Featured
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Correspondence |
Don’t underestimate the rising threat of groundwater to coastal cities
- Daniel J. Rozell
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News |
Planet-eating stars hint at hidden chaos in the Milky Way
A handful of middle-aged stars seem to have gobbled up a planet, challenging assumptions about the stability of such systems.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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Correspondence |
‘Global swimways’ on free-flowing rivers will protect key migratory fish species
- Twan Stoffers
- , Catherine A. Sayer
- & Fengzhi He
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World View |
Climate models can’t explain 2023’s huge heat anomaly — we could be in uncharted territory
Taking into account all known factors, the planet warmed 0.2 °C more last year than climate scientists expected. More and better data are urgently needed.
- Gavin Schmidt
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News |
Is the Mars rover’s rock collection worth $11 billion?
Budget woes force NASA to reassess Perseverance’s travel plan, and seek cheaper ways of getting samples back to Earth.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Did ‘alien’ debris hit Earth? Startling claim sparks row at scientific meeting
Astrophysicist Avi Loeb says that an interstellar meteor showered Earth with particles. At a planetary-science conference this week, researchers begged to differ.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article
| Open AccessA rapidly time-varying equatorial jet in Jupiter’s deep interior
An axisymmetric, equatorial jet in Jupiter’s interior has a wavelike fluctuation with a 4-year period, revealing hidden aspects of the magnetic field within the metallic hydrogen region and constraining the dynamo that generates the magnetic field.
- Jeremy Bloxham
- , Hao Cao
- & Scott J. Bolton
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News |
Private Moon lander is dying — it scored some wins for science
The Odysseus spacecraft gathered data successfully from the lunar surface.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article
| Open AccessThe Dimorphos ejecta plume properties revealed by LICIACube
Dimorphos ejecta plume properties were revealed by the observations from the LICIACube cube satellite, which was deployed 15 days in advance of the impact of DART.
- E. Dotto
- , J. D. P. Deshapriya
- & M. Zannoni
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News |
Japanese Moon-lander unexpectedly survives the lunar night
Its engineers never gave up hope, but the Moon-lander continues to beat the odds.
- Ling Xin
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News |
Earthquakes are most deadly in these unexpected countries
Haiti and Turkmenistan are among the nations with the highest earthquake fatality load, a measure of the burden imposed by quake-related deaths.
- Sumeet Kulkarni
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News |
First private Moon lander touches down on lunar surface to make history
After a nail-biting descent, the Odysseus spacecraft has landed near the lunar south pole and prepares to kick off a week of data gathering.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Private Moon launch a success! But will the craft land safely on the lunar surface?
Anxiety is high as the company Intuitive Machines takes its first crack at a touchdown.
- Alexandra Witze
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Where I Work |
I listen to the sounds this remote wetland makes to learn its rhythms
Peter Chatanga uses weeks-long audio recordings to build a picture of biodiversity in Lesotho’s crucial wetlands.
- Linda Nordling
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News Explainer |
How to test a Moon landing from Earth
The world is racing to land on the Moon. How do space agencies and commercial companies test their landers ahead of time?
- Jatan Mehta
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News & Views |
Mimas’s surprise ocean prompts an update of the rule book for moons
The shifting orbit of one of Saturn’s moons indicates that the satellite has a subsurface ocean, contradicting theories that its interior is entirely solid. The finding calls for a fresh take on what constitutes an ocean moon.
- Matija Ćuk
- & Alyssa Rose Rhoden
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Article |
A recently formed ocean inside Saturn’s moon Mimas
An analysis of the orbital motion of Saturn’s moon Mimas shows that a recently formed global subsurface ocean lies beneath its cratered icy shell and that this ocean is probably still evolving.
- V. Lainey
- , N. Rambaux
- & K. Baillié
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News |
The Solar System has a new ocean — it’s buried in a small Saturn moon
The sea inside Saturn’s satellite Mimas formed in the past 25 million years, a blink of the eye in geological terms.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Near death experience — Japan’s Moon lander makes a comeback
After nine days in a state of suspension, the upside-down Moon lander has received enough sunlight to start operating again.
- Gemma Conroy
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News |
First aircraft to fly on Mars dies — but leaves a legacy of science
The record-setting Mars helicopter Ingenuity broke during a final, fatal flight.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Japan’s successful Moon landing was the most precise ever
Landing within 100 metres of its target zone, the craft has pioneered a new image-based automatic navigation system. But its mission might be cut short.
- Ling Xin
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Article
| Open AccessSulfur dioxide in the mid-infrared transmission spectrum of WASP-39b
Observations from the JWST MIRI/LRS show the detection of SO2 spectral features in the 5–12-μm transmission spectrum of the hot, Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-39b, suggesting that photochemistry is a key process in high-temperature exoplanet atmospheres.
- Diana Powell
- , Adina D. Feinstein
- & Sergei N. Yurchenko
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World View |
Stop sending human remains to the Moon
The Peregrine lander was due to deposit several people’s ashes on the Moon. The Navajo Nation is calling for broader discussion.
- Alvin D. Harvey
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Nature Podcast |
The science stories you missed over the holiday period
We highlight some of the Nature Briefing’s stories from the end of 2023, including a polar bear fur-inspired sweater, efforts to open OSIRIS-REx’s sample canister, and a dinosaur’s last dinner.
