Nature Astronomy最新文献

Reply to: Evidence for phenylium reactivity under interstellar-relevant conditions 回复：星际相关条件下苯反应性的证据

IF 14.1 1区物理与天体物理

Nature Astronomy Pub Date : 2026-09-07 DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02972-w

G. S. Kocheril, C. Zagorec-Marks, H. J. Lewandowski

引用次数: 0

Evidence for phenylium reactivity under interstellar-relevant conditions 星际相关条件下苯反应性的证据

IF 14.1 1区物理与天体物理

Nature Astronomy Pub Date : 2026-09-07 DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02973-9

Jean-Christophe Loison, Corentin Rossi, Nicolas Solem, Roland Thissen, Claire Romanzin, Christian Alcaraz, Ugo Jacovella

引用次数: 0

An eccentric massive protobinary assembled via a core-merger parabolic encounter 一个偏心的大质量原双星通过核心合并抛物线相遇而组装

IF 14.1 1区物理与天体物理

Nature Astronomy Pub Date : 2026-09-07 DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02953-z

Yao Wang, Yichen Zhang, Rubén Fedriani, Kei E. I. Tanaka, Viviana Rosero, Kai Yang, Morten Andersen, Maria T. Beltrán, Mélisse Bonfand, Yu Cheng, James M. De Buizer, Yihuan Di, Guido Garay, Prasanta Gorai, Zhi-Yun Li, Yao-Lun Yang, Jonathan C. Tan

{"title":"An eccentric massive protobinary assembled via a core-merger parabolic encounter","authors":"Yao Wang, Yichen Zhang, Rubén Fedriani, Kei E. I. Tanaka, Viviana Rosero, Kai Yang, Morten Andersen, Maria T. Beltrán, Mélisse Bonfand, Yu Cheng, James M. De Buizer, Yihuan Di, Guido Garay, Prasanta Gorai, Zhi-Yun Li, Yao-Lun Yang, Jonathan C. Tan","doi":"10.1038/s41550-026-02953-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02953-z","url":null,"abstract":"Most massive stars form in binary systems, which profoundly influence their subsequent evolution. However, how such systems form remains poorly understood, with several competing scenarios proposed, including disk fragmentation, core fragmentation and capture. Determining the orbital architectures of massive binaries, particularly during their earliest embedded phases, is, therefore, crucial for distinguishing among these formation pathways, but direct measurements of their three-dimensional motions have remained exceptionally challenging. Here we present high-resolution, multi-epoch submillimetre-to-centimetre ALMA and JVLA observations of the massive protobinary IRAS 07299−1651, complemented by JWST and VLT infrared imaging. We detect the orbital proper motion of the binary components, enabling a full three-dimensional orbital reconstruction. Combining orbital fitting, multi-wavelength continuum modelling, hydrogen recombination line kinematics and jet observations, we find that the preferred orbital solutions are highly eccentric and close to parabolic, and both circumstellar disks are strongly misaligned with the orbital plane. These properties are naturally explained by a ‘core-merger’ scenario in which the two protostars originated independently from initially unbound cores that recently underwent a near-parabolic encounter, producing an eccentric binary with a current separation of about 200 au. These findings suggest that the core-merger process may represent an important pathway for forming eccentric massive binaries.","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":14.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148899551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

A critical evaluation of the physical nature of the little red dots 对小红点物理性质的批判性评价

IF 14.1 1区物理与天体物理

Nature Astronomy Pub Date : 2026-09-04 DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02934-2

Kohei Inayoshi,Luis C. Ho

引用次数: 0

Publisher Correction: Extended components of little red dots in the rest-frame optical 发布者更正：延长组件的小红点在休息框架光学

IF 14.1 1区物理与天体物理

Nature Astronomy Pub Date : 2026-09-02 DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02985-5

Yiyang Zhang,Xuheng Ding,Lilan Yang,Erini Lambrides,Hollis Akins,Andrew J. Battisti,Caitlin M. Casey,Chang-hao Chen,Isa Cox,Andreas Faisst,Maximilien Franco,Aryana Haghjoo,Luis C. Ho,Kohei Inayoshi,Shuowen Jin,Mitchell Karmen,Anton M. Koekemoer,Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe,Kai Liao,Ghassem Gozaliasl,Masafusa Onoue,Vasily Kokorev,Namrata Roy,R. Michael Rich,John D. Silverman,Takumi S. Tanaka,Bei You,Hassen M. Yesuf,Jorge A. Zavala

