Blogs about ESO (European Southern Observatory) activities
An article accepted for publication in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” reports the results of observations of structures that are lasting longer than predicted in the atmosphere of the star Betelgeuse. A team of researchers used the ALMA radio telescope to obtain some of the most detailed views of Betelgeuse’s surface ever obtained. This allowed them to study its really uneven surface and the structures within its atmosphere.
An article published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” offers the best evidence yet for the existence of a companion to the star Betelgeuse. A team of researchers led by Miguel Montargès of the Paris Observatory – PSL used the SPHERE instrument, and specifically its ZIMPOL polarimeter, mounted on the VLT in Chile to capture a direct image of what appears to be a star close to Betelgeuse. Independent observations will be needed to confirm the existence of the candidate Betelgeuse B. This study suggests it’s a star with a mass between 2.6 and 3.1 times the Sun’s.
An article published in the journal “Science Advances” reports the first reconstruction ever of the shape of a Type II supernova in its early stages. A team of researchers led by Professor Yi Yang of Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, used observations conducted with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile to study the supernova cataloged as SN 2024ggi on April 11, 2024, the day after the explosion began.
On October 18, the 4-meter Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST), mounted on ESO’s VISTA telescope in Chile, saw its so-called first light in its initial observation tests. With its system made of 2,436 optical fibers, 4MOST can capture light from a field of view with a diameter of up to 2.5 degrees, which in practice translates to an area equivalent to 16 times the size of the full Moon. The light is directed into three spectrographs that divide it into color components in the visible light range, providing individual spectra. This will enable a cosmological survey encompassing 25 million objects in the first five years of its operation.
Two articles, one published in the journal “Nature” and one in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics”, report the results of two studies of the exoplanet WASP-121b, officially named Tylos, which describe different aspects of its very turbulent atmosphere. Two teams of researchers with several members in common used the ESPRESSO instrument mounted on ESO’s VLT (Very Large Telescope) in Chile exploiting the combination of the four telescopes to examine the atmosphere of Tylos during a complete transit in front of its star. The result was a mapping of the layers of the atmosphere and the detection of traces of various chemical elements including sodium, iron, and titanium.
