Peering into extrasolar space: S.P.H.E.RE

The SPHERE (Spectro Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch) instrument project is implemented on one of the 4 large telescopes of the VLT (Very Large Telescope) located in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Its main objective is to locate and characterize exoplanets, i. e., planets outside our solar system.
SPHERE is a state-of-the-art instrument that uses advanced technologies such as adaptive optics, which compensates in real time for the effects of distortions due to atmospheric turbulence and coronography, a technique that makes objects orbiting near a star visible. The latest of the second-generation instruments that have been installed on the VLT, it offers researchers direct imaging of these extrasolar planets and enables them to learn more about the conditions of their formation.