- Benjamin Thompson
- , Noah Baker
- & Flora Graham
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News |
Mission failure feared for private US Moon lander — what’s next?
Astrobotic, the firm that launched the Peregrine spacecraft, says it will learn from any missteps and look ahead to its next attempt.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Private US Moon mission launches — will it open a new era for science?
Astrobotic could be the first commercial firm to successfully deliver research equipment to the lunar surface, if it sticks the landing.
- Alexandra Witze
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News Explainer |
Japan earthquakes: the science behind the deadly tremors
A massive quake that triggered tsunamis, fires and multiple aftershocks was the largest on the country’s west coast in more than a century.
- Gemma Conroy
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Outlook |
The human factor in water disasters
Decisions about land use and infrastructure have left little space for water, amplifying the effects of natural disasters and climate change.
- Erica Gies
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News |
Korean lunar mission provides a view into the Moon’s dark spaces
South Korea’s first trip to the Moon has been labelled a success.
- Alexandra Witze
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News Feature |
The engineer who helped India to reach the Moon
Kalpana Kalahasti had a crucial role in ensuring Chandrayaan-3’s triumphant touchdown on the Moon.
- Jatan Mehta
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Article |
A unified explanation for the morphology of raised peatlands
Physical analysis of processes universal to raised peatlands produces an equation that explains their morphology and carbon storage across biomes, from Alaska to New Zealand.
- Alexander R. Cobb
- , René Dommain
- & Charles F. Harvey
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News |
‘Head-scratcher’: first look at asteroid dust brought to Earth offers surprises
Researchers have begun examining the pristine space rocks collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission.
- Alexandra Witze
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Matters Arising |
Reply to: Accelerating ‘Oumuamua with H2 is challenging
- Jennifer B. Bergner
- & Darryl Z. Seligman
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Article |
A resonant sextuplet of sub-Neptunes transiting the bright star HD 110067
Observations of six transiting planets around the bright nearby star HD 110067 show that they follow a chain of resonant orbits, with three of the planets inferring the presence of large hydrogen-dominated atmospheres.
- R. Luque
- , H. P. Osborn
- & T. Zingales
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Article |
Methane throughout the atmosphere of the warm exoplanet WASP-80b
Transmission and emission spectra of the 825 K warm Jupiter WASP-80b taken with the NIRCam instrument of the JWST show strong evidence of CH4 at greater than 6σ significance
- Taylor J. Bell
- , Luis Welbanks
- & John A. Stansberry
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News |
Iceland braces for volcanic eruption: what scientists are watching
Researchers are tracking every aspect of the geological unrest, which began last month.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article |
SO2, silicate clouds, but no CH4 detected in a warm Neptune
The JWST MIRI transmission spectrum of WASP-107b, a transiting planet with Neptune-like mass and Jupiter-like radius, shows observations of sulfur dioxide and silicate clouds but no methane in its atmosphere, providing evidence of disequilibrium chemistry and active photochemistry.
- Achrène Dyrek
- , Michiel Min
- & Gillian Wright
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Nature Video |
The robot chemist helping to pave the way to settlements on Mars
An AI-assisted robot, could use Martian rock to autonomously generate oxygen on the red planet
- Noah Baker
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News |
This AI robot chemist could make oxygen on Mars
The system uses Martian materials to produce catalysts that release oxygen from water.
- Jonathan O'Callaghan
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Research Highlight |
Citizen scientists find a rarity: an asteroid trying to be a comet
An object that orbits the Sun beyond the main asteroid belt and occasionally sports a tail is spotted in archival images.
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Article |
15NH3 in the atmosphere of a cool brown dwarf
Observations from the JWST MIRI showed the detection of 14NH3 and 15NH3 isotopologues in the atmosphere of a cool brown dwarf, along with a 14N/15N value consistent with star-like formation by gravitational collapse.
- David Barrado
- , Paul Mollière
- & Gillian Wright
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News |
Strange blobs in Earth’s mantle are relics of a massive collision
Impact with a body called Theia 4.5 billion years ago left remnants deep inside Earth — and also created the Moon.
- Anil Oza
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Article |
Moon-forming impactor as a source of Earth’s basal mantle anomalies
Computer simulations show that mantle material from Theia, a proto-planet theorized to have struck the proto-Earth in the Moon-forming giant impact, may be the source of Earth’s basal mantle anomalies.
- Qian Yuan
- , Mingming Li
- & Paul D. Asimow
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Research Highlight |
The Solar System’s biggest moon is spattered with salt
Dried brine from a subsurface ocean speckles the surface of Ganymede, which orbits Jupiter.
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Nature Podcast |
Martian sounds reveal the secrets of the red planet's core
NASA's InSight mission recorded vibrations of Mars exposing a surprising layer of silicate around the core.
- Geoff Marsh
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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News & Views |
Deep Mars is surprisingly soft
Two analyses of seismic waves that traversed Mars paint the clearest picture yet of the red planet’s core and deep mantle — and rationalize the puzzling implications of a previous interpretation of the seismological data.
- Suzan van der Lee
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Article
| Open AccessEvidence for a liquid silicate layer atop the Martian core
Using multiply diffracted P waves and first-principles computations of the thermoelastic properties of liquid iron-rich alloys, we show that the core of Mars is smaller and denser than previously thought.
- A. Khan
- , D. Huang
- & M. Murakami
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