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Planetesimals inevitably bear the signatures of their natal environment, preserving in their composition a record of the metallicity of their system's original gas and dust, albeit one altered by the formation processes. When planetesimals are dispersed from their system of origin, this record is carried with them. As each star is likely to contribute at least 10¹² interstellar objects (ISOs), the Galaxy's drifting population of ISOs provides an overview of the properties of its stellar population through time. Using the EAGLE cosmological simulations and models of protoplanetary formation, our modeling predicts an ISO population with a bimodal distribution in their water mass fraction: objects formed in low-metallicity, typically older, systems have a higher water fraction than their counterparts formed in high-metallicity protoplanetary disks, and these water-rich objects comprise the majority of the population. Both detected ISOs seem to belong to the lower water fraction population; these results suggest they come from recently formed systems. We show that the population of ISOs in galaxies with different star formation histories will have different proportions of objects with high and low water fractions. This work suggests that it is possible that the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time will detect a large enough population of ISOs to place useful constraints on models of protoplanetary disks, as well as galactic structure and evolution.

We present the result of a detailed analysis of Hubble Space Telescope UV and optical deep images of the massive and young (∼1.5 Gyr) stellar cluster NGC 1783 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This system does not show evidence of multiple populations (MPs) along the red giant branch (RGB) stars. However, we find that the cluster main sequence (MS) shows evidence of a significant broadening (50% larger than what is expected from photometric errors) along with hints of possible bimodality in the MP sensitive (m_F343N − m_F438W, m_F438W) color–magnitude diagram (CMD). Such an effect is observed in all color combinations including the m_F343N filter, while it is not found in the optical CMDs. This observational evidence suggests we might have found light-element chemical abundance variations along the MS of NGC 1783, which represents the first detection of MPs in a system younger than 2 Gyr. A comparison with isochrones including MP-like abundances shows that the observed broadening is compatible with a N abundance enhancement of Δ([N/Fe]) ∼ 0.3. Our analysis also confirms previous results about the lack of MPs along the cluster RGB. However, we find that the apparent disagreement between the results found on the MS and the RGB is compatible with the mixing effects linked to the first dredge up. This study provides new key information about the MP phenomenon and suggests that star clusters form in a similar way at any cosmic age.

We report the first evidence for intrinsic alignment (IA) of red galaxies at z > 1. We measure the gravitational shear-intrinsic ellipticity cross correlation function at z ∼ 1.3 using galaxy positions from the FastSound spectroscopic survey and galaxy shapes from the Canada France Hawaii telescope lensing survey data. Adopting the nonlinear alignment model, we obtain a 2.4σ level detection of the IA amplitude ${A}^{\mathrm{LA}}={27.48}_{-11.54}^{+11.53}$ (and 2.6σ with ${A}^{\mathrm{LA}}={29.43}_{-11.49}^{+11.48}$ when weak lensing contaminations are taken into account), which is larger than the value extrapolated from the constraints obtained at lower redshifts. Our measured IA is translated into a ∼20% contamination of the weak-lensing power spectrum for the red galaxies. This marginal detection of IA for red galaxies at z > 1 motivates the continuing investigation of the nature of IA for weak lensing studies. Furthermore, our result provides the first step to utilize IA measurements in future high-z surveys as a cosmological probe, complementary to galaxy clustering and lensing.

Formed in protoplanetary disks around young stars, giant planets can leave observational features such as spirals and gaps in their natal disks through planet–disk interactions. Although such features can indicate the existence of giant planets, protoplanetary disk signals can overwhelm the innate luminosity of planets. Therefore, in order to image planets that are embedded in disks, it is necessary to remove the contamination from the disks to reveal the planets possibly hiding within their natal environments. We observe and directly model the detected disk in the Keck/NIRC2 vortex coronagraph L'-band observations of the single-armed protoplanetary disk around HD 34282. Despite a nondetection of companions for HD 34282, this direct disk modeling improves planet detection sensitivity by up to a factor of 2 in flux ratio and ∼10 M_Jupiter in mass. This suggests that performing disk modeling can improve directly imaged planet detection limits in systems with visible scattered light disks, and can help to better constrain the occurrence rates of self-luminous planets in these systems.

