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A nine-year transit-timing campaign has measured the extremely low masses and densities of four large planets orbiting the young star V1298 Tau, which are now predicted to contract and form a typical compact super-Earth and sub-Neptune system.

Spitzer revealed the properties of luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies, the role of starbursts and actively accreting supermassive black holes in powering these sources and found evidence for energetic feedback on their interstellar gas and dust.

A comprehensive study of the Kepler-138 system reveals the twin nature of Kepler-138 c and d and the presence of a fourth planet. Remarkably, the warm-temperate planet Kepler-138 d is probably composed of 50% volatiles by volume, indicative of a water world, rather than a rocky world, despite its small ~1.5 R_⊕ size.

A giant planet candidate roughly the size of Jupiter but more than 14 times as massive is observed by TESS and other instruments to be transiting the white dwarf star WD 1856+534.

The authors report on a temperate Earth-sized planet orbiting the cool M6 dwarf LP 791-18 with a radius of 1.03 ± 0.04 R_⊕ and an equilibrium temperature of 300–400 K, with the permanent night side plausibly allowing for water condensation.

Brown dwarfs are small stars that are believed to be made of a warm dense plasma that cannot support hydrogen fusion as larger stars do. Here, the authors present a method for studying the properties, such as resistivity, of warm dense plasmas in the laboratory.

We report on JWST images of a temperate super-Jupiter in the system Epsilon Ind A—a K5V star at a distance of just 3.6 pc—in the mid-infrared.

Space telescope observations of the transmission spectrum of the extrasolar planet HAT-P-11b, which is about the same size as Neptune, reveal water vapour absorption at a wavelength of 1.4 micrometres and indicate that the planetary atmosphere is predominantly clear down to an altitude corresponding to about 1 millibar.

A transiting planet with a period of about 8.5 days and a radius 0.4 times that of Jupiter is reported within the debris disk around the star AU Microscopii.

Kinematic measurements of the Perseus galaxy cluster reveal two drivers of gas motions: a small-scale driver in the inner core associated with black-hole feedback and a large-scale driver in the outer core powered by mergers.

The authors find that a nearby planetary system has two terrestrial planets that transit in front of their star (from our perspective). Transiting terrestrial planets are sought after, as they can be characterized in detail, including their atmospheres. Having two in the same system is very rare.

By day 1,041 after explosion, SN Ia-CSM 2018evt had produced an estimated 0.01 solar masses of dust in the cold, dense shell behind the supernova ejecta–circumstellar medium interaction, ranking it as one of the most prolific dust-producing supernovae ever recorded.

A comprehensive set of Hubble and Spitzer observations reveal a hydrogen-rich, low-metallicity atmosphere on the sub-Neptune exoplanet GJ 3470 b. Water vapour is detected, but the planet is surprisingly depleted in methane, possibly because of photochemical or thermal processes. Sub-millimetre-sized Mie-scattering cloud particles partially attenuate the molecular signatures at short wavelength, but are largely transparent beyond 3 µm.

The luminosity of ultraviolet light emitted by the first galaxies in the universe traces the formation and evolution of stars and galaxies which led to the epoch of reionization. Here the authors use data from the Hubble Space Telescope and through a model provide a bound for the total luminosity.

 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.

Transmission spectroscopy observations from the James Webb Space Telescope show the detection of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the gas giant exoplanet WASP-39b.

Through next-generation spectral analysis, scientists have uncovered an evolutionary path for Wolf–Rayet stars in metal-poor environments. Characterized by hard ionizing radiation, these stars challenge current assumptions about massive star evolution.

An unusual ultraviolet compact object associated with a dusty starburst has been observed at a redshift of about 7.2, with a luminosity that falls between that of quasars and galaxies, possibly in transition between the two. 

Extremely metal-poor galaxies in the local universe are the best analogues to investigating the interstellar medium at a quasi-primitive environment in the early universe. Here, the authors detect CO emission in a galaxy at 7% solar metallicity, offering direct evidence for the presence of molecular gas.

Methane emission from a very cool brown dwarf, perhaps arising from an aurora, has been detected in James Webb Space Telescope observations.

Silane, which is a precursor to the sandy surfaces of rocky planets and dusty clouds on gas giants, is seen directly in another world—a low-metallicity brown dwarf in which oxidation is slow and gas mixing is fast.

cellSTAAR advances noncoding rare variant association analysis by integrating single-cell genomics data.

Near-infrared imagery and spectroscopy from JWST of the Herbig-Haro 211 system, an analogue of the young Sun, reveals  supersonic jets of hot molecules that can explain the origin of the ‘green fuzzies’ phenomenon.

The dayside thermal emission spectrum and brightness temperature map of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-18b obtained from the NIRISS instrument on the JWST showed water emission features, an atmosphere consistent with solar metallicity, as well as a steep and symmetrical decrease in temperature towards the nightside.

