Close examination of the seahorse has shown that the cute little fish is a master of stealth, using streamlined features in its head to sneak up on its prey, scientists reported on Tuesday.

At first glance, the seahorse is an unlikely candidate for hunter of the year.

U.S. astrophysicists are split over what will happen when the comet ISON passes near the sun Thursday, but a majority think it will break apart.

Comets are frozen balls of space dust left over from the formation of stars and planets billions of years ago.

The United States is spewing 50 percent more methane — a potent heat-trapping gas — than the federal government estimates, a new comprehensive scientific study says. Much of it is coming from just three states: Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

That means methane may be a bigger global warming issue than thought, scientists say. Methane is 21 times more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the most abundant global warming gas, although it doesn't stay in the air as long.

China will launch its first ever moon rover early next month, state media said Tuesday, with the vehicle named "Jade Rabbit" in a nod to Chinese folklore.

The name derives from an ancient Chinese myth about a white rabbit which lives on the moon as the pet of Chang'e, a lunar goddess who swallowed an immortality pill.

The private U.S. company SpaceX Monday postponed the launch of a rocket carrying a telecoms satellite.

The launch with a Falcon 9 rocket had been scheduled for Monday from Florida. But the company said it has delayed it until Thursday because of unexpected readings in the fuel system.

A powerful burst of hot ash and gravel has erupted from a rumbling volcano in western Indonesia, sending panicking villages fleeing down the mountain.

Authorities raised the alert status to the highest level on Sunday after Mount Sinabung had a series of eruptions. Six more eruptions early Monday sent volcanic debris as high as 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) into the air.

The surface of the sun has been surprisingly calm of late -- with fewer sunspots than anytime in in the last century -- prompting curious scientists to wonder just what it might mean here on Earth.

Sunspots have been observed for millennia -- first by Chinese astronomers and then, for the first time with a telescope, by Galileo in 1610.

After another U.N. climate conference gave only modest results, European Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard says the process needs to provide a "substantial answer" to global warming in two years to remain relevant.

Even if it succeeds, it's worth reconsidering whether the international confabs need to be held every year, and whether the scope of each session should be narrower, Hedegaard told The Associated Press on Sunday.

U.N. negotiators agreed in overtime talks Saturday on cornerstone issues of an ambitious, global climate pact to be signed in 2015 to stave off dangerous Earth warming.

A day after negotiations threatened to collapse, delegates adopted a modified text in Warsaw that both developed and developing countries said they could live with.

A Japanese utility plans to construct two cutting-edge coal power plants in Fukushima, an area severely hit by the 2011 nuclear disaster, a report said Saturday.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the cash-strapped operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, and three Mitsubishi group companies are seeking to open the new facilities as early as 2020, the leading Nikkei business daily said.