Featured
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Research Highlight |
Is that a giant sandwich? No, it’s the biggest protoplanetary disk in the sky
A colossal object called Dracula’s Chivito, referring to an well-stuffed sandwich popular in Uruguay, is the chunkiest planetary nursery known.
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Article
| Open AccessLense–Thirring precession after a supermassive black hole disrupts a star
The accretion disk from a star tidally disrupted by a supermassive black hole undergoes Lense–Thirring precession with strong, quasi-periodic X-ray flux and temperature modulations.
- Dheeraj R. Pasham
- , Michal Zajaček
- & Michael Loewenstein
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News & Views |
Instability could explain the Sun’s curious cycle
A phenomenon that affects the magnetic fields of rotating bodies could be involved in recurring changes in the Sun’s behaviour, which are related to a periodic flipping of its field. The proposal is a fresh take on this strange effect.
- Ellen Zweibel
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Article
| Open AccessThe solar dynamo begins near the surface
Simple analytic estimates and detailed numerical calculations show that the solar dynamo begins near the surface, rather than at the much-deeper tachocline.
- Geoffrey M. Vasil
- , Daniel Lecoanet
- & Keith Julien
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Article |
A high internal heat flux and large core in a warm neptune exoplanet
- Luis Welbanks
- , Taylor J. Bell
- & Kenneth E. Arnold
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Article |
A warm Neptune’s methane reveals core mass and vigorous atmospheric mixing
- David K. Sing
- , Zafar Rustamkulov
- & Jeff A. Valenti
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News Explainer |
Dazzling auroras are just a warm-up as more solar storms are likely, scientists say
Nature talks to physicists about what to expect in the next few months and beyond as the Sun hits its ‘maximum’.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article |
A secondary atmosphere on the rocky Exoplanet 55 Cancri e
- Renyu Hu
- , Aaron Bello-Arufe
- & Brice-Olivier Demory
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Nature Podcast |
Alphafold 3.0: the AI protein predictor gets an upgrade
Deepmind’s protein-structure predictor adds other molecules to the mix, and a big step towards a ‘nuclear clock’.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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News |
‘Milestone’ discovery as JWST confirms atmosphere on an Earth-like exoplanet
55 Cancri e is too hot to support life as we know it, but could provide clues about Earth’s formation.
- Sumeet Kulkarni
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News |
China’s Chang’e-6 launched successfully — what happens next?
Scientists have high hopes for the first mission to collect rocks from the far side of the Moon.
- Ling Xin
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News Feature |
Dark energy is tearing the Universe apart. What if the force is weakening?
The first set of results from a pioneering cosmic-mapping project hints that the repulsive force known as dark energy has changed over 11 billion years, which would alter ideas about how the Universe has evolved and what its future will be.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Research Highlight |
Never mind little green men: life on other planets might be purple
Bacteria that make food using a compound other than chlorophyll could paint other planets in a wide range of colours.
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Nature Podcast |
Dad’s microbiome can affect offspring’s health — in mice
Disrupting gut microbes increases risk of growth issues in the next generation, and understanding geographic variations in cancer rates.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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News |
What China’s mission to collect rocks from the Moon’s far side could reveal
The Chang’e-6 mission aims to land in the Moon’s oldest and largest crater, where it will collect rocks to bring back to Earth.
- Ling Xin
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News |
China's Moon atlas is the most detailed ever made
The Geologic Atlas of the Lunar Globe doubles the resolution of Apollo-era maps and will support the space ambitions of China and other countries.
- Ling Xin
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Article |
A magnetar giant flare in the nearby starburst galaxy M82
We report observations of GRB 231115A, positionally coincident with the starburst galaxy M82, that unambiguously qualify this burst as a giant flare from a magnetar, which is a rare explosive event releasing gamma rays.
