It is the first time the African bird has been recorded in the UK.
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The crew, who are all men, are scheduled to blast off in 2027 to test systems ahead of a planned Moon landing.
Nasa names its next Artemis crew, though they will not be walking on the Moon or even going anywhere near it.
Nasa names its next Artemis crew, though they will not be walking on the Moon or even going anywhere near it.
Artemis III will help test crucial systems needed for the planned Artemis V Moon landing in 2028.
Artemis III will help test crucial systems needed for the planned Artemis IV Moon landing in 2028.
The amount of planet-warming gases produced in 2024 fell by 1% compared to the previous year.
The authority wants a more consistent approach to trees and woodlands with more protections.
Simple tips to help the UK's butterflies
Plans to dig for 85,000 tonnes of coal at Glan Lash mine near Llandybie have been refused.
Thirteen plaques will be unveiled across the UK to celebrate Beagle 2, the first British and European spacecraft to successfully land on another planet.
The lander touched down on Mars on Christmas Day 2003, but, due to a communications error, it was considered lost until January 2015, when it was confirmed that it had actually landed successfully .
One plaque will be installed at the Open University in Milton Keynes, where Beagle 2 was conceived by Professor Colin Pillinger.
Others will appear at the National Space Centre in Leicester, the Science Museum in London, Jodrell Bank in Cheshire and Airbus in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.
Space minister Liz Lloyd said: "Beagle 2 captured the imagination of the nation, and it is one of the great stories of British science and engineering.
"I hope this initiative inspires a new generation to look up and ask what we might achieve next."
It was confirmed that the lander had been successful in its mission due to images captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Scientists believe a single solar panel failing to fully deploy blocked the communications antenna, leading to a loss of contact.
Pillinger died in 2014 , months before it was revealed that the mission had been a success.
The project was a collaboration between The Open University and the University of Leicester.
Professor Mark Sims, mission manager at the University of Leicester at the time, said working on Beagle 2 was "one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life".
He added: "These plaques are a wonderful recognition of the thousands of hours of dedication from so many brilliant scientists, engineers and technicians in industry and academia across the UK who made the mission possible."
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Water voles have been reintroduced into a nature reserve for the first time in 40 years.
Harpenden Town Council said it released 200 water voles in the Upper River Lea, at Batford Springs, Hertfordshire.
The project involved preparing the land, creating new ponds and working with other organisations.
A council spokesperson said: "We are very proud of this achievement. Batford Springs is hugely significant as it also has an incredible chalk stream."
Water voles were once common in England's rivers and streams, including at Batford Springs Local Nature Reserve.
The council said the rodents had been in decline due to habitat loss and the invasive mink.
Last year, the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust returned 100 water voles to a stretch of the Upper River Lea, on the Ayot Estate, near Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire.
Batford Springs was chosen after the trust installed a raft at the site to monitor mink numbers.
There were no recordings of the mammal for two years, making it a good location for the voles to thrive.
Native vegetation was planted around the pond and along the riverbanks to shelter water voles from predators and to provide a steady supply of food, including reeds, sedges, and other aquatic plants essential to their diet.
The reintroduction of the water voles took three years to plan.
Councillor Kirsti Wenn, Mayor of Harpenden, said: "It has been a real pleasure to watch this conservation project, from its infancy to the release of our new residents, and I can't wait to see how the water voles will help the town council continue to improve the environment and local ecosystem.
"Batford Springs Local Nature Reserve is not only a beautiful green space, but it is the home of hugely important habitats, and we are immensely proud of all we have achieved here."
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SpaceX's stock market blast-off could be Musk's biggest gamble yet
It's 07:25 am, 13 October 2024, at Starbase, near Boca Chica on the Texas side of the US/Mexico border, and on the launch pad stands the biggest rocket ever made. Its engines fire and it climbs into the skies over the Gulf of Mexico to cheers and screams in the SpaceX control room.
But the launch is not the main event. What goes up must come down – and how it comes down will become a milestone in space exploration.
Seven minutes later, the massive rocket booster that blasted the craft towards space starts falling back to Earth – until its engines reignite as planned. It slows its descent and guides itself with pinpoint precision so it can be captured by a clasp called Mechazilla, or "the chopsticks", by engineers who have achieved something that's never been done before.
Amid the whoops and high-fives in SpaceX's control room, Elon Musk tells his millions of social media followers that this is a "big step towards making life multiplanetary" - a reusable rocket that will slash the costs of launching things into orbit, to the Moon and one day to Mars.
