Spinning Up the Galaxy: How the Milky Way’s Bar Transfers Motion to Its Bulge and Halo
Using Gaia data and simulations, Zhuohan Li et al. identified a rotating group of stars in the Milky Way's bulge and halo. Their findings show that the central bar, slowing down over time, transfers angular momentum to these stars through resonance trapping. This process explains the unexpected rotation in regions once thought to be mostly static.
Tides and the Hidden Boundaries of Hycean Habitability
This paper explores how tidal heating affects the habitability of hycean planets—water-rich worlds with hydrogen atmospheres. While these planets were thought to have wide habitable zones, the authors show that tidal forces, especially in systems with companion planets, can raise surface temperatures and shrink the inner edge of the habitable zone, potentially making some planets less suitable for life.
Transient Treasures: Discovering Explosive Events in JWST’s Infrared Dark Field
Using JWST’s NIRCam, researchers found 21 transient events—brief cosmic explosions—in a dark, low-background sky region. Some matched known supernova types, while others were fainter “gap” events that could represent rare or unknown phenomena. Future frequent monitoring and spectroscopy may help uncover their true nature.
Tracing the Twists and Turns of a Galaxy Like Ours: What Simulations Reveal About the Milky Way's Dynamic Heart
This study uses a detailed simulation to explore the Milky Way’s structure, showing that spiral arms are dynamic, short-lived features shaped by gas flows rather than fixed patterns. The inner bar drives much of this motion, influencing where arms form and dissolve. These findings explain why the Galaxy’s spiral structure is difficult to pin down and suggest a more chaotic process behind star formation.
What Titan Teaches Us About Alien Atmospheres: The Detection-vs-Retrieval Challenge
This study uses Titan’s atmosphere as a test case to highlight challenges in analyzing exoplanet atmospheres. The authors show that pre-selecting molecules for retrieval can bias results, even for major gases like methane. They propose an iterative method using scale height to better identify dominant atmospheric components, offering a more reliable approach for future exoplanet studies.
A Cold Clue in the Sky: Using Infrared Light to Hunt for Planet Nine
Chen et al. searched AKARI infrared data for Planet Nine by looking for heat rather than sunlight. After filtering millions of sources for movement and known objects, they identified two promising candidates. These objects matched expected brightness and motion patterns, but further observations are needed to confirm if either one is truly Planet Nine.
Mining for the Ancient: A New Catalog of Metal-Poor Stars from LAMOST DR10
This study presents a catalog of 8,440 very metal-poor stars identified using red spectra from LAMOST DR10. By measuring calcium triplet lines with two methods, the authors accurately estimated metallicities down to [Fe/H] = −4.0. The catalog offers high-quality targets for studying the early Milky Way and validates its results against multiple major surveys.
Stellar Archaeology Disrupted: How the Milky Way’s Bar Smears Out Substructure
This study shows that the Milky Way’s rotating bar disrupts the orbits of stars, dispersing ancient substructures like globular clusters and stellar streams in integral of motion space. Traditional search methods may miss these smeared-out features. Instead, the authors suggest using the Jacobi integral and chemical properties, which better preserve the signatures of disrupted structures.
Born to Be Starless: Why Many Mini-Galaxies Never Shine
Jeon et al. use high-resolution simulations to show that many dark matter subhalos never form stars because they are born in low-density regions and can't resist early-universe UV heating during reionization. Common explanations like supernova feedback or environmental effects don’t apply. These subhalos aren’t failed galaxies—they were "born to be starless."
Tracing Stellar Origins with Alpha Elements: What Globular Clusters and Dwarf Galaxies Tell Us About Star Formation
This study uses APOGEE data to compare α-element abundances in stars from globular clusters, halo substructures, and satellite galaxies. The authors focus on the “hex ratio” to trace massive star contributions. They find that Milky Way clusters and halo stars have higher hex ratios than satellite galaxies, suggesting different star formation histories and initial mass functions.
