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We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Artificial Intelligence

    AI bests humans at mapping the moon

    AI does a more thorough job of counting craters than humans.

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  2. Planetary Science

    Dwarf planet Ceres may store underground brine that still gushes up today

    Waterlogged minerals and changing ice add to evidence that Ceres is geologically active.

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  3. Astronomy

    New Horizons’ next target has been dubbed Ultima Thule

    NASA has named New Horizons spacecraft’s next target Ultima Thule after the public suggested tens of thousands of monikers for the Kuiper Belt object.

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  4. Cosmology

    Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking dies at 76

    Beyond his research contributions, Stephen Hawking popularized black holes and the deep questions of the cosmos.

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  5. Planetary Science

    Cosmic dust may create Mars’ wispy clouds

    Magnesium left by passing comets seeds the clouds of Mars, a new study suggests.

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  6. Astronomy

    We probably won’t hear from aliens. But by the time we do, they’ll be dead.

    Astronomers build on the Drake Equation to probe the chance that humans will find existing aliens. The answer: Not likely.

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  7. Astronomy

    50 years ago, pulsars burst onto the scene

    Thousands of pulsars have been discovered since the announcement of their detection 50 years ago.

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  8. Physics

    Some meteorites contain superconducting bits

    Scientists find materials that conduct electricity without resistance in two meteorites.

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  9. Planetary Science

    4 surprising things we just learned about Jupiter

    Polar cyclones, surprisingly deep atmosphere and a fluid mass spinning as a rigid body are among the latest discoveries at Jupiter.

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  10. Astronomy

    Massive stellar flare may have fried Earth’s nearest exoplanet

    A massive flare made Proxima Centauri 1,000 times brighter in 10 seconds, dimming hopes that its planet may be habitable.

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  11. Astronomy

    Loner gas clouds could be a new kind of stellar system

    Weird loner clumps of gas that have wandered for 1 billion years may have been stripped from a trio of larger galaxies.

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  12. Planetary Science

    How a vaporized Earth might have cooked up the moon

    A high-speed collision turned the early Earth into a hot, gooey space doughnut, and the moon formed within this synestia, a new simulation suggests.

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