High-energy astrophysics articles from across Nature Portfolio

A coherent 909-Hz quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) has been detected, briefly, in the second brightest gamma-ray burst recorded to date, GRB 230307A. This burst originated from a merger of compact stars, and the QPO signal implies the presence of a millisecond magnetar, formed after the merger.

The Chandra X-ray Observatory has provided a high-energy view of objects and processes throughout the Universe. This Review discusses many of the key results from Chandra’s 25 years of data.

This study demonstrates that the fastest astrophysical jets are locked to a fixed axis, whereas slower jets can precess or wobble. The findings imply that the most relativistic jets are tied to the spin axis of the black hole that launched them.

A coherent 909-Hz quasi-periodic oscillation was potentially detected in GRB 230307A, the second brightest gamma-ray burst to date, indicating that a millisecond magnetar formed after the merger powered the burst.

The XRISM Resolve spectrum of the galactic neutron star X-ray binary, GX 13+1, reveals one of the densest winds ever seen in absorption lines.

Mergers of two hybrid He–C–O white dwarfs can trigger a double detonation and eject a hypervelocity (2,000 km s⁻¹) remnant. This finding provides a possible origin for the fastest white dwarfs and faint, peculiar supernovae.

Observations of a fast X-ray transient reveal that it is a gamma-ray-burst explosion from a very distant galaxy that emits light with the wavelength necessary to drive cosmic reionization, the last major phase change in the history of the Universe.

A coherent 909-Hz quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) has been detected, briefly, in the second brightest gamma-ray burst recorded to date, GRB 230307A. This burst originated from a merger of compact stars, and the QPO signal implies the presence of a millisecond magnetar, formed after the merger.

A galactic nucleus began emitting X-rays, periodically, in 2024. These quasi-periodic eruptions have the highest fluxes and longest timescales of any detected so far, and are thought to originate from newly formed accretion flows onto a supermassive black hole.

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a rapidly growing, incredibly active black hole in the early Universe. The accretion disk of the black hole is extremely bright in X-rays and is accreting matter at a rate 40 times the theoretical limit — offering new insight into early black-hole growth.

A magnetic halo featuring coherent magnetized ridges several kiloparsecs above and below the Galactic Disk, and a gamma-ray counterpart, are revealed. They probably arise from outflows that are driven by star-forming regions in the Galactic Disk, 3–5 kiloparsecs from the Galactic Centre.

Nature Astronomy is a selective journal whose editors examine submissions for advances in scientific understanding, robustly supported conclusions and broad relevance. Here we expound upon these criteria to help authors maximize their publication chances.