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The New Horizons spacecraft revealed a large dark reddish area along Pluto’s equatorial region, probably made up by organics. Here the authors show that it could be formed by the very same giant impact that created Pluto’s biggest satellite, Charon.
Heck et al. provide the first experimental evidence that the composition of meteorites falling on the Earth changes with time. The distribution of meteorites 470 million years ago is significantly different from today — an effect linked to events happening in the asteroid belt.
Periodic pulsations of polarized emission and a strong magnetic field were found in a white-dwarf double system. These findings confirm a pulsar-like emission mechanism for the system that has so far been associated only with neutron stars.
Our currently accepted model of a hierarchically growing, dark-matter dominated Universe predicts rare isolated groups of dwarf galaxies. The discovery of seven such systems may point to the building blocks of present-day intermediate-mass galaxies.
Multi-wavelength data from a cluster–cluster merger reveals that relativistic electrons ejected from near an actively accreting black hole are efficiently re-accelerated at a cluster shock to produce characteristically diffuse radio emission.
Measurements of cold molecular gas from galaxies with stellar masses and star formation rates similar to those of the main progenitor of the Milky Way 8.5 billion years ago show similar physics of star formation to that seen now.
An experimental apparatus using a single optical atomic clock to detect dark matter topological defects (like strings) is proposed. Tests show it can constrain the dark matter–Standard Model coupling strength ~3 orders of magnitude better than previous limits.
Bright deposits, at least one of which is made up of water ice, are detected in the permanent shadows of 10 craters in the northern polar area of the dwarf planet Ceres. This means that Ceres traps water ice at high latitudes, like the Moon and Mercury.
Transient object ASASSN-15lh was previously cast as the most luminous supernova ever discovered. Now, however, there is convincing evidence that its flare was a tidal disruption event: a rapidly-spinning black hole tearing apart a neighbouring star.
The detection of temporal variations in the peak of the phase curve of the hot giant exoplanet HAT-P-7 b is explained by changes in wind speed and cloud coverage in its atmosphere. Such ‘weather’ has never before been observed on a giant exoplanet.
Analysis of atmospheric spectra between 20 and 350 μm obtained at Dome A in Antarctica reveals the excellent year-round conditions of this location for Terahertz & Far-IR astronomical observations from ground, usually hindered by water vapour bands.
