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The tornado struck Pasadena, southeast of Houston, seriously damaging homes and other buildings and knocking out power to thousands in the city and its surrounding areas. More than a dozen other tornado sightings were reported as the storm moved across the Gulf Coast, although they have yet to be confirmed by the National Weather Service. The spate of reported tornadoes adds to changes that experts have been observing in recent years — specifically, that where and when tornadoes occur has begun to shift. Historically, tornadoes were most likely to strike within a column of the central U.S. that was nicknamed “Tornado Alley.” The area includes parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. In areas with tightly packed cities, lots of trees and less open space, for example, a tornado can cause more catastrophic damage.

The hands of the Doomsday Clock are closer to midnight than ever before, with humanity facing a time of “unprecedented danger” that has increased the likelihood of a human-caused apocalypse, a group of scientists announced Tuesday. “We are living in a time of unprecedented danger, and the Doomsday Clock time reflects that reality,” Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said in a statement, adding that “it’s a decision our experts do not take lightly.”The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists set the Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight on Tuesday. When it was unveiled in 1947, the clock was set at 7 minutes to midnight, with “midnight” signifying human-caused apocalypse. In 2020, the Bulletin set the Doomsday Clock at 100 seconds to midnight, the first time it had moved within the two-minute mark. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists was founded in 1945 to examine global security issues related to science and technology.

“Now, we have a better understanding of the kind of benefits that operating in cislunar space can bring countries back home.”Though definitions sometimes differ, cislunar space generally refers to the space between Earth and the moon, including the moon's surface and orbit. In 2021, Holzinger co-authored a report titled “A Primer on Cislunar Space“ to help U.S. government officials understand the ins and outs of cislunar space. That interest is apparent: Last year, the Space Force identified cislunar operations as a development priority, and in April established the 19th Space Defense Squadron to oversee cislunar space. In November, the White House released its own strategy for interagency research on "responsible, peaceful, and sustainable exploration and utilization of cislunar space." Together, these factors could make it difficult to manage traffic in cislunar space, particularly if adversaries intentionally try to mask their activities there.

These projects add to $440 million in wildfire mitigation efforts that launched last year using funds from Biden's $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law. Together, these resources will help protect up to 45 million acres in the western U.S., said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. This includes 134 high-risk areas of land where a wildfire could pose a serious risk to communities and infrastructure. The USDA’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy, published in January 2022, identified 250 of these high-risk “firesheds” across the western states. The USDA’s work will focus on 11 landscapes, areas that were selected based on wildfire risks to nearby communities and buildings.

More than 40 million egg-laying hens have been culled in the U.S. alone, causing the price of eggs nationwide to skyrocket, Lorenzoni said. Months earlier, the “bird flu” outbreak drove the cost of turkey meat to record highs. Poultry can become infected through direct exposure to wild birds but more likely from fecal matter that contaminates the ground around farms or yards. Many migrating birds are not sickened by bird flu, which means it’s not well understood just how widespread it is in the wild, Lorenzoni added. The sun can, for instance, naturally disinfect surfaces while gloomier days help viral particles survive on surfaces contaminated by infected bird poop, Lorenzoni said.

The planet had one of its hottest years on record in 2022, as ocean heat soared and sea ice coverage in Antarctica melted to near-record lows, two federal science agencies announced Thursday. Last year was the fifth-warmest in recorded history, with global average surface temperatures that were 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (about 0.8 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 20th century average, according to the latest yearly analysis by NASA. A separate report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that Earth had its sixth-warmest year on record. That’s not a robust change,” Gavin Schmidt, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said Thursday in a news briefing. The key thing is the long-term trends, and they’re very consistent from one record [to the next].”

There's a new heavy hitter in the hunt for planets beyond our solar system. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope — the next-generation observatory that has already beamed back some of the clearest and most stunning views of the universe — was used for the first time to confirm the existence of an exoplanet, scientists announced Wednesday. The exoplanet confirmation marks an important milestone for the $10 billion Webb telescope, which launched into space in December 2021 and began science operations less than a year ago. “These first observational results from an Earth-size, rocky planet open the door to many future possibilities for studying rocky planet atmospheres with Webb,” Mark Clampin, director of the astrophysics division at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a statement. “Webb is bringing us closer and closer to a new understanding of Earth-like worlds outside our solar system, and the mission is only just getting started.”

The comet, officially known as C/2022 E3 (ZTF), will make its closest approach to the sun on Thursday and could be bright enough to be seen through telescopes and binoculars. The icy object will then make its closest approach to Earth on Feb. 2, NASA officials said. If the comet continues brightening, it may be possible to see it with the naked eye as it makes its closest approach to Earth in early February. After that, the next opportunity to see Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) won't come around for a long, long time. Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was discovered last March by astronomers using the Zwicky Transient Facility's wide-field survey camera at the Palomar Observatory, located north of San Diego.

The United States experienced 18 extreme weather events last year that each caused at least $1 billion in damages, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Weather and climate disasters across the country resulted in more than $165 billion in damages in 2022, making it the third-costliest year on record, NOAA officials said. Despite a slow start to last year's hurricane season, three storms resulted in at least $1 billion in damages: Hurricane Fiona, Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole. Hurricane Ian, which slammed into southwestern Florida in late September and caused widespread destruction, resulted in nearly $113 billion in damages, the report found. NOAA’s findings offer a glimpse of the major toll that extreme weather events are already having and the country’s vulnerability to climate disasters in the future.

It was a year characterized by extreme drought. From North America to Africa to Europe to Asia, huge swaths of the planet were parched in 2022. As the world warms, climate change will exacerbate drought conditions on the planet. Research has shown that global warming worsens drought by enhancing evaporation, depleting reservoirs and drying out soils and other vegetation. AsiaThe world’s largest continent provided a dire blueprint in 2022 of the consequences of drought and extreme heat in a warming world.

The first full-color image released from the next-generation James Webb Space Telescope is the sharpest infrared image of the distant universe ever produced, according to NASA. Space Telescope Science Institut / NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERONASA released the first batch of images from the tennis court-sized observatory to much fanfare in July. The exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light, as seen from the James Webb Space Telescope. Back to the moonFifty years after the final Apollo moon mission, NASA took key steps toward returning astronauts to the lunar surface. Chinese officials have also said they intend to use the space station for space tourism and commercial space initiatives.

A NASA spacecraft is set to swing past one of Jupiter’s moons on Thursday, giving astronomers a close-up view of one of the most volcanic spots in the solar system. The Juno probe, which has been orbiting Jupiter since July 2016, is set to conduct a flyby of Io, one of the 80 known moons in Jupiter’s system. Over the course of the next year and a half, the Juno spacecraft will carry out a total of nine flybys of Io. NASA / JPL-CaltechEarlier this year, Juno captured a dramatic view of Io from a distance of around 50,000 miles. Last year, NASA extended the Juno mission through September 2025.

After a 26-day mission that took it on a historic journey around the moon, NASA’s next-generation Orion capsule has returned to Earth. NASA has touted the Artemis I test flight as laying the foundation for returning U.S. astronauts to the moon. Artemis I was designed to test the Orion capsule and the huge Space Launch System rocket that carries it into orbit. NASA plans two more Artemis test flights before it launches regular missions to the moon to establish a lunar base camp. Artemis II will launch four astronauts in the Orion spacecraft on an expedition around the moon.

A roughly 76 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex skull is set to be auctioned off Friday in New York City. The fossil could fetch up to $20 million, according to Sotheby’s, the auction house handling the sale. Sotheby’s said the T. rex skull is one of the most complete ever discovered. A separate T. rex fossil known as Stan, which was sold in 2020 for a record $31.8 million, was also excavated from the Hell Creek Formation. The bones are thought to have been from an adult T. rex, auction house officials said.

Work is finally underway on the world’s largest radio astronomy observatory. Known as the Square Kilometre Array, the mega telescope consists of huge clusters of dishes and antennas spread across remote parts of South Africa and Western Australia. The Square Kilometre Array has been called one of the biggest scientific projects of the 21st century. A journey to deliver the world’s largest scientific instrument,” she said in a statement. The South African component will consist of nearly 200 dishes, expanded from the 64-dish MeerKAT telescope that already exists on the site.

“You really need leadership in these local areas to execute on the Inflation Reduction Act to the fullest extent,” Spears said. “This completely opens the pathway for Michigan to lead on clean cars of the future, and that’s really exciting,” Spears said. Climate victories at the local level are also poised to make a big impact. If fully implemented, climate experts have said the Inflation Reduction Act could reduce U.S. emissions by about 40% below 2005 levels by 2030. “So it’s really important to have climate leadership in state and local governments to actually execute on that and make sure it happens well.”

A startup that has developed lab-grown chicken made by culturing animal cells received a key safety sign-off Wednesday from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The California-based company, called Upside Foods, was cleared by the FDA on the safety of its animal cell culture technology, which can produce meat products without slaughtering any live animals. In an update released Wednesday, the FDA said it evaluated Upside Foods' production process and cultured cell material and has "no further questions" about their safety. The decision has significant implications for sustainable food production and the burgeoning cultivated meat industry. “Human food made with cultured animal cells must meet the same stringent requirements, including safety requirements, as all other food.”

The leaks were different from those that forced NASA to call off the first two Artemis launch attempts. As part of the Artemis program, NASA envisions regular missions to the moon to establish a base camp on the lunar surface before the agency eventually ventures to Mars. Martin added that each Artemis launch is expected to cost around $4.1 billion. If successful, Artemis I will be followed by a planned Artemis II test flight, tentatively scheduled for sometime in 2024. After that, NASA said the Artemis III flight will include the first woman and first person of color to land on the moon.

NASA is readying its next-generation megarocket and space capsule for a historic test flight to the moon early Wednesday morning. The debut flight of the agency’s uncrewed Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is slated to lift off at 1:04 a.m. If successful, the mission would mark a crucial step in NASA’s yearslong program to return astronauts to the moon. The SLS rocket remained on the launch pad during the storm, suffering only minor damage from high winds, according to the agency. NASA’s new moon initiative was named Artemis after the goddess of Greek mythology and twin sister of Apollo.

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