Space

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Planetary Science

    Colliding moonlets

    New photos of collisions in one of Saturn’s rings provide a local lab for understanding the interactions that might shape young solar system formation.

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  2. Space

    Better view of the Milky Way

    New studies revise the structure of the Milky Way, exchanging the old map of a four-armed spiral galaxy for a two-arm version. The makeover also includes the discovery of a smaller, short, gaseous arm that is a long-sought counterpart to a similar arm near the galaxy’s center.

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  3. Planetary Science

    Small exoplanet discovered

    Astronomers have discovered the smallest planet known that is beyond the solar system and orbits an ordinary parent body.

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  4. Space

    Making an impression

    In its seventh day after successfully landing on the Red Planet, the Phoenix Lander digs its first trench and is ready to start its ice-hunting.

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  5. Planetary Science

    Dispatch from Mars, Sol 4

    The good news is a tentative sighting of ice by the Mars Phoenix Lander. The bad news is the discovery of a glitch in the system that will analyze soil samples.

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  6. Planetary Science

    Rarin’ to go

    After a day’s delay, the robotic arm on the Mars Phoenix Lander is free of its shackles and is preparing to dig for ice.

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  7. Planetary Science

    More than a pinch

    Water believed to flow on the Red Planet would have been too salty to foster life, scientists suggest.

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  8. Space

    Phoenix gets ready for work

    After a day’s delay, scientists successfully sent up commands to unstow the robotic arm of NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander.

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  9. Chemistry

    Kavli Awardees Named

    Norwegian Academy awards three novel and hefty prizes to three teams of scientists.

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  10. Space

    Martian dig delayed

    The Phoenix Mars Lander was in good health after its safe May 25 landing on the Red Planet, but a communication problem delayed plans to unlatch its robotic digging arm.

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  11. Planetary Science

    See how it lands

    A camera on a Mars-orbiting spacecraft caught an image of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suspended from its parachute just before it descended onto the Red Planet’s northern plains on May 25.

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  12. Planetary Science

    Touchdown! Phoenix lands on Mars

    The first close-up color images of the northern arctic circle on the Red Planet were recorded by the Mars Phoenix Lander spacecraft only a few hours after its flawless descent at 7:38 p.m. EDT, May 25. The detailed images suggest ice lies beneath the hard soil.

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