Astronomers detect echoes from the depth of a red giant star
An international team of astronomers from the University of Leuven, Sydney and Liege, discovered
waves inside a star
that travel so deep that they reach the core. The discovery was published in the renowned
journal Science, and was possible thanks to precise measurements with the Kepler space
telescope.
Read the press release and background
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VLT Interferometer detects disc around aged star
A team of European astronomers (has used ESO's Very Large Telescope
Interferometer and its razor-sharp eyes to discover a reservoir of
dust trapped in a disc that surrounds an elderly star. The discovery
provides additional clues about the shaping of planetary nebulae.
Read the ESO press release
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VLT Interferometer detects disc around aged star |
Planet survives stellar explosion
A planet circling close around the hot B-type subdwarf V 391 Pegasi has survived the evolution from its star towards a red giant. The planet called
V 391 Pegasi B is 1.7 astronomical units away from V 391 Pegasi and was discovered by means of asteroseismic data. One of our colleagues made this
fascinating discovery together with an international team. Their results are published in Nature.
Read the article in Nature
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Image courtesy of HELAS, the European Helio- and Asteroseismology
Network, funded by the European Union under Framework Programme 6; Mark
Garlick, artist. |
MERCATOR detects optical afterglow of GRB050408
On April 09, 2005 the Flemish Mercator telescope was used to detect
the optical afterglow of a gamma ray burst named GRB050408. Gamma ray
bursts are short-lived bursts of gamma-ray photons, the origin of
which was a long time mystery.
Read more about GRB050408
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MERCATOR takes pictures of comet Machholz
Over the past two weeks, the Flemish Mercator telescope has taken beautiful
pictures of the comet that is currently visible everywhere in the Northern
hemisphere. Comet Machholz, discovered by the American optician Donald E.
Machholz Jr on the 27th of august 2004, reaches its maximum brightness in
January 2005.
More information |
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Foreseeing the Sun's fate: Astronomical interferometry reveals the close environment of Mira stars
For the first time, an international team of astronomers led by Guy Perrin from the Paris Observatory/LESIA, (Meudon, France) and Stephen Ridgway from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (Tucson, Arizona, USA) has observed the close environment of five so-called red giant Mira stars, using astronomical interferometric techniques. They found that the observed Mira stars are embedded in a shell of water vapor and possibly of carbon monoxide that extends to twice the stellar radius. Studying these Mira stars is of particular interest since they are now undergoing a late stage of the evolution that one-solar mass stars, including our Sun, experience. Therefore, these stars illustrate the fate of our Sun five billion years from now. Would such a star, including its surrounding shell, be located at the Sun's position in our solar system, it would extend far beyond Mars.
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Venus in front of the Sun
On tuesday, june 8th the planet Venus will shift in
front of the Sun's disk. The last time this rare event
took place was in 1882. As far as we know, no living
human on Earth has witnessed a Venus transit.
More (Dutch) |
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The Red Rectangle
spacetelescope.org -- 11/May/2004
Astronomers may not have observed the fabled "Stairway to Heaven", but they have photographed something almost as intriguing: ladder-like
structures surrounding a dying star.
More information on the Red Rectangle
ESA press release
NASA press release
Hydrodynamical simulations by Vincent Icke
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KUL opens own telescope on La Palma
vrtnieuws.net -- 10/Oct/2003
The KUL and the flemish government will inaugurate the Mercator telescope today. The telescope is
a new addition to the telescopepark on the Canarian Island La Palma. Ten countries placed their
telescopes on Roque de los Muchachos, with 2400m the highest point of the mountain.
Coverage vrtnieuws.net
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Starquakes shed light on stellar evolution
Science magazine -- 29/May/2003
Astronomers at the universities of Leuven, Liège and Wroclaw
have obtained a clearer picture of how the movement in a star's core affects its
evolution. They combined more than 1400 observations made over a 21-year period of
the star HD 129929 using a technique known as asteroseismology.
Abstract Science magazine
Coverage by PhysicsWeb
Coverage by K.U.Leuven News
Science Magazine Perspective by S. Kawaler |
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Ultrabass Sounds of the Giant Star xi Hya
ESO Press Release 10/02 -- 15/May/2002
Astronomers of our institute, together with collaborators
at Geneva Observatory (CH) and Aarhus University (DK)
discovered for the first time observations of solar-type
oscillations in a star very different from the Sun.
To the ESO press release
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Planet formation around dying star
ESA Information Note 05-98 -- 26/Feb/1998
Astronomers at the universities of Amsterdam, Louvain,
Groningen and Utrecht found proof that planets can form
around old, dying stars. In the vicinity of the Red Rectangle
they have detected a ring of matter constituting the first
stage of planet formation.
To the ESA information note |
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