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AN ASTEROID IS GOING TO SWOOP UNCOMFORTABLY CLOSE TO EARTH ON MARCH 5

February 7, 2016, 10:26 am
Next Einstein's most incredible prediction may be proven right this week — or a
big rumor debunked
Previous Astronaut reveals the weirdest thing that's ever happened to him in
space
0
0

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Sky watchers take note: An asteroid is going to shoot across the sky on March 5,
2016 — and it may come close enough that you can actually see it with a
telescope.

Before you panic: no, it's not going to hit us— though it's going to come
tantalizingly close.

The rock in question is asteroid 2013 TX68, which swooped by Earth at a safe 1.3
million miles away two years ago. It is now slated to fly by our planet again in
a few weeks as it's been locked in an orbit around the sun — though this time it
may come much, much closer to Earth.

How close? That's hard to say, given that we've only had a limited time to track
this rocky space object since we discovered it back in October, 2013.

And while NASA isn't quite sure of the rock's trajectory — it could swing as
close as 11,000 miles from Earth or as far as 9 million miles away — they say
that "there is no possibility" that it will impact Earth this time around.

That's great, for now.

Asteroid 2013 TX68 — which measures about 100 feet in diameter, the size of an
airplane— is slated to pay us another visit on September 28, 2017. At that time,
NASA predicts, there is in fact a chance that it could hit us.

Though the chance of that happening is small — about 1 in 250 million — the same
odds of being killed by a falling coconut.

Here is a graphical representation of the potential paths asteroid 2013 TX68
could take at the time of its closest approach on March 5. At its furthest, it
could speed by at a distant 9 million miles away, which you can see on the left
of the graphic. This would be too far away to see with a telescope.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

But if it does come within 11,000 miles of Earth, as sketched out on the right
side of the graphic, avid skywatchers just may be able to check out this speedy
piece of space debris.

Asteroid flybys happen all the time. If you're curious about the stats on all of
them, check out NASA's Near Earth Object Program page here.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A US Senate-approved space bill would allow companies to own
resources mined from asteroids

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EINSTEIN'S MOST INCREDIBLE PREDICTION MAY BE PROVEN RIGHT THIS WEEK — OR A BIG
RUMOR DEBUNKED

February 7, 2016, 7:13 pm
Next New research points to the unexpected and dangerous nature of Jupiter
Previous An asteroid is going to swoop uncomfortably close to Earth on March 5
0
0

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Gravitational waves may have been detected for the first time, but we won't know
for sure until February 11, 2016 — when scientists will either confirm or dispel
the rumors, sources close to the matter tell Tech Insider.

Detection of gravitational waves would be unprecedented. Whoever finds them is
also likely to pick up a Nobel prize, since the phenomenon would confirm one of
the last pieces of Albert Einstein's famous 1915 theory of general relativity.

Confirming they exist would tell us we're still on the right track to
understanding how the universe works. Never detecting them would suggest our
best explanation for gravity isn't correct.

"Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time, predicted by
Einstein 100 years ago," Szabi Marka, a physicist at Columbia University, told
Tech Insider. "They can be created during the birth and collision of black
holes, and can reach us from distant galaxies."

Black holes are the densest, most gravitationally powerful objects in existence
— so a rare yet violent collision of two should trigger a burst of gravitational
waves that we might detect here on Earth. Colliding neutron stars and huge
exploding stars, called supernovas, are thought to generate detectable
gravitational waves, too.

However, any sort of signal has eluded the planet's brightest minds and the most
advanced experiments for decades.

Until now — maybe.

A 'MAJOR' EVENT?

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Columbia University in New York City is hosting a "major"
event the morning of Thursday February 11, 2016, a source who is close to the
matter, but asked not to be named, told Tech Insider.

Another source also confirmed the event but downplayed the significance of the
event as anything "major."

Regardless, several physicists and astronomers with expertise in gravitational
wave science are scheduled to attend.

The topic? The latest data from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave
Observatory (LIGO), a $1 billion experiment that has searched for signs of the
phenomenon since 2002.

LIGO has two L-shaped detectors that are run and monitored by a collaboration of
more than 1,000 researchers from 15 nations, and Marka is one of them.

Marka said that he and his colleagues have worked in the field for more than 15
years, and that "these are very exciting and busy times for all of us."

He also said that Advanced LIGO, an upgrade that went online in September 2015,
finished a period of hunting for gravitational waves on January 12, 2016. (That
was one day after we saw the first alluring rumors of detection.)

But speaking on the phone with Tech Insider, Marka, along with his Columbia and
LIGO physicist colleagues Imre Bartos and Zsuzsanna Marka (related), would
neither confirm nor deny any information — either the Columbia event or related
rumors. "We are prohibited" from doing so, the researchers said.

Thursday's LIGO-related event at Columbia wouldn't seem so unusual if it weren't
for rumors of a LIGO-related study that's supposed to be published online the
same same (February 11) by Nature — one of the foremost scientific journals in
the world.

The Nature study rumor comes from a "Woohoo!" email that Cliff Burgess, a
physicist at McMaster University and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical
Physics (both in Canada), sent to his academic colleagues last week.

Burgess thinks a student probably leaked a screenshot of the email to Twitter,
which Adrian Cho at Science Magazine reported on. (Burgess confirmed to Tech
Insider that the email definitely came from him.)

Here's what it said:

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

If Burgess' sources are correct, then LIGO has detected gravitational waves
traveling at the speed of light that came from two black holes colliding deep in
space, each about 30 times the mass of the sun.

"If this is true, then you have 90% odds that it will win the Nobel Prize in
Physics this year," Burgess told Science. "It's off-the-scale huge."

BUT IT'S NOT OVER UNTIL IT'S OVER

When we told Burgess about the upcoming Columbia event, he said that was "very
interesting" but seemed uncertain if the rumors he sent by email days before
were still true.

