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A number of recent laboratory studies—summarized in this Review—have improved our understanding of the origin of presolar grains, with at least a quarter of presolar grains now being understood to originate in supernovae and their progenitors.
This review summarizes our understanding of early-type dwarfs, which are the end-points of the evolution of low-mass galaxies. Their primeval stellar populations provide a unique laboratory for studying the physical conditions on small scales at epochs beyond z = 2.
Galaxies and their dark-matter haloes have posed several challenges to the dark energy plus cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmological model. This Review discusses the most notable challenges to ΛCDM regarding dwarf galaxies and the insights provided by recent cosmological numerical simulations.
This article reviews the properties of the dwarf galaxies of the Local Group from the point of view of their stellar dynamics and dark matter content and distribution, as inferred from the combination of observed data and dynamical models.
This Review looks at how the most recent results on intracluster light—the faint glow between galaxies within a galaxy cluster—fit into the current understanding of the field and provides a global perspective on the direction of future studies.
Our understanding of the relatively newly recognized phenomenon of haloes of gamma-ray emission around Galactic pulsars is summarized, from observational and theoretical perspectives, together with their implication for the acceleration of cosmic rays.
This Review examines gas dynamics in dwarf galaxies, such as rotation curves and mass models. Star-forming dwarfs extend the dynamical laws of spiral galaxies and show small scatter around them, implying a tight coupling between baryons and dark matter.
This Review summarizes what is known of the stellar and chemical properties of nearby (<20 Mpc) star-forming dwarf galaxies. These objects resemble the earliest formed galaxies and may thus represent a window on the distant, early Universe.
Theoretical findings and current gravitational-wave evidence of hierarchical stellar-mass black-hole mergers are reviewed. Promising locations for the production of such systems include nuclear star clusters, accretion disks in active galactic nuclei, and potentially globular clusters.
This Review Article summarizes our current understanding of ionized outflows in active galactic nuclei, observed in absorption in the ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths, including the most relevant observations as well as their origin and acceleration mechanisms.
In the Spitzer Space Telescope’s 16 years of operation, it observed many Solar System objects and environments. In this first Review Article of a pair, Spitzer’s insights into comets, centaurs and Kuiper belt objects—all remnants of the Solar System’s formation—are summarized.
In the Spitzer Space Telescope’s 16 years of operation, it observed many Solar System objects and environments. In this second Review Article of a pair, Spitzer’s insight into asteroids, dust clouds and rings and the ice giant planets are summarized.
The Spitzer Space Telescope launched when the study of exoplanets was in its infancy, and yet it was remarkably successful in characterizing both exoplanet and brown dwarf systems through their mid-infrared emissions. This Review collates the highlights of Spitzer-based research in these fields.
Spitzer revealed the properties of luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies, the role of starbursts and actively accreting supermassive black holes in powering these sources and found evidence for energetic feedback on their interstellar gas and dust.
The Spitzer Space Telescope accurately measured stellar masses, ages and star formation rates for a large sample of typical galaxies at high redshifts, allowing an initial exploration of some of the key science drivers of the James Webb Space Telescope.
The Spitzer Space Telescope made huge advances in the study of debris disks around main-sequence stars and white dwarfs, increasing their number by an order of magnitude, and leading the way for the next generation of space-based infrared missions.
Spitzer revolutionized studies of active galactic nuclei through its high sensitivity and mapping speed at mid-infrared wavelengths. This Review summarizes key Spitzer insights on active galactic nuclei, including the properties of their dust and shocked gas.
Spitzer revealed the power of astrophysical polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules to probe the local physical and chemical conditions and processes, for example, establishing the relation between their abundance and galaxy metallicity for the first time.
Cosmochemical measurements reveal the existence of two distinct reservoirs of non-carbonaceous and carbonaceous materials, originating from the inner and outer protoplanetary disk, respectively, which separated after the first million years after the birth of the Solar System, possibly due to the rapid growth of Jupiter’s core.
Thermonuclear supernovae — those involving the explosion of a white dwarf — and particularly type-Ia supernovae, have become indispensable tools for observationally measuring the expansion of the Universe. However, we still do not fully understand these objects, especially the range of progenitor systems that give rise to them. Future observations will enable us to make headway.
