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<sup>(PSLV C31 taking off. Photo source: <keyword id="6358064" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="isro">ISRO</keyword>)<br /></sup><br /><ul><li><strong>The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch over 30 satellites on Thursday using the PSLV C43 rocket. </strong></li><li><strong>The rocket’s payload will also include ISRO’s <keyword id="2059663" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hyperspectral-imaging">Hyperspectral Imaging</keyword> Satellite (HySIS) capable of identifying 55 spectral bands from 630 kms above ground. <br /></strong></li><li><strong>The agency plans on applying this technology to various geological environments like agriculture, coastal zones and soil quality.</strong></li></ul>The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will <a href="https://deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/241118/nellore-hyperspectral-imaging-satellite-to-be-launched-on-november-29.html">launch</a> its Hyperspectral Imaging Satellite (HySIS) along with 30 other foreign <keyword id="7066763" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="commercial-satellites">commercial satellites</keyword> on Thursday from the Sriharikota launch centre using the PSLV C43 rocket. <br /><br />The new satellite is a big leap from the time when satellites could only capture general outlines of countries and detect weather patterns. Hyperspectral imaging — also called <keyword id="7022239" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Imaging-spectroscopy">imaging spectroscopy</keyword> or <keyword id="7066764" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="hypex-imaging">hypex imaging</keyword> — <a href="https://www.isro.gov.in/isro-develops-optical-imaging-detector-array-hyperspectral-imaging-applications">enables</a> satellites to distinctly identify objects from outer space.<br /><br />
	
	
	<div type="twitter" handle="planetlabs" handlename="Planet" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1013830287724183552/1x8il-Pu_normal.jpg" favoritecount="25321" retweetcount="11763" status="At 597 feet, India’s Statue of Unity is now the tallest statue in the world and clearly seen from space! Oblique Sk… https://t.co/72MxyYfxdf" createdat="1542307445000" id="1063140598704553984"></div>







<br />This trend in Earth observation allows for a high level of differentiation that’s a huge improvement over the normal optical images used in conventional satellites. Experts in earth observation have <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/isro-to-develop-full-fledged-earth-observation-satellite/article19458651.ece">called</a> the technology the ‘CATSCAN’ of Earth from space. <br /><br />The agency plans on using this technology to help with agriculture, soil quality, coastal zones, and inland waters among other geological environments.<br /><br /><strong>It’s all about the chip<br /></strong><br />Hyperspectral imaging has been around for a while but each country has its own take on how to implement it. In <keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="India">India</keyword>’s case, the crux of hypex imaging lies in an optical imaging detector chip <a href="https://www.isro.gov.in/isro-develops-optical-imaging-detector-array-hyperspectral-imaging-applications">developed</a> by the Space Applications Centre (SAC) and manufactured by Semi Conductor Limited (SCL). <br /><br />The chip is capable of capturing images that can read upto 1,000 x 66 pixels. <br /><br />
	
  
  <div type="image" title="fig.-2_chip-on-board" msid="66811441" hostid="261"></div>







<sup>(Chip on board. Photo source: ISRO)<br /></sup><br />Hyperspectral imaging consists of much narrower bands as compared to multispectral imagery. <br /><br />Narrower measurement of wavelengths translates into more detailed imaging. Even in terms of scope, the former can identify 55 different spectral bands while the latter is only capable of capturing a maximum of 10 bands. <br /><br />India has already experimented with imaging spectroscopy when it launched the Chandrayaan-1, which had a hyperspectral camera on board to help map out the mineral resources available on the moon.<br /><br />The chairman of ISRO, K Sivan, told the <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/isro-to-launch-hyperspectral-imaging-sat-with-30-foreign-satellites-on-nov-29/articleshow/66801810.cms">Times of India</a>, “We are going to launch HySIS at 9.59 am on November 29 from Sriharkota. Over 30 foreign satellites, including nano and mini satellites, will also be launch.”<br /><br /><strong>See also:<br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india-successfully-launches-communication-satellite-gsat-29-using-its-heaviest-rocket/articleshow/66623518.cms">India successfully launches communication satellite GSAT-29 using its heaviest rocket</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/russia-to-help-india-with-its-first-manned-space-mission-may-train-astronauts-abroad-the-iss/articleshow/66086890.cms">Russia to help India with its first manned space mission, may train astronauts abroad the ISS</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/mars-orbiter-mission-completes-4-years-in-pictures/articleshow/65972664.cms">Mars Orbiter Mission completes 4 years: In pictures</a><br />

India’s space agency is planning a massive launch of over 30 satellites this week, including one capable of ‘hyperspectral’ imaging

<ul class="summary-list"><li>President <keyword id="99719" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="joe-biden" source="Orion">Joe Biden</keyword> is set to reveal the first full-color image from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-launches-james-webb-space-telescope-2021-12">the James Webb Space Telescope</a> Monday.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-plans-mini-nuclear-reactors-moon-power-lunar-colony-2022-7">NASA</a> expects <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-telescope-successfully-deployed-space-mirror-unfolds-2022-1">JWST</a> to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-first-year-in-space-2021-12">revolutionize astronomy</a> with <keyword id="12812690" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="infrared" source="Orion">infrared</keyword> 100 times more powerful than <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-hubble-space-telescope-photographs-three-galaxies-colliding-2022-2">Hubble</a>.</li></ul><p><em><strong>Update:</strong> <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword> revealed the new image from the <keyword id="12594489" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="james-webb-space-telescope" source="Orion">James Webb Space Telescope</keyword> on Monday. It's the deepest, sharpest infrared image of the universe to date. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-webb-telescope-snaps-first-full-color-image-2022-7">Read more in our story.</a></em></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/engineers-turn-to-voyager-decades-old-documents-fix-a-glitch-2022-7">NASA</a> is about to drop the first full-color images from its newest <keyword id="11895441" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="space" source="Orion">space</keyword> telescope, forever changing deep-space <keyword id="11949140" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="astronomy" source="Orion">astronomy</keyword>.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-first-year-in-space-2021-12">James Webb Space Telescope</a> (JWST) is six times larger and 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, which has been NASA's prime space observatory since it launched in 1990. Astronomers expect JWST to fill a mysterious gap in the historical record of our universe — the first 400 million years after the Big Bang — and to identify distant worlds that could host alien life.</p><p>It took more than two decades and $10 billion to build and launch JWST, but now the infrared observatory is orbiting the sun 1 million miles from Earth, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-to-unfold-after-launch-2021-12">fully unfolded</a> and calibrated.</p><p>On Monday night, NASA is going to show the world for the first time what its new eye in the sky can do. At 5:30 p.m. ET, President Joe Biden plans to reveal the first full-color image from JWST.</p><p>NASA will broadcast the announcement live from the <keyword id="11896084" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="white-house" source="Orion">White House</keyword> on NASA TV, starting at 5:30 p.m. ET. Watch it in the video embed, below:</p><p>There will be more images coming on Tuesday. NASA has a handful of full-color images from JWST, and it plans to release them one by one, starting at 10:30 a.m. ET, also broadcast on NASA TV, above.<br /><br />NASA, along with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, which are collaborating on the new telescope, will discuss the images at noon ET on Tuesday.</p><p>NASA hasn't said what astronomical sight will feature in the first JWST image on Monday evening. But the agency did <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-shares-list-of-cosmic-targets-for-webb-telescope-s-first-images">release</a> the following list of objects captured in the first images, to be revealed this week: </p><ul><li><strong>Carina Nebula:</strong> The Carina Nebula is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky, located approximately 7,600 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. Nebulae are stellar nurseries where stars form. The Carina Nebula is home to many massive stars, several times larger than the sun.</li><li><strong>Southern Ring Nebula:</strong> The Southern Ring, or "Eight-Burst" nebula, is a planetary nebula — an expanding cloud of gas, surrounding a dying star. It is nearly half a light-year in diameter and is located approximately 2,000 light-years away from Earth.</li><li><strong>Stephan's Quintet:</strong> About 290 million light-years away, Stephan's Quintet is located in the constellation Pegasus. It is notable for being the first compact galaxy group ever discovered in 1877. Four of the five galaxies within the quintet are locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters.</li><li><strong>SMACS 0723:</strong> Massive foreground galaxy clusters magnify and distort the light of objects behind them, permitting a deep field view into both the extremely distant and intrinsically faint galaxy populations.</li></ul><p>NASA also plans to release data JWST has collected on the giant gas planet WASP-96 b. The planet is located about 1,150 light-years from Earth, and has about half the mass of Jupiter. That data will showcase JWST's ability to analyze the entire spectrum of infrared light emitted by an object, in order to identify individual elements.</p><p>That method, called spectroscopy, should help astronomers determine what's in the atmosphere of planets orbiting other stars — invaluable information in the search for alien life.</p>

