VeryLargeTelescope
Latest
Scientists find evidence of a black hole at our galaxy’s center
Researchers have long suspected that a supermassive black hole lies in the center of our galaxy, and now they have strong evidence to support that suspicion. Using the Very Large Telescope -- an array of four individual telescopes stationed in the Atacama Desert in Chile -- scientists have been observing Sagittarius A* (pronounced Sagittarius A-star), an object in the center of the Milky Way galaxy thought to be a supermassive black hole. During their work, the research team observed three bright flares orbiting around Sagittarius A*, which completed 150-million-mile circuits in just 45 minutes. That's about 30 percent the speed of light.
Astronomers captured the first image of a baby planet
Thanks to European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope, a group of astronomers have taken the first photograph of a planet being formed around a young dwarf star called PDS 70. The planet has been named PDS 70b. You can clearly see the newly forming planet, which is the bright spot to the right of the black dot in the middle of the picture. The black area is the star, which has been blotted out with a coronagraph. This allows astronomers to see details that would otherwise be overwhelmed by the light of PDS 70b.
Scientists validate theory of relativity on galactic level
Einstein's theory of general relativity is rather important when it's crucial to the modern understandings of the universe and technology like satellites. But does it hold up with something as vast as a galaxy? Thanks to researchers, we know the answer is "yes." They've conducted a test that used two comparatively distant galaxies, one in front of the other, to show that relativity checks out.
First observed interstellar object is a speedy, cigar-shaped asteroid
Last month, astronomers running the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii spotted an intriguing object moving through our solar system and it became clear pretty quickly that the object, whether it was a comet or an asteroid, had come from outside of our solar system. Now, in a paper published this week in the journal Nature, researchers have described the interstellar visitor, dubbed 'Oumuamua, including its peculiarities as well as its similarities to objects originating in our own solar system.
Astronomers just measured a whole lot more than gravitational waves
A couple of weeks ago, the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) and Virgo teams announced the detection of another set of gravitational waves -- the fourth since LIGO's first detection in September of 2015. The observations of these ripples in spacetime are extraordinary in and of themselves, no matter how many times we record them. However, while the first three sets of gravitational waves recorded were by the two LIGO observatories, the fourth was also detected by a newly established third -- Virgo -- located in Italy. And having three detectors allows researchers to triangulate the source of those waves with extraordinary precision.
Astronomers capture best image yet of a star other than the sun
See that photo above? It might look a lot hazier than the HD photos you're used to, but it's the best and most detail image of a star other than our own sun that we've captured thus far. A team of astronomers led by Keiichi Ohnaka have used ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer in Chile to map Antares, one of the largest known stars and the brightest in the Scorpius constellation. Antares, a red supergiant, is visible to the naked eye as a reddish, twinkling star, but we've never seen it this close before.
ESO will upgrade its Very Large Telescope to hunt for exoplanets
The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope is getting an upgrade. ESO signed an agreement with Breakthrough Initiatives, a program created to search for extraterrestrial intelligence, to modify its infrared instrument called VISIR (VLT Imager and Spectrometer for mid-Infrared). Once it's done, the observatory in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile will easily be able to spot exoplanets in the Alpha Centauri. According to ESO, the astronomers' discovery of a habitable planet in our neighboring star system late last year "adds even further impetus to this search."
Scientists find a tailless comet from Earth's early days
It's well-established that the many asteroids and comets in the Solar System are the result of its violent early history, but finding an untouched example from the inner system is difficult. However, an astronomy team has discovered just that -- and it might shed a lot of light on our homeworld's early days. Thanks to both Pan-STARRS 1 and the Very Large Telescope, they've spotted a tailless, predominantly rocky comet (C/2014 S3) that has all the telltale signs of a "pristine" asteroid formed in the inner Solar System around the same time as the Earth, roughly 4.5 billion years ago. Its long, 860-year orbit hints that it was kicked towards the Oort Cloud (the system's extremely distant bubble of comets and other icy bodies) in the ancient past and only recently got pulled back toward the Sun.
Astronomers find evidence of oldest stars in ancient galaxy
For the longest time, Population III stars, which formed in the very early years of the universe, were nothing but a theory. Now, some astronomers led by David Sobral from the University of Lisbon in Portugal believe they've found evidence of these ancient, massive celestial bodies within an extremely bright (and old) galaxy. The team used ESO's Very Large Telescope, along with the Hubble Telescope and Japan's Subaru Telescope in Hawaii, to peer into an old part of the universe. There, they discovered several distant but luminous galaxies, including Cosmos Redshift 7 or CR7, which formed merely 800 million years after the Big Bang.
Here's how the largest galaxies die
Like it or not, all galaxies will eventually die. But have you wondered just how they meet their grisly ends? Researchers now have a good idea. They've studied 22 very large elliptical galaxies about 10 billion years old, and have discovered that these celestial bodies die from the inside out. The older they get, the more red giants (that is, dead stars) exist at their centers -- stars keep forming at the periphery up until the galaxy's last moments.
Mars once had enough water to form a large ocean
You probably know that Mars hasn't always been so barren, but have you wondered what it was like in its heyday? You almost wouldn't recognize it, according to an international team of scientists. They've used six years of atmospheric monitoring to determine that Mars had enough water to form a big but shallow (one mile deep) ocean that covered almost half of the northern hemisphere four billion years ago. The artist's rendition above gives you an idea of what it might have looked like -- the Red Planet would have been decidedly blue in places.
