By Ivana Kottasová, CNN The last eight years have been the eight warmest on record as the growing concentration of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere pushes global temperatures toward a dangerous tipping point, a new report shows. An analysis by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service published on Tuesday said that 2022 was the
Continue Reading By Laura Paddison, CNN In rare good news for the planet, Earth’s ozone layer is on track to recover completely within decades, as ozone-depleting chemicals are phased out across the world, according to a new United Nations-backed assessment. The ozone layer protects the planet from harmful ultraviolet rays. But since the late 1980s, scientists have
Continue Reading By Katie Hunt, CNN A defunct NASA satellite has fallen back to Earth after 38 years orbiting the planet. The Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, known as ERBS, was launched in 1984 aboard space shuttle Challenger. Until 2005, data from ERBS helped researchers investigate how Earth absorbed and radiated energy from the Sun, and measured ozone,
Continue Reading By Ashley Strickland, CNN Welcome to a new year, where fresh wonder already awaits. Rome has often been called the Eternal City. Ancient Romans took pride in their metropolis and viewed it as an unshakable pinnacle, and poets such as Virgil and Ovid made similar references in their works to perpetuate this idea. The imperial
Continue Reading By Ashley Strickland, CNN January’s full moon will light up the sky on Friday, and will be visible all around the world. It will reach peak illumination around 6:08 p.m. ET Friday, rising in the east as the sun sets in the US, according to EarthSky. The full moon is considered a micromoon because it
Continue Reading By Laura Paddison, CNN Glaciers are set to lose substantially more ice and contribute more to sea level rise than current scientific estimates project, according to a new report. Using new satellite data to model different climate change scenarios, researchers found that up to half of glaciers could be lost by the end of the
Continue Reading By Issy Ronald, CNN An Irish national is facing drug charges in Australia after allegedly importing about 120 grams (4.2 ounces) of cocaine inside six, internally concealed Kinder Surprise capsules, according to authorities. Inside milk chocolate Kinder Surprise eggs are non-edible, yellow capsules which each contain a small plastic toy. The man was taken to
Continue Reading By Kristen Rogers, CNN A snowy owl that looks like it should be flying about the wintry wizarding world of Harry Potter has been spotted among the palm trees of beachy Southern California. Snowy owls are native to the Arctic tundra, where their largely white coats camouflage them in the snow, according to the National
Continue Reading By Kristen Rogers, CNN A snowy owl that looks like it should be flying about the wintry wizarding world of Harry Potter has been spotted among the palm trees of beachy Southern California. Snowy owls are native to the Arctic tundra, where their largely white coats camouflage them in the snow, according to the National
Continue Reading By Ashley Strickland and Jackie Wattles, CNN This year promises to be out of this world when it comes to space missions, launches and the next steps in cosmic exploration. In 2023, NASA will kick off a trek to a metal world, a spacecraft will drop off unprecedented asteroid samples on Earth, a historic moon
Continue Reading By Ashley Strickland, CNN Astronomers glimpsed a stellar nursery in a new light, thanks to the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy in Chile. The VISTA telescope, located at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in Antofagasta, Chile, observed the Sh2-54 Nebula in infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye. While visible
Continue Reading By Jackie Wattles, CNN Walter Cunningham, a retired NASA astronaut and pilot of the first crewed flight in the space agency’s famed Apollo program, died early Tuesday morning at the age of 90, NASA said. Cunningham was one of the earliest members of NASA’s human spaceflight program as a member of its third astronaut class,
Continue Reading By Ashley Strickland, CNN The new year kicks off with the Quadrantids, one of 12 annual meteor showers. The celestial event is typically among the strongest meteor showers and is expected to peak overnight January 3 and 4, according to the American Meteor Society. Sky-gazers in the Northern Hemisphere can best view the shower between
Continue Reading By Amy Woodyatt, CNN For the love of all things sacred, please stop saying “GOAT” — unless you are shouting about a herd of mid-size animals. At least, that’s how a team of judges from Michigan’s Lake Superior State University feel about the term — an acronym for the “Greatest of All Time” — as
Continue Reading By Delia Gallagher, Niamh Kennedy and Emma Tucker, CNN Former Pope Benedict XVI, who died Saturday in a monastery in the Vatican at the age of 95, asked for forgiveness for those he has “wronged” in the spiritual testament published following his death. Benedict, who was the first pontiff in almost 600 years to resign
Continue Reading By Ashley Strickland, CNN This year was full of moments that remind us why we look at the stars and dig into the past. Wonder and curiosity are some of the most powerful traits humans have, and together, they drive us to ask questions that lead to untraveled roads filled with revelations. Researchers, explorers and
Continue Reading By Kendall Trammell, CNN Get out of your East Coast mentality, America. Not everyone starts their New Year when you do. The Pacific Island nations of Tonga, Samoa and Kiribati were the first to see in the new year — when it was still 5 a.m. on December 31 on the East Coast of the
Continue Reading By Ashley Strickland, CNN Stunning meteor showers, full moons and eclipses will light up the sky in 2023. The year is sure to be a sky-gazer’s delight with plenty of celestial events on the calendar. A comet discovered in March 2022 will make its closest approach to the sun on January 12, according to NASA.
Continue Reading By Ashley Strickland, CNN The tree of life grew in 2022 as California Academy of Sciences researchers and their international collaborators discovered 146 new animal, plant and fungi species. The previously unknown creatures and plants were found around the world, including the mountains of California, Australia’s Queensland state, the rocky peaks of Brazil and the
Continue Reading By Ashley Strickland, CNN Mars may seem like a dry, desolate place, but the red planet transforms into an otherworldly wonderland in winter, according to a new video shared by NASA. It’s late winter in Mars’ Northern Hemisphere, where the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter are exploring an ancient river delta that once fed into
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