Featured
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News |
Could JWST solve cosmology’s big mystery? Physicists debate Universe-expansion data
Results from the telescope could help to end a long-standing disagreement over the rate of cosmic expansion. But scientists say more measurements are needed.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Book Review |
Cosmologist Claudia de Rham on falling for gravity
The aspiring astronaut turned theoretical physicist talks travelling, the accelerating expansion of the Universe, thinking beyond three dimensions and detecting gravitational waves.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
‘Best view ever’: observatory will map Big Bang’s afterglow in new detail
The Simons Observatory will search for signs of gravitational waves that originated from the Big Bang.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Muse |
Do black holes explode? The 50-year-old puzzle that challenges quantum physics
Stephen Hawking’s paradoxical finding that black holes don’t live forever has profound, unresolved implications for the quest for unifying theories of reality.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
How dwarf galaxies lit up the Universe after the Big Bang
Some of the faintest objects ever observed suggest that small galaxies get the credit for clearing the ‘fog’ pervading the early cosmos.
- Sumeet Kulkarni
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News |
Giant ‘bubble’ in space could be source of powerful cosmic rays
Scientists have identified a region in the Milky Way capable of accelerating particles to super-high energy levels.
- Gemma Conroy
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News |
This new map of the Universe suggests dark matter shaped the cosmos
The eROSITA telescope’s detailed pictures are among the most precise cosmological measurements ever made.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Article |
A massive galaxy that formed its stars at z ≈ 11
A massive galaxy observed with the JWST indicates that the bulk of its stars formed within the first 500 million years of the Universe.
- Karl Glazebrook
- , Themiya Nanayakkara
- & Angel Chandro-Gomez
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News |
Black-hole observations solve cosmic-ray mystery
Data from an African observatory show that jets from a collapsed star are capable of producing some of the Galaxy’s fastest particles.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
China’s new dark-matter lab is biggest and deepest yet
The laboratory is scaling up its equipment to hunt for dark matter.
- Gemma Conroy
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Essay |
Does quantum theory imply the entire Universe is preordained?
The popular idea that quantum physics implies everything is random and nothing is certain might be as far from the truth as it could possibly be.
- Eddy Keming Chen
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Research Highlight |
‘Early dark energy’ fails to solve mystery of cosmic expansion
The extra ingredient would explain why the Universe is expanding so fast now — but conflicts with data from ancient quasars.
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News |
The most powerful cosmic ray since the Oh-My-God particle puzzles scientists
Scientists spot a particle of intense energy, but explaining where it came from might require some new physics.
- Gemma Conroy
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News |
This fast radio burst took 8 billion years to reach Earth
The bright flash has cosmologists adjusting their models on how such intergalactic energy behaves.
- Gemma Conroy
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Article
| Open Access
Polarized thermal emission from dust in a galaxy at redshift 2.6
Linearly polarized thermal emission from dust grains in a strongly lensed, intrinsically luminous galaxy forming stars at a rate more than 1,000 times that of the Milky Way is detected.
- J. E. Geach
- , E. Lopez-Rodriguez
- & K. E. K. Coppin
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News |
Japan’s space observatory will measure X-rays in exquisite detail
XRISM’s precision measurements will unveil a Universe in motion.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Nature Podcast |
Even a ‘minimal cell’ can grow stronger, thanks to evolution
Exploring evolution in a ‘minimal cell’, and Galaxy-wide gravitational waves.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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Article |
Galaxies in voids assemble their stars slowly
We show that void galaxies have had slower star formation histories than galaxies in denser large-scale environments and find two main types of star formation history in all environments.
- Jesús Domínguez-Gómez
- , Isabel Pérez
- & Almudena Zurita
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Article |
The nature of an ultra-faint galaxy in the cosmic dark ages seen with JWST
The JWST, with the aid of gravitational lensing, confirms the extreme distance of an ultra-faint galaxy at a redshift of 9.79, showing it to have a luminosity typical of the sources responsible for cosmic reionization and highly compact and complex morphology.
- Guido Roberts-Borsani
- , Tommaso Treu
- & Rogier A. Windhorst
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Article |
Compact [C ii] emitters around a C iv absorption complex at redshift 5.7
Investigation of the physical conditions of the circumgalactic medium led to detection of two compact [C ii]-emitting galaxies with narrow linewidths at a redshift of 5.7, associated with a complex, high-ionization C iv absorption system.
- Daichi Kashino
- , Simon J. Lilly
- & Anna-Christina Eilers
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Book Review |
How Stephen Hawking flip-flopped on whether the Universe has a beginning
The question of what the Big Bang really represented still bamboozles cosmologists — and Hawking provided more than one answer.
- Robert P. Crease
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Research Briefing |
Clues to the assembly of an infant galaxy cluster
Galaxy clusters are among the largest objects in the Universe to be held together by their own gravity. Most of the ordinary matter in nearby galaxy clusters is associated with a diffuse, hot-gas component. The detection of this ‘intracluster medium’ in a distant protocluster of galaxies sheds light on the cluster’s formation history.
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Article |
Spherical symmetry in the kilonova AT2017gfo/GW170817
Spectra taken after the kilonova associated with GW170817 show a high degree of spherical symmetry and a line shape is found that is consistent with a completely spherical expansion to within a few per cent.
- Albert Sneppen
- , Darach Watson
- & Stuart Sim
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News |
Astrophysicists turn fast radio bursts into cosmic probes
As they travel across space, the ephemeral waves pick up information about galaxies and the large-scale structure of the Universe.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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Article |
Intracluster light is already abundant at redshift beyond unity
A study of intracluster light (ICL) in ten high-redshift galaxy clusters finds evidence that gradual stripping may not be the dominant mechanism of ICL formation, but may occur alongside the formation and growth of the brightest cluster galaxies, and/or accretion of preprocessed stars.