引用次数: 0

Weak evolution of cosmic atomic hydrogen over the past 4.5 billion years 宇宙氢原子在过去45亿年里的微弱演化

IF 14.1 1区物理与天体物理

Nature Astronomy Pub Date : 2026-09-01 DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02965-9

Chuan-Peng Zhang, Hong Guo, Yizhou Gu, Amélie Saintonge, Xiaohu Yang, Dirk Scholte, Ming Zhu, Peng Jiang, Hu Zou, Manasvee Saraf, Wenlin Ma, Yirong Wang, Y. P. Jing, Zheng Zheng, Zhejie Ding, J. Aguilar, S. Ahlen, D. Bianchi, D. Brooks, T. Claybaugh, A. de la Macorra, P. Doel, E. Gaztañaga, G. Gutierrez, M. Ishak, R. Joyce, S. Juneau, R. Kehoe, D. Kirkby, A. Kremin, O. Lahav, C. Lamman, M. Landriau, L. Le Guillou, M. Manera, A. Meisner, R. Miquel, J. Moustakas, S. Nadathur, W. J. Percival, F. Prada, I. Pérez-Ràfols, G. Rossi, E. Sanchez, D. Schlegel, M. Schubnell, H. Seo, J. Silber, D. Sprayberry, G. Tarlé

{"title":"Weak evolution of cosmic atomic hydrogen over the past 4.5 billion years","authors":"Chuan-Peng Zhang, Hong Guo, Yizhou Gu, Amélie Saintonge, Xiaohu Yang, Dirk Scholte, Ming Zhu, Peng Jiang, Hu Zou, Manasvee Saraf, Wenlin Ma, Yirong Wang, Y. P. Jing, Zheng Zheng, Zhejie Ding, J. Aguilar, S. Ahlen, D. Bianchi, D. Brooks, T. Claybaugh, A. de la Macorra, P. Doel, E. Gaztañaga, G. Gutierrez, M. Ishak, R. Joyce, S. Juneau, R. Kehoe, D. Kirkby, A. Kremin, O. Lahav, C. Lamman, M. Landriau, L. Le Guillou, M. Manera, A. Meisner, R. Miquel, J. Moustakas, S. Nadathur, W. J. Percival, F. Prada, I. Pérez-Ràfols, G. Rossi, E. Sanchez, D. Schlegel, M. Schubnell, H. Seo, J. Silber, D. Sprayberry, G. Tarlé","doi":"10.1038/s41550-026-02965-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02965-9","url":null,"abstract":"The cosmic star formation rate density (CSFRD) has declined sharply towards the present day, but the roles of the atomic and molecular gas reservoirs remain uncertain. Here we measure the cosmic H I density, ΩHI, over 0 < z < 0.41 by combining H I spectra from the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope with optical spectroscopy from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument for ~2.5 million galaxies across ~12,000 deg2. We measure a raw decrease in ΩHI by a factor of 1.35 ± 0.10 over the past 4.5 Gyr. Even after applying the conservative systematic corrections from our forward model, the inferred decline is only 1.12 ± 0.10—still far weaker than the CSFRD decline (a factor of 2.46). The molecular gas density, by contrast, is known to evolve more closely with star formation. At fixed stellar mass, the average H I gas fraction evolves by less than 0.2 dex, showing that the weak evolution is present across the galaxy population. These quantitative differences rule out rapid depletion of galaxy H I as the primary driver of the late-time CSFRD decline, and provide a stringent benchmark for models of gas accretion, phase conversion and star-formation regulation.","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":14.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148899583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Ammonium-bearing clays and multiple nitrogen species linked to the late-stage brines of Ryugu’s parent body 含氨粘土和多种含氮物种与琉球母体的晚期盐水有关

IF 14.1 1区物理与天体物理

Nature Astronomy Pub Date : 2026-08-27 DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02962-y

Toru Matsumoto, Hayato Yuzawa, Mizuho Koike, Yoko Kebukawa, Takaaki Noguchi, Toru Yada, Hiroki Suga, Toshiaki Ina, Hiroshi Sakuma, Yohei Shirose, Yuki Kitamura, Yohei Igami, Akira Miyake

