A robot that has spent months inside the ruins of a nuclear reactor at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi plant delivered a tiny sample of melted nuclear fuel, in what plant officials said was a step toward beginning the cleanup of hundreds of tons of melted fuel debris.

Three Chinese astronauts have returned to Earth after a six-month stay on China’s Tiangong space station.

Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency says that at least ten people have died as a series of volcanic eruptions widens on the remote island of Flores.

Two sister meteor showers are already flashing across night skies — and will peak a week apart.

The deadly flooding in Valencia Spain is just the latest in a spate of climate extremes that seem to have shifted into overdrive, especially in rain-weary Europe.

The Associated Press has learned that two humpback whales were found dead and another seriously injured this year in huge nets used to collect krill for fishmeal and human dietary supplements near Antarctica.

Scientists have uncovered the oldest-known fossil of a tadpole that wriggled around 160 million years ago.

A Chinese space ship carrying a three-person crew has docked with its orbiting space station as the country seeks to expand its exploration of outer space.

It's as if Mother Nature shut off the rain faucet in the United States in October.

NASA says a recently discovered comet has broken apart as it approached the sun.

China says all systems are ready to launch the next crew to its orbiting space station on the latest mission to make the country a major space power.

NASA says an astronaut has been released from the hospital after returning from space.

A special kind of beauty contest featuring bats kicked off in the lead-up to Halloween.

Four astronauts are back on Earth after a space station mission that lasted almost eight months.

The red-cockaded woodpecker, an iconic bird in southeastern forests, has recovered enough of its population to be downlisted from an endangered species to a threatened one.

The world is on a path to get 1.8 degrees Celsius (3.2 Fahrenheit) warmer than it is now, a United Nations report said Thursday.

Officials in Hong Kong say they have discovered dinosaur fossils in the city for the first time on a remote, uninhabited island that’s part of a geopark.

Scientists say a giant fish in the Mekong River thought to be extinct has been spotted three times in recent years.

Western Lake Erie is an ideal environment for the bacteria that make up algae.

Scientists have pinpointed how sperm and egg fuse together across the animal kingdom, from fish to people.

The Orionid meteor shower is about to peak.

Scientists say a celestial object discovered decades ago is actually twins orbiting each other.

October's supermoon is the closest of the year and it's teaming up with a comet for a rare stargazing two-for-one.

Space weather experts say expect to see more northern lights in unusual places as the sun continues to sizzle.

Scientists have uncovered an underworld of animal life thriving beneath the seafloor.

China has made great strides in exploring space in recent years, rocketing astronauts to its own space station and bringing back rocks from the moon.

Hong Kong’s oldest zoo is seeking answers in a monkey medical mystery after nine animals died in two days, including three members of a critically endangered species.

A California school has planted a tree that’s out of this world.

A NASA spacecraft has blasted off on a quest to explore Jupiter's moon Europa and reveal whether its hidden ocean might hold the keys to life.

Archaeologists in Denmark have unearthed a Viking Age burial ground containing some 50 “exceptionally well-preserved” skeletons.

SpaceX has pulled off the boldest test flight yet of its enormous Starship rocket.

A massive NASA spacecraft has set sail for Jupiter and its moon Europa.

The latest solar storm has triggered northern lights farther south than normal including into parts of Germany, the United Kingdom, New England and New York City.

Scientists say human-caused climate change intensified deadly Hurricane Milton’s rainfall by 20 to 30% and strengthened its winds by about 10%.

Hours after the artificial intelligence pioneer Geoffrey Hinton won a Nobel Prize in physics, he drove a rented car to Google’s California headquarters to celebrate.

With its mighty strength and its dangerous path, Hurricane Milton has powered into a very rare threat that is flirting with experts’ worst fears.

Twin brothers who were born conjoined recently celebrated their first birthday after undergoing successful separation surgery.

Space weather forecasters say a severe solar storm heading to Earth could stress power grids even more as the U.S. deals with major back-to-back hurricanes.

Scientists now know what the head of the biggest bug to ever crawl the Earth looks like.

A rare, bright comet will be visible in October, clear skies permitting.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry to David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper who discovered powerful techniques to predict and even design novel proteins — the building blocks of life.

Scientists say human-caused climate change boosted the rainfall of deadly Hurricane Helene by about 10% and intensified its winds by about 11%.

Two pioneers of artificial intelligence have won the Nobel Prize in physics.

In the wake of hurricanes that have disrupted lives for millions in the U.S., some people may wonder if extreme weather events could be somehow controlled.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday suggested that migrants who are in the U_S_ and have committed murder did so because “it’s in their genes.”.

A spacecraft has blasted off to investigate the scene of a cosmic crash.

Two scientists have won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discovery of microRNA, tiny bits of genetic material that serve as on and off switches inside cells that help control what the cells do and when they do it.

Solar storms may cause faint auroras across fringes of the northern United States this weekend.

Wars, a refugee crisis, famine, and artificial intelligence could all be recognized with Nobel Prizes.

Winter sports are facing a long-time crisis because of climate change and the International Ski and Snowboard Federation has teamed up with the United Nations weather agency.

It’s tarantula mating season on the Colorado plains, when male spiders scurry out of their burrows in search of a mate.

The devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene has brought climate change to the forefront of the presidential campaign.

If you’re looking for a fun way to explore the physical properties of density with your elementary-aged kids, this experiment is for you!

NASA has switched off another scientific instrument on its Voyager 2 spacecraft to save power.

What lies beneath the Great Lakes' waves is largely unknown, but there's a new push to learn more about thousands of shipwrecks, underwater infrastructure and the impacts of climate change on the bottom of the world's largest freshwater system.

Experts say the volume of Switzerland’s glaciers shrank again this summer and compounded the negative impact of climate change after a devastating two-year run that depleted the ice by more than 10%.

NASA’s Webb Space Telescope has identified new clues about the surface of Pluto’s largest moon.

Meteorologists calculate that more than 40 trillion gallons of rain drenched the Southeast United States in the last week from Hurricane Helene and a run-of-the-mill rainstorm that sloshed in ahead of it.

An 81-year-old Montana has been sentenced to six months in federal prison and ordered to pay $24,000 in penalties for using tissue and testicles from large sheep hunted in Central Asia and the U.S. to illegally create hybrid sheep for captive trophy hunts in Texas and Minnesota.

The two astronauts stuck at the International Space Station since June are welcoming their new ride home.

SpaceX has launched a rescue mission for the two stuck astronauts at the International Space Station.

Thousands of Japanese fans have bid farewell to their beloved panda couple that made their final public appearance at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo before returning to China for medical treatment.

Another chapter in one of the greatest comeback stories in the world of endangered species is being written with the release of three young California condors north of the Grand Canyon.

Earth will have a temporary “mini moon” for two months.

A “ring of fire" eclipse of the sun will cross the Pacific and the tips of Argentina and Chile.

The operator of an experimental submersible that imploded while seeking out the sunken Titanic was either putting profits over safety or pushing humankind’s boundaries.

OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush said the carbon fiber hull used in an experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic was developed with help of NASA and aerospace manufacturers.

Last month, about a thousand dead fish washed up against the banks of Calaveras Lake. The event was classified as a “fish kill” after officials tested the water and determined the fish died as a result of a fatal mix of weather phenomena.

The aurora borealis is continuing to dazzle viewers across the northern United States and Canada.

It will be years before the European Space Agency can send one of its astronauts to the moon, but the agency says it’s time to start practicing as it opened a facility in Germany that will let astronauts train in conditions like those on the lunar surface.

An engineer with the National Transportation Safety Board says the carbon fiber hull of the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic had imperfections dating to the manufacturing process.

Human-caused climate change doubled the likelihood of the heavy rainfall that caused floods killing 24 people in Central Europe earlier this month, a new flash study found.

A key employee with the company that owned the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic has pushed back at a question about whether OceanGate felt a sense of “desperation” to complete the dives because of the high price tag.

A Soyuz capsule carrying two Russians and one American from the International Space Station has landed in Kazakhstan, ending a record-breaking stay for the Russian pair.

A Soyuz capsule carrying two Russians and one American from the International Space Station has landed in Kazakhstan, ending a record-breaking stay for the Russian pair.

The co-founder of the company that owned the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic said he hopes the legacy is a renewed interest in exploration.

The rhino population across the world has increased slightly but so have the killings, mostly in South Africa, as poaching fed by huge demand for rhino horns remains a top threat.

Boeing is replacing the head of its defense and space business.

Russia’s space agency says two Russians have set a record for the longest continuous stay on the International Space Station.

Tests on dead Cape fur seals in South Africa have shown some had rabies.

Scientists searching for the origins of COVID-19 have zeroed in on a short list of animals that possibly helped spread it to people.

Scientists have moved about 300 endangered sea corals from South Florida to the Texas Gulf Coast for research and restoration.

The hidden figures of the space race have been recognized with Congress’ highest honor at a medal ceremony.

Scientists have discovered the longest pair of jets streaming from a black hole in a distant galaxy.

Meteorological magic!

SpaceX faces $633,000 in fines for alleged safety violations during two Florida launches last year.

Officials say protected green and loggerhead turtles are making a big comeback on the beaches of two British military bases in Cyprus, with the number of nests surpassing last year’s record count by nearly 25%.

A new study offers the first detailed map of the human brain throughout and after pregnancy.

A billionaire spacewalker is back on Earth.

Iran says it launched a satellite into space with a rocket built by the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

The astronauts stuck in space say it was hard to see their Boeing capsule leave without them.

Get ready for a partial lunar eclipse and supermoon.

A study that explores the feasibility of using pigeons to guide missiles and one that looks at the swimming abilities of dead fish were among the winners of this year’s Ig Nobels, the prize for comical scientific achievement.

People in Canada and northern U.S. cities including Seattle and Minneapolis may see faint auroras due to moderate solar storms.

A tech billionaire has performed the first private spacewalk hundreds of miles above Earth.

A pair of rare Amur tiger cubs are making their public debut at the Minnesota Zoo, raising hopes for preserving an endangered species that’s native to far eastern Russia and northern China.

Paying passengers have lined up to rocket to space to experience a few minutes of weightlessness.

First-year veterinary students in Hungary are being joined by two full-grown horses in their lecture hall for the first anatomy lesson of their academic careers.

A billionaire has rocketed back into orbit, aiming to perform the first private spacewalk.

NASA has given the go-ahead to next month’s launch to Jupiter’s moon Europa.