Fast radio bursts typically last milliseconds, with their durations connected in some way to the properties of their emitting regions, close to neutron stars or magnetars. But there have been hints of more rapid phenomena, and here Snelders et al., by re-analysing archival data, demonstrate the presence of microsecond-duration bursts that have been missed by previous searches.

See Snelders et al.

The discovery of quasi-periodic eruptions, caused by the repeated and partial tidal disruption of a star around a supermassive black hole, may explain both the hours-long quasi-periodicity in active galactic nuclei and the days-long nuclear transient periodicity observed in compact binary systems.

See Evans et al.

Tides on a star are so extreme that they cause towering waves to build and break during every close encounter with a binary companion. Models show how these crashing tidal waves create a rapidly rotating, shock-heated circumstellar atmosphere every periapse passage.

See MacLeod & Loeb

The 21-cm forest — absorption lines of atomic hydrogen against a background high-redshift radio source — can be used to probe small-scale structures in the early Universe. When observed at scale with the upcoming Square Kilometre Array, statistical analysis of these lines will be able to constrain the properties of dark matter at that epoch.

See Shao et al.

A MUSE map of the [O I] λ6300 line within 1 au of young star TW Hydrae reveals an outflow with the hallmarks of a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) disk wind. The presence of this MHD wind has implications for the disk dispersal process and poses questions about the role of photoevaporation in disk dispersal.

See Fang et al.

Trace Gas Orbiter data on CO isotopes indicate that less carbon might have escaped the Martian system than previously thought. This could have had a long-term effect on climate evolution and played a role in shaping regions carved by ice activities like Protonilus Mensae, pictured here in an image captured by the same mission.

See Alday et al.

Gravitational lensing caustics show a complex pattern when the quadruply lensed quasar HS 0810+2554 is modelled with wave-like dark matter. This treatment is able to predict residual discrepancies left over by conventional particle dark matter modelling, lending weight to alternative dark matter hypotheses.

See Amruth et al.

X-ray polarimetry from the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer mission enables the flow of relativistic particles to be traced through the Crab pulsar’s nebula, providing insight into the magnetic field morphology and the generation of turbulence in this young supernova remnant system.

See Bucciantini et al.

A framework that combines statistical ecology with machine learning can recognize and predict biosignature patterns at Pajonales, Chile. This targeted approach, based on non-random biosignature distributions, achieves a significantly higher probability of biosignature detection and may help guide the search for extant life on other planets.

See Warren-Rhodes et al.

The origins of a 2-kg rocky meteoroid are traced back to the Oort cloud. This serendipitous discovery constrains the ratio between rocky and icy objects impacting Earth and originating in the Oort cloud to be ∼6−5+13%.

See Vida et al.

Impressive direct observations show the spatially complex web of magnetized plasma structures that persistently interact in the Sun's middle corona. These observations and state-of-the-art simulations bring new insight into the driving forces behind the slow solar wind, demonstrating the emergence of highly structured wind streams over the tips of the observed dynamic features.

See Chitta et al.

Artificial intelligence is ubiquitous in software applications: it recommends books and films, performs facial recognition, drives cars and so on. But with the new chatbot ChatGPT, artificial intelligence has come to the masses. It can be instructed using natural language to write essays, compose music, debug software, and the list goes on. Should we draw a line on how we use it, and if so, where?

See Editorial