Ravit Helled and David Stevenson 2017 ApJL 840 L4

A new model suggests the cores of giant planets might not be distinct from the envelopes surrounding them, unlike the traditional picture of heavy-element cores clearly separated from gaseous envelopes.

Paul L. Schechter et al 2017 AJ 153 219

Eight candidate gravitationally lensed quasar systems discovered in the VST-ATLAS survey have been followed up with spectroscopic observations, revealing a diverse variety of systems.

B. Gompertz and A. Fruchter 2017 ApJ 839 49

Observations suggest that only a magnetar with a spin period of ~1 ms or faster could provide enough energy to power the associated events of the ultra-long gamma-ray burst 111209A and Supernova 2011kl.

Francesca M. Fornasini et al 2017 ApJS 229 33

38 hard X-ray sources are detected by NuSTAR in the direction of the Norma spiral arm, including active galactic nuclei, X-ray binaries, pulsar wind nebulae, and cataclysmic variables.

D. W. Gerdes et al 2017 ApJL 839 L15

A new possible dwarf planet, 2014 UZ224 (“DeeDee”), has been discovered at 92 AU in our solar system. It appears to have a 1140-year orbit and a diameter of ~635 km (roughly a quarter of Pluto’s).

Owen R. Lehmer et al 2017 ApJ 839 32

For icy moons of Ganymede’s size around a Sun-like star, surface water could persist indefinitely outside the runaway greenhouse orbital distance, but smaller moons could lose their icy shells over time.