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By Ashley Strickland, CNN As a kid, I thought Dr. Dolittle had a pretty good gig. The idea of being able to speak to creatures in their own distinct language was a thrilling prospect. And then there were veterinarians like Dr. James Herriot and his treasury of tales that showed he truly understood the nature

By Ashley Strickland, CNN The Flame Nebula is one of many gems included in the Orion constellation, and astronomers have now captured a new perspective of this striking celestial feature. While the Flame Nebula appears to live up to its name, the fiery image actually represents what the interstellar clouds look like in radio waves.

By Aditi Sangal, Rhea Mogul, Adam Renton, Lauren Said-Moorhouse, Hannah Strange and Meg Wagner, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

By Melissa Mahtani, Meg Wagner, Jessie Yeung, Adam Renton, Lauren Said-Moorhouse and Ed Upright, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

By Katie Hunt, Kristin Fisher and Jackie Wattles, CNN An out-of-control Russian rocket stage has re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, according to the latest estimate from US Space Command, which has been tracking its descent. The Angara-A5 heavy-lift rocket was launched from the Plesetsk spaceport in Russia’s northwestern Arkhangelsk region on Monday, December 27. The launch

By Ivana Kottasová, CNN The United Kingdom is experiencing the fastest growth in the number of Covid-19 cases since the pandemic started. But according to the government, new restrictions, including a lockdown, are off the table — at least for now. “We have a chance to ride out this Omicron wave without shutting down our

By Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt, Meg Wagner, Melissa Macaya, Mike Hayes and Veronica Rocha, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

By Brad Lendon and Jessie Yeung, CNN Five of the world’s largest nuclear powers pledged on Monday to work together toward “a world without nuclear weapons” in a rare statement of unity amid rising East-West tensions. “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” said the joint statement, which was issued simultaneously

By Rhea Mogul, Adam Renton, Jack Guy and Ed Upright, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

By Ashley Strickland, CNN Total lunar eclipses, a multitude of meteor showers and supermoons will light up the sky in 2022. The new year is sure to be a sky-gazer’s delight with plenty of celestial events on the calendar. There is always a good chance that the International Space Station is flying overhead. And if

By Jessie Yeung, Adam Renton, Jack Guy, Ed Upright, Mike Hayes, Melissa Mahtani, Melissa Macaya and Meg Wagner, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

By Fernando Alfonso III and Mike Hayes, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

By Arnaud Siad, CNN Kenyan paleoanthropologist and conservationist Richard Leakey, who unearthed evidence that helped prove humankind evolved in Africa, died on Sunday at the age of 77, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta confirmed in a statement. “I have this afternoon, Sunday 2nd January 2022, received with deep sorrow the sad news of the passing away

By Ashley Strickland, CNN The new year kicks off with the Quadrantid meteor shower, which is expected to peak in the overnight hours from Sunday to Monday. The Quadrantids are typically among the strongest meteor showers of the year. Fortunately, a waxing crescent moon phase will practically render the moon invisible overnight, allowing for peak

By Ashley Strickland, CNN “Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” I carry the optimism of “Back to the Future” with me as each new year begins. This quote rings especially true as I look at the possibilities awaiting us on the horizon. If you thought 2021 was an exciting year for discoveries, buckle up:

By John Allen, Nicola Ruotolo, and Richard Allen Greene, CNN Pope Francis has condemned violence against women as an “insult to God” in his New Year’s Day homily. His address to the faithful from the Vatican in Rome during Saturday’s mass focused on Mary, the mother of Jesus, as Francis drew inspiration from her delivering

By Ashley Strickland, CNN Total lunar eclipses, a multitude of meteor showers and supermoons will light up the sky in 2022. The new year is sure to be a sky-gazer’s delight with plenty of celestial events on the calendar. There is always a good chance that the International Space Station is flying overhead. And if

By Rhea Mogul, Adam Renton, Eliza Mackintosh, Melissa Macaya and Adrienne Vogt, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

By Kendall Trammell and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN People around the world are beginning to wave goodbye to 2021 and welcome 2022. The Pacific Island nations of Tonga, Samoa and Kiribati are the first to see the new year — when it is still 5 a.m. on December 31 on the East Coast of the United

By Sherry Liang, CNN In a TikTok video with more than 30 million views and 7 million likes, a chipmunk is paying for groceries at the cashier. The rabbit cashier asks, “Paper or plastic?” The chipmunk ominously replies — and repeats, at the rabbit’s confusion, “Mouth.” In the next frame, the groceries (a pile of

By Jessie Yeung, Adam Renton, Adrienne Vogt, Melissa Macaya, Melissa Mahtani and Fernando Alfonso III, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

