#Universidad Andrés Bello

[tjeromebaker]

Reseña | Reivindicación y Reconocimiento: Relatos de Resiliencia Femenina en la Historia Chilena | Mujeres En La Historia de Chile

La historia de Chile contada a través de sus más eminentes mujeres ¿A cuántas mujeres de la conquista o del Chile colonial conocemos? ¿Quiénes fueron Janequeo, Catalina de Erauso y Úrsula Suárez? ¿Por qué todavía resuenan los nombres de Teresa Flores, Ernestina Pérez, Inés Echeverría y Teresa Wilms Montt? ¿Por qué fue tan importante para las mujeres de la mitad del siglo xix el “decreto…

[laopiniononline]

Universidad Andrés Bello entrega primeras becas a más de un centenar de estudiantes

Universidad Andrés Bello entrega primeras becas a más de un centenar de estudiantes

Buscando proyectar en el largo plazo su misión y propósitos y generar así más y mejores oportunidades, la UNAB lanzó oficialmente un fondo de reserva patrimonial que partió con un capital inicial de $ $30 mil millones. Con la entrega de 112 becas de excelencia académica a estudiantes de sus tres sedes, la Universidad Andrés Bello lanzó oficialmente su “Endowment UNAB”, sumándose así a diversas…

[johnlowell69]

70 años de la UCAB: Manuel Sosa Pietri

[petriccor]

Día 1 - Reto Ocultubre (2024)

El silencio de las piedras

Pienso y pregunto sobre qué hago al pensar, mas que recordar la figura del que se sienta a escribir su idea. Debo admitir que las noches siempre me han sido más interesantes que el día. Sobretodo cuando se trata de historias y culturas que se esconden bajo la luna, y en dónde sus costumbres se silencian como secretos sepultados a los aullidos de algún depredador lejano. Claro está, en este caso, que se guardaron en el sonido de las olas que rompían contra las rocas.

El avión a Rapa Nui no demoró lo que esperaba. El profesor Avello había comentado que sería un largo tramo de dos o tres horas en el aire. Para la sorpresa del que se vino durmiendo por sobre usar su cabeza para ver las palabras del diccionario, el viaje apenas tuvo una duración de una hora y media, desde que las ruedas dejaron el pavimento. Al llegar, el paso de un aire rasposo y helado como lo es un Santiago en otoño, fue dejado por una sensacion gélida pero húmeda: tal como cuando de pequeño los pies sobre el cesped se teñían del verde que tanto costaba sacar en la bañera. Los ojos ardían levemente con el efecto espejo que probablemente era un cambio radical. Por otra parte, el aire era lo que más llamaba la atención, y no debo haber sido el único en pensarlo pues apenas salimos del aeropuerto que, por cierto, tenía bastante que envidiarle al Arturo Merino Benítez, el profesor inspiró de manera densa y, quizá, hasta siseante. Yo mismo creo haberlo sentido minutos antes de que mi colega apareciera por la puerta principal, a pesar de que era de noche y se tratase de un invierno común y corriente, el aire era como respirar el agua y la sal del mar que acababamos de cruzar.

La instalación y los cuartos eran como los habian descrito mis amigos en la infancia, de una madera semi húmeda con un olor que recordaba medianamente a la V región, pero menos cargado y mucho menos industrial. A su vez eran habitaciónes que hablaban por recuerdos, entre estos despertaban las imágenes de Bruno, uno de mis amigos en la infancia, quien siempre contaba haber viajado a la isla. Recuerdo sus palabras narrando la historia de cuando durmió en la casa de sus padres, quienes vivían aquí, diciendo que estuvo golpeando la almohada por las cucarachas que dormitaban en ella. La cara de espanto que coloqué al percatarme que no era solo una dramatización, efectivamente el lugar parecía ser más un hospedaje de vida pequeña y salvaje por sobre los invitados quienes habíamos pagado por dormir "tranquilos".

