Rocket just meters away. Hundreds of thousands of rakes especially yazidis. Up to 25,000 children are in dire need of humanitarian aid. It spread more rapidly. The Ebola Outbreak is spreading. Hackers allegedly stealing 1 billion user names and passwords. Rowstta meeting with a comet. Were on the comet. This guy flipped and became trapped in the gap. Rallied to free his leg. Ladies and gentlemen that is teamwork we begin with questions over how long peace will last in the middle east. As we fleer the end of a three we near the end of a three day ceasefire. Israel has agreed to extend it under its current terms but hamas has not it will negotiators in egypt trying to deal with competing and potentially irreconcilable demands from either side. On wednesday, israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu says israelis are safer now than before the fighting began. He vigorously defended the attack on gaza saying it was needed. Israel deeply regrets every civilian casualty. Every single one. We have gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid civilian casualty. Hamas has gone to extraordinary length to ensure they had civilian casualties. Spotting suspected members of hamas assembling a rocket in a residential neighborhood. The. We are witnessing something very, very unusual in ooh afternoon aabandonned profit land by our hotel. A blue tent came up this morning and there are two men moving in and out of it. It is fair to guess that this is a potential hamas rocket launching site. It also establishes something which hamas has always been accused of, that they actually use densely populated civilian areas to fire their rockets. You see that this is an area very heavily built up, a lot of residential and hotel buildings, all around. Hours later, nd tv filmed a rocket as it was launched from that same location, minutes before the 72hour ceasefire between hamas and israel dpan on tuesday. Joining us began on tuesday. Joining us is al jazeera correspondent Nick Schifrin, just back from gaza and israel where he has been reporting very effectively since the conflict began. Youve done very, very good work and thank you very much for joining us and its good to have you. Thanks for having me. We see nvtv video and now we see french video showing children playing on top of a Rocket Launcher. None of whom has been willing to admit that these rockets are launched from populated areas. What kind of things did you see . Is there any doubt at this point where rockets are being launched from where people live . No, there is no doubt. Every reporter who has been to gaza would say there are rocket launch eshes near for example hospitals and hotels where journalists stay and in general densely populated neighborhoods. You have to understand all of gaza is densely populated and so what happens is that the targets are very close to those residential neighborhoods, to homes. And many of them, when theyre struck, not only take out the Rocket Launcher but something right next to it whether its a home or field. Or people who may be on the street. Or people on the street so we are seeing Collateral Damage from people on the streets, even though those strikes generally from drones or fsceans are actually more accurate than some of the tank fire and artillery fire from the israelis. So yes, almost everything that is targeted in gaza is in a residential neighborhood or commercial gaza because most of all of gaza is like that. President obama was very harsh today, had very harsh words for hamas saying he had no sympathy for them whatsoever. He did say he had much sympathy for the plpian people who have suffered Palestinian People who have suffered in this conflict. Remember hamas acts extraordinarily irresponsibly when it is deliberatel deliberag Rocket Launchers in residential neighborhoods. Not showing enough of these rocket launches but reporting from a war zone is extremely difficult and reporting from an urban war zone, urban warfare can be horrifying at times. It can be horrifying, it is more horrifying for people who live in it than the reporters who come in and out. You can notify the israelis as where you are and at one point you can leave. Right . Thats right, so many people cant leave. It is difficult covering iran or afghanistan or wherever because everyone is so close. So the effect of that of course is that the war becomes more emotional to cover and ive covered half a dozen and its extremely difficult to deal with the families. Because the families are affected, the children, so many wounded so many killed, 400 killed and so many traumatized. The parents, one woman i spoke to one mother who actually moved her children around to different rooms every night so she felt if the israelis struck one room at least she wouldnt lose all of her kids. Its horrifying. Some of your reports have shown the horrible suffering of the people and the children. Just how bad is the devastation, gaza is twice the size of washington, d. C, it is a fairly small place, densely populated, whole neighborhoods are gone. How wide is that distribution d . The people who live there and who are older than i am call it dresden, looks like syria in shujayea, it looks like aleppo. You are talking about widespread are some areas intact . Of course. That is we highlight the conflict, we have a very narrow lens of