On 17 August 2017, the Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors observed the gravitational-wave event GW170817—a strong signal from the merger of a binary neutron-star...

Giant exoplanets orbiting close to their host stars are unlikely to have formed in their present configurations 1. These `hot Jupiter' planets are instead...

Type Ia supernovae arise from the thermonuclear explosion of white-dwarf stars that have cores of carbon and oxygen. The uniformity of their light curves makes...

Most ultraluminous X-ray sources have a typical set of properties not seen in Galactic stellar-mass black holes. They have luminosities of more than 3 × 1039...

The majority of massive disk galaxies in the local Universe show a stellar barred structure in their central regions, including our Milky Way 1,2. Bars are...

All disc-accreting astrophysical objects produce powerful disc winds. In compact binaries containing neutron stars or black holes, accretion often takes place...

AU Microscopii (AU Mic) is the second closest pre-main-sequence star, at a distance of 9.79 parsecs and with an age of 22 million years 1. AU Mic possesses a...

The dwarf planet Eris is a trans-Neptunian object with an orbital eccentricity of 0.44, an inclination of 44 degrees and a surface composition very similar to...

IN the standard model for type Ia supernovae1, a massive white dwarf in a binary system accretes matter from the companion star until it reaches the...