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We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. 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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  2. 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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  3. 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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  4. 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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  5. 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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  6. 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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  7. 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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  8. 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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  9. 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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  10. Astronomy

    New images of the sun reveal superfine threads of glowing plasma

    Snapshots from NASA’s High-Resolution Coronal Imager show thin filaments of plasma not seen before in the sun’s outer atmosphere.

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  11. Physics

    A star orbiting the Milky Way’s giant black hole confirms Einstein was right

    An oddity previously seen in Mercury’s orbit has been spotted in a star circling the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s center.

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  12. Space

    ‘Spacefarers’ predicts how space colonization will happen

    In Spacefarers, Christopher Wanjek provides an optimistic yet realistic view on how humans might colonize the rest of our solar system.

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