Astronomy and planetary science articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Van Allen radiation belts are two zones of energetic particles encircling the Earth, but how electrons are accelerated to relativistic energies remains unclear. Here, the authors analyse a radiation belt event and provide evidence in favour of the ULF wave-driven radial diffusion mechanism.

    • Zhenpeng Su
    • , Hui Zhu
    •  & J. R. Wygant

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aerosols play an important role in Earth’s radiative balance, but their influence on the climate of giant planets is unclear. Here, the authors show that gases alone cannot maintain the energy balance in the middle atmosphere of Jupiter, instead proposing that an aerosol layer dominates radiative heating.

    • Xi Zhang
    • , Robert A. West
    •  & Yuk L. Yung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Natural spikes in radiocarbon have been identified at AD 774/5 and 993/4 and attributed to exceptional cosmic-ray events, although the cause remains uncertain. Here, the authors analyse records recovered from ice cores and suggest these spikes originated from extreme solar particle events.

    • Florian Mekhaldi
    • , Raimund Muscheler
    •  & Thomas E. Woodruff

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Relativistic electrons trapped in the Van Allen radiation belts sometimes exhibit a minimum of their pitch angle distribution at 90°. Here, the authors explain the origin of this phenomenon in terms of chorus and magnetosonic waves through simulations and observations of a geomagnetic storm data.

    • Fuliang Xiao
    • , Chang Yang
    •  & J. B. Blake

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Alfvénic waves are oscillations that occur in a plasma threaded by a magnetic field and their propagation, reflection and dissipation is believed to be partly responsible for the solar wind. Here, the authors observe the counter-propagating Alfvénic waves that most models require for solar-wind acceleration.

    • R. J. Morton
    • , S. Tomczyk
    •  & R. Pinto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Since the 1970s space missions have observed `equatorial noise' — noise-like plasma waves closely confined to the magnetic equatorial region of Earth s magnetosphere. Here, the authors uncover their structured and periodic frequency pattern, revealing that they are generated by proton distributions.

    • Michael A. Balikhin
    • , Yuri Y. Shprits
    •  & Benjamin Weiss

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental energy release process taking place in various astrophysical environments, but it is difficult to observe it directly. Here, the authors provide evidence of three-dimensional magnetic reconnection in a solar eruption using combined perspectives of two spacecraft.

    • J. Q. Sun
    • , X. Cheng
    •  & C. Fang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The gamma-ray burst GRB 060614 was an unusual astrophysical event whose origins are still unclear. This study re-examines the burst’s afterglow data and finds an excess in the spectrum that appears to be consistent with a weak macronova, suggesting that GRB 060614 originated from a compact binary merger.

    • Bin Yang
    • , Zhi-Ping Jin
    •  & Da-Ming Wei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Coronal mass ejections from the Sun play an important role in space weather, yet a full understanding of their behaviour remains elusive. Towards this aim, Möstl et al. present a suite of observations showing that an ejection was channelled away from its source region, explaining incorrect forecasts.

    • Christian Möstl
    • , Tanja Rollett
    •  & Bojan Vršnak

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Whistler-mode waves regulate trapped electrons in the magnetosphere, but an accurate determination of their energy budget has remained elusive. This study presents a full analysis of their magnetic and electric field contributions and finds that a large amount of energy is stored in oblique waves.

    • A.V. Artemyev
    • , O.V. Agapitov
    •  & F.S. Mozer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the behaviour of magnetic flux ropes in the Sun is crucial for explaining solar phenomena such as flares and space weather. Exploiting the high resolution available in the 1.6 m New Solar Telescope, Wang et al.capture the evolution of a flaring twisted flux rope in the low solar corona.

    • Haimin Wang
    • , Wenda Cao
    •  & Haisheng Ji

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The origins of the Sun’s periodic activity, such as sunspot cycles, are poorly understood. McIntosh et al.posit that the rotational forcing of the activity bands comprising the 22-year magnetic cycle undergoes shorter-term variations, driving magnetic flux surges that impact solar output on those timescales.

    • Scott W. McIntosh
    • , Robert J. Leamon
    •  & Roger K. Ulrich

  • Article |

    Lunar swirls are high-albedo features on the Moon whose origins are widely debated. Using observations from the Diviner Lunar Radiometer, Glotch et al. present evidence supporting the idea that the swirls arise from abnormal space weathering caused by local magnetic field deflection of solar wind.

