The hauntingly beautiful Crab Nebula, located 6,500 light-years away in the Taurus constellation, is releasing an incredible amount of energy. The nebula is six light-years wide, and it’s a growing cloud of debris formed from a supernova explosion. (A light-year is six trillion miles). The light from this supernova first reached Earth in July 1054…

Just under 3% of the world’s land remains ecologically intact, with undisturbed habitat and minimal loss of its original animal species, a new study suggests. The research, published Thursday in the journal Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, combined maps showing human damage to habitat with maps showing where animals have disappeared from their original…

The mystique of Mars is one that humans can’t seem to resist. The red planet has easily captured our interest for centuries, heavily featured in science fiction books and films and the subject of robotic exploration since the 1960s. In February, three spacecraft arrived at Mars after departing from different launch points on Earth in…

The Neanderthal DNA in East Asians today can be traced back to interactions between Neanderthals and early modern humans in Europe 45,000 years ago. The oldest known remains of modern humans in Europe have been identified in the Bacho Kiro Cave in Bulgaria, according to new research published last week in the journal Nature. These…

For astronauts aboard the International Space Station, sourdough is off-limits and whole wheat is out of bounds. It’s not because anyone is on a gluten-free diet, however. Tortillas are preferred over bread in a weightless environment because they don’t crumble and leave crumbs floating around, according to NASA. Since the astronauts don’t have the luxury…

This enemy does not recognize geopolitical borders. It has the power to wreak havoc on national economies, to cost people their livelihoods and their lives. It seeps through the smallest cracks in our social fabric, targeting the poor and the vulnerable among us. Sound familiar? The Covid-19 pandemic and climate change have led to catastrophic…

The first flight of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars is still delayed, but the mission’s team is working on a solution to make it possible. The helicopter returned data to mission teams on Earth late Friday evening that caused NASA to reschedule the first flight. Ingenuity conducted a high-speed test of its rotors Friday, but…

The World Health Organization has warned that the world needs a “reality check” on the state of the pandemic, as countries abandon restrictions despite four weeks of rising deaths and seven weeks of rising cases globally. Maria van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead for coronavirus response, said 4.4 million Covid-19 infections had been recorded across…

We’ll have to wait a little bit longer before the first powered, controlled flight occurs on another planet. NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, originally scheduled to fly on Mars Sunday, is now set to take off no earlier than April 14, according to the agency. The helicopter returned data to mission teams on Earth late Friday evening…

Coming soon: Watch out for the upcoming launch of Wonder Theory, the first-ever CNN space and science newsletter. Subscribe here and be among the first to receive the week’s most fascinating stories, delivered straight to your inbox every Saturday morning. Welcome to Wonder Theory, your weekly space and science digest. In a matter of days,…

The Artemis program will land the first person of color on the moon, according to NASA. The new goal for the program, which seeks to land the first woman and the next man on at the lunar south pole by 2024, comes from the Biden-Harris administration. The administration submitted US President Joe Biden’s priorities for…

More than a third of the Antarctic ice shelf risks collapsing into the sea if global temperatures reach 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels as climate change warms the world, a new study from the UK’s University of Reading has warned. In a forecasting study, scientists found that 34% of the area…

Just days after NASA’s Perseverance rover gently dropped the Ingenuity helicopter on the surface of Mars, the robot companions took a selfie together on Tuesday and beamed it back to Earth. The rover used its robotic arm, which has a camera mounted on the end, to capture the image. The helicopter can be seen 13…

A NASA spacecraft will bid farewell to its asteroid companion of the last few years. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is conducting a final flyby of the asteroid Bennu on Wednesday. The spacecraft made history when it briefly touched down on the asteroid on October 20, 2020, and collecting a hefty 2-ounce sample from the surface. The…

The more contagious coronavirus variant first identified in the UK has now been reported in every state in the US. Experts are concerned this strain is hitting younger people hard and could fuel a new surge of the pandemic. Yet as the US rolls out a breakneck-speed vaccination program, many states have begun relaxing measures,…

The Ingenuity helicopter survived its first night on the freezing-cold surface of Mars, a major milestone in the rotorcraft’s journey ahead of its historic first flight. Jezero Crater, an ancient lake bed on Mars and the current site of the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter, can drop to temperatures of minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s…

Neil deGrasse Tyson is a man of many parts, constantly on the go. In his day job, he is the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, as well as a noted astrophysicist who has made many contributions to cutting-edge space science. Tyson is better known, however,…

Uranus is emitting X-rays, and scientists want to take a closer look. That’s the mysterious conclusion of a new study, which analyzed two visuals of the planet and discovered X-ray activity for the first time. Astronomers looked at snapshots of the planet taken by NASA’s Chandra Observatory in 2002 and 2017, noticing a clear detection…

