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Space and Science

Saturn’s rings shine in new Webb telescope photo

NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Ingenuity helicopter phones home from Mars after 63-day silence

Alex Boersma/PNAS/Reuters

Scientists find new clue in what led to megalodon’s demise

NASA, ESA and J. Olmsted (STScI)

Time moved in slow motion during the early days of the universe

CNN speaks to astronaut aboard space station

Isaiah J. Downing/USA Today Sports/Reuters

July’s supermoon will be 14,000 miles closer to Earth than a typical full moon event

Paul Hennesy/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

A mission aiming to unravel the universe’s biggest mysteries has begun

IceCube Collaboration/U.S. National Science Foundation

Ghostly lights paint a new portrait of the Milky Way

Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images

Astronaut’s history-making mission is the latest step for a nation with grand space ambitions

Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images

Shattering the myth of men as hunters and women as gatherers

Schmidt Ocean Institute

Rare octopus discovery made 2 miles below the ocean surface

NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP

Image captured by Mars rover shows a mysterious ‘doughnut’ on the planet’s surface

IceCube Collaboration/U.S. National Science Foundation

An observatory in Antarctica reveals ‘ghostly’ new portrait of the Milky Way

From Virgin Galactic/YouTube

Virgin Galactic has sold 800 tickets to the edge of space. The first customers just took flight

Adam Makarenko/W.M. Keck Observatory

Scientists spot a planet that shouldn’t exist

Keyi "Onyx" Li/U.S. National

Astronomers ‘hear’ the celestial choir of gravitational waves for the first time

Hear the mesmerizing sounds of space translated by NASA

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory

Everything you wanted to know about the solar cycle

Why killer whales won’t stop ramming boats in Spain

Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Humans pump so much groundwater that Earth’s axis has shifted, study finds

ESA/Webb/NASA/CSA

Webb telescope detects crucial molecule in space for the first time

Fossil reveals human ancestors butchered one another for reasons beyond ritual

NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration/AP

The benefits and risks of deep-sea exploration

Aubrey Gemignani/NASA

What to expect during the 2024 total solar eclipse

NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research

6 incredible facts about the Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth

Courtesy Hew Morrison

Face of Anglo-Saxon teen girl from the seventh century revealed

NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration/AP

What we know about the ocean’s depths — and why it’s so risky to explore it

French cave markings may be the oldest known engravings by Neanderthals

International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Garlick/M. Zamani

Ancient galaxy reveals a surprising way to annihilate a star

Matthias Balk/picture-alliance/dpa/AP

Video: Meteor showers bring ‘astronomy to us’

Jiang Feibo/China News Service/VCG/Getty Images

A violent collision likely created the Geminids meteor shower

Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty Images

Summer solstice: Everything you need to know about the longest day of the year

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

NASA spacecraft captures image of ghostly lightning on Jupiter

NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Key building block of life found on ocean world orbiting Saturn

Remembering Sally Ride — 40 years after she shattered the glass ceiling on the way to space

Varda Space industries

The future of medicine may lie in space

David Tipling/Education Images/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

There are dads worse than you — in the animal kingdom

Natural History Museum

New dinosaur with blade-like spikes for armor discovered on UK’s Isle of Wight

Curiosity rover captures dramatic new portrait of the Martian landscape

JPL-Caltech/NASA

The best photos of Mars

Early humans left Africa and reached Asia earlier than thought, fossil discovery reveals

New England Aquarium

Rare sighting of killer whales caught in aerial survey off New England coast

Dave Einsel/Getty Images

How a 3.2-million-year-old human relative named Lucy walked

Varda Space industries

Forget space tourism. This company wants to make drug manufacturing the next big extraterrestrial business

The Australian National University

Billion-year-old rocks reveal traces of ancient life

Varda Space Industries

Exclusive: This startup wants to manufacture drug crystals in space then drop them in the desert

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

Want to see next year’s total solar eclipse? Make plans now

Mark Thiessen/National Geographic

Inside the cave where a nonhuman species carved mysterious symbols

imageBROKER/Alamy Stock Photo

A crocodile in Costa Rica had a virgin birth. Here’s what that means

International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

A new supernova has appeared in the night sky

International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

Wonders of the universe

V.Creuze ROV Drassm/UNESCO

Three historical shipwrecks uncovered in the Mediterranean

Astronauts’ brains take a hit during long spaceflights

Rare North American dinosaur named for two-faced Roman god

Illustration/NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

First mission to ‘touch’ the sun catches the solar wind

Mark Thiessen/National Geographic

Mysterious species buried their dead and carved symbols 100,000 years before humans