By Ashley Strickland, CNN Shrimplike creatures, an extinct dinosaur called the “hell heron” and colorful beetles are among the 552 new species described this year by scientists at the Natural History Museum in London. The researchers were largely restricted from traveling to international field sites or visiting other museum collections due to the pandemic, but

By Ashley Strickland, CNN The bones of five mammoths were discovered with Neanderthal stone tools at a quarry near Swindon, providing a revealing look at life in Britain during the ice age 200,000 years ago. The well-preserved mammoth remains belonged to two adults, two juveniles and an infant. Their bones were found alongside a Neanderthal

By Ashley Strickland, CNN Some of the most exciting space missions are ready to kick off in 2022. This year, expect the first images and science results from the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope, see a new mission launch to study an unexplored world and watch a NASA spacecraft deliberately crash into an asteroid’s

By Brian Vitagliano, CNN Attorneys for Britain’s Prince Andrew claimed Tuesday that the US court handling a civil lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, in which she accuses the Duke of York of sexual assault, does not have jurisdiction over the case. A motion filed in the US District Court in Manhattan states, “Ms. Giuffre alleges

By Rhea Mogul, Adam Renton, Tara John and Ed Upright, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

By Porter Fox Twelve Greenlandic huskies toil against a 40-mile-per-hour headwind, as box store-size icebergs and rugged 10,000-foot peaks slide past. They are as inspiring as they are terrifying — until my ski goggles ice-over, blinding me for hours. I’ve been sitting on the back of a dogsled for three hours now, nestled between a

By Helen Regan, Adam Renton, Aditi Sangal, Melissa Macaya, Mike Hayes and Melissa Mahtani, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

By Helen Regan, Adam Renton, Tara John, Aditi Sangal, Mike Hayes, Melissa Macaya and Melissa Mahtani, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

By Fernando Alfonso III, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

By Ashley Strickland, CNN Wonder is all around us. There was a stunning reminder this week as spacecraft and stargazers alike shared videos of an ancient comet as it streaked across our sky. This is Comet Leonard’s final blaze of glory before disappearing forever — and the rare celestial show is now something we share

By Ashley Strickland, CNN It’s a moment that has been decades in the making. The James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s premier space observatory of the next decade, successfully launched on Christmas morning. The telescope lifted off atop an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana at 7:20 a.m. ET. “We have LIFTOFF of

By Ashley Strickland, CNN Just in time for Christmas, a SpaceX cargo vehicle arrived at the International Space Station Wednesday morning bearing holiday treats and science experiments. The orbiting laboratory is hosting seven crew members throughout the holiday season. The international crew includes Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov; NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Dr.

By Ashley Strickland, CNN We’re about to have eyes on the invisible side of space. The James Webb Space Telescope will be the premier space observatory of the next decade when it launches Saturday. The telescope is expected to launch Saturday morning from French Guiana and live coverage will be available on NASA’s website beginning

By Rachel Ramirez Photos and reporting by Lynsey Addario Indigenous women in Brazil have traditionally been excluded from taking on leadership roles that were often filled by tribal patriarchs. But those roles shifted in recent years as threats against their land rights and natural resources escalated. Women are breaking down barriers, speaking out and joining

By Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt, Melissa Mahtani, Helen Regan, Joshua Berlinger and Adam Renton, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

By Hannah Ryan, CNN The discovery of a giant marine reptile skull in the United States has revealed new theories about the speed of evolution and how quickly the process can produce diversity. The giant ichthyosaur fossil — with a skull measuring almost two meters (6.6 feet) in length, an estimated body length of more

By Ashley Strickland, CNN The James Webb Space Telescope is finally on the launchpad. The space observatory, safely tucked inside an Ariane 5 rocket, is expected to launch on December 25. The rocket and its precious cargo rolled out to the Arianespace ELA-3 launch complex at Europe’s Spaceport located near Kourou, French Guiana on Wednesday.

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. December 21, 1988 – Pan Am Flight 103 explodes 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, Scotland, 38 minutes after takeoff from London. Two hundred fifty-nine people on board the New York-bound Boeing 747 were killed, along with 11 people on the ground. Afterward,

By Helen Regan, Amy Woodyatt and Adam Renton, CNN The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

By Katie Hunt and Ashley Strickland, CNN Comet Leonard, which last passed by Earth 80,000 years ago, has been dazzling the night sky before Christmas, and there’s only a few days left to see the celestial object before it disappears forever. The imager onboard the Solar Orbiter, a joint mission between NASA and the European

By Rob Picheta, CNN For the second year in a row, a worrying new coronavirus variant has scuppered holiday plans around the world. This year, it’s the Omicron strain that has scientists and governments concerned — in just a matter of weeks, it has become dominant in multiple countries and put hospitals on alert for

By Katie Hunt, CNN The human story — where we come from and how we evolved — got a new chapter in 2021. Thanks to new fossil finds and analysis of ancient DNA preserved in teeth, bones and cave dirt, scientists have unearthed startling revelations about our Homo sapien forebears, and other humans that existed

By Ashley Vaughan, Jennifer Grubb, Ben Burnstein, CNN The Philippines are struggling to recover after Super Typhoon Rai devastated the islands last week. The storm left a death toll exceeding 300 people. Those on the ground believe the actual number is higher than has so far been reported, as the storm’s full impact is still

A crisp wind blew off the Gulf of Mexico as photojournalist and commercial photographer Mark Wallheiser set up his camera on a tripod near the edge of the water. He unfolded his camping chair, opened a cold beer and settled in for a long evening of stargazing.

