A dark purple oval is visible in the southern hemisphere of Jupiter, which itself is rendered in unusual colours: pinks and lilacs and blues and burgundy.

Our February issue is now available to read!

This month, we celebrate paper packages: bundles of papers that are the results of a project or proposal or cover the same astronomical event and form part of a coherent whole. See the Editorial.

Announcements

  • JWST spectrum of a transiting exoplanet

    This Collection highlights the results from the Early Science Release programme of the JWST telescope focused on transiting hot giant exoplanets. With its extended wavelength range and its exquisite precision, JWST is transforming our characterisation of exoplanetary atmospheres.

  • Sketch of 3D cross-section of a planet with sub-surface water venting into plumes.

    Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary subject with the aim to understand the origins, evolution and extent of life in the Universe. This Collection showcases a series of pieces published in Nature Astronomy covering a wide but far from exhaustive spread of topics that are focusing the debate and the effort of researchers in modern astrobiology.

  • Satellite streaks across a Hubble Space Telescope image

    There is no escaping light pollution on Earth — not on the seafloor or at the poles -- or above it. The Focus on dark skies explores the impact of skyglow on astronomy as well as other activities that rely on a dark sky. There is still time for mitigation. We only need the will.

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  • Benzene formation via sequential cold ion–molecule reactions is followed experimentally to understand how aromatic molecules are formed in interstellar clouds. Surprisingly, the chain of reactions involving the addition of acetylene terminates at C6H5+.

    • G. S. Kocheril
    • C. Zagorec-Marks
    • H. J. Lewandowski
    Article
  • ILT J1101 is a white dwarf–M dwarf binary that emits minute-duration radio pulses with a 2-h periodicity. The period of the radio pulses is linked to the orbital period of the binary, rather than the rotation period of the stellar components.

    • I. de Ruiter
    • K. M. Rajwade
    • S. Mahadevan
    ArticleOpen Access
  • Numerical simulations reveal how deep ocean circulation in Saturn’s moon Enceladus transports hydrothermal heat and organic matter emitted at the seafloor to the surface ice shell, feeding the moon’s unique plume.

    • Mathieu Bouffard
    • Gaël Choblet
    • Filipe Terra-Nova
    Article
  • ALMA observations have established the presence of warm, X-ray-heated gas near a supermassive black hole at redshift z = 6, demonstrating that highly excited CO lines are a powerful method for exploring heavily dust-obscured quasars in the early Universe.

    • K. Tadaki
    • F. Esposito
    • T. Michiyama
    Article
  • The authors report the photometric detection of the distant spectroscopically confirmed galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0 at z > 14 with JWST/MIRI. The inferred properties suggest rapid mass assembly and metal enrichment during the earliest phases of galaxy formation.

    • Jakob M. Helton
    • George H. Rieke
    • Yongda Zhu
    ArticleOpen Access
  • State-of-the-art computer simulations show that the first water in the Universe formed in primordial supernova remnants 100 Myr after the Big Bang, enriching future sites of planet formation to levels that were nearly those in the Solar System today.

    • D. J. Whalen
    • M. A. Latif
    • C. Jessop
    ArticleOpen Access

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