Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Visible and near-infrared spectra of the interstellar object ‘Oumuamua indicate the presence of inhomogeneities in surface composition, which are dominated by organic-rich material after long-term exposure to cosmic rays. An ice-rich interior is not ruled out.
During reconfinement in unmagnetized relativistic jets, a centrifugal instability develops that leads to a turbulent state. This instability likely lies behind the division of active galactic nuclei jets into the two Fanaroff–Riley classes.
A global flow model of Europa’s icy crust coupled with the underlying ocean shows the presence of a meridional ice flow. Convection and ocean heat transport can affect the direction and intensity of the flow and the gradients in ice thickness.
Similar physical processes regulate the angular momentum of gas-giant planets and planetary-mass brown dwarfs. These processes are active mostly during the early phase of planetary evolution as rotation rates do not change after the first 2–300 Myr.
Pulsar timing arrays may well be the next type of experiment to detect gravitational waves. Sensitive to lower frequencies than LIGO–Virgo, they will detect the stochastic background of massive binary black hole mergers.
On the 50th anniversary of the discovery of pulsars Jocelyn Bell Burnell reflects on their detection, our current understanding of these stars and the new era of discovery ushered in by next-generation radio observatories.
What started 50 years ago as a ‘smudge’ on paper has flourished into a fundamental field of astrophysics replete with unexpected applications and exciting discoveries. To celebrate the discovery of pulsars, we look at the past, present and future of pulsar astrophysics.
Forty years ago, the two Voyager spacecraft left Earth to begin one of the most rewarding voyages of human discovery ever to have been undertaken. Project Scientist Ed Stone recounts his treasured moments from the mission.
Pulsars — fast-spinning neutron stars — are precision clocks provided by nature. Finding pulsars in the Galactic Centre orbiting Sagittarius A*, the closest supermassive black hole to the Earth, will offer unprecedented opportunities to test general relativity and its alternatives.
Orbiting supermassive black holes in the centres of nearby galaxies contribute to a gravitational-wave background over the whole sky. Networks of millisecond pulsars are sensitive to this signal. Creating maps of this background using information from known galaxies can help us to project when (and how) we may observe it.
The Lovell Telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory has played a fundamental role in pulsar astronomy from the discovery of pulsars until the present day. This Perspective reviews the telescope’s accomplished history in astronomy and the early space race.
More than 20 GW of power are necessary to balance the heat emitted by Enceladus and avoid the freezing of its internal ocean. A very porous core undergoing tidal heating can generate the required power to maintain a liquid ocean and drive hydrothermal activity.
IAU Symposium 337 was held at Jodrell Bank Observatory in September 2017 to celebrate the past fifty years of pulsar astrophysics and to look forward to the next fifty.
