The unusual double star SS Leporis

These super-sharp images of the unusual vampire double star system SS Leporis were created from observations made with the VLT Interferometer at ESO’s Paranal Observatory using the PIONIER instrument. The system consists of a red giant star orbiting a hotter companion.

The remarkable image sharpness — 50 times sharper than those from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope — not only allows the stars to be clearly separated and their orbital motion followed, but also allowed the size of the red giant to be measured more accurately than ever before. The system consists of a red giant star orbiting a hotter companion.

Note that the stars have been artificially coloured to match their known temperatures.