VLT Archives

This artist’s illustration shows the magnetic activity around a hot Jupiter exoplanet. Hot Jupiters have one side that is always facing their host star and is scorching hot, whereas the other side is extremely cold. This steep temperature difference creates fast winds that blow from the day side to the night side. The planet’s magnetic field, shown here with blue lines, can slow these winds down. Credit International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Garlick

Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Habitable Zones, Magnetic Fields, Electromagnetism, bioelectricity,, Press Release

Strange Winds Reveal Strongest Hints Yet Of Magnetic Activity In Exoplanets

by Keith CowingJune 3, 2026June 3, 2026

By measuring the strength of the invisible magnetic fields of seven ultra-hot Jupiters, astronomers have taken a major step toward understanding planets beyond our Solar System. A new study published […]

Two orders of high-resolution spectra with the best-fit model overplotted in yellow for each target. The observation on the first day (September 21, 2022) is chosen for 2MASS J0249-0557 c. The wavelength range is selected to include the 12CO and 13CO bandheads. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Beta Pictoris, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Status Report

Chemistry And Isotope Ratios Of Substellar Atmospheres In The β Pictoris Young Moving Group

by Keith CowingMay 6, 2026May 6, 2026

Measuring the chemical and isotopic compositions of gas giants and brown dwarfs provides insights into their formation pathways and birth environments. 2MASS J0249-0557 c is an L2-type planetary mass companion […]

The Paranal solar ESPRESSO Telescope (PoET)

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

First Light For PoET: Shining (sun)Light On Exoplanet Research

by Keith CowingApril 9, 2026April 9, 2026

The Paranal solar ESPRESSO Telescope (PoET), installed at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Paranal site in Chile, has made its first observations. The telescope will work with ESO’s ESPRESSO instrument […]

Left panel: Original L-band detection of CC1 in Close et al. (2025a). Middle panel: New H-band detection of WISPIT 2c following RDI. We show a confined annulus that was used for optimal stellar signal subtraction. Note that the bright arch on the right side of the annulus is the forward scattering side of the circumstellar disk. Right panel: Detection map of WISPIT 2c planet with VLTI/GRAVITY on the night of 2025-10-04. The map shows the periodogram power maps of a point source companion as a function of angular offset from the star, where the companion location corresponds to the strongest peak. -- ESO

Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

A Solar System In The Making?

by Keith CowingMarch 25, 2026March 25, 2026

Astronomers have observed two planets forming in the disc around a young star named WISPIT 2. Having previously detected one planet, the team have now employed European Southern Observatory (ESO) […]

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Atmospheric Constraints On GJ 1214 b From CRIRES+ And Prospects For Characterisation With ANDES

by Keith CowingFebruary 19, 2026February 19, 2026

In this study, we aim to constrain the atmospheric composition of GJ 1214 b using all available transits observed with the upgraded CRIRES+ spectrograph at the VLT by searching for […]

Orbit of 51 Eri b. The left panel shows the predicted RV of the planet as a function of time. The HiRISE RV measurements are overplotted as red dots, along with the rejected orbits in grey from the addition of the RV measurements. The middle panel is a zoomed-in version of the left panel around our RV measurements. In particular, we see that a future RV measurement at the end of 2026 should enable us to reject the last low-eccentric orbital populations. This is illustrated by the dashed vertical line overplotted at the end of 2026. The right panel displays the astrometric orbit of the planet inferred, including the line of nodes and the phase of the planet. The red crosses represent the estimate of the position of the planet during the HiRISE observations. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

Cold And Eccentric: A High-spectral Resolution View Of 51 Eri b With VLT/HiRISE

by Keith CowingFebruary 13, 2026

Discovered almost 10 years ago, the giant planet 51 Eridani b is one of the least separated (0.2 arcsec) and faintest (J = 19.74 mag) directly imaged exoplanets known to […]

The different Solar System bodies and exoplanets this chapter focuses on, and associated missions. Those with a strong PlanetS involvement are shown with an asterisk. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Climates Of Terrestrial Exoplanets And Biosignatures

by Keith CowingJanuary 29, 2026January 29, 2026

Understanding the climates of terrestrial exoplanets and the detectability of biosignatures is an inherently interdisciplinary challenge, requiring the integration of insights from Solar System exploration, exoplanet observations and climate science. […]

Dust clouds reflect starlight around the star R Doradus. As it nears the end of its life, the star is shedding its outer layers, forming clouds of gas and dust around it (shown here in pink and yellow). Scientists have long believed that starlight illuminating these clouds could power a stellar wind. But the colour of the light around the star reflected by dust, , shows that the dust grains are too small to explain the star’s wind. The image was taken in polarised visible light with VLT/SPHERE. In the centre in yellow and orange, we see ALMA’s image showing the surface of the star. Credit ESO/T. Schirmer/T. Khouri; ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)

Astrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Interstellar, Panspermia, Press Release, Space Weather & Heliophysics

Stardust Study Resets How Life’s Atoms Spread Through Space

by Keith CowingDecember 29, 2025December 29, 2025

Starlight and stardust are not enough to drive the powerful winds of giant stars, transporting the building blocks of life through our galaxy. That’s the conclusion of a new study […]

This artist’s impression shows a view of the surface of the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System. © ESO/M. Kornmesser

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Proxima Centauri

Conclusive Tests For The RISTRETTO Proxima b Exoplanet Explorer

by Keith CowingDecember 10, 2025December 10, 2025

The RISTRETTO project, dedicated to observing Proxima b –the closest exoplanet to the Solar System — is reaching a new milestone: several key components of this high-precision spectrograph have been […]

Images of the total intensity of scattered light from debris disks detected with IRDIS, IFS, or ZIMPOL. The white bar at the bottom of each image corresponds to 1″. In all images, sky north is up and east is to the left. Original image -- Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Comets and Asteroids, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

SPHERE’s Debris Disk Gallery: Tell-tale Signs Of Dust And Small Bodies In Distant Solar Systems

by Keith CowingDecember 10, 2025December 10, 2025

Observations with the instrument SPHERE at ESO’s Very Large Telescope have produced an unprecedented gallery of “debris disks” in exoplanetary systems. Gaël Chauvin (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), project scientist […]