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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Planetary Science

    Laser experiments suggest helium rain falls on Jupiter

    Compressing a hydrogen and helium mixture with lasers shows that the two elements separate at pressures found within gas giant planets.

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  2. Science & Society

    A new memoir tells the life story of NASA ‘hidden figure’ Katherine Johnson

    "My Remarkable Journey" gives the backstory of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, the central character of the 2016 film "Hidden Figures."

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  3. Astronomy

    Record-breaking light has more than a quadrillion electron volts of energy

    Hundreds of newly detected gamma rays hint at cosmic environments that accelerate particles to extremes.

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  4. Astronomy

    Watch this beautiful, high-resolution simulation of how stars are born

    The STARFORGE simulation follows a giant gas cloud as it collapses into new stars, accounting for all the phenomena thought to influence the outcome.

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  5. Space

    China’s first Mars rover has landed and is sending its first pictures

    The country just became the second nation, after the United States, to successfully land a rover on Mars. Its rover will search for subsurface ice.

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  6. Astronomy

    The Milky Way may have grown up faster than astronomers suspected

    Most of the galaxy’s disk was in place before a merger 10 billion years ago with a dwarf galaxy called Gaia-Enceladus/Sausage, a new study suggests.

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  7. Astronomy

    A study of Earth’s crust hints that supernovas aren’t gold mines

    Supernovas aren’t the main source of gold, silver and other heavy elements, a study of deep-sea crust suggests.

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  8. Space

    Planet-forming disks around stars may come preloaded with ingredients for life

    Methanol spotted around a hot, young star probably originated in interstellar space, suggesting some chemistry for life may start before stars form.

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  9. Astronomy

    Saturn has a fuzzy core, spread over more than half the planet’s diameter

    Analysis of a wave in one of Saturn’s rings has revealed that the planet’s core is diffuse and bloated with lots of hydrogen and helium.

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  10. Space

    A rare glimpse of a star before it went supernova defies expectations

    A hydrogen-free supernova in a nearby galaxy appears to have come from an unusual source.

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  11. Planetary Science

    NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter’s mission with Perseverance has been extended

    NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has passed all its tests and is ready to support the Perseverance rover in looking for ancient Martian life.

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  12. Space

    Stars made of antimatter could lurk in the Milky Way

    Fourteen celestial sources of gamma rays provide preliminary hints of matter colliding with “antistars” in our galaxy.

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