war. We dont focus on the market, there is a market working in gaza city, people are shopping. But definitely, the deaf takings is in the millions, gaza doesnt have the money to pay its own people, let alone reconstruct, the powerpoint,al the facilities. Israel will come in at great expense and reconstructing and a lot of that will be paid by United States. War led by israel, the reconstruction led by israel and the United States. Now of course what happens with the ceasefire . We spoke yesterday with chief palestinian negotiator, how israel will deal with the factions in palestine. We dont have a hamas government now in gaza, were in charge. Thats what other palestinian leaders have told us. But weve also seen quotes from chief political leader of hamas saying that the military was completely separate, the military wing would continue to operate independent of the palestine unity government. Thats not encouraging for peace in that area because the israelis pretty much have said that unless hamas gets demilitarized, theres nowhere to go. Take one example of evidence of that, there is no Palestinian Authority ministers running the ministry. Hamas is still very much in charge of gaza, thats the split between the military and civilian wings of hamas, remember we went through eight ceasefires before this, and they say we dont buy this sorry, were going to keep launching rockets and were going opush this. This is perhaps the piggest thing. Its not clear hamas has total control over the political or military factions inside gaza. The notion that you have a consensus government only on paper, that can control gaza it doesnt really exist on paper. Now that said there are ways that theyre going to work on in cairo, the diplomats to have more authority. Palestinian authority maybe their officials will be on the board between egypt and gaza, that hasnt happened yet. That can happen, can ex power the Palestinian Authority but right now they are not. Lets hope they can extend some way the ceasefire. Nick schifrin, thanks for being here. And more of nick, stay tuned for 30 days of war, thats 11 eastern, 8 pacific. In the mountains of iraq, Iraqi Kurdish said 50,000 members of the yazidi 2nd, the yazidi fled towns and villages overrun in the past few days by the Islamic StateGroup Formerly known as i. S. I. L. Who consider the yazidi devil worshipers. Many yazidi men slaughtered and women enslaved. Credible reports that the yazidi who fled are starving and dying of thirst in the mountains. Peshmerga said they have attacked south of the kurdish capitol of erbil. With so much suffering and the growing threat to the region from the Islamic State is it time for the u. S. To intervene . For more im joined from washington, d. C. By ambassador uranium jeffrey, he served as americas ambassador to iraq under obama, deputy ambassador under george bush. Ambassador it is great to have you. You urged the u. S. To launch selective air strikes on the Islamic State sooner rather than later. The humanitarian issue that has been caused by the jihadists, with this terrible suffering by the yazidi kurds. Why have we waited so long when the president on june 14th said an Islamic State could not be tolerated . That is a mystery to all of us who worked for this administration. The president s signature has been the killing of osama Bashar Alassad and the erosion of al qaeda throughout the middle east. Suddenly we have this offshoot of al qaeda, i. S. I. L. That has seized a swath of territory in syria and iraq, i and others have been urging action since after fallujah fell to i. S. I. L. In january of this year. The president basically signaled he was preparing to do so, thats why he sent 800 troops to iraq back in june. But we havent seen any action on the ground other than intelligence sharing and other things that clearly have not succeeded in slowing these people down. I. S. I. L. Will continue to attacking sunni positions and Iraqi Government positions around baghdad until theyre stopped. The question is even if were not going to take action directlily, can we do it indirectly, helping them against Saddam Hussein husseins bruta, kurdish officials went to washington and asked for help but the administration brushed off the request. Why would the administration refuse to help them . Government fighters are still capable of fighting. The administration is providing arms to the Iraqi Government, thats good, 9 necessary but not sufficient. Were not trying to retake land from i. S. I. L. Thats going to take a long time and a different political calculus in iraq and syria. This is all about stopping a motorized conventional military force that is defeating conventional military force he and moving forward. Thats exactly what u. S. Air support is designed to stop and defeat. Its doing nothing to help that. Nothing else will help. They bombed this base in mosul and apparently killed a few dozen Islamic State fighters. Can iraq and the kurds do it themselves . They cannot but here is why what you just said was important. Nouri al maliki did provide air support for their own operations. The more the rakes show theyre willing to cooperate together, the more to dismiss to take military action on the basis of the fact that our own allies are fighting each other. Right now our own allies have their backs to the wall, sunni are