"Whatever it is, it sounds like they are going to describe something," Burgess
told Tech Insider. "It seems they've done a lot of checks and it's going to be
important."

What could "important" mean? Anything from confirmation of gravitational wave
detection to the fact that LIGO failed to find anything significant during its
latest run — and might offer some corrections to our understanding of the
physics of gravity and spacetime.

The rumors make it tempting to believe that LIGO made history and detected the
gravitational waves of two colliding black holes, but a collaborator who asked
not to be named said you can only hope this is true.

The reason: Leaders of the LIGO experiment sometimes inject fake gravitational
wave data into the system to see if everyone is paying close enough attention.

Only after collaborators report the event does anyone reveal the ruse.

"You have no idea until then if the signal is astrophysical [from space] or
fake," our source told us, noting that, in the past, LIGO collaborators had gone
so far as to pop champagne bottles, write a study, and submit it to a journal
before they found out the signal was actually just a test.

Tech Insider was also warned that a lot of the rumors circulating are patently
wrong and "laughable," but our source would not elaborate further.

HOW TO FIND A GRAVITATIONAL WAVE

Both LIGO instruments are L-shaped arrays of lasers and mirrors that should be
able to detect gravitational waves.

Szabi Marka compared them to a pair of giant ears that can "hear" the spacetime
ripples that result from black hole mergers, or some other catastrophic event in
space.

The closer a collision is to Earth, the "louder" the signal should be.

LIGO's hearing is sensitive enough to detect mind-blowingly small disturbances
of space, "much smaller than the size of the atoms the detector is built of," he
said.

PhD Comics says LIGO's level of sensitivity is "like being able to tell that a
stick 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 meters long has shrunk by 5mm."

Put another way, detecting a gravitational wave is like noticing the Milky Way —
which is about 100,000 light-years wide — has stretched or shrunk by the width
of a pencil eraser.

It would be no wonder why it has taken researchers so long to find gravitational
waves.

It would also be no wonder why scientists might try to stay tight-lipped about
the discovery yet "suck at keeping secrets just like everyone else," as Jennifer
Ouellette wrote at Gizmodo.

But at this point, there's only one way to know for sure if the latest rumors
are true: Wait until Thursday.

LIGO spokesperson Gaby Gonzalez responded to Tech Insider's query but would not
confirm our deny any of the rumors.

Tech Insider also reached out to Nature and Columbia University for comment but
didn't hear back from them in time for publication. We'll update this post if
and when we do.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A nearby black hole is doing something unexpected in the midst of a
cataclysmic galaxy collision

NEW RESEARCH POINTS TO THE UNEXPECTED AND DANGEROUS NATURE OF JUPITER

February 8, 2016, 7:17 am
Next A small asteroid will fly by Earth on March 5 — here's what you need to
know
Previous Einstein's most incredible prediction may be proven right this week —
or a big rumor debunked
0
0

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

I’ve always liked the idea that Jupiter has acted like a protector to its little
brother, Earth.

That it has used its massive gravitational pull to divert asteroids and comets
from a collision course with Earth.

Maybe Jupiter even felt bad when one got through, and doomed the dinosaurs to
extinction. But a new study has cast this idea into doubt.

The idea of Jupiter as a protector has been around for a while.

The images of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaking apart and crashing into Jupiter in
1994 reinforced the idea.

But according to Kevin Grazier, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), rather
than acting solely as a shield, re-directing comets and other objects away from
the inner solar system, Jupiter may have actually directed planetesimals into
the inner solar system.

In the early days of the Solar System, there was much more debris around than
there is now.

The early days would have been a race between planetesimals to gather enough
mass to form the planets we see today. After planets were formed, there would
still have been plenty of planetesimals left. This new study shows that, rather
than clearing the inner solar system from all this debris that could collide
with Earth, Jupiter nudged many of these planetesimals towards Earth, helping to
create Earth as we know it.

As reported in January 2016 in Astrobiology, Glazier created a simulator of the
solar system, and ran 30,000 particles through this simulation. All of the
particles began in “non life-threatening” trajectories, but a significant number
of them ended the simulation in orbits that crossed the orbit of the Earth.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

So not only did Jupiter—and Saturn—re-direct material into the inner Solar
System, but the simulation also showed that Jupiter slowed that material to a
speed which allowed it to contribute mass to Earth.

But these planetesimals would have contributed more than just mass to Earth.
They would have carried volatiles with them. Volatiles are chemical elements and
molecules with low boiling points. They are associated with the atmosphere and
the crust. These volatiles, which include nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide,
and others, make up a large portion of the Earth’s crust. Without them, Earth
would be a very different place. It may never have developed the atmosphere that
has allowed life to flourish.

It’s clear that Jupiter has contributed to the evolution of Earth and the Solar
System as we know it. As the largest planet by far, its influence is undeniable.
As a result of this study, we better understand the dual-role Jupiter has
played. While it no doubt has played the role of protector, by changing the
direction of some objects on a collision course with Earth, Jupiter’s
presence has also been responsible for slowing and diverting planetesimals—and
their life-friendly volatiles—directly into Earth.

SEE ALSO: Hubble's sharpest photos of Jupiter ever taken reveal a rare feature
that hasn't been seen for over 36 years

CHECK OUT: We're on a collision course with the Andromeda Galaxy — here's what
will happen to Earth

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This is why no one can legally own the Moon

A SMALL ASTEROID WILL FLY BY EARTH ON MARCH 5 — HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

February 8, 2016, 9:21 am
Next ROCKETS AND ROBOTS: Inside the Southern California lab taking us to the far
reaches of space
Previous New research points to the unexpected and dangerous nature of Jupiter
0
0

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.On October 6th, 2013, the Catalina Sky Survey discovered a
small asteroid which was later designated as 2013 TX68.

As part Apollo group this 30 meter (100 ft) rock is one of many Near-Earth
Objects (NEOs) that periodically crosses Earth’s orbit and passes close to our
planet.

