CNN – World

By Ashley Strickland, CNN The largest planet in our solar system appears to look more and more like a work of art. It’s full of surprises — and so are its moons. The NASA Juno mission, which began orbiting Jupiter in July 2016, just recently made its 38th close flyby of the gas giant. The… Continue Reading

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… Continue Reading

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… Continue Reading

By Rob Picheta, CNN The rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant has broken pandemic records and shuttered borders in several parts of the world, as governments and scientists scramble to understand the implications of the strain before it supersedes Delta and becomes dominant worldwide. Dr. Anthony Fauci said the United States was “looking over… Continue Reading

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… Continue Reading

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… Continue Reading

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,… Continue Reading

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.… Continue Reading

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… Continue Reading

CNN Editorial Research Here’s a look at New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, which mark the end of the year and the beginning of the new year. Facts December 31, 2021 and January 1, 2022 – New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are on a Friday and Saturday. History The earliest known New… Continue Reading

By Ashley Strickland, CNN Sixty years after NASA set the goal, and three years after its Parker Solar Probe launched, the spacecraft has become the first to “touch the sun.” The Parker Solar Probe has successfully flown through the sun’s corona, or upper atmosphere, to sample particles and our star’s magnetic fields. “Parker Solar Probe… Continue Reading

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… Continue Reading

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN From extreme melt events to an influx of beaver colonies in Alaska, and rain falling at the summit of Greenland for the first time on record, the Arctic region showed clear symptoms of an ailing planet over the past year. A report published on Tuesday, which serves as an annual physical… Continue Reading

By Ashley Strickland, CNN There is a new comet in town, and December is your only chance to see it before disappears forever. Astronomers say that Comet Leonard is our best and brightest comet to see in 2021. The comet was first discovered in January of this year by astronomer Greg Leonard. Leonard, a senior… Continue Reading

By Ashley Strickland, CNN There is a slumbering giant at the heart of our galaxy and occasionally, it wakes up and has an outburst. Astronomers have found evidence of this activity from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. The black hole, which is 4 million times the mass of our… Continue Reading

CNN Editorial Research Here is a look at the life of Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX. Personal Birth date: June 28, 1971 Birth place: Pretoria, South Africa Birth name: Elon Reeve Musk Father: Errol Musk, engineer Mother: Maye (Haldeman) Musk, nutritionist and model Marriages: Talulah Riley (2013-2016, divorced for the second… Continue Reading

By Sherry Liang, CNN The calendar of annual meteor showers saves one of its best for last. The Geminids will light up the night sky Monday night into Tuesday morning, and NASA calls this shower “one of the best and most reliable” for its bright, fast and abundant meteors. At its peak at 2 a.m,… Continue Reading

By Katie Hunt, CNN Astronauts need to be in unparalleled physical and mental shape to handle the rigors of space — writer Tom Wolfe famously described it as the “right stuff” in his 1979 book of the same name. NASA’s latest class of would-be space sailors is no exception. But increasingly, you don’t have to… Continue Reading

By Megan Marples, CNN This dinosaur could sprint at speeds as swift as the world’s fastest human. Theropods were carnivorous dinosaurs that ran on two legs. Their feet had three toes with sharp claws, similar to some dinosaurs like velociraptors that are depicted in movies. Using fossilized footprints left in dirt in La Rioja, Spain,… Continue Reading