Her Fighting Chance Michelle Rodriguez was an extra a few years ago. The boxing drama Girlfight could make her a star

By In 1998, it looked as though the movie world was about to knock Michelle Rodriguez out of the ring. The would-be actress was living with her mother in Jersey City, N.J., and laboring as an extra in movies like Summer of Sam; the thankless, anonymous work was wearing her out

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First rocky planet found outside solar system

Scientists have discovered the first confirmed Earthlike planet outside our solar system, they announced Wednesday. “This is the first confirmed rocky planet in another system,” astronomer Artie Hatzes told CNN, contrasting the solid planet with gaseous ones like Jupiter and Saturn

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‘Giga Galaxy Zoom’ offers tour of Milky Way

The name is already taken, but “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” might be a fitting title for a new interactive view of the Milky Way unveiled this week by the European Southern Observatory. The 800-million-pixel panorama shows an edge-on view of the plane of our galaxy, complete with points of interests such as the 12-billion-year-old, star-packed globular cluster Omega Centauri and the beautiful, reddish Rosette Nebula.

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‘Butterfly Nebula’ catches Hubble’s attention

Forget Hollywood special effects or Impressionist paintings — some of the most stunning images are created by the mysterious and often violent forces in the universe. Witness the handful of new snapshots taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, which was equipped with a new imaging camera during a space shuttle servicing mission in May

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