Search Publications
A lanthanide-rich kilonova in the aftermath of a long gamma-ray burst
Kilpatrick, Charles D.; Lee, Chung-Uk; Im, Myungshin +24 more
Observationally, kilonovae are astrophysical transients powered by the radioactive decay of nuclei heavier than iron, thought to be synthesized in the merger of two compact objects1-4. Over the first few days, the kilonova evolution is dominated by a large number of radioactive isotopes contributing to the heating rate2,5. On…
SO2, silicate clouds, but no CH4 detected in a warm Neptune
Henning, Thomas; Östlin, Göran; Güdel, Manuel +43 more
WASP-107b is a warm (approximately 740 K) transiting planet with a Neptune-like mass of roughly 30.5 M⊕ and Jupiter-like radius of about 0.94 RJ (refs. 1,2), whose extended atmosphere is eroding3. Previous observations showed evidence for water vapour and a thick, high-altitude condensate layer in the at…
A magnetar giant flare in the nearby starburst galaxy M82
Thuillot, William; Mereghetti, Sandro; Esposito, Paolo +32 more
Magnetar giant flares are rare explosive events releasing up to 1047 erg in gamma rays in less than 1 second from young neutron stars with magnetic fields up to 1015−16 G (refs. 1,2). Only three such flares have been seen from magnetars in our Galaxy3,4 and in the Large Magellanic Cloud5 in ro…
Lense-Thirring precession after a supermassive black hole disrupts a star
Loewenstein, Michael; Pasham, Dheeraj R.; Guolo, Muryel +8 more
An accretion disk formed around a supermassive black hole after it disrupts a star is expected to be initially misaligned with respect to the equatorial plane of the black hole. This misalignment induces relativistic torques (the Lense-Thirring effect) on the disk, causing the disk to precess at early times, whereas at late times the disk aligns w…