Highlights from AAS Nova: 17–30 September 2023

AAS Nova provides brief highlights of recently published articles from the AAS journals, i.e., The Astronomical Journal (AJ), The Astrophysical Journal (ApJ), ApJ Letters, ApJ Supplements, The Planetary Science Journal, and Research Notes of the AAS. The website's intent is to gain broader exposure for AAS authors and to provide astronomy researchers and enthusiasts with summaries of recent, interesting research across a wide range of astronomical fields.

The following are the AAS Nova highlights from the past two weeks; follow the links to read more, or visit AAS Nova for more posts.

29 September 2023
How Did Arrokoth Get Its Mounds?
The New Horizons spacecraft flew by the Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth more than four years ago. Today, this fascinating, lumpy, bi-lobed object still holds plenty of mysteries.

27 September 2023
Getting to Know the Supernova Next Door: SN 2023ixf
SN 2023ixf, which was discovered in May 2023 in the Pinwheel Galaxy, is the nearest extragalactic supernova observed in almost a decade. What did early data tell us about the event?

26 September 2023
Spotting Close-In Giant Planets with Spectroscopy
Astrobites reports on a way to find giant planets so close to their host stars that they're usually obscured by the star's glare.

25 September 2023
Featured Image: A Rare X-Ray Binary in a Starburst Galaxy
Researchers have identified the optical counterpart to an X-ray binary system, giving us clues about the nature of this extreme star system.

22 September 2023
A Forge Without Iron
If you wanted to know what’s in the air of a lava planet, it wouldn’t be a good idea to go visit in person. Luckily, astronomers don’t have to.

21 September 2023
A Fast Radio Burst Reveals Foreground Galaxy Clusters
Researchers take a wide view of an unusual repeating fast radio burst to decode the burst’s dispersed signal.

19 September 2023
Signs of (Pre-)Life: Can JWST Detect Conditions for the Formation of Earth-Like Life on Distant Planets?
Astrobites reports on the prospect of using JWST to detect prebiosignatures: the molecules that indicate not life itself, but the possibility that life might someday form.

18 September 2023
Investigating a Star-Formation Shutdown in the Early Universe
Why did a small galaxy stop forming stars less than 700 million years after the Big Bang? Cosmological simulations give some clues about why star formation stalled.