'Super-Earth' and 'Sub-Neptune' Found Orbiting Red Dwarf

BERN, SWITZERLAND — Scientists have found two exoplanets orbiting a red dwarf around 120 light-years from Earth, including a "super-Earth." The research, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, notes that exoplanets TOI-1266 b and TOI-1266 c are..

China Is Targeting the Moon for Exploration

BEIJING — While the world dreams about getting to Mars, China is targeting the moon for exploration. This means that the moon could soon be a source of conflict between Earth's superpowers because of possible future questions regarding who controls..

Voyager 2 Finds Space Is More Dense Outside the Solar System

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA — The Voyager spacecraft have found that space is more dense outside the Solar System, according to research published in the journal Astrophysical Letters. NASA's Voyager 2 crossed into interstellar space in November of 2018..

Japan to Dump Radioactive Fukushima Water Into the Pacific

FUKUSHIMA, JAPAN — Today, almost ten years since a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Japan in 2011, the country is still struggling to decontaminate the radioactive mess that is the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. Three of the plant's nuclear..

Fossilized Tracks Show Woman And Child's Dangerous Journey

WHITE SANDS NATIONAL PARK, NEW MEXICO — An amazing trove of fossilized footprints in New Mexico tells the harrowing story of a woman and a 2-year-old child's dangerous journey around 13,000 years ago. This according to a study published in..

Scientists Find Tardigrade With Glowing Blue Protective Shield

BENGALURU, INDIA — Researchers in India have discovered a species of tardigrade that absorbs UV radiation and emits blue light. Writing in the journal Biology Letters, scientists at the Indian Institute of Science describe how they discovered a..

Moon Had 'Magnetic Field That Protected Earth'

NASA HEADQUARTERS, WASHINGTON — Scientists have long wondered how life could have evolved on Earth if the sun's radiation flares were so much more powerful billions of years ago. According to planetary scientists, the Earth's magnetic field could..

White House Notifies Congressof Taiwan Arms Sales Packages

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will seek to sell Taiwan at least five and possibly seven advanced weapons systems, according to recent reports by Reuters and the New York Times. Reuters reports the administration on Monday, Oct. 12 and..

New Parrot-Like Dinosaur's Fossils Found in Gobi Desert

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND — A while ago a research team from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland invested in an archaeological dig in the Gobi Desert. And now that investment in time, money and effort has paid off big time. The team's efforts were..

North Korea's 'Monster' New Ballistic Missile Explained

PYONGYANG — North Korea unveiled a new intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, in a military parade to mark the 75th anniversary of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party at the stroke of midnight on Saturday, Oct. 10. According to North Korea..

Black Hole Sucks Star Like It's Spaghetti

BIRMINGHAM, UK — Scientists had a rare look at a black hole pulling a star apart over the last six months. Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory observed a black hole sucking in a faraway star, shredding it into thin strands of stellar..

Speedy, 500-Meter-Wide Asteroid to Pass Near Earth on Nov. 29

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA — A half-kilometer-wide asteroid — named (153201) 2000 WO107 — will zoom past Earth on Nov. 29, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It will be one of the biggest asteroids to pass near Earth in 2020. Travelling..

Megalodon Reached 50 Feet Because of 'Cannibalism in Womb'

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — Scientists have calculated that the prehistoric — and thankfully extinct — megalodon shark could have grown much bigger than previously estimated. According to a study led by paleobiologist Kenshu Shimada of DePaul..

Explainer: How the CRISPR/Cas9 Gene-Editing Tool Works

STOCKHOLM — The 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to two women who developed CRISPR/Cas9, a tool that allows scientists to cut parts of the genome like a pair of molecular scissors. Emmanuelle Charpentier, 51, and Jennifer A. Doudna, 56,..

President Trump's Coronavirus Treatment Explained

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump announced early on the morning of Friday, Oct. 2, that he and the first lady, Melania Trump, had tested positive for coronavirus. Speaking to the press, Trump's doctors and the White House confirmed that..

Turkey Denies Shooting Down Armenian Su-25 Warplane

YEREVAN, ARMENIA — The Turkish government has denied claims by the Armenian defense ministry that one of its F-16s shot down an Armenian warplane, Reuters reports, citing Turkey's communications director Fahrettin Altun. Fighting erupted between..

356 Dead Elephants — Killer Finally Found

OKAVANGO PANHANDLE, BOTSWANA — Botswana is a country known for its pure African landscapes filled with most of Africa's most impressive animals. The country boasts huge national parks filled with a large number of animals like lions, hippos,..

New Hydrogen Planes Will Leave Only Water in Their Wake

LEIDEN, NETHERLANDS — Airbus has unveiled a groundbreaking project to develop three new planes that will run on hydrogen and leave only water vapor in their wake. One of these zero-emission planes will also feature a revolutionary blended-wing..

Scientists Find Cluster of Underwater Lakes on Mars

ROME — Scientists have found a network of salty liquid water lakes on Mars beneath the planet's south pole, according to new research published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy. An international team examined radar data from MARSIS, short..

