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A massive white dwarf (WD) with unusually low hydrogen and helium abundances, undetectable oxygen and high C/H poses a challenge to single-star evolution models. However, this object fits with expectations of a WD–WD merger product.
Radio observations of black hole MAXI J1820+070’s 2018 outburst captured an isolated radio flare that the authors connect with the launch of bipolar relativistic ejecta. Following the oncoming ejecta for more than half a year reveals that black hole jet energetics have been systematically underestimated.
Observations of the Faraday rotation towards pulsars in the halo globular cluster 47 Tucanae have been used to constrain the magnetic field strength in the Galactic halo, finding that it is unexpectedly strong.
Our Galaxy’s disk is warped, and that warp is dynamic. Here, Poggio et al. measure the rate of precession of the Galaxy’s warp using a large sample of giant stars. Rather than primordial, the rate of precession indicates that the Milky Way acquired its warp during a recent or even ongoing encounter with another galaxy.
The Spitzer Space Telescope may be modest in size compared to its optical counterparts, but the low temperatures of its optics gave its infrared instruments excellent sensitivity, explains Facility Scientist Thomas Roellig.
Growing evidence suggests that synchrotron radiation plays a significant role in shaping the spectra of most γ-ray bursts. The relativistic jets producing them are likely to carry a significant fraction of energy in the form of a Poynting flux.
Low-frequency radio emission from a normally quiescent M dwarf star suggests a radio aurora generated by the interaction between the stellar corona and an undetected Earth-sized planet.
The recent disclosure regarding possible biological consequences of the Beresheet hard landing on the Moon raises concerns relating to planetary protection policies. Here we analyse legal and regulatory aspects of the landing of tardigrades and other biological material on the Moon and suggest possible ways to manage challenges arising therefrom.
The recent suite of ground and space observatories bring solar physics into the twenty-first century. Solar Orbiter, due to launch this month, will observe the polar regions from up close, which is essential for understanding the magnetic field of the Sun.
Cosmology now has a standard model — a remarkably simple description of the Universe, its contents and its history. A symposium held last September in Cambridge, UK, gave this model a ‘health check’ and discussed fascinating questions that lie beyond it.
Michael Werner, project scientist of the Spitzer Space Telescope and emeritus chief scientist for astronomy and physics at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, discusses the legacy of one of NASA’s Great Observatories.
Juno’s microwave radiometer data could measure the water concentration in the deep atmosphere of Jupiter (0.7 to 30 bar) at the equator: \(2.7^{+2.4}_{-1.7}\) times the solar O/H abundance, with a thermal vertical structure compatible with a moist adiabat.
