Highlights from AAS Nova: 26 December 2021 - 8 January 2022

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 the AAS Nova web page for more posts.

7 January 2022
An Inclination to Search for a Dynamic Past
What’s caused the strange misalignment in 14 Herculis’s planets? An unstable origin, or a pesky passerby?

5 January 2022
How Massive Are White Dwarfs? Their Stellar Companions Weigh In
A new study of white dwarfs in binary systems raises questions about the connection between the mass of a star and the mass of the white dwarf it leaves behind.

4 January 2022
A Star’s Final Words
Astrobites reports on a star that spoke its final words in the form of a long brightening before exploding as a supernova.

3 January 2022
Featured Image: An Outbursting Binary System
Simulations explore mass loss and X-ray outbursts in an extreme binary star system.

30 December 2021
Selections from 2021: Catching Solar Active Regions in the Act
What causes an active region to eject a solar flare? A team of astronomers has studied the Sun’s surface to find out.

29 December 2021
Selections from 2021: Why We Should Return to Enceladus
The final flyby of Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus by the Cassini spacecraft took place in 2015. Some astronomers say it’s time to go back.

28 December 2021
Selections from 2021: The Moon as a Gravitational-Wave Detector
Today’s article explores the possibility of using the Moon to detect gravitational waves.