Astronomers have found a rare encounter between two massive and gas-rich galaxies in a survey from Herschel. The event took place when the Universe was only about three billion years old and involved two galaxies forming stars with exceptional efficiency whilst in the process of merging. This galactic collision would go on to form a very massive elliptical galaxy with hardly any star formation activity. The discovery suggests a viable mechanism for the origin of the puzzling 'red and dead' galaxies that are seen in the young Universe.(author unknown)

The wheels come off Kepler

Nature 497, 7450 (2013). http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/497417a

Author: Ron Cowen

Space telescope’s mission to find planets outside the Solar System is probably over.

Sitting in an icy nest near Saturn, tiny Methone is oddly smooth, perhaps because it is made of lightweight stuff that can flow to erase impact scars    

(author unknown)

NASA researchers who monitor the Moon for meteoroid impacts have detected the brightest explosion in the history of their program. It was caused by a small boulder-sized meteoroid hitting the Moon with as much energy as 5 tons of TNT.(author unknown)

The planet-hunting space telescope, Kepler, has been hobbled by a broken reaction wheel, say scientists at Nasa.(author unknown)

The pioneering NASA mission has been hobbled by damaged hardware, probably ending its four-year search for Earth-sized worlds around sun-like stars    

(author unknown)

Fancy seeing the sky in neutrino? Supermassive black holes, giant exploding stars and dark matter may give up their secrets now that neutrinos from space are detectable    

(author unknown)

This dramatic new image of cosmic clouds in the constellation of Orion reveals what seems to be a fiery ribbon in the sky. This orange glow represents faint light coming from grains of cold interstellar dust, at wavelengths too long for human eyes to see. It was observed by the ESO-operated Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) in Chile.(author unknown)

Atmospheric confinement of jet streams on Uranus and Neptune

Nature 497, 7449 (2013). doi:10.1038/nature12131

Authors: Yohai Kaspi, Adam P. Showman, William B. Hubbard, Oded Aharonson & Ravit Helled

The observed cloud-level atmospheric circulation on the outer planets of the Solar System is dominated by strong east–west jet streams. The depth of these winds is a crucial unknown in constraining their overall dynamics, energetics and internal structures. There are two approaches to explaining the existence of these strong winds. The first suggests that the jets are driven by shallow atmospheric processes near the surface, whereas the second suggests that the atmospheric dynamics extend deeply into the planetary interiors. Here we report that on Uranus and Neptune the depth of the atmospheric dynamics can be revealed by the planets’ respective gravity fields. We show that the measured fourth-order gravity harmonic, J4, constrains the dynamics to the outermost 0.15 per cent of the total mass of Uranus and the outermost 0.2 per cent of the total mass of Neptune. This provides a stronger limit to the depth of the dynamical atmosphere than previously suggested, and shows that the dynamics are confined to a thin weather layer no more than about 1,000 kilometres deep on both planets.

Planetary science: Plumbing the depths of Uranus and Neptune

Nature 497, 7449 (2013). doi:10.1038/497323a

Authors: Peter Read

An analysis of data collected by the Voyager 2 spacecraft and by ground-based telescopes limits the depths to which winds penetrate into Uranus and Neptune, informing the debate about these planets' internal structures. See Letter p.344

Astronomy: Japan's work on ALMA telescope

Nature 497, 7449 (2013). doi:10.1038/497317e

Authors: Masahiko Hayashi & Satoru Iguchi

Your report on the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the world's highest-altitude radio telescope, omits mention of Japan's contribution (Nature495, 156–159; 201310.1038/495156a).The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) is one of three executive partners of ALMA

Scientists using images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have estimated that the planet is bombarded by more than 200 small asteroids or bits of comets per year forming craters at least 12.8 feet (3.9 meters) across.(author unknown)

The Sun has unleashed a massive solar flare - the most powerful of 2013 so far.(author unknown)

Magnetar found at giant black hole

Nature 497, 7449 (2013). http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/497296a

Author: Eugenie Samuel Reich

Magnetized neutron star could test Einstein’s theory.

If Mercury was an orange, the juicy bit would all be dense metallic core, while planets further out would be peaches with pit-like cores – here's why    

(author unknown)

A heap of new evidence from space telescopes and underground detectors could be pointing the way to the first solid sign of dark matter    

(author unknown)

The universe is strangely magnetic – and a process of runaway expansion at its birth can now explain why    

(author unknown)

Scientists study two dead stars that give us a glimpse, they say, of what our Solar System might look like a few billion years from now.(author unknown)

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has found signs of Earth-like planets in an unlikely place: the atmospheres of a pair of burnt-out stars in a nearby star cluster. The white dwarf stars are being polluted by debris from asteroid-like objects falling onto them. This discovery suggests that rocky planet assembly is common in clusters, say researchers.(author unknown)

Glass embedded in Apollo moon rocks hints that early Earth was born wet, and it held on to that water long enough to donate some to the moon    

(author unknown)