Very Large Telescope

Using polarized light, astronomers have detected signs of cloud bands in the atmosphere of a brown dwarf far beyond the solar system. It turns out that these gassy giants have a similar appearance to Jupiter, and the same kind of wild weather.

Astronomers have taken the clearest-ever shots of asteroid Pallas. The new images revealed the surface of this tiny world to be heavily dotted with craters, to the point where it’s been dubbed the “golf ball asteroid.”

An incredibly detailed survey of the Milky Way’s core has shed light on our galaxy’s legacy of star birth. According to the authors of a study, their results disagree with the previously held belief that stars formed in at a continual pace.

Scientists have discovered a massive planet evaporating as it orbits the remains of a Sun-like star. This is the first time evidence of a huge planet orbiting a white dwarf has been observed, and it could help reveal the fate of our own solar system.

A galaxy seems like a hard thing to miss – let alone 39 of them – but that’s exactly what a team of astronomers has just discovered. So where have these countless stars been hiding? About 11.5 billion light-years away, in a part of the light spectrum that’s invisible to many telescopes.

A few months ago, the asteroid 2006 QV89 grabbed headlines thanks to a slim chance of striking Earth this September. But now the potentially-hazardous space rock has missed its appointment. ESA has confirmed that the asteroid hasn’t appeared in the sky yet, ruling out an impact any time soon.

Scientists have been unable to figure out what fast radio bursts are or where they’re even coming from. Now, a team of astronomers has finally managed to trace one of the signals back to its home galaxy billions of light-years away, meaning we’re closing in on the culprit.

Saturn sports an impressive ring system, but Uranus also has some, although they’re usually too faint to see without a powerful telescope. Striking new images shows these rings in very clear detail thanks to thermal imaging, allowing astronomers to measure their temperature for the first time.

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.

​Asteroid 2012 TC4 hasn’t been seen since its last brush with our planet 5 years ago, but astronomers knew it would return in October 2017. Right on cue, the building-sized rock has now emerged from the darkness of space, and its trajectory has been calculated.

As part of its push to probe the secrets of the Alpha Centauri system, the Breakthrough initiatives will fund a hardware upgrade for the Very Large Telescope in Chile, equipping it with new imaging capabilities to better hunt for habitable planets in the region.