A company with a futuristic vision, led by what some would call a maverick unconventional genius, SpaceX and Musk have drawn comparisons with Tony Stark, leader of Stark Industries and also known as Iron Man of the Marvel Comics Universe.
On 12 June, trading will begin in a chunk of shares in a company that, up to now, only Musk and a select group of rich private institutions have been able or invited to own.
It is perhaps little wonder that more than one UK stockbroker has told the BBC that there has been "a surge" in interest in signing up for the chance to buy shares in this exciting company, controlled by a talismanic individual, that has captured the world's imagination. UK retail investors are likely to be allocated around £1.5bn worth of shares and one of the UK's leading investing platforms hopes this could encourage a new generation of investo…
This occurrence of aurora australis, or Southern Lights, was captured by NASA astronaut Jessica Meir.
A spectacular Southern Lights display has been captured on camera from space.
Nasa astronaut Jessica Meir filmed the timelapse from onboard the SpaceX Dragon shuttle.
The Southern Lights are just as common as the Northern Lights, and regularly take place over Antarctica, but relatively few people live in latitudes close to the South Pole, so they are not as well-known as their northern counterpart.
These lights occur near the poles because Earth's magnetic field channels charged particles from the Sun toward those regions, where they collide with the atmosphere and create shimmering waves of colour.
A volunteer diver has described shaking as he filmed his encounter with an endangered Great White shark between Tunisia and Sicily.
A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday night.
In a video message from Buckingham Palace, wildlife helps the King deliver a birthday card for Sir David Attenborough.
The forest where the Sumatran orangutans live has been split by a road.
Newly released video shows the moment the hatch of Artemis II's Orion capsule is unlocked to a joyful reunion with the four astronauts.
Steve Backshall spotted two of the UK's last surviving orcas which he described as one of his "greatest British wildlife moments".
France's Eiffel Tower and Barcelona's Sagrada Família Basilica were among the famous global landmarks that went dark for an hour on Saturday night.
The 98m tall Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft made a four mile journey from their assembly building to Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Tenerife hit by snow as Storm Therese batters Canary Islands
BBC science correspondent Pallab Ghosh explains what happens if an astronaut gets ill in space.
From meteor showers to supermoons, here are some of the sights that wowed stargazers this year.
The Met Office has issued yellow severe weather warnings for both wind and rain.
Baroness Kathy Willis talks about…
A diver who filmed an incredibly rare encounter with a Great White shark in the Mediterranean Sea in May has described the moment as "pretty special".
"The shark was pretty close to us [...] And in fact my fingers were trembling when I was trying to get the camera operating," volunteer diver Derk Remmers told the BBC.
It is thought overfishing has contributed to driving the species to near extinction in the Mediterranean.
Scientists say people should not be concerned as the shark, believed to be an adult male, was spotted many miles offshore between Tunisia and Sicily.
Conservationists said they hoped the sighting may encourage governments to create marine protected areas in Mediterranean waters.
Divers working for the NGO Healthy Seas captured the footage whilst diving to highlight the problem of so-called "ghost fishing nets".
This occurrence of aurora australis, or Southern Lights, was captured by Nasa astronaut Jessica Meir.
Science correspondent Pallab Ghosh explains why the explosion is a setback for space exploration.
A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday night.
In a video message from Buckingham Palace, wildlife helps the King deliver a birthday card for Sir David Attenborough.
The forest where the Sumatran orangutans live has been split by a road.
Newly released video shows the moment the hatch of Artemis II's Orion capsule is unlocked to a joyful reunion with the four astronauts.
Steve Backshall spotted two of the UK's last surviving orcas which he described as one of his "greatest British wildlife moments".
France's Eiffel Tower and Barcelona's Sagrada Família Basilica were among the famous global landmarks that went dark for an hour on Saturday night.
The 98m tall Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft made a four mile journey from their assembly building to Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Tenerife hit by snow as Storm Therese batters Canary Islands
BBC …
A volunteer diver has described shaking as he filmed his encounter with an endangered Great White shark between Tunisia and Sicily.
Some south London residents say they fear for their health after the Environment Agency (EA) approved for more waste to be burned at an incinerator each year.
Jim has lived in Sutton for nearly 20 years, about 15 minutes from the Beddington incinerator. He says his life has worsened since the plant began operating.
"When the wind has dropped, you can smell a kind of toxic chemical smell, and it's like a taste that you can almost feel on the back of your throat," he said.
Sutton Council has called on the government to "answer the very real concerns of the community", but the EA said it placed "stringent conditions" on waste sites and emissions from the plant were "monitored around the clock".
