Pub Date : 2026-01-13DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02762-w
Noel D. Richardson
The discovery of an unusual type of Wolf–Rayet star that does not go through a carbon-rich transitional phase should help to explain strong ionization in environments that lack heavier elements, while also forcing astronomers to rethink how the most massive stars evolve.
{"title":"Unusual objects illuminate new evolutionary paths","authors":"Noel D. Richardson","doi":"10.1038/s41550-025-02762-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41550-025-02762-w","url":null,"abstract":"The discovery of an unusual type of Wolf–Rayet star that does not go through a carbon-rich transitional phase should help to explain strong ionization in environments that lack heavier elements, while also forcing astronomers to rethink how the most massive stars evolve.","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"10 2","pages":"178-179"},"PeriodicalIF":14.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146224569","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 : 2026-01-12DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02748-8
Krystian Iłkiewicz, Simone Scaringi, Domitilla de Martino, Christian Knigge, Sara E. Motta, Nanda Rea, David Buckley, Noel Castro Segura, Paul J. Groot, Anna F. McLeod, Luke T. Parker, Martina Veresvarska
Stellar bow shocks form when an outflow interacts with the interstellar medium. In white dwarfs accreting from a binary companion, outflows are associated with strong winds from the donor star, the accretion disk or a thermonuclear runaway explosion on the white dwarf surface. To date, only six accreting white dwarfs are known to harbour disk-wind-driven bow shocks that are not associated with thermonuclear explosions. Here we report the discovery of a bow shock associated with a high-proper-motion diskless accreting white dwarf, 1RXS J052832.5+283824. We show that the white dwarf has a strong magnetic field in the range B ≈ 42–45 MG, making RXJ0528+2838 a bona fide known polar-type cataclysmic variable harbouring a bow shock. The resolved bow shock is shown to be inconsistent with a past thermonuclear explosion or with being inflated by a donor wind, ruling out all accepted scenarios for inflating a bow shock around this system. Modelling of the energetics reveals that the observed bow shock requires a persistent power source with a luminosity significantly exceeding the system accretion energy output. This implies the presence of a powerful, previously unrecognized energy-loss mechanism—potentially tied to magnetic activity—that may operate over sufficiently long timescales to influence the course of binary evolution.
{"title":"A persistent bow shock in a diskless magnetized accreting white dwarf","authors":"Krystian Iłkiewicz, Simone Scaringi, Domitilla de Martino, Christian Knigge, Sara E. Motta, Nanda Rea, David Buckley, Noel Castro Segura, Paul J. Groot, Anna F. McLeod, Luke T. Parker, Martina Veresvarska","doi":"10.1038/s41550-025-02748-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02748-8","url":null,"abstract":"Stellar bow shocks form when an outflow interacts with the interstellar medium. In white dwarfs accreting from a binary companion, outflows are associated with strong winds from the donor star, the accretion disk or a thermonuclear runaway explosion on the white dwarf surface. To date, only six accreting white dwarfs are known to harbour disk-wind-driven bow shocks that are not associated with thermonuclear explosions. Here we report the discovery of a bow shock associated with a high-proper-motion diskless accreting white dwarf, 1RXS J052832.5+283824. We show that the white dwarf has a strong magnetic field in the range B ≈ 42–45 MG, making RXJ0528+2838 a bona fide known polar-type cataclysmic variable harbouring a bow shock. The resolved bow shock is shown to be inconsistent with a past thermonuclear explosion or with being inflated by a donor wind, ruling out all accepted scenarios for inflating a bow shock around this system. Modelling of the energetics reveals that the observed bow shock requires a persistent power source with a luminosity significantly exceeding the system accretion energy output. This implies the presence of a powerful, previously unrecognized energy-loss mechanism—potentially tied to magnetic activity—that may operate over sufficiently long timescales to influence the course of binary evolution.","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"146 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":14.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145956276","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 : 2026-01-12DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02751-z
