Spotlight |
Featured
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A shock flash breaking out of a dusty red supergiant
A type II supernova (SN 2023ixf) was observed in the galaxy M101 at a distance of 6.85 ± 0.15 Mpc, at about 1.0 h after the explosion.
- Gaici Li
- , Maokai Hu
- & Eliot Herman
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News Feature |
The engineer who helped India to reach the Moon
Kalpana Kalahasti had a crucial role in ensuring Chandrayaan-3’s triumphant touchdown on the Moon.
- Jatan Mehta
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Spotlight |
I predict solar storms
Yoshita Baruah says understanding space weather has immediate practical applications for our technology-reliant world.
- Sahana Ghosh
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Nature Careers Podcast |
The Chandrayaan lunar landing and how it could impact India’s brain drain
Astrophysicist and university vice-chancellor Somak Raychaudhury outlines the significance of the country’s space programme.
- Jack Leeming
- & Julie Gould
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News |
‘Head-scratcher’: first look at asteroid dust brought to Earth offers surprises
Researchers have begun examining the pristine space rocks collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission.
- Alexandra Witze
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Where I Work |
Star-struck: living my childhood dream as an astronomer
Sthabile Kolwa uses data from South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope to shed light on black holes and how the Universe evolves.
- Linda Nordling
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News |
The best science images of 2023 — Nature’s picks
Cosmic dust, microscopic syrup, a flying gecko and more.
- Emma Stoye
- , Nisha Gaind
- & Carissa Wong
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Article |
Bipolar outflows out to 10 kpc for massive galaxies at redshift z ≈ 1
An ultra-deep MUSE image of the mean Mg II emission for a sample of galaxies at redshift z ≈ 1 suggests the presence of bipolar outflows on scales of 10 kpc or more.
- Yucheng Guo
- , Roland Bacon
- & Martin Wendt
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News |
Gravitational waves from giant black-hole collision reveal long-sought ‘ringing’
Researchers find massive merger’s signature aftershocks hidden in 2019 data from LIGO and Virgo detectors.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Matters Arising |
Reply to: Accelerating ‘Oumuamua with H2 is challenging
- Jennifer B. Bergner
- & Darryl Z. Seligman
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Article |
A resonant sextuplet of sub-Neptunes transiting the bright star HD 110067
Observations of six transiting planets around the bright nearby star HD 110067 show that they follow a chain of resonant orbits, with three of the planets inferring the presence of large hydrogen-dominated atmospheres.
- R. Luque
- , H. P. Osborn
- & T. Zingales
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Article
| Open AccessA probable Keplerian disk feeding an optically revealed massive young star
The authors suggest that a probable Keplerian disk is feeding an optically revealed massive young stellar object in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
- Anna F. McLeod
- , Pamela D. Klaassen
- & Adam Ginsburg
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Nature Podcast |
Why COP28 probably won’t keep the 1.5 degree dream alive
We discuss the challenges of the upcoming climate-change conference, and a way to make stable plasma using hairy blocks.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
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Research Highlight |
‘Early dark energy’ fails to solve mystery of cosmic expansion
The extra ingredient would explain why the Universe is expanding so fast now — but conflicts with data from ancient quasars.
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News |
The most powerful cosmic ray since the Oh-My-God particle puzzles scientists
Scientists spot a particle of intense energy, but explaining where it came from might require some new physics.
- Gemma Conroy
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News |
This astronomy centre just achieved gender parity. Here’s how it happened
Education, female leadership and gender-balanced hiring policies were key.
- Gemma Conroy
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News & Views |
JWST ends game of hide and seek with methane
The space telescope has helped to determine the atmospheric composition of an exoplanet using the light spectrum of its host star. Spectral changes as the planet orbits the star reveal the long-sought presence of exoplanetary methane.
- Gloria Guilluy
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Article |
Methane throughout the atmosphere of the warm exoplanet WASP-80b
Transmission and emission spectra of the 825 K warm Jupiter WASP-80b taken with the NIRCam instrument of the JWST show strong evidence of CH4 at greater than 6σ significance
- Taylor J. Bell
- , Luis Welbanks
- & John A. Stansberry
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Nature Podcast |
Polio could be eradicated within 3 years — what happens then?
How to ensure polio doesn’t return after eradication, and the space explosion that’s baffling scientists.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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News & Views |
Bright satellites are disrupting astronomy research worldwide
A team of amateur and professional astronomers has determined that a satellite one-third of the size of a tennis court is one of the brightest objects in the sky — with dire consequences for ground-based astronomy.
- Samantha Lawler
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News |
SpaceX Starship launch ends in explosion — what’s next for the mega-rocket?
The craft travelled into space for the first time, before it self-destructed for unknown reasons.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article |
Minutes-duration optical flares with supernova luminosities
Observations of optical flares from AT2022tsd (the ‘Tasmanian Devil’) show that they have durations on the timescale of minutes, occur over a period of months, are highly energetic, are probably nonthermal and have supernova luminosities.
- Anna Y. Q. Ho
- , Daniel A. Perley
- & WeiKang Zheng
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Article |
SO2, silicate clouds, but no CH4 detected in a warm Neptune
The JWST MIRI transmission spectrum of WASP-107b, a transiting planet with Neptune-like mass and Jupiter-like radius, shows observations of sulfur dioxide and silicate clouds but no methane in its atmosphere, providing evidence of disequilibrium chemistry and active photochemistry.
- Achrène Dyrek
- , Michiel Min
- & Gillian Wright
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Article |
Aligned grains and scattered light found in gaps of planet-forming disk
Deep, high-resolution polarization observations of HL Tau at 870 µm show gaps that have polarization angles with a notable azimuthal component and a higher polarization fraction than the rings.
