Featured
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Research Highlight |
A sandstorm swirls through the skies of a distant gas giant
Dust rich in silicon and oxygen churns through the atmosphere of a young giant planet.
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News |
JWST gets best view yet of planet in hotly pursued star system
Telescope didn’t spot an atmosphere on TRAPPIST-1b, but has kicked off a new era in understanding planetary evolution.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article |
High atmospheric metal enrichment for a Saturn-mass planet
Saturn-mass exoplanet HD 149026b has an atmospheric metallicity 59–276 times solar, which is greater than Saturn’s atmospheric metallicity of roughly 7.5 times solar and more correlated with bulk metallicity than planet mass.
- Jacob L. Bean
- , Qiao Xue
- & Megan Mansfield
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Article |
Thermal emission from the Earth-sized exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b using JWST
Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest that the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b has little or no planetary atmosphere and no detectable atmospheric absorption of carbon dioxide.
- Thomas P. Greene
- , Taylor J. Bell
- & Jonathan J. Fortney
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Comment |
As the UN meets, make water central to climate action
Managing water and climate in tandem would protect water resources, reduce disaster risks, lower greenhouse-gas emissions and assure equitable access.
- M. Feisal Rahman
- , Aditi Mukherji
- & Emmanuel Olet
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News & Views |
A compelling explanation for the enigmatic small object ‘Oumuamua
Seemingly contradictory observations of the first known interstellar object are reconciled in a model that presents a simple and physically realistic framework for understanding the object’s many peculiarities.
- Marco Micheli
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Article |
Acceleration of 1I/‘Oumuamua from radiolytically produced H2 in H2O ice
Acceleration of ‘Oumuamua is due to the release of entrapped molecular hydrogen formed through energetic processing of an H2O-rich icy body, supporting the idea that it originated as a planetesimal relic similar to Solar System comets.
- Jennifer B. Bergner
- & Darryl Z. Seligman
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Article |
Degassing of early-formed planetesimals restricted water delivery to Earth
The very low water contents of minerals in achondrite meteorites from the early Solar System show that substantial amounts of water could only have been delivered to Earth by means of unmelted material.
- M. E. Newcombe
- , S. G. Nielsen
- & A. J. Irving
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Article |
Deep, ultra-hot-melting residues as cradles of mantle diamond
New thermodynamic and geochemical modelling of melting shows that the observed composition of the cratonic mantle can be reproduced by deep and very hot melting, obviating the need for shallow melting and lithospheric stacking.
- Carl Walsh
- , Balz S. Kamber
- & Emma L. Tomlinson
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News |
Volcanoes on Venus? ‘Striking’ finding hints at modern-day activity
Discovery highlights need for future missions after NASA puts one on hold.
- Myriam Vidal Valero
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Editorial |
Asteroid collision shows how much amateur astronomers have to offer
Astronomy, like other scientific fields, continues to benefit from working scientists collaborating with amateur colleagues.
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Nature Index |
Japan’s rising research stars: Tatsuya Kubota
Using submarine sensors, Kubota works to understand earthquakes and tsunamis.
- Sandy Ong
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Comment |
Flash floods: why are more of them devastating the world’s driest regions?
Shifting weather, changing settlement patterns and a lack of preparedness mean that dryland areas are most at risk from flooding. Researchers need to focus on data collection, early-warning systems, flood protection and more.
- Jie Yin
- , Yao Gao
- & Mingfu Guan
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News Feature |
What Turkey’s earthquake tells us about the science of seismic forecasting
Geologists knew decades ago that a quake would strike southeastern Turkey, but precise prediction is still the stuff of science fiction.
- Shannon Hall
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Article
| Open AccessOrbital period change of Dimorphos due to the DART kinetic impact
The 33 minute change in the orbital period of Dimorphos after the DART kinetic impact suggests that ejecta contributed a substantial amount of momentum to the asteroid compared with the DART spacecraft alone.