By Ivana Kottasová and Virginia Langmaid, CNN It might be time to rethink your festive plans, the World Health Organization has warned amid a rising number of cases of the coronavirus caused by the Omicron variant. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the pandemic might mean canceling in-person events over the holiday period,

By Megan Marples, CNN A crisp wind blew off the Gulf of Mexico as photojournalist and commercial photographer Mark Wallheiser set up his camera on a tripod near the edge of the water. He unfolded his camping chair, opened a cold beer and settled in for a long evening of stargazing. Wallheiser spent last December

By Ashley Strickland, CNN Just over a year after Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission returned the first subsurface sample of an asteroid to Earth, scientists have determined that the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu is a pristine remnant from the formation of our solar system. This was the first material to be returned to Earth from a carbon-rich asteroid.

By Jeevan Ravindran, CNN If you’ve never heard of the Siau scops-owl, there’s a good reason why — and it’s not because your knowledge of birds isn’t quite up to scratch. Nobody has seen the elusive owl since 1866, and it’s not the only such missing species. Researchers, conservationists and birdwatchers all over the world

By Ashley Strickland, CNN The sun is the literal star of the show in our solar system, but we’re still trying to figure out our celestial disco ball. Debates about the sun were first posed by ancient Greek philosophers. Thousands of years later, the combined work of people like Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton helped

By Sheena McKenzie and Yong Xiong, CNN As the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant looms across parts of the globe and the Delta variant remains dominant — for now — in others, the Covid-19 pandemic is again threatening holiday celebrations for millions. Several European cities have already canceled firework displays ringing in 2022

By Angela Eichhorst, CNN Bundle up to enjoy the last full moon of the year. The last full moon of 2021 will reach peak illumination on Saturday, December 18, at 11:32 p.m. ET, according to NASA, but you can trace its path across the sky starting at just before sunset. Known as the “cold moon”

By Ashley Strickland, CNN The isolated Faroe Islands were once home to an unknown population in 500 AD, about 350 years before Vikings ever arrived, according to new research. And the evidence comes from an unusual source: ancient sheep poop. The striking Faroes are a small archipelago located in the North Atlantic halfway between Norway

By Ashley Strickland, CNN Mars has its own version of the Grand Canyon, and scientists have learned this dramatic feature is home to “significant amounts of water” after a discovery made by an orbiter circling the red planet, according to the European Space Agency. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, launched in 2016 as a joint

By Ashley Strickland, CNN Lava once flowed at the site of an ancient lake on Mars. The Perseverance rover landed on the planet just 10 months ago, but it has already made that surprising discovery. The rover’s latest finding suggests that the bedrock it has been driving over since landing was once formed by volcanic

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at the life of Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank. Personal Birth date: January 1, 1956 Birth place: Paris, France Birth name: Christine Madeleine Odette Lallouette Father: Robert Lallouette, a professor of English literature Mother: Nicole Lallouette, a professor of French, Latin and ancient Greek Marriages: Wilfried

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at the life of seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher. Personal Birth date: January 3, 1969 Birth place: Hurth-Hermulheim, Germany Birth name: Michael Schumacher Father: Rolf Schumacher, go-kart track manager and bricklayer Mother: Elisabeth Schumacher, go-kart track worker Marriage: Corinna (Betsch) Schumacher (1995-present) Children: Mick, 1999 and Gina-Maria,

By Ashley Strickland, CNN The highly anticipated launch of the James Webb Space Telescope is facing yet another delay before it can lift off the launchpad. Heralded to be the premier space science observatory of the next decade, the telescope is now expected to launch on December 24 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Teams

By Ivana Kottasová, CNN The Omicron coronavirus variant is spreading at a rate not seen with previous variants, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned, adding that the tendency to dismiss it as mild is concerning. Speaking during a news conference on Tuesday, Tedros said the variant has been detected in 77 countries.

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN As the rapidly heating planet alters the landscape of the Arctic region up north, scientists have discovered disturbing and alarming signs at the southern end of the planet, particularly in one of the ice shelves safeguarding the Antarctic’s so-called “Doomsday glacier.” Satellite images taken as recently as last month, which researchers