Erika Hamden et al 2020 ApJ 898 170

The 2018 flight of the FIREBall-2 Balloon telescope, intended to observe faint emission from the circumgalactic medium of z ~ 0.7 galaxies for the first time, ended due to a hole in the balloon; the team will try again in 2021.

Patricia Hernández-Reséndiz et al 2020 Planet. Sci. J. 1 34

Citlalmitl is a new experimental device designed and built to simulate high-temperature processes relevant for meteoritics, including chondrule formation and atmospheric reentry of micrometeorites.

Maya Fishbach et al 2020 ApJL 899 L8

Analysis of the 11 detections from LIGO/Virgo’s first gravitational-wave catalog shows that the gravitational-wave data alone suggests that neutron stars and black holes represent two distinct populations of compact objects.

Zahra Essack et al 2020 ApJ 898 160

Experimental measurements of molten silicates and quenched glasses — a product of rapidly cooled lava — indicate that hot super-Earth lava planets with solid or liquid surfaces have low albedos.

David G. Messerschmitt et al 2020 ApJS 249 36

This study explores fundamental physical and statistical communication limitations on the return of scientific data from a fleet of laser-beam-propelled, relativistic interstellar spacecraft.

Benjamin C. Bromley and Scott J. Kenyon 2020 AJ 160 85

Models suggest that the small satellites of Pluto and Charon may have grown within a disk of debris from an impact between Charon and a trans-Neptunian object early in the solar system’s history.