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The observed ‘radius valley’ — a dip in the distribution of exoplanet radii, which separates rocky super-Earths from larger sub-Neptunes — is at odds with current theories of planetary formation. New simulations that couple planet formation and evolution, and account for the orbital migration of planets that are largely composed of steam, are able to reproduce the valley feature.
By day 1,041 after explosion, SN Ia-CSM 2018evt had produced an estimated 0.01 solar masses of dust in the cold, dense shell behind the supernova ejecta–circumstellar medium interaction, ranking it as one of the most prolific dust-producing supernovae ever recorded.
A very uncommon detached binary system with a 20.5-min orbital period has been discovered to harbour a carbon–oxygen white dwarf star and a low-mass subdwarf B star with a seven-Earth radius that traces the theoretical limit of binary evolution predicted 20 years ago.
A prominent under-density in the observed radius distribution separates small exoplanets in two categories. The study demonstrates, through planet formation and evolution simulations, that the larger planets, whose composition has been disputed, may be water-rich planets migrating towards the star, where they become steam worlds.
While turbulent dissipation is prevalent in astrophysics, the processes that convert turbulent energy into heat are often unclear. This study shows that plasma waves are fundamental to heating the solar wind and similar turbulent astrophysical systems.
The Lyman-α emission line of hydrogen should be absorbed and thus not seen from galaxies in the early Universe — and yet it is observed. Now detailed images from JWST coupled with magnetohydrodynamical simulations show that interactions between galaxies are facilitating the escape of this radiation.
A series of pieces published in this issue highlights the breadth and depth of topics discussed in modern astrobiology, an exciting discipline that has come to the forefront of astronomy in recent years and promises to answer one of the most fundamental questions of humanity.
A comparison of observations and simulations of satellite galaxies around massive galaxy groups reveals significant differences, including correlated motions of pairs of satellite galaxies, which challenge the standard model of cosmology.
Chemical disequilibrium is a known biosignature, and it is important to determine the conditions for its remote detection. A thermodynamical model coupled with atmospheric retrieval shows that a disequilibrium can be inferred for a Proterozoic Earth-like exoplanet in reflected light at a high O2/CH4 abundance case and signal-to-noise ratio of 50.
High-mass stars in the Milky Way often exist in systems of two or more stars, but how this multiplicity arises is not clear and so far there have been no unequivocal observations of protostellar systems that could solve the issue. Now, systems of five, four and three stars, and several binaries, have been resolved in a star-forming region, and point to core fragmentation as the likely origin of multiplicity.
A combination of JWST/NIRCam observations and magnetohydrodynamic simulations indicates that frequent mergers with close companions give rise to bursty star formation and hence the unexpectedly high Lyman-α emission detected from early galaxies.
This Article provides evidence for apatite in a ferroan anorthosite clast in a lunar meteorite, allowing direct measurement of the volatile systematics of the primary products of the lunar magma ocean and the earliest lunar crust.
High spatial resolution ALMA observations reveal a group of gravitationally bound quintuple, quadruple, triple and binary protostellar systems in the early stages of formation in a high-mass protocluster. This finding provides a direct measurement of the multiplicity of high-mass star formation.
Multiwavelength observations of a galactic nucleus exhibit quasi-periodic X-ray eruptions (QPEs) that repeat every 22 days, a timescale intermediate between those of other QPEs and so-called repeating nuclear transients. The eruptions are likely to be driven by the interaction between an orbiting body and a central massive black hole.