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By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Each day, radio signals from key communications and navigation satellites travel freely through a layer of Earth’s atmosphere known as the ionosphere. Floating 50 to 400 miles (80 to 643 kilometers) above our heads, directly beneath the lowest reaches of space where some communications satellites orbit, this zone in

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — With her mouth wide open, locked for eternity in what appears to be a scream, an ancient Egyptian woman captured the imagination of archaeologists who discovered her mummified remains in 1935 in a tomb near Luxor. Still fascinated by the “screaming woman” who died some 3,500 years ago, a

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN (CNN) — Other than being a symbol for love and romance, roses are commonly known for their sharp spikes — prickles that protrude from the stems to ward off animals looking to munch on the buds. They’re not the only plant to have this defense mechanism: Other flowers such as spider flowers or brambles,

By Jacopo Prisco, CNN (CNN) — A layer of diamonds up to 18 kilometers (11 miles) thick could be tucked below the surface of Mercury, the solar system’s smallest planet and the closest to the sun, according to new research. The diamonds might have formed soon after Mercury itself coalesced into a planet about 4.5

By Bill Weir, CNN Chief Climate Correspondent (CNN) — On some parts of an overheating Earth, the old complaint that “it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity” gets truer by the year. But in the hottest big city in the US, where sunbaked concrete sprawls across bone-dry desert, Phoenix is setting records in both high

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — The 2010 discovery that early humans and Neanderthals once interbred was a scientific bombshell — the revelation of a genetic legacy that’s since been found to play a role in the lives of modern people, influencing circadian rhythms, immune system function and the way some feel pain. Scientists, however,

By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — An ancient buglike sea creature with a fan-shaped tail and a carapace that wrapped around its body swam upside down and looked like a taco — but this taco could bite back. Newfound fossils of the extinct arthropod Odaraia alata recently provided scientists with a first glimpse of Odaraia’s

By Katie Hunt and Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — The northern lights could grace skies farther south than usual this week because of a solar storm that may affect Earth, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center. The center issued a strong geomagnetic storm watch, known as a G3

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN (CNN) — Look up at the night sky this week for a chance to see high-speed meteors and bright fireballs from two meteor showers set to peak around the same time. The Southern Delta Aquariids will be most active Monday night through early Tuesday and could ring in a viewing of

By Jacopo Prisco, CNN (CNN) — Four years ago, the unexpected discovery in the clouds of Venus of a gas that on Earth signifies life — phosphine — faced controversy, earning rebukes in subsequent observations that failed to match its findings. Now, the same team behind that discovery has come back with more observations, presented

By Laura Paddison, Jen Christensen, Mary Gilbert, Henry Zeris, Yukari Schrickel, Lou Robinson and Way Mullery (CNN) — Philip Kreycik should have survived his run. In the summer of 2021, the 37-year-old ultra-marathon runner used an app to plot a roughly 8-mile loop through Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park in California, a huge stretch of parkland

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Experimentation is the basis of the scientific process — and it’s at the heart of what it means to be human and question the world around us. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors produced the first maps of the stars and practiced alchemy, the precursor to chemistry. Even Sir Isaac Newton,

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — While Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe is best known for his celestial discoveries made in the 16th century — before the invention of the telescope — he was also an alchemist who brewed secret medicines for elite clients. But what exactly Brahe worked on in his alchemical laboratory, located beneath

By Rebecca Cairns, CNN (CNN) — As Global Tiger Day rolls around, there’s good news for the big cats in Thailand. The tiger population in the country’s Western Forest Complex (WEFCOM) — an 18,000-square-kilometer (6,950-square-mile) area of forest encompassing 11 national parks and six wildlife sanctuaries — is estimated to have more than tripled between

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — The NASA Perseverance rover may have found a pivotal clue that’s central to its mission on Mars: geological evidence that could suggest life existed on the red planet billions of years ago. The robotic explorer came across a vein-filled red rock on July 18 that appears to be scattered

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket — the most prolific launch vehicle in the world — is ready to return to flight after suffering a mission-ending failure during a routine journey earlier this month. The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches and assesses mishaps, said Thursday that it had determined there

CNN By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — After weeks of troubleshooting and recent tests meant to replicate the issues plaguing Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, NASA and Boeing officials still aren’t ready to name a return date for the two astronauts piloting the vehicle on its inaugural crewed test flight. But engineers do finally have some possible

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — After weeks of troubleshooting and recent tests meant to replicate the issues plaguing Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, NASA and Boeing officials still aren’t ready to name a return date for the two astronauts piloting the vehicle on its inaugural crewed test flight. But engineers do finally have some possible answers

By Issy Ronald, CNN (CNN) — Blushing was once thought to be the “most peculiar and most human of all expressions,” as Charles Darwin put it, but a new study has found that hens share this peculiarity and can also express their fear or excitement in this way. “Our research shows that domestic chickens are

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A glowing supernova remnant, a nebula shaped like a cat’s paw and the iconic “Pillars of Creation” are just a few of the celestial objects that shine in 25 never-before-seen images captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to mark the telescope’s 25th anniversary. Chandra, named in honor of the