Transient astrophysical phenomena articles within Nature

Featured

  • Article |

    We report observations of GRB 231115A, positionally coincident with the starburst galaxy M82, that unambiguously qualify this burst as a giant flare from a magnetar, which is a rare explosive event releasing gamma rays.

    • Sandro Mereghetti
    • , Michela Rigoselli
    •  & Pietro Ubertini

  • Article |

    Analysis of the energy budget of a sample of 54 well-observed stripped-envelope supernovae of all sub-types shows statistically significant, largely model-independent, observational evidence for a non-radioactive power source in most of them.

    • Ósmar Rodríguez
    • , Ehud Nakar
    •  & Dan Maoz

  • Article |

    Using ultraviolet data as well as a comprehensive set of further multiwavelength observations of the supernova 2023ixf, a reliable bolometric light curve is derived that indicates the heating nature of the early emission.

    • E. A. Zimmerman
    • , I. Irani
    •  & K. Zhang

  • Article |

    Relativistic jets observed from transient neutron stars throughout the Universe produce bright flares for minutes after each X-ray burst, helping to determine the role individual system properties have on the speed and revealing the dominant launching mechanism.

    • Thomas D. Russell
    • , Nathalie Degenaar
    •  & Melania Del Santo

  • Article |

    X-ray observations of two large glitches bracketing a fast radio burst in the active Galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154 reveal a connection between rapid spin change and radiative behaviours of the magnetar.

    • Chin-Ping Hu
    • , Takuto Narita
    •  & Keith C. Gendreau

  • Article |

    A three-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic simulation of a tidal disruption event (TDE) flare from disruption to peak emission shows how deterministic predictions of TDE light curves and spectra can be calculated using moving-mesh hydrodynamics algorithms.

    • Elad Steinberg
    •  & Nicholas C. Stone

  • Article |

    A stripped-envelope supernova, SN 2022jli, shows 12.4-day periodic undulations during the declining light curve, and narrow Hα emission is detected in late-time spectra with concordant periodic velocity shifts.

    • Ping Chen
    • , Avishay Gal-Yam
    •  & Lin Yan

  • Article |

    Observations of optical flares from AT2022tsd (the ‘Tasmanian Devil’) show that they have durations on the timescale of minutes, occur over a period of months, are highly energetic, are probably nonthermal and have supernova luminosities.

    • Anna Y. Q. Ho
    • , Daniel A. Perley
    •  & WeiKang Zheng

  • Article |

    Two instances of approximately 5-Hz transient periodic oscillation features from the source detected in the 1.05- to 1.45-GHz radio band that occurred in January 2021 and June 2022 are reported.

    • Pengfu Tian
    • , Ping Zhang
    •  & Na Sai

  • Article |

    The discovery of a long-period radio transient, GPM J1839–10, prompted a search of radio archives, thereby finding that this source has been repeating since at least 1988.

    • N. Hurley-Walker
    • , N. Rea
    •  & A. Williams

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A type Ia supernova shows the presence of helium-rich circumstellar material, as demonstrated by its spectral features, infrared emission and a radio counterpart, that probably originates from a single-degenerate system in which a white dwarf accretes material from a helium donor star.

    • Erik C. Kool
    • , Joel Johansson
    •  & Daniel Stern

  • Article |

    The observation of pulsar emission at various orbital phases of a companion star probes the diverse magnetic structure in a binary system, and exhibits varying polarization behavior, akin to that observed in certain fast radio bursts.

    • Dongzi Li
    • , Anna Bilous
    •  & Yuan-Pei Yang

  • Article |

    Observations of ZTF SLRN-2020, a short-lived optical outburst in the Galactic disk accompanied by bright, long-lived infrared emission, show that the resulting light curve and spectra are consistent with the signatures of a planet being engulfed by its host star.

    • Kishalay De
    • , Morgan MacLeod
    •  & Andrew Vanderburg

  • Article |

    Observations from a multiwavelength campaign of a low-mass X-ray binary, Swift J1858.6–0814, shows that accreting neutron stars have the same kind of pulsing behaviour as accreting black holes.

    • F. M. Vincentelli
    • , J. Neilsen
    •  & T. Russell

  • Article |

    Spectra taken after the kilonova associated with GW170817 show a high degree of spherical symmetry and a line shape is found that is consistent with a completely spherical expansion to within a few per cent.

    • Albert Sneppen
    • , Darach Watson
    •  & Stuart Sim

  • Article |

    Two signals identified in short gamma-ray bursts from archival Burst and Transient Source Experiment data show kilohertz quasiperiodic oscillations, implying the ringing of a hypermassive neutron star before collapsing to a black hole.

    • Cecilia Chirenti
    • , Simone Dichiara
    •  & Robert Preece

  • Article |

    The observation of transient-like gigaelectronvolt emission in the high-energy gamma-rays of GRB 211211A, from the merger of two compact binary objects, is reported.