See early stars form in a galaxy 20 million light-years away

J. Spilker/S. Doyle/NASA/ESA/CSA

Webb telescope detects organic molecules in distant galaxy

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden

Nonsurgical cat contraception could help curb overpopulation, study says

Ben Smegelsky/NASA

NASA’s Psyche mission will launch to an unexplored metal world this fall

Courtesy Nonfiction LLC

A culinary lab offers astronauts a taste of the future

Northwestern University

Scientists ‘stunned’ by mysterious structures found in the Milky Way

Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

The strawberry moon will illuminate the sky this weekend

See images from the first Mars live stream

NASA/Getty Images

For the first time, you can see Mars as it is right now

Bill Ingalls/NASA/Getty Images/FILE

Boeing mission to send NASA astronauts to space station faces more lengthy delays

NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/G. Villanueva/A. Pagan

Webb telescope spies massive plume erupting from Saturn’s moon Enceladus

Seth Shostak/SETI Institute

Alien-like message sent to Earth in a test to prepare for the real thing

Aaron M. Sprecher/AP

NASA team studying unidentified phenomena shares preliminary update

From The Francis Crick Institute

4,000-year-old DNA unlocks secrets of the plague

Mark Schiefelbein/AP

China sends first civilian astronaut to space as Shenzhou-16 blasts off

SpaceX mission carrying former NASA astronaut, three paying customers returns from space station

Julia Nikhinson/AP

Manhattanhenge: Where to see New York City’s special sunset show

F. Vukosavović

Ancient toilets unearthed in Jerusalem reveal a debilitating and sometimes fatal disease

James Blair/NASA /Johnson Space Center

Meet the lunar rover that will venture to the moon’s south pole

Company selling tickets for high-end dining on the edge of space for 2024

Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

Lunar spacecraft likely fell 3 miles before crashing into moon in historic landing attempt

From Virgin Galactic

Billionaire entrepreneur’s space tourism company pulls off high-stakes crewed test flight

Virgin Galactic

See inside high-stakes test flight to edge of space

New unprecedented images reveal what’s happening on the sun as it approaches ‘solar maximum’

Saturn’s iconic rings are disappearing

Amanda Perobelli/Reuters

New York City is sinking due to its million-plus buildings, study says

New video shows NASA rover’s stunning view into Mars crater

SpaceX mission carrying former NASA astronaut, three paying customers docks with space station

Bienvenido Velasco/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Global loss of wildlife is ‘significantly more alarming’ than previously thought, according to a new study

Saber-toothed mammalian ancestor reveals how unstable life was during ‘the Great Dying’

Alan Dyer/VW Pics/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Here’s when you can see the moon in the Da Vinci glow

Scott Camazine/Alamy Stock Photo

What mosquitoes are most attracted to in human body odor is revealed

Joe Skipper/Reuters

SpaceX mission lifts off with former NASA astronaut, three paying customers

Joel Kowsky/NASA

SpaceX to launch former astronaut, three paying customers to orbit

Joe Skipper/Reuters

See moment of liftoff as manned rocket blasts off to space

NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Rushing rivers may have raced across ancient Mars

Martin Schutt/dpa-Zentralbild/picture alliance/Getty Images

6 surprising things about bees on World Bee Day

Bezos-founded Blue Origin lands major NASA moon lander project

NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Perseverance rover captures new images of ancient river evidence

Atlantic Productions/Magellan

‘Largest underwater scanning project in history’ gives never-before-seen view of Titanic

Chris Smith (KRBwyle)/NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Earth-size exoplanet may be covered in volcanoes

How the Mars rover searches for signs of life

Stone Age humans made to-scale plans to build mysterious mega structures

Kristen Grace/Florida Museum of Natural History

Rare fossils reveal the butterfly ‘tree of life’ over the past 100 million years

Megan Jacobs/University of Portsmouth

Size of a Jurassic sea giant found due to fossil discovery, study says

pixelprof/iStockphoto/Getty Images

What defines a species?

Dr. David Duffy, the University of Florida

Human DNA can now be pulled from thin air or a footprint on the beach. Here’s what that could mean

Darryl Leja/NHGRI

Updated human DNA map captures diversity of life

B. Huertas/Trustees Natural History Museum

A new group of butterflies has been named after the ‘Lord of the Rings’ villain

Oscar Sanisidro/KU Biodiversity Institute/The University of Kansas

How did massive prehistoric ‘thunder beasts’ get super big, super fast?

