An article published in the journal “Nature” reports the detection of heavy elements including tellurium ejected from a kilonova, the merger between two neutron stars. A team of researchers started from the gamma-ray burst cataloged as GRB 230307A to examine data collected by ground-based and space telescopes which made it possible to identify the characteristics of a kilonova at the origin of that very powerful explosion, which lasted about 200 seconds in the second brightest gamma-ray burst detected so far.

The James Webb Space Telescope made it possible to examine the environment around the kilonova with its NIRCam and NIRSpec instruments, detecting the spectroscopic traces left in the emissions from materials ejected at high speed. For the first time, tellurium, a very rare element on Earth, was detected. Webb also made it possible to ascertain that the pair of neutron stars that merged was ejected from its home galaxy hundreds of millions of years ago.

An image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope depicts the star-forming region cataloged as G35.2-0.7N, in which massive stars form. Protostars are surrounded by cocoons of gas and dust which in turn are inside larger clouds, and that usually makes them invisible. However, one of those protostars near the center of the image is emitting jets of materials that illuminate the region and dig into the gas, allowing some of the protostellar light to escape.

About 7,200 light-years away from Earth, the G35.2-0.7N region is of interest to astronomers who are studying the processes that lead to the birth of stars. The Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument is one of many that have been used over time in various studies taking photos that have now been assembled into a single image.

Two articles published in “The Astrophysical Journal Letters” report as many studies on the supernova cataloged as SN 2023ixf. Two teams of researchers with members in common examined the evolution of this supernova discovered in the so-called Pinwheel Galaxy. To do this, they used various instruments including some from the Center for Astrophysics (CFA) Harvard & Smithsonian which allowed observations in different electromagnetic bands. The results were different from what was expected from the explosion of a massive star with a delay in the time of the peak of the light pulse just before the explosion. The conclusion is that this was due to the presence of dense materials ejected from the star in the year preceding the supernova.