Interstellar medium articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The interstellar medium (ISM) is critical to galaxy evolution. Here, the authors show dust processing modelling applied to magnetohydrodynamic simulations to explicitly follow dust destruction by the combined effects of grain-grain collisions and ion-sputtering induced by a supernova blast wave in a turbulent multiphase, magnetized ISM.

    • Florian Kirchschlager
    • , Lars Mattsson
    •  & Frederick A. Gent

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The abundances of small Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) observed in interstellar clouds has surprised astronomers and confounded astrochemical models. Here, the authors show that fast radiative cooling by Recurrent Fluorescence efficiently stabilizes the small PAH cation 1-cyanonaphthalene.

    • Mark H. Stockett
    • , James N. Bull
    •  & Boxing Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ionisation fraction of protostellar jets is key to establish their true energetics. Here, the authors determine it in a jet from a high-mass young stellar object, using multi-wavelengths observations, confirming that the ionising mechanism giving rise to the radio emission originates from shocks.

    • R. Fedriani
    • , A. Caratti o Garatti
    •  & M. Hoare

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sugars are known to form from the UV photoprocessing of ices under astrophysical conditions. Here, the authors report the detection of deoxyribose, the sugar of DNA, and other deoxysugars from the UV photoprocessing of H2O:CH3OH ice mixtures, which are compared with materials from carbonaceous meteorites.

    • Michel Nuevo
    • , George Cooper
    •  & Scott A. Sandford

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The presence of magnetic fields in protostellar jets has been predicted theoretically, but its experimental confirmation has been elusive so far. Here, the authors report the detection of SiO line polarisation in the HH 211 protostellar jet, indicative of the onset of magnetic fields.

    • Chin-Fei Lee
    • , Hsiang-Chih Hwang
    •  & Paul. T. P Ho

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The red supergiant VX Sagittarii is a strong emitter of H2O and SiO masers, however its mass loss dynamics are still poorly understood. Here, the authors present astrometrically registered, simultaneous maps of SiO and H2O maser regions, and provide observational evidence for a break in spherical symmetry between the SiO and H2O maser zone.

    • Dong-Hwan Yoon
    • , Se-Hyung Cho
    •  & Do-Young Byun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exploring astrophysical turbulent effects in laboratory plasma is challenging due to high threshold values of relevant parameters, such as the magnetic Reynolds number. Here the authors demonstrate the turbulent dynamo effect at large magnetic Reynolds numbers in laser-generated magnetized plasma.

    • P. Tzeferacos
    • , A. Rigby
    •  & G. Gregori

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Extremely metal-poor galaxies in the local universe are the best analogues to investigating the interstellar medium at a quasi-primitive environment in the early universe. Here, the authors detect CO emission in a galaxy at 7% solar metallicity, offering direct evidence for the presence of molecular gas.

    • Yong Shi
    • , Junzhi Wang
    •  & Qiusheng Gu

  • 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

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