Using multipoint Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) observations in an unusual string-of-pearls configuration, we examine in detail observations of the reformation of a fast magnetosonic shock observed on the upstream edge of a foreshock transient structure upstream of Earth's bow shock. The four MMS spacecraft were separated by several hundred kilometers, comparable to suprathermal ion gyroradius scales

The precise characterization of terrestrial atmospheres with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is one of the utmost goals of exoplanet astronomy in the next decade. With JWST’s impending launch, it is crucial that we are well prepared to understand the subtleties of terrestrial atmospheres—particularly ones that we may have not needed to consider before due to instrumentation limitations. In this

Observations of plasma waves by the Fields Suite and of electrons by the Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons Investigation on the Parker Solar Probe provide strong evidence for pitch angle scattering of strahl-energy electrons by narrowband whistler-mode waves at radial distances less than ∼0.3 au. We present two example intervals of a few hours each that include eight waveform captures with whistler-mode

We study the high-energy properties of GRB 181123B, a short gamma-ray burst (sGRB) at redshift z ≈ 1.75. We show that, despite its nominal short duration with T 90 < 2 s, this burst displays evidence of a temporally extended emission (EE) at high energies and that the same trend is observed in the majority of sGRBs at z ≳ 1. We discuss the impact of instrumental selection effects on the GRB classification

The highest-energy known gamma-ray sources are all located within 0.5 of extremely powerful pulsars. This raises the question of whether ultra-high-energy (UHE; >56 TeV) gamma-ray emission is a universal feature expected near pulsars with a high spin-down power. Using four years of data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov Gamma-Ray Observatory, we present a joint-likelihood analysis of 10 extremely

We report the discovery of the first new pulsar with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), PSR J0036−1033, a long-period (0.9 s) nonrecycled pulsar with a dispersion measure (DM) of 23.1 pc cm−3. It was found after processing only a small fraction (∼1%) of data from an ongoing all-sky pulsar survey. Follow-up observations have been made with the MWA, the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT)

We present the discovery of an extreme flaring event from Proxima Cen by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), and the du Pont Telescope that occurred on 2019 May 1. In the millimeter and FUV, this flare is the brightest ever detected, brightening by a

The asteroid exploration project “Hayabusa2” has successfully returned samples from the asteroid (162173) Ryugu. In this study, we measured the linear polarization degrees of Ryugu using four ground-based telescopes from 2020 September 27 to December 25, covering a wide-phase angle (Sun-target-observer’s angle) range from 28 to 104. We found that the polarization degree of Ryugu reached 53% around

We present a low-metallicity map of the Milky Way consisting of ∼110,000 metal-poor giants with −3.5 < [Fe/H] < −0.75, based on public photometry from the second data release of the SkyMapper survey. These stars extend out to ∼7 kpc from the solar neighborhood and cover the main Galactic stellar populations, including the thick disk and the inner halo. Notably, this map can reliably differentiate metallicities

Long secondary periods (LSPs), observed in a third of pulsating red giant stars, are the only unexplained type of large-amplitude stellar variability known at this time. Here we show that this phenomenon is a manifestation of a substellar or stellar companion orbiting the red giant star. Our investigation is based on a sample of about 16,000 well-defined LSP variables detected in the long-term OGLE

We present evidence that multiple accretion events are required to explain the origin of the Gaia-Sausage and Enceladus (GSE) structures, based on an analysis of dynamical properties of main-sequence stars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 12 and Gaia Data Release 2. GSE members are selected to have eccentricity (e) > 0.7 and [Fe/H] < −1.0, and separated into low and high orbital-inclination

We independently determine the zero-point offset of the Gaia early Data Release-3 (EDR3) parallaxes based on ∼110,000 W Ursae Majoris (EW)-type eclipsing binary systems. EWs cover almost the entire sky and are characterized by a relatively complete coverage in magnitude and color. They are an excellent proxy for Galactic main-sequence stars. We derive a W1-band period–luminosity relation with a distance

