By Morgan Severson, CNN (CNN) — Gloves, a fur coat and a bear mask. This outfit might sound like avant-garde fashion, but it’s actually the uniform of caretakers at the San Diego Humane Society who are raising an orphaned black bear cub. Campers in California’s Los Padres National Forest found the cub in April. Biologists
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By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A tiny sign revealed in April seemed like it might change the universe as we know it. Astronomers had detected just a hint, a glimmer of two molecules swirling in the atmosphere of a distant planet called K2-18b — molecules that on Earth are produced only by living things.
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By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — An aging coal power plant that was supposed to shutter last week will run throughout the summer at the order of President Donald Trump’s Energy Sec. Chris Wright, a decision that could cost Midwest energy customers tens of millions of dollars. The last-minute federal order to keep the J.H.
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By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — Nearly five months ago, a SpaceX rocket launched out of Florida carrying two lunar landers. The Blue Ghost spacecraft, from Texas-based Firefly Aerospace, zoomed to the moon, and in March it became the first robotic commercial vehicle to land upright on the lunar surface. The other spacecraft, developed by
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By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — One of the bleakest periods in medieval Europe was the plague pandemic known as the Black Death, which killed at least 25 million people in just five years. But the disease didn’t stop there. The plague adapted to keep its hosts alive longer, so it could spread farther and
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By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A collision between our Milky Way galaxy and its largest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, predicted to occur in about 4.5 billion years, has been anticipated by astronomers since 1912. But new research suggests that the likelihood of this galactic clash, dubbed “Milkomeda,” is smaller than it seems. At first
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By Issy Ronald, CNN (CNN) — The world’s glaciers are in dire health with almost 40% of their total mass already doomed, even if global temperatures stopped rising immediately, a new study has found. Researchers estimate glaciers will eventually lose 39% of their mass relative to 2020, a trend that is already irreversible no matter
Continue ReadingBy Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — For a long time, there has been a missing puzzle piece in Jerusalem’s history. Though ancient texts offered some clues, an archaeological record of the city during the Early Hellenistic Period, from 332 to 141 BC, was largely absent — until now. Excavators at the Jerusalem Walls National Park
Continue ReadingBy Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — Deep below the surface of the ground in one of the driest parts of the country, there is a looming problem: The water is running out — but not the kind that fills lakes, streams and reservoirs. The amount of groundwater that has been pumped out of the Colorado
Continue ReadingBy Jacopo Prisco, CNN (CNN) — Gold and other precious metals are leaking from Earth’s core into the layers above, eventually making their way up to the surface during the formation of volcanic islands like Hawaii, a new study suggests. The theory results from a three-year analysis of Hawaii’s basaltic rocks, which originally formed from
Continue ReadingBy Alysha Bibi and Diego Mendoza, CNN (CNN) — Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a nearly 3,000-year-old Mayan complex in Guatemala, revealing sanctuaries, pyramids and a unique canal system that could shed further light on the ancient civilization, the country’s culture minister said Thursday. The complex was discovered across three sites — Los Abuelos,
Continue ReadingBy Rosa Rahimi, CNN (CNN) — Researchers in central Spain say they may have uncovered one of the most ancient symbolic objects bearing a human fingerprint on record in Europe, dating back tens of thousands of years. Unlocking the secret identity of exactly who made the mark involved enlisting the help of forensic experts working
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By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Archaeologists in Jerusalem say they have discovered a roughly 2,300-year-old gold ring with a red gemstone that’s remarkably similar to another piece of jewelry found less than a year ago. The two rings, small enough to fit a child, were artifacts unearthed at the City of David site in
Continue ReadingBy Nell Lewis, CNN (CNN) — Last October, four female eastern lowland gorillas were airlifted from their home in Kasuhgo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and released 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast in Virunga National Park. Less than a year later, they have all successfully integrated into a group of wild gorillas, in what
Continue ReadingBy Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — Attorneys general from 16 mostly Democrat-controlled US states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Wednesday, arguing that some of the federal government’s attempts to gut National Science Foundation research programs are illegal. The suit, filed in federal court Wednesday afternoon, asks a judge to put a stop to
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By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — China has launched an ambitious mission to study two intriguing objects in our solar system, the likes of which have never been visited by a spacecraft before. The Tianwen-2 mission launched aboard a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province at 1:31 p.m.
