Mindy Weisberger

Here are some of our favorite gross-outs in science news this year.

An international partnership of space agencies just launched JWST, the biggest, most powerful space telescope ever made, in an achievement that was decades in the making.

After an asteroid struck at the end of the Cretaceous period, debris from wildfires filled the atmosphere and blocked sunlight across Earth, causing ecosystem collapse and extinctions.

The James Webb Space Telescope, an upgrade to Hubble, is scheduled to launch on Dec. 25.

A geomagnetic event around 41,000 years ago sent the aurora wandering for centuries, as far south as the equator.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe dipped into the sun's atmosphere to sample particles from the corona — a scientific first.

Thwaites Glacier is roughly the size of Florida, and holds enough ice to raise sea levels over two feet. New research shows that the collapse of its ice shelf may be just a few years away.

Preserved trackways from the Cretaceous period provide a rare snapshot of fast running speeds in theropod dinosaurs.

For the first time, scientists have created a genetic map showing how hydras regenerate their own heads.

The modern crocodile can breathe while most of its head is submerged because of specialized airway adaptations, which scientists can now trace to the Jurassic period.

Authorities at Colombia's airport in Bogotá found and confiscated hundreds of arthropods that German travelers had illegally collected and stashed in a suitcase.

Historians have found tasty new evidence that the people who built Stonehenge supplemented their meat and dairy diets with nut and fruit "energy bars" made with animal fat.

Haast's eagle may have hunted large prey like an eagle, but its eating habits — targeting the internal organs — were more like those of a vulture.

Reference Fascism is a political ideology usually characterized by authoritarianism and nationalism. However, many scholars say the concept is difficult to define.

The DART spacecraft launched this morning on its mission to the binary asteroid Didymos, where it will collide with the space rock for science.

More than 2,000 years ago, a guerrilla army of Jewish rebels stormed and defeated a stronghold of the occupying Seleucid Empire.

A great white shark attacks a seal near Cape Cod, and video captured the gory battle.

When NASA launches the DART mission on Nov. 24, the spacecraft will embark on a months-long journey toward a distant asteroid target.

The Australian Reptile Park recently welcomed the biggest funnel-web spider that the keepers had ever seen.

The pathogenic fungus Entomophthora muscae doesn't just kill the flies it infects; it also turns males into sex-crazed necrophiliacs.

Venomous fat-tailed scorpions stung more than 500 people after heavy storms disrupted their habitats and brought the deadly arachnids closer to people.

Asian honey bees rally against giant hornet invasions with an acoustic response that resembles the alarm shrieks of birds, primates and other social mammals.

Authorities never found the killer of a young woman whose homicide inspired the story of doomed Laura Palmer. A new book pieces together clues about her murder.

Archaeologists recently discovered a ring set with a purple stone, possibly an amethyst, that may have been worn to prevent the pain of a hangover.