Watch live as Biden reveals the first full-color image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword> released the first batch of images and data captured by the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-telescope-successfully-deployed-space-mirror-unfolds-2022-1">James Webb Space Telescope</a> on Tuesday.</li><li>An active star formation, an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-find-earth-like-planet-sun-like-star-2020-6">exoplanet</a>, and the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/post/preview?post_id=62ccad3f88082377474256d5&amp;mode=desktop">deepest image</a> of the universe ever taken, were among the images.</li></ul><p>NASA debuted its first batch of full-color images from the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-reaches-destination-2022-1">James Webb Space Telescope</a>, the biggest and most powerful telescope that's been sent into <keyword id="11895441" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="space" source="Orion">space</keyword>, on Tuesday. The long-awaited images — taken with JWST's 21-foot (6.5-meter) diameter mirror — reveal the deepest, most remote stretches of the universe ever seen.</p><p>"Every image is a new discovery and each will give humanity a view of the universe that we've never seen before," Bill Nelson, NASA's administrator, told an audience of engineers and scientists who contributed to the telescope's development, at Goddard Space Flight Center on Tuesday. "You're going to see the formation of stars, you're going to see devouring black holes. It's going to reveal all of this," Nelson said.</p><p>Over the weekend, JWST's team started its first year of normal <keyword id="11896083" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="science" source="Orion">science</keyword> operations. "That is now in full swing," Bill Ochs, JWST's project manager at Goddard said Tuesday. "As the old saying goes, it takes a village. With Webb, it actually took a town of about 20,000 people, over a period of 20-plus years, across 29 US states, and 14 countries."</p><p>"It took us about 25 years to get here, since 1995. And we have at least 25 to go — I hope," John Mather, Webb senior project scientist, who has worked on the project since 1995, said after the image reveal on Tuesday.</p><p>Often described as the successor to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-hubble-space-telescope-offline-mystery-glitch-2021-11">the Hubble Space Telescope</a>, Webb <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-launches-james-webb-space-telescope-2021-12">launched</a> on December 25, 2021, after more than two decades of development. Since that time, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-spent-billions-launching-james-webb-space-telescope-2022-3">the $10 billion telescope</a> has traveled more than 1 million miles from Earth and is now stationed in a gravitationally stable orbit, collecting infrared light. By gathering infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye, Webb is able to cut through cosmic dust and see far into the past, to the first 400 million years after the Big Bang.</p><p>"We're going back to about 13 and a half billion years," Nelson said in a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/post/preview?post_id=62ccabf7ac17eb032932ce13&amp;mode=desktop">White House briefing</a> Monday. "Since we know the universe is 13.8 billion years old, we're going back almost to the beginning."</p><p>Here are the first cosmic views the space agency shared from its powerful new eye in the sky:</p><h2>Carina Nebula</h2><p>One of the new images shared Tuesday was of the Carina Nebula, an assemblage of gas and young stars 7,600 light-years away and <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/chile/images/b08/?lang#:~:text=Spanning%20about%20100%20light%2Dyears,its%20many%20clusters%20of%20stars.">four times</a> as large as the Orion Nebula. It's a vast star-forming region and home to young, extremely massive stars, including Eta Carinae — a volatile system containing two massive stars that closely orbit each other.</p><h2>Southern Ring Nebula</h2><div type="image" title="southern ring nebula infrared bubbles of colorful gas and dust encircle two stars" height="2328" width="2500" msid="92835006" hostid="261"></div><p>NASA also shared images of the Southern Ring Nebula, or "Eight-Burst" nebula, which is 2,000 light-years away from Earth. This large planetary nebula, which is nearly half a light-year in diameter, includes an expanding cloud of gas around a dying star. In the image, Webb's infrared haze revealed unprecedented views of the two gravitationally bound stars which spawned the nebula.</p><h2>Stephan's Quintet</h2><div type="image" title="Stephan’s Quintet five spiral galaxies close together high resolution with individual stars visible" height="2396" width="2500" msid="92835008" hostid="261"></div><p>Webb also imaged Stephan's Quintet, a collection of five galaxies 290 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. Four of the five galaxies are gravitationally interacting in a slow-motion merger, which data scientist Giovanna Giardino called "a sort of cosmic dance driven by the gravitational force" on Tuesday. The fifth galaxy is much closer to Earth, about <a href="https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2009/25/2606-Image.html">40 million light-years</a> away.</p><h2>Spectrum of  WASP 96-b</h2><div type="image" title="Webb observed the spectra of WASP-96 b, revealing it's atmosphere has water, clouds, and haze." height="1292" width="1920" msid="92835010" hostid="261"></div><p>Scientists are also leveraging Webb's capabilities to peer into the atmospheres of planets outside the solar system, called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-find-earth-like-planet-sun-like-star-2020-6">exoplanets</a>. </p><p>On Tuesday, scientists released the spectrum of WASP 96-b — an unusual, cloudless planet 1,150 light-years away. They used a tool called spectroscopy, which provides important information on the chemical makeup of a planet's atmosphere coded in light. It allows astronomers to identify the fingerprints of small molecules, such as carbon dioxide and water, and offers meaningful clues about the habitability of other worlds.</p><p>"This is exciting because it covers infrared wavelengths of light that we have not had access to before," Knicole Colón, an exoplanet scientist at NASA, said on Tuesday. The data shows the signature of water in this exoplanet, as well as evidence of clouds and haze, Colón said. </p><h2>SMACS 0723</h2><div type="image" title="galaxies stars in infrared jwst" height="2856" width="2799" msid="92835012" hostid="261"></div>In addition to the new images released Tuesday, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/post/preview?post_id=62ccabf7ac17eb032932ce13&amp;mode=desktop">President Biden</a> unveiled the first full-color image from JWST on Monday.<p>In it, Webb pointed its powerful infrared camera to SMACS 0723, a massive group of galaxy clusters that act as a magnifying glass for the objects behind them. The new picture is a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-james-webb-vs-hubble-universe-pictures-show-huge-improvement-2022-7">"deep field" image</a> — a long-exposure observation of a region of the sky, which allows the telescope to capture the light of extremely faint, distant objects. The streaks of light are galaxies stretched out by the powerful gravitational pull of SMACS 0723, a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. This created JWST's first deep field view of incredibly old and distant, faint galaxies — the deepest infrared view of the cosmos to date. If you held a grain of sand at arm's length, that would represent the speck of universe you see in this image, Nelson told Biden in the Monday <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/post/preview?post_id=62ccabf7ac17eb032932ce13&amp;mode=desktop">briefing.</a></p><p>"There's just a sharpness and a clarity we've never had," Jane Rigby, JWST's operations project scientist, said during Tuesday's reveal. She added the most distant galaxies in the photo are more than 13 billion years old, and scientists know what those galaxies are made of — oxygen, hydrogen, and neon.</p><p>What's more, the telescope is just starting its mission. "We're only beginning to understand what Webb can and will do," Nelson, told reporters at a <a href="https://twitter.com/SpaceTelescope/status/1542154987001741318">news briefing</a> last week. </p><p>"It may answer some questions that we have: Where do we come from? What more is out there? Who are we? And, of course, it's going to answer some questions that we don't even know what the questions are," Nelson said.</p>

NASA releases first batch of images from the James Webb Space Telescope, ushering in a new era in space

