Nova explosions occur when a runaway thermonuclear reaction is triggered in a white dwarf that is accreting hydrogen from a companion star. The massive amount of energy released ultimately creates the bright light source that can be seen with a naked eye as a nova. But some of the energy has been predicted to be lost during the initial stages of the reaction as a flash of intense luminosity — a fireball phase — detectable as low-energy X-rays. In this week’s issue, Ole König and his colleagues present observations that corroborate this prediction. Using scans taken by the instrument eROSITA, the researchers identified a short, bright X-ray flash from the nova YZ Reticuli a few hours before it became visible in the optical spectrum. The cover shows an artist’s impression of the nova in the fireball phase.
Tag Archives: Previews
Previews: New Scientist Magazine – May 14, 2022
New Scientist Magazine, May 14, 2022
COVER STORIES
- FEATURES Fascia: The long-overlooked tissue that shapes your health
- FEATURES The grand plan to create a periodic table of all animal intelligence
- FEATURES Have we been measuring the expansion of the universe wrong all along?
- NEWS Simple webcam test could show whether you lack a mind’s eye
- NEWS How quickly can you catch covid-19 again if you have already had it?
Cover Previews: Time Magazine – May 23, 2022
Preview: Times Literary Supplement – May 13, 2022
Times Literary Supplement May 13, 2022 – Raphael: worn out by love, or work? | James Hall [reviews] Antonio Forcellino’s newly translated biography of the “most rounded, efficient and consistently accomplished of Renaissance artists”
Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – May 16, 2022
The Magazine – May 16, 2022
This week’s cover, by the designer Frank Viva, is a colorful, lyrical springtime ode to the pleasures of biking. We spoke to Viva about his love affair with cycling, his island retreat, and learning to prioritize what matters.
Previews: The New York Review Of Books – May 26
Geoffrey O’Brien – Schemes Gone Awry
Richard Wilbur’s translations of Molière, now in the Library of America, have a fluency that goes beyond meter and rhyme to encompass textures of speech and movements of thought.
Molière: The Complete Richard Wilbur Translations
Fintan O’Toole – Our Hypocrisy on War Crimes
The US’s history of moral evasiveness around wartime atrocities undermines the very institution that might eventually bring Putin and his subordinates to justice: the International Criminal Court.
Cover Previews: Nature Magazine – May 5, 2022
Volume 605 Issue 7908, 5 May 2022
Avian blues
Conservation efforts for waterbirds, such as the Dalmatian pelicans (Pelecanus crispus) pictured on the cover, have centred on creating protected areas to maintain suitable habitats. But it has been unclear to what extent protected areas affect species’ population levels. In this week’s issue, Hannah Wauchope and her colleagues present an analysis that suggests protected areas have a mixed impact on waterbird populations. The researchers examined 1,506 protected areas to assess how they affected 27,055 waterbird populations across the globe. By assessing population levels before and after the implementation of protection, and comparing this change between protected and unprotected areas, the researchers identified the mixed impact, but also saw a strong indication that areas that were managed for waterbirds or their habitats were more likely to benefit populations. As a result, the team suggests that conservation strategies will require not only an increase in the number of protected areas, but active management of those areas to have the best chance of success.
Cover Preview: Science Magazine – May 6, 2022
IN DEPTH
Bids for Anthropocene’s ‘golden spike’ emerge
Download PDF – Sites compete to mark global changes of the 1950s and define new geological age
Census aims for better U.S. statistical portrait
Download PDF – Agency wants to retool its surveys and decennial census to improve efficiency and generate better data
Doubt cast on inflammation’s stop signals
Download PDF – Critics challenge data underpinning “resolution immunology,” triggering university probes
Germany weighs whether culling excess lab animals is a crime
Download PDF – As prosecutors evaluate complaints from animal rights groups, labs try to reduce surplus
Balloon detects first signs of ‘sound tunnel’ in the sky
Download PDF – Atmospheric analog to ocean’s acoustic channel could be used to monitor eruptions and bombs
Cover Preview: Decanter Magazine – June 2022 Issue
Inside the June 2022 issue of Decanter Magazine:
FEATURES
- Finding value in Burgundy’s Côte de Nuits Charles Curtis MW
- Spätburgunder Caro Maurer MW
- NZ Pinot Noir: 20 premium wines Selected by Decanter’s Tina Gellie
- Muscadet: the crus communaux Beverley Blanning MW
- The language of tasting notes Chris Losh on the good – and bad
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