    • Timothy D. Glotch
    • , Joshua L. Bandfield
    •  & David A. Paige

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Both fast and slow solar winds emanate from our Sun, although the source of the slow component remains elusive. Towards identifying this, Brooks et al. present full-Sun spectral images from Hinode, combined with magnetic modelling, to produce a solar wind source map.

    • David H. Brooks
    • , Ignacio Ugarte-Urra
    •  & Harry P. Warren

  • Article |

    Lonsdaleite has been used as a marker of asteroid impacts and is thought to have mechanical properties superior to diamond; however, pure lonsdaleite has not been described or fabricated. Here, the authors show that it does not exist as a discrete material and is in fact faulted and twinned cubic diamond.

    • Péter Németh
    • , Laurence A. J. Garvie
    •  & Peter R. Buseck

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Astrophysical masers are interstellar sources of stimulated spectral line emission, with most SiO masers in the Milky Way existing around evolved stars. Here, Wang et al. report detections of millimetre SiO and Class I CH3OH mega-masers in NGC 1068.

    • Junzhi Wang
    • , Jiangshui Zhang
    •  & Yong Shi

  • Article |

    Although observations of volcanic deposits on Mars are more accessible than ever, constraining Martian eruption styles remains a challenge. Here, the authors show that volcanic eruption style can be characterized through X-ray diffraction analysis of groundmass crystallinity in basaltic volcanic deposits.

    • Kellie T. Wall
    • , Michael C. Rowe
    •  & Jennifer D. Eccles

  • Article |

    Solar flares follow complex statistical patterns, making it hard to understand and model their underlying physical processes. Here, the authors present a model based on reconnection of magnetic flux tubes twisted by turbulent photospheric flow that reproduces flare statistics and energy–time correlations.

    • M. Mendoza
    • , A. Kaydul
    •  & H. J. Herrmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Very long baseline interferometry is an astronomical technique that uses radio telescopes on Earth to observe extragalactic radio sources. Here, the authors show that it can be used to measure the electron density of the Sun’s corona and compare their findings to models from spacecraft tracking data.

    • B. Soja
    • , R. Heinkelmann
    •  & H. Schuh

  • Article |

    The first-reported natural quasicrystal, found in the meteorite Khatyrka, has posed many questions regarding the extraterrestrial processes that led to its formation. Here, the authors suggest how the metallic Al- and Cu-bearing phases formed and report the discovery of other new minerals.

    • Lincoln S. Hollister
    • , Luca Bindi
    •  & Paul J. Steinhardt

  • Article |

    Optical light from many stars is known to pulsate and degenerate objects, like neutron stars, are known to emit pulses of X-rays, but X-ray pulsations have yet to be associated with non-degenerate objects. Here, Oskinova et al. find X-ray pulsations from a non-degenerate object: the massive B-type star ξ1CMa.

    • Lidia M. Oskinova
    • , Yael Nazé
    •  & Wolf-Rainer Hamann

  • Article |

    The 2009 LCROSS mission detected water in a debris plume ejected from the Moon’s southern pole, but poor viewing angles limited essential data regarding plume dynamics. Strycker et al. provide independent observations of the debris plume from Earth and ascertain much needed morphological information.

    • Paul D. Strycker
    • , Nancy J. Chanover
    •  & Michael Sussman

  • Article |

    Recently, the NASA MESSENGER mission reported signatures of Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities in the magnetic environment of Mercury. Using global hybrid kinetic simulations, Paral and Rankin reproduce these observations, revealing a dawn–dusk asymmetry in the instability.

    • Jan Paral
    •  & Robert Rankin

  • Article |

    The atmosphere of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, consists of orange-yellow haze, but its formation and dynamics are not well understood. Here laboratory studies show that Titan’s lower atmosphere is photochemically active and the formation of complex prebiotic precursor molecules occurs at lower altitudes.

    • Murthy S. Gudipati
    • , Ronen Jacovi
    •  & Mark Allen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Measuring atomic spectra in high magnetic fields is important for understanding astrophysical objects such as white dwarfs, but laboratory fields are too small to do so. Murdin et al. study the analogous spectra of phosphorous-doped silicon, whose material properties scale the equivalent field to far lower values.

