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A very uncommon detached binary system with a 20.5-min orbital period has been discovered to harbour a carbon–oxygen white dwarf star and a low-mass subdwarf B star with a seven-Earth radius that traces the theoretical limit of binary evolution predicted 20 years ago.

JWST/NIRSpec observations of Abell2744-QSO1 show a high black-hole-to-host mass ratio in the early Universe, which indicates that we are seeing the black hole in a phase of rapid growth, accreting at 30% of the Eddington limit.

Ying, Paulson and collagues have developed an open-source framework, Biolearn, to harmonize and systematically evaluate 39 aging biomarkers across diverse populations, enabling standardized validation and facilitating development of robust aging biomarkers.

Evidence is found for a distant galaxy growing inside-out within the first 700 million years of the Universe. The galaxy has a dense central core comparable in mass density to local massive ellipticals, and an extended star-forming disc.

Infrared observations of Jupiter obtained in a 40-yr timespan between 1978 and 2019 show long-term variations of Jupiter’s tropospheric temperature with different periodicities, particularly at tropical latitudes, which often bear some connection with stratospheric temperature fluctuations.

Observations of six transiting planets around the bright nearby star HD 110067 show that they follow a chain of resonant orbits, with three of the planets inferring the presence of large hydrogen-dominated atmospheres.

Cash transfers reduced AIDS incidence and mortality among 12.3 million Brazilian women, especially those with overlapping social vulnerabilities, highlighting the role of social protection in addressing health inequalities.

Experiments at the National Ignition Facility show how delocalization of K-shell electrons is driven by extreme pressure and temperature.

Latest big tremor could be linked to major earthquake earlier this month.

The JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey using NIRCam to find the earliest galaxies reveals the size and star formation rates of four extreme redshift (z > 10) galaxies of the distant Universe.

A repeating fast radio burst co-located with a persistent radio source and associated with a dwarf host galaxy of a high star-formation rate has been detected.

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.

Laser frequency combs emit a spectrum of equally spaced peaks that can provide precise frequency references useful for astronomy. Here, the authors demonstrate a frequency comb using electro-optical modulation, which has a line spacing that is resolvable using grating spectrographs unlike the mode-locking approach.

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite data of the massive star HD 192575 reveal pulsation frequencies that allow the inference of its convective core mass and interior rotation profile, thus providing a calibration point for interior chemical and angular momentum transport mechanisms.

This paper presents evidence for dynamical interactions in the very dense regions in the core of galaxies causing two compact objects, such as neutron stars and black holes, to merge, leading to a gamma-ray burst.

Seismicity induced by wastewater injections is widespread in Oklahoma, probably because its basement is susceptible to the reactivation of basement-rooted faults, according to three-dimensional seismic analyses, rock-mechanics experiments and field surveys.

A study reporting optical and near-infrared observations of quasars at redshifts 5.8–6.6 shows that about half have strong winds, up to 17% the speed of light, suppressing black-hole growth.

Multi-decade observations of Jupiter’s stratospheric temperatures show that their quasiperiodic oscillation locked into a new period after a major atmospheric perturbation in 1992, from 5.7 years to 3.9 years. This is different from Earth (and presumably from Saturn), where the period returned to its original value after substantial atmospheric disruptions.

Analysis of a set of 1,863 bursts from the repeating source FRB 20201124A provides evidence of a complicated magnetized site within about an astronomical unit from the source in a barred galaxy.

THE flat rotation curves of spiral galaxies, including our own, indicate that

they are surrounded by unseen haloes of ‘dark matter’^1,2. In

the absence of a massive halo, stars and gas in the outer portions of a galaxy would

orbit the centre more slowly, just as the outer planets in the Solar System circle the

Sun more slowly than the inner ones. So far, however, there has been no direct

observational evidence for the dark matter, or its characteristics.

Paczyński³suggested that dark bodies in the halo of our Galaxy can

be detected when they act as gravitational ‘microlenses’, amplifying the

light from stars in nearby galaxies. The duration of such an event depends on the mass,

distance and velocity of the dark object. We have been monitoring the brightness of three

million stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud for over three years, and here report the

detection of two possible microlensing events. The brightening of the stars was

symmetrical in time, achromatic and not repeated during the monitoring period. The

timescales of the two events are about thirty days and imply that the masses of the

lensing objects lie between a few hundredths and one solar mass. The number of events

observed is consistent with the number expected if the halo is dominated by objects with

masses in this range.

