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By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — In a Friday afternoon email to NASA staff, the agency’s acting chief asked employees to embrace the philosophy of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, as workers express concern over recent directives and anti-diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) communications. In her email, NASA Acting Administrator Janet

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A recently discovered asteroid that has captured the attention of the astronomy community now has a slightly increased risk of affecting Earth. Named 2024 YR4, the asteroid has a 2.2% chance of hitting our planet on December 22, 2032, according to the European Space Agency. The risk assessment has

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — The existence of the US Agency for International Development hangs in the balance. President Donald Trump is racing to shut it down, declaring it a waste of money and run by “lunatics.” But experts warn this plays straight into the hands of the very country he considers to be

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — Seven years after SpaceX launched Elon Musk’s cherry red sports car into orbit around our sun, astronomers unwittingly began paying attention to its movements once again. Observers spotted and correctly identified the vehicle as it started its extraterrestrial excursion in February 2018 — after it had blasted off into

By Ella Nilsen and Sean Lyngaas, CNN (CNN) — A representative from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, was granted access to the Energy Department’s IT system on Wednesday by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, two people with knowledge of the situation told CNN. Wright granted access to DOGE representative Luke Farritor — a

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — Scientists have made a leap forward in understanding the pattern and structure of turbulence — a natural phenomenon observed in fluids such as moving water, ocean currents, chemical reactions, blood flow, storm clouds, plumes of smoke and even the plasma of stars. While turbulent flow is chaotic and irregular,

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — Scholars are decoding an ancient scroll that was one of hundreds charred to a crisp during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. The artifact, which is kept at the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries in the United Kingdom, is the fifth intact Herculaneum scroll to be virtually

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — If the near-Earth asteroid Bennu were to collide with Earth in the future, the space rock could cause substantial global damage, even though it’s a fraction of the size of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, according to new research. Astronomers estimate that Bennu has a 1 in

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — A near complete skull fossil found in Antarctica has revealed the oldest known modern bird — a mallard duck-size creature related to the waterfowl that live by lakes and oceans today, a new study has found. The 68 million-year-old fossil belongs to an extinct species of bird known as

By Jack Guy, CNN (CNN) — Some great apes realize when a human partner doesn’t know something and are capable of communicating information to them to change their behavior, a new study shows. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University studying bonobos found that they would point to where treats were hidden if they could see their

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — About 3.8 billion years ago, two massive canyons likely formed on the moon in a span of less than 10 minutes, according to new research. The extraordinary formations, each comparable in size to Earth’s Grand Canyon, are hidden on the far side of the moon — the side that

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — Images from space reveal an enormous X-shaped building rising up from rocky terrain in southwestern China. This is a huge nuclear fusion research facility, analysts say, and it could be a sign China is leaping ahead in the quest to harness this futuristic energy source. It could also mean

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN (CNN) — Often referred to as the world’s most famous medieval artwork, the Bayeux Tapestry is both an intricate illustration of the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and a historical enigma. Several mysteries still surround the dazzling embroidery, including the identity of its maker, but

By Hassan Tayir, CNN Hong Kong (CNN) — China plans to send a flying robot to the far side of the moon next year to search for the frozen water that could hold the key to future lunar exploration, as the country pushes forward with its ambitious space program. The robotic “flying detector” will be

By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — The US Army Corps of Engineers opened two dams on Friday in Central California and let roughly 2.2 billion gallons of water flow out of reservoirs, after President Donald Trump ordered the release with the misguided intent to send water to fire-ravaged Southern California. Trump celebrated the move in

By Issy Ronald, CNN London (CNN) — Eleven endangered male frogs that traveled 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometers) in a bid to save their species from extinction have “given birth” to 33 froglets at London Zoo. Originally from Parque Tantauco, a remote part of an island off the coast of Chile, the Darwin’s frog species is

By Catherine Nicholls, CNN (CNN) — The arrival of a baby swell shark at an aquarium in Louisiana has caused a wave of excitement, after the egg hatched despite the fact that no male sharks appear to have been involved. Shark pup Yoko was born in early January, Shreveport Aquarium said, having hatched from an

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — Sending a spacecraft to a near-Earth asteroid, gathering dust and rock from its surface, and returning the rare cache to our planet has been one of NASA’s boldest feats yet. And now, the daring OSIRIS-REx mission is bearing scientific fruit. When the spacecraft completed its long journey home more

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN (CNN) — The Blue Ghost lunar lander has captured its first images of the moon from the spacecraft’s orbit around Earth, the Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace announced this week. The two images — which the company posted Monday on the social media platform X — features a view of the moon

By Laura Paddison and Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — There’s a saying that in a big city you are never more than six feet away from a rat. It’s an urban myth, but scientists are warning cities across the globe are becoming far rattier, and the boom is primarily driven by one factor: climate change.