A few years ago, it did just that, flying by our planet at a safe distance of
about 2 million km (1.3 million miles).

And according to NASA’s Center for NEO Studies (CNEOS) at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, it will be passing us again in a few weeks time, specifically
between March 2nd and 6th.

Of course, asteroids pass Earth by on a regular basis, and there is very rarely
any cause for alarm.

However, there is some anxiety about 2013 TX68’s latest flyby, mainly because
its distance could be subject to some serious variation.

Basically, the asteroid is expected to make its closest approach on March 5th,
and will pass Earth at a distance of between 14 million km (9 million) and
17,000 km (11,000 miles).

By comparison, the Earth’s Moon lies at an average distance of
384,399 km(238,854 miles) from Earth, ranging from about 362,600 km (225,309 mi)
at perigee to 405,400 km (251,904 mi) at apogee.

This means that there is a chance that, between March 2nd and 6th, this small
asteroid will get far closer to Earth than the Moon ever does. The reason for
this variation in estimates has to do with the trajectory of the asteroid, which
scientists cannot entirely predict. This in turn is due to the fact that they
have only been able to track it since its discovery, just three years ago.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.But before anyone starts contemplating building bomb shelters
in their backyard and stocking up on dry goods and bottled water, there are few
things that need to be clarified. For one, scientists at CNEOS have determined
that there is NO CHANCE the asteroid will impact on the Earth on this pass.

And while NASA has identified an extremely remote possibility that 2013 TX68
could impact Earth when it passes us again on Sep. 28th, 2017, the odds of that
actually happening are no more than 1-in-250-million. To top it off, the
asteroid will be making flybys again in 2046 and 2097, and in both cases the
odds of an impact are even lower.

As Paul Chodas, manager of the CNEOS, explained in a recent NASA press release:

> “The possibilities of collision on any of the three future flyby dates are far
> too small to be of any real concern. I fully expect any future observations to
> reduce the probability even more… This asteroid’s orbit is quite uncertain,
> and it will be hard to predict where to look for it. There is a chance that
> the asteroid will be picked up by our asteroid search telescopes when it
> safely flies past us next month, providing us with data to more precisely
> define its orbit around the sun.”

In addition, in the unlikely event that the asteroid does hit Earth, it is too
small to cause any significant damage. Consider the asteroid that broke up in
the atmosphere over the Russian town of Chelyabinsk in 2013. That asteroid
measured roughly 20 meters across (65 feet), and caused significant property
damage and over 1500 injuries. However, this damage was limited to the effects
of the sonic boom caused by its explosion in the atmosphere.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

What’s more, much of the damage caused by the Chelyabink asteroid was due to the
fact that it was undetected before its atmospheric entry – in part because its
radiant was close to the Sun. As such, much the harm it caused was the result of
panic and the townspeople being unprepared.

At roughly 30 meters (100 feet) in diameter, 2013 TX68 would likely produce an
air burst with about twice the energy of the Chelyabink asteroid. However, since
scientists are actively monitoring this and other NEOs, the odds of it exploding
above a community without warning are even worse than it actually entering our
atmosphere.

Above all, we should remind ourselves that Near-Earth Asteroids pass by Earth
all the time and cause no damage. In fact, NASA’s Near Earth Object Program
(NEOP) indicated that in 2016 alone, NEO’s have passed Earth on ten occasions.
What’s more, the JPL’s Asteroid Watch program has listed the next five
approaches that will take place in February, and has concluded that these will
all take place at distances of between 7,338,608 km (4,560,000 mi) and 151,440
km (94,100 mi).

And before 2016 is out, NEOP anticipates that NEOS will make another 80 passes
of Earth. In the vast majority of these cases, the asteroids will be well
outside of the Moon’s orbit. Of course, if you still feel concerned, you can
always check Asteroid Watch’s Twitter account for news and updates on the
possible approach of asteroids.

In the meantime, rest easy. We’re not due for Armageddon or an Extinction Level
Event anytime soon!

SEE ALSO: An asteroid would have to be this big to wipe out life on earth

CHECK OUT: NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is snapping pictures of something unlike
anything it has encountered before

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The most difficult space mission in history is coming

ROCKETS AND ROBOTS: INSIDE THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LAB TAKING US TO THE FAR
REACHES OF SPACE

February 8, 2016, 10:26 am
Next Awe-inspiring quotes from Carl Sagan reveal how we are fundamentally
connected to the cosmos
Previous A small asteroid will fly by Earth on March 5 — here's what you need to
know
0
0

If we're ever going to see astronauts living on Mars like we did in the 2015
film "The Martian," the groundwork for such a mission will come from an unusual
facility in Southern California.

Just five miles north of Pasadena, NASA's Jet Propulsion Center (JPL) is where
researchers dream up and build spacecraft to explore space from millions of
miles away — including wheeled rovers that take photos from the Martian surface:

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Tech Insider recently took a tour of JPL, which is about a 15-minute drive from
the California Institute of Technology (Caltech for short).

Here's what we saw.

NASA'S JET PROPULSION LABORATORY IS JUST 5 MILES NORTH OF DOWNTOWN PASADENA,
CALIFORNIA, CLOSE TO THE SAN GABRIEL MOUNTAINS.

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IT'S A MASSIVE, 177-ACRE FACILITY THAT RIVALS MOST COLLEGE CAMPUSES. IN FACT,
IT'S 17 ACRES LARGER THAN DISNEYLAND.

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Source: JustDisney.com

AN APT COMPARISON, SINCE THIS IS KIND OF LIKE THE DISNEYLAND OF SPACE
EXPLORATION. LET'S HEAD INSIDE.