From Darryl Leja/NHGRI

Scientists have updated the human genome to make it more equitable and inclusive

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Scientists used DNA to unlock who wore a 25,000-year-old pendant

Denis Riek/GO-SEA

A surprising number of drifting sea creatures found living in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Alex Milan Tracy/Sipa USA/AP

How to view a lunar eclipse, full ‘flower moon,’ and meteor shower this weekend

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Ancient DNA from a 25,000-year-old pendant reveals intriguing details about its wearer

University of Michigan

Scientists unlock new secrets from a male woolly mammoth tusk

R. Hurt/K. Miller/Caltech/IPAC

Astronomers observe star swallowing planet for first time – and it’s the size of Jupiter

NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

Webb telescope detects mysterious water vapor in a nearby star system

courtesy Joseph Botting

Unique fossil site discovered in Wales reveals early life forms

Alberto Cecio/Soprintendenza Archeologia

Buried treasure, including nearly 200 Roman coins, found in Italy

More massive species-ending asteroids may have hit our planet

Joe Skipper/Reuters

Starship could be ready to launch again in ‘six to eight weeks,’ Elon Musk says

Ocean Census/AP

The search for 100,000 new species in Earth’s oceans

Natural Visions/Alamy Stock Photo

Life in the ocean’s ‘twilight zone’ could disappear due to the climate crisis

Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images

Almost two-thirds of elephant habitat lost across Asia, study finds

Ocean Census/AP

Ocean census aims to discover 100,000 previously unknown marine species

R.-S. Lu/E. Ros/S. Dagnello/ESO

New first-of-its-kind image reveals a jet of material launching from a black hole

British Library

Listen to the mating call of a bird that went extinct two decades ago

M. Kornmesser/European Southern Observatory

Solving the mystery of the most powerful objects in the universe

Sweden Space Corp/Handout/Reuters

Rocket that landed in the wrong country recovered

Commercial lunar lander presumed lost after historic moon landing attempt

China’s Mars rover dormant likely due to dust

Universal History Archive/Getty Images

Opinion: 70 years ago, the structure of DNA was revealed. Was Rosalind Franklin robbed?

Go Nakamura/Reuters

SpaceX Starship’s explosion is not the failure it appears to be, experts say

Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Bill Nye explains light-years and the vastness of the universe

Cindy Hopkins/Alamy Stock Photo

Rising sea levels may have forced the Vikings out of a successful settlement

Owen Humphreys/PA Images/Getty Images

Viewing the Lyrids meteor shower could be a fun weekend activity

Go Nakamura/Reuters

SpaceX’s Starship rocket lifts off for inaugural test flight but explodes midair

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

How 4/20 became ‘Weed Day’

Jessica Kendall-Bar

Elephant seals enter ‘sleep spiral’ during deep ocean dives

Illustration/NASA

Defunct NASA spacecraft returns to Earth after 21 years

Courtesy University of Oregon

When you give a worm weed, it gets the munchies, researchers find

Plants that devour insects could be luring prey with signature scents

Desiree Martin/AFP/Getty Images

How to view this week’s rare hybrid eclipse

Catherine Falls Commercial/Moment RF/Getty Images

10-year-old asks Jane Goodall a real thinker

Joe Skipper/Reuters

SpaceX targets Thursday for next attempt to launch Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built

J. Bayarsaikhan

Ancient DNA reveals secrets of empire that pushed China to build its Great Wall

New mission launches to explore three icy moons that could support life

In predicting the future of science, a few classic films got it eerily right

A fireball landed in the US last week, and now there’s a reward to find it

Courtesy Dominic Alberico

Paper airplane designed by Boeing engineers breaks world distance record

Rietbergen et al., 2023, PLOS ONE

Bats are an evolutionary mystery. This fossil could fill in a piece of the puzzle