Jim told the BBC: "Certainly since the incinerator started up, things have got considerably worse."
He described seeing large amounts of dust that he said was new to the area. "Obviously dust is fine particles. Most of it is in the air, but some of it will land on your windowsill," he said.
His concerns have deepened since the EA granted the site permission to process about 10% more waste each year , around 35,000 tonnes, taking the annual limit to 382,286 tonnes.
"I do worry about it a lot," he said. "I'm furious that they've brought about this new increase. That's 10% more rubbish that we'll be breathing in."
Sutton Council said it had not welcomed the increase, and called on the EA and the government to "answer the very real concerns of the community and explain this terrible decision". It pointed out a school also sits about 700m from the incinerator's chimneys.
Christopher Woolmer, chair of the council's environment committee, said he was "deeply disappointed" by the decision, which the council had consistently opposed.
He said the authority formally objected last year, arguing the site lacked the capacity to process the proposed volume and raising concerns about Viridor's repeated permit breaches, which he said had led to a downgrade in its compliance rating.
…
An ecologist is calling for a ban on plastic memorials in Kingston Cemetery.
Alison Fure, 68, is petitioning Kingston Council to begin phasing out plastic decorative items, including ornaments, flowers, and windmills, on graves.
Fure, who has lived within walking distance of the cemetery in south-west London for 35 years, said environmental degradation caused by plastics had left the burial ground's ecology "hanging by a thread", and said a change in policy would bring the site in line with other cemeteries in London.
Kingston Council said it would consider the petition once it had closed, and was committed to protecting the cemetery's "vital habitats".
Fure said she regularly went litter picking with her granddaughter in the cemetery, which is classified as a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC).
"The immediate concern is the plastics becoming microplastics. The mowers churn up plastic leaves and petals and it gets embedded over the years," she said.
Elsewhere in the UK, the removal of artificial flowers in graveyards has caused some upset, with families arguing that they relied on the faux blooms if they were unable to visit a relative's grave regularly.
Others have said that plastic flowers are a cheaper alternative that lasts longer , as rabbits and other animals do not eat them.
Fure said Kingston Cemetery, which "should be a place of natural peace, dignity, and reflection", was now home to cellophane wrappers, plastic plant pots, broken ornaments, artificial flowers, windmills and litter.
"You don't want people laying in a landfill site," she said.
"I think the council would be surprised that the situation has gotten so badly out of hand.
"Everyone blames the crows, but after a windy day, the cemetery looks a state."
Fure said she was also concerned about plastics ending up in the Hogsmill River, which borders the southern edge of the site.
"Everything ends up blowing down the bank and into the river," she said.
The ecologist said…
A village in Kent is home to what is thought to be the world's largest scale model of the solar system and beyond, created to help people understand the enormity of space.
The model is spread across Otford, near Sevenoaks, with representations of the Sun and planets placed around the parish and stretching into nearby woodland.
Simon Featherstone, co-chair of the Otford Society, said the project was designed to allow visitors to "visualise the sheer vastness of our solar system".
Each planet is represented by a marker, with the Sun at the centre on the recreation ground and Pluto positioned about a mile away, reflecting distances at a precise scale.
The idea was first proposed as a millennium project by local resident David Thomas, a retired teacher and amateur astronomer who wanted to create something that would inspire learning.
Featherstone told Secret Kent how Thomas carried out detailed calculations to ensure the planets were placed correctly.
"The idea was to put the planets in the exact positions that they were at the turn of the millennium. and so every planet had to be in exactly the right place in its orbit," he said.
The project involved consulting industry bodies to create materials that would last.
Thomas wrote to the Cement Federation asking for a mix "that would last a thousand years", while stainless steel was chosen for some elements after discussions with the Steel Federation.
The model has continued to evolve, with QR codes now allowing visitors to access videos and information about each planet using their phones.
Rod Shelton, president of the Otford Society, said support from Nasa helped bring the project to life.
"They were wonderful. They were so helpful," he said.
Shelton said Nasa allowed the team to use their material which mean they had access to "the world's finest pictures".
The scale of the model goes beyond the village, with representations of stars as far away as Los Angeles, Australia and New Zealand.
The closest star…
Repairs along one of England's highest mountains are under way with chiefs describing it as the "first significant work" there since the 1980s.
Swirls Path, at Helvellyn, in the Lake District, is used by large numbers of walkers drawn by its views over Thirlmere.
