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Although stars and galaxies have developed over time, it seems that supermassive black holes already existed at the ‘cosmic dawn’ of the Universe. Analysis of the mid-infrared spectrum of an early quasar (a quasi-stellar object powered by a black hole) suggests that supermassive black holes and their feeding mechanisms were already completely mature when the Universe was 5% of its present age.
What drives the solar wind complexity and variability seen in the heliosphere remains an unresolved mystery. Unique high-resolution observations and measurements taken at 0.5 au, coupled with magnetic modelling and spectroscopic techniques, show that the variability is driven by spatio-temporal changes in the magnetic connectivity to multiple solar source regions.
Although ongoing volcanic activity on Venus has been hypothesized, directly detecting active lava flows is challenging. Now, an analysis of Magellan radar images of Venus acquired at different times provides indications of ongoing volcanic activity in two distinct areas. This evidence also suggests a planet more volcanically active than previously thought.
Phase-curve observations of the ‘hot Jupiter’ exoplanet WASP-43b, made at mid-infrared wavelengths using JWST, provide evidence that fast winds limit the formation of methane on the cooler, cloudy nightside of the planet.
Based on physical modelling and using deep-learning tools, a 3D reconstruction of a flare orbiting the black hole Sagittarius A*, at the centre of the Milky Way, provides observational clues to the formation of high-energy flares and the dynamics of black-hole accretion disks.
What mechanisms power the heating of the solar atmosphere is a long-standing, complex question. Satellite and sounding-rocket observations, coupled with computer simulations, now support the idea that dissipation of electrical currents causes strong heating in the brightest parts of the solar chromosphere and corona.
The successful impact of NASA’s DART on Dimorphos, the moon of asteroid Didymos, has been analysed using advanced numerical simulations. The results reveal the asteroid’s low surface cohesion and rubble-pile structure, similar to what has been observed on asteroids Ryugu and Bennu.
Cosmic dust contains all the elements needed for life but has previously been considered too rare to have acted as a ‘fertilizer’ for prebiotic chemistry. Now, using a combination of astrophysical and geological models, it is revealed that cosmic dust could have gently accumulated on the surface of early Earth in sufficient quantities to promote the chemical reactions that led to first life.
The observed ‘radius valley’ — a dip in the distribution of exoplanet radii, which separates rocky super-Earths from larger sub-Neptunes — is at odds with current theories of planetary formation. New simulations that couple planet formation and evolution, and account for the orbital migration of planets that are largely composed of steam, are able to reproduce the valley feature.
The Lyman-α emission line of hydrogen should be absorbed and thus not seen from galaxies in the early Universe — and yet it is observed. Now detailed images from JWST coupled with magnetohydrodynamical simulations show that interactions between galaxies are facilitating the escape of this radiation.
High-mass stars in the Milky Way often exist in systems of two or more stars, but how this multiplicity arises is not clear and so far there have been no unequivocal observations of protostellar systems that could solve the issue. Now, systems of five, four and three stars, and several binaries, have been resolved in a star-forming region, and point to core fragmentation as the likely origin of multiplicity.
Periodic sub-structure in radio emission from magnetars provides an observational link not only between magnetars and fast radio bursts, but across all classes of radio-emitting rotating neutron stars. The correlation between sub-structure periodicity and neutron-star rotational period can be used to determine an underlying period for fast radio bursts.
The optical properties of the organic hazes that form in water-rich exoplanet atmospheres differ from those that form in nitrogen-rich atmospheres. This difference in optical properties can have an observable effect on spectral observations of exoplanets and could impact the interpretation of current and upcoming JWST observations.
Theories predict that core asphericity must be involved in core-collapse supernova explosions; however, the shape of these explosions has not been directly observed. The distribution of the explosive burning ash has now been revealed using nebular spectroscopy, indicating that a collimated structure is common in many stellar explosions.
Fast radio bursts, arriving at Earth from distant galaxies, usually have durations of a few milliseconds or more. Now, data on a source of repeating fast radio bursts have been revisited, with much higher time resolution than before, and burst signals are seen that last only a few microseconds — showing that the properties of fast radio bursts are more diverse than previously thought.
JWST observations of Jupiter reveal a narrow and intense atmospheric jet at the equator of the planet, close to its tropopause. The jet is manifest in the fast motions of equatorial hazes and is most likely a deep counterpart of the equatorial oscillations observed in Jupiter’s stratosphere.
Through the past 12 billion years of cosmic time, galaxies have been in a near-equilibrium state, with their star-formation rates, stellar masses and chemical abundances tightly connected. But, from JWST observations, it now seems that at earlier times galaxies deviated from this relation, owing to the inflow of pristine gas in the early Universe.
Carbon atoms are one of the most abundant chemical species in the earliest stages of star formation. They had been thought to be immobile on the surface of interstellar ice, but laboratory experiments now show that a significant fraction of carbon atoms can move on the surface and react — changing our view of interstellar organic chemistry.
The Chang’e-6 mission plans to return geological samples from the farside of the Moon by 2025. The spacecraft will land in the four-billion-year-old Apollo crater within the South Pole–Aitken basin: three candidate sites within the crater have been identified and their scientific potential for sample collection has been explored.
The 21-cm absorption lines from neutral hydrogen at cosmic dawn are proposed as a probe to simultaneously study dark matter particle mass and cosmic heating history. By applying a statistical approach to simulated data this probe is shown to distinguish the effects of dark matter from those of cosmic heating.