Jan Scholtz, Francesco D’Eugenio, Roberto Maiolino, Pablo G. Pérez-González, Chiara Circosta, Sandro Tacchella, Christina C. Williams, Stacey Alberts, Santiago Arribas, William M. Baker, Elena Bertola, Andrew J. Bunker, Stefano Carniani, Stephane Charlot, Giovanni Cresci, Gareth C. Jones, Nimisha Kumari, Isabella Lamperti, Tobias J. Looser, Bruno Rodríguez Del Pino, Brant Robertson, Eleonora Parlanti, Michele Perna, Hannah Übler, Giacomo Venturi, Joris Witstok
The James Webb Space Telescope is discovering increasing numbers of quiescent galaxies 1–2 billion years after the Big Bang, whose redshift, high mass and old stellar ages indicate that their formation and quenching were surprisingly rapid. This fast-paced evolution seems to require that feedback from active galactic nuclei be faster and/or more efficient than previously expected. We present deep Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of cool molecular gas (the fuel for star formation) in a massive, fast-rotating, quiescent galaxy at z = 3.064, GS-10578. This galaxy hosts an active galactic nucleus, driving neutral-gas outflows with a mass-outflow rate of 60 ± 20 M⊙ yr−1, and it has a star-formation rate of <5.6 M⊙ yr−1. Our data reveal this system to be a distant gas-poor galaxy confirmed with direct CO observations (molecular-gas mass <109.1 M⊙; <0.8% of its stellar mass). Combining Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and James Webb Space Telescope observations, we estimate the gas consumption history of this galaxy, showing that it evolved with net-zero gas inflow, that is, the gas consumption by star formation matches the amount of gas this galaxy is missing relative to star-forming galaxies. This could arise both from preventative feedback stopping further gas inflow, which would otherwise refuel star formation or, alternatively, from fine-tuned ejective feedback matching precisely gas inflows. These results show that galaxy quenching is a long-term effect rather than due to a rapid single quasar episode.
{"title":"Measurement of the gas consumption history of a massive quiescent galaxy","authors":"Jan Scholtz, Francesco D’Eugenio, Roberto Maiolino, Pablo G. Pérez-González, Chiara Circosta, Sandro Tacchella, Christina C. Williams, Stacey Alberts, Santiago Arribas, William M. Baker, Elena Bertola, Andrew J. Bunker, Stefano Carniani, Stephane Charlot, Giovanni Cresci, Gareth C. Jones, Nimisha Kumari, Isabella Lamperti, Tobias J. Looser, Bruno Rodríguez Del Pino, Brant Robertson, Eleonora Parlanti, Michele Perna, Hannah Übler, Giacomo Venturi, Joris Witstok","doi":"10.1038/s41550-025-02751-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02751-z","url":null,"abstract":"The James Webb Space Telescope is discovering increasing numbers of quiescent galaxies 1–2 billion years after the Big Bang, whose redshift, high mass and old stellar ages indicate that their formation and quenching were surprisingly rapid. This fast-paced evolution seems to require that feedback from active galactic nuclei be faster and/or more efficient than previously expected. We present deep Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of cool molecular gas (the fuel for star formation) in a massive, fast-rotating, quiescent galaxy at z = 3.064, GS-10578. This galaxy hosts an active galactic nucleus, driving neutral-gas outflows with a mass-outflow rate of 60 ± 20 M⊙ yr−1, and it has a star-formation rate of <5.6 M⊙ yr−1. Our data reveal this system to be a distant gas-poor galaxy confirmed with direct CO observations (molecular-gas mass <109.1 M⊙; <0.8% of its stellar mass). Combining Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and James Webb Space Telescope observations, we estimate the gas consumption history of this galaxy, showing that it evolved with net-zero gas inflow, that is, the gas consumption by star formation matches the amount of gas this galaxy is missing relative to star-forming galaxies. This could arise both from preventative feedback stopping further gas inflow, which would otherwise refuel star formation or, alternatively, from fine-tuned ejective feedback matching precisely gas inflows. These results show that galaxy quenching is a long-term effect rather than due to a rapid single quasar episode.","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":14.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145956274","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 : 2026-01-12DOI: 10.1038/s41550-026-02780-2
