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Important differences exist between women and men in clinical presentation, recognition of symptoms, response to treatment, and outcomes in ischaemic heart disease (IHD). In this Review, Vaccarino et al. discuss the current evidence for sex-related differences in the manifestation of IHD, diagnostic strategy, and approaches to treatment, and identify gaps in the literature that need to be addressed in future research.

Very early observations of a type Ia supernova—from within one hour of explosion—show a red colour that develops and rapidly disappears. These data provide information on the initial explosion mechanism: surface nuclear burning on the white dwarf or extreme mixing of the nuclear burning process.

Observations of optical flares from AT2022tsd (the ‘Tasmanian Devil’) show that they have durations on the timescale of minutes, occur over a period of months, are highly energetic, are probably nonthermal and have supernova luminosities.

A millihertz frequency X-ray quasi-periodic oscillation has been observed near the innermost orbit of an actively accreting supermassive black hole and its frequency has evolved significantly over 2 years, a phenomenon that is difficult to explain with existing models.

A series of early-time, multiwavelength observations of an optical transient, AT2022cmc, indicate that it is a relativistic jet from a tidal disruption event originating from a supermassive black hole.

Archival images of the progenitor system of supernova SN 2011fe are so sensitive that the presence of luminous red giants or most helium stars is directly ruled out.

Optical observations of γ-ray burst (GRB) 060614 (duration ∼100s) rule out the presence of an associated supernova. This would seem to require a new explosive process: either a massive 'collapsar' that powers a GRB without any associated supernova, or a new type of engine, as long-lived as the collapsar but without a massive star.

S. R. Kulkarni and colleagues report the discovery of a mysterious optical transient called M85 OT2006-1 in the outskirts of the lenticular galaxy Messier 85 in the Virgo Cluster. Brighter than novae and fainter than supernovae, it is unlikely to be a giant eruption from a luminous blue variable star because no such star is known to be there, but a possible origin is a stellar merger.

Radio and X-ray observations of X-ray flash XRF 060218, which is associated with supernova SN 2006aj, show that this event is 100 times less energetic but ten times more common than cosmological gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The production of relativistic ejecta seems to be the key physical distinction between GRBs/XRFs and ordinary supernovae.

Long-duration γ-ray bursts (GRBs), thought to result from the explosions of certain massive stars, are bright enough that some of them should be observable out to redshifts of z > 20. So far, the highest redshift measured for any object has been z = 6.96, for a Lyman-α emitting galaxy. Here, and in an accompanying paper, GRB 090423 is reported to lie at a redshift of z ≈ 8.2, implying that massive stars were being produced and dying as GRBs approximately 620 million years after the Big Bang.

Multi-instrument detection of a nearby type 1a supernova shows that the exploding star was probably a carbon–oxygen white dwarf star in a binary system with a main-sequence companion.

A multi-frequency observing campaign of the γ-ray burst GRB 190114C reveals a broadband double-peaked spectral energy distribution, and the teraelectronvolt emission could be attributed to inverse Compton scattering.

The tidal disruption event AT2019dsg is probably associated with a high-energy neutrino, suggesting that such events can contribute to the cosmic neutrino flux. The electromagnetic emission is explained in terms of a central engine, a photosphere and an extended synchrotron-emitting outflow.

Supernovae are thought to arise through one of two processes. Type Ib/c and type II supernovae are produced when the cores of massive, short-lived stars undergo gravitational core collapse and eject a few solar masses. Type Ia supernovae are thought to form by the thermonuclear detonation of a carbon-oxygen white dwarf. Here a faint type Ib supernova, SN 2005E, is reported that seems not to have had a core-collapse origin, but perhaps arose from a low-mass, old progenitor, probably a helium-accreting white dwarf in a binary.

An individual star at z = 1.49 is gravitationally lensed and highly magnified by a foreground galaxy cluster. Fluctuations in the star’s emission provide insight on the mass function of intracluster stars, compact objects and the presence of dark-matter subhaloes.

