VLT Archives - Universe Today

Stars Orbiting Supermassive Black Hole Show Einstein was Right Again!

11 Aug , 2017 by Matt Williams

A team of European astronomers accurately measured the orbit of a star around the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky way, thus confirming predictions made by Einstein’s theory of General Relativity.

A Star Going Supernova In Slow Motion Discovered

6 Apr , 2017 by Matt Williams

In the course of observing an explosion in a distant galaxy, a team of researchers noticed something unprecedented – a supernova in slow-motion.

A “Breakthrough” to Search for Planets in Closest Star System to Earth

11 Jan , 2017 by Matt Williams

The European Southern Observatory and Breakthrough Initiatives have come together for purpose of finding habitable planets beyond Earth.

Weekly Space Hangout – November 4, 2016: Mars and Where to Land on it with Dr. Matt Golombek

4 Nov , 2016 by Fraser Cain

Host: Fraser Cain (@fcain) Special Guest: Dr. Matt Golombek, Senior Research Scientist at the JPL; Mars Exploration Rover Project Scientist; Mars Exploration Program Landing Site Scientist. Guests: Kimberly Cartier ( KimberlyCartier.org / @AstroKimCartier ) Nicole Gugliucci (cosmoquest.org / @noisyastronomer) Paul M. Sutter (pmsutter.com / @PaulMattSutter) Their stories this week: The entire sky mapped via hydrogen […]

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Astronomers Discover Exoplanet With Triple Sunrises and Sunsets

8 Jul , 2016 by Bob King

Astronomers discover the first exoplanet orbiting within a triple star system and manage to obtain a direct image of the new world.

Two Stars On A Death Spiral Set To Detonate As A Supernova

9 Feb , 2015 by Vanessa Janek

Two white dwarfs circle around one other, locked in a fatal tango. With an intimate orbit and a hefty combined mass, the pair is ultimately destined to collide, merge, and erupt in a titanic explosion: a Type Ia supernova. Or so goes the theory behind the infamous “standard candles” of cosmology. Now, in a paper published in today’s issue of […]

Amazing Video Timelapse Of Big Telescopes At Work In Chile

2 Sep , 2014 by Elizabeth Howell Video

What’s it like to spend a night at a huge telescope observatory? Jordi Busque recorded a brilliant timelapse of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). What makes this video unique is not only the exotic location in Chile, but the use of sound in the area rather than music.

Keeping An Eye On Gaia

18 Feb , 2014 by Jason Major

Gaia, ESA’s long-anticipated mission to map the stars of our galaxy (as well as do a slew of other cool science things) is now tucked comfortably in its position in orbit around Earth-Moon L2, a gravitationally stable spot in space 1.5 million km (932,000 miles) away. Once its mission begins in earnest, Gaia will watch about […]

Lasers like this one, at the VLT in Paranal, help counteract the blurring effect of the atmosphere. Powerful arrays of much larger lasers could hide our presence from aliens. (ESO/Y. Beletsky)

Gorgeous Telescope Timelapse Makes You Feel Like You’re Standing In Chile

13 Nov , 2013 by Elizabeth Howell

As the chill of winter settles into the northern hemisphere, fantasies of down-south travel pervade a lot of people’s dreams. Well, here’s a virtual journey to warm climes for astronomy buffs: a beautiful, music-filled timelapse of several European Southern Observatory telescopes gazing at the heavens in Chile. Uploaded in 2011 (but promoted this morning on […]

Pulled Apart By Black Hole Heart

17 Jul , 2013 by Tammy Plotner

If you thought all was reasonably quiet at the center of the Milky Way, you’d be wrong. Of course, you knew there was a black hole waiting… but did you know the ESO’s Very Large Telescope has seen a cloud of gas being ripped apart by its influence? Thanks to new observations, we’re able to […]

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