Largest Space Telescope Ever Launched Will Study Big Bang Theory
Move over Hubble Telescope, the European Space Agency has launched the largest telescope ever sent to space on a mission to study how the Big Bang created the universe. This comes right on the heels of another related and exciting scientific breakthrough: for the first time ever, scientists have successfully showed us how the earliest building blocks for life on the planet probably formed from scratch. Are we on the brink of a more complete understanding of our planet’s evolution?
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The Associated Press reports that the large Herschel Telescope will collect data about how stars and galaxies form, by analyzing materials such as ice chunks and debris left over from the formation of planets. Meanwhile, a second spacecraft known as the Planck will collect information about radiation that remains from the big bang explosion.
While it’s probably best to remain skeptical that we will definitely find the answers we seek in space, new research indicates that we are actually beginning to understand the origins of life quite well here on earth. In a study that was published on Wednesday in the prestigious journal Nature, scientists write about how they successfully formed what they think is one of the most primeval materials that created life: RNA. You might remember it from biology class as one of the precursor elements to DNA, life’s genetic material. An article in Wired provides a summary:
A fundamental but elusive step in the early evolution of life on Earth has been replicated in a laboratory. Researchers synthesized the basic ingredients of RNA, a molecule from which the simplest self-replicating structures are made. Until now, they couldn’t explain how these ingredients might have formed…RNA is now found in living cells, where it carries information between genes and protein-manufacturing cellular components. Scientists think RNA existed early in Earth’s history, providing a necessary intermediate platform between pre-biotic chemicals and DNA, its double-stranded, more-stable descendant.
So what should we make of all this?
I don’t know.
But it seems that to better understand the ecosystems of the world, ourselves, and every organism there is– it would helpful to know just how we got here and started evolving. Scientific developments such as these are exciting and terrific food for thought.
Photo Credits: © ESA
Somehow I doubt it will outdo the Hubble which has delivered so much in return!
Why don’t we call it what it’s REALLY about…
The quest to prove that all the religious nutcases are nothing but a bunch of loud mouthed A-HOLES.
Ever heard of a waste of money… Who freakin’ cares, not like you’ll ever be able to go to the places you’ll see with this thing
So ignorant.
DAVPX:
Obviously you don’t care to know much about the universe. If you aren’t interested in knowing things, please don’t speak up. Thanks.
This is not a waste of money. If you read the article, this telescope will possibly make an understanding on how our planet was created and even how the universe was formed!
This is stupid.
Everyone at digg.com will agree that evolution has no backing and is made up. I can’t believe people buy into this stuff.
Heitz, science has never been about disproving religions. It has always been about finding out were we came from through methods we can test and prove. Since no one on earth can point our finger and say “SUN” and a sun appears, we have to figure out how to do it through natural means. I am not a religious person, but calling the religious people “Loud Mouthed A-Holes” makes you just as bad as them. Just enjoy the discovery without trolling…
Davpx, it doesn’t interest you to know what happened to produce this super massive thing we live in, called the universe? What else should we do with our time but if not to ask questions about who we are and what we are made from?
Beats the hell out of “belief” in some made up nonsense, which out funds projects like these 100 to one…
I just wished - they could spend this cost in helping the poorest of the poor. And then compare or weigh the happiness - Where is it more? In helping the needy (human beings on same planets) or Understanding the Universe (XX light years away!)?
We all are blessed with a BRAIN. So spin it harder…