Telescopes

Artist's concept of part of the planet K2-18b with a thick atmosphere, its star and the planet K2-18c in the background (Image courtesy Alex Boersma)

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An article published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” describes a research on the star K2-18’s system. A team of researchers used the HARPS instrument at ESO’s La Silla observatory in Chile to study the exoplanet K2-18b, discovered in 2015, which could be a larger version of the Earth. The analysis of the data led to the discovery of a second exoplanet, which was called K2-18c, a little less massive and closer to its star therefore probably too hot to be in ​​its system’s habitable zone.

Hubble Ultra Deep Field galaxies seen by MUSE (Image ESO/MUSE HUDF collaboration)

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A series of 10 articles to be published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” describes various aspects of the deepest spectroscopic investigation ever carried out with the MUSE instrument installed on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. An international team with many researchers focused on the Hubble Space Telescope’s Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) to measure distances and properties of 1,600 very dim galaxies, of which 72 were never detected before.

The protostars detected by ALMA (Image ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Yusef-Zadeh et al.; B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF))

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An article published in the “Astrophysical Journal Letters” describes the discovery of protostars near the center of the Milky Way, near the supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A* (or Sgr A*). A team of astronomers made this discovery using the ALMA radio telescope, a surprising result because the conditions in that area were considered too hostile due to the gravitational tides caused by Sgr A* and the intense electromagnetic emissions from the heated gas and dust ring around it.

A part of the Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy (Image ESA/Hubble & NASA)

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An article published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” reports the reconstruction of the 3D movements of 10 stars in the Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy selected within a larger sample of over 100 among those with the smallest measurement errors. A team of researchers used observations made using the Hubble Space Telescope in 2002 and subsequent observations carried out by ESA’s Gaia space probe between 2014 and 2015 to produce this reconstruction that confirms the “cold” dark matter model.

Artist's impression of interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua (Image ESO/M. Kornmesser)

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An article published in the journal “Nature” describes the observations carried out on ‘Oumuamua, the named given to the interstellar asteroid whose discovery was announced only a few weeks ago. It was designated as A/2017 U1 but after the creation of a new class of objects for interstellar asteroids its designation was modified into 1I/2017 U1. Observations with ESO’s VLT (Very Large Telescope) and other telescopes showed that it’s likely dense, rocky, reddish and with a very elongated shape.