Solar wind turbulence is anisotropic with respect to the mean magnetic field. Anisotropy leads to ambiguity when interpreting in situ turbulence observations in the solar wind because an apparent change in the measurements could be due to either the change of intrinsic turbulence properties or to a simple change of the spacecraft sampling direction. We demonstrate the ambiguity using the spectral index and magnetic compressibility in the inertial range observed by the Parker Solar Probe during its first seven orbits ranging from 0.1 to 0.6 au. To unravel the effects of the sampling direction, we assess whether the wave-vector anisotropy is consistent with a two-dimensional (2D) plus slab turbulence transport model and determine the fraction of power in the 2D versus slab component. Our results confirm that the 2D plus slab model is consistent with the data and the power ratio between 2D and slab components depends on radial distance, with the relative power in 2D fluctuations becoming smaller closer to the Sun.

We report the result of the first search for multipoint in situ and imaging observations of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) starting with the first Solar Orbiter (SolO) data in 2020 April–2021 April. A data exploration analysis is performed including visualizations of the magnetic-field and plasma observations made by the five spacecraft SolO, BepiColombo, Parker Solar Probe (PSP), Wind, and STEREO-A, in connection with coronagraph and heliospheric imaging observations from STEREO-A/SECCHI and SOHO/LASCO. We identify ICME events that could be unambiguously followed with the STEREO-A heliospheric imagers during their interplanetary propagation to their impact at the aforementioned spacecraft and look for events where the same ICME is seen in situ by widely separated spacecraft. We highlight two events: (1) a small streamer blowout CME on 2020 June 23 observed with a triple lineup by PSP, BepiColombo and Wind, guided by imaging with STEREO-A, and (2) the first fast CME of solar cycle 25 (≈1600 km s⁻¹) on 2020 November 29 observed in situ by PSP and STEREO-A. These results are useful for modeling the magnetic structure of ICMEs and the interplanetary evolution and global shape of their flux ropes and shocks, and for studying the propagation of solar energetic particles. The combined data from these missions are already turning out to be a treasure trove for space-weather research and are expected to become even more valuable with an increasing number of ICME events expected during the rise and maximum of solar cycle 25.

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental physical process converting magnetic energy into not only plasma energy but also particle energy in various astrophysical phenomena. In this Letter, we show a unique data set of a solar flare where various plasmoids were formed by a continually stretched current sheet. Extreme ultraviolet images captured reconnection inflows, outflows, and particularly the recurring plasma blobs (plasmoids). X-ray images reveal nonthermal emission sources at the lower end of the current sheet, presumably as large plasmoids with a sufficiently amount of energetic electrons trapped in them. In the radio domain, an upward, slowly drifting pulsation structure, followed by a rare pair of oppositely drifting structures, was observed. These structures are supposed to map the evolution of the primary and the secondary plasmoids formed in the current sheet. Our results on plasmoids at different locations and scales shed important light on the dynamics, plasma heating, particle acceleration, and transport processes in the turbulent current sheet and provide observational evidence for the cascading magnetic reconnection process.

Magnetically gated accretion has emerged as a proposed mechanism for producing extremely short, repetitive bursts of accretion onto magnetized white dwarfs in intermediate polars (IPs), but this phenomenon has not been detected previously in a confirmed IP. We report the 27 day TESS light curve of V1025 Cen, an IP that shows a remarkable series of 12 bursts of accretion, each lasting for less than 6 hours. The extreme brevity of the bursts and their short recurrence times (∼1–3 days) are incompatible with the dwarf-nova instability, but they are natural consequences of the magnetic gating mechanism developed by Spruit and Taam to explain the Type II bursts of the accreting neutron star known as the Rapid Burster. In this model, the accretion flow piles up at the magnetospheric boundary and presses inward until it couples with the star's magnetic field, producing an abrupt burst of accretion. After each burst, the reservoir of matter at the edge of the magnetosphere is replenished, leading to cyclical bursts of accretion. A pair of recent studies applied this instability to the suspected IPs MV Lyr and TW Pic, but the magnetic nature of these two systems has not been independently confirmed. In contrast, previous studies have unambiguously established the white dwarf in V1025 Cen to be significantly magnetized. The detection of magnetically gated bursts in a confirmed IP therefore validates the extension of the Spruit and Taam instability to magnetized white dwarfs.

