PRESS RELEASES

  • Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, in collaboration with South African astronomers, have discovered a rare white dwarf binary star system, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud,......

  • The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) and the University of Canterbury’s Mount John Observatory in New Zealand have recently discovered a system of four stars orbiting each other. After initially......

  • Combined observations by eROSITA, the main instrument aboard the Spectrum-Röntgen-Gamma (SRG) satellite, and the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) have led to an important discovery.  Two apparently normal galaxies observed......

  • Observations across a range of wavelengths (optical, ultraviolet and X-rays) made in 2019, including those from the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) have captured – for the first time –......

  • Astronomers using the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), have measured the rotation of some of the largest spiral galaxies, spinning at up to 570 kilometres per second! Their rapid spin......

  • Zoomed in image of the supernova in Figure 2 below, highlighting it in one of the host galaxy’s spiral arms. ...

  • A new binary star system has been discovered where a small white dwarf star is cannibalising its larger Sun-like companion. Such objects are actually quite common, but for this new......

  • Video animation produced using Gaia Sky showing the path of the hypervelocity star candidate by Shen et al (2018), with its movement exaggerated by a factor of 300 billion times....

  • SALT has discovered a binary star system in The Hourglass Nebula, one of the most famous nebulae captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hourglass Nebula consists of two hourglass-shaped lobes......

  • “Observing the fast and the furious: SAAO observes the first optical counterpart of a Gravitational Wave source” Above: An artist’s impression of a kilonova, the result of two colliding and merging......

  • SALT and SAAO telescopes partake in an unprecedented international collaboration to investigate the origin of the first detection of gravitational waves produced by two colliding neutron stars. The discovery marks......

  • Discovery of one of the most luminous eruptions from a dying star: SALT contributes to a major international multi-wavelength effort led by South Africa. A multinational group of astronomers have......

  • Recovery of nova spotted by ancient Koreans, illuminates many stages of star system’s life cycle On a cold March night in Seoul almost 600 years ago, Korean astronomers spotted a......

  • SALT among the constellations of very large telescopes Many of us recently gathered together in Kazimierz Dolny, Poland, to attend the workshop ‘SALT among the constellations of very large telescopes’.......

  • SALT’s excellence and achievements recognised by the Department of Science and Technology The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) welcomes the 2016 Science Diplomacy Award given by the Department of Science......

  • SALT helps international team to discover major supercluster of galaxies hidden by Milky Way Observations done with the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) helped a team of South African and......

  • SALT helps proving the putative old and nearby cluster Lodén 1 to be neither old, nor nearby, nor a cluster. Stellar clusters are the keys to study stellar evolution and structure.......

  • SALT tests a high accuracy and high precision calibration ruler for its High Resolution Spectrograph Since last week, the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) in Sutherland has been testing a......

  • SALT helps to pinpoint echoes of an ancient exploding star on our stellar doorstep When amateur astronomers found a peculiar looking nebula (called Te 11) in the Orion constellation in......

  • Southern African Large Telescope helps to unveil a record-breaking cosmic blast! A collaboration of telescopes, including a major contribution by the Southern African Large Telescope in Sutherland, has unveiled a......

  • Southern African Large Telescope reveals too large a black hole The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), Africa’s most powerful eye on the sky, has been used to discover a supermassive......

  • The SALT Science Conference 2015 The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) Foundation and South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) are delighted with the success of the SALT Science Conference 2015 held......

  • A Neighbourhood Star’s Close Shave With Our Solar System Astronomers identify the closest known flyby of a star other than the Sun to Earth. The star likely passed through the......

  • Discovery of a New “Luminous Blue Variable” Star Astronomers identify an extremely rare star which could soon die in a spectacular supernova explosion. Astronomer Dr A. Kniazev from the South......