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High-resolution ALMA observations reveal a gravitationally bound septuple protostar system in NGC 6334IN, formed through disk fragmentation. This discovery sheds light on the formation of extreme high-order multiplicity in massive stellar clusters.

ALMA telescope observations over a 7-year period have ‘filmed’ spiral arms winding in a protoplanetary disk. This motion is a hallmark of gravitational instability, a theory that suggests how giant planets might form far from their host stars.

JWST/NIRSpec observations of the 49 Ceti debris disk reveal spatially resolved, fluorescently excited CO emission, indicating a secondary origin of the gas in debris disks (that is, from the collision of volatile-rich bodies).

Detailed mapping of the distribution of water and semiheavy water in the coma of Halley-type comet 12P implies a D/H ratio that is consistent with that of Earth’s water, indicating a common heritage.

ALMA and Gaia data combine to reveal a young gas giant in the protoplanetary disk around MP Mus. Previously unseen substructures, visible only at longer wavelengths, suggest that more planets may hide in disks than previously thought.

JWST reveals the chemistry of the disk of a young star in the Orion nebula, showing that it has water and CO in its inner regions that are shielded from UV radiation, whereas UV-processed molecules such as CH₃⁺ and PAHs are detected in surface layers.

Observations at infrared and millimetre wavelengths of the young protostar HOPS-315 show a gaseous disk captured at the point at which solids are first starting to condense, the t = 0 for planet formation.

The Fermi-LAT Collaboration reports a significant γ-ray detection (5.2σ) from the coronae of radio-quiet active galactic nuclei, revealing compact (~10 gravitational radii) and extended (~2.7 × 10⁶ gravitational radii) corona regions, challenging existing models.

Direct observations of silicate clouds in the atmosphere of the exoplanet YSES-1 c and the first circumplanetary disk silicate emission around its sibling planet YSES-1 b are reported.

Quasi-periodic oscillations from black holes (BHs) in flux have been reported in radio, optical, X-ray and gamma-ray bands, but there hasn’t been any report of quasi-periodic variations in polarization yet. Here, the authors show detection of GHz-band radio polarization oscillations from fast-rotating BH X-ray binary GRS 1915+105

Constraints from satellite dynamics coupled with spin angular momentum show that young Jupiter had a radius twice its current value and a ~21 mT magnetic field, and was accreting material at a rate of one Jupiter mass per million years.

An alternative model challenges the conventional view of isolated protoplanetary disks. Providing insights into angular momentum in supersonic turbulence, it shows that disk sizes are determined by mass captured from the environment.

The James Webb Space Telescope has detected water ice in the cold debris disk (analogous to the Kuiper belt) around the star HD 181327.

Asteroids with unstable rotation could be the origin of the observed excess of slow-rotating asteroids. By fitting the gap in the spin–size distribution, this work shows that rubble-pile asteroids experience stronger tidal effects than previously thought.

The magnetic field structure of the protoplanetary disk around HD 142527 is derived from dust polarization observations. A magnetic field strength of 0.3 mG and its three-dimensional components were calculated using the distributions of the polarization vectors.

Observations of a 3-million-year-old pre-main-sequence star with a misaligned disk reveal a giant orbiting planet; the system is ideal for studying the early formation and migration of planets.

From its optical light curve, the white dwarf in the binary system TW Pictoris appears to be switching between two different intensities of accretion on timescales of hours. This behaviour is reminiscent of that seen in transitional millisecond pulsars, where the switching occurs several times a minute.

Numerous eclipses have been observed towards the binary central star of planetary nebula WeSb 1, probably caused by debris from disintegrated rocky bodies. This finding suggests that planetary systems undergo a violent evolution during the planetary nebula stage.

JWST observations of outflows from four young stars reveal in each case a molecular wind with a central cavity surrounding a fast jet. These results point to disk winds driving accretion, with implications for planet formation and evolution.

Observations of gravitational instability in the disk around AB Aurigae using deep observations of ¹³CO and C¹⁸O line emission provide evidence that giant protoplanets can be formed from collapsing fragments of vast spiral arms.

The spin of Sagittarius A* from Event Horizon Telescope observations is compatible with a historical merger with a 4:1 mass ratio, according to a model. This finding supports the idea that supermassive black holes grow through hierarchical mergers.

Information on stellar populations of the grand-design spiral galaxy UGC 3825 is exploited to measure the offset between young stars of a known age and the spiral arm in which they formed. The measured offset is consistent with a quasi-stationary density wave.

Emission from the 1.3-millimetre hydrogen recombination line reveals a rotating disk of cool gas 0.004 parsecs in radius around the supermassive black hole at the centre of our Galaxy.

Moving shadows have been seen on the circumbinary disk around V4046 Sgr, cast by eclipses of the central binary system. Using geometrical arguments, the degree of flaring of the disk and the distance to the system have been calculated.

Evidence for the earliest phase of planet formation, dust grain growth, has been seen in the very young and massive circumstellar disk around low-mass protostar TMC1A. Such systems, still rich in gas, are responsible for the high-mass end of the exoplanet mass distribution.

