Tag Archive for 'VLT'

This view of Titan is among the last images NASA’s Cassini spacecraft sent to Earth before it plunged into the giant planet’s atmosphere. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Tricarbon Molecule Detected in Atmosphere of Titan

Mar 18, 2024 by Natali Anderson

The tricarbon molecule (C3) is likely produced in the upper atmosphere of Titan by the reaction of abundant acetylene with atomic carbon. This view of...

Planet-forming disks around young stars and their location within the gas-rich cloud of Taurus, roughly 600 light-years from Earth. In total, the scientists observed 43 stars in the Taurus region, all of which are pictured here (though planet-forming disks were only detected in 39 of these targets). Image credit: ESO / Garufi et al. / IRAS.

VLT Finds Protoplanetary Disks around 86 Young Stars

Mar 5, 2024 by News Staff

New observations of 86 planet-forming disks provide astronomers with a wealth of data and unique insights into how planets arise in different regions of...

An artist’s impression of WD 0816-310, a magnetic white dwarf located 63 light-years away in the constellation of Puppis. Image credit: L. Calçada / ESO.

VLT Detects ‘Metal Scar’ on Surface of White Dwarf Star

Feb 27, 2024 by News Staff

Dynamically active planetary systems orbit a significant fraction of white dwarf stars. These stars often exhibit surface metals accreted from debris disks....

This image of the exceptional quasar J0529-4351 is from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey DR10; a neighboring M star appears in red. Image credit: Wolf et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02195-x.

Astronomers Discover Most Luminous Quasar Ever Observed

Feb 21, 2024 by Sergio Prostak

The black hole in the newly-discovered quasar SMSS J052915.80-435152.0 (hereafter called J0529-4351) accretes around one solar mass per day onto an existing...

Hundreds of thousands of stars are contained in this image of the Sagittarius C region from ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Image credit: ESO / F. Nogueras-Lara.

Sagittarius C Region Contains Hundreds of Thousands of Solar Masses of Young Stars: Study

Feb 12, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Sagittarius C lies just 300 light-years from Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Hundreds of thousands of...

Voyager 2/ISS images of Uranus and Neptune released shortly after the Voyager 2 flybys in 1986 and 1989, respectively, compared with a reprocessing of the individual filter images in this study to determine the best estimate of the true colors of these planets. Image credit: Irwin et al., doi: 10.1093/mnras/stad3761.

Uranus and Neptune Are in Fact Similar Shade of Greenish Blue, New Color-Corrected Images Reveal

Jan 5, 2024 by News Staff

Uranus and Neptune, the so-called ice giants, are the most distant giant planets in our Solar System. Our knowledge of these worlds was revolutionized...

Left: this image from the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows the parent cloud LHA 120-N 180B in which the HH 1177 system was first observed. Center: this image shows the jets that accompany HH 1177; the top part of the jet is aimed slightly towards us and thus blueshifted; the bottom one is receding from us and thus redshifted. Right: this image from ALMA shows the rotating disk around the star, similarly with sides moving towards and away from us. Image credit: ESO / ALMA / NAOJ / NRAO / McLeod et al.

ALMA Spots Circumstellar Disk around Young Star in Large Magellanic Cloud

Nov 29, 2023 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected a rotating gaseous structure around an extragalactic massive young...

This artist’s impression illustrates the path of FRB 20220610A, from a group of distant galaxies where it originated all the way to Earth, in one of the Milky Way’s spiral arms. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Astronomers Discover Farthest Fast Radio Burst Yet

Oct 20, 2023 by News Staff

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration pulses of radio emission originating from extragalactic sources. An international team of astronomers...

Astronomers thought HIP 81208 was a system consisting of a massive central star (A, the central bright spot), a brown dwarf (B) circling around it, and a low-mass star (C) orbiting further away. However, Chomez et al. revealed an object (Cb), approximately 15 times more massive than Jupiter, orbiting around the smaller of the two stars (C). Image credit: ESO / Chomez et al.

Astronomers Directly Image Rare Hierarchical Quadruple System

Sep 19, 2023 by Natali Anderson

HIP 81208 is the first binary stellar system with substellar companions around each stellar component ever found by direct imaging. Astronomers thought...