Dust emission was detected on main-belt asteroid 596 Scheila in 2010 December and was attributed to the collision of a few-tens-of-meters projectile on the surface of the asteroid. In such an impact, the ejected material from the collided body is expected to mainly come from its fresh, unweathered subsurface. Therefore, it is expected that the surface of 596 was partially or entirely refreshed during the 2010 impact. By combining spectra of 596 from the literature and our own observations, we show that the 2010 impact event resulted in a significant slope change in the near-infrared (0.8–2.5 μm) spectrum of the asteroid, from moderately red (T type) before the impact to red (D type) after the impact. This provides evidence that red carbonaceous asteroids become less red with time due to space weathering, in agreement with predictions derived from laboratory experiments on the primitive Tagish Lake meteorite, which is spectrally similar to 596. This discovery provides the very first telescopic confirmation of the expected weathering trend of asteroids spectrally analog to Tagish Lake and/or anhydrous chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles. Our results also suggest that the population of implanted objects from the outer solar system is much larger than previously estimated in the main belt, but many of these objects are hidden below their space-weathered surfaces.

We report the detection and characterization of a new magnetospheric star, HD 135348, based on photometric and spectropolarimetric observations. The TESS light curve of this star exhibited variations consistent with stars known to possess rigidly rotating magnetospheres (RRMs), so we obtained spectropolarimetric observations using the Robert Stobie Spectrograph (RSS) on the South African Large Telescope (SALT) at four different rotational phases. From these observations, we calculated the longitudinal magnetic field of the star 〈B_z〉, as well as the Alfvén and Kepler radii, and deduced that this star contains a centrifugal magnetosphere. However, an archival spectrum does not exhibit the characteristic "double-horned" emission profile for Hα and the Brackett series that has been observed in many other RRM stars. This could be due to the insufficient rotational phase coverage of the available set of observations, as the spectra of these stars significantly vary with the star's rotation. Our analysis underscores the use of TESS in photometrically identifying magnetic star candidates for spectropolarimetric follow-up using ground-based instruments. We are evaluating the implementation of a machine-learning classifier to search for more examples of RRM stars in TESS data.

Increasing main-sequence stellar luminosity with stellar mass leads to the eventual dominance of radiation pressure in stellar-envelope hydrostatic balance. As the luminosity approaches the Eddington limit, additional instabilities (beyond conventional convection) can occur. These instabilities readily manifest in the outer envelopes of OB stars, where the opacity increase associated with iron yields density and gas-pressure inversions in 1D models. Additionally, recent photometric surveys (e.g., TESS) have detected excess broadband low-frequency variability in power spectra of OB star lightcurves, called stochastic low-frequency variability (SLFV). This motivates our novel 3D Athena++ radiation hydrodynamical (RHD) simulations of two 35 M_⊙ star envelopes (the outer ≈15% of the stellar radial extent), one on the zero-age main sequence and the other in the middle of the main sequence. Both models exhibit turbulent motion far above and below the conventional iron-opacity peak convection zone (FeCZ), obliterating any "quiet" part of the near-surface region and leading to velocities at the photosphere of 10–100 km s⁻¹, directly agreeing with spectroscopic data. Surface turbulence also produces SLFV in model lightcurves with amplitudes and power-law slopes that are strikingly similar to those of observed stars. The characteristic frequencies associated with SLFV in our models are comparable to the thermal time in the FeCZ (≈3–7 day⁻¹). These ab initio simulations are directly validated by observations and, though more models are needed, we remain optimistic that 3D RHD models of main-sequence O-star envelopes exhibit SLFV originating from the FeCZ.

