Feb 10, 2021
Imaging planets that could potentially sustain life around nearby stars has become a possibility thanks to advances reported by an international team of astronomers in the journal Nature Communications. Using a newly developed system for mid-infrared exoplanet imaging in combination with a very long observation time, they achieved the capability of directly imaging planets about three times the size of Earth within the habitable zones of nearby stars.
Jun 30, 2019
A second life for the CEA VISIR camera
The first comprehensive planetary search campaign around the nearest star Alpha Centauri A has just been performed on the VLT telescope of the Southern European Observatory (ESO) using the NEAR infrared instrument (Near Earths in the AlphaCen Region). Based on the VISIR infrared camera built under the coordination of the Astrophysics Department of CEA-Irfu and in service at ESO since 2004, the NEAR instrument is designed to detect planets with the Earth's mass and above.
Dec 19, 2009
Herschel discovers hundreds of proto-stars in a dark cloud
The first scientific images of the Herschel Space telescope have just been released during a scientific conference held at Madrid (Spain) on 17 and 18 decembre 2009, only six months after launch.
Nov 26, 2009
Do quasars give birth to galaxies?
Which came first - the black hole or the galaxy? Many large galaxies in the Universe have a supermassive black hole at their centre. But which came first? The black hole that is frantically consuming the matter around it or the vast galaxy that is its home?
A European team led by David Elbaz from CEA-IRFU's Astrophysics Department has just discovered a spectacular interaction between a quasar and a galaxy from observations made with the VISIR camera.
