012. In more recent years, Johansson has starred in films like Fly Me to the Moon, The Phoenician Scheme, and Jurassic World: Rebirth. She is married to Saturday Night Live comedian Colin Jost.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Scarlett Ingrid Johansson BORN: November 22, 1984 BIRTHPLACE: New York, New York SPOUSES: Ryan Reynolds (2008–2011), Romain Dauriac (2014–2017), and Colin Jost (2020–present) CHILDREN: Rose and Cosmo ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Sagittarius
Early Life
Scarlett Ingrid Johansson was born on November 22, 1984, in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Her father, Karsten Johansson, is a Danish architect, and her mother, Melanie Sloan, is a producer and actor. She has a fraternal twin brother named Hunter, an older brother, Adrian, and an older sister, Vanessa. Scarlett also has an older half-brother, Christian, through her father’s first marriage and later gained a younger sibling when her mother adopted her sister Fenan.
Scarlett’s interest in acting surfaced at an early age. At age 7, she began auditioning for commercials and started taking acting classes at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. When she was 8 years old, she appeared in an off-Broadway production of Sophistry with Ethan Hawke.
Scarlett continued to seek out roles and decided to study at Manhattan’s Professional Children’s School, a private educational institution known for such famous acting alumni as Carrie Fisher, Rita Moreno, and Sarah Michelle Gellar. At PCS, the young Scarlett pursued her passion for musical theatre and even took tap dance lessons. “I was a big song-and-dance type of kid—you know, one of those kids with jazz hands,” she told Interview Magazine in September 2013. “I liked to improvise and do weird vocal exercises. I was a major ham.” Soon, she would be performing professionally.
Movies
In 1994, Johansson landed her first paid acting role in a sketch on Late Night with Conan O’Brien before making her movie debut in the Rob Reiner comedy North. Recalling her first time on the set of North, she told New York Magazine in February 2004, “For some reason, I just knew what to do, instinctively. It was like, I don’t know… fate.” Her first leading part came two years later with Manny & Lo, an independent dramatic comedy. Johansson played the younger sister of a pregnant teenager, both of whom were in foster care. Her twin brother and sister, Vanessa, also appeared in the film.
Breakout Role in The Horse Whisperer
At 13 years old, Johansson first earned critical acclaim in the 1998 neo-Western The Horse Whisperer. Her portrayal of Grace MacLean, a young amputee, won over many fans, including the film’s star and director Robert Redford. “That film changed things for me in a lot of ways,” Johansson later recalled to Esquire in October 2013. “I went through this realization that acting, at its heart, is the ability to manipulate your own emotions.” Following the success of her breakout performance, the young actor received even more attention with her supporting role in 2001’s Ghost World, despite its tepid performance at the box office.
Lost in Translation and Girl with a Pearl Earring
Scarlett Johansson with Lost in Translation co-star Bill Murray and director Sofia Coppola.J. Vespa – Getty Images
After graduating high school in 2002, Johansson found herself as one of Hollywood’s top up-and-coming actresses. She landed two starring roles in 2003, both of which garnered her critical accolades. In Lost in Translation, she played a woman visiting Tokyo who forms an unlikely relationship with a much older man, played by Bill Murray. Johansson also gave an impressive performance as a servant girl who is painted by famed artist Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth) in Girl with a Pearl Earring. Both roles earned her Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress.
A Song for Bobby Long and Match Point
Johansson took on a variety of projects after these early successes. In 2004, she appeared in A Love Song for Bobby Long opposite John Travolta, as a young woman trying to reclaim her deceased mother’s house. Her performance secured her another Golden Globe nod for Best Actress. The following year, Johansson starred in the drama Match Point, in which she played a woman having an affair with a married tennis instructor. For the role, she scored her first Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Johansson later worked with director Brian De Palma on the 2006 crime thriller The Black Dahlia.
The Nanny Diaries and Vicky Christina Barcelona
After appearing in several dramas, Johansson tried her hand at comedy again in The Nanny Diaries (2007), playing a dysfunctional, wealthy couple’s nanny. The following year, she appeared in Woody Allen’s romantic comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona, opposite Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz.
