Hold the phone – aliens might not call us back for 1500 years and other top stories.

• Hold the phone – aliens might not call us back for 1500 years

  

  So much for UFOs. Extraterrestrial life might be out there, according to scientists at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., but it is unlikely that our cosmic neighbors will get in touch for at least 1,500 years. We shouldn't be worrying about how long we wait, say the scientists behind a new paper, "A Probabilistic Analysis of the Fermi Paradox." Chances are that any "messages" the Earth has sent out into the universe in the form of TV or radio signals have likely only reached a tiny fraction o..

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• Summer Solstice 2016: Times and rituals surrounding the longest day of the year and the full Strawberry Moon

  

  As the summer solstice approaches, everyone starts talking about the fact that the days will soon start shortening into winter. There's a very British pessimism that says it's all downhill from here, and we might as well pack away our shorts and sunglasses and dust off our wellington boots in preparation for the autumn. But the summer is far from over. As well as being the longest day of the year, the solstice is also a time for shenanigans at Stonehenge, general celebrations and a pause to cel..

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• Antarctic CO2 levels highest in 4 million years: Is that a problem?

  

  Antarctica recently witnessed an event that last took place four million years ago: Carbon dioxide levels broke through the barrier of 400 parts per million (ppm).In fact, the frozen continent is a laggard in this respect. The announcement Wednesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) gave the date of this milestone as May 23. But the global annual mean concentration of carbon dioxide already surpassed 400 ppm last year, the first time that has happened in human histor..

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• Oldest oxygen in the universe could solve mystery of star formation

  

  Astronomers have discovered signs of oxygen in one of the universe's first galaxies, which was born shortly after the cosmic "Dark Ages" that existed before the universe had stars, a new study finds.The discovery — which centers on the truly ancient galaxy SXDF-NB1006-2, located about 13.1 billion light-years from Earth — could help solve the mystery of how much the first stars helped to clear the murky fog that once filled the universe, the researchers said.Previous research suggested that, af..

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• Too many couples do not understand marriage is for life, pope says

  

  Because most people today do not understand that sacramental marriage really is a bond that binds them to each other for life, many marriages today can be considered invalid, Pope Francis said. Raising a point he has raised before, and one also raised by now-retired Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis insisted June 16 that the validity of a marriage implies that a couple understands that sacramental marriage is a bond that truly binds them to another for their entire lives. "We are living in a cult..

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• Three International Space Station astronauts land in Kazakhstan

  

  Member of the International Space Station (ISS) crew Britain's Tim Peake gestures shortly after landing near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Saturday, June 18, 2016. A three-person crew from the International Space Station has landed …more.

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