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See the rest of the story at Business Insider

AWE-INSPIRING QUOTES FROM CARL SAGAN REVEAL HOW WE ARE FUNDAMENTALLY CONNECTED
TO THE COSMOS

February 8, 2016, 10:44 am
Next North Korea's space agency's logo means nothing — literally
Previous ROCKETS AND ROBOTS: Inside the Southern California lab taking us to the
far reaches of space
0
0

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We live in a grand universe, full of mystery, beauty, and the potential for
life. Yet we rarely stop to marvel at our place in the cosmos.

Through his poetic, inspirational words, late astronomer Carl Sagan helped us
realize that life on Earth is a precious gift.

Here, we've paired the latest photos by the revolutionary Hubble Space Telescope
with some of Sagan's best quotes, which shine a glimmering light on who we are,
why we're here, and where we're going.

Check out the quotes with a brief description of each image below:

SEE ALSO: We're on a collision course with the Andromeda Galaxy — here's what
will happen to Earth

DON'T MISS: NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is snapping pictures of something unlike
anything it has encountered before

"THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF LIFE ARE CONNECTED IN THE MOST INTIMATE WAY WITH
THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF THE STARS."

Image may be NSFW.
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This large cluster contains hundreds of thousands of stars and is 180,000
light-years away in another galaxy, the Large Magellanic cloud. Click here to
learn more.

"THE SIZE AND AGE OF THE COSMOS ARE BEYOND ORDINARY HUMAN UNDERSTANDING. LOST
SOMEWHERE BETWEEN IMMENSITY AND ETERNITY IS OUR TINY PLANETARY HOME."

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Because of its shape, this giant gas cloud is nicknamed the "Horsehead Nebula"
and is about 1,300 light-years from Earth. Click here to learn more.

"THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH IS THE SHORE OF THE COSMIC OCEAN. FROM IT WE HAVE
LEARNED MOST OF WHAT WE KNOW. RECENTLY, WE HAVE WADED A LITTLE OUT TO SEA,
ENOUGH TO DAMPEN OUR TOES OR, AT MOST, WET OUR ANKLES. THE WATER SEEMS
INVITING."

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy is a mysterious place about 15 million light-years
away. Click here to learn more.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NORTH KOREA'S SPACE AGENCY'S LOGO MEANS NOTHING — LITERALLY

February 9, 2016, 6:36 am
Next Astronomers now have a way to rank the likelihood of life on other planets
— and Earth's score isn't what you might expect
Previous Awe-inspiring quotes from Carl Sagan reveal how we are fundamentally
connected to the cosmos
0
0

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.On the heels of last month's purported hydrogen bomb test,
North Korea maintains it has a sovereign right to pursue a space program — which
is why the rogue nation claims it launched a long-range rocket on Saturday.

The "complete success" of the Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite, which was named after
late leader Kim Jong Il, follows years of botched space launches.

North Korea's last long-range rocket test was in 2012, when the isolated
regime blasted a communications satellite into space — which experts still have
yet to detect any signals from.

North Korea's space ambitions are organized and executed by its National
Aerospace Development Administration — NADA for short.

In 2014, the state-run news service showed off NADA's logo and described it as a
representation of the agency's "character, mission, position, and development
prospect," Space.com reports.

Of course, there's no mention of the striking similarities between the NADA and
NASA logos — both with blue globes, white lettering, stars, and swooshed rings.

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Furthermore, the acronym NADA is a bit of ironic commentary on the comparison
between the two space agencies seeing as NASA has put a man on the moon and
launched revolutionary satellites, among other accomplishments.

Also, NADA means "nothing" in Spanish and Portuguese.

NOW: US Spy Agency Boasts 'Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach' With New Logo

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NOW WATCH: Here’s how North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un became one of the world’s
scariest dictators

ASTRONOMERS NOW HAVE A WAY TO RANK THE LIKELIHOOD OF LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS — AND
EARTH'S SCORE ISN'T WHAT YOU MIGHT EXPECT

February 9, 2016, 7:31 am
Next The $8 billion space telescope everyone's been waiting for just passed a
major milestone
Previous North Korea's space agency's logo means nothing — literally
0
0

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Clik here to view.

Right now, we’re staring hard at a small section of the sky, to see if we can
detect any planets that may be habitable.

The Kepler Spacecraft is focused on a tiny patch of sky in our Milky Way galaxy,
hoping to detect planets as they transit in front of their stars.

But if alien astronomers are doing the same, and detect Earth transiting in
front of the Sun, how habitable would Earth appear?

You might think, because, well, here we are, that the Earth would look 100%
habitable from a distant location.

But that’s not the case. According to a paper from Rory Barnes and his
colleagues at the University of Washington-based Virtual Planetary Laboratory,
from a distant point in the galaxy, the probability of Earth being
habitable might be only 82%.

Barnes and his team came up with the 82% number when they worked to create a
“habitability index for transiting planets,” that seeks to rank the habitability
of planets based on factors like the distance from its star, the size of the
planet, the nature of the star, and the behavior of other planets in the system.

The search for habitable exo-planets is dominated by the idea of the
circumstellar habitable zone—or Goldilocks Zone—a region of space where an
orbiting planet is not too close to its star to boil away all the water, and
not so far away that the water is all frozen. This isn’t a fixed distance; it
depends on the type and size of the star. With an enormous, hot star, the
Goldilocks Zone would be much further away than Earth is from the Sun, and
vice-versa for a smaller, cooler star. “That was a great first step, but it
doesn’t make any distinctions within the habitable zone,” says Barnes.

Kepler has already confirmed the existence of over 1,000 exo-planets, with over
4,700 total candidate planets. And Kepler is still in operation. When it comes
time to examine these planets more closely, with the James Webb Space Telescope
and other instruments, where do we start? We needed a way to rank planets for
further study. Enter Barnes and his team, and their habitability index.