    • B.N. Murdin
    • , Juerong Li
    •  & P.G. Murdin

  • Article |

    A full understanding of the heating and dynamics of the Sun's atmosphere remains elusive, but magnetohydrodynamic waves are believed to be crucial. Using observations from the ROSA imager, this study finds compressive waves in the solar chromosphere, which may provide the energy needed for coronal heating.

    • Richard J. Morton
    • , Gary Verth
    •  & Robertus Erdélyi

  • Review Article |

    Between low-end stellar-mass black holes and top-end supermassive black holes, lie the elusive intermediate black holes. Jenny Greene reviews the search for these black holes in galaxy centres, which should indicate if supermassive black holes grew from stellar-mass ones or if a more complex process was needed.

    • Jenny E. Greene

  • Article |

    Recent observations have uncovered a cloud of ionized gas falling into the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. Murray-Clay and Loeb present a model that may explain these observations, in which the cloud is produced from the proto-planetary disc around a low-mass star orbiting the black hole.

    • Ruth A. Murray-Clay
    •  & Abraham Loeb

  • Article |

    Explosive energy releases in plasmas, such as in solar eruptions like flares and coronal mass ejections, are thought to be caused by magnetic reconnection in thin current sheets. Zhanget al. observed a magnetic flux rope during a solar eruption, highlighting its role in driving explosive energy releases.

    • Jie Zhang
    • , Xin Cheng
    •  & Ming-de Ding

  • Article |

    Dating the age of meteorites can tell us when asteroids formed, but uncertainty remains in the Mn–Cr chronometry. This study presents a method for improving Mn/Cr determination and reports an age of 4,563.4 million years ago for carbonates in CM chondrites, which is younger than previous estimates.

    • Wataru Fujiya
    • , Naoji Sugiura
    •  & Yuji Sano

  • Article |

    The night sky viewed from Earth is very bright at infrared wavelengths due to atmospheric emission, making land-based astronomy difficult in this spectral region. Here, a photonic filter is demonstrated to suppress this unwanted light, opening new paths to infrared astronomy with current and future telescopes.

    • J. Bland-Hawthorn
    • , S.C. Ellis
    •  & C. Trinh

  • Review Article |

    Type Ia supernovae are thought to result from the explosion of white dwarf stars but a full understanding of their formation is lacking. In this review, Howell describes how large surveys are generating sufficient data to challenge and refine existing theories.

    • D. Andrew Howell

  • Article |

    The unusual magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune are important considerations when developing hydrodynamic models of the planetary interiors. In this study, molecular dynamics simulations are used to study how chemical processes could create the interior structures predicted from the planets' magnetic fields.

    • Ricky Chau
    • , Sebastien Hamel
    •  & William J. Nellis

  • Article |

    TheFermispacecraft recently observed gamma-ray emission from supernova remnant W44, however, the mechanism is unclear. Here, the authors show that strong ion-neutral collisions in the remnant surrounding lead to the steepening of the energy spectrum of accelerated particles by one power.

    • M. A. Malkov
    • , P. H. Diamond
    •  & R. Z. Sagdeev

  • Article |

    The interiors of outer solar planets are believed to contain water–methane mixtures that are subject to extreme pressures. Lee and Scandolo use molecular dynamics simulations to show that at high pressures there can be enhanced mixing and ionization, with consequences for the origin of the planetary magnetic field.

    • Mal-Soon Lee
    •  & Sandro Scandolo

  • Article |

    The origin of the highest energy cosmic rays is still unknown. Here, Chakraborti and colleagues show that a recently discovered sub-population of type Ibc supernovae with mildly relativistic outflows can satisfy all required characteristics for an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray source.

    • S. Chakraborti
    • , A. Ray
    •  & P. Chandra

  • Review Article |

    Gravitational waves are predicted by general relativity, but their direct observation from astronomical sources hinges on large improvements in detection sensitivity. The authors review how squeezed light and other quantum optical concepts are being applied in the development of next generation interferometric detectors.

    • Roman Schnabel
    • , Nergis Mavalvala
    •  & Ping K. Lam

  • Article |

    The physics governing the propagation of solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs), an important cause of bad space weather on Earth, is poorly understood. The authors model a CME's three-dimensional propagation and determine accurate arrival times near the Earth's surface.

    • Jason P. Byrne
    • , Shane A. Maloney
    •  & Peter T. Gallagher

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