Editorial |
Featured
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News & Views |
A journey through scales
Direct satellite observations of energy transfer between large and small space plasma scales contribute to our understanding of how matter in the Universe gets hot.
- Alessandro Retinò
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News & Views |
Cosmic feast
Low-mass stars form through a process known as disk accretion, eating up material that orbits in a disk around them. It turns out that the same mechanism also describes the formation of more massive stars.
- Simone Scaringi
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Letter |
Disk-mediated accretion burst in a high-mass young stellar object
Observations show that, like light solar-mass stars, heavy stars also form through episodic disk-accretion; but faster, more energetic and emitting more light.
- A. Caratti o Garatti
- , B. Stecklum
- & J. M. Ibañez
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News & Views |
When the tail wags the dog
Solar eruptions are triggered by magnetic stress building up in the corona due to the motion of the Sun's dense surface. New observations reveal that these eruptions can, in turn, induce the rotational motion of sunspots.
- Guillaume Aulanier
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Article |
The age structure of the Milky Way’s halo
A high-resolution age map of the Milky Way picks out structures that validate the most widely accepted cosmological theory, lambda cold dark matter. The chronographic data are also used to probe the chemodynamical formation history of our Galaxy.
- D. Carollo
- , T. C. Beers
- & J. Tumlinson
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Letter |
Contribution of quasar-driven outflows to the extragalactic gamma-ray background
The interaction between the outflow of gas from a quasar and the interstellar medium can boost protons to relativistic energies. Collisions between such protons can explain a significant fraction of the unexplained extragalactic gamma-ray background.
- Xiawei Wang
- & Abraham Loeb
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News & Views |
Why dwarf galaxies come up short
When it comes to star formation, dwarf galaxies perform very poorly. A possible explanation for this behaviour involves photoelectric electrons heating the star-forming gas.
- Desika Narayanan
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Article |
Explaining the dynamics of the ultra-relativistic third Van Allen radiation belt
The appearance of a third radiation belt in the Earth’s Van Allen belts is difficult to explain using existing models for two belts. However, a model based on ultra-low-frequency waves agrees quantitatively with measurements of the third belt.
- I. R. Mann
- , L. G. Ozeke
- & F. Honary
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Letter |
Magnetic reconnection between a solar filament and nearby coronal loops
Observing magnetic reconnection directly is generally difficult, but looking at the reconnection between erupting solar filaments and nearby coronal loops uncovers many fine details with unprecedented clarity.
- Leping Li
- , Jun Zhang
- & Duncan Mackay
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News & Views |
More similar than knot
The detection of a discrete knot of particle emission from the active galaxy M81* reveals that black hole accretion is self-similar with regard to mass, producing the same knotty jets irrespective of black hole mass and accretion rate.
- José L. Gómez
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Letter |
Discrete knot ejection from the jet in a nearby low-luminosity active galactic nucleus, M81∗
Radio and X-ray observations of the jet emission from M81∗, the nearest low-luminosity supermassive black hole, reveal a knot structure. The knot is unexpected, as models generally assume a continuous and compact jet.
- Ashley L. King
- , Jon M. Miller
- & Norbert Bartel
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Article |
Coincidence of a high-fluence blazar outburst with a PeV-energy neutrino event
The IceCube neutrino telescope in the South Pole has observed several high-energy neutrinos of undetermined origin. Could the third detected PeV event be from blazar PKS B1424–418?
- M. Kadler
- , F. Krauß
- & J. A. Zensus
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Letter |
In situ observations of waves in Venus’s polar lower thermosphere with Venus Express aerobraking
The final stage of the Venus Express mission involved aerobraking — or deceleration by atmospheric drag — through the upper atmosphere above the northern pole of Venus. Concurrent measurements revealed two kinds of waves.
- Ingo C. F. Müller-Wodarg
- , Sean Bruinsma
- & Håkan Svedhem
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News & Views |
A general relativistic approach
The quality and quantity of current and forthcoming cosmological datasets call for both analytical and numerical modelling of the dynamics of nonlinear gravitational matter based on general relativity.
- Sabino Matarrese
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Letter |
General relativity and cosmic structure formation
When general relativity is included in large-scale simulations of the cosmic structure of the Universe, relativistic effects turn out to be small but measurable, thus providing tests for models of dark matter and dark energy.
