Space

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Space

    Salty water might exist on Mars, but it’s probably too cold for life

    Salty liquids may last for several hours on the Red Planet but be too chilly for any known microorganisms from Earth to survive, simulations suggest.

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  2. Space

    How tiny ‘dead’ galaxies get their groove back and make stars again

    Computer simulations explain how puny galaxies can sustain star formation: Gas falls into them and billions of years later begins to create new stars.

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  3. Space

    The closest black hole to Earth may have been spotted 1,000 light-years away

    What appears to be the closest black hole to the solar system shares orbits with two massive stars, a new study finds.

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  4. Planetary Science

    Planets with hydrogen-rich atmospheres could harbor life

    Lab experiments show yeast and E. coli survive and reproduce in hydrogen gas, suggesting new environments to seek alien life.

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  5. Astronomy

    The sun is less magnetically active than similar stars, and we don’t know why

    Why our star seems so different from its stellar kin is a mystery.

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  6. Planetary Science

    This is the most comprehensive map of the moon’s geology yet

    Cartographers merged Apollo-era maps and modern lunar observations to into a new geologic map of the moon.

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  7. Astronomy

    A century ago, astronomy’s Great Debate foreshadowed today’s view of the universe

    The argument between Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis 100 years ago was ultimately settled by Edwin Hubble.

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  8. Astronomy

    High-speed gas collisions prevent star birth in galaxies’ bars

    The spiral galaxy NGC 1300 makes few if any stars in its bright bar. Simulations suggest gas clouds colliding at high speed stunt star formation.

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  9. Space

    Interstellar comet Borisov has an unexpected amount of carbon monoxide

    The second known visitor from outside the solar system has three times as much CO relative to H2O than any comet seen in the inner solar system.

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  10. Planetary Science

    Unlike Earth, the gases in Venus’ atmosphere aren’t uniformly mixed

    Measurements of Venus’ atmospheric nitrogen show that a planet’s upper atmosphere doesn’t necessarily match the lower atmosphere.

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  11. Physics

    Gravitational waves have revealed the first unevenly sized black hole pair

    For the first time, LIGO and Virgo scientists spotted gravitational waves produced when one big black hole merged with a smaller one.

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  12. Space

    A weird stellar explosion may have caused the brightest supernova yet seen

    Astronomers may have spotted the first known example of a rare “pulsational pair-instability” supernova.

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