fighting with the iraqi army in anbar province. Now we have this other humanitarian crisis, there were others in iraq, this is how iraqs recheiraqs representatif described the yazidis, they are completely cut off and surrounded by the Islamic State, it is a disaster, a total disaster. You know back in 1991, at the end of the gulf war, secretary of state james baker traveled to the mountains of kurdistan, tens of thousands fled there to escape, and they delivered a lot of support to protect the kurds, to need the kurds, should the United States launch a similar humanitarian mission to help these yazidi. Absolutely. Because this is even more dire, because these people are even more at risk. But we need to remember, provide comfort wasnt just care packages and water bottles. It was u. S. Boots on the ground which im not recommending right now but it was u. S. Military force and it was followed up by more than a decade of u. S. Fighter planes in the air over Northern Iraq almost every day to protect the kurds. You cant have a humanitarian operation when youve got people trying kill these yazidis or these kurds without military force backing it up and complementing it. You also warned in your post that Islamic State fighters could launch a wave of fighting in baghdad terrorize the population and that could provoke an all out shia sunni war. And sure enough, car bombs in baghdad and the Islamic State is fighting to take control of two important hydroelectric dams. How concerned are you about where this group is, and whether it could actually significantly expand its influence within iraq . Im very concerned. It cant take baghdad, but as we saw with insurgents when i was there in 2004 with 100,000 troops it can isolate baghdad, blow up the brimtion bridges, block the transmission of oil and other supplies and beleaguer the rest of the city. Thats a great concern. Im also concerned that the administration is missing these things. I and dozens of other analysts are predicting whats going to go on. Confidential reports every day that flow into the white house and nothing flows out. A lot to be concerned about there. Ambassador thank you for providing your insight. Thank you. Now for more stories from around the world. We begin in west africa where the ebola death toll has climbed to 932 and the number of confirmed cases has exceeded 1700. Thats prompted the cdc to issue its highest level of alert reserved for the worst Public Health emergencies. Saudi arabia a man died after showing ebola symptoms following abyss trip osierra leone. The World Health Organization announced on wednesday that it will consider declaring an International Health emergency if the situation continues to worsen. Next we travel to san antonio, texas. Where the army dpins to question bowe bergdahl. This is the first time he has addressed the circumstances of his capture that led to five years in prison by the taliban. Depending on the investigations outcome bergdahl could face a courts martial. He could receive no punishment at all. Perth, australia, an unlikely commuter, slipped, unable to pull himself free. After train workers struggled for ten minutes, a crowd of onlookers came to his rescue, joining together to tilt the train, to pull him out. The train left only 15 minutes late from the station. Thats some of whats happening in the world. The world faces its most difficult challenge since the end of the cold war. The author of a provocative piece that asks could we see another world war, joins us. Our social media producer, Hermela Aregawi is tracking the trending on the web. People asking this question if an animal takes a selfie who owns it . The photo and the arguments on both sides coming up. And while youre watching let us know what you think. Join the conversation on twitter ajconsiderthis and on our facebook and google plus pages. Living with violence the stories you havent heard 30 days of war hosted by John Seigenthaler only on Al Jazeera America world war i started 100 years ago this summer and while a third world war might seem unimaginable, there is no doubt that the intensity of conflicts raiging from ukraine, china, middle east, raises serious concern where were headed. Mad len albright offered a serious conversation last weej. There are a lot of things going on butter to put it mildly the world is a mess. Roger cohen, whose most recent article in the atlantic, yes, it could happen again. Conflict in the east china sea, the drugger points for world war iii are in place. Roger, thanks for being with us. Very interesting. You argue argue there was an opm back then, when the cold war ended, the unimaginable can occur. Hypothetical situations, as if world war iii might b not be unimaginable. Im not saying its true but there could be a possibility. World war i there was a moment of prosperity in the world, connected under not like today, but still, nobody thought a war could break out in which 16 Million People could be killed and four empires would collapse. I think today clearly the way the world is interconnected, the growth of institutions, like the u. N, make it unlikely. But ive not seen in my lifetime a world that feels so fragile or so dangerous or a world in which the United States seems to have pulled back from things, in a way that calls into question pax americana, the u. S. Guarantees on Global