Both long-duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) from the core collapse of massive stars and short-duration GRBs (SGRBs) from mergers of a binary neutron star or a neutron star–black hole are expected to occur in the accretion disk of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We show that GRB jets embedded in the migration traps of AGN disks are promised to be choked by the dense disk material. Efficient shock acceleration

Despite the uncovered association of a high-energy neutrino with the apparent flaring state of blazar TXS 0506+056 in 2017, the mechanisms leading to astrophysical particle acceleration and neutrino production are still uncertain. Recent studies found that when transparent to γ-rays, γ-flaring blazars do not have the opacity for protons to produce neutrinos. Here we present observational evidence for

With a metallicity of 12 + Log(O/H) ≈ 7.1–7.2, I Zw 18 is a canonical low-metallicity blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxy. A growing number of BCDs, including I Zw 18, have been found to host strong, narrow-lined, nebular He ii (λ4686) emission with enhanced intensities compared to Hβ (e.g., He ii(λ4686)/Hβ > 1%). We present new observations of I Zw 18 using the Keck Cosmic Web Imager. These observations

It has recently been shown that stellar clustering plays an important role in shaping the properties of planetary systems. We investigate how the multiplicity distributions and orbital periods of planetary systems depend on the 6D phase space density of stars surrounding planet host systems. We find that stars in high stellar phase space density environments (overdensities) have a factor of 1.6–2.0

As a powerful source of gravitational waves (GW), a supermassive black hole (SMBH) merger may be accompanied by a relativistic jet that leads to detectable electromagnetic (EM) emission. We model the propagation of post-merger jets inside a pre-merger wind bubble formed by disk winds, and calculate multiwavelength EM spectra from the forward shock region. We show that the nonthermal EM signals from

Compact objects are expected to exist in the accretion disks of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and in the presence of such a dense environment (∼1014 cm−3), they will form a new kind of stellar population denoted as accretion-modified stars (AMSs). This hypothesis is supported by recent LIGO/Virgo detection of the mergers of very high-mass stellar binary black holes

Optical depth variations in the Galactic neutral interstellar medium (ISM) with spatial scales from hundreds to thousands of astronomical units have been observed through H i absorption against pulsars and continuum sources, while extremely small structures with spatial scales of tens of astronomical units remain largely unexplored. The nature and formation of such tiny-scale atomic structures (TSAS)

Accretion disks and coronae around massive black holes have been studied extensively, and they are known to be coupled. Over a period of 30 yr, however, the X-ray (coronal) flux of Mrk 817 increased by a factor of 40 while its UV (disk) flux remained relatively steady. Recent high-cadence monitoring finds that the X-ray and UV continua in Mrk 817 are also decoupled on timescales of weeks and months

In 2017, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration succeeded in capturing the first direct image of the center of the M87 galaxy. The asymmetric ring morphology and size are consistent with theoretical expectations for a weakly accreting supermassive black hole of mass ∼6.5 109 M ⊙. The EHTC also partnered with several international facilities in space and on the ground, to arrange an extensive

Bubbles, the semi-circular voids below quiescent prominences (filaments), have been extensively investigated in the past decade. However, to this point the magnetic nature of bubbles has been unverifiable due to the lack of on-disk photospheric magnetic field observations. Here for the first time, we find and investigate an on-disk prominence bubble around a filament barb on 2019 March 18 based on

Coronal extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) waves are large-scale disturbances propagating in the corona, whose physical nature and origin have been discussed for decades. We report the first three-dimensional (3D) radiative magnetohydrodynamic simulation of a coronal EUV wave and the accompanying quasi-periodic wave trains. The numerical experiment is conducted with the MURaM code and simulates the formation

High time-resolution solar wind magnetic field data are employed to study statistics describing intermittency near the first perihelion (∼35.6 R ⊙) of the Parker Solar Probe mission. A merged data set employing two instruments on the FIELDS suite enables broadband estimation of higher-order moments of magnetic field increments, with five orders established with reliable accuracy. The duration, cadence