- Ian W. Stephens
- , Zhe-Yu Daniel Lin
- & Ryo Tazaki
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News |
Mysterious ‘Tasmanian devil’ space explosion baffles astronomers
Scientists still can’t explain what is causing unusually bright explosions in space — but a surprising observation might offer clues.
- Jonathan O'Callaghan
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Article
| Open AccessPhosphorus-bearing molecules PO and PN at the edge of the Galaxy
We report the presence of gas-phase phosphorous at the edge of the Galaxy and suggest it is produced by neutron-capture processes in lower mass asymptotic giant branch stars.
- L. A. Koelemay
- , K. R. Gold
- & L. M. Ziurys
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News & Views |
Ultra-compact oddities are galaxies stripped of stars
Observations have shown that some dwarf galaxies lose their stars through interactions with more massive galaxies. The dense nuclei that remain are ultra-compact dwarf galaxies, the origin of which has long been a subject of debate.
- Katja Fahrion
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Article
| Open AccessA Milky Way-like barred spiral galaxy at a redshift of 3
We report observations of ceers-2112 that show that this galaxy, at a redshift of 3, unexpectedly has a barred spiral structure.
- Luca Costantin
- , Pablo G. Pérez-González
- & L. Y. Aaron Yung
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Article |
An evolutionary continuum from nucleated dwarf galaxies to star clusters
In the Virgo galaxy cluster, we identified a continuum of objects that maps the morphological transition between nucleated dwarf galaxies and ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs), providing evidence for the formation of UCDs through tidal stripping of ancient dwarf galaxies.
- Kaixiang Wang
- , Eric W. Peng
- & Mingcheng Zhu
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Nature Podcast |
How to tame a toxic yet life-saving antifungal
Researchers modify drug to prevent kidney damage, and the mystery of the phosphorus at the Milky Way’s edge.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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News |
Giant black hole is one of the earliest ever seen — with clues for how these weird objects form
Data from the James Webb and Chandra space telescopes reveal a massive object in a galaxy that formed less than half a billion years after the Big Bang.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article |
15NH3 in the atmosphere of a cool brown dwarf
Observations from the JWST MIRI showed the detection of 14NH3 and 15NH3 isotopologues in the atmosphere of a cool brown dwarf, along with a 14N/15N value consistent with star-like formation by gravitational collapse.
- David Barrado
- , Paul Mollière
- & Gillian Wright
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News |
Asteroid sampler’s hypersonic return thrilled scientists: here’s what they learnt
The re-entry of the OSIRIS-REx sample canister is the most closely observed of its type in history.
- Alexandra Witze
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Nature Podcast |
Martian sounds reveal the secrets of the red planet's core
NASA's InSight mission recorded vibrations of Mars exposing a surprising layer of silicate around the core.
- Geoff Marsh
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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News Feature |
Staring at the Sun — close-up images from space rewrite solar science
Researchers have never had such detailed views of our nearest star.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article
| Open AccessHeavy-element production in a compact object merger observed by JWST
Observations from the JWST of the second brightest GRB ever detected, GRB 230307A, indicate that it belongs to the class of long-duration GRBs resulting from compact object mergers, with the decay of lanthanides powering the longlasting optical and infrared emission.
- Andrew J. Levan
- , Benjamin P. Gompertz
- & David Alexander Kann
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Article
| Open AccessGeophysical evidence for an enriched molten silicate layer above Mars’s core
We provide observational evidence that suggests the presence of a molten silicate layer above the core of Mars, which is overlain by a partially molten layer, indicating that the core of Mars is smaller than previously thought.
- Henri Samuel
- , Mélanie Drilleau
- & William B. Banerdt
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News |
This fast radio burst took 8 billion years to reach Earth
The bright flash has cosmologists adjusting their models on how such intergalactic energy behaves.
- Gemma Conroy
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Research Highlight |
‘Super-puff’ planet is one of the fluffiest worlds ever found
An exoplanet named TOI-1420b has a volume more than 1,700 times that of Earth but a mass 25 times Earth’s.
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Nature Podcast |
An anti-CRISPR system that helps save viruses from destruction
Tactic could be co-opted to make gene-editing more precise, and how much melting of Greenland’s ice sheet can be prevented.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
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Essay |
How would we know whether there is life on Earth? This bold experiment found out
Thirty years ago, astronomer Carl Sagan convinced NASA to turn a passing space probe’s instruments on Earth to look for life — with results that still reverberate today.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
NASA’s Psyche mission is on its way to this huge metal asteroid
The space rock — possibly the exposed core of a planet that didn’t finish forming — could reveal details about the Solar System’s origins.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Astronomy society revises harassment policy after outcry
The International Astronomical Union clarified changes to its code of conduct after researchers voiced concern that it protected harassers.
- Sarah Wild
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News |
How to build Moon roads using focused beams of sunlight
Experiments with lasers reveal a way to melt lunar dust into solid paving slabs.
- Katharine Sanderson
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News & Views |
Violent collision rocks a young planetary system
When two worlds collide, they leave more than the shambles of dusty ejecta. Astronomers have detected light from a post-collision remnant, providing the best evidence so far for planetary-scale collisions in exoplanetary systems.
- Carl Melis
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Article |
A planetary collision afterglow and transit of the resultant debris cloud
Infrared brightening and luminosity observations from a young, solar-like star suggest a collision between two exoplanets producing a hot, highly extended post-impact remnant and transit of the debris causing the visible light eclipse of the host star.
- Matthew Kenworthy
- , Simon Lock
- & Michael Rizzo Smith
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News |
‘Incredible’ asteroid sample ferried to Earth is rich in the building blocks of life
Samples of asteroid Bennu delivered by the OSIRIS-REx mission contain carbon, water and other ingredients from the primordial Solar System.
- Alexandra Witze