Pressemitteilungen

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Biggest Star in Our Galaxy Sits within a Rugby-Ball Shaped Cocoon

18. November 2003: Ever since 1841, when the until then inconspicuous southern star Eta Carinae underwent a spectacular outburst, astronomers have wondered what exactly is going on in this unstable giant star. However, due to its considerable distance - 7,500 light-years - details of the star itself were beyond observation. This star is known to be surrounded by the Homunculus Nebula , two mushroom-shaped clouds ejected by the star, each of which is hundreds of times larger than our solar system. Now, for the first time, infrared interferometry with the VINCI instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) enabled an international team of astronomers [1] to zoom-in on the inner part of its stellar wind. For Roy van Boekel , leader of the team, these results indicate that " the wind of Eta Carinae turns out to be extremely elongated and the star itself is highly unstable because of its fast rotation."

eso0335 — Pressemitteilung

Observing a Burst with Sunglasses

12. November 2003: New observations of a Gamma-Ray Burst in polarised light, performed with the FORS instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, reveal for the first time a significant variation in time of the polarisation properties. This behaviour is unpredicted by major existing thoeries.

eso0334 — Pressemitteilung

Astronomers Break Ground on Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA)

6. November 2003: Scientists and dignitaries from Europe, North America and Chile are breaking ground today (Thursday, November 6, 2003) on what will be the world's largest, most sensitive radio telescope operating at millimeter wavelengths. ALMA - the "Atacama Large Millimeter Array" - will be a single instrument composed of 64 high-precision antennas located in the II Region of Chile, in the District of San Pedro de Atacama, at the Chajnantor altiplano, 5,000 metres above sea level. ALMA 's primary function will be to observe and image with unprecedented clarity the enigmatic cold regions of the Universe, which are optically dark, yet shine brightly in the millimetre portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

eso0333 — Pressemitteilung

"Physics and Life" - Teachers Meet Scientists at Major EIROforum Event

5. November 2003: More than 400 selected delegates from 22 European countries will take part in "Physics on Stage 3" , organised by the EIROforum [1] research organisations (CERN, EFDA, EMBL, ESA, ESO, ESRF, ILL) at the ESA ESTEC site (Noordwijk, The Netherlands). It is the culmination of a year-long educational programme and is a central event during the EC-sponsored European Science and Technology Week (November 8-15, 2003).

eso0332 — Pressemitteilung

Roses in the Southern Sky

3. November 2003: The two best known satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, the Magellanic Clouds, are located in the southern sky at a distance of about 170,000 light-years. They host many giant nebular complexes with very hot and luminous stars whose intense ultraviolet radiation causes the surrounding interstellar gas to glow.

eso0331 — Pressemitteilung

South America Delegation of the European Parliament Visits ESO's Paranal Observatory

30. Oktober 2003: Chaired by Dr. Rolf Linkohr , Members of the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with the Countries of South America and MERCOSUR visited ESO's Paranal Observatory on October 29-30, 2003.

eso0330 — Pressemitteilung

Messages from the Abyss

29. Oktober 2003: An international team of astronomers led by researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching (Germany) [2] has discovered powerful infrared flares from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. The signals, rapidly flickering on a scale of minutes, must come from hot gas falling into the black hole, just before it disappears below the "event horizon" of the monster. The new observations strongly suggest that the Galactic Centre black hole rotates rapidly. Never before have scientists been able to study phenomena in the immediate neighbourhood of a black hole in such a detail. The new result is based on observations obtained with the NACO Adaptive Optics instrument on the 8.2-m VLT YEPUN telescope and is published in this week's edition of the research journal Nature.