We report on the 2020 reactivation of the energetic high magnetic field pulsar PSR J1846–0258 and its pulsar wind nebula (PWN) after 14 yr of quiescence with new Chandra and Green Bank Telescope observations. The emission of short-duration bursts from J1846–0258 was accompanied by an enhancement of X-ray persistent flux and significant spectral softening, similar to those observed during its first

The precise astrometric measurements of the Gaia Data Release 2 have opened the door to detailed tests of the predictions of white dwarf cooling models. Significant discrepancies between theory and observations have been identified, the most striking affecting ultramassive white dwarfs. Cheng et al. found that a small fraction of white dwarfs on the so-called Q branch must experience an extra cooling

The peak frequencies of the two broad humps evident in the spectral energy density of blazars (SED) are time dependent and vary a lot between different blazars. However, their ratio in most blazars appears to be almost universal and equal to m e c 2/4(1 + z)ϵ p to a good approximation, where m e is the electron mass, ϵ p is the peak energy of the cosmic microwave background radiation, and z is the

This letter capitalizes on a unique set of total solar eclipse observations acquired between 2006 and 2020 in white light, Fe xi 789.2 nm (T fexi = 1.2 0.1 MK), and Fe xiv 530.3 nm (T fexiv = 1.8 0.1 MK) emission complemented by in situ Fe charge state and proton speed measurements from Advanced Composition Explorer/SWEPAM-SWICS to identify the source regions of different solar wind streams. The eclipse

The object FRB 20180916B is a well-studied repeating fast radio burst source. Its proximity (∼150 Mpc), along with detailed studies of the bursts, has revealed many clues about its nature, including a 16.3 day periodicity in its activity. Here we report on the detection of 18 bursts using LOFAR at 110–188 MHz, by far the lowest-frequency detections of any FRB to date. Some bursts are seen down to the

The field-aligned anisotropy of the solar wind turbulence, which is quantified by the ratio of the parallel to the perpendicular correlation (and Taylor) length scales, is determined by simultaneous two-point correlation measurements during the time period 2001–2017. Our results show that the correlation scale along the magnetic field is the largest, and the correlation scale in the field-perpendicular

We report the time variability of the late-time radio emission in a Type I superluminous supernova (SLSN), PTF10hgi, at z = 0.0987. The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array 3 GHz observations at 8.6 and 10 yr after the explosion both detected radio emission with a ∼40% decrease in flux density in the second epoch. This is the first report of a significant variability of the late-time radio light curve in

The ∼4 km diameter main belt asteroid 6478 Gault has ejected dust intermittently since at least 2013. The character of the emission, including its episodic nature and the low speed of the ejected particles (V ∼ 0.15 m s−1), is most consistent with mass loss from a body rotating near rotational breakup. Owing to dust contamination of the nucleus signal, this conclusion had not yet been confirmed. To

We perform magnetohydrodynamic simulations of accreting, equal-mass binary black holes in full general relativity focusing on the impact of black hole spin on the dynamical formation and evolution of minidisks. We find that during the late inspiral the sizes of minidisks are primarily determined by the interplay between the tidal field and the effective innermost stable orbit around each black hole

High-energy radiation from the Sun governs the behavior of Earth’s upper atmosphere and such radiation from any planet-hosting star can drive the long-term evolution of a planetary atmosphere. However, much of this radiation is unobservable because of absorption by Earth’s atmosphere and the interstellar medium. This motivates the identification of a proxy that can be readily observed from the ground

The geometric structure of supernova remnants (SNR) provides a clue to unveiling the pre-explosion evolution of their progenitors. Here we present an X-ray study of N103B (0509–68.7), a Type Ia SNR in the Large Magellanic Cloud, that is known to be interacting with dense circumstellar matter (CSM). Applying our novel method for feature extraction to deep Chandra observations, we have successfully resolved

Supernova spectral time series contain a wealth of information about the progenitor and explosion process of these energetic events. The modeling of these data requires the exploration of very high dimensional posterior probabilities with expensive radiative transfer codes. Even modest parameterizations of supernovae contain more than 10 parameters and a detailed exploration demands at least several

Common-envelope evolution is important in the formation of neutron star binaries within the isolated binary formation channel. As a neutron star inspirals within the envelope of a primary massive star, it accretes and spins up. Because neutron stars are in the strong-gravity regime, they have a substantial relativistic mass deficit, i.e., their gravitational mass is less than their baryonic mass. This

Gravitational-wave observations became commonplace in Advanced LIGO-Virgo’s recently concluded third observing run. 56 nonretracted candidates were identified and publicly announced in near real time. Gravitational waves from binary neutron star mergers, however, remain of special interest since they can be precursors to high-energy astrophysical phenomena like γ-ray bursts and kilonovae. While late-time

The outer solar system exhibits an anomalous pattern of orbital clustering, characterized by an approximate alignment of the apsidal lines and angular momentum vectors of distant, long-term stable Kuiper Belt objects. One explanation for this dynamical confinement is the existence of a yet-undetected planetary-mass object, “Planet Nine (P9).” Previous work has shown that trans-Neptunian objects, that

Recent studies have shown that the radii and masses of adjacent planets within a planetary system are correlated. It is unknown how this “peas-in-a-pod” phenomenon originates, whether it is in place at birth or requires evolution, and whether it (initially) applies only to neighboring planets or to all planets within a system. Here we address these questions by making use of the recent discovery that

We report on the discovery of FRB 20200120E, a repeating fast radio burst (FRB) with a low dispersion measure (DM) detected by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment FRB project. The source DM of 87.82 pc cm−3 is the lowest recorded from an FRB to date, yet it is significantly higher than the maximum expected from the Milky Way interstellar medium in this direction (∼50 pc cm−3). We have

Jayasinghe et al. identified a dark ≈3 M ⊙ companion on a nearly edge-on ≈60 day orbit around the red giant star V723 Monoceros as a black hole candidate in the mass gap. This scenario was shown to explain most of the data presented by Jayasinghe et al., except for periodic radial velocity (RV) residuals from the circular Keplerian model. Here we show that the RV residuals are explained by orbital

Recent high-precision meteoritic data infers that Mars finished its accretion rapidly within 10 Myr of the beginning of the Solar System and had an accretion zone that did not entirely overlap with the Earth’s. Here we present a detailed study of the accretion zone of planetary embryos from high-resolution simulations of planetesimals in a disk. We found that all simulations with Jupiter and Saturn

Magnetic fields grow quickly even at early cosmological times, suggesting the action of a small-scale dynamo (SSD) in the interstellar medium of galaxies. Many studies have focused on idealized turbulent driving of the SSD. Here we simulate more realistic supernova-driven turbulence to determine whether it can drive an SSD. Magnetic field growth occurring in our models appears inconsistent with simple

We present the results from a full polarization study carried out with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) during the first Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) campaign, which was conducted in 2017 April in the λ3 mm and λ1.3 mm bands, in concert with the Global mm-VLBI Array (GMVA) and the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), respectively. We determine the polarization and Faraday

Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations at 230 GHz have now imaged polarized emission around the supermassive black hole in M87 on event-horizon scales. This polarized synchrotron radiation probes the structure of magnetic fields and the plasma properties near the black hole. Here we compare the resolved polarization structure observed by the EHT, along with simultaneous unresolved observations

In 2017 April, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observed the near-horizon region around the supermassive black hole at the core of the M87 galaxy. These 1.3 mm wavelength observations revealed a compact asymmetric ring-like source morphology. This structure originates from synchrotron emission produced by relativistic plasma located in the immediate vicinity of the black hole. Here we present the

We report the first detection of a hydroxyl radical (OH) emission signature in the planetary atmosphere outside the solar system, in this case, in the dayside of WASP-33b. We analyze high-resolution near-infrared emission spectra of WASP-33b taken using the InfraRed Doppler spectrograph on the 8.2 m Subaru telescope. The telluric and stellar lines are removed using a detrending algorithm, SysRem. The

