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By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A daring mission to rescue one of NASA’s crucial space observatories from falling to Earth has encountered issues of its own — but there may still be hope for both spacecraft to beat the odds. The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has served as an astrophysics multitool in low-Earth orbit

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — A gravity-defying competition that brewed in the background of geopolitics for decades is now roaring to the forefront — with China demonstrating rapid advances in space technology and the United States ratcheting up rhetoric about a looming battle for control of the cosmos. In the past five years alone,

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, has fallen to a record low — yet another sign that the Colorado River system is spiraling further into crisis. Water levels on Thursday in Lake Mead dropped to 1,040.5 feet, below the previous record low of 1,040.58 feet set

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — An ambitious effort to boost an aging probe on its journey through the uncharted territory of interstellar space seems to have found success. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have spent the last few months implementing what they nicknamed the “Big Bang” fix to buy the

By Jacopo Prisco, CNN (CNN) — The skies of Oklahoma City roared for six months in 1964 as military aircraft intentionally rattled the population below with a daily barrage of thunderous sonic booms. It was a controversial test — the consequences of which have lingered to this day. The booms — 1,253 in total —

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN (CNN) — In the heart of urban Los Angeles lie the La Brea Tar Pits, a group of natural asphalt seeps made famous by the millions of ice age fossils preserved within the bubbling, dark pools of goo. Excavations of the pits have yielded bones of species that once roamed the

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — Relentless heat and a dearth of rain are having a punishing effect on some of Europe’s most vital rivers. The waterways have tumbled to record lows in places, in a crisis so severe it can be seen from space. Stark satellite images reveal dramatically shrunken waterways weaving through parched

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — When the next hurricane heads toward Florida, some people won’t have to join the lines of traffic slowly snaking out of town. They won’t need to worry about gas, or where they should head. Instead, they will be swiftly flown out of state on a privately hired airplane. A

By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — Sticky “hairs” on two plant species in the Saxifraga genus led famed British naturalist Charles Darwin to wonder: Could some plants in this genus be carnivorous? He couldn’t prove it then, but more than 150 years later, scientists have shown that Darwin’s suspicions were correct. Darwin proposed in 1875

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Part of a SpaceX rocket traveling at more than 5,000 miles per hour crashed into the moon early Wednesday morning. The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, located at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, detected the impact. “We can confirm that the telescope detected spectral lines of sodium and

By Jackie Wattles, Thomas Bordeaux, CNN (CNN) — Space exploration enthusiasts have been tracking the unprecedented journey of SpaceX’s latest Starship prototype, which wound up floating in the Indian Ocean after the company’s latest test flight. Now, satellites have captured mind-bending images of boats working to haul the rocket back to shore. The saga of

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — The scintillating cosmic phenomenon of a total solar eclipse will be visible to millions of people across parts of Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, Spain and Portugal on August 12. It’s the first of three eclipses anticipated over Spain in the next two years. The best way to prepare for

By Sneha Dhandapani, CNN Bobcat Cave near Huntsville is home to the endangered Alabama cave shrimp, two species of cave crayfish and the southern cavefish. Those were all Dr. Matthew Niemiller expected to find when he set out to survey the cave system last year. Instead, he discovered a bizarre-looking fish, previously unknown to science.

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — Europe’s summer of extraordinary heat and drought has pushed some of its rivers to record lows, revealing long-submerged relics from ancient bones to century-old shipwrecks. The remains of what’s believed to be an ancient mammoth were discovered Wednesday on the newly exposed riverbed of the Danube in northern Bulgaria,

By Jacopo Prisco, CNN (CNN) — Scientists say they have detected promising signs that a planet orbiting a star 49 light-years from Earth could have an atmosphere, making it potentially suitable for life. Called LHS 1140b, the object is about five times the mass of our planet, or a “super-Earth.” This planet orbits around its

Barbie Latza Nadeau Rome (CNN) — The new trees meant to provide much-needed shade in Rome’s Piazza Risorgimento were burnt to a crisp. Benches in dark plastic and wood were searingly hot. Several of the large flower pots had been gutted of their foliage entirely. The bushes lining the entrance were a burnt orange color.

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A total solar eclipse will create a celestial spectacle in the sky for the first time in more than two years on August 12. A total solar eclipse happens when the moon passes between the sun and Earth, casting a shadow on our planet that fully blocks the sun’s