Nature Astronomy, Published online: 09 January 2024; doi:10.1038/s41550-023-02172-w Fe/Ni and Fe/Co ratios in iron meteorites indicate that the earliest inner Solar System planetesimals were oxidized and water-bearing, having formed beyond the point at which water condensed in the solar protoplanetary

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 09 January 2024; doi:10.1038/s41550-023-02155-x Cold ice-covered dust grains grow during their journey from the interstellar medium to protoplanetary disks. JWST observations show that this growth begins before the protostellar phase and provide quantitative insights into the

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 09 January 2024; doi:10.1038/s41550-023-02168-6 High-energy radiation originating in the wind termination shock of young star clusters has been observed, without contamination from other sources such as supernovae. This adds the winds of star clusters to the

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 08 January 2024; doi:10.1038/s41550-023-02147-x Experiments using high-intensity X-ray pulses incident on high-pressure hydrocarbons suggest that diamond formation can occur at shallower depths in icy planets and may play a role in the internal convection that generates

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 08 January 2024; doi:10.1038/s41550-023-02171-x Chemical abundances derived from infrared nebular lines reveal strongly depressed metallicities in interacting galaxies, suggesting that in luminous infrared galaxies chemical enrichment and stellar-mass growth take place through mergers, which drive these

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 05 January 2024; doi:10.1038/s41550-023-02161-z Nuclear experiments become the latest ‘messenger’ to help with unravelling the mysteries of neutron stars. Combining information from astronomical observations and laboratory experiments reveals how nucleons interact in both nuclei and stars.