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Stories
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Science
Who gets to use NASA's James Webb Space Telescope? Astronomers work to fight bias
With the James Webb Space Telescope safely deployed, many scientists want to use it. To minimize the effect of unconscious biases, they go through a process developed for the Hubble Space Telescope.
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Science
Why some astronomers once feared NASA's James Webb Space Telescope would never launch
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is waiting at its launch site, after years of repeated delays and cost overruns. At one point, the giant new observatory was threatened with cancellation.
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Science
This new space telescope should reveal what the universe looked like as a baby
The upcoming launch of NASA's powerful James Webb Space Telescope should let astronomers see what some of the universe's first stars and galaxies looked like soon after the Big Bang.
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National
NASA is about to launch the most powerful space telescope ever
The James Webb Space Telescope will let astronomers peer farther into space than ever before, to see what galaxies looked like when the universe was newly born.
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Science
Astronomers find a new planet that's mostly made of iron
NASA's TESS telescope finds a small, iron-rich planet which could help explain the origins of Mercury, the innermost planet in our solar system
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Science
Ancient footprints mistakenly attributed to bears were made by early humans
A new look at nearly 3.7-million-year-old fossil footprints uncovered in Tanzania shows that multiple species of early humans lived together at the same time.
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Science
In a first test of its planetary defense efforts, NASA's going to shove an asteroid
NASA is about to launch the first mission of its new planetary defense office. A spacecraft will attempt to knock a small asteroid off course by ramming into it.
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Technology
Astronomers want NASA to build a giant space telescope to peer at alien Earths
NASA should work toward a new space telescope that could view small planets around distant stars with the potential to host life, expert panel says
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Environment
The biggest whales can eat the equivalent of 80,000 Big Macs in one day
Scientists have gotten the best estimates yet of exactly how much baleen whales, the largest animals on the planet, can consume in one day. Their caloric intake is mind-boggling.
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Science
Two scientists win Nobel Prize in chemistry for new way of building molecules
Benjamin List and David MacMillan were awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in chemistry for coming up with a new tool for constructing molecules that has advanced pharmaceuticals and green technology.