Performing light-intensity exercises for a short duration was found to have improved the <keyword id="20178149" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="blood-flow" source="keywords">blood flow</keyword> to <keyword id="19914811" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="children" source="keywords">children</keyword>'s cerebrum, known to help with <keyword id="20943924" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cognition" source="keywords">cognition</keyword>, according to a recent study. The study by Japan's <keyword id="22926399" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Waseda-University" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Waseda University" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Waseda University">Waseda University</keyword> enrolled 41 healthy children from fifth-grade elementary to third-year junior high school students to find out how short-term, light-intensity exercises affected the blood flow to <keyword id="21319112" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="prefrontal-cortex" source="keywords">prefrontal cortex</keyword>, located in the cerebrum and known to handle cognitive functions. <br /><br />Researchers focused on exercises that can easily be performed on the spot without special equipment, such as stretching. Most of the exercises were performed while seated, with movements lasting 10 to 20 seconds. <br /><br />The team used an imaging technique -- functional near-infrared spectroscopy -- to measure changes in blood flow to the <keyword id="19985684" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="brain" source="keywords">brain</keyword> by looking at concentrations of oxyhaemoglobin (that carries oxygen from the lungs to the tissues) while at rest and during the <keyword id="20067991" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="exercise" source="keywords">exercise</keyword>. <br /><br />According to the findings published in the <keyword id="20069357" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="scientific-reports" source="keywords">Scientific Reports</keyword> journal, the researchers found a significant increase in oxyhaemoglobin levels in multiple regions of the prefrontal cortex during all forms of exercise compared to the resting state. <br /><br />"By combining the types of exercise that easily increase blood flow in the prefrontal cortex identified in this study, it is possible to develop an exercise program that everyone can easily engage in to improve children's executive functions. It may also be used in the future to prevent cognitive decline in adults and the elderly," said Takashi Naito, one of the authors and a doctoral student at Waseda University. <br /><br />The authors further wrote that the study implies that short-duration, light-intensity exercises, provided that they entail a certain degree of cognitive and/or physical demands, can activate the prefrontal cortex and increase blood flow. <br /><br />Previous studies have shown that physical exercise improves cognitive function in many ways such as by improving blood flow to the brain, by causing structural changes in the brain and by promoting the forming of new brain cells, or neurons. <br /><br />However, as children around the world have been shown to insufficiently engage in physical exercise, leading to high levels of sedentary behaviour, the authors said that the study's results offer potential solutions. <br /><br />The study is a significant step forward in combating sedentary lifestyles and activating brain functions in children, thereby supporting their physical and mental growth, they said. <br /><br />"Our goal is to develop a light-intensity exercise program that is accessible to everyone, aiming to enhance brain function and reduce children's sedentary behaviour," Naito said.

Study shows light exercise improves blood flow to children's brain, improve cognition

<p>Hi, I'm Matt Turner, the editor in chief of business at Insider. Welcome back to <keyword id="11921772" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="insider-weekly" source="Orion">Insider Weekly</keyword>, a roundup of some of our top stories. </p><h3><strong>On the agenda today:</strong></h3><ul><li><keyword id="11974765" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="gen-z" source="Orion">Gen Z</keyword> hates working from home — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-hates-remote-work-office-jobs-work-from-home-2022-7">and they're actually quitting their remote jobs.</a></li><li>Facebook is facing a reckoning as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-advertisers-are-starting-to-shift-spending-for-the-first-time-2022-7">advertisers abandon the platform</a>. </li><li>People are waging a campaign of terror on Instagram and Twitter <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/handles-instagram-twitter-social-media-deadly-harassment-campaign-2022-7">over desirable usernames</a>.</li><li>Insiders say former Disney CEO <keyword id="12711941" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bob-iger" source="Orion">Bob Iger</keyword> was unhappy <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-disney-ceo-iger-battled-board-unhappy-chapek-succession-2022-7">about the transition of power to Bob Chapek</a>.</li></ul><p>Let me know what you think of all our stories at <a href="mailto:mturner@insider.com">mturner@insider.com</a>.</p><p><strong>Before we get started:</strong> Science and space reporter Morgan McFall-Johnsen is taking us behind the scenes of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-james-webb-vs-hubble-universe-pictures-show-huge-improvement-2022-7">first full-color images</a> from the James Webb Space Telescope.</p><p><em>If this was forwarded to you, </em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/insider-weekly"><em>sign up here.</em></a><em>  Download Insider's app </em><a href="https://www.insider.com/app"><em>here.</em></a></p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-james-webb-vs-hubble-universe-pictures-show-huge-improvement-2022-7"><strong>Our new cosmic views</strong></a></h3><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-james-webb-vs-hubble-universe-pictures-show-huge-improvement-2022-7"><strong></strong></a></p><p>NASA opened a new window into the cosmos when it released <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-webb-telescope-snaps-first-full-color-image-2022-7">the first full-color images</a> from the James Webb Space Telescope this week, writes Morgan McFall-Johnsen. From a bubbling blue nebula to countless distant spiral galaxies, these sharp images wowed the world and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-james-webb-vs-hubble-universe-pictures-show-huge-improvement-2022-7">revealed details that were previously invisible</a>.</p><p>The images uncovered new stars and galaxies, but astronomers were just as excited by a few squiggly line graphs. The bulk of JWST's science is spectroscopy, a method of breaking down the light from distant objects. By analyzing where light falls along the infrared rainbow, JWST can show scientists exactly which elements are present in the planet, star, or galaxy emitting that light.</p><p>All this is just a hint of the science ahead — the first five days of what could be decades of JWST observations. In the coming years, spectroscopy could reveal how the first galaxies emerged, how black holes evolve, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-webb-telescope-snaps-first-full-color-image-2022-7">where there might be life in the universe</a>.</p><p><strong>Now, let's get to this week's top stories.</strong></p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-hates-remote-work-office-jobs-work-from-home-2022-7"><strong>Gen Z wants to work together IRL</strong></a></h3><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-hates-remote-work-office-jobs-work-from-home-2022-7"></a></p><div type="image" title="Illustration of Gen Z enjoying the office" height="900" width="1200" msid="92937791" hostid="261" sizebytes="52682"></div><p>Working from home is like fashion: one size doesn't fit all, reports Insider's Aki Ito. Gen Zers coming out of college may see the office as a nicer and more exciting place to work than their apartments, but not all generations feel the same. In the era of remote work, the divide in opinion could present a sticky dilemma for employers.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-hates-remote-work-office-jobs-work-from-home-2022-7"><strong>Why the youngest workers feel so drawn to working in offices.</strong></a></p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-advertisers-are-starting-to-shift-spending-for-the-first-time-2022-7"><strong>Meta is in a perfect storm</strong></a></h3><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-advertisers-are-starting-to-shift-spending-for-the-first-time-2022-7"></a></p><div type="image" title="Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg." height="4281" width="5708" msid="92937793" hostid="261" sizebytes="763952"></div><p>For the first time ever, Facebook's advertisers are slashing spending and shifting dollars elsewhere. Analysts expect the social-media giant to record zero growth in the second quarter.</p><p>And while Google and Twitter are also facing a slowdown, what's different is that <keyword id="12416504" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="meta" source="Orion">Meta</keyword> could lose share of client spending — a problem one top industry exec said would be "a first."</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-advertisers-are-starting-to-shift-spending-for-the-first-time-2022-7"><strong>Why Meta is facing reckoning</strong></a></p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/handles-instagram-twitter-social-media-deadly-harassment-campaign-2022-7"><strong>On social media, people are going to war over usernames</strong></a></h3><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/handles-instagram-twitter-social-media-deadly-harassment-campaign-2022-7"></a></p><div type="image" title="A man with a target on his face made of an @ sign" height="900" width="1200" msid="92937795" hostid="261" sizebytes="207598"></div><p>Chris Eberle is used to receiving threatening messages about his Instagram username, @ginger, a so-called "OG handle." Then the harassment calls began, and his family was targeted. His assailant soon found out where he lived. </p><p>Across Silicon Valley and beyond, tech-industry veterans are being similarly tortured. Why would someone care so much about OG handles?</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/handles-instagram-twitter-social-media-deadly-harassment-campaign-2022-7"><strong>Inside the obsession with the most sought-after social media handles.</strong></a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-disney-ceo-iger-battled-board-unhappy-chapek-succession-2022-7"></a></p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-disney-ceo-iger-battled-board-unhappy-chapek-succession-2022-7"><strong>Bob Iger's succession planning was 'a notable failure,' insiders say</strong></a></h3><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-disney-ceo-iger-battled-board-unhappy-chapek-succession-2022-7"></a></p><div type="image" title="Bob Iger in a blue shirt walking with a leafy green background." height="2511" width="3348" msid="92937797" hostid="261" sizebytes="193392"></div><p>Iger thought he would spend his final year as Disney's CEO on a global goodbye tour, bidding a personal adieu to the dignitaries and employees who helped create Shanghai Disney and theme parks from Tokyo to Paris. </p><p>Instead, according to several Disney sources and others familiar with Iger's thinking, the exec spent 2020 and 2021 watching COVID-19 devastate the company he had led for 15 years — and regretting what he has called one of his worst business decisions: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bob-chapek-to-succeed-bob-iger-as-disney-ceo-2020-2">the selection of Bob Chapek as his successor</a>.  </p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-disney-ceo-iger-battled-board-unhappy-chapek-succession-2022-7"><strong>Here's what else insiders told us.</strong></a></p><h3><strong>This week's quote:</strong></h3><p>"At first, it still felt like that 'vacation' feel. But as reality sinks in that you're actually living there, that wears off. Living there is just such a completely different planet."</p><ul><li>Kimberly Lovelace, a 51-year-old <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-people-move-out-of-florida-housing-prices-insurance-weather-2022-7">who lived in Florida for five months</a>.</li></ul><h3><strong>More of this week's top reads:</strong></h3><ul><li>Google is pulling back hiring for the third quarter, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-hiring-targets-slowdown-recession-economic-uncertainty-2022-7">company insiders say</a>.</li><li>After Oracle <keyword id="11894120" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="advertising" source="Orion">Advertising</keyword> laid off staff, some are facing <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oracle-advertising-laid-off-staff-rsu-compensation-losses-2022-7">huge losses in stock compensation</a>.</li><li>We outlined how much accountants and consultants <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salary-of-consultants-accountants-big-4-deloitte-kpmg-ey-pwc-2020-7">at the "Big Four" firms can make</a>.</li><li>An Airbnb host with four Idaho rentals breaks down <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/idaho-host-airbnb-rick-carlson-breaks-down-why-he-quit-2022-7">why he's quitting the platform</a>.</li><li>Meet Paxos, the startup behind <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/paxos-blockchain-tech-powering-crypto-efforts-at-wall-street-giants-2022-7">some of Wall Street's biggest crypto offerings</a> from Bank of America, Mastercard, and PayPal.</li></ul><p><strong>Call for nominations: </strong>We're looking for innovative leaders for our 100 People Transforming Business. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/announcement-insiders-100-people-transforming-business-returns-this-year-featuring-a-readers"><strong>Here's how to submit a nominee.</strong></a></p><p><strong>Plus: </strong>Keep updated with the latest business news throughout your weekdays by checking out <a href="https://link.chtbl.com/therefresh">The Refresh from Insider</a>, a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom. <a href="https://link.chtbl.com/therefresh"><strong>Listen here tomorrow</strong>.</a></p><p><em>Curated by Matt Turner. Edited by Jordan Parker Erb, Sarah Belle Lin, and Hallam Bullock. </em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter"><em>Sign up for more Insider newsletters here.</em></a></p>

