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Massive earthquake rocks Chile; Tsunami alert issued for Hawaii

A powerful earthquake has hit central Chile, causing buildings to sway in the capital Santiago. The 7.9-magnitude tremor centred off the coast, about 153 miles (246km) north-west of the capital. Chilean officials said it measured 7.2. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warned that "widespread hazardous tsunami waves are possible". There were no immediate reports of damage, Chile's emergency office was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Explanation: Is the night sky darkest in the direction opposite the Sun? No. In fact, a rarely discernable faint glow known as the gegenschein (German for "counter glow") can be seen 180 degrees around from the Sun in an extremely dark sky. The gegenschein is sunlight back-scattered off small interplanetary dust particles. These dust particles are millimeter sized splinters from asteroids and orbit in the ecliptic plane of the planets. Pictured above from 2008 October is one of the more spectacular pictures of the gegenschein yet taken. Here a deep exposure of an extremely dark sky over Paranal Observatory in...