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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Planetary Science

    Pluto may have spots the size of Missouri

    Dark spots emerge on the surface of Pluto in recent images from the New Horizons spacecraft.

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  2. Life

    Puzzling cosmic signals, processed food defined and more reader feedback

    Readers sort out a definition for processed food, discuss the benefits of tinkering with human DNA and more.

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  3. Astronomy

    A loopy look at sunspots

    In visible light, sunspots look like dark blotches that often expel flares of searing plasma. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory offers a different view.

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  4. Physics

    In retirement, Nobelist takes up moon bouncing

    A lifelong amateur radio enthusiast, Joseph Taylor sends signals via the moon.

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  5. Astronomy

    Super-Earths are not a good place for plate tectonics

    The intense pressures inside super-Earths make plate tectonics less likely, new research suggests.

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  6. Astronomy

    Advice to a baby planet: Avoid black holes

    A dust cloud looping around the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole might have once been an infant planet.

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  7. Astronomy

    X-ray rings reveal neutron star’s distance

    Concentric X-ray rings around a neutron star help astronomers triangulate the star’s distance.

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  8. Planetary Science

    50 years ago, Mariner 4 sent back first pictures from Mars

    On July 14, 1965, Mariner 4 became the first spacecraft to fly by Mars. The probe also sent back the first pictures of another planet taken from space.

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  9. Astronomy

    Dark galaxies grow in abundance

    Nearly 1,000 shadowy galaxies lurk in a nearby cluster, some of which are as massive as the Milky Way and yet have only 0.1 percent the number of stars.

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  10. Planetary Science

    Rosetta mission extended until September 2016

    The Rosetta spacecraft will explore comet 67P through September 2016 and then may go to sleep on the comet’s surface.

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  11. Astronomy

    Magnetic ‘glue’ helps shape galaxies

    Galaxy-wide magnetic fields may play a role in shaping the spiral arms of gas and stars.

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  12. Planetary Science

    Pluto and Charon’s orbital dance captured in color

    New Horizons has captured the first true-color movie of Pluto and Charon orbiting one another.

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