El primer cometa de más allá de nuestro Sistema Solar ha sido fotografiado con éxito por Gemini en varios colores. La imagen del objeto recién descubierto, denominado C / 2019 Q4 (Borisov), se obtuvo la noche del 9 al 10 de septiembre utilizando el espectrógrafo de objetos múltiples Gemini en el telescopio Gemini Norte en el Maunakea de Hawái
Su tamaño y gravedad superficial son mucho mayores que los de la Tierra, y su entorno de radiación puede ser hostil, pero un planeta distante llamado K2-18b ha captado el interés de científicos de todo el mundo. Por primera vez, los investigadores han detectado signos de vapor de agua en la atmósfera de un planeta más allá de nuestro sistema solar que reside en la “zona habitable”, la región alrededor de una estrella en la que el agua líquida podría acumularse en la superficie de un planeta rocoso.
Anyone who has ever peered at Saturn through a small telescope is immediately enticed by its elegant rings, which make the far-flung planet one of the most exotic-looking, opulent worlds in the solar system.
A renegade star exploding in a distant galaxy has forced astronomers to set aside decades of research and focus on a new breed of supernova that can utterly annihilate its parent star — leaving no remnant behind. The signature event, something astronomers had never witnessed before, may represent the way in which the most massive stars in the Universe, including the first stars, die.
Supernovae, neutron star mergers, black holes at the center of galaxies, erupting young stars — these are all examples of objects in the night sky that change their brightness over time. In the coming years, astronomers expect to discover millions of these variable astronomical events with new sensitive telescopes like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).
Gemini Observatory provides critical observations that confirm the distance to a mysterious, very short-lived, radio outburst from a galaxy billions of light years away.
Finding common table salt — sodium chloride — on the surface of a moon is more than just a scientific curiosity when that moon is Europa, a potential abode of life.
On July 2, 2019 a total solar eclipse will pass over Chile and Argentina, and through a stroke of astronomical luck, the path of totality crosses directly over the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory located in the foothills of the Andes, 7,241 feet (2200 meters) above sea level in the Coquimbo Region of northern Chile. Five science teams chosen by NSF’s National Solar Observatory will perform experiments at Cerro Tololo during the eclipse; four of them will have their equipment trained on the Sun’s elusive corona and one will study eclipse effects on the Earth itself.
Team of University of La Serena students to recreate the Eddington Experiment that proved Einstein right.
While the National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope will stare at the Sun to detect magnetic fields, it first has to focus on objects far away – other celestial objects visible only in the night sky.