The first telescope on a Cherenkov Telescope Array site makes its debut
La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain – On Wednesday, 10 October 2018, more than 200 guests from around the world gathered on the northern array site of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) to celebrate the inauguration of the first prototype Large-Sized Telescope (LST).
First Confirmed Image of Newborn Planet Caught with ESO’s VLT
SPHERE, a planet-hunting instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, has captured the first confirmed image of a planet caught in the act of forming in the dusty disc surrounding a young star. The young planet is carving a path through the primordial disc of gas and dust around the very young star PDS 70. The data suggest that the planet’s atmosphere is cloudy.
The KM3NeT/ORCA neutrino detector is coming online
On 22 September 2017, after a two-day long sea operation, the first detection unit of the ORCA neutrino telescope came online. This marks an important milestone of the scientific and technological endeavour of the international KM3NeT Collaboration.
ALMA Observes Most Distant Oxygen Ever
A team of astronomers has used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to detect glowing oxygen in a distant galaxy seen just 700 million years after the Big Bang. This is the most distant galaxy in which oxygen has ever been unambiguously detected, and it is most likely being ionised by powerful radiation from young giant stars. This galaxy could be an example of one type of source responsible for cosmic reionisation in the early history of the Universe.
New Eyes on the Sky
The UFFO (Ultra-Fast Flash Observatory) Pathfinder for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), and the TUS (Transient Ultraviolet Setup) telescope for ultrahigh energy cosmic rays, were launched onboard the Lomonosov satellite at 11:00 a.m., April 28, 2016, by the Soyuz-2.1a rocket, which first launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome.
Letter of Intent for KM3NeT 2.0
On 28 January 2016, scientists of the KM3NeT Collaboration have publicly announced KM3NeT 2.0, their ambition for the immediate future to further exploit the clear waters of the deep Mediterranean Sea for the detection of cosmic and atmospheric neutrinos. The published Letter of Intent details the science performance as well as the technical design of the KM3NeT 2.0 infrastructure.
The construction of the KM3NeT neutrino telescope has begun
In December 2015, scientists and engineers started the installation of KM3NeT.. Once completed, it will be the largest neutrino detector in the Northern Hemisphere. Located in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea, the telescope will be used to study the fundamental properties of neutrinos and map the high-energy cosmic neutrinos emanating from extreme cataclysmic events in the Universe.
