Illustrations

Artist's impression of a massive star-forming region, with the planet-forming disk XUE-1 in the foreground. The image has been released for the discovery of water and other relevant molecules in the innermost regions of a planet-forming disk in a UV-drenched region, opening up the possibility of Earth-like planets forming in harsh environments. The structure near the disk represents the molecules and dust the researchers found in their new observations. Read the full press release at https://www.mpia.de/news/science/2023-16-xue-terrestrial-planets (Fortuna and Ramírez-Tannus 2023, CC BY-NC 4.0)

Planet formation in hostile environments.

Iron winds at the day-to-night transition of the ultra-hot gasesus planet KELT-9b. Image based on the results in “Neutral Iron Emission Lines From The Day-side Of KELT-9b -- The GAPS Programme With HARPS-N At TNG XX” by Pino et al. (2022). Image credit: Fortuna and Pino (2022), CC BY-NC 4.0.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will use galaxies, among other observables, to test the model of the Universe and infer information about its geometry and the content of dark matter and dark energy. One of the probes used to achieve this goal is the analysis of galaxy shapes (blue ellipses) and positions (red circles). Galaxy shapes are distorted as light travels through the structure of the Universe, revealing the presence of dark matter and the effect of dark energy. Similarly, galaxy positions are affected by how galaxies move towards each other due to gravity. Because light travels at a finite speed, looking at distant objects provides information about the history of the Universe. The most distant limit is the cosmic microwave background (CMB), emitted long before the formation of galaxies: a complementary probe that can be combined to study the model of the Universe. Image credit: Fortuna and Chisari (2022), CC-BY-NC 4.0; CMB background (top left) © ESA and Planck Collaboration.