    • Alessio Mei
    • , Biswajit Banerjee
    •  & Pawan Tiwari

  • Article |

    A possible kilonova associated with a nearby, long-duration gamma-ray burst suggests that gamma-ray bursts with long and complex light curves can be spawned from the merger of two compact objects, contrary to the established gamma-ray burst paradigm.

    • Jillian C. Rastinejad
    • , Benjamin P. Gompertz
    •  & Christina C. Thöne

  • Article |

    Analysis of the pulse profile of a fast radio burst showed sub-second periodicity, providing evidence for a neutron-star origin of the event and favouring emission arising from the magnetosphere.

    • Bridget C. Andersen
    • , Kevin Bandura
    •  & Andrew Zwaniga

  • Article |

    Novae are caused by runaway thermonuclear burning in the hydrogen-rich envelopes of accreting white dwarfs, which leads to a rapid expansion of the envelope and the ejection of most of its mass1,2. Theory has predicted the existence of a ‘fireball’ phase following directly on from the runaway fusion, which should be observable as a short, bright and soft X-ray flash before the nova becomes visible in the optical3–5. Here we report observations of a bright and soft X-ray flash associated with the classical Galactic nova YZ Reticuli 11 h before its 9 mag optical brightening. No X-ray source was detected 4 h before and after the event, constraining the duration of the flash to shorter than 8 h. In agreement with theoretical predictions4,6–8, the source’s spectral shape is consistent with a black-body of 3.27+0.11−0.33 × 105 K (28.2+0.9−2.8 eV), or a white dwarf atmosphere, radiating at the Eddington luminosity, with a photosphere that is only slightly larger than a typical white dwarf.

    • Ole König
    • , Jörn Wilms
    •  & Klaus Werner

  • Article |

    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.

    • S. Scaringi
    • , P. J. Groot
    •  & F. X. Timmes

  • Article |

    The fast radio burst FRB 20200120E is shown to originate from a globular cluster in the galaxy M81, and may be a collapsed white dwarf or a merged compact binary star system.

    • F. Kirsten
    • , B. Marcote
    •  & W. Vlemmings

  • Article |

    Analysis of archival low-frequency radio data from the Murchison Widefield Array reveals a periodic transient with an unusual periodicity of 18.18 min, the source of which is localized to our Galaxy and could be an ultra-long-period magnetar.

    • N. Hurley-Walker
    • , X. Zhang
    •  & T. J. Galvin

  • Article |

    Two very-high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (at 2,132 Hz and 4,250 Hz) are detected within the initial hard spike of a magnetar giant flare originating from the galaxy NGC 253, and detailed temporal and spectral analyses are performed.

    • A. J. Castro-Tirado
    • , N. Østgaard
    •  & S. Yang

  • Article |

    The southern hemisphere of Betelgeuse during its Great Dimming was an order of magnitude darker than usual, owing to a cool patch on the photosphere and associated dust formation.

    • M. Montargès
    • , E. Cannon
    •  & W. Danchi

  • Review Article |

    The mechanisms and origins of fast radio bursts are reviewed in connection with data and insights from the neighbouring fields of gamma-ray bursts and radio pulsars.

    • Bing Zhang

  • Article |

    Observations of the fast radio burst FRB 200428 coinciding with X-rays from the Galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154 indicate that active magnetars can produce fast radio bursts at extragalactic distances.

    • C. D. Bochenek
    • , V. Ravi
    •  & D. L. McKenna

  • Article |

    A periodicity of roughly 16 days is detected for the fast radio burst 180916.J0158+65, suggesting that the burst arises from a periodically modulated mechanism instead of a cataclysmic or sporadic process.

    • M. Amiri
    • , B. C. Andersen
    •  & A. V. Zwaniga

  • Article |

    Observations of teraelectronvolt-energy γ-rays starting about one minute after the γ-ray burst GRB 190114C reveal a distinct component of the afterglow emission with power comparable to the synchrotron emission.

    • V. A. Acciari
    • , S. Ansoldi
    •  & L. Nava

  • Article |

    A multi-frequency observing campaign of the γ-ray burst GRB 190114C reveals a broadband double-peaked spectral energy distribution, and the teraelectronvolt emission could be attributed to inverse Compton scattering.

    • V. A. Acciari
    • , S. Ansoldi
    •  & D. R. Young

  • Article |

    Reanalysis of the spectra associated with the merger of two neutron stars identifies strontium, spectroscopically establishing the origin of the heavy elements created by rapid neutron capture and proving that neutron stars comprise neutron-rich matter.

    • Darach Watson
    • , Camilla J. Hansen
    •  & Elena Pian

  • Letter |

    Use of a specially built radio interferometer shows that a non-repeating fast radio burst is localized to a few-arcsecond region containing a single massive galaxy, and is perhaps derived from an old stellar population.

    • V. Ravi
    • , M. Catha
    •  & D. P. Woody

Browse broader subjects

Browse Transient astrophysical phenomena across other nature.com journals