What better way to celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's quarter-century in orbit than with cosmic fireworks?

On Thursday — one day before the 25th anniversary of Hubble's launch — NASA released an image taken by the space telescope showing a brilliant breeding ground for stars. This stellar nursery is 20,000 light-years from Earth in the Constellation Carina.

A big reservoir of hot, partly molten rock has been discovered beneath the famed Yellowstone National Park in the United States, but researchers said Thursday there is no added risk of volcanic eruption.

The findings in the journal Science show for the first time that the amount of magma beneath the surface is far bigger than previously thought.

Global scientists on Thursday renewed calls to halt controversial research to genetically edit human embryos after a Chinese team published details of a breakthrough attempt in this new frontier in science.

First reported by Nature News on Wednesday, the paper by Junjiu Huang, a gene-function researcher at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, and colleagues appears in a little known online journal called Protein and Cell.

The world's oceans are awash in riches, with output rivaling that of some of the world's largest economies, but over-fishing, pollution and climate change are rapidly eroding those resources, WWF warned Thursday.

In a new report, the conservation group said oceans each year generate goods and services worth at least $2.5 trillion, while their overall value as an asset is worth 10 times that.

Australia Thursday said its plan to pay polluters to reduce carbon emissions blamed for climate change was off to a good start and would help the nation become a "world leader" in meeting pledges to tackle greenhouse gases.

The conservative government axed a controversial tax on greenhouse gas emissions last year as part of an election pledge, replacing it with a so-called "direct action" plan that included paying companies to increase energy efficiency and not pollute.

American astronaut Scott Kelly has launched a geography quiz on Twitter and will post a picture from the International Space Station each week so fans can guess his location.

Kelly is spending one year in space along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, in an experiment to see how the human mind and body withstands long periods in space, before even longer missions to Mars in the coming decades.

The thawing of the polar ice promises Arctic nations new opportunities to open ocean trade routes and offshore oil fields.

But the chill in relations between Western powers and their Arctic neighbor Russia could make the North a frontline in a new Cold War.

Australia Thursday said its plan to pay polluters to reduce carbon emissions blamed for climate change was off to a good start and would help the nation become a "world leader" in meeting pledges to tackle greenhouse gases.

The conservative government axed a controversial tax on greenhouse gas emissions last year as part of an election pledge, replacing it with a so-called "direct action" plan that included paying companies to increase energy efficiency and not pollute.

The National Zoo in Washington is hoping to get its giant panda Mei Xiang pregnant this spring after taking delivery of frozen panda semen from China for the first time.

Caitlin Burrell of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute returned to the U.S. capital on Sunday with semen that had been stored at the Bifengxia Giant Panda Base in southwest China.

A group of top international experts on Wednesday urged governments to stick to their promises to combat climate change and said the aim should be to create a "zero-carbon society" by 2050.

To coincide with Earth Day, research institute The Earth League published a statement warning that 2015 would be "a critical year for humanity" ahead of a global warming summit in Paris in December.