Marvel’s Black Widow
Turning to big-budget fare, Johansson, who stands at 5 feet, 3 inches, took on the role of the super agent Black Widow in Iron Man 2 (2010) opposite Robert Downey Jr. The action flick became one of the summer’s big blockbusters and set the stage for her contributions to numerous films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Johansson next appeared as Black Widow in the 2012 box-office smash The Avengers. The film also featured Downey as Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, and Chris Evans as Captain America.
The actor continued to hold down her high-profile role in a string of Marvel blockbusters, including Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers:The Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Her involvement in the franchise proved highly lucrative, fueling her rise to the top spot in Forbes’ ranking of the world’s highest-paid actresses in 2018. Johansson flew solo for the first time in 2021’s Black Widow, which received mostly positive reviews.
We Bought a Zoo, Hitchcock, and Her
Johansson remained busy outside of her commitments to Marvel. In 2011, she co-starred alongside Matt Damon in Cameron Crowe’s dramatic comedy We Bought a Zoo. The following year, she took on the character of real-life film star Janet Leigh in Hitchcock, which explores the life of director Alfred Hitchcock during the making of the horror classic Psycho.
In 2013, Johansson lent her distinctive voice to the futuristic flick Her as an intelligent operating system that draws the affection of Joaquin Phoenix’s lonely character. The next year, she took a supporting role in Jon Favreau’s dramatic comedy Chef and starred as the title character in Luc Besson’s sci-fi thriller Lucy later that year. Johansson rejoined Favreau to voice the character of Kaa in The Jungle Book in 2016 and voiced Ash in the animated musical Sing.
Ghost in the Shell, Rough Night, and Isle of Dogs
In 2017, Johansson starred in the American adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. The production was criticized for its whitewashed cast, as Johansson’s character in the original anime was Japanese. That same year, she returned to comedy as part of the ensemble cast for Rough Night. In 2018, she voiced one of the canines in Wes Anderson’s stop-motion feature Isle of Dogs.
Later that year, Johansson found herself in the middle of another casting controversy when she was tapped to play transgender massage parlor owner Dante “Tex” Gill in Rub & Tug. After initially dismissing the concerns through a spokesperson, Johansson acknowledged the “insensitive” nature of her response and announced she was withdrawing from the film.
Oscar Nominations for Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit
Marriage Story, starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, earned six Oscar nominations.Wilson Webb – Netflix
Next up for the actor was a co-starring role in the well-received 2019 drama Marriage Story, alongside Adam Driver, in which she played an actor in the middle of a divorce. The Netflix hit was filmed just a year after her divorce from Romain Dauriac was finalized. “By the time we had made the film, I was in a more settled place. But obviously I had my own fresh perspective on the story,” Johansson told The Hollywood Reporter at the time. For her performance, she earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, as well as a Golden Globe nomination in the same category.
Taking on another controversial project, Johansson also appeared in Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit (2019), as the mother of a 10-year-old boy in Nazi Germany who considers a goofy Adolf Hitler to be his imaginary best friend. The role scored her an Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actress, making her the 12th performer to receive double nominations in the same year. Two years later, she reprised her role as Ash in Sing 2.
Asteroid City and Fly Me to the Moon
Johansson returned to the big screen in the 2023 Wes Anderson film Asteroid City, in which she played Midge Campbell, a lonely 1950s movie star. She reportedly took a huge pay cut for the role, earning just over $4,000 per week. The following year, Johansson starred alongside Channing Tatum in the romantic comedy Fly Me to the Moon, set against the backdrop of the 1969 moon landing. The film, which premiered in theaters and on Apple TV+, received mostly positive reviews. She later voiced Elita-1 in the animated series Transformers One.
The Phoenician Scheme and Jurassic World Rebirth
Johansson appeared in the 2025 spy comedy The Phoenician Scheme—her third Wes Anderson project—about a wealthy arms dealer who starts a new business venture after surviving an assassination attempt. She also has tried her hand at directing. Her directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, earned a five-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
The actor is currently starring in Jurassic World Rebirth, which arrived in theaters in July. Taking place five years after 2022’s Jurassic World Dominion, Johansson plays a covert operations expert tasked with obtaining dinosaur DNA for a potential medical breakthrough. A longtime fan of the franchise, she told The Hollywood Reporter: “I’ve been trying to get into a Jurassic movie for, I don’t know, 15 years or something. I was so stoked that it all came together.” Johansson is also set to appear in the upcoming comedy drama My Mother’s Wedding in August.