{"title":"Ammonium-bearing clays and multiple nitrogen species linked to the late-stage brines of Ryugu’s parent body","authors":"Toru Matsumoto, Hayato Yuzawa, Mizuho Koike, Yoko Kebukawa, Takaaki Noguchi, Toru Yada, Hiroki Suga, Toshiaki Ina, Hiroshi Sakuma, Yohei Shirose, Yuki Kitamura, Yohei Igami, Akira Miyake","doi":"10.1038/s41550-026-02962-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02962-y","url":null,"abstract":"Nitrogen-bearing compounds are key precursors for prebiotic organic synthesis in the early Solar System. Spectroscopic detections of ammoniated salts and clays on the dwarf planet Ceres and several carbonaceous asteroids suggest a widespread distribution of ammonia reservoirs across the Solar System and their association with water activity. However, its storage in meteorites remains poorly constrained. Regolith samples recovered from asteroid Ryugu preserve evidence of past water–rock interactions in its carbonaceous parent body. Here, using infrared spectroscopy, X-ray spectroscopy and electron microscopy, we study Ryugu samples and report the presence of ammonium-bearing phyllosilicates, C≡N-bearing species and sodium nitrate, all spatially associated with sodium carbonate. The concentration of nitrogen species and the incorporation of ammonium into phyllosilicates probably occurred during the disappearance of the late-stage brines, when sodium carbonate precipitated. We suggest that reactive ammonia and C≡N-bearing species were accreted during parent-body formation and persisted until aqueous activity ceased, serving as sustained nitrogen sources for prebiotic organic synthesis. The nitrogen enrichment in the residual brines could have enhanced intermolecular organic reactions and possibly promoted dehydration-driven polymerization. By analogy with Ryugu, subsurface brines concentrated during cryovolcanic activity on ammonium- and salt-rich icy bodies such as Ceres may have provided favourable environments for nitrogen-related organic reactions.","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":14.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148853673","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Extended components of little red dots in the rest-frame optical 延长元件的小红点在休息框架光学

IF 14.1 1区物理与天体物理

Nature Astronomy Pub Date : 2026-08-24 DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02945-z

Yiyang Zhang, Xuheng Ding, Lilan Yang, Erini Lambrides, Hollis Akins, Andrew J. Battisti, Caitlin M. Casey, Chang-hao Chen, Isa Cox, Andreas Faisst, Maximilien Franco, Aryana Haghjoo, Luis C. Ho, Kohei Inayoshi, Shuowen Jin, Mitchell Karmen, Anton M. Koekemoer, Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe, Kai Liao, Ghassem Gozaliasl, Masafusa Onoue, Vasily Kokorev, Namrata Roy, R. Michael Rich, John D. Silverman, Takumi S. Tanaka, Bei You, Hassen M. Yesuf, Jorge A. Zavala

{"title":"Extended components of little red dots in the rest-frame optical","authors":"Yiyang Zhang, Xuheng Ding, Lilan Yang, Erini Lambrides, Hollis Akins, Andrew J. Battisti, Caitlin M. Casey, Chang-hao Chen, Isa Cox, Andreas Faisst, Maximilien Franco, Aryana Haghjoo, Luis C. Ho, Kohei Inayoshi, Shuowen Jin, Mitchell Karmen, Anton M. Koekemoer, Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe, Kai Liao, Ghassem Gozaliasl, Masafusa Onoue, Vasily Kokorev, Namrata Roy, R. Michael Rich, John D. Silverman, Takumi S. Tanaka, Bei You, Hassen M. Yesuf, Jorge A. Zavala","doi":"10.1038/s41550-026-02945-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02945-z","url":null,"abstract":"Recent JWST observations have revealed a population of red, compact, high-redshift objects called ‘little red dots’ (LRDs), whose host components have remained largely unconstrained, possibly due to their extreme compactness. Current morphological studies suggest the presence of extended emission in LRDs at rest-frame ultraviolet wavelengths. However, in the rest-frame optical regime, investigations have been limited by small sample sizes and insufficient imaging depth, hindering reliable separation between point-like and potential extended components. Here we perform the image stacking analysis of 217 LRDs in four NIRCam bands, a large and homogeneous sample observed with the COSMOS-Web survey. Our results reveal the detection of faint extended emission in the F444W band, with a typical size of ~200 parsecs and magnitude of ~27.7 AB at z ≈ 6.5. We perform four-band photometric spectral energy distribution fitting based on galaxy templates and derive an average stellar mass of (1{0}^{9.0{2}_{-0.18}^{+0.20}},{M}_{odot }). Given this stellar mass, the host galaxy is compact, that is, ~2.5× smaller than star-forming galaxies of similar mass at comparable redshifts. This work provides direct observational evidence for the existence of LRD host galaxies at rest-frame optical wavelengths and offers new insights into the stellar buildup of these systems within the first billion years after the Big Bang.","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":14.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148853674","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The role of disruptive impacts on ocean generation and longevity in icy moons 破坏性影响对冰冻卫星上海洋产生和寿命的作用

