Search Publications
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 dormant overmassive black hole in the early Universe
Charlot, Stéphane; Chevallard, Jacopo; Carniani, Stefano +25 more
Recent observations have found a large number of supermassive black holes already in place in the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang, many of which seem to be overmassive relative to their host galaxy stellar mass when compared with local relation1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8–9. Several different models have been proposed to ex…
The complex circumstellar environment of supernova 2023ixf
Sollerman, J.; Bloom, J. S.; Gal-Yam, A. +54 more
The early evolution of a supernova (SN) can reveal information about the environment and the progenitor star. When a star explodes in vacuum, the first photons to escape from its surface appear as a brief, hours-long shock-breakout flare1,2, followed by a cooling phase of emission. However, for stars exploding within a distribution of d…
Formation of a low-mass galaxy from star clusters in a 600-million-year-old Universe
Ravindranath, Swara; Rihtaršič, Gregor; Bradač, Maruša +19 more
The most distant galaxies detected were seen when the Universe was a scant 5% of its current age. At these times, progenitors of galaxies such as the Milky Way were about 10,000 times less massive. Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) combined with magnification from gravitational lensing, these low-mass galaxies can not only be detected bu…
Star formation shut down by multiphase gas outflow in a galaxy at a redshift of 2.45
Conroy, Charlie; Johnson, Benjamin D.; Belli, Sirio +15 more
Large-scale outflows driven by supermassive black holes are thought to have a fundamental role in suppressing star formation in massive galaxies. However, direct observational evidence for this hypothesis is still lacking, particularly in the young universe where star-formation quenching is remarkably rapid1-3, thus requiring effective …
No massive black holes in the Milky Way halo
Udalski, Andrzej; Mróz, Przemek; Szymański, Michał K. +13 more
The gravitational wave detectors have shown a population of massive black holes that do not resemble those observed in the Milky Way1–3 and whose origin is debated4–6. According to a possible explanation, these black holes may have formed from density fluctuations in the early Universe (primordial black holes)7–9, …
Fast-moving stars around an intermediate-mass black hole in ω Centauri
Anderson, Jay; Pechetti, Renuka; Kamann, Sebastian +15 more
Black holes have been found over a wide range of masses, from stellar remnants with masses of 5-150 solar masses (M☉), to those found at the centres of galaxies with M > 105M☉. However, only a few debated candidate black holes exist between 150M☉ and 105M☉. Determining the popula…
A shock flash breaking out of a dusty red supergiant
Wang, Lifan; Wang, Xiaofeng; Gao, Xing +41 more
Shock-breakout emission is light that arises when a shockwave, generated by the core-collapse explosion of a massive star, passes through its outer envelope. Hitherto, the earliest detection of such a signal was at several hours after the explosion1, although a few others had been reported2-7. The temporal evolution of early …
A high internal heat flux and large core in a warm Neptune exoplanet
Fortney, Jonathan J.; McGill, Peter; Bell, Taylor J. +16 more
Interactions between exoplanetary atmospheres and internal properties have long been proposed to be drivers of the inflation mechanisms of gaseous planets and apparent atmospheric chemical disequilibrium conditions1. However, transmission spectra of exoplanets have been limited in their ability to observationally confirm these theories …
A secondary atmosphere on the rocky exoplanet 55 Cancri e
Knutson, Heather A.; Hu, Renyu; Dragomir, Diana +14 more
Characterizing rocky exoplanets is a central aim of astronomy, and yet the search for atmospheres on rocky exoplanets has so far resulted in either tight upper limits on the atmospheric mass1-3 or inconclusive results4-6. The 1.95REarth and 8.8MEarth planet 55 Cancri e (abbreviated 55 Cnc e), with a pred…