Search Publications
A massive interacting galaxy 510 million years after the Big Bang
Santini, Paola; Castellano, Marco; Fontana, Adriano +26 more
James Webb Space Telescope observations have spectroscopically confirmed the existence of galaxies as early as 300 Myr after the Big Bang and with a higher number density than what was expected based on galaxy formation models and Hubble Space Telescope observations. Yet, most sources confirmed spectroscopically so far in the first 500 Myr have re…
Cygnus X-3 revealed as a Galactic ultraluminous X-ray source by IXPE
Ingram, Adam; Kaaret, Philip; Wu, Kinwah +127 more
The accretion of matter by compact objects can be inhibited by radiation pressure if the luminosity exceeds a critical value known as the Eddington limit. The discovery of ultraluminous X-ray sources has shown that accretion can proceed even when the apparent luminosity considerably exceeds this limit. A high apparent luminosity might be produced …
Nightside clouds and disequilibrium chemistry on the hot Jupiter WASP-43b
Carter, Aarynn L.; Gibson, Neale P.; Helling, Christiane +80 more
Hot Jupiters are among the best-studied exoplanets, but it is still poorly understood how their chemical composition and cloud properties vary with longitude. Theoretical models predict that clouds may condense on the nightside and that molecular abundances can be driven out of equilibrium by zonal winds. Here we report a phase-resolved emission s…
JWST detection of a supernova associated with GRB 221009A without an r-process signature
Rest, Armin; Villar, V. Ashley; Yadavalli, S. Karthik +18 more
Identifying the sites of r-process nucleosynthesis, a primary mechanism of heavy element production, is a key goal of astrophysics. The discovery of the brightest gamma-ray burst (GRB) to date, GRB 221009A, presented an opportunity to spectroscopically test the idea that r-process elements are produced following the collapse of rapidly rotating ma…
A mature quasar at cosmic dawn revealed by JWST rest-frame infrared spectroscopy
Henning, Thomas; Costantin, Luca; Langeroodi, Danial +29 more
The rapid assembly of the first supermassive black holes is an enduring mystery. Until now, it was not known whether quasar `feeding' structures (the `hot torus') could assemble as fast as the smaller-scale quasar structures. We present JWST/MRS (rest-frame infrared) spectroscopic observations of the quasar J1120+0641 at z = 7.0848 (well within th…
Spectroscopic sizing of interstellar icy grains with JWST
Rocha, W. R. M.; Melnick, G. J.; Boogert, A. C. A. +22 more
Clouds of gas and dust in the Galaxy are nurseries in which stars and planetary systems are born. During their journey from the diffuse interstellar medium to the protoplanetary disks, molecular solids accumulate on cold dust grains by accretion and surface chemistry. These so-called icy grains will continuously evolve, notably by collision and ag…
Physical properties of asteroid Dimorphos as derived from the DART impact
Pajola, M.; Rossi, A.; Dotto, E. +39 more
On 26 September 2022, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission successfully impacted Dimorphos, the natural satellite of the binary near-Earth asteroid (65803) Didymos. Numerical simulations of the impact provide a means to find the surface material properties and structures of the target that are consistent with the observed momentu…
A massive compact quiescent galaxy at z = 2 with a complete Einstein ring in JWST imaging
van Dokkum, Pieter; Conroy, Charlie; Brammer, Gabriel +2 more
One of the surprising results from the Hubble Space Telescope was the discovery that many of the most massive galaxies at redshift z ≈ 2 are very compact, having a half-light radius of only 1‑2 kpc. The interpretation is that massive galaxies formed inside out, with their cores largely in place by z ≈ 2 and approximately half of their present-day …
OH as a probe of the warm-water cycle in planet-forming disks
Gordon, Karl D.; Onaka, Takashi; Fuente, Asunción +51 more
Water is a key ingredient for the emergence of life as we know it. Yet, its destruction and reformation in space remain unprobed in warm gas (T > 300 K). Here we detect with the James Webb Space Telescope the emission of the hydroxyl radical (OH) from d203-506, a planet-forming disk exposed to external far-ultraviolet (FUV) radiation. These obs…
A benchmark JWST near-infrared spectrum for the exoplanet WASP-39 b
Zhang, X.; Heng, K.; May, E. M. +77 more
Observing exoplanets through transmission spectroscopy supplies detailed information about their atmospheric composition, physics and chemistry. Before the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), these observations were limited to a narrow wavelength range across the near-ultraviolet to near-infrared, alongside broadband photometry at longer wavelength…