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By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — An unknown volcano erupted so explosively in 1831 that it cooled Earth’s climate. Now, nearly 200 years later, scientists have identified the “mystery volcano.” The eruption was one of the most powerful of the 19th century, spewing so much sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere that annual average temperatures in

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — The new year kicks off with the peak of the Quadrantids, one of the strongest meteor showers of the year, according to NASA. But keep your eyes peeled because with a peak only lasting about six hours, as opposed to multiple days, the Quadrantids are also one of the

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — With the arrival of a new year comes plenty of opportunities to witness a bevy of celestial events that will brighten the night sky. Each month, keep an eye out for a gleaming full moon, weather permitting, and there may even be chances to glimpse solar and lunar eclipses.

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — A toothy toadstool. A vegetarian piranha with a distinctive mark. And a pygmy pipehorse floating in the Indian Ocean shallows. These wild wonders were among the hundreds of previously unknown species of animals, plants and fungi that scientists named and described for the first time in 2024, expanding our

By Amanda Schupak, CNN (CNN) — Late one summer night in 2023, Kei Jokura entered the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, excitedly carrying a blob in a beaker. The biologist had just come from the first floor, where tanks held a colony of gelatinous comb jellies. The blob was bigger than others, and

By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — The first time Laura Muckenhoupt felt a glimmer of hope after the death of her 22-year-old son Miles was the drive home from the Washington state facility that had turned his body into hundreds of pounds of soil. There was an empty seat in the family pickup truck where

By Julianna Bragg, CNN (CNN) — A marine heat wave has killed approximately half of Alaska’s common murre population, marking the largest recorded die-off of a single species in modern history, research has found. The catastrophic loss points to broader changes in marine environments driven by warming ocean temperatures, which are rapidly and severely restructuring

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — This year, scientists were able to pull back the curtain on mysteries surrounding figures across history, both known and unknown, to reveal more about their unique stories. In some cases, analysis of ancient DNA helped fill knowledge gaps and change preconceived notions. A prime example is how aDNA research

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — A SpaceX Super Heavy rocket booster as tall as a 20-story building reappeared in the skies over South Texas minutes after blastoff in October, blazing up its engines to slow its fall back toward Earth. In an unprecedented feat, the booster wowed audiences with a precision midair landing in

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — Mount Tambora changed the world. In 1815, the Indonesian volcano exploded in the most powerful eruption in recorded history, sending an enormous plume of tiny sun-reflecting particles high into the atmosphere, cooling the planet and ushering in disaster. What followed was called the “year without a summer:” global temperatures

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — The Parker Solar Probe zoomed by the sun on Tuesday during a record-breaking flyby, coming within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the solar surface during humanity’s closest approach to a star. The mission operations team, located at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, was

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN (CNN) — Dozens of luxury condos, hotels and other buildings in southeast Florida are sinking at a surprising rate, researchers reported in a recent study. The study, led by scientists at the University of Miami, found 35 buildings from Golden Beach to Miami Beach sank as much as three inches between

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — Today, the limestone plateau in the United Kingdom’s Mendip Hills is famed for its natural beauty. But around 4,000 years ago in the Early Bronze Age, a grisly chapter of British prehistory unfolded there. Thousands of human bones excavated in the 1970s and 1980s in a shaft that plunges

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Look up to see the Ursid meteor shower, the final celestial display of the year, on Sunday morning. The diminutive meteor shower is often overshadowed by the Geminid meteor shower that peaks about a week earlier. And the Ursids always take place near the winter solstice, the shortest day

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — Charred to a crisp, the hundreds of brittle ancient scrolls would crumble if one were to attempt to unfurl them, and any trace of script would be nearly illegible. The Herculaneum scrolls, as they are known, still remain unopened, but thanks to the powerful tool that is artificial intelligence,

By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on a three-word energy policy: “Drill, baby, drill.” But his cabinet picks for energy and environment — and the current fossil fuel economy — suggest it’s not going to be that easy. There is no question that, in stark contrast to the climate-focused Biden administration,

By Rosa Rahimi, CNN (CNN) — Researchers on an expedition in Peru have discovered 27 animal species new to science – among them a “blob-headed fish” and a type of semi-aquatic mouse. The survey was conducted by Conservation International, an environmental non-profit. It was carried out over a 38-day expedition in 2022 by a team

By Lianne Kolirin, CNN (CNN) — A small silver amulet discovered by archaeologists in Germany could transform our understanding of how Christianity spread under the Roman Empire, experts have said. The tiny artefact, which measures about 1.4 inches (3.6 centimeters) long, was unearthed in a 3rd-century Roman grave just outside Frankfurt back in 2018. Archaeologists

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Scientists made a major discovery this year linked to Stonehenge — one of humanity’s biggest mysteries — and the revelations keep coming. A team of researchers shared evidence in August suggesting that the Altar Stone, an iconic monolith at the heart of Stonehenge, was transported hundreds of miles to

By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — Before dinosaurs walked the Earth and tens of millions of years before the first mammals appeared, distant mammal relatives with long, serrated canine teeth were the dominant carnivores on land. Called gorgonopsians, the earliest animals in this lineage have long been missing from the fossil record. But the discovery