Astronomers have gathered evidence allowing them potentially determine the age of our universe, according to a report published in Phys.org. Through a recent Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory or LIGO experiment, scientists detected gravitational waves emitted from a collision between two black holes, 36 and 29 times respectively of the mass of our sun. As scientists can now measure gravitational waves, they’re using them to detect earlier activity in the primordial cosmos.

Despite the collision of these black holes, they’re relatively small in comparison to the supermassive black holes positioned at the center of most galaxies. Ours, the Milky Way, hosts a black hole of around 4m sun masses observed by the star’s motions orbiting it. In comparison, this stellar mass is diminished to black holes of up to tens of billions of sun masses believed to exist at within the largest galaxies.

And the collision between two supermassive black holes could only happen if two galaxies supporting them would collide. Considering the nature of our fledgling cosmos, the Big Bang, however, scientists speculate that merging galaxies were probably more common, thus, they could possibly measure their produced gravitational waves. The light discharged from these galaxies was produced within a short time period after the Big Bang’s expansion.

But the waves from the supermassive black holes are only an introduction to needed evidence. Experts believe with the rapid inflation of the Big Bang, enormous masses must have formed moving at light speed, meaning powerful gravitational waves were created—and the larger the mass, the better the signal of these waves. Scientists intend to gain perspective by indirectly observing the waves interplay on cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) left over by the Big Bang.

NASA is still accepting applicants for its astronaut program, but there are many hazards. A report from the News World Conference addressed some of the issues in visiting Mars in 2030, the space agency’s intended year of exploration, behind Mars One and SpaceX, two nonprofit foundations with the same mission. Besides the traveling and landing challenges, many other obstacles exist.

For instance, the concentration of radiation is so extreme that astronauts would need to live underground, according to a former NASA physician and long-distance biomedical expert, Jim Logan. Specifically, 9 feet of Mars soil would need to separate them from the planet’s atmosphere. The dead planet and its protective atmosphere became oblivious eons ago, resulting in intense radiation emitting from space and the sun.

And what little atmosphere there is is toxic to humans because of the high levels of carbon dioxide. Although not irreparable, the constant threat of suffocation remains. Also, the dust could be inhaled with unknown side effects—not the potential for dust storms, but the dust itself. Mars dust storms escalate to 60 miles per hour. Although not powerful enough to cause damage, the worry is the fine dust, which is even thinner than Earth’s.

Heating is another challenge because temperatures vacillate between 80 degrees F (27 C) and -225 degrees F (-143 C). And, the atmospheric pressure is dangerously low, meaning water is easily evaporated. Death would be gradual, resulting in grisly suffocation.

An international consortium of astronomers recently convened to schedule a second annual Astroid Day on June 30 to raise awareness on the study of asteroids, according to a report. Astronomers behind the organization think that more effort needs to be devoted to the preparation and prevention of near earth-bound asteroids. June 30 marks the date of the Chelyabinsk asteroid explosion, which occurred over a remote Russian settlement in 1908.

“An event like Chelyabinsk happens once every 50 years and we don’t have a system designed to discover and track these things,” Mark Boslough of Sandia National Laboratories said in a statement. Asteroid Day co-founder Grig Richters also said, “This is not about fear-mongering,” adding, “It’s about being aware there is a potential threat, and understanding better where we are from.” The scientific team intends to develop an asteroid deflection programs.

Tom Jones of the Association of Space Explorers’ Committee on Near-Earth Objects said, “Bringing space technology to bear to deflect asteroids will require widespread public support,” and “We only need modest resources compared to the cost of absorbing impact. Asteroid Day is to educate the public so we can work together to avoid an impact.”

A proposed deflection program would launch in 2020 if approved by authorities. The Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment mission would catapult an impactor at the smaller of the two bodies of the asteroid Didymos to determine the impactor’s impact. Celebrity educator Bill Nye, also a member of the panel, felt that society should prepare for such a catastrophe when technology enables us. “We’ve no evidence the dinosaurs had a space program,” Nye said, “and it cost them.”

Climate change isn’t a topic frequently studied in middle and high-school classrooms, a new study indicates, according to a report, and schools are teaching misinformation about the phenomenon. The first national survey of public middle and high school teachers discovered that only 30 percent of them said they emphasize that humans are the culprit for burning fossil fuels. Another 12 percent didn’t even mention human involvement, and 31 percent reported that they about the controversy in the scientific community.

In an earlier survey of climate scientists conducted in 2009, found that 97.4 percent agree that burning fossil fuels were the cause, but U.S. teachers were also unaware of the consensus, according to the National Center for Science Education, in coordination with Pennsylvania State and Wright State University on Feb. 12 reported in the journal Science.

Political pressure did not seem to be the reason for global warming’s lack of attention. Only 4.4 percent of teachers indicated pressure not to teach the about the controversy. And a majority of teachers, approximately 68 percent believe that climate change to be the reason. But the findings suggests that a combination of ignorance about the scientific consensus and current research might explain issue’s lack of coverage in classrooms.

Study author, Minda Berbeco, a climate change policy specialist at NCSE, said in a statement,”It’s clear that the vast majority of surveyed teachers are hungry for additional professional development,” and adds, “Even half the teachers who deny the scientific consensus on climate change say they would take this training.”

Global warming is such a heated subject, documents leaked in 2012 revealed that the conservative think tank, The Heartland Institute schemed to create school curricula that would minimize the impact of climate change. In 2014, the Texas Board of Education wanted to circulate textbooks that dissembled evidence for global warming. But under pressure from various educational groups, including the NCSE, publishers that denied climate change revised their texts.

The James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s premier space observatory for following decade, is on point for final completion this week, which was published in a report. A primary mirror segment, one of 18 telescopes, was installed onto a support framework at Goddard Space Flight Center. Additional optics must be attached and the telescope must subsequently undergo feasibility testing to confirm it can handle lift off. The rocket is scheduled for launch in late 2018.

The JWST will essentially be a large infrared telescope with a 6.5-meter primary mirror. The supplemental mirrors, hexagon in shape, each weighs 40 kg and spans 1.3 meters. The telescope will be located to the second Lagrange point of the Earth-Sun system, which is roughly 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. From this point on, it will commence observations.

Lee Feinberg, the optical telescope element manager at Goddard, sums up, “Completing the assembly of the primary mirror is a very significant milestone and the culmination of over a decade of design, manufacturing, testing, and now assembly of the primary mirror system,” and adds, “There is a huge team across the country who contributed to this achievement.”

The JWST’s completion is a milestone. It was first visualized in 1996 as a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope with a budget of only $500 million in funding and then bloated to $8.8 billion because of cost overruns and delays resulting in a backlash from scientists and other critics because NASA’s general financing was strangled to accommodate the additional costs.

Nonetheless, once the telescope becomes operational, it will provide a detailed look into the firmament. JWST’s telescope overlooks Hubble’s 2.4-meter telescope, and will analyze imagery primarily within the near-infrared area of the spectrum. Its designed to search for light emissions from the universe’s ancient stars and to gain a better perspective on the formation of space systems.