Security that existed since 1945. Lets bring up some of the things you bring up and one of the points you raise is if there were to if the bigger conflict were to break out, it could happen accidentally, not just intentionally. Yes, i think these things generally do happen accidentally. We dont see what the trigger points could be. When a serbian nationalist killed arch duke ferdinand, in 1916, nobody imagined the scenario. When i was dreechg up that magazine piece you imagined, i considered the possibility with Russian Troops massed on the ukrainian border, ppt sayin pret putin saying he would defend russianspikers anywhere, estonia a member of nato, you could imagine a scenario where america feels drawn in. I had not imagined that the separatists in Eastern Ukraine might shoot down a civilian airline and that without restraints on both sides could have easily escalated. We have seen the first forcible change of european borders in crimea and your concern with russia is the narrative there inside russia is the west is trampling on russian dignity and you point out that National Humiliation can be a tremendous catalyst for war. I think thats right, the war in bosnia for two years, i think president putin today is what are Slobodan Milosevic did. Biggest largest nation in the earth, russia is encircled to be punished by the United States and western europe and he has let loose this wave of aggressive russian nationalism. And the thing is with nationalism of that kind once the jean geni genie is out of te we see the nationalism he has unleashed in Eastern Ukraine is uncontainable. When you get a forcible change in borders for the First Time Since 1945 and the United States in essence does nothing when you have seen whats happened in Eastern Ukraine, in essence nothing and when you see the president of the United States setting a red line in syria and in essence walking away from it, it says to the world that its kind of nobodys world today. Everybody can just sort things out as best they can. Its striking to me that in the ceasefire now in gaza essentially was after the secretary of state kerry left the scene, israel and egypt working it out between themselves. That vacuum combined with the strong nationalism with the riding power of china and also russia makes for quite a perilous and imussible combustible situation. And Nuclear Capabilities and syria and the red line that president obama set in place and you argue that nothing in your opinion is more dangerous than american weakness . I think so antonio. It can certainly be debated. There are those who would say that if that very limited attack on syria by the units and france, pos by the United States and france possibly other allies would have carried out then, who knows what would have happened then, a conflict scenario between two unwon wars in iraq and afghanistan, that was the most dangerous thing could you have done. Or you could argue the most dangerous thing for world is when the United States makes commitments that it doesnt uphold and when the signal is given that okay under article 5 of the nato treaties or under article 5 with japan the United States is bound to come to the defense of its allies and if you signal that american red lines and maybe even those kinds of treaty commitments are not as sacrosanct as they were, is that more dangerous than limited use of force . Im in the second camp. I think in the end that is more dangerous because it means, its open season. You can do what you like. Its a very thoughtprovoking article in the atlantic. Roger cohen it is really a pleasure to have you. Thank you. Thank you for having me antonio. Talking about politics where president obamas approval levels are record lows and boosting his negative to the record highs. President obama addressed a press conference on wednesday, well get to those, but as far as how hes handling Foreign Policy, according to the wall street journal poll, only a third approve of his performance, a record 60 do not. 40 of americans approve of how the president is handling his job and 54 disapprove. Lets go to los angeles and al jazeera political contributor michael scherer. Roger cohen has just told us its open season and they can do what they like. James jeffrey . President obamas ambassador to iraq, Foreign Policy is often where second term president s can have their greatest impact. In this case it seems that the impact is mostly bad. Yeah, you know i would point to what ambassador jeffrey said, i think a lot of that is true. Thats a place he could take desizive action. One that does work against this president and this moment of history is these are not sort of Foreign Policy areas where a u. S. President can take decisive direction, you look at israel and gaza right now, we have an ally in israel. We have a certain bit of history how we treat hamas how we recognize them without recognizing israel, very difficult to take Decisive Action. When the diplomatic action doesnt work, you have carryover and ceasefire is happening all the time. Not to look at excuses but when you look at what ambassador jeffrey said or you listen to it, it is a mystery to him and also a lot of people that support this president why Decisive Action has not been taken there. A very, very odd time in Foreign Policy for the United States. The numbers when they actually asked