Cuento todo esto meramente para dar contexto, me calma pensar que alguien probablemente lea estas palabras con algo de gracia, mucha más de la que siento mientras el suelo tiembla en pos de la muchedumbre que marcha con los rostros pintados, siguiendo los pies que marcan la tierra cual volcán que erupta. De todas formas la paz de la llegada no fue muy extensa para nuestra mala suerte. En un principio el viaje jamás habia sido por turismo, Avello y yo éramos algo así como fanáticos de los mitos y el ocultismo, podrías decir que éramos historiadores pero meramente por ocio. Avello era profesor de Química en la Universidad Andrés Bello y yo me dedicaba a enseñar Literatura de manera particular. Rangos ciertamente distintos pero ambos compartíamos el amor por encontrar historias y poder contarlas a nuestra manera. Bueno... Heme aquí con las malas noticias.

A la mañana siguiente a la noche de llegada, mi colega había salido a pasear para aprovechar el viaje. La cara con la que llegó para desayunar rápidamente fue todo lo que me indicó que probablemente serían unos días tediosos y extraños. "Las moscas me mordieron" dijo jadeando aquella vez. No fue la última. Era cierto que esos días de investigación fueron opacados más por el cambio silvestre que existe entre una jungla de asfalto a un lugar remotamente urbanizado. Para cuándo llegamos al domicilio del reconocido investigador Alfonso Alvarado, el día ya se había hecho viejo. Admito que al menos desde mi punto de vista, los días en la isla se sentían inquietantemente cortos, pero a pesar de las leves señales que Avello interpretaba como una advertencia para volver a la capital lo más pronto posible, la idea de encontrar algo oculto más allá de las historias que Nibaldo alguna vez contó, me llamaba más fuerte que las palabras de mi colega.

Alfonso pasó las horas sirviendonos un té hecho de hierbas que no reconocía y hasta este momento sigo sin saber qué eran. Las horas pasaban como minutos cada que las palabras de su boca salían como himnos gregorianos. Mencionó dos lugares importantes en dónde algo llamaba a los lugareños desde hacía décadas: el llamado Tahai el cual el investigador describió como un lugar arqueológico en donde antiguamente se enterraban muertos como si de ceremonias se tratarán, y Ahu Vinapu, que en palabras de Avello solo era un lugar ceremonial más en esta isla maldita. Quizá debería haberle prestado más atención a las miradas que de tanto en tanto me propiciaba mi compañero, como flechas en medio de una guerrilla indígena, o aquellas miradas aborígenes que luego en los días sentí más amenazantes.

Las semanas debían de haber pasado como dos o tres días a lo mucho. La información era escasa y apenas encontrábamos algún tipo de pista que nos llevase a algún tipo de mito del lugar. Una señora durante la estadía constantemente observaba por la rendija mal cerrada de la puerta cuando íbamos a dormir. Podía permanecer horas de pie sin mover un músculo más que los labios, de los cuales no salía ningún tipo de sonido más que el zumbido de los mosquitos durante la noche. Me percaté que al momento de mirar hacia la luz de los pasillos la mujer se iba inmediatamente. Si bien la situación me parecía perturbadora por lo menos, me lo guardé para mí hasta hace dos días, en dónde Avello en una especie de ataque de pánico, prácticamente gritó que la mujer tenía un rostro de piedra. Para cuándo le dije lo que había visto durante las noches, Avello decidió que lo mejor era largarse.

Es verdad que en otros viajes que hemos tenido las cosas siempre han resultado de ciertamanera absurdas, si le podemos decir así, sin embargo, jamás las cosas se han salido de control como lo sucedido anoche.

En mis insistencias por descubrir lo que Alfonso nos había contado sobre los lugares sagrados, y cómo las especies de chamanes en la isla eran los unicos permitidos en pisar dichas tierras para conversar con los "dedos de los antiguos", La noche del primero de octubre de este presente año, 1956, nos decidimos en asistir presencialmente a los lugares de mala muerte. Avello decidió ir al Tahai mientras que yo me caminaría hacia al Ahu Vinapu.

Tal vez debería haber supuesto que era una mala idea. Los pueblos por completo vacíos eran un claro indicio de que las noches en la isla no suponían seguridad, y por supuesto, también las mordidas constantes de los insectos que se paraban como testeando el sabor de los forasteros, era una forma en que la propia naturaleza llamaba a retroceder de aquellos lugares. Para cuándo mi cuerpo, llamado quizá por lo que quiero creer y repito, fue la curiosidad, llegó al lugar sagrado: la imagen en corto no fue lo que esperaba.

