ESOcast SD

Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have observed two exoplanets forming around the young star WISPIT 2. Both planets are gas giants, more massive than Jupiter, and are carving out gaps in the disc of gas and dust around their host star. The WISPIT 2 system could therefore resemble a young Solar System. This video summarises the discovery.

Astronomers are surprised by a mysterious shock wave around the dead star RXJ0528+2838, studied with ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The dead star moves through space creating a so-called bow shock, as the surrounding material is pushed away. Structures like this one are typically caused by a strong outflow from the star. However, in the case of RXJ0528+2838, no known mechanism could be causing the outflow. A hidden energy source, perhaps magnetic fields, might be the answer to this mystery.

Astronomers have observed a supernova just a day after it was first detected. In the early stages of the blast, the explosion has not yet interacted with the material around the star, retaining its true shape. This initial shape has now been revealed for the first time. This video summarises the discovery.

Astronomers have found an intense ‘growth spurt’ in a rogue planet –– a planet that doesn’t orbit a star. Observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) reveal that this free-floating planet is eating up gas and dust from its surroundings at a rate of six billion tonnes a second, the strongest ever found for a planet of any kind. This video summarises the discovery.

Astronomers have discovered that the next target for Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft, the asteroid 1998 KY26, is almost three times smaller than previously thought, and spinning much faster than expected. This study was conducted using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, and its results offer important new information for the upcoming mission, just six years out from the spacecraft’s encounter with this tiny asteroid.

What lies behind this chaotic extravaganza? This video takes you on a journey across the star cluster RCW 38, located 5500 light-years from us.

Two stars have been found orbiting each other in the vicinity of Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. A young binary star system forming and surviving in this extreme gravity means that black holes are not as destructive as we thought. This video summarises the discovery.

Thanks to ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer, astronomers have taken the first close-up picture of a star outside our galaxy, more than 160 000 light-years from us. The star is surrounded by a giant cocoon of dust, revealing it is in the last stages before becoming a supernova. This video summarises the discovery.

Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers have found a metal ‘scar’ imprinted on the surface of a dead star. This video summarises the discovery.

Astronomers have characterised the most luminous quasar observed to date, which is powered by the fastest-growing black hole. This black hole is growing in mass by the equivalent of one Sun per day. The matter being pulled in toward this black hole forms a disc that measures seven light-years in diameter — about 15 000 times the distance from the Sun to the orbit of Neptune.

Astronomers have found a direct link between the explosive deaths of massive stars and the formation of the most compact and enigmatic objects in the Universe — black holes and neutron stars. This video summarises the discovery.

Using ALMA, astronomers have detected the magnetic field of a galaxy so far away that its light has taken more than 11 billion years to reach us. Never before had we detected a galaxy’s magnetic field this far away. This video summarises the discovery.

Using multiple telescopes around the world, including European Southern Observatory (ESO) facilities, researchers have uncovered a living star that is likely to become a magnetar, an ultra-magnetic dead star. This video summarises the discovery.

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have found the possible ‘sibling’ of a planet orbiting a distant star. This video summarises the discovery.

Using ESO's VISTA telescope, astronomers have created a vast infrared atlas of five nearby stellar nurseries by piecing together more than one million images.

Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers have found the fingerprints left by the explosions of the first stars.

With the help of ALMA, astronomers have obtained a new image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the M87 galaxy.