people about specific crisis 71 of americans say the country is on the wrong track, thats up eight Percentage Points since june. Three out of four americans think that america will not be better for their kids than it was for them. This is not a period of Great American optimism with great reason. When things are going well for this president those numbers are often spun in opposite ways. The jobs numbers have crept up slowly but they certainly have gone up for the president and he hasnt been able to capitalize on it. It is something we have talked about before antonio. The messaging, good or bad has never been, for the five and a half years of this presidency. When you look at it, the mid term elections, a separate poll a Washington Post nbc news poll only 41 say they approve of what their own congressman is doing. Rare, disapproval of their own congressman so thats an all time low. And less than half have a favorable impression of the Democratic Party but even worse for republicans only 35 . On the other hand, the wall street journal polls show that woams are defecting from republicans but aa narrow majority want the gop to control congress. These polls cannot be encouraging for gop. They are not encouraging for gop but hard to figure. Last night we had elections in michigan, in kansas and in washington state, to name three states where we had elections last night. In all those elections all but one incumbent was reelected. The people that are being polled for these polls, if there is a wave of antiincumbentcy coming, its not coming yet. Its easy to say were dissatisfied. When we go in the booth whether we are republican or democratic, i. T. Seems we elect the people we favor. It is mind boggling. Lets talk about the primary elections on tuesday, republican pat roberts, beat wolf 48 to 41 . Wolf was the tea partyer here. He ran as a diehard conservative, even more than roberts who is conservative himself. The only real victory is getting rid of eric cantor. Wolfs second cousin doesnt help in kansas. Youve heard about the tea party constantly challenging and the e tea party has lost every single race. They are going olose against lamar alexander. Tea Party Congressman ben tavolio lost yesterday in michigan. You had one victory against cantor but that was an anomalous election against cantor. I think what happens is the republicans are starting to wisen up a little bit in terms of sending the safe candidate to the general election. Christine odonnell Richard Murdock and of course todd aiken. Only 11 think were handling this well, the president is expected to make are changes in immigration while the congress is on recess. Were going to have to prioritize, thats well within our authorities and prosecutorial discretion. Hes talking about getting more judges to the border but hes expected to do more than just that. If he does go farther on immigration it will infuriate his opponents. Yes, of course it will. He has some options here. He can just what they think is imperial power, he can use executive orders, executive actions. Probably youre going to see the president do that in some way shape or form. It is not going omake his opponents happy but to be fair his opponents came up with absolutely nothing for him to vote on. Who knows when well see Immigration Reform or what they will end up dealing with this issues on the border. Thank you for joining us. Hermella. This is a intellectual property case. The wiki media, over the rights to this crested black monkey photo. About slater didnt take the picture, the talented monkey did. He set up the camera and walked away, when he returned, he found the monkey had started to take pictures. Wikimedia denied his request because they said he didnt take it or make, quote, substantial changes to it. Intellectual media lawyer grace with the site. He said if the photographer actually developed it in a certain way made some tweaks, used some lighting to make original choices then he would have had some part of the creative process. Slater is claiming because wikimedia distributed the photograph, its cost him an incredible amount of money and hes considering taking legal action. Well see how it comes out. Thanks hermella, manopause is getting action. Also you should check all your information online. The largest known computer hacking has cybersecurity experts scrambling and makes other breaches look small by comparison. And near a comet well tell you what happened and billions of miles traveled. Real reporting that brings you the world. This is a pretty dangerous trip. Security in beirut is tight. More reporters. They dont have the resources to take the fight to al shabaab. More bureaus, more stories. This is where the typhoon came ashore. Giving you a real global perspective like no other can. Al jazeera, nairobi. On the turkeysyria border. Venezuela. Beijing. Kabul. Hong kong. Ukraine. The artic. Real reporting from around the world. This is what we do. Al jazeera america. When middle aged men used to get a mid life crisis theyd stereo typically go get a new hot sports car. Now they go to doctors and get testosterone. Countless men are getting treatments but the food and Drug Administration doesnt are approve of them unless theyre accompanied by a medical condition. The cover of time magazines august 18th issue addresses the issue. Its called