A stellar burst reveals the formation mechanism of massive stars
November 14th 2016
An outburst from a massive star in formation produced due to the sudden intake of material coming from its accretion disk, has been detected for the very first time.
This discovery is the most solid evidence so far that high mass stars are formed through a similar process to that which gives rise to the low mass ones.
Stars with low mass, like the Sun, are formed from big fragments of clouds of gas and dust, which condense until a central object, or proto star, is formed, growing it up by absorbing gas from a surround disk, and expelling the surplus material through a couple of jets located on both poles. However, it was not known if the most massive stars, with tens of the Sun mass, are formed through the same mechanism. The study of an outburst detected on the massive star in formation NIRS 3, and published today in Nature Physics, has provided the most solid evidence that, in effect, all stars are formed the same.
The peculiarities of the big equatorial jet stream of Saturn’s atmosphere revealed
November 8th 2016
A study shows how are the structure and the temporal variations of the biggest jet stream of the Solar System.
The research, carried out by the Group of Planetary Sciences of the University of País Vasco, has used the PlanetCam camera installed at the Calar Alto Observatory 2.2m Telescope.
The atmosphere of Saturn has the wider and more intense jet stream of all the planets in the Solar System, with winds up to 1.650 km/h, thirteen times the value of the Earth’s hurricane winds, and with an extension of 70.000 km, more than five times our planet’s size. A study lead by University of País Vasco (UPV/EHU) using data from Calar Alto Observatory 2.2m telescope, has just revealed the peculiarities of this jet stream, which nature and energy are still unknown.
Calar Alto Observatory at the European Night of the Researchers
October 5th 2016
Calar Alto Observatory participated last September 30th 2016 on the European Night of the Researchers with a stand that showed the Fireball Detection Station that is presently working at the observatory with cameras from both the SMART Project and the Calar Alto External Surveillance system. Some images and videos of the most impressive fireballs were shown during the whole event. The researchers explained the nature and origin of this astronomical phenomena, generating a great expectation in the audience.
New Instrumentation and Legacy Projects for Calar Alto workshop
September 6th 2016
Calar Alto Observatory is an astronomical reference for the Spanish and international communities due to the quality of its telescopes and astronomical instrumentation. With this idea in mind, it is now the time for proposing and selecting the last generation of instruments the community considers the optimum ones to perform front-line scientific projects, unaffordable in other observatories.
This workshop that will be held at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC) and opened to the Spanish and international scientific communities, is the starting point for this new stage of Calar Alto Observatory and will open the debate to select the best proposals for the new instrumentation and for most challenging Legacy projects.
Please, find here all the information concerning this important workshop.
