Interstellar medium articles from across Nature Portfolio

JWST reveals 253 YSO candidates in the Pillars of Creation, concentrated along the pillar edges with tentative age gradients and an enhanced star formation rate within 1 Myr. These findings suggest that some may have formed via triggered star formation.

Origin of abundant noble gases in presolar silicon carbide (SiC) grains is under debate. Here, the authors measure 3D maps of helium within the SiC grains and reveal that these noble gases are evidence of hot stellar wind irradiation from central stars of planetary nebulae.

High-resolution ALMA observations reveal a gravitationally bound septuple protostar system in NGC 6334IN, formed through disk fragmentation. This discovery sheds light on the formation of extreme high-order multiplicity in massive stellar clusters.

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.

JWST reveals the chemistry of the disk of a young star in the Orion nebula, showing that it has water and CO in its inner regions that are shielded from UV radiation, whereas UV-processed molecules such as CH₃⁺ and PAHs are detected in surface layers.

Laboratory simulation experiments with isomer selective photoionization detection techniques reveal that octasulfur (S₈) and sulfanes can be easily formed in low temperature H₂S interstellar ice analogues exposed to ionizing radiation, suggesting a critical link between sulfur chemistry on ice coated nanoparticles in molecular clouds and the inventory of sulfur compounds in our Solar System.

Molecular clouds with low metal content, located in the Galactic outer disk and nearby metal-poor dwarf galaxies, show a notable deficiency in their turbulent support against self-gravity. This challenges the classical virial scenario, in which turbulence and self-gravitational energies are in equilibrium.

A magnetic halo featuring coherent magnetized ridges several kiloparsecs above and below the Galactic Disk, and a gamma-ray counterpart, are revealed. They probably arise from outflows that are driven by star-forming regions in the Galactic Disk, 3–5 kiloparsecs from the Galactic Centre.