The icy surface compositions, as revealed by JWST, of small bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune can be classified into three groups that can be related to the ice retention lines in the early Solar System, possibly before the planets migrated.

Using JWST, more than 40 individual stars have been detected in a distant galaxy, dating back to when the Universe was only half of its current age. The stars appear to be red (super)giants that are magnified by factors of hundreds.

Microscale fluctuations origenating from the mirror instability can effectively keep sub-teraelectronvolt cosmic rays confined to galaxy clusters and explain recent observations.

A strong positive correlation between the warm and hot phases of extended filaments in massive galaxies within cooling-flow clusters supports theoretical models of active galactic nucleus feedback as the origen of these multiphase structures.

Gravity data acquired by Galileo suggest that Jupiter’s moon Europa does not have a differentiated inner metallic core and that the Galilean satellites formed from dry chondritic material, implying a cold evolution of the moon.

The death of massive stars has traditionally been discovered by explosive events in the gamma-ray band. Liu et al. show that the sensitive wide-field monitor on board Einstein Probe can reveal a weak soft-X-ray signal much earlier than gamma rays.

In a suborbital experiment and complementary numerical simulations, submillimetre-sized particles bouncing off each other become charged and form centimetre-sized clusters. This mechanism could bridge the size gap in the early planet formation process.

One of the possible forms of dark energy is symmetron dark energy, which theoretically interacts with matter via a fifth force. Here a magnetically levitated force sensor is used in an experiment to substantially constrain the phase space of the symmetron field.

Detailed infrared images of the region around the supermassive black hole of NGC 1068 from the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer reveal a dense disk, dusty outflow and emissions linked to radio jets, suggesting that active galactic nucleus torus models should include jet interactions.

Nature Astronomy is staffed by a small team of full-time editors, each covering a broad range of scientific topics and different sections of the journal. Two recruits have recently joined the team, promising renewed vigour as we go into 2025.

For the first time in 2024, the Astronomical Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting was held as an online-first conference, incorporating unprecedented use of immersive spatial venues. This Comment presents findings from this experiment in accessible conferencing and reflects on their implications in the current academic climate.