Con el pulso tembloroso describo: una especie de hombre tres veces más alto que el chamán vestido de plumas y semi desnudo en el frío de la noche espesa, se posaba frente a él. Con unos ojos de cereza brillante, de sacrificio en sangre que tomaba con su mano de roca, hablaba como el zumbido de los insectos que intentaban introducirse a nuestros oídos. Una cabeza cinco veces más grande que su cuerpo, si es que no más, había dejado un orificio en el suelo rocoso y de tierra en dónde anteriormente supongo se posaba. Con una nariz gruesa y un mentón esculpido, apretaba las piernas de un anciano que se entregaba abriendo los brazos con el cuerpo desnudo, bañado en el tiempo que formaba sus arrugas. Casi como si un derrumbe premeditado hubiese atacado al sujeto, tal como las catástrofes del año pasado en el Norte, solo con un dedo fue aplastado. Aún puedo escuchar el momento agonico y ahogado, el sonido de sus huesos romperse cuál moldadientes ya utilizados, y la imagen viva del Moai que se alzaba cuál ser que Lovecraft tantas veces público como historias reales: se encontraba allí, masticando la tibiedad de la sangre que ahora escurría como babas en su boca sin dientes.

No entro en detalles de lo ocurrido ya que se me hiela el cuerpo al ver los rostros de los que en las mismas plagas conversaban con dicho ser, los mismos que caminan siguiendo a la criatura en la dirección a la posada y quienes traen a Avello en la mano cual desmenuze de sustancia blanda. Quien grita en agonía y se deshace en la fuerza de la gran estatua que camina desde Tahai. Ignoro la mirada de la señora y sobre todo, el rostro de ojos rojos que se asoma por la entrada de la habitación. Si he de dejar registro entonces confirmo que Nibaldo tenía razón. Siempre la tuvo, y es que la cosecha que tanto contaba se llevaba en Chiloé, con los brujos que se transformaban en animales y desaparecían en los mitos que jamás comprobamos, en realidad se encontraban mucho más lejana e impulsada por las costumbres de aquellos que siempre guardaron la verdad.

Alfonso lo sabía después de todo, el también tenía el mismo rostro mordido por la gracia de la isla, la personificación del padre naturaleza que cruel se caracteriza en culturas ocultas, sin ojos a la vista de las ciudades Este es el punto final y desearía contar con más historias en el futuro para mis hijos, inspirar de cierta forma a otros amantes de los mitos, pero la muralla de madera mohosa ha dejado entrar a las moscas que hablan con su voz grave, y que me muerden y beben como quien tomará mi cuerpo una vez se cierre la puerta. Las manos de la mujer, entonces, se posan en mis hombros, y el sacrificio debe llevarse a cabo: los turistas son la cosecha que los cuentos jamás pensaron en narrar.

- Lucciano Carabantes.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

ESO telescope captures the most detailed infrared map ever of our Milky Way

Astronomers have published a gigantic infrared map of the Milky Way containing more than 1.5 billion objects ― the most detailed one ever made. Using the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope, the team monitored the central regions of our Galaxy over more than 13 years. At 500 terabytes of data, this is the largest observational project ever carried out with an ESO telescope.

“We made so many discoveries, we have changed the view of our Galaxy forever,” says Dante Minniti, an astrophysicist at Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile who led the overall project.

This record-breaking map comprises 200 000 images taken by ESO’s VISTA ― the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy. Located at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile, the telescope’s main purpose is to map large areas of the sky. The team used VISTA’s infrared camera VIRCAM, which can peer through the dust and gas that permeates our galaxy. It is therefore able to see the radiation from the Milky Way’s most hidden places, opening a unique window onto our galactic surroundings.

This gigantic dataset [1] covers an area of the sky equivalent to 8600 full moons, and contains about 10 times more objects than a previous map released by the same team back in 2012. It includes newborn stars, which are often embedded in dusty cocoons, and globular clusters –– dense groups of millions of the oldest stars in the Milky Way. Observing infrared light means VISTA can also spot very cold objects, which glow at these wavelengths, like brown dwarfs (‘failed’ stars that do not have sustained nuclear fusion) or free-floating planets that don’t orbit a star.

The observations began in 2010 and ended in the first half of 2023, spanning a total of 420 nights. By observing each patch of the sky many times, the team was able to not only determine the locations of these objects, but also track how they move and whether their brightness changes. They charted stars whose luminosity changes periodically that can be used as cosmic rulers for measuring distances [2]. This has given us an accurate 3D view of the inner regions of the Milky Way, which were previously hidden by dust. The researchers also tracked hypervelocity stars — fast-moving stars catapulted from the central region of the Milky Way after a close encounter with the supermassive black hole lurking there.