Zuobin Zhang, Jiachen Jiang, Francesco Carotenuto, Honghui Liu, Cosimo Bambi, Rob P. Fender, Andrew J. Young, Jakob van den Eijnden, Christopher S. Reynolds, Andrew C. Fabian, Julien N. Girard, Joey Neilsen, James F. Steiner, John A. Tomsick, Stéphane Corbel, Andrew K. Hughes
{"title":"Publisher Correction: Evidence of mutually exclusive outflow forms from a black hole X-ray binary","authors":"Zuobin Zhang, Jiachen Jiang, Francesco Carotenuto, Honghui Liu, Cosimo Bambi, Rob P. Fender, Andrew J. Young, Jakob van den Eijnden, Christopher S. Reynolds, Andrew C. Fabian, Julien N. Girard, Joey Neilsen, James F. Steiner, John A. Tomsick, Stéphane Corbel, Andrew K. Hughes","doi":"10.1038/s41550-026-02780-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41550-026-02780-2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"10 2","pages":"326-327"},"PeriodicalIF":14.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-026-02780-2.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146224545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-07DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02754-w
Gregory D. Fleishman, Ivan Oparin, Gelu M. Nita, Bin Chen, Sijie Yu, Dale E. Gary
{"title":"Megaelectronvolt-peaked electrons in a coronal source of a solar flare","authors":"Gregory D. Fleishman, Ivan Oparin, Gelu M. Nita, Bin Chen, Sijie Yu, Dale E. Gary","doi":"10.1038/s41550-025-02754-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02754-w","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"43 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":14.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145908312","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 : 2026-01-07DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02761-x
Dong Li
Observations of a solar flare with high temporal–spatial resolution suggest that chromospheric condensation quasi-periodic pulsations cannot be driven by magnetohydrodynamic sausage-mode waves but instead stem from oscillation reconnection.
{"title":"Quasi-periodic pulsations driven by repeated reconnection","authors":"Dong Li","doi":"10.1038/s41550-025-02761-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41550-025-02761-x","url":null,"abstract":"Observations of a solar flare with high temporal–spatial resolution suggest that chromospheric condensation quasi-periodic pulsations cannot be driven by magnetohydrodynamic sausage-mode waves but instead stem from oscillation reconnection.","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"10 1","pages":"13-14"},"PeriodicalIF":14.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145908311","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 : 2026-01-06DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02747-9
Graham S. Kerr, Säm Krucker, Joel C. Allred, Jenny M. Rodríguez-Gómez, Andrew R. Inglis, Daniel F. Ryan, Laura A. Hayes, Ryan O. Milligan, Adam F. Kowalski, Joseph E. Plowman, Peter R. Young, Therese A. Kucera, Jeffrey W. Brosius
Solar flares release a tremendous amount of magnetic energy that subsequently manifests in several forms; the bulk of this energy is transported through the Sun’s atmosphere and explosively heats the chromosphere. While hard X-ray observations have pointed to flare-accelerated electrons as a primary means by which energy is transported following flares, alternative processes undoubtedly act alongside, or even instead of, those energetic electrons. To shed light on this we analysed flare-optimized, high-cadence Solar Orbiter observations. Footpoints from two flare ribbons were observed by the Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instrument. Curiously, those footpoints exhibited contrasting behaviour: one had short-lived yet strong decreases in the Lyman β/Lyman γ line intensity ratio, whereas the other exhibited a more prolonged, moderate dip in that ratio. These observations were compared to synthetic spectra from radiation hydrodynamic simulations of flares driven by various energy transport mechanisms. This revealed that one footpoint was driven by energetic particle precipitation, while the other was driven by enhanced thermal heat flux. The implication is that energetic particles do not dominate along the entirety of flare ribbons. Critically, we must now focus on understanding where, when and why different mechanisms dominate in solar flare energy transport. High-resolution flare footpoint observations in the extreme ultraviolet and X-rays were taken by Solar Orbiter. Combined with simulations, the results reveal that the dominant mechanism carrying flare energy through the Sun’s atmosphere can vary on small spatial scales.