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To rank candidates for further study, Barnes focused on not just the distance
between the planet and the host star, but on the overall energy equilibrium.
That takes into account not just the energy received by the planet, but the
planet’s albedo—how much energy it reflects back into space. In terms of being
warm enough for life, a high-albedo planet can tolerate being closer to its
star, whereas a low-albedo planet can tolerate a greater distance. This
equilibrium is affected in turn by the eccentricity of the planet’s orbit.

The habitability index created by Barnes—and his colleagues Victoria Meadows and
Nicole Evans—is a way to enter data, including a planet’s albedo and its
distance from its host star, and get a number representing the
planet’s probability of being habitable. “Basically, we’ve devised a way to take
all the observational data that are available and develop a prioritization
scheme,” said Barnes, “so that as we move into a time when there are hundreds of
targets available, we might be able to say, ‘OK, that’s the one we want to start
with.’”

So where does the Earth fit into all this? If alien astronomers are creating
their own probability index, at 82%, Earth is a good candidate. Maybe they’re
already studying us more closely.

SEE ALSO: New research points to the unexpected and dangerous nature of Jupiter

CHECK OUT: China just released photos of its first moon landing and the rover
that made history

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THE $8 BILLION SPACE TELESCOPE EVERYONE'S BEEN WAITING FOR JUST PASSED A MAJOR
MILESTONE

February 9, 2016, 7:58 am
Next 8 charts reveal mind-boggling numbers about the monster rocket NASA is
building to shuttle astronauts to Mars
Previous Astronomers now have a way to rank the likelihood of life on other
planets — and Earth's score isn't what you might expect
0
0

The Hubble telescope's replacement – the James Webb space telescope – just had
its final mirror installed. The new telescope has been in the works since 1996
and will be the most powerful telescope in space.

Produced by Emmanuel Ocbazghi. Original Reporting by Jessica Orwig.

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8 CHARTS REVEAL MIND-BOGGLING NUMBERS ABOUT THE MONSTER ROCKET NASA IS BUILDING
TO SHUTTLE ASTRONAUTS TO MARS

February 9, 2016, 8:59 am
Next Tech Insider is hiring a paid intern who loves to write about science
Previous The $8 billion space telescope everyone's been waiting for just passed
a major milestone
0
0

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Clik here to view.

Earlier this month, NASA announced the first mission it will be launching aboard
its monster rocket, called the Space Launch System.

In 2018, NASA will send 13 shoe-box sized satellites, called CubeSats, to study,
for example, different aspects of life in space and ice deposits on the moon.

Eventually, this rocket is destined for NASA's future deep-space missions to
Mars, and beyond.

Taller than the Statue of Liberty and capable of carrying more than twice the
payload weight of any of NASA'S former space shuttles, the Space Launch System
will transport four astronauts at a time on board the agency's Orion spacecraft
farther into space than any human has ever ventured before. The first unmanned
test flight of this rocket is scheduled for September 2018.

NASA's Marhsall Space Flight Center has created a series of charts and
infographics that show just how revolutionary this rocket will be for the future
of spaceflight.

UP NEXT: Awe-inspiring quotes from Carl Sagan reveal how we are fundamentally
connected to the cosmos

SEE ALSO: The fascinating and terrible things that would happen to you if you
tried to fly on Jupiter — and other planets

NASA WILL HAVE TO STEP IT UP TO GET A HUMAN INTO DEEP SPACE — SOMETHING THEY
HAVEN'T DONE FOR MORE THAN 40 YEARS. HERE'S WHERE THEY'RE STARTING FROM:

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CHECK OUT PAST ACHIEVEMENTS FOR HOW FAR HUMANS HAVE VENTURED INTO SPACE AND
WHERE THE SLS WILL TAKE US NEXT:

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AND HERE'S HOW THE SLS COMPARES TO ITS PREDECESSORS:

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See the rest of the story at Business Insider

TECH INSIDER IS HIRING A PAID INTERN WHO LOVES TO WRITE ABOUT SCIENCE

February 9, 2016, 9:57 am
Next This optical illusion is bewildering — here's how it works
Previous 8 charts reveal mind-boggling numbers about the monster rocket NASA is
building to shuttle astronauts to Mars
0
0

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The science team at Tech Insider is looking for paid editorial interns to join
our ranks this summer.

Our interns don't spend their days making coffee runs or organizing closets.

Tech Insider interns are a vital part of our team and do meaningful work:
researching, writing, pitching, and producing posts. They also help us tackle
breaking news and get to cover events if the opportunity is right.

We prize self-starters who can find their own stories, pitch them, and write
quickly, cleanly, and concisely.

Our style is smart, conversational, exciting, and geared toward non-scientists.
Attention to detail and efficiency in a quick-turnaround environment are
required. We also prize agility in and enthusiasm for tackling wildly divergent
topics, an eye for strong visuals, and a knack for framing stories in enticing
ways.

Our aim is to help readers appreciate, understand, and use science and
innovations that surround us — be they in everyday life, a cryptic study, or
trending news.

Internships are only available at our New York City headquarters (150 Fifth
Avenue) and run for six months. Interns are encouraged to work up to 40 hours a
week. Many of our current full-time staff started out as interns here.

Consider applying if:

* You have excellent writing and copy editing skills.
* You can decipher complex or esoteric developments and make science exciting
and surprising for a general audience.
* You generate more story ideas than you know what to do with, and find
yourself writing day-two stories for the web on day one.
* You can bring unique context to trending news and make those stories your
own.
* Multitasking is your middle name, and you thrive in a fast-paced,
collaborative setting.
* You're interminably wowed by human ingenuity and obsessed with the future.

After-hours duties may also include helping retain our Science Friday trivia
champion title over rival publications.

Apply here with a one-page resume, three relevant clips, and a one-page cover
letter telling us what excites you about working for Tech Insider.

We hire interns on a rolling basis.

