June 6, 2014

An image of the star HR 4796A and the dust ring around it taken by SPHERE (Image ESO/J.-L. Beuzit et al./SPHERE Consortium)

SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch), a new instruments that combines different advanced techniques to directly photograph planets in other solar systems, has been activated for its test phase. At the end of 2013 scientists verified that it worked in Europe and they shipped it to Chile to be installed on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile.