Pub Date : 2026-01-27DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02770-w
Ewoud Wempe, Simon D. M. White, Amina Helmi, Guilhem Lavaux, Jens Jasche
Our Galaxy, Andromeda and their companion dwarf galaxies form the Local Group. Most of the mass in and around it is believed to be dark matter rather than gas or stars, so its distribution must be inferred from the effect of gravity on the motion of visible objects. Modelling efforts have long struggled to reproduce the quiet Hubble flow around the Local Group, as they require unrealistically little mass beyond the haloes of the two main galaxies. Here we revisit this using ΛCDM simulations of Local Group analogues with initial conditions constrained to match the observed dynamics of the two main haloes and the surrounding flow. The observations are reconcilable within ΛCDM, but only if mass is strongly concentrated in a plane out to 10 Mpc, with the surface density rising away from the Local Group and with deep voids above and below. This configuration, dynamically inferred, mirrors known structures in the nearby galaxy distribution. The resulting Hubble flow is quiet yet strongly anisotropic, a fact obscured by the paucity of tracers at high supergalactic latitude. This flattened geometry reconciles the dynamical mass estimates of the Local Group with the surrounding velocity field, thus demonstrating full consistency within the standard cosmological model.
{"title":"The mass distribution in and around the Local Group","authors":"Ewoud Wempe, Simon D. M. White, Amina Helmi, Guilhem Lavaux, Jens Jasche","doi":"10.1038/s41550-025-02770-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02770-w","url":null,"abstract":"Our Galaxy, Andromeda and their companion dwarf galaxies form the Local Group. Most of the mass in and around it is believed to be dark matter rather than gas or stars, so its distribution must be inferred from the effect of gravity on the motion of visible objects. Modelling efforts have long struggled to reproduce the quiet Hubble flow around the Local Group, as they require unrealistically little mass beyond the haloes of the two main galaxies. Here we revisit this using ΛCDM simulations of Local Group analogues with initial conditions constrained to match the observed dynamics of the two main haloes and the surrounding flow. The observations are reconcilable within ΛCDM, but only if mass is strongly concentrated in a plane out to 10 Mpc, with the surface density rising away from the Local Group and with deep voids above and below. This configuration, dynamically inferred, mirrors known structures in the nearby galaxy distribution. The resulting Hubble flow is quiet yet strongly anisotropic, a fact obscured by the paucity of tracers at high supergalactic latitude. This flattened geometry reconciles the dynamical mass estimates of the Local Group with the surrounding velocity field, thus demonstrating full consistency within the standard cosmological model.","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"73 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":14.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146057201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-26DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02763-9
Diana Scognamiglio, Gavin Leroy, David Harvey, Richard Massey, Jason Rhodes, Hollis B. Akins, Malte Brinch, Edward Berman, Caitlin M. Casey, Nicole E. Drakos, Andreas L. Faisst, Maximilien Franco, Leo W. H. Fung, Ghassem Gozaliasl, Qiuhan He, Hossein Hatamnia, Eric Huff, Natalie B. Hogg, Olivier Ilbert, Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe, Anton M. Koekemoer, Shouwen Jin, Erini Lambrides, Alexie Leauthaud, Zane D. Lentz, Daizhong Liu, Guillaume Mahler, Claudia Maraston, Crystal L. Martin, Jacqueline McCleary, James Nightingale, Bahram Mobasher, Louise Paquereau, Sandrine Pires, Brant E. Robertson, David B. Sanders, Claudia Scarlata, Marko Shuntov, Greta Toni, Maximilian von Wietersheim-Kramsta, John R. Weaver
{"title":"An ultra-high-resolution map of (dark) matter","authors":"Diana Scognamiglio, Gavin Leroy, David Harvey, Richard Massey, Jason Rhodes, Hollis B. Akins, Malte Brinch, Edward Berman, Caitlin M. Casey, Nicole E. Drakos, Andreas L. Faisst, Maximilien Franco, Leo W. H. Fung, Ghassem Gozaliasl, Qiuhan He, Hossein Hatamnia, Eric Huff, Natalie B. Hogg, Olivier Ilbert, Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe, Anton M. Koekemoer, Shouwen Jin, Erini Lambrides, Alexie Leauthaud, Zane D. Lentz, Daizhong Liu, Guillaume Mahler, Claudia Maraston, Crystal L. Martin, Jacqueline McCleary, James Nightingale, Bahram Mobasher, Louise Paquereau, Sandrine Pires, Brant E. Robertson, David B. Sanders, Claudia Scarlata, Marko Shuntov, Greta Toni, Maximilian von Wietersheim-Kramsta, John R. Weaver","doi":"10.1038/s41550-025-02763-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02763-9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":14.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146048317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-23DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02749-7
Mitsunori Araki, Miguel Sanz-Novo, Christian P. Endres, Paola Caselli, Víctor M. Rivilla, Izaskun Jiménez-Serra, Laura Colzi, Shaoshan Zeng, Andrés Megías, Álvaro López-Gallifa, Antonio Martínez-Henares, David San Andrés, Sergio Martín, Miguel A. Requena-Torres, Juan García de la Concepción, Valerio Lattanzi
Molecules harbouring sulfur are thought to have played a key role in the biological processes of life on Earth, and thus, they are of much interest when found in space. Here we report on the astronomical detection of a six-membered sulfur-bearing cyclic hydrocarbon in the interstellar medium. Observations of the Galactic Centre molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027 reveal the presence of 2,5-cyclohexadien-1-thione, which is a structural isomer of thiophenol ( c -C 6 H 6 S). For the astronomical identification, we first performed precise laboratory measurements of the thiophenol discharge products system. These measurements, conducted in the radio band using a chirped-pulse Fourier transform microwave spectrometer, enabled us to characterize this highly polar molecular species and provided unambiguous fingerprints needed to identify this organosulfur compound in space, which now ranks as the largest interstellar sulfur-bearing molecule. These results herald the discovery of a family of prebiotically relevant sulfur-bearing species, which potentially act as a bridge between the chemical inventory of the interstellar medium and the composition of the minor bodies of the Solar System.
