The European space probe Rosetta captured a range of scientific data Thursday as it trailed an ancient comet past the Sun which could help scientists better understand the origins of life on Earth.

During its run before the Sun the probe collected particles and gas put off by the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as it delivered a solar heat-driven fireworks show of gas jets and shed about a tonne of dust per second. 

Police in Vietnam have seized more than 700 kilograms (1,500 pounds) of rhino horns and elephant tusks believed to have originated from Mozambique, state media said Friday.

The haul of prized animal parts was discovered hidden in two containers on board a ship carrying ground stones at the central port of Da Nang on Thursday, Tuoi Tre newspaper said.

Dark skies due to a nearly invisible moon will make this year's Perseid meteor shower -- peaking Wednesday and Thursday -- an especially star-studded event, astronomers say.

So grab a folding chair, prepare a list of wishes, and get as far from bright city lights and clouds as you can to watch the natural firework display.

The comet where a European spacecraft landed last year has made the closest approach to the sun of its 6 ½-year orbit.

The European Space Agency said comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko reached its closest point to the sun, known as perihelion, at 0203 GMT Thursday.

The octopus already is an oddball of the ocean. Now biologists have rediscovered a species of that eight-arm sea creature that's even stranger and shares some of our social and mating habits.

With their shifting shapes, mesmerizing eyes, and uncanny intelligence, octopuses "are one of the most mysterious and captivating species," said Rich Ross, a senior biologist at the California Academy of Sciences. "They're aliens alive on our planet and it feels like they have plans."

Seen from above, the Amazon resembles a huge billiards table -- a field of intense green pockmarked by brown stains.

These are the sites of illegal mines, and they reveal the scope of a gold rush that threatens the lungs of the planet.

Bangladesh wildlife officials are mulling a ban on access to the Sundarbans after an alarming rise in poaching of tigers that live in the world's largest mangrove forest, rangers said Wednesday.

Five skins of endangered Royal Bengal tigers have been seized so far in 2015, compared to an average of one or two discovered in previous years, Sundarbans top ranger Jahir Uddin Ahmed said.

Australia has been criticized over its new greenhouse-gas reduction target which lags behind the ambitions of most wealthy countries.

Lawmakers in Prime Minister Tony Abbott's conservative government on Tuesday agreed on a target of curbing carbon gas emissions to at least 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. The target could go as high as 28 percent, Abbott said.

Europe's last wild sturgeons got a rare boost this summer when the conservationist group WWF Bulgaria released more than 50,000 babies of these prehistoric fish into the lower Danube, marking the end of a three-year project co-funded by the European Union.

These so-called giant "living fossils" date back to the time of the dinosaurs but are now teetering on the brink of extinction.

Australia plans to reduce carbon emissions by at least 26 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced Tuesday, but environmentalists said the target fell well short of what was needed to tackle global warming.

Abbott said his conservative government's target was "fairly in the middle" of those made by comparable economies which will be taken to an upcoming global climate conference in Paris.