Search Publications
A single population of red globular clusters around the massive compact galaxy NGC 1277
Beasley, Michael A.; Leaman, Ryan; Trujillo, Ignacio +1 more
Massive galaxies are thought to form in two phases: an initial collapse of gas and giant burst of central star formation, followed by the later accretion of material that builds up their stellar and dark-matter haloes. The systems of globular clusters within such galaxies are believed to form in a similar manner. The initial central burst forms me…
Two separate outflows in the dual supermassive black hole system NGC 6240
Treister, E.; Privon, G. C.; Davies, R. I. +3 more
Theoretical models and numerical simulations have established a framework of galaxy evolution in which galaxies merge and create dual supermassive black holes (with separations of one to ten kiloparsecs), which eventually sink into the centre of the merger remnant, emit gravitational waves and coalesce. The merger also triggers star formation and …
Evidence of ancient Milky Way merger
Venn, Kim
An analysis of data from the Gaia space observatory suggests that stars in the inner halo of the Milky Way originated in another galaxy. This galaxy is thought to have collided with the Milky Way about ten billion years ago.
Mars probe poised to solve red planet's methane mystery
Gaind, Nisha
Researchers hope European-Russian Trace Gas Orbiter will end a long-running debate over source of the gas on Mars.
A key piece in the exoplanet puzzle
Díaz, Rodrigo F.
The detection of a low-mass exoplanet on a relatively wide orbit has implications for models of planetary formation and evolution, and could open the door to a new era of exoplanet characterization.
Billion-star map of Milky Way set to transform astronomy
Castelvecchi, Davide
European Gaia spacecraft's first major data dump — the most detailed 3D chart yet of our Galaxy — will keep researchers busy for decades.
A fresh approach to stellar benchmarking
Beaton, Rachael
An avalanche of data is about to revolutionize astronomy, but the options for validating those data have been limited. High-precision measurements from the Hubble Space Telescope enable a much-needed alternative option.
A direct localization of a fast radio burst and its host
Lazio, T. J. W.; Ransom, S. M.; Chatterjee, S. +22 more
Fast radio bursts are astronomical radio flashes of unknown physical nature with durations of milliseconds. Their dispersive arrival times suggest an extragalactic origin and imply radio luminosities that are orders of magnitude larger than those of all known short-duration radio transients. So far all fast radio bursts have been detected with lar…
A kilonova as the electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational-wave source
Della Valle, M.; Greiner, J.; Sollerman, J. +119 more
Gravitational waves were discovered with the detection of binary black-hole mergers and they should also be detectable from lower-mass neutron-star mergers. These are predicted to eject material rich in heavy radioactive isotopes that can power an electromagnetic signal. This signal is luminous at optical and infrared wavelengths and is called a k…
The X-ray counterpart to the gravitational-wave event GW170817
Troja, E.; Piro, L.; van Eerten, H. +31 more
A long-standing paradigm in astrophysics is that collisions—or mergers—of two neutron stars form highly relativistic and collimated outflows (jets) that power γ-ray bursts of short (less than two seconds) duration. The observational support for this model, however, is only indirect. A hitherto outstanding prediction is that gravitational-wave even…