- Hyungjin Joo
- & M. James Jee
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Research Briefing |
Snapshots capture the early stages of a distant stellar explosion
Analyses of archival imaging data from the Hubble Space Telescope in 2010 reveal multiple images of a star that exploded about 11.5 billion years ago. An image sequence starting 6 hours after the explosion shows the supernova cooling rapidly during its very early phases.
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Article |
Quantum field simulator for dynamics in curved spacetime
The behaviour of quantum fields in curved spacetime is simulated using a two-dimensional trapped quantum gas of potassium atoms with a configurable trap and adjustable interaction strength.
- Celia Viermann
- , Marius Sparn
- & Markus K. Oberthaler
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Article
| Open Access
A 0.6 Mpc H i structure associated with Stephan’s Quintet
Atomic hydrogen observations in the vicinity of Stephan’s Quintet are reported, showing a large gaseous structure of around 0.6 Mpc in size in the velocity range of 6,550–6,750 km s−1.
- C. K. Xu
- , C. Cheng
- & F. Renaud
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Article |
A population of ultraviolet-dim protoclusters detected in absorption
Lyman-α absorption observations from the Las Campanas Observatory are used to find a population of ultraviolet-dim protoclusters that contain few galaxies compared with their analogues in cosmological simulations.
- Andrew B. Newman
- , Gwen C. Rudie
- & John S. Mulchaey
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News |
Mega-map of Milky Way adds depth to stars’ motions
The European Gaia mission’s ever-improving catalogue has become astronomers’ standard reference for the Galaxy.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Did astronomers see hints of first stars? Experiment casts doubt on bold claim
Radioastronomers suggest that a signal reported to be from the cosmic dawn could have been caused by instrument error.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Article
| Open Access
Microwave background temperature at a redshift of 6.34 from H2O absorption
Measurement of the cosmic microwave background temperature using H2O absorption at a redshift of 6.34 is reported, the results of which were consistent with those from standard ΛCDM cosmology.
- Dominik A. Riechers
- , Axel Weiss
- & Roberto Neri
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News |
Astrophysicists unveil glut of gravitational-wave detections
The latest bounty of 35 events features oddball black holes and a miniature neutron star.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
New type of dark energy could solve Universe expansion mystery
Hints of a previously unknown, primordial form of the substance could explain why the cosmos now seems to be expanding faster than theory predicts.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Obituary |
Steven Weinberg (1933–2021)
Theoretical physicist whose electroweak theory won the Nobel prize.
- Frank Wilczek
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News Round-Up |
China’s vaccination surge, fast radio bursts and the dominant Alpha variant
The latest science news, in brief.
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News |
Mysterious fast radio bursts come in two distinct flavours
A trove of new detections suggests that the bursts could be the result of at least two separate astrophysical phenomena.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News Round-Up |
COVID nasal spray, dark-matter map and a variant’s rise
The latest science news, in brief.
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Article |
Anisotropic satellite galaxy quenching modulated by black hole activity
An analysis of archival data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey finds that star-forming satellite galaxies are relatively more common along the minor axis of central galaxies owing to the effect of black hole feedback.
- Ignacio Martín-Navarro
- , Annalisa Pillepich
- & Volker Springel
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News |
The most detailed 3D map of the Universe ever made
Cosmologists have unveiled a trove of fresh data, but the measurements do not settle earlier questions about the Universe’s unexpected smoothness.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Best map of Milky Way reveals a billion stars in motion
Data haul from Gaia space observatory offers a glimpse of what Earth’s night sky will look like for 1.6 million years to come.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Hints of twisted light offer clues to dark energy’s nature
Cosmologists suggest that an exotic substance called quintessence could be accelerating the Universe’s expansion — but the evidence is still tentative.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News Round-Up |
Black-hole clashes, US climate hope and COVID antibodies
The latest science news, in brief.
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News & Views |
Primordial element production studied beneath a mountain
Experiments conducted deep beneath a mountain have provided the most precise measurements yet of a key nuclear reaction that occurred seconds after the Big Bang — refining our knowledge of the constituents of the Universe.
- Brian D. Fields
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Article |
The baryon density of the Universe from an improved rate of deuterium burning
High-precision cross-sections of the nuclear reaction that burns deuterium to create helium-3 are used to produce theoretical estimates of the primordial baryon density that are in agreement with recent astronomical observations.
- V. Mossa
- , K. Stöckel
- & S. Zavatarelli
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News & Views |
Key ingredient of galaxy formation measured
Measurements of faint radio emission from distant galaxies have revealed the nature of the gases that drove the epoch of peak galaxy formation — and also suggest why star-formation rates have since declined.
- Chris L. Carilli
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Article |
H i 21-centimetre emission from an ensemble of galaxies at an average redshift of one
Emission from atomic hydrogen at a wavelength of 21 centimetres had been observed from galaxies at a maximum redshift of 0.4, but is now reported at a redshift of about 1.
- Aditya Chowdhury
- , Nissim Kanekar
- & K. S. Dwarakanath
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Research Highlight |
Gigantic clusters of galaxies pose a new dark-matter puzzle
The Hubble Space Telescope shows that galactic ‘lenses’ of the invisible material are more common than computer models of galaxy clumping predict.
Dark energy is tearing the Universe apart. What if the force is weakening?