Scientific news – INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera

INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera

INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera

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Italy shines in Mumbai with three bronze medals – Media INAF

Rendering showing the appearance of CUBEs, the instrument that will be installed on one of the VLT telescopes at ESO’s Paranal Observatory.

26 August 2025

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Green light for Cubes – Media INAF

Rendering showing the appearance of CUBEs, the instrument that will be installed on one of the VLT telescopes at ESO’s Paranal Observatory.

8 August 2025

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Seven “Astri” in Tenerife to Observe the Gamma Sky – Media INAF

Giovanni Pareschi with the Astri-1 telescope in the background - Credits:

8 August 2025

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This is how we use your 5×1000 – Media INAF

Antonella Gasperini, senior technology manager at INAF in Arcetri, responsible for the protection and enhancement of historical scientific heritage. Credits: INAF

22 July 2025

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Astronomers witness newborn planet sculpting the dust around it – ESO Press Release

The image to the left, taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows a possible planet being born around the young star HD 135344B. This star, located around 440 light-years away, is surrounded by a disc of dust and gas with prominent spiral arms. Theory predicts that planets can sculpt spiral arms like these, and the new planet candidate is located at the base of one of the arms, just as expected.

The image was captured with a new VLT instrument: the Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS). The central black circle corresponds to a coronagraph –– a device that blocks the light of the star to reveal faint details around it. The white circle indicates the location of the planet.

The image to the right is a combination of previous observations taken with the SPHERE instrument also at the VLT (red) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA, orange and blue). These and other previous studies of HD 135344B did not find signatures of a companion, but ERIS may have finally unveiled the culprit responsible for the star’s spiral disc - Crediti: ESO/F. Maio et al./T. Stolker et al./ ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/N. van der Marel et al.

21 July 2025

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For the first time, astronomers witness the dawn of a new solar system – ESO Press Release

This is HOPS-315, a baby star where astronomers have observed evidence for the earliest stages of planet formation. The image was taken with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner. Together with data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), these observations show that hot minerals are beginning to solidify. In orange we see the distribution of carbon monoxide, blowing away from the star in a butterfly-shaped wind. In blue we see a narrow jet of silicon monoxide, also beaming away from the star. These gaseous winds and jets are common around baby stars like HOPS-315. Together the ALMA and JWST observations indicate that, in addition to these features, there is also a disc of gaseous silicon monoxide around the star that is condensing into solid silicates –– the first stages of planetary formation - Credit: ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/M. McClure et al.

17 July 2025

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Between the ups and downs of a pulsar with Ixpe – Polarization reveals the Secret of PSR J1023+0038 – Media INAF

Artist's impression of the central regions of the PSR J1023+0038 system, showing the pulsar, the inner accretion disk, and the pulsar wind. Credits: Marco Maria Messa (University of Milan and INAF) and Maria Cristina Baglio (INAF)

15 July 2025

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Double detonation: new image shows remains of star destroyed by pair of explosions – ESO Press Release

This image, taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows the supernova remnant SNR 0509-67.5. These are the expanding remains of a star that exploded hundreds of years ago in a double-detonation – the first photographic evidence that stars can die with two blasts. The data were captured with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument at the VLT. MUSE allows astronomers to map the distribution of different chemical elements, displayed here in different colours. Calcium is shown in blue, and it is arranged in two concentric shells. These two layers indicate that the now-dead star exploded with a double-detonation - Credit: ESO/P. Das et al. Background stars (Hubble): K. Noll et al.

2 July 2025

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Astronomers capture most detailed thousand-colour image of a galaxy – ESO Press Release

This image shows a detailed, thousand-colour image of the Sculptor Galaxy captured with the MUSE instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). Regions of pink light are spread throughout this whole galactic snapshot, which come from ionised hydrogen in star-forming regions. These areas have been overlaid on a map of already formed stars in Sculptor to create the mix of pinks and blues seen here - Credit: ESO/E. Congiu et al.

18 June 2025

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Telescope that saw “Martians” restored – Media INAF

Il rifrattore Merz dell’Inaf di Brera, prima, durante e dopo il restauro. Crediti: Laura Barbalini/Inaf Brera

12 June 2025

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In Brera, celestial maps and terrestrial maps – Media INAF

State of Milan, 1777: at the bottom of the map, in the foreground, a bucolic scene of country leisure but, more in depth, the hard work in the fields

29 May 2025

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“Cosmic joust”: astronomers observe pair of galaxies in deep-space battle – ESO Press Release

This image, taken with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), shows the molecular gas content of two galaxies involved in a cosmic collision. The one on the right hosts a quasar –– a supermassive black hole that is accreting material from its surroundings and releasing intense radiation directly into the other galaxy - Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Balashev and P. Noterdaeme et al.

26 May 2025