Compact astrophysical objects articles within Nature

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  • Article |

    We report observations of GRB 231115A, positionally coincident with the starburst galaxy M82, that unambiguously qualify this burst as a giant flare from a magnetar, which is a rare explosive event releasing gamma rays.

    • Sandro Mereghetti
    • , Michela Rigoselli
    •  & Pietro Ubertini

  • Article |

    X-ray observations of two large glitches bracketing a fast radio burst in the active Galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154 reveal a connection between rapid spin change and radiative behaviours of the magnetar.

    • Chin-Ping Hu
    • , Takuto Narita
    •  & Keith C. Gendreau

  • Article |

    A three-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic simulation of a tidal disruption event (TDE) flare from disruption to peak emission shows how deterministic predictions of TDE light curves and spectra can be calculated using moving-mesh hydrodynamics algorithms.

    • Elad Steinberg
    •  & Nicholas C. Stone

  • Article |

    A stripped-envelope supernova, SN 2022jli, shows 12.4-day periodic undulations during the declining light curve, and narrow Hα emission is detected in late-time spectra with concordant periodic velocity shifts.

    • Ping Chen
    • , Avishay Gal-Yam
    •  & Lin Yan

  • Article |

    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

  • Article
    | Open Access

    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

  • Article |

    This study analyses radio observations of the jet in galaxy M87, from which the existence of a spinning black hole that induces Lense–Thirring precession of a misaligned accretion disk is inferred.

    • Yuzhu Cui
    • , Kazuhiro Hada
    •  & Weiye Zhong

  • Article |

    Two instances of approximately 5-Hz transient periodic oscillation features from the source detected in the 1.05- to 1.45-GHz radio band that occurred in January 2021 and June 2022 are reported.

    • Pengfu Tian
    • , Ping Zhang
    •  & Na Sai

  • Article |

    The discovery of a long-period radio transient, GPM J1839–10, prompted a search of radio archives, thereby finding that this source has been repeating since at least 1988.

    • N. Hurley-Walker
    • , N. Rea
    •  & A. Williams

  • Article
    | Open Access

    PSR J1953+1844 (M71E) has an orbital period of 53.3 minutes and a companion with a mass of 0.07 M⊙, making it a bridging object between redbacks and black widows in the evolutionary track.

    • Z. Pan
    • , J. G. Lu
    •  & M. Zhu

  • Article |

    The observation of pulsar emission at various orbital phases of a companion star probes the diverse magnetic structure in a binary system, and exhibits varying polarization behavior, akin to that observed in certain fast radio bursts.

    • Dongzi Li
    • , Anna Bilous
    •  & Yuan-Pei Yang

  • Perspective |

    The current observations and understanding of black holes is reviewed, and the future of the field of black-hole astrophysics is discussed.

    • Ramesh Narayan
    •  & Eliot Quataert

  • Article |

    Observations from a multiwavelength campaign of a low-mass X-ray binary, Swift J1858.6–0814, shows that accreting neutron stars have the same kind of pulsing behaviour as accreting black holes.

    • F. M. Vincentelli
    • , J. Neilsen
    •  & T. Russell

  • Article |

    Spectra taken after the kilonova associated with GW170817 show a high degree of spherical symmetry and a line shape is found that is consistent with a completely spherical expansion to within a few per cent.

    • Albert Sneppen
    • , Darach Watson
    •  & Stuart Sim

  • Article |

    Two signals identified in short gamma-ray bursts from archival Burst and Transient Source Experiment data show kilohertz quasiperiodic oscillations, implying the ringing of a hypermassive neutron star before collapsing to a black hole.

    • Cecilia Chirenti
    • , Simone Dichiara
    •  & Robert Preece

  • Article |

    A possible kilonova associated with a nearby, long-duration gamma-ray burst suggests that gamma-ray bursts with long and complex light curves can be spawned from the merger of two compact objects, contrary to the established gamma-ray burst paradigm.

    • Jillian C. Rastinejad
    • , Benjamin P. Gompertz
    •  & Christina C. Thöne

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A bright, long-duration gamma-ray burst observed by the Swift observatory has hybrid high-energy properties, suggesting that its origin is the merger of a compact binary.

