Some of the sharpest images ever made with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have, for the first time, revealed what appears to be an ageing star giving birth to a butterfly-like planetary nebula. These observations of the red giant star L2 Puppis, from the ZIMPOL mode of the newly installed SPHERE instrument, also clearly showed a close companion. The dying stages of stars continue to pose astronomers with many riddles, and the origin of such bipolar nebulae, with their complex and alluring hourglass figures, doubly so. This new imaging mode means that the VLT is currently the sharpest astronomical direct imaging instrument in existence.
The release, images and videos are available on:
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1523/
Space Scoop - the children's version of this release is available at: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1523/kids/
Kind regards,
The ESO Education and Public Outreach Department
10 June 2015
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9 June 2015: ESO has signed an agreement to license its cooling system technology to the Spanish company FRACTAL SLNE. This follows earlier technology transfer agreements regarding the licensing of cutting-edge laser technology ...
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9 June 2015: The world’s first full-length fulldome planetarium movie freely available for planetarium use, From Earth to the Universe, has been released in high-resolution 4k fulldome format, for the worldwide planetarium ...
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