The new map contains data gathered as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey [3] and its companion project, the VVV eXtended (VVVX) survey. “The project was a monumental effort, made possible because we were surrounded by a great team,” says Roberto Saito, an astrophysicist at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Brazil and lead author of the paper published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics on the completion of the project.

The VVV and VVVX surveys have already led to more than 300 scientific articles. With the surveys now complete, the scientific exploration of the gathered data will continue for decades to come. Meanwhile, ESO’s Paranal Observatory is being prepared for the future: VISTA will be updated with its new instrument 4MOST and ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) will receive its MOONS instrument. Together, they will provide spectra of millions of the objects surveyed here, with countless discoveries to be expected.

Notes

[1] The dataset is too large to release as a single image, but the processed data and objects catalogue can be accessed in the ESO Science Portal.

[2] One way to measure the distance to a star is by comparing how bright it appears as seen from Earth to how intrinsically bright it is; but the latter is often unknown. Certain types of stars change their brightness periodically, and there is a very strong connection between how quickly they do this and how intrinsically luminous they are. Measuring these fluctuations allows astronomers to work out how luminous these stars are, and therefore how far away they lie. 

[3] Vía Láctea is the Latin name for the Milky Way.

TOP IMAGE: This collage highlights a small selection of regions of the Milky Way imaged as part of the most detailed infrared map ever of our galaxy. Here we see, from left to right and top to bottom: NGC 3576, NGC 6357, Messier 17, NGC 6188, Messier 22 and NGC 3603. All of them are clouds of gas and dust where stars are forming, except Messier 22, which is a very dense group of old stars. The images were captured with ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) and its infrared camera VIRCAM. The gigantic map to which these images belong contains 1.5 billion objects. The data were gathered over the course of 13 years as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey and its companion project, the VVV eXtended survey (VVVX).Credit: ESO/VVVX survey

CENTRE IMAGE: This image shows a detailed infrared view of Messier 17, also known as the Omega Nebula or Swan Nebula, a stellar nursery located about 5500 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. This image is part of a record-breaking infrared map of the Milky Way containing more than 1.5 billion objects. ESO’s VISTA ― the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy ― captured the images with its infrared camera VIRCAM. The data were gathered as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey and its companion project, the VVV eXtended survey (VVVX).Credit: ESO/VVVX survey

LOWER IMAGE: This is an infrared image of NGC 6188, also known as the Firebird nebula, located about 4100 light-years away in the constellation Ara. This gas cloud harbours a cluster of young stars called NGC 6193. The image was captured by ESO’s VISTA ― the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy ― with its infrared camera VIRCAM. The image is part of a giant infrared map of the Milky Way containing more than 1.5 billion objects. The data for this map were gathered as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey and its companion project, the VVV eXtended survey (VVVX).Credit: ESO/VVVX survey

BOTTOM IMAGE: This image from ESO’s VISTA telescope captures a celestial landscape of vast, glowing clouds of gas and tendrils of dust surrounding hot young stars. This infrared view reveals the stellar nursery known as NGC 6357 in a new light. It was taken as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey, which is currently scanning the Milky Way in a bid to map our galaxy’s structure and explain how it formed.Credit:ESO/VVV Survey/D. Minniti. Acknowledgement: Ignacio Toledo

[bookgeekgrrl]

The first-ever deployment of animal-borne cameras on Humboldt penguins from Isla Choros, northern Chile, revealed not only a benthic foraging strategy previously only known from Yellow-eyed and Gentoo penguins, but also showed that the penguins hunt in groups of up to 50 birds - well and truly an Armada of penguins! This footage was recorded in December 2022 as part of the Humboldt penguin foraging project supported by Sphenisco e.V. and conducted by Ursula Ellenberg & Thomas Mattern (University of Otago, Tawaki Trust, New Zealand), and Maximiliano Daigre & Alejandro Simeone (Universidad Andrés Bello, Santiago, Chile).

