Transient astrophysical phenomena 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.

Large language models can describe and classify changing objects in astronomical images with high accuracy. This enables searches for visual features using text and introduces a new way to interact with sky survey 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.

Observations of SN 2021yfj reveal that its progenitor is a massive star stripped down to its O/Si/S core, which remarkably continued to expel vast quantities of silicon-, sulfur-, and argon-rich material before the explosion, informing us that current theories for how stars evolve are too narrow.

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.

Supernovae were first recognized a hundred years ago, and despite much progress in understanding these catastrophic cosmic explosions, several fundamental properties remain to be determined. A deluge of high-cadence observations from new facilities and the availability of fast computers will accelerate the field into the next century.

A Spring meeting in Pittsburgh focused on fast radio bursts, recapping theoretical, observational and instrumental developments, while looking forward to upcoming advances aimed at learning more about these short radio flashes.

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.

At the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, participants of the rapid response workshop on the gravitational wave background explored discrepancies between experimental results and theoretical models for a background originating from supermassive black hole binary mergers. Underestimated theoretical and/or experimental uncertainties are likely to be the explanation. Another key focus was the wide variety of search methods for supermassive black hole binaries, with the conclusion that the most compelling detections would involve systems exhibiting both electromagnetic and gravitational wave signatures.