eso0329 — Pressemitteilung

Optical Detection of Anomalous Nitrogen in Comets

12. September 2003: A team of European astronomers [1] has used the UVES spectrograph on the 8.2-m VLT KUEYEN telescope to perform a uniquely detailed study of Comet LINEAR (C/2000 WM1) . This is the first time that this powerful instrument has been employed to obtain high-resolution spectra of a comet. At the time of the observations in mid-March 2002, Comet LINEAR was about 180 million km from the Sun, moving outwards after its perihelion passage in January. As comets are believed to carry "pristine" material - left-overs from the formation of the solar system, about 4,600 million years ago - studies of these objects are important to obtain clues about the origins of the solar system and the Earth in particular. The high quality of the data obtained of this moving 9th-magnitude object has permitted a determination of the cometary abundance of various elements and their isotopes [2]. Of particular interest is the unambiguous detection and measurement of the nitrogen-15 isotope. The only other comet in which this isotope has been observed is famous Comet Hale-Bopp - this was during the passage in 1997, when it was much brighter than Comet LINEAR. Most interestingly, Comet LINEAR and Comet Hale-Bopp display the same isotopic abundance ratio, about 1 nitrogen-15 atom for each 140 nitrogen-14 atoms ( 14 N/ 15 N = 140 ± 30) . That is about half of the terrestrial value (272). It is also very different from the result obtained by means of radio measurements of Comet Hale-Bopp ( 14 N/ 15 N = 330 ± 75). Optical and radio measurements concern different molecules (CN and HCN, respectively), and this isotopic anomaly must be explained by some differentiation mechanism. The astronomers conclude that part of the cometary nitrogen is trapped in macromolecules attached to dust particles.

eso0328 — Pressemitteilung

New Image of Comet Halley in the Cold

1. September 2003: Seventeen years after the last passage of Comet Halley, the ESO Very Large Telescope at Paranal (Chile) has captured a unique image of this famous object as it cruises through the outer solar system. It is completely inactive in this cold environment. No other comet has ever been observed this far - 4200 million km from the Sun - or that faint - nearly 1000 million times fainter than what can be perceived with the unaided eye. This observation is a byproduct of a dedicated search [1] for small Trans-Neptunian Objects, a population of icy bodies of which more than 600 have been found during the past decade.

eso0327 — Pressemitteilung

Infrared Halo Frames a Newborn Star

28. August 2003: Observations with the VLT of a star-forming cloud have revealed, for the first time, a ring of infrared light around a nascent star. The images also show the presence of jets that emanate from the young object and collide with the surrounding cloud.

eso0326 — Pressemitteilung

New Insight into the Cosmic Renaissance Epoch

21. August 2003: Using the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) , two astronomers from Germany and the UK [2] have discovered some of the most distant galaxies ever seen. They are located about 12,600 million light-years away. It has taken the light now recorded by the VLT about nine-tenths of the age of the Universe to traverse this huge distance. We therefore observe those galaxies as they were at a time when the Universe was very young, less than about 10% of its present age . At this time, the Universe was emerging from a long period known as the "Dark Ages," entering the luminous "Cosmic Renaissance" epoch. Unlike previous studies which resulted in the discovery of a few, widely dispersed galaxies at this early epoch, the present study found at least six remote citizens within a small sky area, less than five per cent the size of the full moon! This allowed understanding the evolution of these galaxies and how they affect the state of the Universe in its youth. In particular, the astronomers conclude on the basis of their unique data that there were considerably fewer luminous galaxies in the Universe at this early stage than 500 million years later. There must therefore be many less luminous galaxies in the region of space that they studied, too faint to be detected in this study. It must be those still unidentified galaxies that emit the majority of the energetic photons needed to ionise the hydrogen in the Universe at that particularly epoch.

eso0325 — Pressemitteilung

The VLT Measures the Shape of a Type Ia Supernova

6. August 2003: An international team of astronomers [2] has performed new and very detailed observations of a supernova in a distant galaxy with the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory (Chile). They show for the first time that a particular type of supernova, caused by the explosion of a "white dwarf", a dense star with a mass around that of the Sun, is asymmetric during the initial phases of expansion. The significance of this observation is much larger than may seem at a first glance . This particular kind of supernova, designated "Type Ia", plays a very important role in the current attempts to map the Universe. It has for long been assumed that Type Ia supernovae all have the same intrinsic brightness , earning them a nickname as "standard candles." If so, differences in the observed brightness between individual supernovae of this type simply reflect their different distances. This, and the fact that the peak brightness of these supernovae rivals that of their parent galaxy, has allowed to measure distances of even very remote galaxies . Some apparent discrepancies that were recently found have led to the discovery of cosmic acceleration. However, this first clearcut observation of explosion asymmetry in a Type Ia supernova means that the exact brightness of such an object will depend on the angle from which it is seen. Since this angle is unknown for any particular supernova, this obviously introduces an amount of uncertainty into this kind of basic distance measurements in the Universe which must be taken into account in the future. Fortunately, the VLT data also show that if you wait a little - which in observational terms makes it possible to look deeper into the expanding fireball - then it becomes more spherical. Distance determinations of supernovae that are performed at this later stage will therefore be more accurate.

