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.
How does one maintain a personal professional identity while part of a large collaboration in which everything is a team effort? Tensions will undoubtedly arise, but among the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, at least, they are resolved as one would handle family dynamics.
Although space debris has been a problem for decades, recent investment in active debris clearing shows a wider commitment to sustainable space development.
In-person and online conferences each have their benefits, with hybrid conferences intended to blend the best of both worlds. But do hybrid conferences fulfil the promise? Fifteen attendees across three global conferences share their collective experiences.
Gamma-ray bursts are linked to the most distant objects in the Universe, but detecting them is a rare event. With a dedicated near-infrared telescope to observe in tandem with the optical Vera Rubin Observatory, ten or so high-redshift (z ≳ 6) gamma-ray bursts could potentially be detected every year.
The residual magnetic field detected in some carbonaceous chondrite meteorites is a remanent of the primordial field of the early solar nebula, preserved via aqueous alteration processes that happened in large planetesimals formed around 4 Myr after CAI formation and just before the dissipation of the solar nebula.
JWST observations reveal more than 17 nested dust shells that formed in the colliding winds of the massive binary WR 140 that enrich the surrounding interstellar medium with organic compounds and carbon-rich dust.
Early Martian surface and subsurface were probably habitable for methanogenic microorganisms with a hydrogen-based metabolism, according to an ecological model coupled with a geochemical simulation. Feedback effects of such a biosphere on the atmosphere might have driven strong global cooling.
Energetic neutral atom fluxes measured at 1 au by the IBEX spacecraft between 2014 and 2019 are used as proxy to map the heliosphere at high resolution. Persistent ripples that corrugate the heliospheric boundary and induce variations by up to ~10 au are observed, with marked north–south asymmetry.
The European Astronomical Society (EAS) awarded its most prestigious prizes during its annual meeting held in Valencia, Spain. After two virtual meetings, astronomers attended in-person or watched some of the sessions remotely.
Topographic signatures typical of subglacial lakes on Earth are observed over the south pole area of Mars, where MARSIS found possible signatures of similar bodies of water. Modelling shows that such signatures can be generated in 0.5–5 Myr, depending on the intensity of the geothermal heating.
Blue large-amplitude pulsators (BLAPs) represent a mysterious class of hot stars pulsating in an unexpectedly extreme way. Here we report the discovery of an unusual BLAP at a short-lived phase that provides a new path to understand their physical origins.
Multiple gas disks, both misaligned with the stellar disk, are reported in two galaxies, providing evidence for multiple gas acquisition events, challenging the traditional picture of galaxy accretion and suggesting a new trigger mechanism for star formation.
Earth-mass planets in the classical habitable zone of M dwarfs span a range of water content higher than previously computed, according to a planetary population model that includes the effects of water enrichment in the primordial atmosphere.
Spectropolarimetric observations of three tidal disruption events reveal that they are optically polarized at the 1–2% level by a cloud of electrons surrounding the black hole (in good agreement with theory).
A non-accreting and non-beaming neutron star in a close binary is discovered and characterized by modelling the observed periodic variabilities in the visible companion star. This neutron star belongs to an abundant but less-explored population that cannot be seen with popular techniques such as X-ray and gamma-ray observations.
The limits of our knowledge on light–matter interactions (that is, opacity models) will affect the exploration of exoplanetary atmospheres. Accounting for these limits will prevent biased claims. Guided improvements in opacity models, their standardization and dissemination will ensure maximum return on investment from the next-generation observatories, including the JWST.
