Nature Astronomy

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 11 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02896-5 Reply to: On the tidal response of Titan inferred from Cassini data

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 11 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02895-6 On the tidal response of Titan inferred from Cassini data

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 10 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02888-5 Precise measurements over 60–350 MHz using a new self-calibrating receiver are used to update the standard model of the radio sky. This revision enables accurate modelling of Galactic foreground emission in the SKA era to extract signals from cosmic dawn.

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 10 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02900-y We can do more than defend science from a flood of AI-assisted papers. Used well, AI offers a historic opportunity to correct distortions in the publication system, help us publish fewer and better papers, and give scientists back the time to do their best work.

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 10 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02887-6 By leveraging a hot exoplanet’s rotation during a transit observed with JWST, the thermal and chemical structure in the planet’s atmosphere was measured. The eastern half of the planet is hotter than western half, driving the dissociation of water.

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 09 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02902-w The collective dataset of APOGEE and LAMOST reveals that the Milky Way Galaxy has a U-shaped stellar age profile extending to 20 kpc. Radial migration likely plays a key role in expanding the Galactic disc far beyond its local star formation regime.

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 08 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02897-4 Decade-long multiwavelength observations reveal a quasar flickering in infrared and X-rays just 850 million years after the Big Bang. The variability provides direct observational constraints on the structure of accretion disks in early quasars.

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 05 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02876-9 Following two major 2025 announcements of possible extraterrestrial life — on exoplanet K2-18 b in April and in the Cheyava Falls rock on Mars in September — we surveyed the astrobiology community to capture the spread of expert opinion. These datasets establish baseline measures of scientific confidence in each case…

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 03 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02885-8 Two unique little red dots exhibit intense X-ray, radio and mid-infrared radiation, and may be transitioning into quasars. In this scenario, little red dots could represent an early evolutionary stage of supermassive black hole growth.

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 02 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02870-1 Wind measurements in ultra-hot giant exoplanets reveal a temperature-dependent slowdown best explained by magnetic effects, suggesting that these exoplanets host magnetic fields no stronger than Jupiter’s.

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 01 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02882-x ASKAP J174508.9-505149 is a spectroscopically confirmed accreting white dwarf binary also identified as a long-period radio transient, strengthening the link between these mysterious bursting sources and white dwarf star systems.

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 01 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02856-z The mass spectrum of binary black-hole mergers has been expected to show a ‘mass gap’ above 45 solar masses, consistent with the physics of pair-instability supernovae. An extensive catalogue of gravitational-wave detections reveals a high-spin population above this threshold that probably results from repeated black…

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 01 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02859-w Observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope of emerging star clusters in four nearby galaxies reveal that massive young star clusters disperse their natal gas faster than their lower mass counterparts. These results have important implications for models of star formation and stellar f…

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 01 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02868-9 Triton, Neptune’s largest moon, is presumed to be a trans-Neptunian object that was later captured by the ice giant. Thermal evolution modelling shows that the capture may have provided energy to generate a magnetic field, which could affect attempts to search for a subsurface ocean.

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 29 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02898-3 The latest budget proposal announced by the largest UK science funding agency threatens to severely affect UK astrophysics research. My colleagues and I are fighting back.

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 22 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02873-y An ALMA polarization survey towards 30 massive star-forming regions reveals that chaotic turbulence, rather than ordered magnetism, governs the formation of stellar cluster seeds, reshaping our understanding of how the most massive stars are born.

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 21 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02880-z Supernovae and their systematics

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 21 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02881-y Exoplanetary cautionary tales

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 21 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02883-w Recent advances from exoplanetary atmospheric characterization and sample return are ushering the search for life into a data-rich but more complex era. Accounting for false positives and negatives and defining the abiotic baseline will be crucial to interpreting increasingly ambiguous biosignatures.

Nature Astronomy, Published online: 21 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41550-026-02844-3 Since the time of Galileo, the Sun’s ‘differential rotation’, with a fast equator and slow poles, has been a longstanding mystery of solar physics. New supercomputer simulations suggest that most solar-type stars generally exhibit this type of differential rotation.