Join the conversation about this story »

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THIS OPTICAL ILLUSION IS BEWILDERING — HERE'S HOW IT WORKS

February 9, 2016, 2:18 pm
Next Take a tour of the twin telescopes that changed astronomy forever
Previous Tech Insider is hiring a paid intern who loves to write about science
0
0

Watch this animation for 15 seconds, then watch a still picture of the Antennae
Galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, and it'll look like it's moving.
This is due to something called "the motion aftereffect."

Story by Jacob Shamsian and editing by Stephen Parkhurst

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TAKE A TOUR OF THE TWIN TELESCOPES THAT CHANGED ASTRONOMY FOREVER

February 10, 2016, 4:23 am
Next Einstein's weirdest prediction is true — and will soon radically transform
our understanding of the universe
Previous This optical illusion is bewildering — here's how it works
0
0

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Our understanding of the universe depends on how good our telescopes are.

Two of the most powerful sit on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

One of the telescopes has a camera so sensitive, it could detect a single candle
flame on the surface of the moon.

Together they make up the Keck Observatory— the world's largest optical
observatory.

Tech Insider got to take a tour of the Keck telescope headquarters in Waimea,
Hawaii with communication officer Steve Jefferson.

Keep scrolling to see how this powerful pair of telescopes work, and how
they revolutionized the field of astronomy.

THE TWIN KECK TELESCOPES SIT ON THE SUMMIT OF MAUNA KEA. THEY FIRST CAME ONLINE
IN THE 1990S, AND THEY'VE BEEN CHURNING OUT INCREDIBLE REVELATIONS ABOUT THE
UNIVERSE EVER SINCE.

Image may be NSFW.
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THE SECRET TO THEIR AMAZING SUCCESS LIES IN KECK'S REVOLUTIONARY MIRROR DESIGN.
A TELESCOPE CAN ONLY GATHER AS MUCH LIGHT AS THE SIZE OF ITS MIRROR WILL ALLOW —
SO KECK'S MIRRORS ARE ENORMOUS.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

IT'S ACTUALLY STRUCTURALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO BUILD A MIRROR LARGER THAN ABOUT EIGHT
METERS LONG THOUGH. SO ENGINEERS BUILT KECK'S 10-METER MIRRORS USING SMALLER
HEXAGON-SHAPED SEGMENTS THAT FIT TOGETHER. HERE'S A MODEL OF WHAT ONE OF THE
MIRRORS LOOK LIKE:

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

EINSTEIN'S WEIRDEST PREDICTION IS TRUE — AND WILL SOON RADICALLY TRANSFORM OUR
UNDERSTANDING OF THE UNIVERSE

February 10, 2016, 6:06 am
Next The two most important discoveries that completely transformed our view of
life in the universe
Previous Take a tour of the twin telescopes that changed astronomy forever
0
0

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Clik here to view.

Have no doubt: Gravitational waves, or ripples in the fabric of spacetime, are
real and undulating across the universe at incredible speed — right through
everyone and everything on Earth.

Scientists have known this since at least 1974, when two astronomers proved
their existence using a bizarre object deep in space (more on that in a moment).

The problem is that no one has yet directly detected the elusive waves since
Albert Einstein first predicted their existence 100 years ago.

"Einstein dismissed them because he thought they couldn't be measured, and a lot
of people today still doubt they can be detected,"Imre Bartos, a physicist at
Columbia University who's trying to find them, told Tech Insider. "That's
because we're looking for something way smaller than the size of the atom. It
sounds crazy, but we're not crazy."

Detecting gravitational waves would be astounding.

This would not only vindicate Einstein's wildest prediction and tell us we're on
the right track to understanding how the universe works, but also give
astronomers a powerful new tool to probe the cosmos — from deep inside exploding
stars to the surfaces of black holes.

Failing to record their signal after all these years would highlight how much we
have yet to learn — and possibly unlearn.

WHY WE KNOW GRAVITATIONAL WAVES EXIST

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Space is pervaded by, well, space. It's an invisible fabric that can stretch and
shrink and warp and curve in multiple dimensions, even time — hence the official
name spacetime.

Anything with mass warps the fabric, including you. Yet the denser and more
massive an object, the greater the distortion.

Dense objects that move really, really fast can radically distort spacetime,
some with enough energy to trigger ripples like a speedboat careening across a
placid lake.

This was conjecture, though, until 1974. That's when astronomers Russell Hulse
and Joseph Taylor stumbled upon the deep-space equivalent of two speedboats
spiraling into each other.

Both objects were neutron stars — the ultra-dense cores of dead stars that form
when a star blows up and its core collapses but is not big enough to form a
black hole. One of the neutron stars was spinning fast enough to emit radio
pulses as a pulsar (which is how they found the star system to begin with).

Hulse and Taylor discovered the neutron stars rapidly orbiting one another.

Surprisingly, over the years they noticed the pulsar's orbit was hastening, bit
by bit, and deduced the stars would spiral into each other and collide in about
300 million years.

"That orbital energy had to be going somewhere," Bartos said. By disturbing
spacetime so much during their deadly cosmic dance, he said, the stars had to
bleed off the energy as gravitational waves.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Hulse and Taylor proved this by showing the energy loss
matched up perfectly with Einstein's predictions.

The astronomers won a 1993 Nobel Prize for their groundbreaking discovery of the
bizarre object, now called the Hulse-Taylor Pulsar, and its role in indirectly
showing gravitational waves exist.

Still, they did not actually detect the waves themselves.

WHY DETECTING GRAVITATIONAL WAVES IS SO HARD

Bartos is part of a 1,000-scientist collaboration called the Laser
Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO for short.

The $1 billion experiment has searched for signals emitted by colliding neutron
stars or black holes since 2002, yet there hasn't been any clear signal so far.

However, many insiders believe LIGO will finally confirm its first gravitational
wave detection on Thursday, February 11.

