ESOcast 188 Light: Dancing with the Enemy

While testing a new subsystem on the SPHERE planet-hunting instrument on ESO’s Very Large telescope, astronomers were able to capture dramatic details of the turbulent stellar relationship in the binary star R Aquarii with unprecedented clarity — even compared to observations from Hubble.

The ESOcast Light is a series of short videos bringing you the wonders of the Universe in bite-sized pieces. The ESOcast Light episodes will not be replacing the standard, longer ESOcasts, but complement them with current astronomy news and images in ESO press releases.

Credit:

ESO

Directed by: Nico Bartmann.
Editing: Nico Bartmann.
Web and technical support: Mathias André and Raquel Yumi Shida.
Written by: Sara Rigby and Calum Turner.
Music: tonelabs – Orion Fog (http://www.tonelabs.com).
Footage and photos: ESO, Digitized Sky Survey 2, N. Risinger (skysurvey.org), Schmid et al., ESA, Hubble, M. Kornmesser, T. Liimets et al.
Scientific consultant: Paola Amico.
Executive producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen.