Environment

Astronaut Frank Rubio and his fellow cosmonauts, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, landed safely in Kazakhstan on Wednesday after more than a year aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Their mission was scheduled to last six months, but a leak in their capsule forced them to wait for a replacement spacecraft.

There were celebrations in the Nasa control room as a capsule containing samples from the asteroid Bennu touched down in the Utah desert. Scientists hope that this material could contain hints as to how life on Earth began. The spacecraft, Osiris-Rex, has remained in space after releasing the capsule containing the samples.

A “Dumbo” octopus, with ear-like fins similar to the 1940s Disney cartoon character, has been seen in a broadcast on a EVNautilus live stream, which is exploring the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the north Pacific Ocean. The octopus can live at depths of up to 7,000 metres and has been filmed by a remotely-operated

Baby turtles made it safely to the sea after they were dug out of a nest on a beach in Mississippi. In January 2023, the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies (IMMS) found a sea turtle nest in Pass Christian, a rare occurrence on the manmade beach. In an excavation following the hatching process, IMMS staff

A huge waterspout has been captured on camera off the coast of the Isle of Wight in England. The UK’s national weather service, the Met Office, said the waterspout was spotted on 26 August. Waterspouts are similar to tornadoes, but they form over a body of water and do not reach land.

Border Patrol agents found seven spider monkeys in a backpack when they detained a man trying to smuggle the animals into the US from Mexico. At least six spider monkey species living in Central and South America are considered endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. The monkeys were

Historically high ocean temperatures are threatening a colossal coral die-off in the Florida Keys. But scientists are fighting to stop it. Marine researchers expect the record-breaking hot water to last through September. To protect healthy corals, they are relocating them to deeper waters. Ken Nedimyer, coral restoration pioneer, and Katey Lesneski, research and monitoring coordinator,

It is “virtually certain” that July is going to be the world’s warmest month since records began, according to scientists. Some researchers believe it might even be the warmest month in the past 120,000 years. The UK on the other hand, has experienced milder temperatures and a fair amount of rain. BBC Weather’s Ben Rich

Fires have been spreading across the Greek Island of Rhodes, resulting in tourists being evacuated from a number of hotels. In some cases, private boats have been helping the coastguard rescue people from beaches as wildfires approached. According to one of Greece’s top meteorologists, this could turn into one of the country’s hottest July weekends

The Euclid telescope has successfully launched into space on a mission to understand some of the universe’s greatest mysteries. The €1.4bn (£1.2bn) space telescope was primed to go up on a Falcon-9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Saturday. The launch is part of a mission that will make an immense 3D map of

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic rocket plane has carried customers into space, in its first commercial flight. The 90-minute mission was purchased for the Italian Air Force and the Italian National Research Council. The unity vehicle climbed high over the New Mexico desert to the edge of space, before gliding back down to earth. The

Two male platypuses have been caught on camera fighting for territory in Tasmania, Australia. Esme Atkinson, who filmed the video, said the animals were “ferocious” and showed no signs of stopping after 20 minutes. One expert told the BBC the male platypuses, which have venomous spurs, can become territorial ahead of the breeding season.

A 10m humpback whale has been rescued after becoming entangled in a shark net off Australia’s Gold Coast. Workers used delicate equipment to cut the whale free during the early morning operation. Environmental groups have pushed for the removal of nets during the whale migration season, which sees tens of thousands of the mammals pass

Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, from the Russian space corporation Roscosmos, have completed a seven-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station. As part of their mission to move an experiment airlock from one part of the station to another they discarded a bundle of space junk in a planned manoeuvre.

After a month of fasting and reflection, Muslims are coming together to celebrate Eid – the festival that marks the end of Ramadan. Emirati astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi has sent an out of this world message to Muslims from the International Space Station, while joined by Suhail – the mascot of the Mohammed Bin Rashid

SpaceX’s anticipated launch of its Starship – the most powerful space rocket ever built – was a success. But, if you were watching you might have been confused about what happened. There were cheers and applause over the success of the launch… but there was also an explosion. The BBC’s science correspondent Jonathan Amos breaks