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,......
13 July, 2023
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......
20 May, 2022
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......
28 April, 2021
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 –......
22 June, 2020
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......
17 October, 2019
Zoomed in image of the supernova in Figure 2 below, highlighting it in one of the host galaxy’s spiral arms. ...
10 December, 2018
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......
03 December, 2018
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....
20 November, 2018
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......
28 May, 2018
“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......
22 January, 2018
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......
16 October, 2017
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......
11 October, 2017
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......
30 August, 2017
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’.......
23 August, 2017
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......
12 December, 2016
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......
18 November, 2016
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.......
18 September, 2016
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......
30 May, 2016
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......
26 April, 2016
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......
15 January, 2016
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......
29 September, 2015
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......
10 July, 2015
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......
03 April, 2015
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......
03 April, 2015