DESI-253.2534+26.884. Image credit: ESO / Cikota et al.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Spots Rare Einstein Cross

Sep 13, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Gravitational lensing provides unique insights into astrophysics and cosmology. Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers have discovered a new strong...

This artist’s impression shows the millisecond pulsar PSR J1023+0038 stealing gas from its companion star. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Matter Ejections Explain Peculiar High-Low Mode Switches in Distant Millisecond Pulsar

Aug 30, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The millisecond pulsar PSR J1023+0038 is known to switch between two brightness modes almost constantly, something that until now has been an enigma. This...

This image from the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows Neptune; a dark spot can be seen to the upper-right. Image credit: ESO / Irwin et al.

VLT Observes Large Dark Spot and Its Bright Companion in Atmosphere of Neptune

Aug 24, 2023 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have observed a large dark spot in Neptune’s...

Hallakoun et al. report observations revealing an extremely irradiated low-mass companion to the hot white dwarf WD 0032-317. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Bacon, STScI.

Newly-Discovered Brown Dwarf is Hotter than the Sun

Aug 15, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

WD 0032-317B, a brown dwarf orbiting around the hot, low-mass white dwarf WD 0032-317, is estimated to have a surface temperature of about 8,000 K and...

This composite image shows V960 Mon, a young star located over 5,000 light-years away in the constellation of Monoceros. Observations obtained using the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument on ESO’s VLT, represented in yellow in this image, show that the dusty material orbiting V960 Mon is assembling together in a series of intricate spiral arms extending to distances greater than the entire Solar System. Meanwhile, the blue regions represent data obtained with ALMA. The ALMA data peers deeper into the structure of the spiral arms, revealing large dusty clumps that could contract and collapse to form giant planets roughly the size of Jupiter via a process known as gravitational instability. Image credit: ESO / ALMA / NAOJ / NRAO / Weber et al.

Astronomers See Signs of Planet Formation around V960 Mon

Jul 26, 2023 by News Staff

The formation of giant planets has traditionally been divided into two pathways: core accretion and gravitational instability. However, in recent years,...

This artist’s impression shows a distant gas cloud that contains different chemical elements, illustrated here with schematic representations of various atoms. Image credit: L. Calçada / M. Kornmesser / ESO.

VLT Detects Chemical Signatures of Universe’s First Stars in Distant Gas Clouds

May 4, 2023 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have detected three distant gas clouds whose chemical composition matches what they expect from the...

This image, taken with the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, shows the emission nebula Gum 10. Image credit: ESO.

VLT Focuses on Emission Nebula Gum 10

May 3, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope have captured a striking new image of the large emission nebula Gum 10. This image,...

This image, captured by the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows the young stellar object 244-440 in the Orion Nebula. Image credit: Kirwan et al. / ESO.

VLT Spots Spectacular Bipolar Jet from Young Stellar Object in Orion Nebula Cluster

Apr 18, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have captured the most detailed image yet of the young stellar object 244-440 and the bipolar jet associated...

This artist’s illustration shows the ejection of a cloud of debris after NASA’s DART spacecraft collided with the asteroid Dimorphos. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

VLT Observes Aftermath of Collision between DART and Dimorphos

Mar 21, 2023 by News Staff

On September 26, 2022, NASA’s DART spacecraft collided with the asteroid Dimorphos in a controlled test of our asteroid deflection capabilities. The...

Davies et al. shed new light on the state of the Universe 13 billion years ago by measuring the density of carbon in the gases surrounding ancient galaxies. Image credit: Swinburne University of Technology.

Astronomers Measure Amount of Carbon around Galaxies in Early Universe

Mar 7, 2023 by News Staff

New research led by the Swinburne University of Technology shows that the amount of warm carbon suddenly increased by a factor of five over a period of...

This composite image shows Messier 61, a spiral galaxy located 52.5 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. Image credit: ESO / ALMA / NAOJ / NRAO / PHANGS.

ESO Releases Stunning New Image of Messier 61

Feb 7, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The new image of Messier 61, a spiral galaxy located in the constellation of Virgo, combines data taken at radio and visible wavelengths and is helping...

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