Physical origin of accretion states in black hole X-ray binary systems is an open question. Here, the authors perform self-consistent radiative plasma simulations of the corona around the inner accretion flow and demonstrate natural generation of the observed hard and soft state X-ray emission when the plasma is turbulent.

The organic macromolecular matter found in meteorites could have formed in heavily irradiated zones in dust traps in planet-forming disks, according to an evolutionary model of a protoplanetary disk.

IXPE has revealed how the spin of the accreting neutron star Hercules X-1 changes in three dimensions. The spin axis of the star moves both through the star and across the sky, hinting that the crust of the star is asymmetric by almost one part in a million.

An extreme Einstein ring ~10,000 times as bright as the Milky Way in the infrared is studied with VLT/ERIS and ALMA, and the authors find that the lensed galaxy is a starburst with a fast-rotating disk, rather than being driven by a major merger.

Dust in protoplanetary disks is likely to be fragile and porous. A theoretical model of the IM Lup disk offers comprehensive support for the presence of fragile, porous dust based on a comparison with multiwavelength observations.

A three-dimensional reconstruction of a bright flare orbiting the black hole Sagittarius A^* is computationally recovered from ALMA light curve data by constraining a neural network with a gravitational model of black holes.

Relativistic jets observed from transient neutron stars throughout the Universe produce bright flares for minutes after each X-ray burst, helping to determine the role individual system properties have on the speed and revealing the dominant launching mechanism.

A four-arm spiral pattern in the accretion disk around an accreting high-mass protostar has been resolved using VLBI observations of methanol masers. These observations provide evidence for a link between disk accretion, disk instability and episodic growth of a protostar.

The hydroxyl radical OH has been detected in a planet-forming disk exposed to ultraviolet radiation and in a rovibrationally excited state. These JWST observations, when coupled with quantum calculations, reveal the ongoing photodissociation of water and its reformation in the gas phase.

A black hole at the centre of a quasar at a redshift of z = 4 is accreting the mass of the Sun every day. The quasar’s extreme luminosity is equivalent to 50,000 times that of the Milky Way. Its broad-line region should be resolvable observationally and will provide an important test for broad-line region size–luminosity relationships.

Spectrally and spatially resolved ALMA observations of water vapour in the inner regions of the famous planet-forming disk around HL Tauri pave the way towards an observational characterization of planet formation at the water snowline.

Binarity and multiplicity in general strongly affect the properties of emerging stars, as well as the physical and chemical structures of protoplanetary disks and therefore potentially any emerging planetary systems.

A large-scale analysis of quasars reveals that on average, the intrinsic brightness is uniform from the optical to the extreme ultraviolet and is less than expected in the extreme ultraviolet, suggesting prevalent winds that affect black hole growth.

Deep, high-resolution polarization observations of HL Tau at 870  µm show gaps that have polarization angles with a notable azimuthal component and a higher polarization fraction than the rings.

The authors suggest that a probable Keplerian disk is feeding an optically revealed massive young stellar object in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

 Observations with the sensitive mid-infrared spectrometer MIRI on board JWST reveal the presence of a water vapour reservoir in the terrestrial plant-forming zone of the young planetary system PDS 70.

Two instances of approximately 5-Hz transient periodic oscillation features from the source detected in the 1.05- to 1.45-GHz radio band that occurred in January 2021 and June 2022 are reported.

A Bayesian approach to comparing the effects of accretion disks, dark matter or clouds of ultra-light bosons on gravitational waveforms from a black hole binary system concludes that detectors such as LISA can distinguish between these environments.

JWST mid-infrared images of the nearby star Fomalhaut reveal a complex system of dusty rings and disks, created as debris from planetesimal collisions. These structures suggest the presence of a complex and probably dynamically active planetary system.

Multi-unit spectroscopic explorer observations of TW Hya trace the [O I] emission from the inner 1 au of the disk, arising from what is ostensibly a magnetothermal wind. This result questions the strength of the role of photoevaporation in disk dispersal and has implications for planet formation.

A very cold and/or extremely reddened protoplanet in the disk around MWC 758 has been detected in images and with spectroscopy. MWC 758c is responsible for driving the disk’s spiral arm patterns. The protoplanet orbits at a projected separation of ~100 au and is one of the youngest giant planets known.

An ultraviolet- and carbon-rich environment is needed to explain the bright emission coming from complex organic molecules observed near the midplane of protoplanetary disks. This implies that the gaseous reservoir from which actively forming planets accrete is carbon and organic rich.

Observational evidence from planetary systems around white dwarfs shows that planetesimal formation occurs during the first few hundred thousand years after cloud collapse. Iron accreted by these white dwarfs must have been formed by short-lived radioactive nuclides driving iron core formation in planetesimals that form together with the parent star.

Kosec et al. analyse X-ray spectroscopic observations of outflowing hot material from an accreting neutron star. An innovative technique reveals the vertical distribution of the outflow structure, which is challenging to measure otherwise.