An article published in the journal “Nature” describes the first direct observation of granulation on the surface of a star outside the solar system. An international team of Astronomers led by ESO’s Clauda Paladini used the PIONIER instrument installed on ESO’s VLT (Very Large Telescope) to conduct that observation on the star Pi¹ Gruis. It was possible to observe its granules, convective cells each about 120 million kilometers across, because the dust that usually hinders these studies was far from the star.