[gonzalezrigual]

Rafael Cadenas

Rafael Cadenas (Barquisimeto, Venezuela, 1930) pertenece a la generación venezolana de 1960. Formó parte del grupo Tabla Redonda, junto con Arnaldo Acosta Bello, Jesús Guédez, Ángel Eduardo Acevedo, Darlo Lancini, José Barroeta y Sanoja Hernández. Es traductor de poesía inglesa, fue profesor universitario y cuenta con una amplia obra de ensayo considerada una referencia del pensamiento literario contemporáneo en español, con títulos como 'En torno al lenguaje' y los 'Apuntes sobre San Juan de la Cruz y la mística'.

Cadenas, que sigue activo, es autor de más de veinte libros de resonancia internacional, entre ellos, 'Cantos iniciales' (1946), 'Una isla' (1958), 'Los cuadernos del destierro' (1960, 2001), el poema 'Derrota' (1963), 'Falsas maniobras' (1966), 'Intemperie' (1977), 'Memorial' (1977) 'Amante' (1983), 'Dichos' (1992), 'Gestiones' (1992), 'Antología' (1958-1993, 1996, 1999), 'Amante' (2002), 'Poemas selectos' (2004, 2006, 2009), 'El taller de al lado' (2005), 'Sobre abierto' (2012), 'En torno a Basho y otros asuntos' (2016) o 'Contestaciones' (2018).

La obra poética y ensayística de Rafael Cadenas lo ha hecho merecedor de reconocimientos, entre los cuales se encuentran el Premio San Juan de la Cruz (1992), el Premio de la Fundación Mozarteum de Venezuela (1993), el Premio FIL de Literatura en Lenguas Romances (2012), el Premio Internacional de Poesía Federico García Lorca (2015), el Premio Reina Sofía de Poesía Iberoamericana (2018), y diversos reconocimientos en su país, como el doctorado honoris causa de la Universidad Central de Venezuela y el Premio Andrés Bello de la Academia Venezolana de la Lengua, entre otros.

El poeta y Profesor Universitario recibió hoy en Madrid de manos del Rey de España, el Premio Cervantes de las letras, correspondiente a 2022. Es realmente un orgullo para todos los venezolanos que el poeta Cadenas haya sido recocido con este galardón, el más importante de las letras castellanas. Siendo el único venezolano en recibirlo en la historia de ese premio. Felicitaciones apreciado y admirado maestro.

[netmassimo]

An article published in the journal "Astronomy & Astrophysics" reports the creation of a detailed image of the red supergiant star WOH G64 and its surroundings, the first ever obtained of a star outside the Milky Way. A team of researchers led by astrophysicist Keiichi Ohnaka of the Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile, used the GRAVITY instrument on ESO's VLTI in Chile to obtain details of this star in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This study may provide important insights into a star that is going through the death throes that will end with its explosion as a supernova. A dust cocoon and a possible torus surrounding WOH G64 show signs of that death throes.

[hustle-gram]

“For the first time, we have succeeded in taking a zoomed-in image of a dying star in a galaxy outside our own Milky Way,” says Keiichi Ohnaka, an astrophysicist from Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile.

[spacenutspod]