- Sandro Mereghetti
- , Michela Rigoselli
- & Pietro Ubertini
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News & Views |
Galaxy found napping in the primordial Universe
Observations have revealed a galaxy that stopped forming stars earlier than expected. This discovery offers clues about when the first galaxies emerged and sheds light on how stars formed when the Universe was in its infancy.
- Jacqueline Antwi-Danso
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Article
| Open AccessStar formation shut down by multiphase gas outflow in a galaxy at a redshift of 2.45
JWST observations of a massive galaxy at a redshift of 2.45 show a powerful outflow of neutral gas, with a mass outflow rate that is sufficient to shut down star formation.
- Sirio Belli
- , Minjung Park
- & Rainer Weinberger
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Nature Podcast |
Living on Mars would probably suck — here's why
Kelly and Zach Weinersmith join us to discuss their book A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?
- Benjamin Thompson
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News |
Violent volcanoes have wracked Jupiter’s moon Io for billions of years
Understanding the volcanic moon’s history could offer fresh insights into conditions on early Earth.
- Sarah Wild
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Article |
Stripped-envelope supernova light curves argue for central engine activity
Analysis of the energy budget of a sample of 54 well-observed stripped-envelope supernovae of all sub-types shows statistically significant, largely model-independent, observational evidence for a non-radioactive power source in most of them.
- Ósmar Rodríguez
- , Ehud Nakar
- & Dan Maoz
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Article
| Open AccessMethane emission from a cool brown dwarf
Methane emission from a very cool brown dwarf, perhaps arising from an aurora, has been detected in James Webb Space Telescope observations.
- Jacqueline K. Faherty
- , Ben Burningham
- & Niall Whiteford
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Nature Podcast |
Keys, wallet, phone: the neuroscience behind working memory
Brain areas work in tandem to temporarily store important information, and an aurora on a cool brown dwarf.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Noah Baker
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Career Q&A |
‘Shrugging off failure is hard’: the $400-million grant setback that shaped the Smithsonian lead scientist’s career
Planetary scientist Ellen Stofan thought about leaving research after a funding bid was rejected. But new opportunities emerged.
- Anne Gulland
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News |
Could JWST solve cosmology’s big mystery? Physicists debate Universe-expansion data
Results from the telescope could help to end a long-standing disagreement over the rate of cosmic expansion. But scientists say more measurements are needed.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Research Highlight |
An exoplanet is wrapped in glory
Astronomers spot the first planet outside the Solar System to boast a phenomenon reminiscent of a rainbow.
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Nature Podcast |
The ‘ghost roads’ driving tropical deforestation
Researchers find that a huge number of roads that don’t appear on official maps, and the protein that could determine whether someone is left-handed.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Benjamin Thompson
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News |
Total solar eclipse 2024: what dazzled scientists
Amateur and professional astronomers share with Nature what they observed and what data they collected when the Moon blocked the Sun.
- Sumeet Kulkarni
- & Lauren Wolf
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Research Highlight |
Smallest known starquakes are detected with a subtle shift of colour
An unusual technique picks up the slow vibration of a faint star.
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News |
Total solar eclipse 2024: how it will help scientists to study the Sun
The Sun’s mysterious outer atmosphere, the corona, will become easier to view from Earth on 8 April.
- Sumeet Kulkarni
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Book Review |
Cosmologist Claudia de Rham on falling for gravity
The aspiring astronaut turned theoretical physicist talks travelling, the accelerating expansion of the Universe, thinking beyond three dimensions and detecting gravitational waves.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
This super-Earth is the first planet confirmed to have a permanent dark side
Convincing evidence of 1:1 tidal locking had been absent until a new analysis of the exoplanet LHS 3844b.
- Joseph Howlett
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Article |
Thermonuclear explosions on neutron stars reveal the speed of their jets
Relativistic jets observed from transient neutron stars throughout the Universe produce bright flares for minutes after each X-ray burst, helping to determine the role individual system properties have on the speed and revealing the dominant launching mechanism.
