The center of the Milky Way hosts the closest supermassive black hole, Sgr A*. Decades of near-infrared observations of our Galactic Center have shown the presence of a small population of stars (the so-called S-star cluster) orbiting Sgr A*, which were recently reported to be arranged into two orthogonal disks. In this case, the timescale for the Lense–Thirring precession of S stars should be longer than their age, implying a low spin for Sgr A*. In contrast, the recent results by the Event Horizon Telescope favor a highly spinning Sgr A*, which seems to suggest that the S stars could not be arranged in disks. Alternatively, the spin of Sgr A* must be small, suggesting that the models for its observed image are incomplete.

We infer the evolution of the UV luminosities of galaxies in haloes of masses 1010–1011 M ⊙ in the redshift range of z ∼ 9–16 from the recent JWST data. Within the standard ΛCDM cosmological model, it is found that the average luminosities in this halo mass range show an exponential evolution with redshift, in excess of that expected from astrophysical considerations including the evolution of UV luminosity from Population III galaxies. We find that an enhancement of power on scales k ∼ 1 Mpc−1, as captured by a cosmological transfer function modified from the ΛCDM form, is able to alleviate this effect and allow for a nonevolving UV luminosity as a function of redshift at z > 10, consistently with the corresponding findings for lower redshifts. We discuss the possible astrophysical and cosmological reasons for such an enhancement.

It is well known that planets with short orbital periods (≲ 10 days) are common around stars like the Sun 1-3 . Stars expand as they evolve, and thus we expect their close planetary companions to be engulfed [4][5][6] . However, this phase has never been directly observed. Here, we present the discovery of ZTF SLRN-2020, a short-lived optical outburst in the Galactic disk accompanied by bright and long-lived infrared emission. The resulting light curve and spectra share striking similarities with those of red novae 7, 8 -a class of eruptions now confirmed 9 to arise from mergers of binary stars. Its exceptionally low optical luminosity (≈ 10 35 erg s −1 ) and radiated energy (≈ 6.5 × 10 41 erg) point to the engulfment of a planet (of 1 − 10 Jupiter masses) by its Sun-like host star. We estimate the Galactic rate of such Sub-luminous Red Novae (SLRNe) to be ∼ 0.1−few yr −1 . Future Galactic plane surveys are well-poised to routinely identify them, revealing the demographics of planetary engulfment and the ultimate fate of planets in the inner Solar System.Using data from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) time domain survey 10 , we searched 2 for slowly evolving outbursts near the Galactic plane (Methods). We identified a transient optical source named ZTF 20aazusyv (hereafter ZTF SLRN-2020) that exhibited a fast rise from quiescence to peak outburst flux in ≈ 10 days, subsequently fading by ≈ 10× over six months (Figure 1).The long optical outburst duration together with its faint peak flux distinguishes it from common Galactic plane transients resulting from white dwarfs with close binary companions (the 'dwarf' and 'classical' novae 11 ). The transient also exhibits a mid-IR brightening starting ≈ 7 months prior to the optical outburst, together with bright mid-infrared (IR) emission (> 50× brighter than the optical r-band at ≈ 4 months after optical peak) that lasted for ≳ 15 months. No X-ray emission was detected in follow-up observations during the outburst using the Swift telescope 12 , ruling out an unstable disk accretion episode around a neutron star or black hole 13 (Methods).The bright mid-IR emission during the outburst is suggestive of emission from a warm dust shell surrounding the stellar photosphere. We model the optical to mid-IR spectral energy distribution (SED; Methods) at ≈ 120 days after the optical peak. The analysis reveal a relatively hot inner photosphere (≈ 9000 K) surrounded by a warm dust shell with temperature ≈ 1000 K, located behind a dust visual extinction column of A V ≈ 3.6 mag (Figure 2). Using the 90% confidence interval on the foreground extinction together with three-dimensional Galactic dust distribution maps (Methods), we infer the source to be located at a distance of 2 to 7 kpc. A joint analysis of the overlap between the different dust maps suggests a likely distance of ≈ 4 kpc (Methods). Performing the same analysis at ≈ 320 days after peak, we find the SED to have predominantly shifted into the IR bands caused by an increase in the dust optical depth, that can be att...

We suggest that the recently discovered, enigmatic pulsar with a period of 18.18 minutes, GLEAM-X J162759.5-523504.3, is most likely a hot subdwarf (proto white dwarf). A magnetic dipole model explains the observed period and period-derivative for a highly magnetized (∼108 G), hot subdwarf of typical mass ∼0.5M ⊙ and radius ∼0.3R ⊙, and an age of ∼3 × 104 yr. The subdwarf spin is close to its breakup speed and its spindown luminosity is near its Eddington limit, likely as a result of accretion from a companion.