ESO

Astronomers have snapped the first confirmed image of a planet still in the process of forming. The newborn, named PDS 70b, was spotted by the ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) as a bright splotch in the cloud of dust surrounding a young star.

Like fireworks that linger for millennia, nebulae are some of the most photogenic objects in the universe. These vast clouds of dust and gas represent both the birth and death of stars. New Atlas has collected some of the most breathtaking nebula images ever taken.

​Astronomers have captured the most detailed view to date of the region of space surrounding the famous Tarantula Nebula – a 1,000 light-year wide swirling cloud of cosmic gas, the core of which is illuminated by some of the brightest and most massive stars ever detected.

Just 40 light-years away, TRAPPIST-1 is one of the clearest case studies into how other planetary systems work. New research has calculated the densities and atmospheres of the planets, giving us a better understanding of how they might look and how much water might be there.

ESO has released the most detailed view to date of the ominous Lupus 3 dark nebula, one of the closest star formation regions to our Sun. Lupus 3 is located roughly 600 light-years from Earth, and is known to host a population of young stellar bodies and protostars.

An international team of astronomers has successfully imaged the surface of the geriatric star π1 Gruis, revealing enormous convection cells that cycle material between the interior and surface of the star – essentially acting as a massive stellar lava lamp.

The hunt for exoplanets has entered a new phase with the European Southern observatory's Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations (ESPRESSO) achieving first light.

​An international team of astronomers has completed the deepest spectroscopic survey of the early universe ever undertaken, collecting data on 1,600 galaxies, and discovering 72 previously unknown galaxies.

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has confirmed that the object provisionally designated A/2017 U1 is, in fact, an asteroid that came from outside the Solar System. "`Oumuamua," is different from any object seen before and has been roaming between the stars for hundreds of millions of years.

​An international team of astronomers has discovered a massive Jupiter-sized planet orbiting an M-dwarf star only half the mass and size of our Sun. The existence of so massive a planet around such a small star challenges current theories regarding planetary formation.

​The ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has captured a beautiful image of a planetary nebula known as NGC 7009, or the Saturn Nebula, as part of a wider study attempting to unravel the processes that give these vast cosmic clouds of dust and glowing gas their distinctive shape.

Exoplanets are a constant source of surprise and wonder, and now astronomers have noticed something strange about a gas giant called WASP-19b. In the upper atmosphere of this “hot Jupiter” sits a layer of titanium oxide, which has flipped the usual atmospheric temperature structure on its head.