An elephant living in a Berlin zoo learns how to peel a banana

The University of Western Australia / Caladan Oceanic

See the world’s deepest fish

Oriol Garcia i Quera/ASOME-Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

3,000-year-old hairs hold the oldest clues about psychoactive drug use in Europe

Josh Valcarcel/NASA

Meet the cosmic rock stars headed for the moon

ColorBlind/Digital Vision/Getty Images

Fossilized eggs crack open the mysteries of the past

David Smith/Joseph Samuel Myers/Craig S. Kaplan/Chaim Goodman-Strauss

Newly discovered ‘einstein’ shape can do something no other tile can do

Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images

Medieval moon observations reveal ‘mysterious’ volcanic eruptions

Batard Patrick/ABACA/Shutterstock

April’s full pink moon will rise this week

Alice Kitterman/National Science Foundation

Repeating radio signal leads astronomers to an Earth-size exoplanet

Sean Coughlin/Institute of Philosophy/Czech Academy of Sciences

Scientists have decoded the smell of Cleopatra’s perfume

Andrea Terceros

Scientists were able to enhance long-term memory storage in mice. Here’s how

Mike Blake/Reuters

Virgin Orbit, Richard Branson’s rocket company, will lay off 85% of staff

Chesnot/Getty Images

Scientists identify secret ingredient in Leonardo da Vinci paintings

Courtesy of Tel Aviv University

Plants aren’t silent. They make clicking sounds, a study finds

Frank Rubio’s first spaceflight will turn into the longest mission by a US astronaut

ESA/Hubble/Digitized Sky Survey

Astronomers discover ultramassive black hole using new technique

This lizard species stress-eats to cope with noisy US Army aircraft

Hubble telescope captures images of Jupiter and Uranus looking different

Charlie Riedel/AP

A stunning lineup of five planets will decorate the night sky

Meatballs made with mammoth DNA created by Australian food startup

Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

Water is trapped in glass beads on the moon’s surface, lunar samples show

Sean Coughlin/Institute of Philosophy/Czech Academy of Sciences

How scientists are decoding what the past smelled like

Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San Jose State University

Secrets uncovered as scientists explore Beethoven’s DNA

Emanuele Biggi/naturepl.com

A terrifying fungal disease is infecting frogs in Africa. Here’s why it matters

Prof. Hayashi, Osaka University

Scientists create mice from two dads after making eggs from skin cells

Elusive animal spotted outside its usual range for the first time in over 30 years

NASA/ESA/Joseph Olmsted and Frank Summers, STScI

Scientists uncover what accelerated an interstellar comet through our solar system

Relativity Space/YouTube

Startup’s 3D-printed rocket delivers stunning night launch but fails to reach orbit

Rare giant spider species spotted in Queensland

AFP Contributor/AFP/AFP via Getty Images

Scientists confirm long held theory about what inspired Monet

Astronaut Sultan Alneyadi sees 16 sunsets daily on the space station. How will he observe Ramadan?

Beethoven-Haus Bonn

DNA analysis of Beethoven’s hair reveals health issues — and a family secret

NASA/ESA/CSA/Joseph Olmsted

Webb telescope details weather patterns on a distant planet with two suns

NASA/JAXA/Dan Gallagher

RNA compound and vitamin B3 found in samples from near-Earth asteroid

‘Marsupial sabertooth’ had massive canines with roots that grew over the top of its skull

ESO/M. Kornmesser

Asteroid forms a debris cloud after intentional hit from spacecraft

Mark Felix/AFP/Getty Images

See the new spacesuit that Artemis astronauts will wear on the moon

Orlando Barria/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

A seaweed blob twice the width of the US is heading toward Florida. Here’s what you should know

A new species of orchid has been discovered in Japan, and its petals look like they’re spun from glass

NASA MRO HiRISE/CRISM False Color Composite

Remains of an ancient glacier spotted on Mars

CNN Photo Illustration/European Space Agency

A 5,000-mile-wide blob of seaweed is headed for Florida, threatening tourism across the Caribbean

NASA and Axiom unveil spacesuits astronauts will wear on the moon

Hugh Hastings/Getty Images

Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit rocket company ceases operations for a week, seeks additional funding

Magellan spacecraft images reveal volcanic activity on Venus

Júlia d'Oliveira

Meet the dinosaur that had a record-breaking neck longer than a school bus

NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Webb ERO Production Team

Webb telescope spots a star on the brink of exploding

What to know about pi on Pi Day

Keegan Barber/NASA

Astronaut crew splashes down near Florida, ending five-month stay in space

The Royal Society

What’s next for human gene editing

Arnaldur Halldorsson/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Scientists find a way to suck up carbon pollution, turn it into baking soda and store it in the oceans

NASA tracks a newly discovered asteroid that has a ‘small chance’ of hitting Earth in 2046

Courtesy Heather Broccard Bell

Bees learn waggle dance moves with a little help from their coworkers