Theatre
Dimitrios Kambouris – Getty Images
After appearing in several films, Johansson took her acting skills to the stage. In 2010, she made her Broadway debut in a revival of Arthur Miller’s drama A View from the Bridge opposite Liev Schreiber. Johansson earned positive reviews for her convincing performance as Catherine, a teenage girl who is raised by her aunt and uncle. For her performance, Johansson won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She later returned to Broadway in the 2013 adaptation of the Tennessee Williams drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, in which she played the role of Maggie.
Music Career
In addition to her successful acting career, Johansson made a brief foray into music when she signed with Atco Records in October 2006. She released her debut studio album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, through Atco Records in May 2008. The record, which featured cover versions of songs by Tom Waits, received mixed reviews and did not perform well commercially. Branching out into new territory, she joined forces with Pete Yorn for an album of duets. The pair released their collaborative effort Break Up in May 2009. Johansson wrote several tracks for the recording. “I’ve been singing for my whole life. When I was a kid I wanted to be on Broadway,” she told New York Magazine at the time.
Johansson later ventured into pop music, forming the girl group the Singles with Este Haim, Holly Miranda, Kendra Morris, and Julia Haltigan. The group released their first single, “Candy,” in February 2015. “The idea was to write super-pop dance music written and performed by girls,” she told Rolling Stone. Just days after the song was released, however, the group received a cease-and-desist from a Los Angeles-based rock band of the same name. Following their legal troubles, Johansson’s the Singles disbanded and did not release another song. Three years later, she teamed up with Yorn again for her EP Apart, which came out in June 2018.
Husband Colin Jost and Kids
Ernesto Ruscio – Getty Images
Johansson is married to comedian Colin Jost, the longest-running “Weekend Update” anchor on Saturday Night Live. The pair had known each other for years, having first met on SNL in 2006, as friends. Then, in May 2017, they were spotted kissing at an SNL afterparty. Johansson and Jost made their first public appearance as a couple at the American Museum of Natural History Gala in New York in November 2017. After two years of dating, they got engaged in May 2019.
The couple exchanged vows in a private wedding ceremony amid the COVID-19 pandemic in October 2020. They announced their nuptials via the Meals on Wheels Instagram account, requesting donations for the charity instead of wedding gifts. The couple welcomed their first child, a son named Cosmo, in August 2021.
Her marriage to Jost is Johansson’s third. She and fellow actor Ryan Reynolds were married for a little over two years. Their September 2008 wedding was a small ceremony in British Columbia, Canada. The couple purchased a home together in Los Angeles but filed for divorce two years later, in December 2010. Their split was finalized in July 2011.
Johansson was then romantically linked to actor Sean Penn for a time. The pair traveled to Mexico together and attended actor Reese Witherspoon’s wedding in March 2011, though they eventually parted ways. Later that year, Johansson found herself at the center of a scandal when nude photos from her cell phone were leaked. The FBI launched an investigation and arrested hacker Christopher Chaney, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In November 2012, Johansson went public with her relationship with French journalist Romain Dauriac, who eventually became her second husband. A representative for the actor revealed in September 2013 that the pair were engaged. The following year, Johansson and Dauriac announced the birth of their daughter, Rose, in September 2014. The couple wed in Philipsburg, Montana, in October 2014, but the public didn’t get wind of the announcement until December. After more than two years of marriage, Johansson divorced Dauriac in September 2017.
Net Worth
As of May 2025, Johansson has an estimated net worth of $165 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. She is one of the highest-paid female actors in Hollywood, earning an average of $10 million to $20 million per film. In addition to acting, she has her own skincare line, The Outset, which she launched in March 2022.
Quotes
I’m so tired of hearing casting directors ask if I have a sore throat. The people who have told me that my voice is distinctive, it’s unusual… those people have always been close to my heart.
I was a big song-and-dance type of kid—you know, one of those kids with jazz hands.
But when I was younger, a lot of the roles I was offered, or I went for, had their ambitions or character arcs revolving around their own desirability, or the male gaze, or a male-centered story. That is less frequent, though—something has shifted.
I’ve been trying to get into a Jurassic movie for, I don’t know, 15 years or something. I was so stoked that it all came together.
