This week in science

Ingenuity flight 7 and more: Understand the world through 9 images

by Robin Bea
Updated: 
Originally Published: 

NASA explored Mars, Jupiter’s moon, and the Sun the week of June 3–9, while cicadas, chickens, and dinosaurs made news on Earth.

NASA/Mara Johnson-Groh/Haley Reed

Here are the biggest science stories of the week, told in 9 astonishing images.

June 3

Researchers at MIT created the first fiber able to store information digitally. They say it could be sewn into clothing to monitor the wearer’s health, track physical performance, and even detect diseases.

Anna Gittelson/Roni Cnaani

8. Biodegradable batteries

Gian Vaitl / Empa
June 3

Scientists in Switzerland created a biodegradable 3D-printed battery from cellulose and carbon. The resulting battery disintegrates within two months of being discarded, so it could be used for environmental monitoring without creating more waste.

Gian Vaitl / Empa

7. Cloudy with a chance of cicadas

Lauryn Ricketts/NBC
June 7

A swarm of cicadas from the recent Brood X boom was so thick in the Washington, D.C. area it showed up on local weather radar.

Lauryn Ricketts/NBC

6. Long live the chickens

Julia Best
June 7

Researchers from the U.K. found archaeological evidence domesticated chickens lived much longer in the 3rd and 4th centuries BCE, likely because they were raised for fighting and religious rituals rather than food.

Julia Best

5. Southland by satellite

NASA/JPL-Caltech
June 7

NASA researchers used the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 on the International Space Station to create the most detailed map ever of carbon emissions in the Los Angeles area. Better maps can help guide decisions about how best to cut carbon emissions.

NASA/JPL-Caltech
June 7

After 17 years of study, researchers in Australia determined that Eromanga Natural History Museum’s “Cooper” titanosaur skeleton actually belongs to a new species. The newly named Australotitan is Australia’s largest dinosaur.

Eromanga Natural History Museum/Vlad Konstantinov

3. The Rosetta explosion

NASA/Mara Johnson-Groh/Haley Reed
June 7

NASA and the ESA observed a “Rosetta Stone” solar eruption that could help explain why such eruptions happen at all. The event included a coronal mass ejection, a jet, and a partial eruption — three solar events that usually only happen one at a time.

NASA/Mara Johnson-Groh/Haley Reed
June 8

NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured an image of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede from 645 miles away — the closest any craft has come to the moon in more than 20 years.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

1. Seventh success

NASA JPL
June 8

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter completed its seventh successful flight, less than two months after it became the first powered craft ever to fly on another planet. It traveled 106 meters in just over one minute.

NASA JPL