NASA to Launch Asteroid-Sampling Mission Next Week and other top stories.

• NASA to Launch Asteroid-Sampling Mission Next Week

  

  NASA's asteroid-sampling OSIRIS-REx spacecraft being prepared for encapsulation in its payload fairing inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA/Glenn Benson The launch of NASA's first asteroid-sampling mission is less than a week away and won't be affected by a nearby SpaceX rocket explosion that occurred yesterday (Sept. 1), space agency officials say. On Thursday, Sept. 8, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is scheduled to lau..

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• 'The Ivory Game' Telluride Review: Urgent Documentary About Elephant Killing Is a Roar for Action

  

  With more than 150,000 elephants killed in the last five years, the scourge of ivory trading has quickly turned into an extinction issue. As reported upfront in “The Ivory Game” — a persuasive new documentary from directors Richard Ladkani and Kief Davidson (“The Devil’s Miner”) and executive producer Leonardo DiCaprio that plays like a rapid response team headed straight for your conscience — at the current rate, African elephants will be wiped out within 15 years. It’s the kind of worldwide n..

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• SpaceX scouring data for clues to launch pad explosion

  

  Smoke rises from a SpaceX launch site Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016, at Cape Canaveral, Fla. NASA said SpaceX was conducting a test firing of its unmanned rocket when a blast occurred. (AP Photo/Marcia Dunn). SpaceX is scouring computer and video data for ...

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• The Real Story: Alien Radio Signal

  

  Let's imagine having to point out to a close friend they hadn't actually won the lottery. You'd probably feel almost as bad as they would. Well, that's where we are. Big news Earlier this week, the web was aflutter with news that radio astronomers in Russia had picked up 'suprisingly strong' radio signals coming from a star cluster about 94 light years away. The signals were coming from the Hercules constellation, and based on the power of the signals and their frequency, the buzz was that thi..

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• NASA Discovers 'Lonely Mountain' On Ceres Likely Salty-Mud Cryovolcano

  

  ABOVE VIDEO: Analysis of images from NASA's Dawn mission reveals that dwarf planet Ceres hosts an unexpectedly young cryovolcano that formed with the past billion years. (NASA) – An isolated mountain near the equator of the dwarf planet Ceres ...

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• NASA's Delayed Mars Lander Will Launch in 2018

  

  This artist's concept from August 2015 depicts NASA's InSight Mars lander fully deployed for studying the deep interior of the Red Planet. The lander is scheduled to launch in the spring of 2018. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech A mission to study the inner workings of Mars is now set to launch in the spring of 2018, NASA announced today (Sept. 2). The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, or InSight, was originally scheduled to launch in March 2016, ..

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• China Ratifies Paris Climate Deal Ahead of G-20 Summit

  

  HANGZHOU, China — China announced on Saturday that it has ratified the emissions-cutting agreement reached last year in Paris, giving a big boost to efforts to bring the accord into effect by the end of this year.The United States was also expected to announce that it was formally joining the Paris Agreement in advance of the Group of 20 summit that starts Sunday in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou. Obama landed in Hangzhou Saturday and was scheduled to speak about climate change shortly..

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• Vast doughnut-shaped reef found in Australia

  

  Story highlightsDiscovery of a large field of unusual circular mounds announced FridayUnique-looking structures are created by a green algae, scientists sayScientists have discovered a large doughnut-shaped coral reef in northern Queensland, sitting behind the iconic Great Barrier Reef. The discovery of a large field of unusual circular mounds was announced Friday by a group of scientists from James Cook University, University of Sydney and Queensland University of Technology, who worked with la..

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• This Innovative Plastic Wrap Fabric Could Help Us Against Climate Change

  

  When it's hot and humid outside, you pump up the air-conditioning in your car or inside your house to feel cooler. However, such electric devices carry environmental consequences. Air conditioning units consume energy supplied by power plants, which generate electricity by burning fossil fuels. As a result, power plants can discharge clouds of pollutants such as soot, carbon dioxide (CO2) and mercury into the atmosphere. And as we all know, too much CO2 in the atmosphere can increase Earth's te..

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• Jupiter's Wild North Pole, Southern Auroras Photographed for 1st Time

  

  NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured this image of Jupiter’s north pole on Aug. 27, from a distance of 120,000 miles (195,000 kilometers). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS NASA's Juno spacecraft has beamed home the first-ever photos of Jupiter's north pole, and scientists can hardly believe their eyes. Juno captured the images on Aug. 27, when the probe skimmed just 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometers) above Jupiter's cloud tops during the first of three dozen close flybys of the solar system'..

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1000-acre Bogart fire in Riverside County was caused by 'juvenile activity' near public park, officials say .	Juno Probe to Get 1st Up-Close Look at Jupiter Saturday .