    • E. Troja
    • , C. L. Fryer
    •  & A. J. Castro-Tirado

  • Article |

    Analysis of the long-duration GRB 211211A led to observations of emission properties differing from all known type I bursts, yet its multiband behaviour suggests a non-massive-star origin, pointing towards a new progenitor type.

    • Jun Yang
    • , Shunke Ai
    •  & Hou-Jun Lü

  • Article |

    Analysis of the pulse profile of a fast radio burst showed sub-second periodicity, providing evidence for a neutron-star origin of the event and favouring emission arising from the magnetosphere.

    • Bridget C. Andersen
    • , Kevin Bandura
    •  & Andrew Zwaniga

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The physics of dense matter extracted from neutron star collision data is demonstrated to be consistent with information obtained from heavy-ion collisions, and analyses incorporating both data sources as well as information from nuclear theory provide new constraints for neutron star matter.

    • Sabrina Huth
    • , Peter T. H. Pang
    •  & Chris Van Den Broeck

  • Article |

    Novae are caused by runaway thermonuclear burning in the hydrogen-rich envelopes of accreting white dwarfs, which leads to a rapid expansion of the envelope and the ejection of most of its mass1,2. Theory has predicted the existence of a ‘fireball’ phase following directly on from the runaway fusion, which should be observable as a short, bright and soft X-ray flash before the nova becomes visible in the optical3–5. Here we report observations of a bright and soft X-ray flash associated with the classical Galactic nova YZ Reticuli 11 h before its 9 mag optical brightening. No X-ray source was detected 4 h before and after the event, constraining the duration of the flash to shorter than 8 h. In agreement with theoretical predictions4,6–8, the source’s spectral shape is consistent with a black-body of 3.27+0.11−0.33 × 105 K (28.2+0.9−2.8 eV), or a white dwarf atmosphere, radiating at the Eddington luminosity, with a photosphere that is only slightly larger than a typical white dwarf.

    • Ole König
    • , Jörn Wilms
    •  & Klaus Werner

  • Article |

    The identification and characterization of rapid bursts in three accreting white dwarfs have shown that magnetically confined thermonuclear runaways resembling type-I X-ray bursts may occur in the surface layers of white dwarf atmospheres.

    • S. Scaringi
    • , P. J. Groot
    •  & F. X. Timmes

  • Article |

    An unusual ultraviolet compact object associated with a dusty starburst has been observed at a redshift of about 7.2, with a luminosity that falls between that of quasars and galaxies, possibly in transition between the two. 

    • S. Fujimoto
    • , G. B. Brammer
    •  & P. A. Oesch

  • Article |

    The accretion disk environments surrounding active galactic nuclei are potential locations where there is an excess of eccentric mergers of large black holes, which have different spin–orbit tilts compared with circular mergers.

    • J. Samsing
    • , I. Bartos
    •  & H. Tagawa

  • Article |

    The fast radio burst FRB 20200120E is shown to originate from a globular cluster in the galaxy M81, and may be a collapsed white dwarf or a merged compact binary star system.

    • F. Kirsten
    • , B. Marcote
    •  & W. Vlemmings

  • Article |

    Analysis of archival low-frequency radio data from the Murchison Widefield Array reveals a periodic transient with an unusual periodicity of 18.18 min, the source of which is localized to our Galaxy and could be an ultra-long-period magnetar.

    • N. Hurley-Walker
    • , X. Zhang
    •  & T. J. Galvin

  • Article |

    Two very-high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (at 2,132 Hz and 4,250 Hz) are detected within the initial hard spike of a magnetar giant flare originating from the galaxy NGC 253, and detailed temporal and spectral analyses are performed.

    • A. J. Castro-Tirado
    • , N. Østgaard
    •  & S. Yang

  • Article |

    Observations of the fast radio burst FRB 200428 coinciding with X-rays from the Galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154 indicate that active magnetars can produce fast radio bursts at extragalactic distances.

    • C. D. Bochenek
    • , V. Ravi
    •  & D. L. McKenna

  • Article |

    Pulsar timing measurements show a mass ratio of about 0.8 for the double neutron-star system PSR J1913+1102, and population synthesis models indicate that such asymmetric systems represent 2–30% of merging binaries.

    • R. D. Ferdman
    • , P. C. C. Freire
    •  & J. van Leeuwen

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