CNN – World

By Jackie Wattles, CNN The hunt for planets that could harbor life may have just narrowed dramatically. Scientists had long hoped and theorized that the most common type of star in our universe — called an M dwarf — could host nearby planets with atmospheres, potentially rich with carbon and perfect for the creation of

By Jackie Wattles and Katie Hunt, CNN The International Space Station fired its thrusters to maneuver out of the way of a piece of oncoming Russian space junk, NASA said late Monday. The space agency said in a news release that the ISS conducted a five minute, five second burn to avoid a fragment of

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN When the moon passes between the sun and Earth for the second time this year, it will block most light from the sun and cast its shadow onto our planet, resulting in a bright, fiery crescent shape in the sky. This solar eclipse will be happening this Tuesday and will be

By Katie Hunt, Ashley Strickland and Jackie Wattles, CNN Officials at NASA selected a team of 16 scientists and experts who will delve into the mysteries surrounding unidentified aerial phenomena — more popularly known as unidentified flying objects or UFOs. The independent study kicked off Monday. The group will include experts across numerous disciplines —

By Jorge Engels, CNN UK former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pulled out of the contest to become the next Conservative Party leader and therefore the next prime minister. Johnson claimed to have garnered the support of 100 MPs — the minimum number required to clear the threshold to appear on the ballot for the

By Samantha Beech, CNN Author Salman Rushdie has lost his sight in one eye and one of his hands is “incapacitated” following a stabbing attack in August, according to an interview given by his agent to a Spanish newspaper. Rushdie, 75, underwent emergency surgery after he was stabbed several times before his scheduled lecture at

By Katie Hunt, CNN Neanderthal is an insult still lobbed about to suggest someone is dim-witted and out of touch. The more we learn about our Stone Age cousins, however, the more it appears the opposite is true. Neanderthals weren’t brutish cave dwellers — they made sophisticated tools, yarn and art, and they buried their

By Zoe Sottile, CNN If you have always suspected that you might just be a mosquito magnet, scientists now have evidence for you: Mosquitoes indeed are attracted to certain humans more than others, according to a new study. A research team led by Leslie Vosshall, a professor at Rockefeller University and head of its laboratory

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN The wreckage of a rare boat — one of the last of its kind to be located — has been identified at the bottom of Lake Superior in Michigan. Researchers with the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society discovered the 292-foot vessel 35 miles off Vermilion Point and confirmed it is Barge

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN One of nature’s most anticipated light shows is set to climax this week, as space debris and dust trails from the famous Comet Halley scatter across the night sky. The Orionids meteor shower is expected to peak at 2 p.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 21, but will be best observed earlier

By Katie Hunt, CNN The Black Death, the world’s most devastating plague outbreak, killed half of medieval Europe’s population in the space of seven years in the 14th century, shifting the course of human history. But what about the survivors of what remains the single greatest mortality event ever recorded? New research published Wednesday in