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By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — Four astronauts are now en route home from the International Space Station, marking the first time NASA has brought a crew home prematurely amid a health concern. And their unprecedented early departure leaves behind a bare-bones staff to look after the outpost. Only three people remain on the orbiting

By Jacopo Prisco, CNN (CNN) — Particles from Earth’s atmosphere have been carried into space by solar wind and have been landing on the moon for billions of years, mixing into the lunar soil, according to a new study. The research sheds new light on a puzzle that has endured for over half a century

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN (CNN) — Dark-eyed junco songbirds have been serenading the University of California, Los Angeles campus for decades as they forage for food. The species from the sparrow family is not usually found in cities. But as the climate crisis affected their mountain forest habitats, they started taking up residence in Southern

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — Four astronauts will return from the International Space Station more than a month ahead of schedule after an unnamed crew member experienced a medical issue. The incident marks the first time in history NASA has brought astronauts home from the space station early because of a medical issue. NASA

By Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — There were 23 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in the United States last year, adding up to a total of $115 billion in damages, according to a new report from the climate research nonprofit Climate Central. The report, and establishment of the Billion-Dollar Disasters Database within Climate Central,

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Astronomers may have discovered a previously unknown type of astronomical object, nicknamed “Cloud-9,” that could shed light on dark matter, one of the biggest mysteries in the universe. Dark matter is an enigmatic substance that shapes the cosmos and provides it with structure. While it has never been directly

By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump wants the US to sell Venezuela’s oil. But who would buy it? China has long been one of Venezuela’s biggest customers for oil. But its hunger for that oil is waning, as the country pulls off a stunningly fast transition to electric vehicles. That transition means

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — NASA said on Wednesday it was postponing a spacewalk at the International Space Station that was scheduled for Thursday, citing a “medical concern” with one of the crew members. The space agency did not name the astronaut involved but confirmed later the issue was related to a “single crew

By Andrew Freedman, Ella Nilsen, Samantha Waldenberg, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration is pulling the United States out of the bedrock treaty that underpins international cooperation on climate change, along with dozens of other global bodies, according to a memorandum released by the White House Wednesday evening and an accompanying social media post. Such

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Scientists have detected traces of plant toxins on Stone Age arrowheads that were used by hunter-gatherers in South Africa about 60,000 years ago. The find marks the oldest known poison arrows and indicates that such tools and sophisticated hunting strategies existed thousands of years early than previously thought, according

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — Fossils unearthed in Morocco from a little-understood period of human evolution may help scientists resolve a long-standing mystery: Who came before us? Three jawbones, including one from a child, teeth, vertebrae and a femur were unearthed from a cave known as Grotte à Hominidés in Thomas Quarry in Casablanca,

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Burned bone fragments found in northern Malawi have revealed the oldest cremation pyre ever found in Africa — and unearthed new mysteries that may be hard to solve. By analyzing the bones and pyre sediments, researchers believe that hunter-gatherers cremated the body of a woman about 9,500 years ago,

By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration ordered an aging coal-fired power plant in Colorado to stay open on Tuesday, a day before it was set to be retired. The order from Energy Secretary Chris Wright will keep the nearly 50-year-old Craig Generating Station Unit 1 in northwest Colorado operating until the end

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Bright full moons, dazzling meteor shower displays and remarkable total eclipses will give stargazers plenty of reasons to look to the sky in 2026. The new year kicks off with the full wolf moon on Saturday, the first of three supermoons this year. Jupiter, the largest planet in our

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — Human evolution’s biggest mystery, which emerged 15 years ago from a 60,000-year-old pinkie finger bone, finally started to unravel in 2025. Analysis of DNA extracted from the fossil electrified the scientific community in 2010, when it revealed a previously unknown human population that had, in the distant past, encountered

By Maggie Koerth, CNN (CNN) — This year is not a particularly white Christmas. Across the United States, families are gathering to enjoy a walk on a warm, sunny day. The fingerprints of climate change are all over the 2025 holiday season, and we at CNN thought it would be a great time to find