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That asteroid that hit the earth 13,000 years ago was a killer, all right–it triggered an ice age that wiped out most of the large animals on Earth. Melted glass buried deep within the Earth at sites around the world confirms the theory that a comet or meteor was responsible.

In the June 12th edition of the Los Angeles Times, Thomas H. Maugh II writes: "The Younger Dryas event began about 12,900 years ago and lasted about 1,300 years.

"The period is named after the alpine-tundra wildflower, Dryas octopetala, which spread southward during the period. Average temperatures during the period dropped by as much as 20 degrees Fahrenheit in Europe, perhaps a little less in North America.
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A new gold rush is on! Google executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt (along with filmmaker James Cameron) are backing a plan to mine gold and other precious metals from asteroids.

They’ve formed a company called Planetary Resources, which will start out by developing low-cost robotic spacecraft that can survey nearby asteroids. NASA will probably be one of their first customers.
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When US astronauts planted an American flag on the moon, it made other countries nervous because it seemed as if our country might be "claiming" it. Now space lawyers say that the international legal system must be improved and expanded before any products that are space-mined from asteroids are brought back to Earth to sell.

If plans to use robots to mine asteroid succeed, it would create its fair share of confusion about mining rights in space–from who owns what to how business interests beyond Earth’s orbit would be specifically protected.
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NASA may return to space after all–but not to explore, to MINE the valuable minerals that are on asteroids, in a NEW TYPE of "Gold Rush." And we may use robots to do the dirty work.

Space scientists think that robots will be the astronauts of the future. They’ll explore the universe, find and identify extraterrestrial life and even clean up space debris in the process. In the April 24th edition of the New York Times, Kenneth Chang writes: "Perhaps it will be a platinum rush that finally opens up the final frontier."
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