Astrophysical disks articles from across Nature Portfolio

The Fermi-LAT Collaboration reports a significant γ-ray detection (5.2σ) from the coronae of radio-quiet active galactic nuclei, revealing compact (~10 gravitational radii) and extended (~2.7 × 10⁶ gravitational radii) corona regions, challenging existing models.

Quasi-periodic oscillations from black holes (BHs) in flux have been reported in radio, optical, X-ray and gamma-ray bands, but there hasn’t been any report of quasi-periodic variations in polarization yet. Here, the authors show detection of GHz-band radio polarization oscillations from fast-rotating BH X-ray binary GRS 1915+105

Constraints from satellite dynamics coupled with spin angular momentum show that young Jupiter had a radius twice its current value and a ~21 mT magnetic field, and was accreting material at a rate of one Jupiter mass per million years.

The James Webb Space Telescope has detected water ice in the cold debris disk (analogous to the Kuiper belt) around the star HD 181327.

An alternative model challenges the conventional view of isolated protoplanetary disks. Providing insights into angular momentum in supersonic turbulence, it shows that disk sizes are determined by mass captured from the environment.

Observations of polarized thermal emission from dust grains in the protoplanetary disk around the HD 142527 protostar suggest that in part of the disk the polarization is caused by the magnetic field. The strength and structure of this magnetic field are deduced from these observations using a modelling approach.