{"title":"Spatial variation of energy transport mechanisms within solar flare ribbons","authors":"Graham S. Kerr, Säm Krucker, Joel C. Allred, Jenny M. Rodríguez-Gómez, Andrew R. Inglis, Daniel F. Ryan, Laura A. Hayes, Ryan O. Milligan, Adam F. Kowalski, Joseph E. Plowman, Peter R. Young, Therese A. Kucera, Jeffrey W. Brosius","doi":"10.1038/s41550-025-02747-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41550-025-02747-9","url":null,"abstract":"Solar flares release a tremendous amount of magnetic energy that subsequently manifests in several forms; the bulk of this energy is transported through the Sun’s atmosphere and explosively heats the chromosphere. While hard X-ray observations have pointed to flare-accelerated electrons as a primary means by which energy is transported following flares, alternative processes undoubtedly act alongside, or even instead of, those energetic electrons. To shed light on this we analysed flare-optimized, high-cadence Solar Orbiter observations. Footpoints from two flare ribbons were observed by the Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instrument. Curiously, those footpoints exhibited contrasting behaviour: one had short-lived yet strong decreases in the Lyman β/Lyman γ line intensity ratio, whereas the other exhibited a more prolonged, moderate dip in that ratio. These observations were compared to synthetic spectra from radiation hydrodynamic simulations of flares driven by various energy transport mechanisms. This revealed that one footpoint was driven by energetic particle precipitation, while the other was driven by enhanced thermal heat flux. The implication is that energetic particles do not dominate along the entirety of flare ribbons. Critically, we must now focus on understanding where, when and why different mechanisms dominate in solar flare energy transport. High-resolution flare footpoint observations in the extreme ultraviolet and X-rays were taken by Solar Orbiter. Combined with simulations, the results reveal that the dominant mechanism carrying flare energy through the Sun’s atmosphere can vary on small spatial scales.","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"10 2","pages":"202-213"},"PeriodicalIF":14.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02747-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145902631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-05DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02753-x
Zuobin Zhang, Jiachen Jiang, Francesco Carotenuto, Honghui Liu, Cosimo Bambi, Rob P. Fender, Andrew J. Young, Jakob van den Eijnden, Christopher S. Reynolds, Andrew C. Fabian, Julien N. Girard, Joey Neilsen, James F. Steiner, John A. Tomsick, Stéphane Corbel, Andrew K. Hughes
Accretion onto black holes often leads to the launch of outflows that substantially influence their surrounding environments. The two primary forms of these outflows are X-ray disk winds—hot, ionized gases ejected from the accretion disk—and relativistic jets, which are collimated streams of particles often expelled along the rotational axis of the black hole. While previous studies have revealed a general association between spectral states and different types of outflow, the physical mechanisms governing wind and jet formation remain debated. Here, using coordinated NICER and MeerKAT observations of the recurrent black hole X-ray binary 4U 1630–472, we identify a clear anti-correlation between X-ray disk winds and jets: during three recent outbursts, only one type of outflow is detected at a time. Notably, this apparent exclusivity occurs even as the overall accretion luminosity remains within the range expected for a standard thin disk, characteristic of the canonical soft state. These results suggest a competition between outflow channels that may depend on how the accretion energy is partitioned between the disk and the corona. Our findings provide observational constraints on jet and wind formation in X-ray binaries and offer a fresh perspective on the interplay between different modes of accretion-driven feedback. Coordinated X-ray and radio observations reveal that disk winds and jets occur mutually exclusively in 4U 1630–472, providing new observational constraints on the interplay between different modes of outflow in X-ray binaries.
