Compact astrophysical objects articles from across Nature Portfolio

Compact objects are compact stellar remnants, such as white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes and specific types of these objects (e.g., pulsars and boson stars), as well as their larger counterparts, supermassive black holes. The study of compact objects deals with their properties and the extreme conditions in their vicinity.

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News & Views | 05 June 2023

Gravitational waves could reveal the environment of inspiralling black holes

Nature Astronomy, 1-2

Latest Research and Reviews

Research | 05 June 2023

Distinguishing environmental effects on binary black hole gravitational waveforms

A Bayesian approach to comparing the effects of accretion disks, dark matter or clouds of ultra-light bosons on gravitational waveforms from a black hole binary system concludes that detectors such as LISA can distinguish between these environments.
- Philippa S. Cole
- , Gianfranco Bertone
- & Giovanni Maria Tomaselli
Nature Astronomy, 1-8
Research | 29 May 2023

Variability of extragalactic X-ray jets on kiloparsec scales

Strong X-ray emission from a population of radio jets shows variability that supports a model of synchrotron emission by a secondary population of electrons boosted to teraelectronvolt energies within a small volume of a jet.
- Eileen T. Meyer
- , Aamil Shaik
- & Max Trevor
Nature Astronomy, 1-9
Research
26 May 2023 | Open Access

The dominating mode of two competing massive modes of quadratic gravity
- Avijit Chowdhury
- , Semin Xavier
- & S. Shankaranarayanan
Scientific Reports 13, 8547
Research | 17 May 2023

A highly magnetized environment in a pulsar binary system

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
Nature, 1-5
Research | 10 April 2023

Vertical wind structure in an X-ray binary revealed by a precessing accretion disk

Kosec et al. analyse X-ray spectroscopic observations of outflowing hot material from an accreting neutron star. An innovative technique reveals the vertical distribution of the outflow structure, which is challenging to measure otherwise.
- P. Kosec
- , E. Kara
- & J. Wilms
Nature Astronomy, 1-9
Research | 27 March 2023

An assessment of the association between a fast radio burst and binary neutron star merger

Magnetars are potential sources of fast radio bursts, but are the magnetars that may be created following a binary neutron star merger fast radio burst source? This study of the coincidence between FRB 20190425A and a gravitational wave event finds a weak association.
- Alexandra Moroianu
- , Linqing Wen
- & Bing Zhang
Nature Astronomy 7, 579-589

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News and Comment

News & Views | 05 June 2023

Gravitational waves could reveal the environment of inspiralling black holes

As pairs of black holes inspiral and merge, they create gravitational waves. These waves hold information about the environment in which the black holes are embedded: using future space-based gravitational-wave detectors, it will be possible to distinguish what kind of environment that is.

Nature Astronomy, 1-2
Research Highlights | 19 May 2023

Radio show for rare type Ia
- Paul Woods
Nature Astronomy 7, 513
Comments & Opinion | 19 May 2023

A space-borne X-ray imaging polarimeter

A year of science from the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer has brought results that are stimulating a re-examination of theoretical models of astrophysical sources.
- Martin C. Weisskopf
- , Paolo Soffitta
- & Philip Kaaret
Nature Astronomy 7, 635
Research Highlights | 14 April 2023

Fast radio boom or bust?
- Paul Woods
Nature Astronomy 7, 374
Research Highlights | 14 February 2023

Black hole takes multiple bites at the cherry
- Paul Woods
Nature Astronomy 7, 126
Research Highlights | 14 February 2023

Supermassive black hole movies in action
- May Chiao
Nature Astronomy 7, 127

All News & Comment

Compact astrophysical objects articles from across Nature Portfolio

Featured

Gravitational waves could reveal the environment of inspiralling black holes

Latest Research and Reviews

Distinguishing environmental effects on binary black hole gravitational waveforms

Variability of extragalactic X-ray jets on kiloparsec scales

The dominating mode of two competing massive modes of quadratic gravity

A highly magnetized environment in a pulsar binary system

Vertical wind structure in an X-ray binary revealed by a precessing accretion disk

An assessment of the association between a fast radio burst and binary neutron star merger

News and Comment

Gravitational waves could reveal the environment of inspiralling black holes

Radio show for rare type Ia

A space-borne X-ray imaging polarimeter

Fast radio boom or bust?

Black hole takes multiple bites at the cherry

Supermassive black hole movies in action

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