Latest AB Doradus Stories

[ Watch the Video: Artists Impression of Free-Floating Planet ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Astronomers have identified a body that is most likely a planet wandering throughout space without a parent star. The free-floating planet candidate is the closet such object to the Solar System observed so far, lying at a distance of about 100 light-years away. Astronomers using the European Space Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Canada-France-Hawaii...

Observing the image of a faint object that lies close to a star is a demanding task as the object is generally hidden in the glare of the star. Characterising this object, by taking spectra, is an even harder challenge. Still, thanks to ingenious scientists and a new ESO imaging spectrograph, this is now feasible, paving the way to an eldorado of many new thrilling discoveries.These very high contrast observations are fundamental for directly imaging unknown extra-solar planets (i.e. planets...