Astronomy and planetary science articles within Nature Physics

Featured

  • News & Views |

    New observations suggest that two highly debated mechanisms for type Ia supernovae — our standard distance 'candles' for astrophysical objects — may both be correct.

    • Anthony L. Piro

  • Letter |

    The brightest extragalactic black holes emit X-rays with intensities that are thousands of times greater than those from black holes within our Galaxy. However, optical spectra suggest these different sources may be more similar than once thought.

    • Sergei Fabrika
    • , Yoshihiro Ueda
    •  & Megumi Shidatsu

  • Letter |

    Simulations help reveal the complex relationship between the changing structure of the magnetic field lines and the plasma in the corona of the Sun, which is one hundred times hotter than the surface itself.

    • F. Chen
    • , H. Peter
    •  & M. C. M. Cheung

  • News & Views |

    Photons emitted by extragalactic sources provide an opportunity to test quantum gravity effects that modify the speed of light in vacuum. Studying the arrival times of these cosmic messengers further constrains the energy scales involved.

    • Agnieszka Jacholkowska

  • Letter |

    The rotation curve of a galaxy reflects the galactic mass distribution. For the Milky Way, such observational data are incompatible with models based on baryonic matter alone, which could be due to the presence of dark matter in the inner Milky Way.

    • Fabio Iocco
    • , Miguel Pato
    •  & Gianfranco Bertone

  • Research Highlights |

    • Iulia Georgescu

  • News & Views |

    The Rosetta orbiter following Comet 67P has captured not only the public imagination but also actual dust grains from the comet's nucleus, revealing their composition, morphology and strength.

    • David Jewitt

  • News & Views |

    The successful formation of self-generated magnetic fields in the lab using large-scale, high-power lasers opens the door to a better understanding of some of the most extreme astrophysical processes taking place in the Universe.

    • Francisco Suzuki-Vidal

  • News & Views |

    Ferroelectric polarization vortices close to a ferroelectric transition turn out to be striking models of the cosmos in which strings are thought to have condensed out of the rapid expansion of the early Universe.

    • Stephen E. Rowley
    •  & Gilbert G. Lonzarich

  • News & Views |

    Dark matter remains experimentally elusive. But what if it is more classical than expected, resembling a spatially varying field? A network of atomic clocks would be able to detect its variations.

    • Rana Adhikari
    • , Paul Hamiton
    •  & Holger Müller

  • Research Highlights |

    • Abigail Klopper

  • Thesis |

    • Mark Buchanan

  • Commentary |

    Discoveries in astronomy — or, in fact, any branch of science — can only happen when people are open-minded and willing to take risks.

    • Abraham Loeb

  • Futures |

    Chance encounter.

    • John Frizell

  • News & Views |

    The X-ray light curve of the debris from a star torn apart by a supermassive black hole provides the best evidence yet for two such black holes orbiting close to each other.

    • Martin Gaskell

  • News & Views |

    Despite the many successes of the cold dark matter cosmological model, observational challenges on subgalactic scales motivate researchers to consider alternatives, including a model in which dark matter is a quantum wave with an astronomically large wavelength.

    • Lawrence M. Widrow

  • Letter |

    A cosmological model treating dark matter as a coherent quantum wave agrees well with conventional dark-matter theory on an astronomical scale. But on smaller scales, the quantum nature of wave-like dark matter can explain dark-matter cores that are observed in dwarf galaxies, which standard theory cannot.

    • Hsi-Yu Schive
    • , Tzihong Chiueh
    •  & Tom Broadhurst

  • Editorial |

    Budget cuts to Australia's national science agency may have long-term effects on the country's commitment to radio-astronomy science.

  • News & Views |

    Properties of companion galaxies strengthen the idea that the probability of the inner regions of an active galaxy being hidden from our view by dust depends on environmental and evolutionary factors.

    • Martin Gaskell

  • Letter |

    An active galactic nucleus is the brightest source of electromagnetic radiation in the Universe, believed to be powered by a supermassive black hole at its core. There are two main types of active galactic nuclei, though the differences may be down to varying viewing angles. Or are they?

    • Beatriz Villarroel
    •  & Andreas J. Korn

  • Editorial |

    A spectacular result for inflationary cosmology needs independent confirmation.

  • Research Highlights |

    • May Chiao

  • Editorial |

    ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has begun the next phase of its ambitious mission to land a probe on the nucleus of a comet, and ride with the comet towards the Sun.

  • News & Views |

    When the atmospheric surface pressure is just right, a temperature difference can drive a continuous flow of rarefied gas through the soil matrix — a previously unrecognized process on Mars.

    • Norbert Schörghofer

  • Letter |

    Microgravity experiments on a dust bed in a ‘drop tower’ set-up reveal the ability of martian soil to act as an efficient gas pump when heated by the Sun.

    • Caroline de Beule
    • , Gerhard Wurm
    •  & Jens Teiser

  • Perspective |

    The latest data from the Planck satellite have consolidated our understanding of the cosmic microwave background and the early Universe — except for some large-angle anomalies. These effects could be accounted for by invoking SU(2) gauge symmetry for photon propagation.

    • Ralf Hofmann

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