- Cristina A. Thomas
- , Shantanu P. Naidu
- & Harrison F. Agrusa
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Article
| Open AccessSuccessful kinetic impact into an asteroid for planetary defence
The impact of the DART spacecraft on the asteroid Dimorphos is reported and reconstructed, demonstrating that kinetic impactor technology is a viable technique to potentially defend Earth from asteroids.
- R. Terik Daly
- , Carolyn M. Ernst
- & Yun Zhang
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Article
| Open AccessMomentum transfer from the DART mission kinetic impact on asteroid Dimorphos
The authors report on a determination of the momentum transferred to an asteroid by kinetic impact, showing that the DART kinetic impact was highly effective in deflecting the asteroid Dimorphos.
- Andrew F. Cheng
- , Harrison F. Agrusa
- & Giovanni Zanotti
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Article
| Open AccessLight curves and colours of the ejecta from Dimorphos after the DART impact
Optical observations of Dimorphos, a satellite of the asteroid 65803 Didymos, before, during and after the impact of the DART spacecraft, from a network of citizen science telescopes across the world are reported.
- Ariel Graykowski
- , Ryan A. Lambert
- & Ian M. Transom
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Article
| Open AccessEjecta from the DART-produced active asteroid Dimorphos
Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope reveal a complex evolution of the ejecta produced by the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft impacting Dimorphos.
- Jian-Yang Li
- , Masatoshi Hirabayashi
- & Josep M. Trigo-Rodríguez
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Editorial |
Syria after the earthquakes: what researchers can do to help
Equipment and expert aid are urgently needed for 4.7 million people in the country’s neglected northwest.
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News |
Puzzling planetary rings, and more — this week’s best science graphics
Three charts from the world of research, selected by Nature editors.
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News & Views Forum |
JWST opens a window on exoplanet skies
An unprecedented glimpse of a distant planet reveals clues about how it might have formed. Scientists explain why it’s a win for atmospheric chemistry, and celebrate the technology that made it possible.
- Julia V. Seidel
- , Louise D. Nielsen
- & Subhajit Sarkar
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Article
| Open AccessSuppressed basal melting in the eastern Thwaites Glacier grounding zone
Despite observations from a hot-water-drilled access hole showing warm ocean waters beneath Thwaites Glacier Eastern Ice Shelf, the basal melt rate is strongly suppressed due to the low current speeds and strong density stratification.
- Peter E. D. Davis
- , Keith W. Nicholls
- & Keith Makinson
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Book Review |
How NASA’s breakthrough ‘class of ’78’ changed the face of space travel
The inclusion of women and people of colour in NASA’s astronaut cadet programme was unprecedented — and met sometimes fierce resistance.
- Alexandra Witze
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News & Views |
The extent and drivers of global wetland loss
An impressive combination of modelling and data analysis has enabled a new estimate of the extent of wetland losses over the past few centuries — and reveals that an area about the size of India has been lost since 1700.
- Nicholas J. Murray
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News & Views |
A planetary ring in a surprising place
An object in the distant Solar System has been shown to have a ring that is unusually far from its host — prompting speculation about how the ring material has avoided clumping together to form moons.
- Matthew M. Hedman
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Article |
A dense ring of the trans-Neptunian object Quaoar outside its Roche limit
The authors report observations of a dense and inhomogeneous ring at a surprisingly large distance from the trans-Neptunian body Quaoar.
- B. E. Morgado
- , B. Sicardy
- & J. de Wit
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News Explainer |
Turkey–Syria earthquake: what scientists know
Turkey and Syria’s buildings have always been vulnerable to earthquakes, but war has made things worse.
- Miryam Naddaf
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News |
A row is raging over Africa’s largest dam — science has a solution
Benefit-sharing is the best way out of the Nile-dam deadlock between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, study finds.
- Miryam Naddaf
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News |
What time is it on the Moon? Scientists are working that out
Satellite navigation systems for lunar settlements will require local atomic clocks. Researchers are figuring out what time they will keep.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
Has Earth’s inner core stopped its strange spin?