A mass-loss event 40 days before the explosion of the type IIn supernova SN 2010mc has been detected; the outburst indicates that there is a causal relation between explosive mass-loss events seen in some massive stars before their explosion and the onset of the supernova explosion.

Extremely massive stars with initial masses of more than 140 solar masses end their lives when pressure-supporting photons turn into electron–positron pairs, leading to a violent contraction that triggers a nuclear explosion, unbinding the star in a pair-instability supernova. Here, the mass of the exploding core of supernova SN 2007bi is estimated at around 100 solar masses, in which case theory unambiguously predicts a pair-instability supernova. Further observations are well fitted by models of pair-instability supernovae.

A delayed radio flare six months after an optically discovered tidal disruption event, followed by a second and brighter flare, years later, may potentially be due to the delayed ejection of an outflow following a transition in accretion states.

Supernovae are usually discovered through their 'delayed' light, which becomes visible some hours after the actual event. Now Soderberg et al. report the discovery of a supernova at the time of the explosion, marked by an extremely luminous X-ray outburst.

A faint gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) has been recently detected in coincidence with the gravitational wave (GW) event GW 170817. Here, the authors report that another faint short GRB at a cosmological distance (GRB150101B) and its late time emission are analogous to the neutron star merger event GRB 170817A.

Type II supernova explosions are common, but our understanding of such events is not complete. Such an event was observed just three hours after the explosion started, providing important information about the early stages.

A stripped-envelope supernova, SN 2022jli, shows 12.4-day periodic undulations during the declining light curve, and narrow Hα emission is detected in late-time spectra with concordant periodic velocity shifts.

The spectral properties of a short gamma-ray burst indicate that, contrary to expectations, it arose from the collapse of a massive star rather than from a compact binary merger. This discovery also confirms that most collapsars do not produce ultra-relativistic jets.

The optical follow-up and analysis of two neutron star–black hole merger candidates with the Zwicky Transient Facility did not yield viable counterparts. However, state-of-the-art kilonova models constrain the ejecta properties of these mergers.

The discovery of a newly born type IIb supernova reveals a rapid brightening at optical wavelengths that corresponds to the shock-breakout phase of the explosion.

High-resolution X-ray spectra reveal highly ionized X-ray gas flows in a nearby tidal disruption event, ASASSN-14li, near to the black hole of the galaxy PGC 043234.

Observations of declining ultraviolet emission from a type Ia supernova within four days of the explosion are as expected if material ejected by the supernova collided with a companion star, supporting the single degenerate channel model of supernova progenitors.

The prompt optical flash produced by the γ-ray burst GRB 160625B is highly linearly polarized, suggesting that it is produced by fast-cooling synchrotron radiation in a large-scale magnetic field.

Detection of X-ray emission at a location coincident with the kilonova transient of the gravitational-wave event GW170817 provides the missing observational link between short gamma-ray bursts and gravitational waves from neutron-star mergers.

Observations of an event (several energetic eruptions leading to a terminal explosion that is surprisingly hydrogen-rich) with the spectrum of a supernova do not match with other observations of supernovae.

Increased UV–optical nuclear emission in a nearby galaxy together with a spectrum showing emission lines typical of unobscured AGNs and Bowen fluorescence features suggests a longer-term event of intensified accretion onto the central supermassive black hole.

The detection of strong emission lines in an early-time spectrum of type IIb supernova SN 2013cu reveals Wolf–Rayet-like wind signatures, suggesting that the supernova’s progenitor may have been a Wolf–Rayet star with a wind dominated by helium and nitrogen, with traces of hydrogen.

Probing the pre-explosion environments of hydrogen-poor superluminous supernovae is important for understanding how they exploded. Here, Lunnan et al. infer the presence of a fast-moving circumstellar shell around iPTF16eh through the detection of a resonance-line light echo, which indicates the massive progenitor experienced pulsational pair instability shell ejections.

The field of gamma-ray burst astronomy arguably went through three decades of growing pains before reaching maturity. What development lessons can be learned for the adolescent field of fast radio burst astronomy?