It is generally believed that the addition of continents cools the climate of an aquaplanet with a similar orbit to Earth; this is because continents have a higher surface albedo than oceans. A similar effect has been shown in climate simulations for exoplanets. Here we demonstrate that the influence of a continent on ocean circulation could have a dominative effect on the climate of a synchronously

We present constraints on the dust continuum flux and inferred gas content of a gravitationally lensed massive quiescent galaxy at z = 1.883 0.001 using AzTEC 1.1 mm imaging with the Large Millimeter Telescope. MRG-S0851 appears to be a prototypical massive compact quiescent galaxy, but evidence suggests that it experienced a centrally concentrated rejuvenation event in the last 100 Myr. This galaxy

The quasar luminosity function (QLF) shows the active galactic nucleus (AGN) demography as a result of the combination of the growth and the evolution of black holes, galaxies, and dark matter halos along the cosmic time. The recent wide and deep surveys have improved the census of high-redshift quasars, making it possible to construct reliable ultraviolet (UV) QLFs at 2 ≲ z ≲ 6 down to M 1450 = −

The magnetic field plays an essential role in the initiation and evolution of different solar phenomena in the corona. The structure and evolution of the 3D coronal magnetic field are still not very well known. A way to ascertain the 3D structure of the coronal magnetic field is by performing magnetic field extrapolations from the photosphere to the corona. In previous work, it was shown that by prescribing

Applying dendrogram analysis to the CARMA-NRO C18O (J = 1–0) data having an angular resolution of ∼8″, we identified 692 dense cores in the Orion Nebula Cluster region. Using this core sample, we compare the core and initial stellar mass functions in the same area to quantify the step from cores to stars. About 22% of the identified cores are gravitationally bound. The derived core mass function (CMF)

We present an independent examination of the parallax zero-point of the Third Gaia Early Data Release (hereafter EDR3), using the LAMOST primary red clump (PRC) stellar sample. A median parallax offset of around 26 μas, slightly larger than that found by examination of distant quasars, is found for both the five- and six-parameter solutions in EDR3, based on samples of over 63,000 and 2000 PRC stars

Primordial density perturbations in the radiation-dominated era of the early universe are expected to generate stochastic gravitational waves (GWs) due to nonlinear mode coupling. In this Letter, we report on a search for such a stochastic GW background in the data of the two LIGO detectors during their second observing run (O2). We focus on the primordial perturbations in the range of comoving wavenumbers

We analyze five epochs of Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) data of the black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1820+070 during the bright hard-to-soft state transition in its 2018 outburst with both reflection spectroscopy and Fourier-resolved timing analysis. We confirm the previous discovery of reverberation lags in the hard state, and find that the frequency range where the (soft) reverberation

Using radio observations with the Green Bank Telescope, evidence has now been found for a second five-membered ring in the dense cloud Taurus Molecular Cloud-1 (TMC-1). Based on additional observations of an ongoing, large-scale, high-sensitivity spectral line survey (GOTHAM) at centimeter wavelengths toward this source, we have used a combination of spectral stacking, Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)

In 2019, the Galactic center black hole Sgr A* produced an unusually high number of bright near-infrared flares, including the brightest-ever detected flare. We propose that this activity was triggered by the near simultaneous infall of material shed by G1 and G2 objects due to their interaction with the background accretion flow. We discuss mechanisms by which S-stars and G-objects shed material,

We present ALMA CO (2-1) detections of 24 star-forming brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) over 0.2 < z < 1.2, constituting the largest and most distant sample of molecular gas measurements in BCGs to date. The BCGs are selected from the Spitzer Adaptation of the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey (SpARCS) to be IR-bright and therefore star-forming. We find that molecular gas is common in star-forming BCGs

Magnetic reconnection has been suggested to play an important role in the dynamics and energetics of plasma turbulence by spacecraft observations, simulations, and theory over the past two decades, and recently, by magnetosheath observations of MMS. A new method based on magnetic flux transport (MFT) has been developed to identify reconnection activity in turbulent plasmas. This method is applied to