Very Large Telescope
Coverage of Very Large Telescope in the Nexus archive.
- One of the night sky’s brightest stars may have been hiding a secret
Astronomers have found clear evidence of a faint companion star, Betelgeuse B, orbiting the red supergiant Betelgeuse in Orion. Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, researchers detected the companion, which is more massive than previously predicted, potentially explaining Betelgeuse’s unusual behavior and offering insights into its eventual supernova.
- Faint new planet is revealed around a young star after a decade in hiding
Astronomers discovered a faint, cold gas giant planet orbiting the young star Beta Pictoris after more than a decade of observation. Two independent teams using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope and NASA’s Webb Space Telescope confirmed the planet, the dimmest ever directly imaged from Earth, which had previously been obscured by the star’s brightness and other planets.
- Faint new planet is revealed around a young star after a decade in hiding
Astronomers discovered the dimmest directly imaged exoplanet, a cold gas giant orbiting Beta Pictoris, after two independent teams used different telescopes to detect it. The planet, 100 times fainter than previously identified companions, takes 91 years to orbit a young star system 63 light-years from Earth.