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By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Hundreds of obsidian artifacts have revealed where the Aztecs acquired the volcanic glass they used for tools, ornamental pieces or religious objects centuries ago — and their vast trade networks included their rivals. A new study of the 788 pieces is the largest sample of obsidian artifacts ever analyzed

By Stephanie Elam, CNN (CNN) — The Atlantic Ocean has a toxic seaweed problem. Floating in brown islands of algae, this year’s sargassum bloom has already broken its own size record by millions of tons — and the growing season isn’t done yet. Now stretching across some 5,500 miles of ocean, the annual bloom is

By Billy Stockwell, CNN (CNN) — A “copy” of Magna Carta bought decades ago by Harvard Law School for just $27.50 is now understood to be an extremely rare original from 1300, according to new research. British historians were able to verify the document’s true authenticity after an academic stumbled across the item while looking

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Engineers at NASA say they have successfully revived thrusters aboard Voyager 1, the farthest spacecraft from our planet, in the nick of time before a planned communications blackout. A side effect of upgrades to an Earth-based antenna that sends commands to Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, the

By Marlowe Starling, CNN (CNN) — A research team in China got creative in its efforts to save a critically endangered species by turning to ancient poems. The scientists pored over more than 700 ancient Chinese poems from the Tang through the Qing dynasties that mention the Yangtze finless porpoise to find out where and

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — May’s full moon, known by its popular nickname as the flower moon to signify the many blossoms of spring, will be bright in the sky on Sunday night — despite it being a “micromoon.” The full moon technically peaks at 12:56 p.m. ET on Monday, but it will appear

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — A Soviet-era spacecraft that was designed to make a soft landing on Venus — but instead remained trapped in Earth orbit for decades — likely fell from the sky early Saturday morning, according to the European Space Agency. The object, referred to as Cosmos 482 or Kosmos 482, is

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Researchers have found pages of a rare medieval manuscript masquerading as a cover and stitched into the binding of another book, according to experts at the Cambridge University Library in England. The fragment contains stories about Merlin and King Arthur. The two pages are from a 13th century copy

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — For around 2,000 years, global sea levels varied little. That changed in the 20th century. They started rising and have not stopped since — and the pace is accelerating. Scientists are scrambling to understand what this means for the future just as President Trump strips back agencies tasked with

By Kameryn Griesser, CNN (CNN) — Things are heating up hundreds of miles off the coast of Oregon, where a large undersea volcano is showing signs of impending eruption, scientists say. The volcano, known as Axial Seamount, is located nearly 1 mile (1.4 kilometers) underwater on a geological hot spot, where searing gushes of molten

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — An island 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula is home to a unique and celebrated community of women: the Haenyeo. These women dive year-round off Jeju Island, collecting sea urchin, abalone and other seafood from the ocean floor, descending as much as 60

By Catherine Nicholls, CNN (CNN) — Researchers working to decipher the contents of a burned, still-rolled scroll have uncovered both the author and the title of the text nearly 2,000 years after it was buried in the Mount Vesuvius eruption. The scroll — named PHerc. 172 — is one of hundreds from the ancient Roman

By Annie Grayer, Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration is preparing to eliminate two key Environmental Protection Agency divisions focused on climate change and energy efficiency, including its consumer-facing Energy Star program, according to two sources familiar with the plan. The agency is planning to shutter its climate change division and climate protection

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — A piece of a Soviet vehicle that malfunctioned en route to Venus more than 50 years ago is due to crash back to Earth as soon as this week. Much about the piece of space debris, called Cosmos 482 (also spelled Kosmos 482), is unknown. Though most projections estimate