- Julian Adamek
- , David Daverio
- & Martin Kunz
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Letter |
Coalescence of magnetic flux ropes in the ion diffusion region of magnetic reconnection
Merging magnetic flux ropes, which are believed to play an important role in magnetic reconnection, have now been clearly identified. Observations show that coalescence is indeed closely related to reconnection dynamics and also to turbulence.
- Rongsheng Wang
- , Quanming Lu
- & Shui Wang
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News & Views |
Reconnecting with two good friends
Two observational studies published in Nature Physics provided early evidence for the mechanisms of magnetic reconnection in three dimensions and in a turbulent medium.
- Ellen Zweibel
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Letter |
Short-lived 244Pu points to compact binary mergers as sites for heavy r-process nucleosynthesis
Stars could produce our heavy elements through a rapid neutron-capture process during a supernova or merger of binary stars, but which is it? A study of 244Pu reveals that a rare event with a high yield is more likely, favouring mergers.
- Kenta Hotokezaka
- , Tsvi Piran
- & Michael Paul
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Letter |
Cassini in situ observations of long-duration magnetic reconnection in Saturn’s magnetotail
Cassini’s encounter with Saturn’s magnetotail — the long magnetosphere region stretching into space — has revealed that plasma exits the magnetosphere through long-duration magnetic reconnection, which ejects ten times more mass than estimated.
- C. S. Arridge
- , J. P. Eastwood
- & M. K. Dougherty
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Letter |
Solar coronal magnetic fields derived using seismology techniques applied to omnipresent sunspot waves
Sunspots are transient cool regions on the Sun’s photosphere where concentrated magnetic field lines suppress convection. It turns out that sunspot oscillations can map the coronal magnetic field strength with high resolution.
- David B. Jess
- , Veronika E. Reznikova
- & Conor Diamond
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Commentary |
The infinity pool
Career opportunities are often a matter of chance, but also of a willingness to cross interdisciplinary boundaries.
- Abraham Loeb
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Editorial |
More space
As we celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, there is plenty to look back on and even more to look forward to.
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Commentary |
Hubble's biggest fan
What is it about the Hubble Space Telescope that so captivates its users and the public at large? I offer my personal views on this iconic telescope.
- Luis C. Ho
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Commentary |
LISA and its pathfinder
On astronomical scales, gravity is the engine of the Universe. The launch of LISA Pathfinder this year to prepare the technology to detect gravitational waves will help us 'listen' to the whole Universe.
- Karsten Danzmann
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Commentary |
Magnetic reconnection
A new NASA mission will reveal the electron-scale physics of magnetic reconnection, a process that connects our planet to the rest of the Universe.
- Thomas Earle Moore
- , James L. Burch
- & Roy B. Torbert
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Commentary |
Ψ in the sky
Quantum technologies, including quantum sensors, quantum communication and quantum metrology, represent a growing industry. Out in space, such technologies can revolutionize the way we communicate and observe our planet.
- Kai Bongs
- , Michael Holynski
- & Yeshpal Singh
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Commentary |
Exploring the dwarf planets
This year, NASA's Dawn and New Horizons rendezvoused with Ceres and Pluto, respectively. These worlds, despite their modest sizes, have much to teach us about the accretion of the Solar System and its dynamical evolution.
- William B. McKinnon
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News & Views |
Turning off the lights
Decades-long repeat observations of supernova 1987A offer us unique, real-time insights into the violent death of a massive star and its long-term environmental effects, until its eventual switch-off.
- Richard de Grijs
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News & Views |
Charges dropped
Granular charging can create some spectacular interactions, but gravity obscures our ability to observe and understand them. A neat desktop experiment circumvents this problem, shining a light on granular clustering — and perhaps even planet formation.
- Frank Spahn
- & Martin Seiβ
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Letter |
Central engine of a gamma-ray blazar resolved through the magnifying glass of gravitational microlensing
A foreground galaxy cluster is magnifying a more distant blazar by gravitationally bending the emitted radiation. Using such a lens, it is possible to resolve a jet close to the central supermassive black hole as being the source of the gamma rays.
- Andrii Neronov
- , Ievgen Vovk
- & Denys Malyshev
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To boldly go
The dark between the stars
A billion stars in our grasp
Small but still special
Space oddity
Lone star states