Chance meeting creates celestial diamond ring
Most stars with masses similar to that of our Sun will end their lives as white dwarfs — small, very dense, and hot bodies that … Read more
european southern observatory
First Planet Found Around Solar Twin in Star Cluster
Astronomers have used ESO’s HARPS planet hunter in Chile, along with other telescopes around the world, to discover three planets orbiting stars in the cluster … Read more
SMA Reveals Giant Star Cluster in the Making
W49A might be one of the best-kept secrets in our galaxy. This star-forming region shines 100 times brighter than the Orion nebula, but is so … Read more
A fiery drama of star birth and death
Located only about 160 000 light-years from us (eso1311 – http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1311/) in the constellation of Dorado (The Swordfish), the Large Magellanic Cloud is one of … Read more
Science probes mysteries of jets from giant black holes
There are supermassive black holes — with masses up to several billion solar masses — at the hearts of almost all galaxies in the Universe, … Read more
The peanut at the heart of our galaxy
One of the most important and massive parts of the galaxy is the galactic bulge. This huge central cloud of about 10 000 million stars … Read more
Ripped apart by a black hole
In 2011 ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) discovered a gas cloud with several times the mass of the Earth accelerating towards the black hole at … Read more
3 planets in habitable zone of nearby star
Gliese 667C is a very well-studied star. Just over one third of the mass of the Sun, it is part of a triple star system … Read more
New image of nebula shows colorful gases
ESO’s VISTA telescope, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, has captured a striking new image of the Helix Nebula. This picture, taken in infrared light, … Read more
Omega Nebula’s smoky pink core
A new image of the Omega Nebula, captured by ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), is one of the sharpest of this object ever taken from … Read more
Ultra-compact dwarf galaxies are bright star clusters
Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing the results of a detailed investigation of how many ‘ultra-compact dwarf galaxies’ (UCDs) can be found in nearby galaxy clusters. … Read more