The Fix the Fells conservation group, which is carrying out the work, warns the area either side of the path is being eroded with vegetation damaged.
In the first stage of a three-year project, rangers are pulling out the old path and replacing sections with wider stone pitching.
Alongside materials recovered from the site that are to be reused, more than 100 tonnes of stone were delivered by helicopter earlier this year in preparation.
Landscaping will also be used as a way to encourage people not to stray from the path.
Fix the Fells' partnership manager Isabel Berry said the route's "sloping, slippery surface is currently difficult to walk on" leading people to use the areas at either side.
"There are wide erosion scars either side of the path and soil material is being lost at an alarming rate to surrounding watercourses.
"This work will restore vegetation alongside the path and improve resilience to intense rainfall by stemming the loss of soil into watercourses like Thirlmere."
The first year of work is expected to cost £220,000 and will be paid for through public fundraising.
Ranger Pete Entwistle is one of nine carrrying out the work.
He said the team would be aiming to strike a "happy balance between what is needed to protect the fellside environment and meeting the needs of path users".
Set up 25 years ago, Fix the Fells is a partnership between the National Trust, Lake District National Park, Natural England, Friends of the Lake District and the Lake District Foundation.
Its rangers and volunteers work to repair damage and create sustainable paths across the Lake District with the aim of balancing conservation and public access.
Follow BBC Cumbria on X , Facebook , Nextdoor and I…
Russian attempt to repair tunnel area sparks safe-haven procedure for five other astronauts onboard.
US President Donald Trump is planning to meet the bosses of some of the country's most notable artificial intelligence (AI) companies to discuss the government taking a financial stake in their future.
Speaking on Air Force One, Trump said the goal of the US government investing in AI companies was to "create almost a partnership with the American public".
He expects to meet leaders of major AI companies at the White House - likely next week.
Although the president did not name specific companies, the biggest companies in the US working on AI are Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, SpaceX and Anthropic - the latter two of which are expected to go public in the coming weeks .
A spokesman for Microsoft declined to comment. Representatives of the other four companies did not respond to requests for comment.
Trump compared the prospective investment in AI to the US government last year taking a 10% stake in Intel , a company that makes computer chips. He claimed the US has already made money on that investment.
Part of the US investing directing in AI companies, however, would be to improve Americans' views of the technology, which have grown increasingly negative .
"We're talking about it,"Trump said, referring to conversations with AI leaders "where the American people can benefit from the success of AI, the American people will like it better".
Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, this week travelled to Washington DC and met Senator Bernie Sanders.
Sanders recently said he intended to propose a sort of sovereign wealth fund in which the US would take a 50% stake in AI companies.
Asked about Sanders' plan, President Trump insisted he had been considering the US investing in AI companies for a year, but did not dismiss the senator's notion.
"Where economics are concerned, we have things that aren't that far apart," Trump said.
A representative for Sanders cdid not respond to a request for comment.
Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic, met senior White Ho…
Astronauts return to ISS after sheltering during air leak repair attempt
Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) were ordered to shelter in an attached spacecraft after the structure suddenly started leaking more air.
Five of the seven crew were directed to go into the docked SpaceX shuttle Dragon "Freedom" on Friday afternoon and were braced for a potential evacuation.
Meanwhile, two remaining personnel - a pair of Russian cosmonauts - attempted to repair a part of the Russian segment of the ISS, where the leaks had started increasing on Monday.
The repairs were paused and the crew ordered back onto the ISS by Nasa on Friday afternoon.
Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot and Andrey Fedyaev, who arrived on the ISS in February, had been sheltering on the docked ship, along with another astronaut Chris Williams.
They had been told to put on their spacesuits so they were ready to undock and return to Earth at short notice.
The Dragon effectively functions as a lifeboat - attached to the station but ready to detach the moment the order is given.
The trigger for the order was a worsening air leak in the transfer tunnel, known as PrK, leading to a section of the Russian segment of the station called the Zvezda service module.
Russian cosmonauts, station commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and flight engineer Sergei Mikaev, attempted to fix the problem. Their escape route was the separately docked Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft.
Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who was a commander of the ISS in 2012, said it had always leaked around half a pound of pressure a day.
"When you have an area that's leaking a little more, you get up to a pound a day, maybe a pound a half or even two, then we hit a threshold where, okay, we've got to do something about this," he told BBC Newshour.
"You're always one breath away from having to take shelter somewhere if the station has a problem. It's just a matter of fact of living on board a spaceship."
It is not the first time…
Elizabeth Rizzini looks at the prospects for seeing a spectacular planetary conjunction.