CNN – World

By Katie Hunt and Madeline Holcombe, CNN Scientists have discovered that female snakes have a clitoris — a previously overlooked or dismissed part of their anatomy (and that of many other animals), according to a new study. “It’s quite a taboo area. Female genitalia is not an easy subject to bring up sometimes and I

By Ross Levitt, Katia Hetter and Ashley Strickland, CNN A planned spacewalk by the Russian space agency Roscosmos has been called off following the discovery of a coolant leak coming from the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, which is currently docked to the International Space Station. NASA’s Rob Navias, speaking on a late Wednesday evening NASA TV

By Ashley Strickland, CNN A NASA spacecraft is gearing up for the first of a series of close encounters with the most volcanic place in the solar system. The Juno spacecraft will fly by Jupiter’s moon Io on Thursday, December 15. The maneuver will be one of nine flybys of Io made by Juno over

By Ashley Strickland, CNN The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a unique perspective of the universe, including never-before-seen galaxies that glitter like diamonds in the cosmos. The new image, shared on Wednesday as part of a study published in the Astronomical Journal, was taken as part of the Prime Extragalactic Areas for Reionization and

By Jack Guy, CNN Humans’ ability to walk upright on two legs may have evolved in trees, rather than on the ground, according to scientists studying wild chimpanzees in Tanzania. This contradicts the widely accepted theory that prehistoric human relatives evolved to walk on two legs because they lived in an open savanna environment, according

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN The best chance to see the strongest meteor shower of the year is on its way this week. The Geminids, known for bright, intensely colored meteors, have been streaking across the night sky since late November, and the shower will peak the night of December 13 through December 14, according to

By Katie Hunt, CNN The battle against the single-use plastic bag may not be won but it’s definitely under way. Restrictions on their use are in place in almost a dozen US states and in many other countries around the world. And in many cases, these efforts have been successful at eliminating new sales of

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN Resting at the bottom of Mjøsa, the largest lake in Norway, a shipwreck from hundreds of years ago is in almost perfect condition, frozen in time. The vessel, with its unique stem posts and overlapped planks, reveals a moment in the lake’s maritime history and is estimated to date between the

By Jackie Wattles, CNN The Artemis I mission — a 25½-day uncrewed test flight around the moon meant to pave the way for future astronaut missions — came to a momentous end as NASA’s Orion spacecraft made a successful ocean splashdown Sunday. The spacecraft finished the final stretch of its journey, closing in on the

By Jackie Wattles, CNN The Artemis I mission — a 25½-day uncrewed test flight around the moon meant to pave the way for future astronaut missions — is coming to an end as NASA’s Orion spacecraft is expected to make an ocean splashdown Sunday. The spacecraft is finishing the final stretch of its journey, closing

Story by Reuters The effects of human activity from climate change to pollution are “devastating” marine life, with nearly a tenth of underwater plants and animals assessed so far threatened with extinction, the latest Red List of Threatened Species showed on Friday. The report’s release coincides with a UN summit on nature in Montreal where

By Scottie Andrew, CNN What’s in a swear? The world’s filthiest words typically refer to something vulgar or taboo, for one. But there’s something else swears across the world’s languages have in common. They’re all missing the more melodic consonant sounds you’re more likely to hear in a lullaby than in a colorful reaction to

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Japanese fashion mogul Yusaku Maezawa has picked eight passengers that he said will join him on a trip around the moon, powered by SpaceX’s yet-to-be-flown Starship spacecraft. The group includes American DJ Steve Aoki and popular space YouTuber Tim Dodd, better known as the Everyday Astronaut. The mission, called Dear Moon,

By Ashley Strickland, CNN The exoplanet 55 Cancri e goes by several names, but the rocky world located 40 light-years from Earth is most known for its reputation as a “hell planet.” This super-Earth, so named because it’s a rocky planet eight times as massive and twice as wide as Earth, is so scorching hot

By Ashley Strickland, CNN An unusual bright blast of light detected by multiple telescopes in December 2021 was the result of a rare cosmic explosion that created a wealth of heavy elements such as gold and platinum. The gamma-ray burst, called GRB 211211A, lasted about a minute. Gamma-ray bursts are considered among the strongest and