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Using asteroseismology to measure the spin axes of stars in two old open star clusters, Corsaro et al. find alignment between significant numbers of stars. It is thought that this is an imprint of the original angular momentum of the parent molecular cloud.
The key ingredients for a massive cloud of gas to collapse and directly form a black hole without fragmenting and forming stars are a strong ionizing background emission and a closely timed burst of star formation in its vicinity.
Black holes grow by accreting mass, but the process is messy and redistributes gas and energy into their environments. New evidence shows that magnetic processes mediate both the accretion and ejection of matter.
A magnetohydrodynamic model for outflows around supermassive black holes can also reproduce the X-ray properties of an outflow around a stellar black hole. This indicates that magnetic forces have a universal role to play in driving these winds.
As part of the dark matter Insight, Joshua Frieman, co-founder and director of the Dark Energy Survey collaboration, tells us about the ambitious project aiming to probe the origin of cosmic acceleration.
The destruction of stars by supermassive black holes appears to be rarer than predicted. A candidate stellar disruption in a kind of galaxy that is usually obscured may explain why.
We think dark matter exists because measurements of ‘normal’ matter would not otherwise make sense. In this Insight on dark matter — offered jointly by Nature Astronomy and Nature Physics — we showcase the various techniques trying to make sense of it.
A phenomenon recently studied in theoretical physics may hold considerable interest for astronomers: the explosive decay of primordial black holes through quantum tunnelling. Their detection would be of major theoretical importance.
Black holes present a profound challenge to our current foundations of physics, and an exciting era of astronomy is just opening in which gravitational-wave observation and very-long-baseline interferometry may provide important hints about the new principles of physics needed.
From near-Earth asteroids to superluminous supernovae and gravitational wave counterparts, the Zwicky Transient Facility will soon scan for transient phenomena, explain Eric Bellm and Shrinivas Kulkarni.