An international team of researchers led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), has unveiled a breakthrough explanation for the origin of tiny, jet-like plasma ejections in the solar atmosphere, known as “nanojets.” These elusive events which are recently discovered by the NASA’s solar telescopes are thought to play an important role in heating and sustaining the solar corona at temperatures above one million Kelvin. Why Study Nanojets? For decades, solar physicists have been puzzled by the so-called “coronal heating problem.” While the Sun
Low-mass X-ray binaries are systems in which a star transfers matter onto a compact object—either a black hole or a neutron star—producing energetic outbursts. During these events, their optical spectra provide a way to study extreme processes of accretion and matter ejection. While some spectroscopic features have been analysed in detail (e.g., revealing disc expansion and the presence of optical winds), the appearance of broad absorptions in the optical regime has traditionally been neglected. In this work, we present the first systematic study of these broad absorptions. We carry out the
The rocky planet GJ 1132 b, with Earth-like mass and radius, is a prime candidate for atmospheric studies. Previous observations with Hubble and JWST yielded conflicting results about its atmosphere. This study used three transit observations with the CRIRES+ instrument to search for He i, HCN, CH₄, and H₂O in GJ 1132 b's atmosphere. No clear atmospheric signals were detected, but upper limits for CH₄, HCN, and H₂O were established. The results suggest that if GJ 1132 b has an atmosphere, it is not dominated by hydrogen. The work highlights the challenges of detecting high molecular weight