Meta is facing a reckoning it may not recover from

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-webb-telescope-snaps-first-full-color-image-2022-7">NASA's James Webb Space Telescope</a> detected <keyword id="15300" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="water" source="Orion">water</keyword> vapor in the <keyword id="12896459" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="atmosphere" source="Orion">atmosphere</keyword> of a distant <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ancient-super-earth-suggests-longer-timeline-for-alien-life-2021-1">planet</a>.</li><li>The planet is a hot, puffy gas giant orbiting very close to a star 1,150 light-years away.</li></ul><p>For the first time, <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword>'s <keyword id="12594489" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="james-webb-space-telescope" source="Orion">James Webb Space Telescope</keyword> (JWST) has peered into the atmosphere of a distant planet and unambiguously confirmed the presence of water vapor there.</p><p>WASP-96 b is a hot, puffy gas giant orbiting a star about 1,150 light-years away. It's a little larger than <keyword id="11949137" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="jupiter" source="Orion">Jupiter</keyword>, but has less than half the mass of Jupiter. That makes it much puffier and less dense than any planet orbiting the sun.</p><p>Scientists previously doubted the planet could hold water, but NASA announced Tuesday that JWST had detected the clear chemical signature of water vapor in its atmosphere, along with evidence of haze and clouds.</p><div type="image" title="Webb observed the spectra of WASP-96 b, revealing it's atmosphere has water, clouds, and haze." height="1292" width="1920" msid="92836544" hostid="261" sizebytes="65606"></div><p>Because the planet orbits so close to its star, at just one-ninth the distance between Mercury and the sun, its surface is about 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. It's not a candidate for <keyword id="12012815" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="alien-life" source="Orion">alien life</keyword>.</p><p>However, scientists expect to refine JWST's observations over the coming years, until it can peer into the atmospheres of smaller planets orbiting at a greater distance from their stars.</p><p>"This is just the beginning. We're going to start pushing down to further, smaller planets," Knicole Colón, an exoplanet scientist, said in NASA's live broadcast revealing the new findings.</p><p>In the coming years, JWST is also expected to take direct images of planets orbiting other stars.</p><h2>JWST can reveal new details about the atmospheres of distant planets</h2><div type="image" title="carina nebula star-forming region orange brown clouds of gas and dust with stars against bright blue background" height="1737" width="3000" msid="92836545" hostid="261" sizebytes="481720"></div><p>JWST, which launched into <keyword id="11895441" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="space" source="Orion">space</keyword> in December, is now fully operational in its orbit around the sun, 1 million miles from Earth. NASA released its first full results and full-color images from the telescope on Tuesday. The imagery is jaw-dropping. It reveals distinct galaxies, exploding stars, and clouds of compressed gas birthing new stars, in a level of detail that astronomers only dreamed of until this week.</p><p>But most of JWST's <keyword id="11896083" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="science" source="Orion">science</keyword> will come in the form of spectroscopy — the method it used to detect water vapor in this distant planet's atmosphere.</p><p>The telescope carries instruments that allow it to break down the infrared light from distant objects, analyzing where it falls across the spectrum of light. Basically, they break the light down into an infrared rainbow.</p><p>By assessing which spectra of light an object emits, scientists can determine which elements are present in that object, since different elements reflect distinct wavelengths of light.</p><div type="image" title="james webb space telescope gold octagon mirror in large white cleanroom" height="1618" width="2157" msid="92836546" hostid="261" sizebytes="371342"></div><p>That's how scientists identified the water vapor in WASP-96 b's atmosphere. JWST observed the planet for 6.4 hours as it passed in front of its star. The telescope analyzed starlight that passed through the planet's atmosphere and traveled to JWST's lens.</p><p>"This is exciting because it covers infrared wavelengths of light that we have not had access to before," Colón said. "We've been able to use other telescopes to explore exoplanet atmospheres in the infrared, but not to this level of detail. And this is just one sliver of data."</p><p>Scientists plan to run this analysis on many planets in the years to come.</p><p>"Spectra will be the bulk of the science," Antonella Nota, a JWST scientist who leads the office of the European Space Agency at the Space Telescope Science Institute, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-first-year-in-space-2021-12">said</a> in a briefing ahead of the telescope's launch.</p><p>"While an image, we say is worth 1,000 words, spectra for astronomers are just worth 1,000 images."</p>

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope detects water vapor on hot, Jupiter-sized planet orbiting a distant star

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-world-records-chili-peppers-international-space-station-2021-12">NASA</a> is set to launch the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-checking-james-webb-space-telescope-for-damage-after-incident-2021-11">James Webb Space Telescope</a> — the world's most powerful <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-ask-nasa-for-huge-space-telescope-image-habitable-planets-2021-11">space observatory</a>.</li><li>Webb's first year will include bold searches for primordial <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-dancing-ghosts-illusion-galaxies-billion-light-years-daway-2021-8">galaxies</a> and habitable <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-nasa-telescope-spot-signs-of-planet-beyond-galaxy-2021-10">planets</a>.</li></ul><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-postpones-astronauts-spacewalk-due-to-possible-space-junk-danger-2021-11">NASA</a> is about to open a never-before-seen window into the cosmos. Starting next year, astronomers should be able to peer into the atmospheres of <keyword id="11910186" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="planets" source="Orion">planets</keyword> orbiting distant stars, analyze the aftermath of the <keyword id="6471260" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="universe" source="Orion">universe</keyword>'s most violent collisions, and look further back in time than ever before.</p><p>That's because the <keyword id="12594489" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="james-webb-space-telescope" source="Orion">James Webb Space Telescope</keyword> — JWST, or simply "Webb," for short — is folded up, full of fuel, and loaded onto a rocket in French Guiana.</p><p><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword>'s last game-changing space observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990. It, too, was on a mission to document the 13.8-billion-year history of the universe.</p><p>Hubble is still observing the cosmos, and NASA hopes to keep using it for a few more years, possibly into the 2030s. But Hubble could only see so far, and Webb is designed to see even farther.</p><p>In collaboration with the <keyword id="11921802" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="european-space-agency" source="Orion">European Space Agency</keyword> (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency, NASA has spent decades and more than $10 billion building Webb, which is set to launch into space as soon as December 24. While Webb was first conceived of in the 1990s and originally slated to cost $500 million, a redesign and delays both drove up its price tag and pushed back its launch date.</p><p>After launch, if all goes according to plan, Webb will spend six months unfolding and adjusting itself, falling into an orbit 1 million miles from Earth. Then it can begin rewriting cosmic history.</p><div type="image" title="james webb space telescope lifted vertically enormous gold mirrors wrapped in purple foil inside white cleanroom" height="2048" width="1536" msid="88227311" hostid="261"></div><p>The telescope's main project is to investigate how <keyword id="12393175" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="galaxies" source="Orion">galaxies</keyword> formed and grew after the Big Bang — peering into the universe's depths to capture images of the first galaxies ever formed. Its infrared cameras are so powerful and precise that they could spot a bumblebee 240,000 miles away — the distance between Earth and the moon.</p><p>Webb will also help astronomers investigate mysteries they hadn't considered when NASA first designed the telescope.</p><p>"Webb has this broad power to reveal the unexpected. We can plan what we think we're going to see, but at the end of the day, we know that nature will surprise us more often than not," Klaus Pontoppidan, a Webb scientist at the Space Telescope <keyword id="11896083" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="science" source="Orion">Science</keyword> Institute, said in a press briefing on November 18.</p><p>NASA expects the telescope to probe the secrets of the cosmos for at least a decade. Even the telescope's first year in space is jam-packed, with nearly 400 investigations from thousands of scientists all over the world, Pontoppidan said.</p><p>From peering at Mars to investigating ancient galaxies, here are a few of the most exciting projects that Webb — the most powerful space telescope ever built — is expected to tackle in its first year: </p><h2>Light from the first galaxies is still traveling to Earth, and Webb may spot it</h2><div type="image" title="hubble ultra deep field image 10,000 galaxies pinpricks of light" height="2200" width="2200" msid="88227314" hostid="261"></div><p>As a telescope peers into the distance, it's also looking back in time. That's because it takes time for light to travel. When you look at the sun — please, don't! — you're seeing light that our star emitted eight minutes ago. When Hubble looks at distant galaxies, it's seeing light from billions of years ago, as far back as 400 million years after the Big Bang.</p><p>"We have this 13.8-billion-year story — the universe — and we're missing sort of a few key paragraphs in the very first chapter of the story," Amber Straughn, a scientist on NASA's Webb team, said in the November 18 briefing. "JWST was designed to help us find those first galaxies."</p><p>Webb is expected to spot galaxies that formed when the universe was just 100 million years old.</p><p>It's 100 times more powerful than Hubble. It's also using infrared light, which has wavelengths that can cut through dust clouds that may have obscured Hubble's view, which relied on visible light.</p><p>Webb should see deeper into the cosmos and detect galaxies — the first ones formed after the Big Bang — that are too distant and faint for Hubble to pick up.</p><h2>Looking for gold forged by the universe's most violent collisions</h2><div type="image" title="neutron star collision" height="998" width="1330" msid="88227317" hostid="261"></div><p>For the last six years, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gravitational-wave-experiment-ligo-cracked-einstein-mystery-2020-11">gravitational-wave detectors</a> on Earth have been sensing ripples in space-time created by the most violent events in the cosmos: black holes and <keyword id="12717370" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="neutron-stars" source="Orion">neutron stars</keyword> crashing into one another.</p><p>Scientists think these collisions <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/neutron-stars-crash-ligo-gravitational-waves-periodic-elements-2017-10">forged most of the universe's heavy elements</a>, like silver, gold, and platinum. Webb will try to confirm that by focusing on distant collisions of neutron stars — the dense cores of stars that have collapsed, ejected their outer layers, and died.</p><p>Webb will be able to analyze the entire spectrum of infrared light from those collisions. That will allow astronomers to indentify individual elements like gold or platinum in the explosion debris, based on their wavelengths of light.</p><p>This method, called spectroscopy, will help astronomers learn about other objects Webb studies, too.</p><p>"Spectra will be the bulk of the science," Antonella Nota, a Webb scientist who leads the ESA office at the Space Telescope Science Institute, said in the briefing. "While an image, we say is worth 1,000 words, spectra for astronomers are just worth 1,000 images."</p><h2>Our first glimpse at the atmospheres of planets that could host life</h2><div type="image" title="An artist’s impression shows the planet K2-18b, its host star and an accompanying planet in this system. K2-18b is now the only super-Earth exoplanet known to host both water and temperatures that could support life. UCL researchers used archive data from 2016 and 2017 captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and developed open-source algorithms to analyze the starlight filtered through K2-18b’s atmosphere. The results revealed the molecular signature of water vapor, also indicating the presence of hydrogen and helium in the planet’s atmosphere." height="1750" width="2333" msid="88227319" hostid="261"></div><p>When it's not busy studying the most massive objects and ancient galaxies in the universe, Webb will search for less extreme environments, worlds where conditions could be just right to give rise to life.</p><p><keyword id="12393174" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="exoplanets" source="Orion">Exoplanets</keyword> — worlds orbiting other stars — were barely a field of study when NASA began designing Webb. Two decades later, astronomers have identified dozens of exoplanets that could be temperate enough for alien life. They're not too cold, not too hot, just right for water — but only if they have hospitable atmospheres.</p><p>Webb will watch potentially habitable exoplanets pass in front of their stars, and analyze the spectra of starlight that shines through the planets' atmospheres. That spectroscopy will indicate to scientists whether the air on other worlds contains compounds that could point to life, like carbon dioxide, methane, or water.</p><p>"This telescope is definitely our next big step in our search for potentially habitable planets," Straughn said.</p><div type="image" title="james webb space telescope gold octagon mirror in large white cleanroom" height="1618" width="2157" msid="88227322" hostid="261"></div><p>These aren't necessarily Earth-like planets. Stars like the sun are so big and bright that Webb wouldn't be able to see the tiny Earth-like planets orbiting them. That's a job for the next great space telescope. Instead, Webb will look at rock planets orbiting stars that are much smaller and dimmer.</p><p>Some of its first targets will be planets circling a small star, TRAPPIST-1, just 39 light-years away.</p><p>The star has seven rocky planets, three of them in its "Goldilocks zone," meaning they're just the right distance to have temperatures that would allow liquid water to exist on their surfaces.</p><div type="image" title="trappist 1 seven earth size planets discovery nature 7" height="2550" width="3400" msid="88227324" hostid="261"></div><p>Webb is also set to zoom in on uninhabitable, but fascinatingly extreme, planets. At least one of the planets on its roster is so close to its star that its surface is molten, and it may even rain lava there. Webb should be able to detect that lava rain.</p><p>The telescope will also examine every object in our solar system, starting with Mars and working its way outward to the icy objects beyond Pluto.</p><p>In those planets, stars, and galaxies, near and far, Webb is sure to uncover major surprises. </p><p>"Webb will probably also reveal new questions for future generations of scientists to answer — some of whom may not even be born yet," Pontoppidan said.</p><p><em>This post has been updated with new information. It was originally published on December 11, 2021.</em></p>

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will spend its first year looking for primordial galaxies, gold-forging explosions, and habitable planets

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-might-advance-asteroid-hunting-space-telescope-2021-5">NASA</a> is sending two new missions to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-parker-probe-detected-strange-radio-signal-venus-atmosphere-2021-5">Venus</a> between 2028 and 2030, the agency announced Wednesday.</li><li>The DAVINCI+ mission will plunge to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spaceship-flying-by-venus-wednesday-could-help-look-alien-life-2020-10">Venus'</a> "inferno-like" surface, while VERITAS will map the planet.</li><li>The spacecraft could help scientists investigate how <keyword id="6436894" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="venus">Venus</keyword> became so hot and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/venus-clouds-phosphine-gas-microbes-alien-life-2020-9">whether it holds life</a>.</li></ul><p>More than three decades have passed since <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword> last sent a probe to Venus.</p><p>But within the next nine years, two NASA missions will return to our closest planetary neighbor, according to the agency's new administrator, Bill Nelson.</p><p>Nelson announced <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21X5lGlDOfg">on Wednesday</a> that one mission, called DAVINCI+, will send a probe down to the Venusian surface to measure what Venus' atmosphere is made of. The other, a mission called VERITAS, will map the planet's surface in unprecedented detail. </p><p>"These two sister missions both aim to understand how Venus became an inferno-like world capable of melting lead at the surface," Nelson said. "They will offer the entire <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> community the chance to investigate a planet we haven't been to in more than 30 years."</p><p>Both DAVINCI+ and VERITAS are the winners of NASA's ninth Discovery program competition, which has funded 20 missions since 1992, including the Mars Insight lander, which is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-missing-big-mars-quakes-2021-4">measuring quakes on the red planet</a>. The losing competitors were missions to Jupiter's moon, Io, and Neptune's moon, Triton. Each winning Venus mission will get $500 million in NASA funding. The probes are expected to launch between 2028 and 2030.</p><h2>Solving the mystery of Venus' hellish landscape</h2><div type="image" title="Venus NASA surface" height="1536" width="2048" msid="83190063" hostid="261"></div><p>Venus is Earth's hot and hellish twin. The two planets are similar in size, density, and surface composition, yet Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system. Its average surface temperature is a <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/681/solar-system-temperatures/#:~:text=Venus%20is%20an%20exception%20because,Fahrenheit%20(471%20degrees%20Celsius).">blistering 880 degrees Fahrenheit</a> (471 degrees Celsius).</p><p>Nelson said the upcoming missions could help scientists figure out what causes Venus' extreme temperatures.</p><p>"We hope these missions will further our understanding of how Earth evolved, and why it's currently habitable when others in our solar system are not," he said.</p><p>DAVINCI+ stands for Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging. That mission will send a probe plunging through Venus' atmosphere to measure which gases and elements are present.</p><p>It will also investigate whether Venus ever had an ocean and take high-resolution pictures of geological features called tesserae. Tesserae are to Venus as continents are to Earth. Scientists hope to discern whether Venus has ever had tectonic plates like our planet.</p><p>VERITAS, meanwhile, will remain in Venus' orbit and map the planet's surface. The name stands for Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy. The mission should yield 3D reconstructions of Venus' topography and detailed observations the types of rocks that make up its surface. The scientists behind VERITAS also hope to study whether Venus has active volcanoes that could be releasing water vapor into the atmosphere. </p><p>The two missions come amid new debate among astronomers as to whether life is possible on or above Venus. Although the planet's carbon-dioxide-filled atmosphere would seem to make it inhospitable to life, a September study suggested the clouds surrounding Venus could harbor microbial aliens.</p><p>That's because researchers found <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/venus-clouds-phosphine-gas-microbes-alien-life-2020-9">traces of phosphine</a> - a gas typically produced by microbes on Earth - in the upper reaches of Venus' clouds. However, <a href="https://www.washington.edu/news/2021/01/27/phosphine-venus-so2/#:~:text=In%20September%2C%20a%20team%20led,the%20thick%20clouds%20of%20Venus.&amp;text=Phosphine%20on%20Venus%20generated%20buzz,life%20within%20its%20acidic%20clouds.uds.">a follow-up study</a> suggested  those trace elements weren't phosphine, but rather sulfur dioxide, casting doubt on the idea that Venus could be habitable.</p><p>These new missions to the planet could help settle that debate.</p><p>"It is astounding how little we know about Venus, but the combined results of these missions will tell us about the planet from the clouds in its sky through the volcanoes on its surface, all the way down to its very core," Tom Wagner, a NASA Discovery Program scientist, said in a statement. "It will be as if we have rediscovered the planet."</p><h2>Jupiter and Neptune's moons will have to wait</h2><p>To prioritize the Venus missions, NASA had to pass on two other proposals, both of which would have sent spacecraft to moons in the outer solar system.</p><div type="image" title="Io and Jupiter" height="959" width="999" msid="83190066" hostid="261"></div><p>One of the Discovery finalists that NASA did not select is called the Io Volcano Observer. The proposal was to send a spacecraft to the most volcanically active place in our solar system: Jupiter's moon Io. The mission called for the probe to circle Io, flying in close enough to study its eruptions and look for signs of a magma ocean beneath the surface.</p><p>The second rejected mission, called Trident, would have explored Neptune's icy moon Triton. That ice world has an atmosphere that can create snow, and plumes of water may also erupt through its surface from a deep interior ocean. In one fly-by, Trident would have looked for signs of such an ocean, which could potentially host life.</p><div type="image" title="neptune triton" height="2249" width="3000" msid="83190071" hostid="261"></div><p>This isn't necessarily the end for those mission concepts, but the researchers behind them will have to wait a few years before they can re-submit proposals to the Discovery program.</p><p>In a Q&amp;A after the announcement, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science, said the two Venus missions had been through the Discovery process before without getting selected, and that their proposals were stronger because of it, according to <a href="https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1400183792896299015">SpaceNews' Jeff Foust</a>.</p><p>"Those are the best missions. That's why we selected them," Zurbuchen <a href="https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1400182080559058948">said</a>.</p>

NASA is finally returning to Venus with 2 new spacecraft - one to map the 'inferno-like world' and one to plunge to its surface

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/26254305@N08/8074314491/">roanokecollege/Flickr</a></span></p></div><p></p></div>We never knew <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> could be so witty, creative, and in some cases blunt and even kind of rude.</p>
<p>A Quora user recently asked <a href="http://www.quora.com/Science/What-are-some-of-the-best-scientific-acronyms" target="_parent">"What are some of the best scientific acronyms?"</a> and brilliant answers started pouring in.</p>
<p>He kicked off the thread with:</p>
<p><strong>BRAINS</strong>: Biobehavioral Research Awards for Innovative New Scientists. Obviously these award-winning scientists are brainy.</p>
<p><strong>WEIRD</strong>: This one stands for Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic.</p>
<p>Quora user <a href="http://www.quora.com/Leo-Horie-1" target="_parent">Leo Horie</a> said this is from a behavioral psychology study that pointed out that "It's a shocking fact, but pretty much everything we think we know about human behaviour derives from studies of US undergraduates - the psychologists' 'lab rat'! These people are WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) in more ways than one."</p>
<p><strong>SPRM</strong>: Selective progesterone receptor modulators. Quora user <a href="http://www.quora.com/Sebastien-Chartrand" target="_parent">Sebastien Chartrand</a> said this one is used to treat uterine conditions. </p>
<p><strong>CLARITY</strong>: Clear Lipid-exchanged Anatomically Rigid Imaging Tissue hYdrogel. This one comes from user <a href="http://www.quora.com/Chetan-Raj-2" target="_parent">Chetan Raj</a>.</p>
<p><strong>INADEQUATE</strong>: Incredible Natural Abundance DoublE QUAntum Transfer Experiment. Quora user <a href="http://www.quora.com/Lars-Elgaard" target="_parent">Lars Elgaard</a> said the name is perfect because the test is not very reliable.</p>
<p><strong>HERP</strong>: Human Exposure Rodent Potency, and <strong>DERP</strong>: Drug Effectiveness Review Project. Quora user <a href="http://www.quora.com/Josh-Velson" target="_parent">Josh Velson</a> said these acronyms cracked him up when they were used in a problem set he had to solve in school.</p>
<p>Quora user <a href="http://www.quora.com/Anson-Lam" target="_parent">Anson Lam</a> gave some great astronomy acronyms:</p>
<p><strong>FLAMINGOS</strong>: FLoridA Multi-object Imaging Near-infrared Grism Observational Spectrometer</p>
<p><strong>BIGASS</strong>: Bright Infrared Galaxy All Sky Survey</p>
<p><strong>WISEASS</strong>: Weizmann Institute of Science Experimental Astrophysics Spectroscopy System</p>
<p><strong>GANDALF</strong>: Gas AND Absorption Line Fitting algorithm</p>
<p>And Quora user <a href="http://www.quora.com/Giridhar-Sekar" target="_parent">Giridhar Sekar</a> pointed the way to a whole list of NMR spectroscopy acronyms. Here are some of the gems:</p>
<p><strong>FLOPSY</strong>: FLip-flOP SpectroscopY</p>
<p><strong>DOUBTFUL</strong>: Double Quantum Transitions for Finding Unresolved Lines</p>
<p><strong>HOHAHA:</strong> HOmonuclear HArtmann-HAhn spectroscopy</p>
<p><strong>SECSY</strong>: Spin Echo Correlated Spectroscopy</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://www.quora.com/Science/What-are-some-of-the-best-scientific-acronyms?share=1" target="_blank">See more acronyms on Quora &gt;</a></strong></p>

