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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Astronomy

    We finally have an image of the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way

    Observations from the Event Horizon Telescope reveal the turbulent region around our home galaxy’s black hole, Sagittarius A*, in new detail.

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  2. Astronomy

    The sun’s searing radiation led to the shuffling of the solar system’s planets

    As the young sun’s radiation evaporated gas from its surrounding disk, it triggered a jumbling of the giant planets’ orbits, simulations suggest.

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  3. Space

    50 years ago, scientists had hints of a planet beyond Pluto

    In 1972, calculations from Halley’s comet offered evidence of another planet. Today’s astronomers are still searching for a Planet Nine.

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  4. Planetary Science

    Lava and frost may form the mysterious lumps on Jupiter’s moon Io

    Jets of gas released when hot meets cold on the volcanic moon Io could generate sprawling fields of dunes, a study finds.

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  5. Space

    All of the bases in DNA and RNA have now been found in meteorites

    Scientists have detected adenine and guanine in meteorites for decades and seen hints of uracil. But cytosine and thymine had remained elusive.

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  6. Physics

    Gravitational waves gave a new black hole a high-speed ‘kick’

    Ripples in spacetime revealed that two black holes united into one, which then sped off at around 5 million kilometers per hour.

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  7. Astronomy

    ‘Goldilocks’ stars may pose challenges for any nearby habitable planets

    Orange dwarfs emit far-ultraviolet light long after birth, stressing the atmospheres of potentially life-bearing worlds.

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  8. Planetary Science

    U.S. planetary scientists want to explore Uranus and Enceladus next

    A report on recommendations for the next 10 years of U.S. planetary science prioritizes sending an orbiter to Uranus and an “orbilander” to Enceladus.

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  9. Planetary Science

    Europa may have much more shallow liquid water than scientists thought

    Mysterious pairs of ridges scar Jupiter’s moon Europa. Analyzing a similar set in Greenland suggests shallow water is behind the features’ formation.

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  10. Planetary Science

    Here’s how NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has spent 1 year on Mars

    The first flying robot on the Red Planet arrived as a technology demonstration. It’s now a trusty scout for its rover partner, Perseverance.

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  11. Astronomy

    Crumbling planets might trigger repeating fast radio bursts

    Mysterious blasts of cosmic radio waves might be due to planets sweeping extremely close to their host neutron stars.

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  12. Astronomy

    A newly discovered planet renews debate about how some giant worlds form

    An implosion of gas may have given birth to this young exoplanet, which orbits too far from its star to have been built up bit by bit, researchers say.

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