Like a performer preparing for their big finale, a distant star is shedding its outer layers and preparing to explode as a supernova. Astronomers have been observing the huge star, named WOH G64, since its discovery in the 1970s. It’s one of the largest known stars, and also one of the most luminous and massive red supergiants (RSGs). The star is surrounded by an envelope of expelled star-stuff, which could indicate it’s getting ready to explode. WOH G64 isn’t in the Milky Way; it’s in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the Milky Way’s largest satellite galaxy. Getting these detailed image is quite a feat for the ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer. It’s also quite an accomplishment for the team of scientists behind the image. They’ve published their images and the results of their observations of the star in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. Their research is titled “Imaging the innermost circumstellar environment of the red supergiant WOH G64 in the Large Magellanic Cloud.” The lead author is Keiichi Ohnaka, an astrophysicist from Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile. “This star is one of the most extreme of its kind, and any drastic change may bring it closer to an explosive end.”Jacco van Loon, study co-author, Keele Observatory “Significant mass loss in the red supergiant (RSG) phase is of great importance for the evolution of massive stars before they end their life in a supernova (SN) explosion,” the researchers write in their paper. Understanding the progenitors to supernovae (SNe) is important because of the role they play in the Universe. These massive stars forge heavy elements through nucleosynthesis then spread them out into their surroundings when they explode. These heavy elements make rocky planets possible. SNe shockwaves can also compress gas in their vicinities, which can trigger the birth of new stars. Better images of stars approaching their explosive ends help astronomers understand them better. “For the first time, we have succeeded in taking a zoomed-in image of a dying star in a galaxy outside our own Milky Way,” lead author Ohnaka said. WOH G64 (WOH hereafter) is a whopping 160,000 light-years away. Even though the red supergiant is a behemoth that’s 2,000 times larger than the Sun, that’s an enormous distance. It’s all because of the VLTI and one of its newer instruments, called GRAVITY. It’s a powerful instrument that was installed on the VLTI in 2015. When Ohnaka and his colleagues saw the images, they were buoyed with excitement. The images show a cocoon of dust surrounding the star, evidence that it’s convulsed and shed some of its outer layers. “We discovered an egg-shaped cocoon closely surrounding the star,” said lead author Ohnaka. “We are excited because this may be related to the drastic ejection of material from the dying star before a supernova explosion.” This artist’s reconstruction shows the star’s main features. The star is surrounded by an egg-shaped dust cocoon, with a wider ring or torus of dust. Astronomers are less certain about the shape and size of the outer ring, which requires more observations for clarity. Image Credit: ESO/L. Calçada Ohnaka and his colleagues have been observing WOH for a long time, but had to wait for better instruments to get a closer look. Among other things, they noticed that the star has become dimmer over the last decade. Gerd Weigelt is an astronomy professor at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and a co-author of the research. “We have found that the star has been experiencing a significant change in the last 10 years, providing us with a rare opportunity to witness a star’s life in real time,” Weigelt said. In their final life stages, red supergiants like WOH G64 shed their outer layers of gas and dust in a process that can last thousands of years. Jacco van Loon, the director of the Keele Observatory at Keele University in the UK has been observing WOH since the 1990s. “This star is one of the most extreme of its kind, and any drastic change may bring it closer to an explosive end,” Keele said. With the more limited data available in the past, Ohnaka modelled what the dust environment might look like. Those models and observations predicted a different shape than the GRAVITY images reveal. The images show an elongated, compact emission region in near-infrared (NIR) surrounding the star. This suggests that hot new dust has formed near the star, which helps obscure the star itself. The star’s NIR continuum has shifted in the last decade, which also supports the new dust hypothesis. Earlier images from before 2003 show more hydrogen absorption than recent images. Other observations of RSG stars also show that their circumstellar environments aren’t spherical. For example, dust surrounding the remnant of SN1987A is also not spherical. Astrophysicists think that this dust was shed by SN1987A’s progenitor star before it evolved into a blue supergiant and exploded. The elongated, cocoon shape of the emissions has two potential explanations. “The elongated emission may be due to a bipolar outflow along the axis of the dust torus,” the authors explain. “Alternatively, the elongation may be caused by the interaction with an unseen companion.” This reconstructed GRAVITY image of WOH G64 is from the research and clearly shows the elongated, cocoon shape. Image Credit: Ohnaka et al. 2024. The non-spherical structures are common, and researchers want to understand this phenomenon better. “Given the high multiplicity rate among massive stars, the asymmetric, enhanced mass loss in the RSG phase, which can be driven by binary interaction, is essential not only for better understanding the evolution of massive stars but also for interpreting early-phase SN spectra,” the authors explain. Unfortunately, observing WOH is becoming more difficult. The dust is obscuring the star. “The formation of new hot dust also means that the central star is now more obscured than the epochs before 2009,” the authors explain, and if the star keeps shedding material, the star will become dimmer. But new instruments might help. GRAVITY’s successor, GRAVITY+ is being rolled out incrementally and will be completed in 2026. “Similar follow-up observations with ESO instruments will be important for understanding what is going on in the star,” concluded Ohnaka. WOH G64 is getting ready to explode, but that doesn’t mean it’s imminent in terms of human lifespans. Nobody alive today will witness the explosion. However, in stellar terms, the star’s death could be imminent. Maybe our distant descendants, if we have any, will witness it. The post The First Close-Up Picture of Star Outside the Milky Way appeared first on Universe Today.

