Hubble ultraviolet spectra of 29 metal-poor massive stars show their winds slowing far more sharply than models assumed, which matters for how we read JWST's puzzling early galaxies. Yale meteorite work finds the outer Solar System's first planetesimals were built from 83 to 92 per cent chondrules rather than icy dust, and a new simulation suggests the black holes that wandered away from their galaxy's centre carry the clearest record of its past. We close with NGC 4698, a Virgo spiral rotating out of step with itself.

For decades, astronomers had been scratching their heads about this mystery: how could objects with masses of thousands of solar masses at birth form so early in the cosmic timeline?