含有硫的分子被认为在地球生命的生物过程中起着关键作用，因此，在太空中发现它们会引起人们的极大兴趣。在这里，我们报告了在星际介质中天文探测到的六元含硫环烃。对银河系中心分子云G+0.693-0.027的观测表明，存在2,5-环己二烯-1-硫酮，这是硫酚（c -C 6 H 6 S）的结构异构体。为了天文鉴定，我们首先对硫酚排放产物系统进行了精确的实验室测量。这些测量是在无线电波段使用啁啾脉冲傅立叶变换微波光谱仪进行的，使我们能够表征这种高度极性的分子物种，并提供了在太空中识别这种有机硫化合物所需的明确指纹，它现在是最大的星际含硫分子。这些结果预示着发现了一个与生命起源相关的含硫物种家族，它们可能在星际介质的化学库存和太阳系小天体的组成之间起着桥梁作用。
{"title":"A detection of sulfur-bearing cyclic hydrocarbons in space","authors":"Mitsunori Araki, Miguel Sanz-Novo, Christian P. Endres, Paola Caselli, Víctor M. Rivilla, Izaskun Jiménez-Serra, Laura Colzi, Shaoshan Zeng, Andrés Megías, Álvaro López-Gallifa, Antonio Martínez-Henares, David San Andrés, Sergio Martín, Miguel A. Requena-Torres, Juan García de la Concepción, Valerio Lattanzi","doi":"10.1038/s41550-025-02749-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02749-7","url":null,"abstract":"Molecules harbouring sulfur are thought to have played a key role in the biological processes of life on Earth, and thus, they are of much interest when found in space. Here we report on the astronomical detection of a six-membered sulfur-bearing cyclic hydrocarbon in the interstellar medium. Observations of the Galactic Centre molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027 reveal the presence of 2,5-cyclohexadien-1-thione, which is a structural isomer of thiophenol ( <jats:italic>c</jats:italic> -C <jats:sub>6</jats:sub> H <jats:sub>6</jats:sub> S). For the astronomical identification, we first performed precise laboratory measurements of the thiophenol discharge products system. These measurements, conducted in the radio band using a chirped-pulse Fourier transform microwave spectrometer, enabled us to characterize this highly polar molecular species and provided unambiguous fingerprints needed to identify this organosulfur compound in space, which now ranks as the largest interstellar sulfur-bearing molecule. These results herald the discovery of a family of prebiotically relevant sulfur-bearing species, which potentially act as a bridge between the chemical inventory of the interstellar medium and the composition of the minor bodies of the Solar System.","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"98 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":14.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146033511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-22DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02774-0
Luca Maltagliati
{"title":"Io and Europa formed differently","authors":"Luca Maltagliati","doi":"10.1038/s41550-026-02774-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41550-026-02774-0","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"10 1","pages":"12-12"},"PeriodicalIF":14.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146016524","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-22DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02764-8
Paul Woods
{"title":"The extended family of the Seven Sisters","authors":"Paul Woods","doi":"10.1038/s41550-025-02764-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41550-025-02764-8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"10 1","pages":"17-17"},"PeriodicalIF":14.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146016525","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-22DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02769-3
Bokyoung Kim
{"title":"Nitrogen anomalies near and far","authors":"Bokyoung Kim","doi":"10.1038/s41550-025-02769-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41550-025-02769-3","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"10 1","pages":"9-9"},"PeriodicalIF":14.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146016522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-22DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02772-2
Paul Woods
{"title":"Carbon-rich atmospheres hard to explain","authors":"Paul Woods","doi":"10.1038/s41550-026-02772-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41550-026-02772-2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"10 1","pages":"10-10"},"PeriodicalIF":14.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146016523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-22DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02773-1
Lindsay Oldham
{"title":"Finding a galaxy in a haystack","authors":"Lindsay Oldham","doi":"10.1038/s41550-026-02773-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41550-026-02773-1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"10 1","pages":"11-11"},"PeriodicalIF":14.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146016495","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-21DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02767-5
Daxal H. Mehta, John A. Regan, Lewis Prole
Observations by the James Webb Space Telescope have uncovered supermassive black holes with masses exceeding 106 M⊙ at redshifts z > 8, posing serious challenges to existing models of early black hole formation and growth. Here we show, in a fully cosmological setting, that light seed black holes, remnants of population III stars, can grow rapidly to ~104 M⊙ in the early Universe. This growth is enabled by our new black hole seeding prescription and the unprecedented resolution of our zoom-in cosmological simulations, which resolve the dense environments necessary for efficient accretion. Our results provide robust evidence that light seed black holes can attain the masses required to serve as the dominant progenitors of the population of supermassive black holes observed at later cosmic epochs. These findings have far-reaching implications for the interpretation of observations by the James Webb Space Telescope and future gravitational wave detections with LISA.
