It is widely believed that the Milky Way is set to collide with Andromeda, its nearest neighbour. New calculations using data from Hubble and Gaia that account for the effects of other galaxies show an almost 50% chance of our Galaxy avoiding this fate.

A 10-Earth-mass planet is detected in the habitable zone of the solar-type star Kepler-725 using the transit timing variation technique. This study proposes a complementary pathway to probe low-mass exoplanets (including Earth-like planets) in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars.

High-resolution observations of fine structure in the Sun’s corona hint at plasma features on the order of 10 km. A new adaptive optics system, Cona, lifts the veil of atmospheric blur over a fast-moving, twisted plasma stream as it becomes unstable.

Spatially resolved JWST spectroscopy of a massive, quiescent galaxy at a redshift of ~4 reveals that it formed its stars and quenched rapidly, despite being surrounded by an abundant gas reservoir and gravitationally bound to a star-bursting companion.

High-resolution FAST observations of a very-high-velocity cloud in the warm neutral medium reveal a network of hierarchical filaments formed by shock compression. These findings suggest a viable mechanism for early structure formation in the interstellar medium.

The inclusion of model mismatch information in gravitational wave parameter estimation improves on current model-averaging methods, allowing higher-accuracy inferences about the properties of merging black holes.

ALMA and Gaia data combine to reveal a young gas giant in the protoplanetary disk around MP Mus. Previously unseen substructures, visible only at longer wavelengths, suggest that more planets may hide in disks than previously thought.

The discovery of 2023 KQ₁₄, a Sedna-like object with a perihelion of 66 au, fills a gap in the known population. Its orbit does not align with other Sedna-like objects, shedding light on the diversity and dynamical history of the outer Solar System.

Nature Astronomy will shortly be able to offer a new mode of peer review to authors, in an effort to make the peer-review process more transparent. This mode will operate alongside our other initiatives to improve the procedure and safeguard the integrity of the scientific record.

The ethos of the International Astronomical Union’s Office of Astronomy for Development is to direct astronomy towards addressing urgent societal needs. It does this by funding and managing hundreds of projects across the world.

The Visible Tunable Filter (VTF) has recently been installed on the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawai‘i. When complete, the instrument will offer high-resolution observations of the solar surface.