The signs for this have only strengthened since we first reported on the rumors,
with an official (and very cryptic) LIGO press conference scheduled for that
day:

> LIGO press conference Feb 11 @ 10:30am EST. See https://t.co/feeHtRtoix for
> more info! #GravitationalWaves
>
> — LIGO (@LIGO) February 9, 2016

Bartos would not confirm or deny any of the rumors with Tech Insider, nor would
LIGO spokesperson Gaby Gonzalez.

Still, Bartos seemed confident that the elusive waves can be detected.

"Gravity is a horribly weak force, which makes our lives much harder," he said.
"But one thing that works to our advantage is that the signal decays much [more
slowly] than light. Gravitational waves fade as you go farther but not as
quickly."

To pick up on weak yet far-reaching spacetime ripples, LIGO uses two enormous
L-shaped detectors that are filled with lasers and mirrors to pick up on the
tiniest of disturbances.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Szabi Marka, also a Columbia University physicist and LIGO
collaborator, compared them to a pair of giant ears that can "hear" the
spacetime ripples that result from neutron star collisions, black hole mergers,
or some other catastrophic event in space, like a giant exploding star.

The closer a collision is to Earth, the "louder" the signal should be.

LIGO's hearing is sensitive enough to detect mind-blowingly small disturbances
of space, "much smaller than the size of the atoms the detector is built of,"
Marka said.

PhD Comics says LIGO's level of sensitivity is "like being able to tell that a
stick 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 meters long has shrunk by 5mm."

Put another way, detecting a gravitational wave is like noticing the Milky Way —
which is about 100,000 light-years wide — has stretched or shrunk by the width
of a pencil eraser.

It would be no wonder why it has taken researchers so long to find gravitational
waves; it's terribly difficult work. Even car traffic on a road miles away can
disturb LIGO, despite the instruments' state-of-the-art vibration-dampening
equipment.

WHY DETECTING THEM WILL BE AMAZING

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There's only one way to know for sure if the latest gravitational wave detection
rumors are true: Wait until Thursday. But it seems inevitable that we'll
eventually detect gravitational waves, and regularly.

When we do, says Bartos, we will have a unbelievably powerful new tool to study
the universe.

One killer application of gravitational waves is to reveal supernovas — huge,
exploding stars that seed the universe with elements like carbon, nitrogen, and
oxygen as well as platinum and gold — hours before they're visible to any
telescope.

"Gravitational waves arrive at Earth long before any light does," Bartos said.
"When a massive star's core collapses, starting the supernova to form a black
hole, the surface doesn’t know the core has collapsed for awhile."

The reason, he said, is that the star gets in the way of itself. "All of this
stuff tries to come out, including light, but it bumps into the star's matter
and gets stuck until the whole star collapses. But gravitational waves can pass
right through."

So if a gravitational wave source lights up some detectors, it might be from a
supernova — giving astronomers plenty of notice to point telescopes like Hubble
in that direction, hit record, and get an unprecedented look at processes that
are the reason Earth and life exist at all.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Bartos says the other advantage is that gravitational waves
can reveal what's going on inside a dying star.

"It’s not just about catching a supernova. You can only scratch the surface of
them with telescopes," he said. "In order to have a better picture of the
process, you need to see it at the heart, where a black hole is being born."

"Right now the only tools to explore what happens inside are computer models,"
he added.

Yet another way gravitational waves will help astronomers understand the
universe is in measuring the frequency of major cosmic phenomena.

Supernovas in the Milky Way, which LIGO might detect, are thought to occur two
or three times every 100 years.

It's completely unknown, however, how often black holes might merge, or neutron
stars, or some combination of both. And those events are critically important to
understand, since they shape star systems and galaxies.

"LIGO will be three times more sensitive in three years, and we roughly expect
to see 10s of events per year," Bartos said.

That sensitivity could get even higher soon. LIGO wants to build a third
instrument, but in the meantime it will get help from Europe's new VIRGO
detector (opening in late 2016) and Japan's KAGRA facility (going online in
2017).

"The more [detectors] you have, the better your sensitivity, and the more stuff
you will see," Bartos said. "It becomes easier to weed out the things that
happen here on Earth, like traffic and earthquakes" and find and pinpoint a
signal.

So the future for gravitational-wave astronomy is looking very bright — even if
a detection isn't announced this week.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Astronauts found something troubling in these shots from space

THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES THAT COMPLETELY TRANSFORMED OUR VIEW OF LIFE
IN THE UNIVERSE

February 10, 2016, 7:33 am
Next NASA just released a jaw-dropping 360 degree photo that makes you feel like
you're on Mars
Previous Einstein's weirdest prediction is true — and will soon radically
transform our understanding of the universe
0
0

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

When Jill Tarter, co-founder of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence) Institute, devoted her life to the search for aliens in the early
'80s, she was part of a hopeful minority amid a collective of skeptics.

As the years pressed on, however, scientists made two key discoveries that
changed everything:

"There have been two phenomenal game changers during my career," Tarter told
Business Insider. "[The discovery of] extremophiles and exoplanets. And they
both inspired to make the universe appear, perhaps, more bio-friendly than when
I was a graduate student."

Tarter is one of the world's leading experts on the search for ET, and while you
might not know her by name, she has a rather large reputation. Namely, her work
throughout the '80s and '90s as the director of the Center for SETI Research
caught the attention of the late astronomer Carl Sagan, who drew strongly from
Tarter's life for the main character in his sci-fi book "Contact." The book was
later adapted into the 1997 film where actress Jodie Foster basically plays
Tarter.

"Extremophiles and exoplanets make this question — 'Is there life, and indeed,
is there intelligent life out there?' — far more possible, and exciting, and
timely," she said.

A LOVE FOR THE EXTREME

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Extremophiles are a class of bacteria that — as their name
implies — survive under extreme environments, such as hydrothermal vents at the
bottom of the Pacific.

Down there, no sunlight penetrates and pressures swell to over 200 times greater
than on the surface.

Adding to that, vents spew intoxicating, sulfurous black smoke into broiling
waters that are between 660 to 750 degrees Fahrenheit.