The continental record of the end Permian mass extinction is limited, especially from high paleolatitudes. Here, Fielding et al. report a multi-proxy Permo-Triassic record from Australia, resolving the timing of local terrestrial plant extinction and the relationship with environmental changes.

A combined analysis of datasets across four JWST instrument modes provides a benchmark transmission spectrum for the Saturn-mass WASP-39 b. The broad wavelength range and high resolution constrain orbital and stellar parameters to below 1%.

The identification and characterization of rapid bursts in three accreting white dwarfs have shown that magnetically confined thermonuclear runaways resembling type-I X-ray bursts may occur in the surface layers of white dwarf atmospheres.

Co-existence of several magnetohydrodynamic oscillations modes on the Sun were predicted earlier. Here, the authors show large-scale coherent oscillations in a sunspot, with a spectrum different than solar global acoustic oscillations, incorporating a superposition of many resonant wave modes.

Understanding the progenitors of type Ia supernova is important for their use as cosmological distance probes. Here the authors identify a candidate for a type Ia supernova that is due to explode in 70 million years: a white dwarf in a binary system with a stripped core-helium-burning star.

Low-mass, low-metallicity cool subdwarf stars are rare in the solar neighbourhood, and therefore their properties are not well constrained observationally. Here the authors report both a mass and radius determination of a cool subdwarf in an eclipsing binary system, providing a valuable data point.

J191213.72-441045.1, the second white dwarf pulsar system found, is a binary that comprises a white dwarf in a 4.03 h orbit with an M dwarf. The system exhibits pulsed emission with a period of 5.30 min and was detected at wavelengths from radio to X-rays.

A randomized controlled trial in the third trimester of pregnancy in Malawian women with anemia found a single dose of intravenous ferric carboxymaltose to be more effective than standard of care (that is, twice-daily oral iron) in reducing anemia rates before childbirth.

X-ray detectors based on low-cost organic semiconductors have inherently low detector sensitivity due to poor X-ray to charge conversion and charge collection. Here, the authors demonstrate a flexible, high-sensitivity X-ray detector based on an organic bulk heterojunction-nanoparticle composite.

Spectropolarimetric observations of a solar pore at high temporal and spatial resolution identify the presence of magnetic field torsional oscillations. Simulations suggest that such oscillations are triggered by a photospheric kink mode, which can contribute substantially to upward energy transport within the solar atmosphere.

The redshift of a seemingly mature galaxy cluster has been confirmed spectroscopically to be about 2 and photometry indicates that star formation began in the galaxies of the cluster at a redshift of about 12.

Open standard microscopy is urgently needed to give low-cost solutions to researchers and to overcome the reproducibility crisis in science. Here the authors present a 3D-printed, open-source modular microscopy toolbox UC2 (You. See. Too.) for a few hundred Euros.

Graur et al. present near-infrared light curves of five type Ia supernovae based on Hubble Space Telescope data that show plateaux at late times (>150 days) rather than the expected ‘infrared catastrophe’. The authors suggest that the year-long plateaux are produced by the scattering of ultraviolet photons.

Structured illumination using multifocal patterned illumination via a digital micromirror device integrated into a conventional wide-field microscope, followed by digital processing, allows resolution-doubled three-dimensional imaging of live organisms with two-color capability.

Monkeypox virus genomic data from Nigeria and Cameroon, sampled between 2018 and 2023, indicate that the virus spread through repeated zoonoses in Cameroon, whereas in Nigeria, it spread mainly through human–human transmission, predominantly originating in Rivers State.

A serpentine plume of dust around a Wolf–Rayet binary indicates the presence of an anisotropic colliding-wind system in which one of the components is likely to be rapidly rotating. Spun-up Wolf–Rayet stars are thought to be long gamma-ray burst sources.

Bennu’s surface presents evidence of a variety of particle sizes, from fine regolith to metre-sized boulders. Its moderate thermal inertia suggests that the boulders are very porous or blanketed by thin dust. Bennu’s boulders exhibit high albedo variations, indicating different origins and/or ages.