[hobbyspacer]

ESO: First close-up image of a star outside of the Milky Way

A new report from the European Southern Observatory (ESO): Astronomers take the first close-up picture of a star outside our galaxy

This is an image of the star WOH G64, taken by the GRAVITY instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (ESO’s VLTI). This is the first close-up picture of a star outside our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The star is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, over 160 000 light-years away. The bright oval at the centre of this image is a dusty cocoon that enshrouds the star. A fainter elliptical ring around it could be the inner rim of a dusty torus, but more observations are needed to confirm this feature. “For the first time, we have succeeded in taking a zoomed-in image of a dying star in a galaxy outside our own Milky Way,” says Keiichi Ohnaka, an astrophysicist from Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile. Located a staggering 160 000 light-years from us, the star WOH G64 was imaged thanks to the impressive sharpness offered by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (ESO’s VLTI). The new observations reveal a star puffing out gas and dust, in the last stages before it becomes a supernova. “We discovered an egg-shaped cocoon closely surrounding the star,” says Ohnaka, the lead author of a study reporting the observations published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics. “We are excited because this may be related to the drastic ejection of material from the dying star before a supernova explosion.” While astronomers have taken about two dozen zoomed-in images of stars in our galaxy, unveiling their properties, countless other stars dwell within other galaxies, so far away that observing even one of them in detail has been extremely challenging. Up until now. https://youtu.be/XYdXe6oexNk The newly imaged star, WOH G64, lies within the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the small galaxies that orbits the Milky Way. Astronomers have known about this star for decades and have appropriately dubbed it the ‘behemoth star’. With a size roughly 2000 times that of our Sun, WOH G64 is classified as a red supergiant. Ohnaka’s team had long been interested in this behemoth star. Back in 2005 and 2007, they used ESO’s VLTI in Chile’s Atacama Desert to learn more about the star’s features, and carried on studying it in the years since. But an actual image of the star had remained elusive. For the desired picture, the team had to wait for the development of one of the VLTI’s second-generation instruments, GRAVITY. After comparing their new results with other previous observations of WOH G64, they were surprised to find that the star had become dimmer over the past decade. “We have found that the star has been experiencing a significant change in the last 10 years, providing us with a rare opportunity to witness a star’s life in real time,” says Gerd Weigelt, an astronomy professor at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany and a co-author of the study. In their final life stages, red supergiants like WOH G64 shed their outer layers of gas and dust in a process that can last thousands of years. "This star is one of the most extreme of its kind, and any drastic change may bring it closer to an explosive end," adds co-author Jacco van Loon, Keele Observatory Director at Keele University, UK, who has been observing WOH G64 since the 1990s. The team thinks that these shed materials may also be responsible for the dimming and for the unexpected shape of the dust cocoon around the star. The new image shows that the cocoon is stretched-out, which surprised scientists, who expected a different shape based on previous observations and computer models. The team believes that the cocoon’s egg-like shape could be explained by either the star’s shedding or by the influence of a yet-undiscovered companion star. As the star becomes fainter, taking other close-up pictures of it is becoming increasingly difficult, even for the VLTI. Nonetheless, planned updates to the telescope’s instrumentation, such as the future GRAVITY+, promise to change this soon. “Similar follow-up observations with ESO instruments will be important for understanding what is going on in the star,” concludes Ohnaka.

The Large Magellanic Cloud is a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way, located 160 000 light-years away from us. Despite the staggering distance, the GRAVITY instrument of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (ESO’s VLTI), managed to take a closed-up picture of the giant star WOH G64. This image shows the location of the star within the Large Magellanic Cloud, with with some of the VLTI’s Auxiliary Telescopes in the foreground. More information ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer is able to combine light collected by the telescopes of ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), either the four 8-metre Unit Telescopes or the four smaller Auxiliary Telescopes, creating highly detailed pictures of the cosmos. Effectively, this makes the VLTI a “virtual” telescope with a resolution equivalent to the maximum distance between the individual telescopes. This process is highly complex and needs instruments especially dedicated to this task. Back in 2005 and 2007 Ohnaka’s team had access to the first generation of these instruments: MIDI. While impressive for its time, those observations with MIDI only combined the light from two telescopes. Now, researchers have access to GRAVITY, a second-generation instrument able to capture the light of four telescopes. Its improved sensitivity and resolution made the image of WOH G64 possible. But there is more to come. GRAVITY+ is a planned upgrade of GRAVITY which will be able to take advantage of different technological updates performed at the VLTI and VLT. With these, the VLTI will be able to see objects fainter and farther than ever before. This research was presented in a paper to appear in Astronomy and Astrophysics (https://www.aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202451820). ... Links - Research paper - Photos of the VLT and the VLTI - For journalists: subscribe to receive our releases under embargo in your language - For scientists: got a story? Pitch your research === Amazon Ads === Celestron - NexStar 130SLT Computerized Telescope - Compact and Portable - Newtonian Reflector Optical Design - SkyAlign Technology - Computerized Hand Control - 130mm Aperture === When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach Read the full article

