Canada vowed Wednesday to keep open an observatory in eastern North America where the first dark skies reserve was created, hours after its director said budget cuts would force its closure.

"Our government will pay to keep the Observatoire Astronomique du Mont-Mégantic open for the two years," International Development Minister Christian Paradis said in a Twitter message.

A $340 million satellite that aims to alert people to potentially dangerous solar activity and geomagnetic storms blasted off toward deep space Wednesday atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Experts say the DSCOVR -- a joint collaboration of the U.S. Air Force, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) -- will help with the preparation and response to "space weather," thereby protecting utilities, consumers and industries.

A winter of strange weather and turbulent transatlantic flights has scientists asking: Has a predicted climate imbalance of the jet stream begun?

The Arctic is warming faster than other parts of the world, and scientists believe that is having a dramatic impact on the jet stream, which may be responsible for the unusual weather and stronger upper atmospheric winds of late.

No meteor from outer space, no unstoppable pandemic, no heroic, ultimately futile last stand. Instead poor sperm, weak knees and ovarian cysts mark the end of a lifeline cut short by human greed, ignorance and indifference.

With just five northern white rhinos left on earth, the animal's end is inevitable.

Attempts to curb climate change by capturing carbon underground or geo-engineering to help the Earth better reflect incoming sunlight are nowhere near ready for use, a U.S. panel of scientists said.

"There is no substitute for dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate the negative consequences of climate change," said the National Research Council in a two-part report on proposed climate-intervention techniques.

Elephants have joined the front line in the fight against poaching and illegal logging in the dense jungles of Sumatra.

Guided by their Indonesian mahouts, they trek alongside rivers, over rough terrain and deep into the rainforest in an area that is home to numerous endangered species, from orangutans to tigers, but which has suffered devastating deforestation in recent years.

Whenever an endangered animal dies at the San Diego Zoo, researchers race out, regardless of the hour, to remove its sperm or eggs, maybe a bit of ear or eyeball, and carefully freeze the cells in liquid nitrogen.

Today, the survival of the northern white rhinoceros and dozens of other species could hinge on the collection amassed over nearly 40 years that has become the largest gene bank of its kind: The Frozen Zoo.

Engineers were preparing for the launch Wednesday of a "space plane" that Europe hopes will help it master a key phase in orbital flight -- the ability to return to Earth.

A five-metre (16-feet), two-tonne wingless demonstrator, the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) is scheduled to be hoisted by a Vega rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, at 1300 GMT.

A hunt was underway Tuesday for a large shark that killed a Japanese surfer on Australia's east coast, as experts said fatal attacks remained rare despite three deaths in as many months.

Tadashi Nakahara, 41, died on Monday after a shark bit off both his legs at Shelly Beach, 187 kilometres (116 miles) south of Brisbane near Ballina.

A Saudi prince is on a hunting spree for rare birds in southwest Pakistan despite a court-imposed ban and the government's insistence that the foreign delegation is only on a diplomatic mission, senior officials said Monday.

The annual hunt has sparked controversy in recent years because of the Houbara Bustard's dwindling numbers, with the issue also shining a spotlight on traditionally close ties between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.