Space

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Planetary Science

    Earth has a second known ‘Trojan asteroid’ that shares its orbit

    A recently found space rock is about one kilometer wide, orbits ahead of Earth around the sun and will stick around for at least 4,000 years.

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  2. Planetary Science

    Machine learning points to prime places in Antarctica to find meteorites

    Using data on how ice moves across Antarctica, researchers identified more than 600 spots where space rocks may gather on the southern continent.

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  3. Astronomy

    The James Webb Space Telescope has reached its new home at last

    The most powerful telescope ever launched still has a long to-do list before it can start doing science.

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  4. Astronomy

    An X-ray glow suggests black holes or neutron stars fuel weird cosmic ‘cows’

    With the brightest X-ray glow of a new class of exploding stars, cosmic oddity AT2020mrf boosts evidence of these mysterious blasts’ power source.

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  5. Space

    50 years ago, NASA’s space shuttle program got the green light

    For over 30 years, space shuttles helped revolutionize science. Now, NASA is tackling new frontiers with help from commercial spaceflight companies.

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  6. Astronomy

    An early outburst portends a star’s imminent death

    An eruption before a stellar explosion was the first early warning sign for a standard type of supernova.

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  7. Planetary Science

    Organic molecules in an ancient Mars meteorite formed via geology, not alien life

    Analysis of an ancient Martian meteorite reveals that organic molecules within it were formed by geologic processes rather than alien life.

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  8. Astronomy

    Astronomers identified a second possible exomoon

    Kepler 1708 b i, a newly discovered candidate for an exoplanet moon, has a radius about 2.6 times that of Earth, a new study suggests.

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  9. Planetary Science

    Oxygen-rich exoplanets may be geologically active

    Experiments show that rocks exposed to higher concentrations of oxygen have a lower melting temperature than rocks exposed to lower amounts.

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  10. Astronomy

    Two stars’ close encounter may explain a cosmic flare that has barely faded

    A brilliant outburst of light that has lasted nearly a century arose when two young stars skirted past each other, simulations suggest.

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  11. Planetary Science

    Enceladus’ plumes might not come from an underground ocean

    The celebrated plumes of Saturn’s moon Enceladus could come from pockets of watery mush in the moon’s icy shell, simulations suggest.

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  12. Life

    Here are our favorite cool, funny and bizarre science stories of 2021

    These are some of the fun science stories from this year that we couldn’t wait to talk about with friends.

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