A new Earth-observing satellite is set to provide another watchful eye over our planet's glaciers, forests, water resources and urban sprawl.

If all goes as planned, the Landsat satellite will be launched into orbit Monday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Hold on to your hats: an asteroid will zoom within spitting distance of Earth next week, in what NASA said Thursday is the closest flyby ever predicted for an object this large.

The 2012 DA 14, discovered by chance by astronomers after passing nearby last February, will be just around 17,200 miles (27,700 kilometers) above Earth's surface when it speeds by, the U.S. Space Agency said.

Australia Friday rejected a bid for blanket heritage listing of Tasmania's Tarkine rainforest, angering environmentalists who said it would allow mining and could threaten the Tasmanian devil.

Environment Minister Tony Burke said Aboriginal sites in the pristine Tarkine in the island state's remote northwest would be included on the National Heritage List, but he would not extend it beyond this.

A species of oceanic squid can fly more than 30 meters (100 feet) through the air at speeds faster than Usain Bolt if it wants to escape predators, Japanese researchers said Friday.

The Neon Flying Squid propels itself out of the ocean by shooting a jet of water at high pressure, before opening its fins to glide at up to 11.2 meters per second, Jun Yamamoto of Hokkaido University said.

She wore a tight red dress, a new pair of high heels and a matching handbag. He wore a suit, bright tie and a chunky watch.

He thought she looked older and heavier compared with her page on the dating site. She thought he looked shorter than the 1m 83 (six feet) he had advertised. Twenty minutes into their drink, she learned he was only a junior in his sales department, and not a supervisor as he had made out.

A major winter storm headed toward the U.S. Northeast on Thursday, with up to 2 feet (0.6 meters) of snow expected for a Boston-anchored region that has seen mostly bare ground this winter, the National Weather Service said.

It will be a rare and major storm, the type that means "you can't let your guard down," said Louis Uccellini, director of the weather agency's National Centers for Environmental Prediction.

North Korea has vowed to carry out a third nuclear test, but scientists and concerned foreign governments may have a tough time verifying the actions of the reclusive state.

One critical question is whether North Korea uses uranium or plutonium. North Korea's 2006 and 2009 tests involved plutonium, so a uranium detonation would prove that Kim Jong-Un's regime has opened an additional way to make bombs.

British researchers have unveiled a futuristic Antarctic research base that can move, sliding across the frozen surface to beat the shifting ice and pounding snow that doomed its predecessors.

The British Antarctic Survey said Wednesday that the Halley VI Research Station is the sixth facility to occupy the site on the Brunt Ice Shelf — a floating sheet of ice about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the edge of the South Atlantic.

Earth-like worlds may be closer and more plentiful than anyone imagined.

Astronomers reported Wednesday that the nearest Earth-like planet may be just 13 light-years away — or some 77 trillion miles (124 trillion kilometers). That planet hasn't been found yet, but should be there based on the team's study of red dwarf stars.

Seen by some as emblematic of the Mediterranean landscape and cuisine, the olive tree in fact has its domesticated roots in Kurdish regions, said a study Wednesday that seeks to settle an age-old debate.

Harvesting of wild olive trees called oleasters has been documented from the Near East (the area around ancient Palestine and Jordan) to Spain since the Neolithic or New Stone Age that started about 10,000 BC.