Science Results

Young Planets Around Old Stars? Astronomers Believe Unseen Planets Exist in Empty Space at Center of Dust DiskAstronomers using the Georgia State University Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array telescopes have mapped the orbit of a pair of distant old stars that is surrounded by a vast disk of gas and dust.

Like Betelgeuse, RW Cephei is going through the "Great Dimming". Our near-infrared data from the CHARA Array shows a striking asymmetry on the star's surface, indicating a surface mass ejection event that created a dust cloud that now partially blocks the stellar photosphere. Anugu et al. 2023.

GRAVITY and CHARA/MIRC-X are delivering breakthrough results in the following areas:

Galactic center black hole Protoplanetary disk imaging Exoplanet characterization Stellar surface imaging

GW Ori: Misaligned and warped Protoplanetary Disk around a Triple-Star System (from MIRC-X). Press Release and Science Journal paper (led by S. Kraus).

First Successful Test of Einstein’s General Relativity Near Supermassive Black Hole (from GRAVITY observations). . Press Release and Paper

GRAVITY observations show breaking spectrum of exoplanets using better filter of planet signal from host star using interferometry coherence. Press release and paper.

Our group solved the mystery of Betelgeuse unexpected dimming in 2019/2020. This ESO/L. Calçada artist’s animation shows how the dust obscuring the southern region of Betelgeuse at different observational epochs. This work published in Nature (led by M. Montargès). Press release, CNN, Nytimes and BBC.