The report addresses the most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system and climate change, bringing together the latest advances in climate science, and combining multiple lines of evidence from paleoclimate, observations, process understanding, and global and regional climate simulations.
For the second time in history, a human-made object has reached the space between the stars. NASA’s Voyager 2 probe now has exited the heliosphere – the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun.
[Voyager 2 Heliopause – JPL/CalTech]Both spacecraft carry with them a 12-inch (30 cm) golden phonograph record that contains pictures and sounds of Earth, along with symbolic directions on the cover for playing the record and data detailing the location of Earth.[1][18] The record is intended as a combination of a time capsule and an interstellar message to any civilization, alien or far-future human, that may recover either of the Voyagers. The contents of this record were selected by a committee that included Timothy Ferris[18] and was chaired by Carl Sagan.
On January 4th, 2017 scientists at the CalTech L.I.G.O detected the merger of two black holes 3 billion light-years away.
At 2:11:58 a.m. on January 4th 2017 the arms of LIGO’s Hanford, WA interferometer shivered. Three milliseconds later, Livingston’s interferometer followed suit. Even though parts of the U.S. were experiencing record cold temperatures, the trembling wasn’t caused by the frigid air of that winter morning. Rather, it was the shudder of space-time itself generated by the merger of two massive black holes in the distant universe: a gravitational wave had washed over the Earth, passing successively through the two detectors while most people in the U.S. were still asleep.
This marks the furthest detection they’ve been able to make and increases confidence that these events will be seen with increasing frequency as the LIGO interferometers become more sensitive to low amplitude gravitational waves (as sources of noise are eliminated).
![[JPL/Caltech]](http://www.billcoppinger.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Voyager2-Heliopause-PIA22924-640.gif)