Plasma streaming instabilities play an important role in magnetic field amplification and particle acceleration in relativistic shocks and their environments. However, in the far shock precursor region where accelerated particles constitute a highly relativistic and dilute beam, streaming instabilities typically become inefficient and operate at very small scales when compared to the gyroradii of the beam particles. We report on a plasma cavitation instability that is driven by dilute relativistic beams and can increase both the magnetic field strength and coherence scale by orders of magnitude to reach near-equipartition values with the beam energy density. This instability grows after the development of the Weibel instability and is associated with the asymmetric response of background leptons and ions to the beam current. The resulting net inductive electric field drives a strong energy asymmetry between positively and negatively charged beam species. Large-scale particle-in-cell simulations are used to verify analytical predictions for the growth and saturation level of the instability and indicate that it is robust over a wide range of conditions, including those associated with pair-loaded plasmas. These results can have important implications for the magnetization and structure of shocks in gamma-ray bursts, and more generally for magnetic field amplification and asymmetric scattering of relativistic charged particles in plasma astrophysical environments.

We report the detection of X-ray polarization in the neutron-star low-mass X-ray binary Scorpius (Sco) X-1 with PolarLight. The result is energy-dependent, with a nondetection in 3–4 keV but a 4σ detection in 4–8 keV; it is also flux-dependent in the 4–8 keV band, with a nondetection when the source displays low fluxes but a 5σ detection during high fluxes, in which case we obtain a polarization fraction of 0.043 ± 0.008 and a polarization angle of 526 ± 54. This confirms a previous marginal detection with OSO-8 in the 1970s and marks Sco X-1 as the second astrophysical source with a significant polarization measurement in the keV band. The measured polarization angle is in line with the jet orientation of the source on the sky plane (54°), which is supposedly the symmetry axis of the system. Combining previous spectral analysis, our measurements suggest that an optically thin corona is located in the transition layer under the highest accretion rates, and disfavor the extended accretion disk corona model.

The redshift distribution of fast radio bursts (FRBs) is not well constrained. The association of the Galactic FRB 200428 with the young magnetar SGR 1935+2154 raises the working hypothesis that FRB sources track the star formation history of the universe. The discovery of FRB 20200120E in association with a globular cluster in the nearby galaxy M81, however, casts doubts on such an assumption. We apply the Monte Carlo method developed in a previous work to test different FRB redshift distribution models against the recently released first CHIME FRB catalog in terms of their distributions in specific fluence, external dispersion measure (DM_E), and inferred isotropic energy. Our results clearly rule out the hypothesis that all FRBs track the star formation history of the universe. The hypothesis that all FRBs track the accumulated stars throughout history describes the data better but still cannot meet both the DM_E and the energy criteria. The data seem to be better modeled with either a redshift distribution model invoking a significant delay with respect to star formation or a hybrid model invoking both a dominant delayed population and a subdominant star formation population. We discuss the implications of this finding for FRB source models.

I report on the three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamic evolution of a rapidly rotating 16 M_⊙ star to iron core collapse. For the first time, I follow the 3D evolution of the angular momentum (AM) distribution in the iron core and convective shell burning regions for the final 10 minutes up to and including gravitational instability and core collapse. In 3D, convective regions show efficient AM transport that leads to an AM profile that differs in shape and magnitude from MESA within a few shell convective turnover timescales. For different progenitor models, such as those with tightly coupled Si/O convective shells, efficient AM transport in 3D simulations could lead to a significantly different AM distribution in the stellar interior affecting estimates of the natal neutron star or black hole spin. The results suggest that 3D AM transport in convective and rotating shell burning regions are critical components in models of massive stars and could qualitatively alter the explosion outcome and inferred compact remnant properties.

C-complex asteroids, rich in carbonaceous materials, are potential sources of Earth's volatile inventories. They are spectrally dark resembling primitive carbonaceous meteorites, and thus, C-complex asteroids are thought to be potential parent bodies of carbonaceous meteorites. However, the substantial number of C-complex asteroids exhibits surface spectra with weaker hydroxyl absorption than water-rich carbonaceous meteorites. Rather, they best correspond to meteorites showing evidence for dehydration, commonly attributed to impact heating. Here, we report an old radiometric age of 4564.7 million years ago for Ca carbonates from the Jbilet Winselwan meteorite analogous to dehydrated C-complex asteroids. The carbonates are enclosed by a high-temperature polymorph of Ca sulfates, suggesting thermal metamorphism at >300°C subsequently after aqueous alteration. This old age indicates the early onset of aqueous alteration and subsequent thermal metamorphism driven by the decay of short-lived radionuclides rather than impact heating. The breakup of original asteroids internally heated by radioactivity should result in asteroid families predominantly consisting of thermally metamorphosed materials. This explains the common occurrence of dehydrated C-complex asteroids.

