ESOcast 147 Light: First Light for Planet Hunter ExTrA at La Silla (4K UHD) A new national facility at ESO’s La Silla Observatory has successfully made its first observations. The ExTrA telescopes will search for and study Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby red dwarf stars. ExTrA’s novel design allows for much improved sensitivity compared to previous searches. Astronomers now have a powerful new tool to help in the search for potentially habitable worlds. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →

ESOcast 146 Light: Odd Behaviour of Star Reveals Black Hole in Giant Star Cluster (4K UHD) Astronomers using ESO’s MUSE instrument on the Very Large Telescope in Chile have discovered a star in the cluster NGC 3201 that is behaving very strangely. It appears to be orbiting an invisible black hole with about four times the mass of the Sun — the first such inactive stellar-mass black hole found in a globular cluster. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →