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Here’s how you can explore Mars, Jupiter or even leave the solar system

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>If you could magically teleport across the solar system, Saturn would be a great place to swing by on Friday morning.</p><p>Hovering above the ringed planet's surface, you'd see something amazing. Just after 6:32 a.m. EDT, a bus-size object will scream over the cloud tops, burst into millions of pieces, and glow <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cassini-saturn-mission-death-plutonium-238-burn-up-2017-8">like a meteor</a>.</p><p>But this meteor isn't a rock: It's NASA's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-powered-spacecraft-nasa-history-2017-3">nuclear-powered</a> Cassini spacecraft plunging to its doom.</p><p>There's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cassini-death-will-it-be-visible-nasa-hubble-telescopes-2017-9">little chance</a> telescopes will see the 20-year, $3.26-billion mission come to an end.</p><p>However, NASA TV is broadcasting live online video of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/time-cassini-will-be-destroyed-timeline-2017-9">the final stages</a> of Cassini's "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/cassini-grand-finale">Grand Finale</a>," the moment its last stream of data comes in, and - by extension - confirmation that it's died. (You can watch via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwMDvPCGeE0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">YouTube</a> or <a href="http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ustream</a> at the end of this post.)</p><h2>Why scientists are killing Cassini</h2><p><br>NASA launched Cassini toward Saturn in 1997. The probe arrived in 2004, and has studied the planet, its rings of ice and dust, and collection of mysterious moons ever since.</br></p><p>On Friday, the mission is coming to a "a fiery end high above the clouds of Saturn," Earl Maize, an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) who manages the Cassini mission, told reporters during a NASA press conference on Wednesday.</p><p>"We'll be saddened, there's no doubt about it, at the loss of such an incredible machine," Maize said. "But I think all of us have a great sense of pride ... We set out to do something at Saturn, we did it, we did it extremely well, and we delivered more and more. And we've left the world informed, but still wondering."</p><p>The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cassini-death-grand-finale-reason-2017-4">reason NASA is destroying Cassini</a> is because of the spacecraft's most astonishing discovery.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>In 2005, the probe detected jets of water shooting out of Saturn's moon Enceladus. It later flew through those geysers, helping confirm the moon hides a salty ocean below its ice-encrusted surface. Titan - a moon of Saturn the size of planet Mercury - may also have a liquid ocean.<p>"To find that there's an ocean world so tiny with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/saturn-encealdus-hydrothermal-vent-aliens-2017-4">a possibility of life</a>, so far from the sun - 10 times farther from the sun than the Earth - has opened up our paradigm of where you might look for life, both within our own solar system, and in the exoplanet systems beyond," <a href="https://science.jpl.nasa.gov/people/Spilker/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Linda Spilker</a>, a Cassini project scientist and a planetary scientist at NASA JPL, said of Enceladus during the press conference.</p><p>These <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/water-space-volume-planets-moons-2016-10">water worlds</a> may be habitable to aliens, and Cassini running low on propellant, so NASA is not taking any chances.</p><p>"Because of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-planetary-protection-officer-job-opening-2017-7">planetary protection</a>, and our desire to go back to Enceladus, and go back to Titan," said Jim Green, the leader of NASA's planetary <keyword id="41551" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> program, "we must protect those bodies for future exploration."</p><h2>How to watch NASA learn that Cassini has died</h2><p>The space agency will begin live video coverage of Cassini's death on <strong>Friday starting at 7 a.m. EDT</strong>.</p><p>NASA can't see the probe destroyed from 932 million miles away, since no other spacecraft exist at Saturn. However, it will show an animation of Cassini's position. Hosts will cover the ins and outs of the final moments live from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, where the mission is headquartered.</p><p>NASA expects the last signal - and confirmation of the probe's destruction - to arrive at Earth around 7:56 a.m. EDT.</p><p>You can watch the NASA TV broadcast below at that time.</p><p><br>If the YouTube feed above stops working, NASA TV also has&#xa0;a channel on Ustream.</br></p><p>You can watch that feed below.</p><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:43%"></div></div><div></div><div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/animation-video-how-far-humans-sent-spacecraft-space-exploration-nasa-2017-8">Animated map of the solar system shows just how far humans have explored space</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

NASA will stream video during Cassini's death plunge - and you can watch it live on YouTube

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Superfast computers built on the bizarre principles of quantum physics are coming, and when they finally get here, they're going to change everything.</p><p>Eric Ladizinsky, cofounder of the quantum computing company D-Wave, gave a great explanation of the difference between a regular computer and a quantum computer during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLJ38KDS4Pc" target="_parent">talk at the WIRED 2014 conference</a> in London.</p><p>Imagine you only have five minutes to find an "X" written on a page of a book in the Library of Congress (which has 50 million books). It would be impossible. But if you were in 50 million parallel realities, and in each reality you could look through the pages of a different book, in one of those realities you would find the "X."</p><p>In this scenario a regular computer is you running around like a crazy person trying to look through as many books as possible in five minutes. A quantum computer is you split into 50 million yous, casually flipping through one book in each reality.</p><p>If this still sounds like magic or witchcraft, you're not alone. Physicist Richard Feynman once famously said: "If you think you understand quantum physics, you don't understand quantum physics."</p><p>The bottom line is that regular computers have to solve one problem at a time in sequence, but quantum computers can solve multiple problems at the same time. That kind of speed as the potential to revolutionize entire industries.</p><p>And it's not just their speed. Quantum computers can solve the kind of complex problems that regular computers are really bad at solving. They're more human-like in their problem solving approach, and that will make them better able to complement human tasks.</p><p>We definitely still have <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-quantum-computing-milestone-2015-3" target="_parent">more tech issues</a> to work out before we have fully-functioning quantum computers, but here are some of the most exciting future applications of quantum computing:</p><h3><strong>1. Really accurate weather forecasting <br /></strong></h3><p>Even with cutting edge instruments that analyze temperature and pressure, there's too many possible ways a given weather pattern can manifest itself, and current weather forecasting is an educated guess at best, Ray Johnson, a board member at the startup quantum computing company <a href="http://www.qxbranch.com/" target="_parent">QxBranch</a>, told Business Insider.</p><p>Quantum computing could analyze all that data at once and give us a better idea of when and where bad weather will strike. We'd have advanced notice of major storms like hurricanes and the extra prep time could help save lives.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Director of engineering at Google, Hartmut Neven, also noted <a href="http://googleresearch.blogspot.ca/2013/05/launching-quantum-artificial.html" target="_parent">wrote</a> that quantum computers could help build better climate models that could give us more insight into how humans are influencing the environment. These models are what we build our estimates of future warming on, and help us determine what steps need to be taken now to prevent disasters. Knowing more about how our climate scenario will play out can only help us in the long run.</p><h3><strong>2. More efficient drug</strong><strong> discovery</strong></h3><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Developing a new drug is a complicated process.</p><p>Chemists have to test tons of different molecular combinations to find one that actually has properties that are effective against a disease. This process can take years and cost millions of dollars. Chemists bring tons of these combinations to later-stage trials and many of them still end up failing.</p><p><strong>A quantum computer would be able to map out trillions of molecular combinations and quickly identify the ones that would most likely work, significantly cutting down the cost and the time of drug development.</strong></p><p>Quantum computing could also <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=L6N_BAAAQBAJ&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PA92&amp;dq=quantum+computing+drug+development&amp;ots=p1zB7UDX1E&amp;sig=VEPZ6MLrOBy3frlzhwuu2Nc-PGA#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" target="_parent">sequence and analyze a person's genes much faster</a> than the methods we have now, and that could also help make personalized drugs and healthcare more available to the masses.</p><p>Right now, many drugs don't make it to market because, for example, a small subset of people react particularly badly to it. So we usually kill that drug even though it might be helpful for some people. With personalized gene analysis and better drug knowledge we could predict these bad interactions.</p><h3><strong>3. No more traffic nightmares</strong></h3><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Quantum computing could streamline both air traffic and ground-based traffic control because they're so good at quickly calculating the optimal route.</p><p>If you're planning a road trip with 10 different stops, a regular computer would have to individually calculate the length of all the possible routes you could take and then figure out the best one. A quantum computer could calculate the length of all the routes at the same time and arrive at the optimal route much faster - these are the exact kinds of calculations needed for directing airplanes or analyzing traffic.</p><p>Sophisticated analysis of air traffic patterns using a quantum computer would mean <a href="http://www.nas.nasa.gov/quantum/quantumcomp.html" target="_parent">more efficient flight scheduling</a> and would cut down on travel time since we could better avoid bottle-necking in airport take offs and landings.</p><p>The same technique could be applied to highways and complicated city grids to avoid congestion.</p><h3><strong>4. Beefing up military and defense</strong></h3><p>Satellites are constantly collecting tons of images and video. There's far more data than anyone could ever search through, so a lot of it just gets tossed aside, Johnson said. We might miss crucial intelligence in some of that discarded data.</p><p>A quantum computer would sort through that mountain of data much faster than a regular computer or a human could, and it could point us to which images and videos we should take a closer look at and which ones we can just ignore and throw out.</p><p>Regular computers aren't very good at this "Where's Waldo?" kind of recognition, but, like humans, quantum computers are really good at picking out specific details from a messy background.</p><h3><strong>5. Secure, encrypted communication</strong></h3><p>We use encryption all the time whether we realize it or not. We rely on it when we sign into an email account or use our credit card to buy something online.</p><p>It's possible to make encryption even more secure by using the same weird quantum mechanics property that makes a quantum computer work.</p><p>This ultra-secure communication is called <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-quantum-encryption-2014-3" target="_parent">quantum key distribution</a> and it allows someone to send a message to someone else that only they can read by using a key to decipher it. If a third party intercepts the key then, thanks to the weird magic of quantum mechanics, it becomes useless and no one can read the message. A preliminary version of this kind of communication technology is used by a few places in Europe, but it's still largely unavailable in the US.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>But while the same principle of quantum computing could make communication more secure, quantum computers could make it much much easier to <a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/read/your-encryption-will-be-useless-against-hackers-with-quantum-computers" target="_parent">break the encrypted messages</a> that we have now. Some of Edward Snowden's <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-seeks-to-build-quantum-computer-that-could-crack-most-types-of-encryption/2014/01/02/8fff297e-7195-11e3-8def-a33011492df2_story.html" target="_parent">leaked documents</a> from the NSA describe the agency's plan to develop quantum computers to do just that.</p><p>If a hacker (or nosy government) ever got their hands on a working quantum computer, more old-school encrypted data from places like banks and governments could be in serious danger.</p><h3><strong>6. Accelerating space exploration</strong></h3><p>Astronomers have discovered nearly 2,000 confirmed planets outside our solar system using the <a href="http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/" target="_parent">Kepler space telescope</a>.</p><p>The Kepler search involves peering at these distant so-called exoplanets and waiting for them to pass in front of their host star. When that happens, the exoplanets cast a shadow that astronomers can then analyze and make predictions about whether their atmosphere is suitable for life or not.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>A <a href="http://www.nas.nasa.gov/quantum/research.html" target="_parent">quantum computer could tackle more data</a> in any given telescope view, spot more exoplanets, and help quickly identify which ones have the most potential to harbor life. It could even uncover exoplanets that Kepler missed during its first run through older images.</p><h3><strong>7. Machine learning and automation</strong></h3><p>It sounds super creepy, but like humans, quantum computers can learn from experience. They can self correct. For example, a quantum computer could actually modify the code of a program that keeps messing up.</p><p>This concept is called machine learning - it's similar to how your Facebook news feed changes based on which posts you "like," but much more sophisticated.</p><p>The machine learning of quantum computers could help us do a lot of things much faster and much more efficiently, and continued improvement of the function of quantum computers by quantum computers could lead to things like semi-automatic vehicles and other advanced forms of artificial intelligence.</p><p>All of these applications are exciting, but we've got a ways to go before they're available. Still, some of the major players working on quantum computers include Google and NASA, and when big companies like these get involved with new cutting edge technology like this, we usually don't have to wait that long for big breakthroughs.</p><p>Johnson thinks we are on the cusp of big discoveries that will open up these applications, but they're really just the beginning.</p><p>"I think it's going to have many many applications that we can't even think of today," Johnson said.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/johannes-kepler-math-theory-spherical-objects-2014-9">A Computer Just Solved A 400-Year-Old Math Problem About The Best Way To Stack Balls</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="IyamMycDrElYzzFi0OMAT1yporRy3NXE" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