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ESO telescope captures the most detailed infrared map ever of our Milky Way

Astronomers have published a gigantic infrared map of the Milky Way containing more than 1.5 billion objects ― the most detailed one ever made. Using the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope, the team monitored the central regions of our Galaxy over more than 13 years. At 500 terabytes of data, this is the largest observational project ever carried out with an ESO telescope.

“We made so many discoveries, we have changed the view of our Galaxy forever,” says Dante Minniti, an astrophysicist at Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile who led the overall project.

This record-breaking map comprises 200 000 images taken by ESO’s VISTA ― the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy. Located at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile, the telescope’s main purpose is to map large areas of the sky. The team used VISTA’s infrared camera VIRCAM, which can peer through the dust and gas that permeates our galaxy. It is therefore able to see the radiation from the Milky Way’s most hidden places, opening a unique window onto our galactic surroundings.

This gigantic dataset [1] covers an area of the sky equivalent to 8600 full moons, and contains about 10 times more objects than a previous map released by the same team back in 2012. It includes newborn stars, which are often embedded in dusty cocoons, and globular clusters –– dense groups of millions of the oldest stars in the Milky Way. Observing infrared light means VISTA can also spot very cold objects, which glow at these wavelengths, like brown dwarfs (‘failed’ stars that do not have sustained nuclear fusion) or free-floating planets that don’t orbit a star.

The observations began in 2010 and ended in the first half of 2023, spanning a total of 420 nights. By observing each patch of the sky many times, the team was able to not only determine the locations of these objects, but also track how they move and whether their brightness changes. They charted stars whose luminosity changes periodically that can be used as cosmic rulers for measuring distances [2]. This has given us an accurate 3D view of the inner regions of the Milky Way, which were previously hidden by dust. The researchers also tracked hypervelocity stars — fast-moving stars catapulted from the central region of the Milky Way after a close encounter with the supermassive black hole lurking there.

The new map contains data gathered as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey [3] and its companion project, the VVV eXtended (VVVX) survey. “The project was a monumental effort, made possible because we were surrounded by a great team,” says Roberto Saito, an astrophysicist at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Brazil and lead author of the paper published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics on the completion of the project.

The VVV and VVVX surveys have already led to more than 300 scientific articles. With the surveys now complete, the scientific exploration of the gathered data will continue for decades to come. Meanwhile, ESO’s Paranal Observatory is being prepared for the future: VISTA will be updated with its new instrument 4MOST and ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) will receive its MOONS instrument. Together, they will provide spectra of millions of the objects surveyed here, with countless discoveries to be expected.

Notes

[1] The dataset is too large to release as a single image, but the processed data and objects catalogue can be accessed in the ESO Science Portal.

[2] One way to measure the distance to a star is by comparing how bright it appears as seen from Earth to how intrinsically bright it is; but the latter is often unknown. Certain types of stars change their brightness periodically, and there is a very strong connection between how quickly they do this and how intrinsically luminous they are. Measuring these fluctuations allows astronomers to work out how luminous these stars are, and therefore how far away they lie. 

[3] Vía Láctea is the Latin name for the Milky Way.

IMAGE: This collage highlights a small selection of regions of the Milky Way imaged as part of the most detailed infrared map ever of our galaxy. Here we see, from left to right and top to bottom: NGC 3576, NGC 6357, Messier 17, NGC 6188, Messier 22 and NGC 3603. All of them are clouds of gas and dust where stars are forming, except Messier 22, which is a very dense group of old stars.The images were captured with ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) and its infrared camera VIRCAM. The gigantic map to which these images belong contains 1.5 billion objects. The data were gathered over the course of 13 years as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey and its companion project, the VVV eXtended survey (VVVX). Credit ESO/VVVX survey

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