manopause. The 2 billion testosterone industry. David maley joins frus kansas city, missouri. Dave thanks for doing this for us. Lets starts with low test toft testosterone, it can be a real medical condition. There is a general condition hypo gonadism, not producing adequate amounts of testosterone that men need to be and feel healthy. Theres also the reality that testosterone levels peak in puberty, obviously and then they gradually decline as men age through their 40s, 50s and 60s, these two phenomenons, a real disease and the natural consequence he of aging have created a kind of a gray area, where some doctors are prescribing decembeprescribing e supplements for basically the normal consequences of aging. Some people who get these treatments, the way theyre pitched is that theyll make you feel younger more energetic, more able to exercise, more able to add muscle mass and stay forever young. And have more Sexual Activity among other things. Among others, yes. There arent they agreements on what constitutes low testosterone and what levels cause what stosms. Thats exactly right. And one of the gray areas question marks is low testosterone a cause or an effect . You know, if you are overweight, it suppresses your testosterone levels. If you are depressed, your testosterone levels go down. So if you are not exercising, not watching your diet, its going to cause your mood to be worse, your testosterone levels go down. So is this something that could be solved or addressed simply with a lifestyle change rather than a magic pill or injection. And theres no proof that a magic pill will make a difference between the two groups. Are people being duped here . Well, i duped is a strong word. It is a subject that is perfect for the classic pl placebo effe. A man comes into the doctors office, hes a little overweight, not sleeping enough, doesnt exercise. Doc, i dont feel i have energy. The doctor could say change your lifestyle, go on a diet, lose the weight, youll feel better or the doctor could say, take this supplement then youre going to want to exercise more, youre going owant to change your diet and magically all these other things are going to happen. So is it the testosterone or is it the man suddenly feels like he should be doing all these healthy activities . Which one is producing the good results in his waistline . And in the bedroom . Its hard to tell. Now it is clear that its become a massive industry. You quote some estimates that say that the industry will swell to 3. 8 billion within just four years. Testosterone doses shot up ten times worldwide from 2000 to 2011. You describe in your report these lowt clinics that have sprung up everywhere and half of the men are getting a low t diagnosis. The problem is that there can be dangers that accompany any kind of testosterone therapy. Yes can, this is the classic case of the offlabel prescribing jumping outs way in front of the science and now were starting to see some conflicting scientific studies, some that are very potentially alarming. They show possible higher heart attack risk, stroke risk, the fda recently required warnings of blood clots in the veins, clotting in the veins. And so while there are also, always conflicting studies, depending on who is producing the numbers, the fda is waking up to this. They have announced that theyre going to really dig into the science. Theyve called a summit meeting for experts on the area to meet next month in washington and try figure out what they should do about this. It will be interesting to see what the science comes up with because as you point out throughout the piece there are so many ways that men are trying supplement and improve their testosterone from supplements at health care stores to the actual prescribed are drugs. Its a fascinate be subject and a compelling one. Manopause. David von draley, a pleasure to have you. My pleasure, thank you. How the rowstta spacecraft is making history. And what could effect much of your Online Activity . In our data dive next. The stories you havent heard 30 days of war hosted by John Seigenthaler only on Al Jazeera America israels invasion of gaza continues tonight. We have been hearing a lot of tank shelling coming from where we are, here. Every single one of these buildings shook violently. For continuing coverage of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, stay with Al Jazeera America, your global news leader. Im ali velshi, the news has become this thing where you talk to experts about people, and al jazeera has really tried to talk to people, about their stories. We are not meant to be your first choice for entertainment. We are ment to be your first choice for the news. Todays data dive should get you to change your online passwords. Russian hackers have hacked into 120 million websites. Half a billion email addresses may have been compromised. The whole Security Company which broke news of several major hackings in the past several years track a russian cyber gang they believe is responsible. They have dubbed the group cybervor or cyber thief in russian. Almost every industry across the world. The names of the companies the group hacked have not been released because they may still be vulnerable. What may be worse is the numbers so huge its possible that almost all adults with emails could be are affected. How did this