High-energy astrophysics articles within Nature

Featured

  • 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 |

    Analysis of the energy budget of a sample of 54 well-observed stripped-envelope supernovae of all sub-types shows statistically significant, largely model-independent, observational evidence for a non-radioactive power source in most of them.

    • Ósmar Rodríguez
    • , Ehud Nakar
    •  & Dan Maoz

  • Article |

    Using ultraviolet data as well as a comprehensive set of further multiwavelength observations of the supernova 2023ixf, a reliable bolometric light curve is derived that indicates the heating nature of the early emission.

    • E. A. Zimmerman
    • , I. Irani
    •  & K. Zhang

  • Article |

    Relativistic jets observed from transient neutron stars throughout the Universe produce bright flares for minutes after each X-ray burst, helping to determine the role individual system properties have on the speed and revealing the dominant launching mechanism.

    • Thomas D. Russell
    • , Nathalie Degenaar
    •  & Melania Del Santo

  • Article |

    JWST/NIRSpec observations of Abell2744-QSO1 show a high black-hole-to-host mass ratio in the early Universe, which indicates that we are seeing the black hole in a phase of rapid growth, accreting at 30% of the Eddington limit.

    • Lukas J. Furtak
    • , Ivo Labbé
    •  & Christina C. Williams

  • 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 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 |

    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

  • 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 |

    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 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

  • Article |

    The authors report multiwavelength observations of SDSS J0749 + 2255, hosted by massive compact disk-dominated galaxies, as a kpc-scale, dual-quasar system hosted by a galaxy merger at cosmic noon.

    • Yu-Ching Chen
    • , Xin Liu
    •  & Nadia Zakamska

  • 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
    | Open Access

    Analysis of a supersoft X-ray source shows an accretion disk whose optical spectrum is completely dominated by helium, suggesting that it is a white dwarf binary accreting helium from a hydrogen-free donor star.

    • J. Greiner
    • , C. Maitra
    •  & R. Vanderspek

  • 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 |

    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 |

    Polarization can exceed 60% at the leading edge of the inner part of the Vela pulsar wind nebula; in contrast with the case of the supernova remnant, the electrons in the pulsar wind nebula are accelerated with little or no turbulence in a highly uniform magnetic field.

    • Fei Xie
    • , Alessandro Di Marco
    •  & Silvia Zane

  • Article |

    The observation of transient-like gigaelectronvolt emission in the high-energy gamma-rays of GRB 211211A, from the merger of two compact binary objects, is reported.

    • Alessio Mei
    • , Biswajit Banerjee
    •  & Pawan Tiwari

  • 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
    | Open Access

    Polarization measurements are reported for the blazar Mk501, revealing a degree of X-ray polarization that is more than twice the optical value and supporting the shock-accelerated energy-stratified electron population scenario.

    • Ioannis Liodakis
    • , Alan P. Marscher
    •  & Silvia Zane

  • 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

  • Review Article |

    The highlights of a wide range of studies using data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) are reviewed.

    • Belinda J. Wilkes
    • , Wallace Tucker
    •  & Maria Santos-Lleo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    By evolving spatially resolved distributions of thermal and non-thermal electrons in a solar flare in a large coronal volume, it is shown that nearly all electrons experienced a prominent acceleration.

    • Gregory D. Fleishman
    • , Gelu M. Nita
    •  & Dale E. Gary

  • 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 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 |

    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

  • Review Article |

    The mechanisms and origins of fast radio bursts are reviewed in connection with data and insights from the neighbouring fields of gamma-ray bursts and radio pulsars.

    • Bing Zhang

  • 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

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