- Thomas D. Russell
- , Nathalie Degenaar
- & Melania Del Santo
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Article |
The complex circumstellar environment of supernova 2023ixf
Using ultraviolet data as well as a comprehensive set of further multiwavelength observations of the supernova 2023ixf, a reliable bolometric light curve is derived that indicates the heating nature of the early emission.
- E. A. Zimmerman
- , I. Irani
- & K. Zhang
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Essay |
How did the Big Bang get its name? Here’s the real story
Astronomer Fred Hoyle supposedly coined the catchy term to ridicule the theory of the Universe’s origins — 75 years on, it’s time to set the record straight.
- Helge Kragh
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News |
‘Best view ever’: observatory will map Big Bang’s afterglow in new detail
The Simons Observatory will search for signs of gravitational waves that originated from the Big Bang.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Article |
At least one in a dozen stars shows evidence of planetary ingestion
By analysing the chemical abundance differences of pairs of co-moving stars born together, it is found that about 8% show chemical signatures that indicate ingestion of planetary material.
- Fan Liu
- , Yuan-Sen Ting
- & Fei Dai
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News |
Planet-eating stars hint at hidden chaos in the Milky Way
A handful of middle-aged stars seem to have gobbled up a planet, challenging assumptions about the stability of such systems.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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Muse |
Do black holes explode? The 50-year-old puzzle that challenges quantum physics
Stephen Hawking’s paradoxical finding that black holes don’t live forever has profound, unresolved implications for the quest for unifying theories of reality.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Did ‘alien’ debris hit Earth? Startling claim sparks row at scientific meeting
Astrophysicist Avi Loeb says that an interstellar meteor showered Earth with particles. At a planetary-science conference this week, researchers begged to differ.
- Alexandra Witze
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Book Review |
Act now to prevent a ‘gold rush’ in outer space
As private firms aim for the Moon and beyond, a book calls for an urgent relook at the legal compact that governs space exploration.
- Timiebi Aganaba
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Article
| Open AccessA recently quenched galaxy 700 million years after the Big Bang
Analysis of the JWST/NIRSpec spectrum of the recently observed Lyman-break galaxy JADES-GS+53.15508-27.80178 revealed a redshift of z = 7.3, a Balmer break and a complete absence of nebular emission lines, indicating that quenching occurred only 700 million years after the Big Bang.
- Tobias J. Looser
- , Francesco D’Eugenio
- & Jan Scholtz
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Article |
Buoyant crystals halt the cooling of white dwarf stars
A population of freezing white dwarf stars maintaining a constant luminosity for a duration comparable with the age of the universe can be explained by a solid–liquid distillation mechanism interrupting cooling for billions of years.
- Antoine Bédard
- , Simon Blouin
- & Sihao Cheng
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Nature Podcast |
These tiny fish combine electric pulses to probe the environment
Elephantnose fish share electric pulses to extend their senses, and the bumblebees that show a uniquely human trait.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Benjamin Thompson
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Research Highlight |
This dying star bears a jagged metal scar
The surface of a white dwarf is marked with metallic patches — souvenirs of its encounter with an asteroid or planet.
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News |
Two giant US telescopes threatened by funding cap
The Thirty Meter Telescope and Giant Magellan Telescope might need to compete for survival in the face of federal spending limits.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
How dwarf galaxies lit up the Universe after the Big Bang
Some of the faintest objects ever observed suggest that small galaxies get the credit for clearing the ‘fog’ pervading the early cosmos.
- Sumeet Kulkarni
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Article |
Most of the photons that reionized the Universe came from dwarf galaxies
An analysis of eight ultra-faint galaxies during the epoch of reionization with absolute magnitudes between −17 mag and −15 mag shows that most of the photons that reionized the Universe come from dwarf galaxies.
- Hakim Atek
- , Ivo Labbé
- & Katherine E. Whitaker
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