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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Planetary Science

    Web Special: Welcome to Mars’ Victoria Crater

    With stunningly powerful vision, the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken a remarkable picture that shows the exploration rover Opportunity poised on the rim of Victoria Crater on Mars.

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  2. Astronomy

    Jet Set: Astronomers identify the makeup of quasar streams

    Astronomers have identified the particles in jets emanating from supermassive black holes as electrons and protons, which carry much more energy than some computer models had suggested.

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  3. Astronomy

    Oversize supernova

    Researchers have found a supernova so luminous that it must have been produced by a much heavier star than the standard theory allows.

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  4. Planetary Science

    A discordant name for a dwarf planet

    The largest known object at the fringes of the solar system, the icy body whose discovery heated up the debate about the nature of planethood, has an apt new name.

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  5. Astronomy

    Enigmatic Eruptions: Gamma-ray bursts lack supernova fireworks

    The most powerful bursts in the universe may have gotten more mysterious.

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  6. Planetary Science

    SMART stop

    The European Space Agency's first mission to the moon ended with a deliberate bang on Sept. 3.

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  7. Planetary Science

    Martian doings

    The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has finished reshaping its orbit, while the venerable rover Opportunity is approaching the rim of the widest and deepest crater it has yet visited.

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  8. Astronomy

    Temperamental Monsters

    A new theory suggests that many huge stars undergo outbursts during which they shed most of their mass late in life rather than doing it gradually over their 3-to-4-million-year lifetimes.

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  9. Planetary Science

    Oversize Orb: Puffy planet poses puzzle

    Astronomers have discovered what may be the largest planet ever found, an orb 36 percent wider than Jupiter that circles a nearby star.

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  10. Planetary Science

    Rare Uranian eclipse

    The Hubble Space Telescope has for the first time recorded an eclipse on Uranus.

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  11. Astronomy

    Too Much Deuterium?

    A new study appears to solve a 35-year-old puzzle about the distribution of deuterium in the Milky Way, but poses new questions about how stars and galaxies are formed.

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  12. Planetary Science

    Doggone! Pluto gets a planetary demotion

    The solar system has only eight planets, and Pluto isn't one of them, according to the first-ever definition of a planet, approved last week by the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union.

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