These Are The Craziest Acronyms Scientists Use

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source">Flickr-karmaOWL</p></div><p></p></div><keyword id="6359245" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="schizophrenia">Schizophrenia</keyword> is a mental illness that affects roughly 24 million people a year, according to <a href="http://www.who.int/mental_health/management/schizophrenia/en/">World Health Organization</a> statistics. <br /><br />Researchers know that the disorder runs in families, which points to a hereditary factor, and have also found evidence that it is characterized by abnormalities in the <keyword id="6361813" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="brain">brain</keyword>'s white matter.</p>
<p>But finding exactly where in the white matter is no easy feat. The most common brain-imaging method, Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), works by mapping the spread of water molecules in cells. The snag is that pathways in white matter are so tightly packed together that getting a precise reading about where a problem is occurring is not possible using this technique.</p>
<p>Now, Harvard Medical School researchers are using a different set of tools to get a more complete picture of this part of the brain.</p>
<p>"The DTI approach was suggesting abnormality but it was non-specific, so couldn't be sure if it was inside or outside the neuron," says Dost Ongur, senior author of a <a href="http://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/PIIS0006322313002229/abstract">study</a> published Sept. 15 in the journal Biological Psychiatry. "Now with our work, we can say where that abnormality is."</p>
<p>The results of their research may lead to more targeted treatments and different approaches to making white matter healthier.</p>
<p>The study pinpointed where the abnormalities that characterize schizophrenia are coming from using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which measures brain chemical levels, and magnetization transfer imaging, which senses changes in myelin throughout the white matter.</p>
<p>"Myelin insulates the neurons and prevents electrical leakage from inside to outside," says Ongur. If there is a problem in the myelin, "that would cause abnormal information processing," he says, "and the connection between neurons in different parts of the brain would suffer."</p>
<p>Their results suggest that the abnormalities happen in both the long projections of neurons called axons, whose primary function is to transmit signals from neuron to neuron, and the myelin. If the axon is an electric wire, the myelin is the plastic covering. Both are important in transmitting information and, in schizophrenia, both appear to function abnormally.<div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source">Biological Psychiatry</p><p class="caption">Brain scan images showing the marker used to identify changes in white matter in the prefrontal cortex. Courtesy Biological Psychiatry.</p></div><p></p></div>"We found abnormalities in both locations," says Ongur. "The implication is if you know where the abnormality is, you can focus your treatment intervention at the place where the abnormality is. We know we need to worry about health of neurons and the myelin."</p>
<p>It's still too early to use this new imaging method as a diagnostic tool. "One concern is people with other psychiatric problems may have similar abnormalities, too. We're looking at that," says Ongur.</p>
<p>But it can be used to measure the effects of treatment interventions. For schizophrenia, treatment options include antipsychotic medications, but Ongur says there are other approaches, such as cognitive remediation.</p>
<p>"Cognitive remediation uses computer-based cognitive tasks, which force people to use their brain circuitry in a variety of ways," he says. "We're hoping this would be a creative way to make healthier white matter."</p><p class="tagline"><a href="http://www.txchnologist.com/?pid=BI">Txchnologist</a> is a digital magazine presented by GE that focuses on innovation in science and technology.</p>

Scientists Think They've Found The Brain Issue Linked To Schizophrenia

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>©Alan Friedman/ avertedimagination.com</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>How do you go about hunting for life on <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/exoplanets">another planet</a> elsewhere in our galaxy? A useful starting point is to imagine looking from afar for signs of life on Earth.</p><p>In a telescope like those we have on Earth, those aliens would likely just see the Earth and sun merged together into a single pale yellow dot.</p><p>If they were able to separate the Earth from the sun, they'd still only see a pale blue dot.</p><p>There would be no way for them to image our planet's surface and see life roving upon it.</p><p>However, those aliens could use <a href="http://loke.as.arizona.edu/~ckulesa/camp/spectroscopy_intro.html">spectroscopy</a>, taking Earth's light and breaking it into its component colours, to figure out what gases make up our atmosphere. Among these gases, they might hope to find a "biomarker", something unusual and unexpected that could only be explained by the presence of life.</p><p>On Earth, the most obvious clue to the presence of life is the abundance of free oxygen in our atmosphere. Why oxygen? Because it is highly reactive and readily combines with other molecules on Earth's surface and in our oceans. Without the constant resupply coming from life, the free oxygen in the atmosphere would largely disappear.</p><h2>Biomarkers</h2><p>But the story isn't quite that simple. Life has existed on Earth for <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-australias-new-fossils-are-not-the-oldest-but-their-value-is-set-in-stone-2994">at least 3.5 billion years</a>. For much of that time, however, oxygen levels were far lower than those seen today.</p><p>And oxygen alone is not enough to indicate life; there are many abiological processes that can contribute oxygen to a planet's atmosphere.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Wikimedia</span></p><p class="caption">The concentration of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere over the last billion years. As a reference, the dashed red line shows the present concentration of 21%.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>For example, ultraviolet light could produce abundant oxygen in the atmosphere of a world covered with water, even if it was devoid of life.</p><p>The upshot of this is that a single gas does not a biomarker make. Instead, we must instead look for evidence of a chemical imbalance in a planet's atmosphere, something that can not be explained by anything other than the presence of life.</p><p>Here on Earth, we have one: our atmosphere is not just rich in oxygen, but also contains significant traces of methane. While abundant oxygen or methane could easily be explained on a planet without life, we also know that methane and oxygen react with each other strongly and rapidly.</p><p>When you put them together, that reaction will cleanse the atmosphere of whichever is least common. So to maintain the amount of methane in our oxygen-rich atmosphere, you need a huge source of methane, replenishing it against oxygen's depleting influence. The most likely explanation is life.</p><h2>Observing exoplanetary atmospheres</h2><p>If we find an exoplanet sufficiently similar to our own, there are several ways in which we could study its atmosphere to search for biomarkers.</p><p>When a planet passes directly between us and its host star, a small fraction of the star's light will pass through the planet's atmosphere on its way to Earth. If we could zoom in far enough, we would actually see the planet's atmosphere as a translucent ring surrounding the dark spot that marks the body of the planet.</p><p>How much starlight passes through that ring gives us an indication of the atmosphere's density and composition. What we get is a "<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-seeing-the-universe-through-spectroscopic-eyes-37759">transmission spectrum</a>", which is an absorption spectrum of the planetary atmosphere, illuminated by the background light of the star.</p><p>Our technology has only now become capable of collecting and analysing these spectra for the first time. As a result, our interpretation remains strongly limited by our telescopic capabilities and our burgeoning understanding of planetary atmospheres.</p><p>Despite the current challenges, the technique continues to develop with great success. In the past few years, astronomers have discovered a wide variety of different chemical species in the atmospheres of some of the biggest and baddest of the known transiting exoplanets.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>NASA/JPL-Caltech</span></p><p class="caption">Many exoplanets may have no atmosphere at all.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Eclipses</h2><p>Another approach involves observing a transiting planet and its star as they orbit one another. The goal here is to collect some observations when the planet is visible (but not in transit), and others when it is eclipsed by its star.</p><p>With some effort, astronomers can subtract one observation from the other, effectively cancelling the hugely dominant contribution of light from the star. Once that light is removed, what we have left is the day-side spectrum of the planet.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC/Caltech)</span></p><p class="caption">Star + Planet] - [Star] = [Planet]</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>The future</h2><p>Astronomers are constantly developing new techniques to glean information about exoplanetary atmospheres. One that shows particular potential, especially for the search for planets like our own, is the use of <a href="http://web.gps.caltech.edu/~vijay/Papers/Polarisation/Planetary%20Atmospheres/bailey-07.pdf">polarised light</a>.</p><p>Most of the light we receive from planets is reflected, originating with the host star. The process of reflection brings with it a subtle benefit - the reflected light gains a degree of polarisation. Different surfaces yield different levels of polarisation, and that polarisation might just hold the key to finding the first oceans beyond the solar system.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Wikimedia, CC BY-SA</span></p><p class="caption">By rotating a polarising filter, we can block light of certain polarisation. This is how polarised sunglasses cut the glare from puddles and the ocean on a sunny day.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>These methods are still severely constrained by two factors: the relative faintness of the exoplanets, and their proximity to their host star. The ongoing story of exoplanetary science is therefore heavily focused on overcoming these observational challenges.</p><p>Further down the line, advances in technology and the next generation of telescopes may allow the light from an Earth-like planet to be seen directly. At that point, the task becomes (slightly) easier, in part because the planet can be observed for far longer, rather than just relying on eclipse/transit observations.</p><p>But even then, spectroscopy will be the way to go; the planets will still be just pale blue dots.</p><h2>What we have seen so far</h2><p>The exoplanets we have discovered to date are highly inhospitable to life as we know it. None of the planets studied so far would even be habitable to the most extreme of <a href="http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/extremophile.html">extremophiles</a>.</p><p>The planets whose atmospheres we have studied are primarily "hot Jupiters", giant planets orbiting perilously close to their host stars. As they skim their host's surface, they whizz around with periods of just a few days, yielding transits and eclipses with every orbit.</p><p>Because of the vast amounts of energy they receive from their hosts, many of these "hot Jupiters" are enormous, inflated far beyond the scale of our solar system's largest planet. That size, that heat and their speed, make them the easiest targets for our observations.</p><p>But as our technology has improved, it has also become possible to observe, through painstaking effort, some smaller planets, known as "super-Earths".</p><h2>Atmospheres of distant planets…</h2><p>The hot Jupiter <a href="http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/hd_189733_b/">HD189733</a> has one of the best understood planetary atmospheres beyond the solar system.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>NASA, ESA, M. Kornmesser</span></p><p class="caption">Artists impression of the broiling blue marble, HD 189733 b.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Observations by the Hubble Space Telescope, in 2013, suggest a deep-blue world, with a thick atmosphere of silicate vapour. Other studies have shown its atmosphere to contain significant amounts of water vapour, and carbon dioxide.</p><p>Overall, however, it appears to be a hydrogen-rich gas giant like Jupiter, albeit super-heated, with cloud tops exceeding 1,000 degrees. Beneath the cloud turps lies a widespread dust layer, featuring silicate and metallic salt compounds.</p><p>The young giant planets in the <a href="http://www.space.com/20231-giant-exoplanets-hr-8799-atmosphere-infographic.html">HR8799</a> system appear to have hydrogen-rich but complex atmospheres, with compounds such as methane, carbon monoxide and water. They are likely larger, younger, and hotter versions of our own giant planets - with their own unique subtleties.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Ben Zuckerman</span></p><p class="caption">A direct image of the four planets known to orbit the star HR 8799.</p></div><p></p></div></div>For the super-Earth <a href="http://www.space.com/14634-alien-planet-steamy-waterworld-gj1214b.html">GJ1214b</a> the lesson is to be careful about making conclusions. Early suggestions that this might be a "water world" or have a cloudless hydrogen atmosphere have since been superseded by models featuring a haze of hydrocarbon compounds (like on <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20130605_prt.htm">Titan</a>), or grains of potassium salt or zinc sulphide.</p><p>While the search for Earth-like planets continues using ground- and space-based telescopes, exoplanetary scientists are eagerly awaiting the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/james-webb-telescope">JWST</a>.</p><p>That immense telescope, scheduled for launch in around October 2018, could mark the true beginning of the exciting search for distant atmospheric biomarkers and exoplanetary life.</p><p><em>Brad Carter, Amanda Bauer and Jonti Horner contributed to this post for The Conversation.</em></p><p></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-like-eat-food-grown-space-nasa-2015-11">This is what it's like to eat food grown in a 'space garden'</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="l5eWh2eDrtdBaSYSf1RiuC1DKIbTcscZ" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Here's how to search for alien life on distant planets