While the Perseverance rover is testing out its wheels in Jezero Crater before truly beginning its journey on Mars, the Curiosity rover has been busy snapping selfies of an intriguing rock formation. Perseverance, which landed on February 18, is preparing the Ingenuity helicopter for its first flights on Mars in April. Until Perseverance arrived, Curiosity…

Waste from lifesaving personal protective equipment (PPE) is killing birds, fish and other wildlife across the globe, a study has found. Animals are fatally ingesting or becoming entangled in discarded latex gloves and disposable face masks, while others have started building their homes using the same material, researchers said. “As always with these single-use items,…

Much of America’s recent progress against Covid-19 is being erased as infections, deaths and hospitalizations multiply nationwide. On Monday US President Joe Biden implored state and local officials to reinstate mask mandates, after Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), shared her feelings of “impending doom” at a White House…

No longer working under the Trump administration, leading US health officials have revealed to CNN the challenges they faced during the nation’s fight against Covid-19 over the past year, including tension behind closed doors and a lack of preparedness. Here are some of the most haunting revelations from CNN’s new documentary, “COVID WAR: The Pandemic…

See the “Worm” supermoon glow in the March sky this Sunday. The moon will be fullest at 2:48 p.m. ET on Sunday afternoon, according to NASA. This will be the year’s first supermoon, meaning the moon is slightly closer to Earth and therefore appears bigger and brighter in the sky. The Worm supermoon is the…

An asteroid named for the Egyptian god of chaos and darkness won’t be wreaking any havoc on Earth — at least not this century. That’s the good news from NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, released on Friday. Asteroid 99942 Apophis has been considered one of the most hazardous asteroids with the potential to impact…

China’s goal is not to replace the United States as the world’s leading country, the Chinese Ambassador to the US said Thursday. “Our goal is to meet the growing inspiration of the Chinese people for better life. Our goal is not to compete with, or replace any other country,” Cui Tiankai told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour…

When Graciane da Silva died of Covid-19 at a Rio de Janeiro hospital last June, her death was seen as unusual — she was only 28 and, at the time, the coronavirus was mostly claiming the lives of the elderly. But something has shifted in Brazil, Matt Rivers writes. More younger Brazilians now appear to…

North Korea launched two ballistic missiles Thursday — the second such launch in less than a week. South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said in a statement that two short-range missiles had been fired from the Hamju area of South Hamgyong province toward the sea, off North Korea’s east coast, at 7:06 a.m. and 7:25…

Astronomers have a new, more complete picture of the supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy 55 million light-years from Earth — the first black hole ever to be imaged. While the first image of this black hole and its shadow was released in 2019, the new image released Wednesday shows the cosmic…

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The largest asteroid that has been predicted to make a close approach of Earth this year will zip by from a safe distance on Sunday, according to NASA. Scientists estimate the asteroid is between 1,300 and 2,230 feet wide. The near-Earth asteroid, known as 2001 FO32, will be 1.25 million miles, or more than five…

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We first heard the sounds of Martian wind and a laser zapping rocks on Mars. Now, the Perseverance rover has returned audio of itself driving across the Martian surface. Every new sound sent back by the rover is an exciting first because none of the previous missions to Mars have carried microphones. As the rover’s…

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The first observed interstellar object zipped through our solar system in October 2017 — and astronomers have been trying to understand it ever since. Scientists scrambled to observe the object before it disappeared, moving along at 196,000 miles per hour, and their observations caused more questions than answers about the “oddball,” as scientists dubbed it.…

Prince Harry has spoken to his brother, William, and his father, Charles, since Oprah Winfrey’s interview with the Sussexes aired, but those conversations have been “unproductive,” Gayle King, a friend of the couple and co-host of CBS show “This Morning,” said on Tuesday. King said she called Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex over the…

Engineers want to build an underground lunar ark, filled with millions of seed, spore, sperm and egg samples from Earth’s species, hidden in a network of tubes on the moon to provide a genetic backup for the planet in the event of a doomsday scenario. Scientists from the University of Arizona have proposed an ark,…

Brazil is pulling ahead in the race that no one wants to win. Over the past month, the South American nation has blown past a series of grisly milestones, repeatedly setting new records for most Covid-19 deaths per day. In the past week, it set another record: 12,818 new deaths and more than 464,000 new…

At first it all appeared calm. As night fell on the part of South London where Sarah Everard took her final steps 10 days ago, the clouds parted for one last ray of sun. At the Clapham bandstand, where thousands had begun to gather for a vigil supposedly canceled because of Covid, someone began beating…