{"title":"Evidence of mutually exclusive outflow forms from a black hole X-ray binary","authors":"Zuobin Zhang, Jiachen Jiang, Francesco Carotenuto, Honghui Liu, Cosimo Bambi, Rob P. Fender, Andrew J. Young, Jakob van den Eijnden, Christopher S. Reynolds, Andrew C. Fabian, Julien N. Girard, Joey Neilsen, James F. Steiner, John A. Tomsick, Stéphane Corbel, Andrew K. Hughes","doi":"10.1038/s41550-025-02753-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41550-025-02753-x","url":null,"abstract":"Accretion onto black holes often leads to the launch of outflows that substantially influence their surrounding environments. The two primary forms of these outflows are X-ray disk winds—hot, ionized gases ejected from the accretion disk—and relativistic jets, which are collimated streams of particles often expelled along the rotational axis of the black hole. While previous studies have revealed a general association between spectral states and different types of outflow, the physical mechanisms governing wind and jet formation remain debated. Here, using coordinated NICER and MeerKAT observations of the recurrent black hole X-ray binary 4U 1630–472, we identify a clear anti-correlation between X-ray disk winds and jets: during three recent outbursts, only one type of outflow is detected at a time. Notably, this apparent exclusivity occurs even as the overall accretion luminosity remains within the range expected for a standard thin disk, characteristic of the canonical soft state. These results suggest a competition between outflow channels that may depend on how the accretion energy is partitioned between the disk and the corona. Our findings provide observational constraints on jet and wind formation in X-ray binaries and offer a fresh perspective on the interplay between different modes of accretion-driven feedback. Coordinated X-ray and radio observations reveal that disk winds and jets occur mutually exclusively in 4U 1630–472, providing new observational constraints on the interplay between different modes of outflow in X-ray binaries.","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"10 2","pages":"281-289"},"PeriodicalIF":14.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145902626","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 : 2026-01-05DOI: 10.1038/s41550-025-02746-w
Simona Vegetti, Simon D. M. White, John P. McKean, Devon M. Powell, Cristiana Spingola, Davide Massari, Giulia Despali, Christopher D. Fassnacht
Measuring the density profile and mass concentration of dark-matter haloes is a key test of the standard cold dark matter paradigm. Such objects are dark and thus challenging to characterize, but they can be studied via gravitational lensing. Recently, a million-solar-mass object was discovered superposed on an extended and extremely thin gravitational arc. Here we report on extensive tests of various assumptions for the mass density profile and redshift of this object. We find that models that best describe the data have two components: an unresolved point mass of radius ≤10 pc centred on an extended mass distribution with an almost constant surface density out to a truncation radius of 139 pc. These properties do not resemble any known astronomical object. However, if the object is dark matter dominated, its structure is incompatible with cold dark matter models but may be compatible with a self-interacting dark-matter halo where the central region has collapsed to form a black hole. This detection could thus carry substantial implications for our current understanding of dark matter.
{"title":"A possible challenge for cold and warm dark matter","authors":"Simona Vegetti, Simon D. M. White, John P. McKean, Devon M. Powell, Cristiana Spingola, Davide Massari, Giulia Despali, Christopher D. Fassnacht","doi":"10.1038/s41550-025-02746-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02746-w","url":null,"abstract":"Measuring the density profile and mass concentration of dark-matter haloes is a key test of the standard cold dark matter paradigm. Such objects are dark and thus challenging to characterize, but they can be studied via gravitational lensing. Recently, a million-solar-mass object was discovered superposed on an extended and extremely thin gravitational arc. Here we report on extensive tests of various assumptions for the mass density profile and redshift of this object. We find that models that best describe the data have two components: an unresolved point mass of radius ≤10 pc centred on an extended mass distribution with an almost constant surface density out to a truncation radius of 139 pc. These properties do not resemble any known astronomical object. However, if the object is dark matter dominated, its structure is incompatible with cold dark matter models but may be compatible with a self-interacting dark-matter halo where the central region has collapsed to form a black hole. This detection could thus carry substantial implications for our current understanding of dark matter.","PeriodicalId":18778,"journal":{"name":"Nature Astronomy","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":14.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145902625","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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