Continue ReadingBy Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — Global temperatures are forecast to reach record or near-record levels during the next five years, setting the stage for more deadly extreme weather, according to an annual report from two of the world’s top meteorological agencies. There is now a 70% chance that global warming over the next five
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By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Astronomers have detected an astonishing celestial object emitting bright flashes of radio waves and X-rays that last for two minutes and repeat every 44 minutes. In a fresh twist, the discovery marks the first time powerful X-rays have been associated with an object that might be a long-period transient.
Continue ReadingBy Jacopo Prisco, CNN (CNN) — What scientists understand about the voracious feeding habits of the colossal megalodon could be up for some revision. The prehistoric predator that went extinct about 3.6 million years ago was not hunting only large marine mammals such as whales as researchers widely thought, a new study has found. Instead,
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By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — The Environmental Protection Agency is drafting a proposed regulation that would end all federal limits on planet-warming pollution generated by coal and gas-fired power plants, according to documents cited by the New York Times. The proposed rule, which the agency said would be published once it has completed interagency
Continue ReadingBy Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — An Anglo-Saxon ship found at the Sutton Hoo estate in Suffolk, England, has long captivated history enthusiasts since its discovery on the eve of World War II. And the site of the seventh century royal burial has yielded still more wonders of the ancient past in more recent decades.
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By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Archaeologists have uncovered a key component of a mysterious artifact at Sutton Hoo, a National Trust site in Suffolk, England, famous for the seventh century Anglo-Saxon “ghost ship” burial discovered in a mound between 1938 and 1939. The fragments of the sixth century Byzantine bucket have fascinated researchers since
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By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — Infection-causing fungi responsible for millions of deaths a year will spread significantly to new regions as the planet heats up, new research predicts — and the world is not prepared. Fungi are absolutely everywhere. A vast kingdom of organisms, from mold to mushrooms, they grow in environments such as
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By Kameryn Griesser, CNN (CNN) — Astronomers have for the first time spotted two galaxies in the throes of a deep-space “duel.” Using combined observations from ground-based telescopes over nearly four years, the researchers saw the distant galactic neighbors charging toward each other at more than 1.1 million miles per hour (1.8 million kilometers per
Continue ReadingBy Amanda Schupak, CNN (CNN) — A new study may have uncovered exactly what makes orange cats special — though it might not be for the reason you think. Ginger kitties are known among cat owners for being particularly friendly and feisty. To geneticists, however, the uniqueness of these house cats comes from the unusual
Continue ReadingBy Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — On a remote, crescent-shaped island surrounded by crystal-clear ocean live some of the most plastic-contaminated birds in the world. They have bellies so full of fragments, they crunch when touched. Lord Howe Island — a speck of land about 370 miles off mainland Australia, home to just a few
Continue ReadingBy Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — Federal regulators have given SpaceX the green light for another test flight of Starship, the most powerful launch vehicle ever constructed, after two explosive mishaps earlier this year rained debris near islands in the Caribbean and Atlantic oceans. The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, said Thursday
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By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — When a fossil preserves an animal’s complete body in a death pose, seeing it is observing a snapshot in time. Several such fossils exist for Archaeopteryx — the earliest known bird — and now, a remarkable specimen that was off-limits to scientists for decades is offering previously unseen evidence
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By Jacopo Prisco, CNN (CNN) — Ten gold bracelets, 17 cigar cases, a powder compact, a comb, and a whopping 598 gold coins: The items are all part of a valuable and somewhat mysterious stash, found by chance by two hikers in the northeastern Czech Republic. The hikers, who wish to remain anonymous, were taking
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By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — The world’s ice sheets are on course for runaway melting, leading to multiple feet of sea level rise and “catastrophic” migration away from coastlines, even if the world pulls off the miraculous and keeps global warming to within 1.5 degrees, according to new research. A group of international scientists
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