Word: helpful
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...came from billions of light-years away. To date, the best explanation theorists have come up with is that the bursts come from "hypernovas," massive stars exploding with hitherto unsuspected power. "I feel really fortunate," says Djorgovski. "This was a world-class mystery, and the Keck allowed us to help solve...
...already doing first-rate science. Earlier this year, for example, astronomers from Sweden, Italy, Denmark and Germany used one of the scopes to help solve astronomy's so-called age paradox. In the mid-1990s, astronomers used the Hubble to measure the age of the universe at between 8 billion and 12 billion years. But other experts insisted they knew of stars that were at least 14 billion years old--obviously a problem, since stars can't be older than the cosmos. Using the VLT, though, observers have measured minute traces of radioactive uranium and thorium in the oldest stars...
Still, U.S.-based telescopes remain ahead on several fronts, including the detwinkling of starlight. The technology that does this is called adaptive optics, and it was originally developed in secrecy by the Department of Defense to help military snoops take sharp pictures of Soviet spy satellites. Largely declassified in the 1980s, it's now being adapted for major telescopes everywhere. The idea is straightforward: stars and galaxies twinkle and shimmer because turbulent pockets of air act as weak, light-distorting lenses (heat rising from a car's hood or an asphalt parking lot causes a similar effect). With adaptive optics...
...using a shoestring. He suffered severe brain damage. "Till the day we die, we'll have to take care of him," says his father Michael, a school custodian. "There's a lot of anger for what they allow to happen to these kids--how these kids cry out for help and nobody answers...
...they will survive after leaving the state's care. Studies show that former foster kids are at risk of becoming criminals, homeless or pregnant after being "emancipated" from the system, according to child-welfare experts. Until a few years ago, many kids who reached legal age had no help to ease the transition. Somebody would show up on the doorstep of their foster homes and tell them to pack their belongings in a plastic...