I report here a new result extracted from the Fermi Large Area Telescope observation of the classical nova ASASSN-16ma that exhibits coherent γ-ray pulsations at 544.84(7) s during its outburst in 2016. Considering the number of independent trials, the significance of the evidence is 4.0σ, equivalent to a false-alarm probability of 5.9 × 10⁻⁵. The periodicity was steady during the 4 days of its appearance, indicating its origin as the spinning signal of the white dwarf. Given that the optical and γ-ray light curves of some shock-powered γ-ray novae have been recently shown to be closely correlated to each other, the γ-ray pulsation phenomenon likely implies an existence of associated optical pulsations, which would provide detailed ephemerides for these extreme white dwarf binaries for further investigations in the near future.

This study presents a C3.0 flare observed by the Big Bear Solar Observatory/Goode Solar Telescope (GST) and Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) on 2018 May 28 around 17:10 UT. The Near-Infrared Imaging Spectropolarimeter of GST was set to spectral imaging mode to scan five spectral positions at ±0.8, ±0.4 Å and line center of He i 10830 Å. At the flare ribbon's leading edge, the line is observed to undergo enhanced absorption, while the rest of the ribbon is observed to be in emission. When in emission, the contrast compared to the preflare ranges from about 30% to nearly 100% at different spectral positions. Two types of spectra, "convex" shape with higher intensity at line core and "concave" shape with higher emission in the line wings, are found at the trailing and peak flaring areas, respectively. On the ribbon front, negative contrasts, or enhanced absorption, of about ∼10%–20% appear in all five wavelengths. This observation strongly suggests that the negative flares observed in He i 10830 Å with mono-filtergram previously were not caused by pure Doppler shifts of this spectral line. Instead, the enhanced absorption appears to be a consequence of flare-energy injection, namely nonthermal collisional ionization of helium caused by the precipitation of high-energy electrons, as found in our recent numerical modeling results. In addition, though not strictly simultaneous, observations of Mg ii from the IRIS spacecraft, show an obvious central reversal pattern at the locations where enhanced absorption of He i 10830 Å is seen, which is consistent with previous observations.

In a collisionless plasma, the energy distribution function of plasma particles can be strongly affected by turbulence. In particular, it can develop a nonthermal power-law tail at high energies. We argue that turbulence with initially relativistically strong magnetic perturbations (magnetization parameter σ ≫ 1) quickly evolves into a state with ultrarelativistic plasma temperature but mildly relativistic turbulent fluctuations. We present a phenomenological and numerical study suggesting that in this case, the exponent α in the power-law particle-energy distribution function, f(γ)dγ ∝ γ^−αdγ, depends on magnetic compressibility of turbulence. Our analytic prediction for the scaling exponent α is in good agreement with the numerical results.

The Sun's magnetic field varies on multiple timescales. Observations show that the minimum between cycles 24 and 25 was the second consecutive minimum that was deeper and wider than several earlier minima. Since the active regions observed at the Sun's surface are manifestations of the magnetic field generated in the interior, it is crucial to investigate/understand the dynamics below the surface. In this context, we report by probing the solar interior with helioseismic techniques applied to long-term oscillations data from the Global Oscillation Network Group, that the seismic minima in deeper layers have been occurring about a year earlier than that at the surface for the last two consecutive solar cycles. Our findings also demonstrate a decrease in strong magnetic fields at the base of the convection zone, the primary driver of the surface magnetic activity. We conclude that the magnetic fields located in the core and near-surface shear layers, in addition to the tachocline fields, play an important role in modifying the oscillation frequencies. This further strengthens the existence of a relic magnetic field in the Sun's core.