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The Lahore High Court (LHC) has observed while referring to the testimonies of two police officials that former prime minister Imran Khan has been found involved in a conspiracy hatched for the violent events that occurred on May 9, 2023.
An LHC division bench headed by Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi issued the detailed order regarding the dismissal of Khan’s post-arrest bail applications recently.
The bench had dismissed the bail applications in eight first information reports (FIRs) registered against the former PM in connection with the May 9 riots.
Inspector Ismat Kamal and Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Hassan Afzal had in their statements termed Imran Khan the mastermind of the incidents that had occurred on May 9.
They said that in meetings held on May 4, 2023, at the Chakri Rest Area in Rawalpindi, and on May 7 and 9 in Lahore, Khan had given directions to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership to attack military and sate installations in addition to police officials to build pressure in case he was arrested.
The officials stated that the leader had said that no one should go home until his release. They said the party leadership had termed Imran their red line and said they would jam the country by inciting the public if he was arrested.
The court observed that the role attributed to the petitioner, as evident from the reproduced statements, attracts the provisions of Section 120-B and Section 121-A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which stood applied in the case. The reproduced statements of Inspector Ismat Kamal and ASI Hassan Afzal prima facie reflect that a conspiracy and abetment related to the offences committed on May 9 were perpetrated by the petitioner in different meetings, it observed.
Meanwhile, an anti-terrorism court summoned more prosecution witnesses on July 10 in a case registered against PTI leaders regarding the May 9 riots after the arrest of the party’s founding chairman.
The ATC judge recorded the statements of five prosecution witnesses in the case.
Sarwar Road police had registered the case against the leaders over disturbing law and order, creating chaos, arson and inciting the public after the arrest.
The ATC extended the bail hearing till July 8 of Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Umar Sarfraz Cheema and other leaders in cases registered against in connection with the riots. In another case of setting ablaze vehicles outside Jinnah House, the judge fixed July 10 for further proceedings.
Defamation case
A district court reserved its decision on Prime Minister Mian Shehbaz Sharif’s application for making a legal notice part of the record and to record secondary evidence in a defamation suit against Imran Khan.
The district court judge was hearing the PM’s defamation suit filed against the PTI founder, seeking Rs10 billion in compensation over an accusation of offering him bribe to withdraw the Panama Papers case.
The PTI counsel opposed the application, arguing that the legal notice was not signed by the petitioner and no secondary evidence could be recorded at this stage.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that suit had been filed after fulfilling legal formalities and the notice had been sent. He requested the court to allow secondary evidence.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the judge reserved the decision, which is likely to be announced by July 10.
On June 2, the prime minister had replied to the queries of the counsel representing the PTI founding chairman during cross-examination.
The queries revolved around PM Shehbaz Sharif’s affidavit, including its content, institution, stamps, attestation and other aspects of the case. The PM had appeared through video link.
He had admitted that his name had been neither mentioned in the anchorperson’s questions nor in the replies given by the respondent, but asserted that it was clear that the baseless accusations were aimed at him.
Alpine have signed Steve Nielsen as their Managing Director to oversee the day-to-day running of the team, reporting to executive advisor Flavio Briatore.
The French manufacturer have been looking for a senior leader to manage the team on a daily basis following Oli Oakes’ departure from the Team Principal role in May.
Following weeks of talks, Nielsen – a well-respected member of the paddock – will leave his role as Chief Motorsports Operations Officer, Sporting, at commercial rights holder F1 to take up his new job on September 1, ahead of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Briatore, who has known Nielsen for decades, will continue to have overall responsibility for the project.
It marks a return to Enstone for Nielsen, who has spent multiple stints with the squad under the previous guises Benetton, Renault and Lotus, including as Sporting Director during the 2005 and 2006 World Championship winning years.
In recent years, Nielsen has spent time at F1 and governing body the FIA, and also has team experience from his time at Tyrrell, Honda, Toro Rosso and Arrows.
Alpine also confirmed the recent recruitment of Kris Midgley, who joined as Head of Aerodynamic Development.
Midgley, who reports to Executive Technical Director David Sanchez, previously worked at Enstone between 2007 and 2013 and most recently worked at Ferrari as Principal Aerodynamicist.
Alpine are currently bottom of the Teams’ Championship on 11 points but are hoping to improve their fortunes next season when they switch to Mercedes power.