A rapidly growing black hole in a very active phase has been observed with JWST ~1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. Bright in X-rays, it is accreting at a rate 4,000% in excess of the Eddington limit, offering insights into early black hole growth.

Edge localised modes (ELMs) in highly confined plasmas are notoriously difficult to regulate. Here, the authors analyse multiscale modes and interactions by combining experimental measurements from DIII-D and modeling, showing promising results in ELM control.

Saturn-mass exoplanet HD 149026b has an atmospheric metallicity 59–276 times solar, which is greater than Saturn’s atmospheric metallicity of roughly 7.5 times solar and more correlated with bulk metallicity than planet mass.

Integrated single-cell transcriptomic and genetic characterization of 121 adult glioblastomas identifies heterogeneity at cell type, cell state and baseline expression program levels associated with specific mutations that form three stereotypical ecosystems.

The most distant quasars known, at redshifts z ≈ 6, generally have the same properties as lower-redshift quasars, implying that although the Universe was young at z ≈ 6, such quasars are still evolved objects. One z ≈ 6 quasar was shown to have no detectable emission from hot dust, but it was not clear whether it was an outlier. Now, a second quasar without hot-dust emission has been discovered in a sample of 21 z ≈ 6 quasars. Moreover, hot-dust abundance in these quasars builds up as the central black hole grows.

The MIRI spectrometer onboard JWST measured Pluto and Charon’s infrared emissions separately, uncovering surface properties and revealing that Pluto’s haze plays a key role in controlling the atmospheric temperature.

Highly abundant hydrocarbons in a very low-mass star’s disk are detected using the JWST. This unique chemical composition is probably due to the destruction of carbon grains, and the resulting high gaseous C/O ratio may have a profound impact on the composition of growing exoplanets.

Our Solar System originated in a cloud of interstellar gas and amorphous dust, but cometary dust is mainly crystalline—and it is not clear how this crystallization occurred. The outburst spectrum of the young solar-like star EX Lupi shows mid-infrared features, attributed to crystalline forsterite, that were not present in quiescence, suggesting that crystals were produced via thermal annealing by heat from the outburst. This represents a new mechanism of crystal formation in protoplanetary disks.

Using JWST, the molecules seen in planetary atmospheres can be traced back to their cold origins in ices formed in dense interstellar clouds, before the onset of star formation, revealing that chemical diversity and complexity is achieved early.

Phase-resolved mid-infrared observations from JWST of the hot gas giant WASP-43b detect a day–night difference of 659 ± 19 K. Comparison with climate models shows that the observations are compatible with cloudy skies, at least on the nightside, and the lack of methane detection suggests the presence of disequilibrium chemistry.

Evidence of a large temperature difference between dawn and dusk has been observed on the exoplanet WASP-107 b. This planet is so cool that it was not expected to exhibit this phenomenon, implying a need to further explore the exoplanet population.

Here, the atmosphere of the extrasolar planet GJ 436b is studied during its 'secondary eclipse'. The findings reveal the presence of some H₂O and traces of CO₂. The best-fit compositional models contain a high CO abundance and a substantial methane deficiency relative to thermochemical equilibrium models for the predicted hydrogen-dominated atmosphere. Disequilibrium processes such as vertical mixing and polymerization of methane may be required to explain this small methane-to-CO ratio.

Laser plasma instabilities are the main factors contributing to degradation of hohlraum performance in inertial confinement fusion experiments. Here, the authors show asymmetric backscattering within the same laser cone at the SG-100kJ laser facility, unveiling the role of crossed-beam energy transfer and laser polarization.

Using spatial transcriptomics, this study profiled the expression of hundreds of matrisome genes at single-cell resolution in human brain tumors, revealing targetable adhesion and signalling components in glioblastoma and lower-grade gliomas.

A faint galaxy has been detected in the very early Universe thanks to deep observations and a massive cluster gravitationally magnifying its emission. One out of only five such galaxies known, this detection constrains how the Universe was reionized.

A spectroscopic comparison of ten hot-Jupiter exoplanets reveals that the difference between the planetary radius measured at optical and infrared wavelengths allows atmosphere types ranging from clear to cloudy to be distinguished; the difference in radius at a given wavelength correlates with the spectral strength of water at that wavelength, suggesting that haze obscures the signal from water.

A primordial carbon-to-oxygen ratio (C/O) greater than 0.8 in an exoplanet causes a carbide-dominated interior, as opposed to the silicate-dominated composition found on Earth; the atmospheres also can differ from those in the Solar System. The solar C/O is 0.54. This study reports an analysis of spectra from the transiting hot Jupiter WASP-12b that reveals that C/O>1 in its atmosphere, based upon the observed concentrations of the prominent molecules CO, CH₄ and H₂O.

JWST observations suggest that both pebbles and planetesimals played an important role in forming the giant exoplanet WASP-121 b beyond the H₂O ice line. They also indicate that strong vertical mixing likely drives the nightside atmospheric chemistry.