Search Publications
Jets from MRC 0600-399 bent by magnetic fields in the cluster Abell 3376
Nakanishi, Hiroyuki; Akamatsu, Hiroki; Takeuchi, Tsutomu T. +7 more
Galaxy clusters are known to harbour magnetic fields, the nature of which remains unresolved. Intra-cluster magnetic fields can be observed at the density contact discontinuity formed by cool and dense plasma running into hot ambient plasma1,2, and the discontinuity exists3 near the second-brightest galaxy4, MRC 06…
Measuring the density structure of an accretion hot spot
Reynolds, M.; Romanova, M. M.; Calvet, N. +5 more
Magnetospheric accretion models predict that matter from protoplanetary disks accretes onto stars via funnel flows, which follow stellar magnetic field lines and shock on the stellar surfaces1-3, leaving hot spots with density gradients4-6. Previous work has provided observational evidence of varying density in hot spots…
The importance of lake breach floods for valley incision on early Mars
Goudge, Timothy A.; Fassett, Caleb I.; Morgan, Alexander M. +1 more
The surface environment of early Mars had an active hydrologic cycle, including flowing liquid water that carved river valleys1-3 and filled lake basins4-6. Over 200 of these lake basins filled with sufficient water to breach the confining topography4,6, causing catastrophic flooding and incision of outlet canyons<…
Iron and nickel atoms in cometary atmospheres even far from the Sun
Jehin, E.; Manfroid, J.; Hutsemékers, D.
In comets, iron and nickel are found in refractory dust particles or in metallic and sulfide grains1. So far, no iron- or nickel-bearing molecules have been observed in the gaseous coma of comets2. Iron and a few other heavy atoms, such as copper and cobalt, have been observed only in two exceptional objects: the Great Comet …
Past, present and future stars that can see Earth as a transiting exoplanet
Kaltenegger, L.; Faherty, J. K.
In the search for life in the cosmos, transiting exoplanets are currently our best targets. With thousands already detected, our search is entering a new era of discovery with upcoming large telescopes that will look for signs of `life' in the atmospheres of transiting worlds. Previous work has explored the zone from which Earth would be visible w…
A repeating fast radio burst source localized to a nearby spiral galaxy
Lazio, T. J. W.; Kirichenko, A. Yu.; Vanderlinde, K. +51 more
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brief, bright, extragalactic radio flashes1,2. Their physical origin remains unknown, but dozens of possible models have been postulated3. Some FRB sources exhibit repeat bursts4-7. Although over a hundred FRB sources have been discovered8, only four have been localized and a…
Nightside condensation of iron in an ultrahot giant exoplanet
Martins, C. J. A. P.; Lendl, Monika; Udry, Stéphane +94 more
Ultrahot giant exoplanets receive thousands of times Earth's insolation1,2. Their high-temperature atmospheres (greater than 2,000 kelvin) are ideal laboratories for studying extreme planetary climates and chemistry3-5. Daysides are predicted to be cloud-free, dominated by atomic species6 and much hotter than night…
A planet within the debris disk around the pre-main-sequence star AU Microscopii
Barclay, Thomas; Vanderburg, Andrew; Hellier, Coel +84 more
AU Microscopii (AU Mic) is the second closest pre-main-sequence star, at a distance of 9.79 parsecs and with an age of 22 million years1. AU Mic possesses a relatively rare2 and spatially resolved3 edge-on debris disk extending from about 35 to 210 astronomical units from the star4, and with clumps exhib…
A Galactic-scale gas wave in the solar neighbourhood
Meingast, Stefan; Alves, João; Speagle, Joshua S. +6 more
For the past 150 years, the prevailing view of the local interstellar medium has been based on a peculiarity known as the Gould Belt1-4, an expanding ring of young stars, gas and dust, tilted about 20 degrees to the Galactic plane. However, the physical relationship between local gas clouds has remained unknown because the accuracy in d…
A cold, massive, rotating disk galaxy 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang
Prochaska, J. Xavier; Rafelski, Marc; Neeleman, Marcel +1 more
Massive disk galaxies like the Milky Way are expected to form at late times in traditional models of galaxy formation1,2, but recent numerical simulations suggest that such galaxies could form as early as a billion years after the Big Bang through the accretion of cold material and mergers3,4. Observationally, it has been dif…