COVID-19 Smartphone App Launches in England and Wales

LONDON — England and Wales launched an app for tracking and tracing the coronavirus on Thursday, September 24, BBC News reports. The NHS COVID-19 app is available for smartphones running Android 6.0 or iOS 13.5 and Bluetooth 4.0 or higher. It is..

2 Million Years of Rain Sparked the Dinosaur's Reign

WUHAN, CHINA — Scientists say they have evidence that points to a cataclysmic mass extinction event that helped the dinosaurs to rise to dominance. The theory states that the Carnian Pluvial extinction event was triggered by a massive volcanic..

Walmart Is Testing Drone Delivery of COVID-19 Test Kits

NORTH LAS VEGAS, NEVADA — Walmart on Tuesday, September 22 announced it is testing contactless drone delivery of "at home Covid-19 self-collection kits," the retail giant's latest drone-delivery project. Walmart is working with Quest Diagnostics,..

NASA Finds Fresh Ice in "Tiger Stripe" Moon's North

SATURN'S MOON ENCELADUS — Scientists have found evidence that increases the chances of alien life being found on Saturn's sixth-largest moon; an icy ball called Enceladus. NASA scientists used data from the Cassini space probe to see what new..

Global Warming Shrinks Arctic Sea Ice to Second-Lowest on Record

BOULDER, COLORADO — This summer's Arctic sea ice shrank to its second-lowest ever extent in the 42-year satellite record, the National Snow and Ice Data Center said in a press release on Monday, Sept. 21. On Sept. 15, 2020, Arctic sea ice..

Giant Sail Ship Will Carry up to 7,000 Cars

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN — The Oceanbird is a proposed cargo yacht that would be able to carry 7,000 cars. Its designers say that it will use its giant, wing-like sails for general propulsion, saving up to 90 percent in greenhouse gas emissions. The..

China Buzzes Taiwan Air Space Ahead of Visit by U.S. Official

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Two Chinese aircraft flew into Taiwanese air space on Wednesday, Sept. 16. The incursion came in advance of Thursday's visit to Taiwan by Undersecretary of State Keith Krach, the highest-ranking U.S. cabinet member to visit Taiwan..

Scientists discover possible signs of life on Venus

CARDIFF, WALES — In an experiment made from "pure curiosity," scientists from Cardiff University, the University of Manchester and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology scanned the clouds of Venus and detected phosphine — a gas that could be a..

'Living Coffin' Made From Fungus Turns Your Body Into Compost

DELFT, THE NETHERLANDS — A start-up founded by a researcher from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands called the Loop has developed a living coffin made from a special fungus, the university said in a press release. Dubbed the..

La Nina Is Officially Here. This Is What It Means for Our Weather

COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND — The U.S. Climate Prediction Center said on Thursday, September 11 that the weather pattern known as La Nina had officially formed. La Nina — which means "little girl" in Spanish — is a complex ocean-atmosphere..

Sputnik V explainer: How Russia's coronavirus vaccine works

MOSCOW — Russia on August 11 became the first country in the world to approve a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Now the first batch of the vaccine is ready for public distribution, TASS Russian News Agency..

China accuses India of illegally crossing border, firing shots

NEW DELHI — The Chinese military said Indian forces had "illegally trespassed" the disputed border and on Monday, September 7, fired warning shots at a Chinese patrol, according to reports by the Associated Press and India's Times Now..

Scientists propose underwater 'bubble net' to stop hurricanes

BORRE, NORWAY — Norwegian scientists have come up with a bizarre plan that would use existing technology to slow hurricanes or prevent them from forming altogether by using underwater bubbles. Norwegian firm OceanTherm has proposed stretching a..

NASA's Lucy mission to explore clues about our early Solar System

GREENBELT, MARYLAND — NASA plans to launch the first spacecraft ever to study Jupiter's Trojan clusters, a group of asteroids that share Jupiter's orbit around the Sun. NASA engineers recently got the greenlight to assemble and test the spacecraft,..

Supernova triggered one of Earth's five great extinctions: study

CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS — Scientists from the University of Illinois propose that a supernova approximately 65 light-years from Earth likely triggered the Late Devonian Extinction, one of the five great mass extinction events in our planet's..

World's 1st Tilt Rotor e-Taxi Could Be Flying Passengers by 2024

BRISTOL, ENGLAND — British aerospace manufacturer Vertical Aerospace has released designs for a vectored-thrust flying taxi that could start commercial flights as early as 2024, if everything goes according to plan. The VA-1X would be the world's..

U.S., China conducting multiple military exercises near Taiwan

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — The U.S. and China have conducted numerous exercises in the Pacific over the past few weeks, stoking fears of a looming confrontation over Taiwan. Over the last three weeks, China has announced four separate military exercises in..

France, Italy hold exercises with Greece as Turkey tensions rise

ATHENS, GREECE — France on Tuesday, August 25 dispatched Rafale fighter jets to Cyprus as tensions between Turkey and Greece continue to rise over claims to oil and gas in the Eastern Mediterannean. The Cyprus Mail reports that France is taking..

Florida Is Releasing Millions of Genetically Modified Mosquitoes

FLORIDA KEYS — Health experts plan to release 750 million genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys to reduce local populations of disease-carrying mosquitoes, according to local news reports. CNN reports that the Florida Keys Mosquito..