Despite these horrendous conditions, hydrothermal vents host entire ecosystems
of extremophiles, some of which are super-simple life-forms, which some
scientists suspect could be close descendants of the first single-celled life on
Earth, and thus, where life began.

"Microbes are now getting the respect they deserve," Tarter said. "Evolution has
allowed them to make themselves adapt to the most amazing conditions."

While these conditions are abnormal by Earth's standards, planetary scientists
have found evidence to suggest that hydrothermal vents are common within our
solar system.

In 2015, for example, scientists announced that they had detected sulfur-rich
compounds in Saturn's E rings. This ring is special because it's made up of
material spat out by Saturn's tiny, water-rich moon, Enceladus.

The amount and type of compounds they found convinced scientists that there's
likely a collection of these potentially life-spawning hydrothermal vents at the
bottoms of Enceladus' underground ocean.

Could there be life down there? That is a serious question that planetary
scientists and astrobiologists are considering — something they would have never
done 30 years ago.

WHOLE NEW WORLDS

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.The prospect of discovering microbes on Enceladus is exciting,
but it's not what gets Tarter pumped for the future — that goes to the hunt for
intelligent beings, like us, living on a twin Earth floating off in space in
some distant planetary system.

When the first exoplanet was discovered in 1992, it opened the door to an entire
new field of astronomy. Since then, astronomers have discovered nearly 2,000
exoplanets and suspect there could be billions more.

"When I started this, we had nine planets in our solar system," Tarter said.
"But we now know that there are more planets out there than stars, and this is a
profound conclusion that's come only in the last decade."

At first, technology was only sensitive to spotting extremely large exoplanets —
many times greater than Jupiter. But as the field grew, technology improved,
making it possible to point out smaller, more Earth like planets that could have
the right conditions for life to develop, thrive, and eventually evolve into
intelligent beings.

Just last year, for example, scientists reported the discovery of the most
Earth-like planet, located 1400 light-years from Earth. The scientists estimated
that the planet had been around for about 6 billion years — plenty of time for
life to arise and grow.

"There's potentially a lot more habitable real estate out there than when I
began," Tarter said. "And so I think we should explore it."

RELATED: The 12 most compelling scientific findings that suggest aliens are real

SEE ALSO: Awe-inspiring quotes from Carl Sagan reveal how we are fundamentally
connected to the Cosmos

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NOW WATCH: NASA's Spirit Mars rover found mysterious growths on Mars that could
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NASA JUST RELEASED A JAW-DROPPING 360 DEGREE PHOTO THAT MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE
YOU'RE ON MARS

February 10, 2016, 7:56 am
Next Time-lapse video shows what lightning looks like from space
Previous The two most important discoveries that completely transformed our view
of life in the universe
0
0

If you've ever wondered what it might be like to be inside of a giant crater on
Mars, then check out this incredible footage NASA released this week from its
Curiosity Mars rover.

The video below is interactive, making the experience more realistic than simply
looking at a picture. Just click on the video and drag your mouse across the
screen to scan the Martian landscape like never before. (We recommend you select
the highest quality available from the settings option in the lower right.)

What you're seeing here is a brand new landscape unlike anything the Curiosity
rover has encountered before during its time inside of Gale Crater, which is 96
miles wide. The region is called Bagnold Dunes, which is just one of the many
areas on Mars covered with vast, active sand dunes.

Right now, Curiosity is scooping sand from a nearby mound, called Namib Dune
(shown below), which is between 13 to 17 feet tall:

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To the right of Namib Dune, you can see Mount Sharp in the distance. The Bagnold
Dunes are located on the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp, which is a mountain
at the center of Gale Crater.

Mount Sharp is about three miles high with channels etched along its face, which
scientists suspect were carved by flowing water at some point in Mars' distant
past.

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And if you look closely at the shot below, you'll see a line straight down the
middle that connects the two halves of the panorama. It's easier to see if you
look into the distance at the rim of Gale Crater, shown below.

Most of the photos from Curiosity are actually a mosaic of tens of individual
shots that scientists then stitch together into, what looks like, one amazing
photo.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.Stitching photos together takes time and effort, but, as you
can see, it's absolutely worth it.

RELATED: NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is snapping pictures of something unlike
anything it has encountered before

SEE ALSO: The two most important discoveries that completely transformed our
view of life in the universe

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: NASA's Spirit Mars rover found mysterious growths on Mars that could
be the biggest discovery in science

TIME-LAPSE VIDEO SHOWS WHAT LIGHTNING LOOKS LIKE FROM SPACE

February 10, 2016, 8:47 am
Next Scientists just discovered 883 galaxies that have been hiding in plain
sight
Previous NASA just released a jaw-dropping 360 degree photo that makes you feel
like you're on Mars
0
0

European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake is aboard the International Space
Station for 6 months. He's been taking stunning time-lapse videos from there, as
well as conducting research for scientists to use on Earth.

Produced by Emmanuel Ocbazghi

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SCIENTISTS JUST DISCOVERED 883 GALAXIES THAT HAVE BEEN HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

February 10, 2016, 10:08 am
Next Einstein's wildest prediction is true — and will soon radically transform
our understanding of the universe
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The new galaxies were blocked from view due to stars and dust. The Milky Way,
along with hundreds of thousands of other galaxies, are being pulled towards a
mysterious force, and these newly found galaxies may help in understanding it.

Produced by Emmanuel Ocbazghi. Original Reporting by Jessica Orwig.

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EINSTEIN'S WILDEST PREDICTION IS TRUE — AND WILL SOON RADICALLY TRANSFORM OUR
UNDERSTANDING OF THE UNIVERSE

February 10, 2016, 10:39 am
Next President Obama wants to give NASA $19 billion — but there’s a catch
Previous Scientists just discovered 883 galaxies that have been hiding in plain
sight
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