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An ice-rich crust with increasing silicate content with depth is consistent with Ceres’ crater morphology, lack of crater relaxation and gravity inversions. This structure has a higher ice content than previously expected and could form from a relic ocean.
A state-of-the-art model for planet–star interactions shows that migrating planets may coevolve with their pulsating stars through episodic resonances that drive substantial orbital migration and produce detectable tidal oscillations.
A massive galaxy hosting an accreting supermassive black hole two billion years after the Big Bang shows fast neutral-gas outflows that are capable of stopping star formation by removing its fuel while the stars keep rotating in a disk.
Through a joint analysis of radial velocity and astrometry, Wang et al. have discovered a putative mass-gap black hole candidate in a wide binary system. Its wide circular orbit challenges current binary evolution and supernova explosion theories.
The hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions of ultra-carbonaceous Antarctic micrometeorites reveal that they are possibly linked with N-bearing volatile species, including primordial N2, condensed on the coldest objects of the Solar System.
Machine learning provides an opportunity to probe dark matter in massive galaxy clusters, more precisely and hundreds of times faster than current methods.
The spin of Sagittarius A* from Event Horizon Telescope observations is compatible with a historical merger with a 4:1 mass ratio, according to a model. This finding supports the idea that supermassive black holes grow through hierarchical mergers.
A deep map of the diffuse gas surrounding a nearby galaxy reveals changes in the physical conditions: a mark of the boundary between the edge of the galaxy and the onset of the circumgalactic medium, the dominant reservoir of normal matter.
The rocky disk surrounding the young Sun may have experienced a close flyby of another star. Simulations show that a highly inclined flyby of a star slightly smaller than the Sun at 100 au almost perfectly reproduces the orbits of the numerous small objects beyond Neptune.
Chuanpeng Hou and co-authors report their findings on the origin of interplanetary switchbacks in solar magnetic reconnection at chromospheric network boundaries. This link between in situ and remote-sensing solar observations is a major step towards understanding coronal heating and solar wind acceleration.
A comprehensive inventory of the carbon footprints of 1,211 ground-based astronomical observatories and space missions over a period of 78 years is used to model the expected future annual carbon footprint from astronomical research infrastructures.
By extracting non-Gaussian cosmological information on galaxy clustering at nonlinear scales, a framework for cosmic inference (SimBIG) provides more precise constraints for testing cosmological models.
The dynamical history of the seven-planet TRAPPIST-1 system, which is marked by delicate orbital resonances, is meticulously reconstructed. This study unveils the key physical processes that shaped its formation during and beyond the circumstellar disk phase.
If water exists in super-Earth and sub-Neptune exoplanets, it is expected to be hidden deep in their cores and mantles, rather than at their surfaces. Exoplanets considered to be relatively dry might actually have abundant water sequestered in their interiors.
Radiometric cooling ages of chondrite meteorites record asteroid belt bombardment beginning approximately 11 million years after the formation of the Solar System, indicating an episode of giant planet migration at that time.
How a star cluster manages to produce γ-rays at a location 30 light yr away from itself is a mystery that can be solved by carefully testing theories about how charged particles travel through space.
Merging supermassive black holes emit low-frequency gravitational waves, difficult to observe with current and future detectors. Stegmann et al. show that these black holes can leave measurable traces in high-frequency signals from adjacent sources.
The organic macromolecular matter found in meteorites could have formed in heavily irradiated zones in dust traps in planet-forming disks, according to an evolutionary model of a protoplanetary disk.
A data-validated model for the lunar radiation environment is used to draw guidelines for safe future activities on the Moon, depending on the thickness and type of habitat shielding. Unless the base is at a depth of at least 3 m, some degree of crew rotation is needed, up to several times per year.
The contribution of accreted stars to a galaxy’s total stellar mass is hard to determine directly from observations. Here constraints are placed on the ex situ stellar mass for ~10,000 galaxies using a cosmological simulation and machine learning.