Volume 1 Issue 9, September 2017

The European Astronomical Society awarded its most prestigious prizes during the annual European Week of Astronomy and Space Science, held in Prague from 26–30 June 2017.

The NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini–Huygens mission ends in a ‘Grand Finale’ this month, after 13 years in orbit around Saturn. The ESA and NASA JPL project scientists Nicolas Altobelli, Linda J. Spilker and Scott G. Edgington give an overview of the last moments of Cassini’s operational lifetime.

An ingenious use of gravitational lensing allows the measurement of magnetic fields in a galaxy five billion years ago.

Linearly polarized optical emission from a gamma-ray burst reveals the presence of a large-scale distorted magnetic field in the heart of this powerful cosmic explosion.

A time-dependent dark energy component of the Universe may be able to explain tensions between local and primordial measurements of cosmological parameters, shaking current confidence in the concept of a cosmological ‘constant’.

The length asymmetry of the tidal stellar stream Palomar 5 could have been caused by a past encounter(s) with the Galactic bar, thus limiting its use as a probe for structures in the dark matter halo of the Milky Way.

Black holes and spacetime singularities are fundamental in science. While observational proof for black holes is hard to come by, alternatives can be ruled out or confirmed to exist through precision gravitational wave observations.

Australian astronomy has a bright future due to recent investments in major new telescopes, instruments and research centres. In this process, Australia's focus continues to shift from national facilities to new multinational and global partnerships.

Quantifying the effect of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) on their hosts requires knowledge of their life cycle. This review on AGN archaeology summarizes the main recent findings regarding the AGN life cycle from optical and radio observations.

Diamonds precipitate from methane under the intense pressures of the atmospheres of Neptune and Uranus. Here, a laser shock experiment on a hydrocarbon sample shows that diamonds may require ten times as much pressure to precipitate as was previously thought.

Brightness changes of the Sun over timescales from minutes to decades, relevant to Earth’s climate and the detection of exoplanets around Sun-like stars, can be fully and precisely explained by the magnetic field and granulation of the Sun’s surface.

The stardust component of interstellar dust has been quantified by analysing samples of pre-solar dust grains from meteorites and found to be at least twice as much as had been thought. The silicate portion follows the size distribution of interstellar dust.

The detection and characterization of a large-scale ordered magnetic field through a gravitational lens in a galaxy beyond the local volume allows us to elucidate how such magnetic fields come about, supporting a mean-field dynamo origin.

Recent observations reveal tension between various cosmological probes. Assuming dark energy to be non-constant, depending on redshift, may relieve this tension. The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument survey will be able to confirm this result.

Rotation of the Galactic bar at the centre of the Milky Way can explain gaps and asymmetries in stellar stream Palomar 5. Similar streams close to the Galactic Centre are therefore unfit for probing the dark matter subhalo interactions in our Galaxy.