Highlights from AAS Nova: 23 January - 5 February 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.

4 February 2022
Winding Up to a Quadrillion Electronvolts of Energy
What cosmic engine is accelerating particles to up to quadrillions of electronvolts?

2 February 2022
Testing General Relativity with Pulsars
Astronomers put Einstein’s famous theory of gravity to the test using a type of extreme stellar remnant not yet discovered when the theory was published in 1915.

1 February 2022
Tertiary Troublemakers: How K2-290’s Planetary Orbits May Have Gotten So Weird
Astrobites reports on the retrograde orbits of K2-290A’s two close-in planets. Could dynamical interactions in this triple star system have caused this misalignment?

31 January 2022
Teaching Computers to Find Solar Flares Before They Happen
Can machine learning help researchers find the tell-tale signs of solar flares hidden in mountains of data?

28 January 2022
The Critical Role of Electrons in Astrophysical Blast Waves
It’s a tale as old as time: explosion makes shock wave, shock wave accelerates electrons, electrons emit radio waves. Could this scenario explain everything from radio supernovae to ultra-luminous transient events?

26 January 2022
A Framework for Exploring Ocean Worlds
A focus issue of the Planetary Science Journal discusses missions and methods to explore the distant, icy, and potentially life-hosting ocean worlds in our solar system.

25 January 2022
A New Recipe for Neutron Star Magnetic Fields
Astrobites reports on the magnetic fields in neutron stars — how do these ultra-dense stellar remnants get their strong magnetic fields, and why are their fields different from those of pulsars and magnetars?

24 January 2022
Featured Image: Explosive Star Formation
How does a massive star form and grow? Certainly not peacefully! A new study explores clues revealed by a powerful recent explosion.