eso0324 — Pressemitteilung

Philippe Busquin Visits Paranal

30. Juli 2003: The European Commissioner for Research, Mr. Philippe Busquin, who is currently visiting the Republic of Chile, arrived at the ESO Paranal Observatory on Tuesday afternoon, July 29, 2003. The Commissioner was accompanied, among others, by the EU Ambassador to Chile, Mr. Wolfgang Plasa, and Ms. Christina Lazo, Executive Director of the Chilean Science and Technology Agency (CONICYT).

eso0323 — Pressemitteilung

Catherine Cesarsky

24. Juli 2003: The General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), meeting in Sydney (Australia), has appointed the ESO Director General, Dr. Catherine Cesarsky, as President Elect for a three-year period (2003-2006). The IAU is the world's foremost organisation for astronomy, uniting almost 9000 professional scientists on all continents. The IAU General Assembly also elected Prof. Ron Ekers (Australia) as President (2003 - 2006). Dr. Cesarsky will then become President of the IAU in 2006, when the General Assembly next meets in Prague (Czechia). Dr. Cesarsky is the first woman scientist to receive this high distinction.

eso0322 — Pressemitteilung

Revealing the Beast Within

22. Juli 2003: Peering into a giant molecular cloud in the Milky Way galaxy - known as W49 - astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have discovered a whole new population of very massive newborn stars . This research is being presented today at the International Astronomical Union's 25th General Assembly held in Sydney, Australia, by ESO-scientist João Alves. With the help of infrared images obtained during a period of excellent observing conditions with the ESO 3.5-m New Technology Telescope (NTT) at the La Silla Observatory (Chile), the astronomers looked deep into this molecular cloud and discovered four massive stellar clusters, with hot and energetic stars as massive as 120 solar masses. The exceedingly strong radiation from the stars in the largest of these clusters is "powering" a 20 light-year diameter region of mostly ionized hydrogen gas (a "giant HII region"). W49 is one of the most energetic regions of star formation in the Milky Way. With the present discovery, the true sources of the enormous energy have now been revealed for the first time, finally bringing to an end some decades of astronomical speculations and hypotheses.

eso0321 — Pressemitteilung

Nearest Cosmic Mirage

16. Juli 2003: Using the ESO 3.6-m telescope at La Silla (Chile), an international team of astronomers [1] has discovered a complex cosmic mirage in the southern constellation Crater (The Cup). This "gravitational lens" system consists of (at least) four images of the same quasar as well as a ring-shaped image of the galaxy in which the quasar resides - known as an "Einstein ring." The more nearby lensing galaxy that causes this intriguing optical illusion is also well visible. The team obtained spectra of these objects with the new EMMI camera mounted on the ESO 3.5-m New Technology Telescope (NTT), also at the La Silla observatory. They find that the lensed quasar [2] is located at a distance of 6,300 million light-years (its "redshift" is z = 0.66 [3]) while the lensing elliptical galaxy is rougly halfway between the quasar and us, at a distance of 3,500 million light-years (z = 0.3). The system has been designated RXS J1131-1231 - it is the closest gravitationally lensed quasar discovered so far.

eso0320 — Pressemitteilung

New Fast Lane towards Discoveries of Clusters of Galaxies Inaugurated

14. Juli 2003: Using the ESA XMM-Newton satellite, a team of European and Chilean astronomers [2] has obtained the world's deepest "wide-field" X-ray image of the cosmos to date. This penetrating view, when complemented with observations by some of the largest and most efficient ground-based optical telescopes, including the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), has resulted in the discovery of several large clusters of galaxies. These early results from an ambitious research programme are extremely promising and pave the way for a very comprehensive and thorough census of clusters of galaxies at various epochs. Relying on the foremost astronomical technology and with an unequalled observational efficiency, this project is set to provide new insights into the structure and evolution of the distant Universe.