Earthquake data hint that the inner core stopped rotating faster than the rest of the planet in 2009, but not all researchers agree.
- Alexandra Witze
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News & Views |
Unconventional tracers show that spring waters on Mount Fuji run deep
A trio of tracers has debunked a long-held model of the origins of spring water on Mount Fuji, revealing interactions between shallow and deep aquifer layers, and providing a fresh approach for probing mountain groundwater flow.
- Lauren Somers
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Article |
Grain shape effects in bed load sediment transport
Theoretical and experimental analysis of the effect of grain shape in bed load sediment transport is performed and a shape-corrected sediment transport law that provides greater accuracy in predictions is proposed.
- Eric Deal
- , Jeremy G. Venditti
- & J. Taylor Perron
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Research Highlight |
Demon goddess moon takes control of a planet
Dwarf planet Eris’ rotation is constrained by its large moon Dysnomia, named after the Greek goddess of lawlessness.
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News & Views |
From the archive: growing seeds by moonlight, and a shower of stars at sea
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Article
| Open AccessEarly Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRSpec PRISM
A broad-wavelength 0.5–5.5 µm atmospheric transmission spectrum of WASP-39b, a 1,200 K, roughly Saturn-mass, Jupiter-radius exoplanet, demonstrates JWST’s sensitivity to a rich diversity of exoplanet compositions and chemical processes.
- Z. Rustamkulov
- , D. K. Sing
- & S. Zieba
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Article
| Open AccessEarly Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRCam
Time-series observations from the JWST of the transiting exoplanet WASP-39b show gaseous water in the planet’s atmosphere and place an upper limit on the abundance of methane.
- Eva-Maria Ahrer
- , Kevin B. Stevenson
- & Xi Zhang
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Article
| Open AccessEarly Release Science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRISS
The transmission spectrum of the exoplanet WASP-39b is obtained using observations from the Single-Object Slitless Spectroscopy mode of the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph instrument aboard the JWST.
- Adina D. Feinstein
- , Michael Radica
- & Xi Zhang
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World View |
Why I’m leaving NASA and the job I’ve loved most
Stepping down well is an important leadership skill — and one that is rarely named or valued.
- Thomas H. Zurbuchen
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News |
How JWST revolutionized astronomy in 2022
The far-seeing observatory has served up revelations from the most distant reaches of the Universe to a moon orbiting Saturn.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
NASA Mars rover to cache first rock samples for delivery to Earth
Perseverance will leave ten tubes of Martian rock and other materials at a safe drop spot for possible trip off the red planet.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
JWST gets first glimpse of 7-planet system with potentially habitable worlds
Astronomers have been eager for the landmark telescope to study the TRAPPIST-1 system.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Billion-dollar NASA satellite launches to track Earth’s water
SWOT satellite will bounce radar off water bodies to give scientists a new window into climate change and the global water cycle.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Research Highlight |
A keen-eared rover captures the sound of a Martian dust devil
Perseverance crossed paths with a dust-filled whirlwind — and has the audio to prove it.
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Essay |
Fifty years after astronauts left the Moon, they are going back. Why?
The launch of NASA’s Artemis I mission aims to rekindle the spirit of Apollo a half century after the United States left the lunar surface. As ever, science is the least of the driving forces.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
NASA’s Orion Moon capsule splashes down! Here’s what’s next
Engineers will learn from the Artemis I test flight as they gear up to put astronauts back on the Moon later this decade.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Nature’s top science graphics from 2022
From brain growth to COVID variants to vanishing trees, editors choose the charts and diagrams that define the year.
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News |
NASA’s Orion spacecraft prepares for blazing return to Earth
After a final buzz by the Moon, the Artemis I mission faces its biggest challenge: coming home.
- Alexandra Witze
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News Round-Up |
Moon flyby, European Mars rover and elites’ advantage
The latest science news, in brief.
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