{"title":"The growth of light seed black holes in the early Universe","authors":"Daxal H. Mehta, John A. Regan, Lewis Prole","doi":"10.1038/s41550-025-02767-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02767-5","url":null,"abstract":"Observations by the James Webb Space Telescope have uncovered supermassive black holes with masses exceeding 106 M⊙ at redshifts z > 8, posing serious challenges to existing models of early black hole formation and growth. Here we show, in a fully cosmological setting, that light seed black holes, remnants of population III stars, can grow rapidly to ~104 M⊙ in the early Universe. This growth is enabled by our new black hole seeding prescription and the unprecedented resolution of our zoom-in cosmological simulations, which resolve the dense environments necessary for efficient accretion. Our results provide robust evidence that light seed black holes can attain the masses required to serve as the dominant progenitors of the population of supermassive black holes observed at later cosmic epochs. These findings have far-reaching implications for the interpretation of observations by the James Webb Space Telescope and future gravitational wave detections with LISA.","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":14.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146006204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-20DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02765-7
Alfred Thomas Hopkinson, Ann Mary Wilson, Joe Pitfield, Alejandra Traspas Muiña, Richárd Rácz, Duncan V. Mifsud, Péter Herczku, Gergö Lakatos, Béla Sulik, Zoltán Juhász, Sándor Biri, Robert W. McCullough, Nigel J. Mason, Carsten Scavenius, Liv Hornekær, Sergio Ioppolo
The origin of the molecular building blocks of life is a central question in science. A few α-amino acids, such as glycine, the simplest proteinogenic amino acid, have been detected in meteorites and comets, indicating an extraterrestrial origin for some prebiotic molecules. However, the formation of peptides, short chains of α-amino acids linked by peptide bonds, has remained unresolved under astrophysical conditions. Here we show that the building blocks of proteins can form in interstellar ice analogues exposed to ionizing radiation without the presence of liquid water. Using isotopically labelled glycine irradiated with protons at cryogenic temperatures, we detect the formation of glycylglycine, the simplest dipeptide, along with deuterated and undeuterated water as by-products. The formation of peptide bonds is confirmed by infrared spectroscopy and high-resolution mass spectrometry, which also reveal the production of other complex organic species. These findings demonstrate a non-aqueous route to peptide formation under space-like conditions and suggest that such molecules could form in the cold interstellar medium and be incorporated into forming planetary systems. Our results challenge aqueous-centric models of early biochemical evolution and broaden potential settings for the origins of life.
{"title":"An interstellar energetic and non-aqueous pathway to peptide formation","authors":"Alfred Thomas Hopkinson, Ann Mary Wilson, Joe Pitfield, Alejandra Traspas Muiña, Richárd Rácz, Duncan V. Mifsud, Péter Herczku, Gergö Lakatos, Béla Sulik, Zoltán Juhász, Sándor Biri, Robert W. McCullough, Nigel J. Mason, Carsten Scavenius, Liv Hornekær, Sergio Ioppolo","doi":"10.1038/s41550-025-02765-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02765-7","url":null,"abstract":"The origin of the molecular building blocks of life is a central question in science. A few α-amino acids, such as glycine, the simplest proteinogenic amino acid, have been detected in meteorites and comets, indicating an extraterrestrial origin for some prebiotic molecules. However, the formation of peptides, short chains of α-amino acids linked by peptide bonds, has remained unresolved under astrophysical conditions. Here we show that the building blocks of proteins can form in interstellar ice analogues exposed to ionizing radiation without the presence of liquid water. Using isotopically labelled glycine irradiated with protons at cryogenic temperatures, we detect the formation of glycylglycine, the simplest dipeptide, along with deuterated and undeuterated water as by-products. The formation of peptide bonds is confirmed by infrared spectroscopy and high-resolution mass spectrometry, which also reveal the production of other complex organic species. These findings demonstrate a non-aqueous route to peptide formation under space-like conditions and suggest that such molecules could form in the cold interstellar medium and be incorporated into forming planetary systems. Our results challenge aqueous-centric models of early biochemical evolution and broaden potential settings for the origins of life.","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"94 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":14.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146006207","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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