German forest boy is telling the truth, say police

The story of an English–speaking boy who emerged after five years living in a German forest is "credible" and his accent may prove the key to establishing his true identity, German police said.

The boy, 17, told police that his father had died and
he had buried him in a shallow grave in the woods

“His story is highly unusual and raises some questions,” a police spokesman told The Daily Telegraph. “But we believe it is credible – that is why we are investigating.”
The teenager, who gave his name only as Ray, turned up at Berlin’s City Hall on Sept 5 claiming to have been living in the forest with his father for five years.

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Big New ExoPlanet Haul

From EsoCast in 1080p, comes the announcement of a rash of new planet discoveries. Astronomers using ESO's leading exoplanet hunter HARPS have today announced more than fifty newly discovered planets around other stars. Among these are many rocky planets not much heavier than the Earth. One of them in particular orbits within the habitable zone around its star.

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Apollo moon tracks, trash in never before-seen images

Paths left by astronauts and moon buggies in 1972 Apollo 17 mission (AP/NASA)

(CBS/AP)
 

WASHINGTON - A robotic spaceship circling the moon has snapped the sharpest photos ever of the tracks and trash left by Apollo astronauts in visits from 1969 to 1972.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter got close enough to see the astronauts' path when they walked on the moon. The photos also show ruts left by a moon buggy and even backpacks pitched out of the lunar landers before the U.S. visitors returned to Earth.

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Aliens may destroy humanity to protect other civilisations, say scientists

Rising greenhouse emissions could tip off aliens that we are a rapidly expanding threat, warns a report

When they see what a mess we've made of our planet, extraterrestrials
may be forced to take drastic action. Photograph: PR

 

It may not rank as the most compelling reason to curb greenhouse gases, but reducing our emissions might just save humanity from a pre-emptive alien attack, scientists claim.
Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth's atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilisation growing out of control – and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain.

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Space Boat: A Nautical Mission to an Alien Sea

TiME This capsule designed to explore Titan's seas is one of three projects being considered to receive NASA funding next year. Graham Murdoch
 

In 2006, while flying by Saturn’s moon Titan, the radar on NASA’s Cassini orbiter discovered seas of liquid ethane and methane on the moon’s –300ºF surface, the only bodies of liquid we know of that exist anywhere but on Earth. Some of the oily seas appeared on Cassini’s radar to be larger than Lake Superior, but visibility was poor because Titan’s atmosphere is thick and hazy.

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Was Earth's moon made by 2 moons crashing?

Martin Jutzi and Erik Asphaug

This computer illustration depicts a collision between Earth’s moon and a companion moon that is 750 miles wide and about 4 percent of the lunar mass. This late, slow accretion could explain the moon's farside highlands, scientists say.
 

A tiny second moon may once have orbited Earth before catastrophically slamming into the other one, a titanic clash that could explain why the two sides of the surviving lunar satellite are so different from each other, a new study suggests.

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Where did my consciousness come from?

THINK for a moment about a time before you were born. Where were you? Now think ahead to a time after your death. Where will you be? The brutal answer is: nowhere. Your life is a brief foray on Earth that started one day for no reason and will inevitably end.

But what a foray. Like the whole universe, your consciousness popped into existence out of nothingness and has evolved into a rich and complex entity full of wonder and mystery.

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