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Tiny, microbial life could be swarming deep below the surface of Mars or swimming in the underground oceans on Saturn's moon Enceladus, but that's not where we're likely to find the first life forms beyond earth.</p><p>The bad news is that the first alien life forms humankind will likely discover will be too far away to ever visit. But the great news is that we could detect these exotic beings extremely soon:</p><p>"I think we're probably going to be able to detect life on another planet in the next decade or so," <a href="http://www.chrisimpey.com/">Christopher Impey</a>, who is an astronomer at the University of Arizona and author of over a dozen popular <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> books, told Business Insider. The way we're going to do it is "by exploring exoplanets that we're discovering in large numbers."</p><p>Exoplanets are planets that exist outside of our solar system. The <a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/physics/2015/03/closest-exoplanet-remarkably-earth-sized">closest exoplanet we know of so far</a> is actually orbiting one of the nearest stars Alpha Centauri B about 4.3 light years from earth, but it would take current spacecraft technology well over <a href="http://earthsky.org/space/alpha-centauri-travel-time">100,000 years</a> to reach it.</p><h2>Why exoplanets?</h2><p>Discovering another life force beyond earth is going to be difficult no matter where astronomers look, but exoplanets have several advantages.</p><p>First, there are more earth-like exoplanets in our galaxy than in our solar system. Indeed, earth is the only real earth-like planet nearby, with Mars as a close but pretty disappointing second. As of right now, there are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_potentially_habitable_exoplanets">over 45 exoplanets</a> in our galaxy thought to be potentially habitable.</p><p>Another advantage is that scientists can search for life on exoplanets inexpensively and efficiently with instruments on earth.</p><p>In contrast, large government agencies like NASA and the European Space Agency will likely have to land a robotic probe on the surface of Europa, or some of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/where-is-there-liquid-water-in-the-solar-system-2015-3">other promising places in our solar system</a>, to discover evidence of life. (The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/are-there-aliens-in-our-solar-system-2015-3">one exception could be</a> Saturn's water-rich moon Enceladus.)</p><p>"They're billion-dollar, decade-long missions and NASA's budget is so tight that you can only do one big thing at a time," Impey told Business Insider about missions to land a probe on a nearby planet or moon.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>On the other hand, with powerful telescopes on earth, scientists can sniff out alien life across the galaxy by inspecting the different cocktail of gases in these planets' atmospheres. Only planets with certain key elements and molecules will have the potential to spawn and sustain life.</p><h2>The chemical recipe for life</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>However, scientists are still debating what that perfect cocktail is.</p><p>For example, until last year, the detection of oxygen - an crucial element for life on earth - within an exoplanet's atmosphere would have been an extremely exciting discovery and widely considered a sure sign for life.</p><p>But in May, 2014 a pair of researchers - Robin Wordsworth and Raymond Pierrehumbert - <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/all/1/all:+AND+habitable+AND+terrestrial+AND+on+AND+atmospheres+AND+Abiotic+EXACT+oxygen%5fdominated/0/1/0/all/0/1">suggested that worlds</a> with large amounts of liquid water could still have lots of oxygen but be completely devoid of life. That's because light from the planet's star could have enough energy to separate the hydrogen and oxygen atoms making up water vapor in the atmosphere, where the hydrogen could then escape to space, leaving behind the oxygen.</p><p>"Any claims about the remote detection of life beyond the solar system would be open to a lot of close scrutiny," Jack O'Malley-James <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25314-dead-exoplanets-can-have-oxygenrich-atmospheres-too.html">told New Scientist for an article about the study</a>. "So knowing more about the non-biological sources of atmospheric gases, coupled with methods for ruling those sources out, would help to make those claims more robust."</p><h2>A new fleet of gigantic, revolutionary telescopes</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>While scientists like Wordsworth and Pierrehumbert are investigating what to look for, astronomers and engineers are working on the tools we'll use in the search for life outside our solar system by building the largest, most powerful telescopes in history.</p><p>"[Exoplanets] are far away and they're very faint," Impey told Business Insider. "You need a huge collecting area to get the light from a distance of an earth-like planet."</p><p>The collecting area of a telescope refers to the size of the part of the instrument, called the mirror, which collects the light from distant objects. Astronomers will then study this light to detect different chemical signatures in the atmosphere. Similar to how each human has a unique thumbprint, each element has a specific light signature, which astronomers can detect through a method called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectroscopy">spectroscopy</a>.</p><p>But, it's going to take the most powerful telescopes in history to detect the faint light signatures of these molecules on distant exoplanets. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Right now, astronomers at institutes across the globe are building three gigantic, next-generation telescopes, two in Chile and one in Hawaii:</span></p><ul><li>The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) will be <a href="http://www.space.com/14075-10-biggest-telescopes-earth-comparison.html">three times large than any current telescope</a> and will produce images 10 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope. It's currently under construction at Las Campanas Observatory in La Serena, Chile and is scheduled to begin operations by 2024.</li><li>The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is expected to provide images that are <a href="http://www.space.com/14075-10-biggest-telescopes-earth-comparison.html">12 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope</a> and was scheduled to begin operations atop Hawaii's dormant volcano Mauna Kea as soon as 2025. However, <a href="http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/28757745/protest-against-thirty-meter-telescope-spreading-worldwide">recent protests</a> have temporarily halted construction.</li><li>The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) will dwarf both the GMT and TMT with a mirror the size of half a soccer field! (See the image above.) Construction on the E-ELT began in June 2014 in Cerro Armazones, Chile, and this colossal telescope is scheduled to start operations in 2024.</li></ul><p>These three huge telescopes each have the capability to observe distant worlds and maybe, just maybe, make the most important discovery in the history of the human race by answering that tantalizing question: Are we alone?</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-aliens-look-like-2014-12">Scientists Have A Pretty Good Idea What Aliens May Actually Look Like</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="k4MTU2cjqHJG6cOulknf6VK7dBGi8s-U" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You Searched For "Imaging spectroscopy" and got 12 results

India’s space agency is planning a massive launch of over 30 satellites this week, including one capable of ‘hyperspectral’ imaging

Prabhjote Gill

Watch live as Biden reveals the first full-color image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

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NASA releases first batch of images from the James Webb Space Telescope, ushering in a new era in space

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