The Big Picture: The mouth of an interstellar beast
While Hubble certainly has the advantage out there in low Earth orbit, its ground-based counterparts have also been capturing their own mesmerizing shots of the universe. Take, for example, this image of the cometary globule CG4 taken by ESO's Very Large Telescope. CG4 is also known as "The Mouth of the Beast," because, well, it looks like the gaping maw of a gigantic serpent, though some call it "The Hand of God" instead. Cometary globules are elongated comet-like clouds of gas and dust -- the CG4, in particular, is located 1,300 light-years away from Earth in a constellation called "The Poop" or Puppis, if you want its fancier name.
The Big Picture: Sauron in the stars
Nope, that isn't a grainy leaked photo from a new Lord of the Rings spin-off up above; it's actually an image of a space-dust ring surrounding nearby star HR 4796A. The star is part of the Centaurus constellation, and this picture was taken by the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope that's been recently outfitted with a SPHERE instrument. What's the SPHERE? According to the ESO, it's the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research tool that has a main objective of studying extra-solar planets that orbit nearby stars. As Space notes, not only does this picture capture a very Eye-of-Sauron vibe overall, but it's also a showpiece for just how powerful the SPHERE tool is. Namely, it's able to kill enough of the glare to make the actual fiery ball of gas visible, something Space says is essential to discovering more and more celestial bodies.
Astronomers find three planets in Gliese 667C's habitable zone
Astronomers have a good day when they detect one planet inside a star system's habitable zone. A mostly European team of researchers must be giddy, then, as it just found three of those ideally located planets around Gliese 667C. The group has combined existing observations from the ESO's Very Large Telescope with new HARPS telescope data to spot the trio of super-Earths, all of which could theoretically support liquid water. As long as the discovery holds up, it may have a big impact on exoplanetary research: it shows both that three super-Earths can exist in one system and that more than one survivable planet can orbit a low-mass star. We can only do so much with the findings when Gliese 667C is 22 light-years away, but it's good to learn that space could be more human-friendly than we once thought.
University of Montreal detects an orbitless planet, shows that stars don't have an iron grip (video)
Astronomers have long theorized that there are many planets that have drifted away from their home stars, whether it's a too-loose gravitational pull during the planet's formation or a stellar tug-of-war. We've never had a reasonable chance of locating such a wanderer until today, however. The University of Montreal believes it has spotted CFBDSIR2149, an awkwardly-named gas giant four to seven times larger than Jupiter, floating by itself in the AB Doradus Moving Group of young stars. Scientists made the discovery first by pinpointing their target through infrared images from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, and later using the Very Large Telescope to deduce that the object was both too small to be a star as well as hot and young enough (752F and under 120 million years old) to fit the behavior of a planet orphaned early into its existence. With CFBDSIR2149's nature largely locked down, the challenge now is learning just how common such lonely examples can be; when it's much easier to focus on the stars while hunting for planets, finding any more strays could prove to be a daunting task.
Infrared telescope can pick out the atmosphere on distant planets, smell what the aliens are smelling
Astronomers in Chile using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope are now able to analyze the atmosphere on faraway planet Tau Bootis b. Using CRIRES, a supercooled infrared spectrograph bolted to the 'scope, the team was able to judge the size of the exoplanet -- and for the first time, take a reading of the atmosphere while not in transit. Historically, the only time researchers have been able to conduct atmospheric analysis is during the transit of its nearby star, which imprints the qualities of the atmosphere onto the light. The team found that Tau Bootis b is around six times the size of Jupiter, but its air is so thick with Carbon Monoxide that we'll have to look elsewhere to plan that expedition to the stars.
VLT Survey Telescope snaps out-of-this-world photos with 268-megapixel camera
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has just released the first batch of shots taken by its VLT Survey Telescope (VST), and, given the results, we'd say the thing's got a bright future in photography. Not to be mistaken for its cousin, the VLT (very large telescope), the VST sports a 268-megapixel camera, known as the OmegaCAM, and a field of view "twice as broad as the full moon." The images released by the ESO feature the Omega Nebula (located in the Sagittarius constellation) and Omega Centauri in stellar detail. Annie Lebovitz, eat your heart out -- the rest of you hop on past the break for another shot by this up and coming shutterbug.
New biggest star discovered, is not Justin Bieber
You know how sometimes you're just sitting out in a field with your homies, looking up at the stars and thinking man, the universe is so BIG... and I'm just so small! Thanks to the Very Large Telescope in Chile, Professor Paul Crowther at Sheffield University, and some good old-fashioned Hubble data, you can feel just a little bit smaller. Crowther and his team have measured the giant known as R136a1 to be 265 times the size of the sun. That's a pretty cool size, but not quite as cool as the 320 solar masses it was at birth -- nothing to sneeze at, since previous discoveries had the largest stars somewhere around 150 solar masses. It's also the most luminous star ever found, at 10 million times brighter than the sun. Even so, don't get your hopes up trying to see this with your telescope (unless it's, you know, Very Large) because it's a good 165,000 light years away. Doesn't mean you can't look in its direction and smile, though. [Image: ESO / M. Kornmesser]
