With a runway of smoking-hot coals laid out before them, residents in San Pedro Manrique, Spain, steel themselves as thousands of onlookers cheer them on. Although the walkers and the crowd perform very different roles during the annual June ritual, they report similar feelings: an ineffable feeling of togetherness, as if the entire group becomes one, said Dimitris Xygalatas, a cognitive anthropologist at the University of Connecticut, who witnessed the Spanish ritual years ago as a researcher.

The 20th anniversary of the annual report tracks how sea ice, snow cover and many other vital signs of the Arctic have changed, and the impact that’s having on people and wildlife.

The four-member crew successfully completed a "translunar injection burn" on Thursday, sending them out of Earth's orbit and toward the moon.