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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Astronomy

    Giant rings encircle young exoplanet

    Stretching 90 million kilometers from their center, 37 stripes of dust around exoplanet were probably crafted by moons.

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  2. Cosmology

    Dust erases evidence for gravity wave detection

    The claimed detection of primordial gravitational waves does not hold up after taking into account galactic dust, a new analysis concludes.

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  3. Astronomy

    Neptune-like worlds could become habitable

    Mini-Neptunes can drift toward their stars and lose their atmospheres, leaving behind ice-rich rocky cores that can become watery worlds.

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  4. Astronomy

    Oldest solar system unearthed by Kepler

    Five rocky planets orbit the 11.2-billion-year-old star Kepler 444, suggesting that Earth-sized worlds formed in the early universe.

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  5. Quantum Physics

    Top 10 scientific mysteries for the 21st century

    Solving the Top 10 scientific mysteries facing the 21st century will not be all fun but could be mostly games.

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  6. Planetary Science

    Large asteroid buzzes Earth

    Asteroid 2004 BL86 swings by Earth today at three times the distance to the moon, the closest asteroid encounter until 2027.

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  7. Planetary Science

    Decades-old idea brought to fruition: a mission to Mercury

    In 1965, engineers proposed sending a spacecraft to Mercury with help from another planet’s gravity – a technique now used in many interplanetary missions.

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  8. Physics

    How blueshift might beat redshift

    Even though the expanding universe makes light redder, light emitted by collapsing stars and dust clouds could appear unusually blue.

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  9. Planetary Science

    Rosetta reveals a complex comet

    Rosetta finds diverse landscapes on comet 67P, which could provide researchers with clues about how the solar system formed.

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  10. Planetary Science

    Young asteroids generated long-lasting magnetism

    Pockets of iron and nickel in meteorites suggest that asteroids in the early solar system produced magnetic fields for much longer than once thought.

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  11. Planetary Science

    Mars orbiter locates lost Beagle 2 lander

    The Beagle 2 lander, missing since 2003, has been found on the surface of the Red Planet in images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

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  12. Astronomy

    Rocky planets around cool stars may have Earthlike climates

    Small, rocky planets that sit close to cool stars might be able to keep spinning, creating conditions hospitable to life.

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