Reviews & Analysis

Observations with a continent-wide array of radio telescopes show that the merger of two neutron stars, which produced gravitational waves, successfully launched a very fast and highly collimated jet.

Gender equity across the globe is improving thanks to dedicated efforts, policies, monitoring, training and assessment. However, progress is slow and more needs to be done. Numbers don’t tell the whole story, but quantitative surveys are helping to gauge the situation.

The positions and motions of galaxies are dictated by the laws of gravity. A new technique to measure the anisotropy in the three-dimensional redshift distribution of galaxies seriously challenges attempts to go beyond Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

The European Astronomical Society (EAS) awarded its most prestigious prizes during its annual meeting, the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science (EWASS), held in Liverpool from 3 April to 6 April 2018.

The Andromeda galaxy’s stellar halo and disk show signs of an active recent merger history. Recent work suggests that most of the disturbances in Andromeda’s disk and the inner halo may be due to a single merger event.

Dark matter is deemed essential for describing galaxy dynamics. A prominent alternative theory can make the same predictions without dark matter, by introducing a universal acceleration constant. Recent high-quality observations of galaxies are used to investigate whether this constant is really a constant.

The biennial Harvard Sackler conference this year focused on gravitational-wave astrophysics, with a comprehensive programme that reviewed recent discoveries and discussed prospects for a bright future.

Fifty-one years after Lyman-alpha lines were predicted (and 20 years after this author got involved in searching for Lyman-alpha galaxies), it was a pleasure to see so much progress in this field in the Spring Cosmic Lyman-Alpha Workshop at Tokyo University.

A magnetic reconnection event within Saturn’s magnetosphere, captured by Cassini at an unexpected site, may reshape our views on how internally produced plasma is circulated in giant planet magnetospheres.

We study the situation of women astronomers in Spain, based on statistical data and in-depth interviews with teaching staff and researchers at all career stages. Our results are presented as a motivation for further similar or expanded studies.

There is not enough CO₂ in the Martian system that could be mobilized — with present-day or near-future technologies — to provide enough greenhouse warming that could lead to the terraforming of the planet.

A new model predicts locations on the surface of radiation-blasted Europa, the ocean moon of Jupiter, where biochemical signatures of life emergent from the subsurface ocean might survive long enough for detection on the moon’s changing surface.

‘Why is there a black hole where women should be?’ asked Member of Parliament Chi Onwurah during her plenary talk on women in science at EWASS 2018. Gender equity was among a variety of topics discussed in a day-long Special Session.

A diverse group of science communicators from around the world came together in Fukuoka, Japan to discuss outreach strategies in a post-factual society, methods to improve inclusion, best practices for communicating within international collaborations and resources to benefit localized organizations.

Should science be taught differently? By emphasizing the process, not the acquisition of factual knowledge, students will learn how to solve problems and see science as relevant to their careers outside of research.

New analyses show that most asteroids, nowadays residing in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, could have originated from collisional events that have broken apart a few large parent bodies.