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Although predicted 50 years ago, the polarization of light from a rotationally distorted stellar atmosphere has only recently been detected, thanks to polarimetry measurements with precision at the parts-per-million level.
Radio astronomy will be transformed by future surveys that will study tens of millions of radio sources, providing new insights into a broad range of open questions in astronomy. This transformation, and the lead-up to it, is summarized in this Review.
Linearly polarized optical emission from a gamma-ray burst reveals the presence of a large-scale distorted magnetic field in the heart of this powerful cosmic explosion.
The European Astronomical Society awarded its most prestigious prizes during the annual European Week of Astronomy and Space Science, held in Prague from 26–30 June 2017.
The length asymmetry of the tidal stellar stream Palomar 5 could have been caused by a past encounter(s) with the Galactic bar, thus limiting its use as a probe for structures in the dark matter halo of the Milky Way.
A time-dependent dark energy component of the Universe may be able to explain tensions between local and primordial measurements of cosmological parameters, shaking current confidence in the concept of a cosmological ‘constant’.
