Science

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Colourful Celestial Landscape

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New observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope show the star cluster RCW 38 in all its glory. This image was taken during testing of the HAWK-I camera with the GRAAL adaptive optics system. It shows RCW 38 and its surrounding clouds of brightly glowing gas in exquisite detail, with dark tendrils of dust threading through the bright core of this young gathering of stars.

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First Confirmed Image of Newborn Planet Caught with ESO’s VLT

Spectrum reveals cloudy atmosphere

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SPHERE, a planet-hunting instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, has captured the first confirmed image of a planet caught in the act of forming in the dusty disc surrounding a young star. The young planet is carving a path through the primordial disc of gas and dust around the very young star PDS 70. The data suggest that the planet’s atmosphere is cloudy.

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ESO’s VLT Sees `Oumuamua Getting a Boost

New results indicate interstellar nomad `Oumuamua is a comet

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`Oumuamua, the first interstellar object discovered in the Solar System, is moving away from the Sun faster than expected. This anomalous behaviour was detected by a worldwide astronomical collaboration including ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. The new results suggest that `Oumuamua is most likely an interstellar comet and not an asteroid.

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ALMA Discovers Trio of Infant Planets around Newborn Star

Novel technique to find youngest planets in our galaxy

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Two independent teams of astronomers have used ALMA to uncover convincing evidence that three young planets are in orbit around the infant star HD 163296. Using a novel planet-finding technique, the astronomers identified three disturbances in the gas-filled disc around the young star: the strongest evidence yet that newly formed planets are in orbit there. These are considered the first planets to be discovered with ALMA.

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ALMA and VLT Find Too Many Massive Stars in Starburst Galaxies, Near and Far

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Astronomers using ALMA and the VLT have discovered that both starburst galaxies in the early Universe and a star-forming region in a nearby galaxy contain a much higher proportion of massive stars than is found in more peaceful galaxies. These findings challenge current ideas about how galaxies evolved, changing our understanding of cosmic star-formation history and the build up of chemical elements.

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A Crowded Neighbourhood

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Glowing brightly about 160 000 light-years away, the Tarantula Nebula is the most spectacular feature of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our Milky Way. The VLT Survey Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile has imaged this region and its rich surroundings in exquisite detail. It reveals a cosmic landscape of star clusters, glowing gas clouds and the scattered remains of supernova explosions. This is the sharpest image ever of this entire field.

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Mars Helicopter to Fly on NASA's Next Red Planet Rover Mission

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The Mars Helicopter, a small, autonomous rotorcraft, will travel with NASA's Mars 2020 rover, currently scheduled to launch in July 2020, to demonstrate the viability and potential of heavier-than-air vehicles on the Red Planet.

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Science Launching to Space Station Looks Forward and Back

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The Cold Atom Lab (CAL) is a new facility that will create a spot ten billion times colder than the vacuum of space, and could help us answer some big questions in modern physics.

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ALMA and VLT Find Evidence for Stars Forming Just 250 Million Years After Big Bang

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Astronomers have used observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) to determine that star formation in the very distant galaxy MACS1149-JD1 started at an unexpectedly early stage, only 250 million years after the Big Bang. This discovery also represents the most distant oxygen ever detected in the Universe and the most distant galaxy ever observed by ALMA or the VLT.

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A micro-thermometer to record tiny temperature changes

Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) and their collaborators have developed a micrometer-wide thermometer that is sensitive to heat generated by optical and electron beams, and can measure small and rapid temperature changes in real time. This new device can be used to explore heat transport on the micro- and nano-scales, and in optical microscopy and synchrotron radiation experiments.

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(a) Video still showing a tightly focused laser beam making contact with the thermocouple. (b) Graph showing the thermocouple's response over time to different laser powers (3.6 and 1.8 mW) at different repetition rates, on glass and on the silicon nitride membrane (ΔT: change in temperature, τ: time for temperature rise and decay).