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Phase-curve observations of the ‘hot Jupiter’ exoplanet WASP-43b, made at mid-infrared wavelengths using JWST, provide evidence that fast winds limit the formation of methane on the cooler, cloudy nightside of the planet.
Based on physical modelling and using deep-learning tools, a 3D reconstruction of a flare orbiting the black hole Sagittarius A*, at the centre of the Milky Way, provides observational clues to the formation of high-energy flares and the dynamics of black-hole accretion disks.
What mechanisms power the heating of the solar atmosphere is a long-standing, complex question. Satellite and sounding-rocket observations, coupled with computer simulations, now support the idea that dissipation of electrical currents causes strong heating in the brightest parts of the solar chromosphere and corona.
The successful impact of NASA’s DART on Dimorphos, the moon of asteroid Didymos, has been analysed using advanced numerical simulations. The results reveal the asteroid’s low surface cohesion and rubble-pile structure, similar to what has been observed on asteroids Ryugu and Bennu.
Cosmic dust contains all the elements needed for life but has previously been considered too rare to have acted as a ‘fertilizer’ for prebiotic chemistry. Now, using a combination of astrophysical and geological models, it is revealed that cosmic dust could have gently accumulated on the surface of early Earth in sufficient quantities to promote the chemical reactions that led to first life.
The observed ‘radius valley’ — a dip in the distribution of exoplanet radii, which separates rocky super-Earths from larger sub-Neptunes — is at odds with current theories of planetary formation. New simulations that couple planet formation and evolution, and account for the orbital migration of planets that are largely composed of steam, are able to reproduce the valley feature.
The Lyman-α emission line of hydrogen should be absorbed and thus not seen from galaxies in the early Universe — and yet it is observed. Now detailed images from JWST coupled with magnetohydrodynamical simulations show that interactions between galaxies are facilitating the escape of this radiation.
High-mass stars in the Milky Way often exist in systems of two or more stars, but how this multiplicity arises is not clear and so far there have been no unequivocal observations of protostellar systems that could solve the issue. Now, systems of five, four and three stars, and several binaries, have been resolved in a star-forming region, and point to core fragmentation as the likely origin of multiplicity.
