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Huge News, Seven Earth-Sized Worlds Orbiting a Red Dwarf, Three in the...
In what is surely the biggest news since the hunt for exoplanets began, NASA announced today the discovery of a system of seven exoplanets orbiting the nearby star of TRAPPIST-1. Discovered by a team...
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Rise of the Super Telescopes: The European Extremely Large Telescope
We humans have an insatiable hunger to understand the Universe. As Carl Sagan said, “Understanding is Ecstasy.” But to understand the Universe, we need better and better ways to observe it. And that...
View ArticleAstronomers Spot Hellish World with Titanium in its Atmosphere
The hunt for exoplanets has turned up many fascinating case studies. For example, surveys have turned up many “Hot Jupiters”, gas giants that are similar in size to Jupiter but orbit very close to...
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An Artificial Intelligence Just Found 56 New Gravitational Lenses
Gravitational lenses are an important tool for astronomers seeking to study the most distant objects in the Universe. This technique involves using a massive cluster of matter (usually a galaxy or...
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Proxima Centauri has a Cold Dust Belt that Could Indicate Even More Planets
Proxima Centauri, in addition to being the closest star system to our own, is also the home of the closest exoplanet to Earth. The existence of this planet, Proxima b, was first announced in August of...
View ArticleThat Interstellar Asteroid is Probably Pretty Strange Looking
On October 19th, 2017, the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System-1 (Pan-STARRS-1) telescope in Hawaii picked up the first interstellar asteroid, named 1I/2017 U1 (aka. `Oumuamua). After...
View ArticleA Black Hole is Pushing the Stars Around in this Globular Cluster
Astronomers have been fascinated with globular clusters ever since they were first observed in 17th century. These spherical collections of stars are among the oldest known stellar systems in the...
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This is the Surface of a Giant Star, 350 Times Larger Than the Sun
When it comes to looking beyond our Solar System, astronomers are often forced to theorize about what they don’t know based on what they do. In short, they have to rely on what we have learned studying...
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The New Earth-Sized Planet Hunting Telescope ExTrA is Now Online
Ever since the Kepler space telescope began discovering thousands of exoplanets in our galaxy, astronomers have been eagerly awaiting the day when next-generation missions are deployed. These include...
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Good News For The Search For Life, The Trappist System Might Be Rich In Water
When we finally find life somewhere out there beyond Earth, it’ll be at the end of a long search. Life probably won’t announce its presence to us, we’ll have to follow a long chain of clues to find it....
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Witness The Power Of A Fully Operational ESPRESSO Instrument. Four Telescopes...
It’s been 20 years since the first of the four Unit Telescopes that comprise the ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) saw first light. Since the year 2000 all four of them have been in operation. One of...
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Look at This Fascinating Variety of Planet-Forming Disks Around Other Stars
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released a stunning collection of images of the circumstellar discs that surround young stars. The images were captured with the SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric...
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Oumuamua Accelerated Out of the Solar System Like a Comet
On October 19th, 2017, the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System-1 (Pan-STARRS-1) telescope in Hawaii announced the first-ever detection of an interstellar asteroid – I/2017 U1 (aka....
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Stunning First Ever Photograph of a Newly Forming Planet
For decades, the most widely-accepted view of how our Solar System formed has been the Nebular Hypothesis. According to this theory, the Sun, the planets, and all other objects in the Solar System...
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Einstein Was Right… Again! Successful Test of General Relativity Near a...
In 1915, Albert Einstein published his famous Theory of General Relativity, which provided a unified description of gravity as a geometric property of space and time. This theory gave rise to the...
View ArticleTelescope Pierces into One of the Biggest Nebulae in the Milky Way to Reveal...
Located about 7500 light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Carina, lies a star-forming region known as the Carina Nebula. This dynamic, evolving cloud of interstellar gas and dust measures...
View ArticleThis Beautiful Photo of Galaxy NGC 3981 was Taken by the Most Powerful...
When the ESO's Very Large Telescope can't pursue its science objectives, it spends its time capturing stunning image of fascinating celestial objects. The post This Beautiful Photo of Galaxy NGC 3981...
View ArticleNew Video Shows Construction Beginning on the World’s Largest Telescope
A new video released by the ESO illustrates the construction of the Extremely Large Telescope, which will be the world's largest telescope once it is completed. The post New Video Shows Construction...
View ArticleAn Extremely Large Hole has Been Dug for the Extremely Large Telescope
The ESO has broken ground on the Extremely Large Telescope, which will be the world's largest and most-advanced telescope once it is complete in 2024. The post An Extremely Large Hole has Been Dug for...
View ArticleAstronomers Get as Close as They Can to Seeing the Black Hole at the Heart of...
Thanks to the GRAVITY collaboration, astronomers have made the most detailed observations of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way to date. The post Astronomers Get as Close as They Can to...
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