7 awesome ways quantum computers will change the world

<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>One of humanity's biggest questions is "Are we alone?" </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But is that still the right question?</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Astronomers have confirmed over 1,800 exoplanets in our galaxy and estimate that there are around </span><a href="http://www.space.com/19103-milky-way-100-billion-planets.html">100 billion in total</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_potentially_habitable_exoplanets">Abuut 50 of these</a> seem to be habitable. </span>So, chances are good that we are not alone.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A better question for the new age is: If ET exists, what should we do about it?</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">That's what scientists at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute <a href="http://www.aaas.org/news/seti-debates-wisdom-revealing-ourselves-galaxy">discussed last month</a> at the annual American Association for the Advancement of <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">Science</keyword> meeting.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">SETI is famous for its series of telescopes that search the skies for messages that look like they could be sent by intelligent extraterrestrial beings. But so far the cosmos has been quiet.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">And after 50 years of listening, some of the folks at SETI are starting to say it's high time for a change to the way we search.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">If we're ever going to make contact, then the burden is on us to do more than listen: We should be initiating the conversation, the director of SETI's interstellar message composition, Douglas A. Vakoch, told Business Insider.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This initiation project, Vakoch calls Active SETI.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"It may be that signaling of our intention to make contact is what's really required to trigger a response," Vakoch said. And so&#xa0;<span>"the most critical reason to add Active SETI to our search strategy is that this may be the strategy that lets us make contact."</span></span></p><h1><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A bold move for humankind</span></h1><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Vakock and some of his colleagues at SETI want to use some of the institute's telescopes, including the Aerecibo radio telescope in Perto Rico, not only to listen but to send powerful transmissions deep into space that clearly state: We are here and we want to communicate.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">That's a very bold move for humankind, and not everyone is on board. Those who are hesitant or downright against the idea include Stephen Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Elon Musk, and Sean Carroll.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Why are these men, who are famous for their innovation and intelligence, seemingly so close-minded? After all, if Active SETI did succeed, making contact with an alien race would be the most important discovery in human history not only from a technological stand point but from an intellectual one, as well.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">DeGrasse Tyson was especially firm on his stance during a recent interview with Business Insider.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"We don't give our address to members of our own species whom we don't know. So, the urge to give our home address to aliens? That's audacious," he said.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The problem is that even though making contact would be the most important discovery in human history, it might also be one of our last discoveries.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/meti_statement_0.html">In a statement issued earlier this year</a> a group of scientists state, "We know nothing of ETI's [Extraterrestrial Intelligence] intentions and capabilities, and it is impossible to predict whether ETI will be benign or hostile." Of the several dozens of people who signed this statement in a cautionary measure against Active SETI was Elon Musk.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Sean Carroll has similar sentiments in a brief Twitter conversation with Business Insider:</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&#xa0;</span></p><div><div></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><div><div></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Fear of the unknown didn't stop Francis Magellan, Lewis and Clark, or Neil Armstrong, human history's most important explorers. But the key difference is that if something goes wrong when we make contact with aliens, we're not just risking the lives of the few who brave the unknown. The existence of our entire species and the thousands of other species on Earth is at stake.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">To this, Vakoch and his colleagues argue that any alien civilization advanced enough to wipe out life on Earth would already know we're here. We've been transmitting into space since the '70s. Anyone advanced enough to obliterate our speices would be advanced enough to listen, and would be here by now or are already on their way. </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">So we're pretty screwed in that regard.</span></p><h1><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Speaking for Earth</span></h1><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Committing global suicide is not the point of Active SETI, emphasizes Vakoch.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"What Active SETI does is announces ourselves to civilizations that don't have those capacities far in advance of humans," he said.&#xa0;</span></p><p>Moreover, extinction is just half of the issue here.</p><p>"One of the key questions that we raise when contemplating Active SETI is: Who speaks for Earth?" Vakoch told Business Insider. "And the answer is, well, everyone should."</p><p>That's why Vakoch and his colleagues at SETI launched the study <a href="http://earthspeaks.seti.org/pages">"Earth Speaks"</a>, which solicits online comments from, quite literally, everyone on Earth, or at least everyone with access to the Internet. And the overall theme shining through the thousands of submissions is encouraging.&#xa0;</p><p>Many people articulate the fact that they're ready to make contact, so "I suspect that the idea has been discussed so often that people will accommodate to this discovery pretty readily," Vakoch said.</p><p><span>And despite the unknowns, deGrasse Tyson did acknowledge how incredible a discovery it would be:</span></p><p><span>"But here's the thing: Holding aside those uncertainties, it would be awesome to make contact with an advanced civilization."</span></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>

Serious talk about contacting aliens is sparking a fiery debate in the scientific community

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Here’s how you can explore Mars, Jupiter or even leave the solar system

NASA will stream video during Cassini's death plunge - and you can watch it live on YouTube

Dave Mosher

7 awesome ways quantum computers will change the world

Kelly Dickerson

Serious talk about contacting aliens is sparking a fiery debate in the scientific community

Jessica Orwig

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