Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
State-of-the-art computer simulations show that the first water in the Universe formed in primordial supernova remnants 100 Myr after the Big Bang. This water enriched sites of future planet formation, leading to water mass fractions close to those present in the Solar System today.
At the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, participants of the rapid response workshop on the gravitational wave background explored discrepancies between experimental results and theoretical models for a background originating from supermassive black hole binary mergers. Underestimated theoretical and/or experimental uncertainties are likely to be the explanation. Another key focus was the wide variety of search methods for supermassive black hole binaries, with the conclusion that the most compelling detections would involve systems exhibiting both electromagnetic and gravitational wave signatures.
Observations of polarized thermal emission from dust grains in the protoplanetary disk around the HD 142527 protostar suggest that in part of the disk the polarization is caused by the magnetic field. The strength and structure of this magnetic field are deduced from these observations using a modelling approach.
A suborbital experiment indicates that centimetre-sized clusters of tribocharged submillimetre grains resist erosion by individual grains with collision speeds up to around 0.5 m s–1. The stability of these charged clusters allows them to grow larger than uncharged clusters, enabling the formation of planetesimals in protoplanetary disks.
The symmetron model is one of the most compelling theories of dark energy and it has been tested in a laboratory experiment based on a magnetically levitated force sensor. Although no evidence of dark energy has been found in the experiment, the constraints on the symmetron parameter space have been tightened by more than six orders of magnitude.
The tail-end accretion hypothesis of planet formation posits that the early Moon underwent heavy impacts. Viscous relaxation erased lunar impact basins that formed shortly after the solidification of the lunar magma ocean, explaining the low number of basins currently present on the Moon.
Molecular clouds with low metal content, located in the Galactic outer disk and nearby metal-poor dwarf galaxies, show a notable deficiency in their turbulent support against self-gravity. This challenges the classical virial scenario, in which turbulence and self-gravitational energies are in equilibrium.
This Perspective looks forwards to the next decade of X-ray astronomy, explaining how it will contribute to better understanding of the high-energy Universe. In this context, the authors describe the NewAthena mission, a concept led by the European Space Agency.
Hydrothermal environments are sites of high astrobiological importance. Examining the behaviour of organic molecules in hydrothermal analogues from Earth could help in interpreting observations of hydrothermal settings on other planetary bodies, especially Mars.
A new study shows that many ‘ultra-wide’ binaries (UWBs) in the Kuiper belt are not primordial but attained their present large separations during multiple encounters with other trans-Neptunian objects, and constrain Solar System formation and evolution differently than previously thought.
Various observer programmes, in which early-career scientists participate in science meetings for NASA’s planetary missions, have been set up in recent years. This Perspective analyses the effectiveness of two such programmes: InSightSeers and DART Boarders.
The composition of Venus’s atmosphere is well known, and is likely being replenished by volcanic gases. Analysis suggests that the volcanic eruptions are water-poor — implying that the planet’s mantle is dry. This is consistent with Venus having had a long-lasting dry surface and never having been habitable.
It has been more than a decade since the last meeting on symbiotic stars and related objects was convened. This year participants gathered in Prague to discuss developments in the field, in part prompted by new surveys and observatories.
These two types of compact objects share several similarities, despite their different compositions. A short workshop in Spain brought communities together to share understanding of dense matter under extreme conditions.
A model for the formation of our Solar System proposes that its population of small bodies could have been formed after a stellar encounter between our Sun and another star early on in its history.
Many rocky exoplanets are likely to be basaltic. Now, models of laboratory emission spectra of basaltic rocks suggest that JWST and future observatories could detect specific mineral and chemical signatures on these exoplanets. When present at high abundances, minerals indicative of rock–water interactions are particularly visible in modelled planetary flux spectra.