eso0319 — Pressemitteilung

A First Look at the Doughnut Around a Giant Black Hole

19. Juni 2003: Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are one of the most energetic and mysterious phenomena in the universe. In some galaxies indeed, the core generates amounts of energy which surpass those of normal galaxies, such as the Milky Way, by many orders of magnitude. The central engine of these power stations is thought to be a supermassive black hole. Indirect lines of evidence have suggested that these massive black holes are enshrouded in a thick doughnut-shaped structure of gas and dust, which astronomers call a "torus". However, due to the limited sharpness of images that can be obtained with present telescopes in the 10-m range, such a torus has never been imaged to date. Using the new and powerful VLT Interferometer [1] - a mode of the ESO Very Large Telescope that combines light from at least two telescopes to obtain information on very fine scales - a team of European astronomers [2] has succeeded for the first time in resolving structures in the dusty torus of the prototype AGN, the famous galaxy NGC 1068. The structures have a size of roughly 0.03 arcsec, corresponding to about 10 light-years at the distance of the galaxy. This important achievement shows that the VLT Interferometer, using the recently inaugurated MIDI instrument [3], proves an invaluable tool in the study of objects outside our own Galaxy.

eso0318 — Pressemitteilung

Cosmological Gamma-Ray Bursts and Hypernovae Conclusively Linked

18. Juni 2003: A very bright burst of gamma-rays was observed on March 29, 2003 by NASA's High Energy Transient Explorer (HETE-II) , in a sky region within the constellation Leo. Within 90 min, a new, very bright light source (the "optical afterglow") was detected in the same direction by means of a 40-inch telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory (Australia) and also in Japan. The gamma-ray burst was designated GRB 030329 , according to the date. And within 24 hours, a first, very detailed spectrum of this new object was obtained by the UVES high-dispersion spectrograph on the 8.2-m VLT KUEYEN telescope at the ESO Paranal Observatory (Chile). It allowed to determine the distance as about 2,650 million light-years (redshift 0.1685). Continued observations with the FORS1 and FORS2 multi-mode instruments on the VLT during the following month allowed an international team of astronomers [1] to document in unprecedented detail the changes in the spectrum of the optical afterglow of this gamma-ray burst . Their detailed report appears in the June 19 issue of the research journal "Nature". The spectra show the gradual and clear emergence of a supernova spectrum of the most energetic class known, a "hypernova" . This is caused by the explosion of a very heavy star - presumably over 25 times heavier than the Sun. The measured expansion velocity (in excess of 30,000 km/sec) and the total energy released were exceptionally high, even within the elect hypernova class. From a comparison with more nearby hypernovae, the astronomers are able to fix with good accuracy the moment of the stellar explosion. It turns out to be within an interval of plus/minus two days of the gamma-ray burst. This unique conclusion provides compelling evidence that the two events are directly connected. These observations therefore indicate a common physical process behind the hypernova explosion and the associated emission of strong gamma-ray radiation. The team concludes that it is likely to be due to the nearly instantaneous, non-symmetrical collapse of the inner region of a highly developed star (known as the "collapsar" model). The March 29 gamma-ray burst will pass into the annals of astrophysics as a rare "type-defining event", providing conclusive evidence of a direct link between cosmological gamma-ray bursts and explosions of very massive stars.

eso0317 — Pressemitteilung

Curtain-Lifting Winds Allow Rare Glimpse into Massive Star Factory

16. Juni 2003: Based on a vast observational effort with different telescopes and instruments, ESO-astronomer Dieter Nürnberger has obtained a first glimpse of the very first stages in the formation of heavy stars. These critical phases of stellar evolution are normally hidden from the view, because massive protostars are deeply embedded in their native clouds of dust and gas, impenetrable barriers to observations at all but the longest wavelengths. In particular, no visual or infrared observations have yet "caught" nascent heavy stars in the act and little is therefore known so far about the related processes. Profiting from the cloud-ripping effect of strong stellar winds from adjacent, hot stars in a young stellar cluster at the center of the NGC 3603 complex, several objects located near a giant molecular cloud were found to be bona-fide massive protostars, only about 100,000 years old and still growing. Three of these objects, designated IRS 9A-C, could be studied in more detail. They are very luminous (IRS 9A is about 100,000 times intrinsically brighter than the Sun), massive (more than 10 times the mass of the Sun) and hot (about 20,000 degrees). They are surrounded by relative cold dust (about 0°C), probably partly arranged in disks around these very young objects. Two possible scenarios for the formation of massive stars are currently proposed, by accretion of large amounts of circumstellar material or by collision (coalescence) of protostars of intermediate masses. The new observations favour accretion, i.e. the same process that is active during the formation of stars of smaller masses.

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