Decoding the Milky Way: How Galactic Discs and Chemical Fingerprints Form in the Cosmos
This study uses simulations of Milky Way-like galaxies to explore the origins of chemical patterns in stars. It finds that variations in star formation rate, not just major mergers like the Gaia-Sausage Enceladus, are key to forming distinct α-sequences. Long-term gas accretion and internal processes also play major roles in shaping galactic chemical structure.
Tracing the Galactic Skeleton: A New Map of the Milky Way’s Outer Gas Disk
This study introduces a new “pattern matching” method to map the Milky Way’s gas disk using young stars with known distances. It avoids the errors of traditional kinematic mapping and provides a more accurate view of the Galaxy’s structure. The resulting map better matches known spiral arms and reveals insights into disk thickness and gas distribution.
Unveiling the Heart of the Milky Way: Mapping Mass and Motion in the Galactic Centre
Feldmeier-Krause et al. used stellar velocities and metallicities to map mass and motion in the Milky Way’s centre. They found that most stars likely formed locally and rotate quickly, while a smaller, metal-poor group may have external origins. Their models confirmed the black hole’s mass and showed minimal dark matter influence in the inner ~30 parsecs.
A New Map of Our Galactic Neighborhood: The DECam Field of Streams
Ferguson and Shipp present a new map of the Milky Way’s stellar halo using DECam data, revealing numerous stellar streams and substructures. By selecting old, metal-poor stars at various distances, they highlight how our galaxy was built from smaller systems. Their work sets the stage for even deeper surveys with the upcoming LSST.
Spinning Stars and Galactic Clues: How Stellar Motions Reveal the History of Our Galaxy's Bulge
This study explores how stars move in the Milky Way’s bulge using simulations and observations. It finds that younger, metal-rich stars show strong movement patterns shaped by the galaxy’s central bar, while older, metal-poor stars do not. The results support the idea that the bulge formed mainly through internal processes, not galaxy mergers.
A Deep Dive into the Solar System’s Outer Frontier: Pan-STARRS Hunts for Distant Worlds
Holman et al. used Pan-STARRS1 data to search for distant solar system objects, identifying 692 candidates, including 109 new ones. They developed a novel detection method using synthetic populations and machine learning. Although Planet Nine was not found, the study narrowed its possible location to the galactic plane and demonstrated a powerful framework for future surveys.
Unpacking the Chemical History of a Galaxy in Ruins: A Close Look at the Sagittarius Dwarf
This study analyzes 37 stars in the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy to trace its chemical evolution. It finds that Sagittarius experienced slower star formation than the Milky Way, with fewer massive stars and more contributions from certain types of supernovae and neutron-capture events. These findings suggest the galaxy once had a complex and rich history before being disrupted by the Milky Way.
A Breath of CO₂: Searching for Life-Friendly Planets through Atmospheric Clues
This study explores how future space missions like LIFE could detect trends in atmospheric CO₂ across many exoplanets to identify signs of habitability or life. Using simulations and statistical modeling, the authors show that CO₂ patterns influenced by geology—and potentially biology—can be detected in planet populations, though observational biases must be addressed for reliable results.
Haskap Pie: A Fresh Slice of Dark Matter Detection
Haskap Pie is a new halo-finding algorithm that combines several techniques to more accurately detect and track dark matter halos in simulations. It outperforms existing methods by better identifying subhalos, using efficient particle sampling, and tracking halos over time. This makes it a powerful tool for studying galaxy formation and cosmic structure.
Fireballs in the Perseus Cluster: Euclid Spots Star Formation in Stripped Galaxy Tails
Astronomers used Euclid data to study two galaxies in the Perseus Cluster undergoing ram-pressure stripping, where hot cluster gas removes galaxy gas. Surprisingly, new stars form in the stripped tails, confirmed by UV, optical, and radio data. The study shows how galaxies evolve in extreme environments and highlights Euclid’s ability to detect faint, small-scale star formation beyond galaxy discs.