IF 14.1 1区物理与天体物理

Nature Astronomy Pub Date : 2026-08-20 DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02955-x

Marc Neveu, Raluca Rufu, Alyssa Rhoden, Kevin J. Walsh, Yuval Steinberg

{"title":"The role of disruptive impacts on ocean generation and longevity in icy moons","authors":"Marc Neveu, Raluca Rufu, Alyssa Rhoden, Kevin J. Walsh, Yuval Steinberg","doi":"10.1038/s41550-026-02955-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02955-x","url":null,"abstract":"Among icy moons of the outer Solar System, subsurface water oceans and large collisions both seem to be common, but the impact of the latter on the presence and persistence of the former is unclear and has rarely been investigated. Here we interface a smoothed-particle hydrodynamics model to simulate collisions with a thermal-structural evolution model to simulate the evolution of moons pre-collision, post-collision and without a collision. Overall, even such large-scale collisions affect only the ocean thickness or longevity, and the presence or absence of an ocean is affected for only a part of a moon’s history. In reaccreted moons, the ocean survives the impact and becomes much thicker inside larger moons with radius near 1,000 km, whereas an ocean that would otherwise arise inside moons with radius near 500 km is absent because the collision promotes ice–rock differentiation. Our simulations have not yielded an ocean developed post-impact—whether directly via collisional or reaccretional heating or indirectly through tidal heating due to collision-induced orbital changes—in a moon that would otherwise have remained frozen. The ocean-enhancing effect is pronounced only for late disruptive impacts onto large, 1,000-km-class targets, which are unlikely in recent Solar System history.","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":14.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148769286","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Gold-medal performance by LLMs at the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics 法学硕士在国际天文学和天体物理学奥林匹克竞赛中的金牌表现

IF 14.1 1区物理与天体物理

Nature Astronomy Pub Date : 2026-08-19 DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02964-w

Lucas Carrit Delgado Pinheiro, Ziru Chen, Bruno Caixeta Piazza, Ness Shroff, Yingbin Liang, Yuan-Sen Ting, Huan Sun

{"title":"Gold-medal performance by LLMs at the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics","authors":"Lucas Carrit Delgado Pinheiro, Ziru Chen, Bruno Caixeta Piazza, Ness Shroff, Yingbin Liang, Yuan-Sen Ting, Huan Sun","doi":"10.1038/s41550-026-02964-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02964-w","url":null,"abstract":"While task-specific demonstrations show early success in using large language models (LLMs) to automate astronomical research tasks, they offer only partial views of the capabilities needed to solve astronomy problems, calling for a more thorough understanding of LLMs’ strengths and limitations. Existing benchmarks largely focus on simple question-answering, testing astronomical knowledge rather than the complex reasoning required in real research. Here we address this gap by systematically benchmarking five state-of-the-art LLMs on the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics exams, which test deep conceptual understanding, multistep derivations and multimodal analysis. Gemini 2.5 Pro and GPT-5, the two highest-scoring models, achieve average scores of 85.6% and 84.2% on four International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics theory exams from 2022 to 2025, performing comparably to or above top students among ~200–300 participants and reaching the gold-medal range. On data analysis exams, performance diverges: GPT-5 averages 88.5%, comparable to top-10 participants, while other models drop to 48–76%. Furthermore, our in-depth error analysis underscores conceptual reasoning, geometric reasoning and spatial visualization (52–79% accuracy) as consistent weaknesses among all LLMs. Hence, although LLMs approach peak human performance in theory exams, critical gaps must be addressed before they can serve as autonomous research agents in astronomy.","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":14.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148769287","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0