happen . Cybervore acquired males, bigger than the target holiday breach. Experts say you need to change your passwords and if you really want to be careful you can invest in Monitoring Services for your email but those can be costly. The problem isnt going away. The problem is 260,000 complaints came in about cybercrime just this past year. The 49 increase in just one year. Coming up, historic space travel, an incredible achievement that could tell us more about how life on earth came to be. Hi everyone im John Siegenthaler in new york. Coming up right after consider this our special report. The conflict between israel and hamas has lasted about a month. Our Nick Schifrin has been there throughout the fighting. Tonight he joins us for aspecial indepth look at life in gaza and israel. In the front lines inside the tunnels and palestinians trying to find normalcy despite all the violence. 30 days of war, airs at 11 00 eastern 8 00 pacific right after consider this. Talk to al jazeera only on Al Jazeera America for the first time in history after more than ten years of hurtling in space, a spacecraft is now in orbit around a comet. Rosetta has arrived, whats next . In the words of the head of the European Space agency, discoveries can start. Joining us now from philadelphia is al jazeera contributor dr. Derrick pitts, great to see you as always. Comets have fascinated people since people have been around and now we can actually reach out and soon actually touch one of these. The pictures are amazing. They see all kinds of as far as features including boulders the size of houses, 500 foot cliffs and all kinds of craters. How are scientists reacting to what were seeing . Scientists are very excited about whats come up with the visit of rosetta at this comet. The images are so incredibly enticing. The resolution is very great. They are very excited about digging into the science of whats happening at this comet. How big is this comet compared to others . I know its two miles by two and a half miles. Its about as wide as manhattan but not nearly as long. Its not unusual in a size for a comet. You know comets can range in size and this is right in there for a standardsized comet. What is really unusual about this one is the nucleus has the unusual shape to it. It has two lobes connected by a much narrower neck. Scientists are intrigued by how the comet nucleus can be formed like this. Was it a much larger piece with a lot more material around the neck that somehow was eroded away so they are very much interested in finding out how it becomes to be that shape. Getting there took an incredible the feat. It took five times circling the sun to get to that space. Was there any room for error on a mission like this . When i look at missions like this, i think theres an incredibly huge margin for error. This spacecraft the size of a small truck, youre aiming it as something two miles by two miles, and the accuracy on which it arrived right on time, there are to many possibilities of thaings could go wrong. So to me that is the real testament to the genius and the ingenuity of the engineers who built this and operated the spacecraft to get it to the right place on time. Now if you wanted to wonder about what that high school and college math was worth, here it is staring us right in the face. Incredible mathematical calculations to make that happen. Now its going otighten its orbit, its going to get closer and in november its going to launch a vehicle to land on the comets surface. Theyre taking their time because they want to figure out whats the best place to land. Hypotheticahypothesis, do you ts going to . Possibilities are that organic molecule molecules capes planet aboard comets and a significant amount of water came to our planet on comets. There are so many possibilities, so many comet candidates out in the solar system. The number is enormous so its possible that water could have come to this planet in that way. And scientists really need more data points in order to fill out the picture a little bit better. If we look at the cometary missions, this is the third that actually touches a comet and because we are so disclose we gather much more data that fills out that picture. A lot of significant information. Quick enough we are not seeing a tail because its not close enough to the sun yet . Thats one of the great things that will happen to this mission. The spacecraft is going osilt down on the surface of the comet and the orbiter is going otravel with the comet as it comes to parahelion. As its traveling along with the comet on that close approach theyre going to gather detail how the comet outgases and tremendous information gathered in this way its a big first for scientists to be able do that. It is going to be incredible to see those pictures, derrick pitts, thank you for this. Coming up. Former u. S. National advisor steven hadleey. The chemistry between pairs of people has changed the world in many ways. And the conversation continues on our website, aljazeera. Com creditthis. Also ajconsiderthis. Well see you next time. Gaza, israel, one month of fighting promises broken. Trust shattered. Children in the line of fire and living in fear. We take you inside the conflict. Nowhere is really safe. From the streets to the tunnels. Well hear from both sides. People are extremely upset