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By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump is proposing the creation of a “United States Space Academy” designed to offer the same type of tuition-free, four-year degree as US military academies. But rather than requiring active-duty military service, graduates of this federally funded university may fulfill their post-graduation obligations by working at NASA

By Amarachi Orie, CNN (CNN) — The mundane work of clearing grass and stones in a backyard has led to the discovery of Denmark’s largest known hoard of Viking Age silver. The finder, a man based in the northern Danish municipality of Rebild who wishes to remain anonymous, was preparing his garden for the construction

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — A miles-long microalgae bloom in the Mediterranean Sea has been blamed for temporarily knocking offline many of Israel’s major desalination plants this week, threatening its main source of drinking water. Five of the country’s six coastal desalination plants — which convert seawater into drinkable water — shut down on

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — An ambitious mission to reveal the secrets of the least explored planet in the inner solar system is taking the initial big step in arrival at its cosmic destination after a lengthy journey. The BepiColombo mission, a joint effort between the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration

By Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — In January 2025, the Trump administration cut off funding for a long-running natural hazards program that aimed to identify and monitor landslide hotspots in Nepal. While the program would not have been able to prevent the disaster that happened this past week, it represented a first step towards making

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Hunters wiped out thylacines, commonly known as Tasmanian tigers, in Australia nearly a century ago. But a myth about these shy, semi-nocturnal predators may have been behind the species’ extinction. Thylacines had a strong resemblance to wolves — so much so that they were given the species name cynocephalus,

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A massive observatory that scientists have called a “discovery machine” has launched toward the cosmos, beginning a journey that could mark a significant shift in our understanding of the universe. Designed to seek out otherwise invisible and faint space objects, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope lifted off aboard

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — During a visit to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory three years ago, I stepped into a blinding white room. There, I came face-to-face with a space instrument that could one day be used to search for evidence of life beyond Earth. Each person who enters the clean room at the

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — Living in the shadow of the world’s spectacular, ice-capped mountains has always carried dangers, but the devastating flood wave that carved a path of destruction on the Nepal-China border this week shows how life for the millions worldwide who live downstream of these peaks is becoming more unpredictable and

By Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — The climate pattern that drives El Niño is becoming more erratic as the planet warms, and El Niño itself is becoming more intense, according to a comprehensive new study published Thursday. The research sheds new light on the developing Super El Niño gathering strength in the tropical Pacific, which

By Amen Galinato, CNN (CNN) — August’s full sturgeon moon will align with a partial lunar eclipse, producing a stunning cosmic sight for sky-gazers. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth’s shadow, or umbra, falls upon the moon. When the umbra darkens the entire lunar orb, it creates a total lunar eclipse. But when there

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — SpaceX on Tuesday unveiled plans to construct a massive, $100 billion spaceport in Louisiana, where the company plans to launch its gargantuan Starship rocket thousands of times per year. Construction of the spaceport is expected to begin by the end of next year near the southern coast of Louisiana’s

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — Last week the Trump administration announced major cuts to the water Arizona, California and Nevada can take from the drought-stricken Colorado River; this week Nevada sued, calling the plan “fundamentally flawed.” It marks what could be the first of many complex and lengthy legal wrangles over the crucial waterway

By Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — In February 1998, almost a year’s worth of rain fell in downtown Los Angeles, as a series of powerful Pacific storms rocked California amid a “Super” El Niño. Deadly landslides struck Southern and Central California, wiping out hillside homes, and powerful waves pounded the state’s shoreline. These waves destroyed

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 —