A new technique to explore the atmospheres of planets outside our solar system

'Tau Bootis b' was one of the first exoplanets discovered in the 90's. Fifteen years later, remains one of the closest known and given that it already has confirmed the existence of 750 planets outside our solar system, which number about 2,000 applicants to join the list.

'Tau Bootis b' is a big 'hot Jupiter' orbiting close to its host star. Although its host star is easily visible, so far this planet could only be detected by its gravitational effects on the star.

Europe sets out to explore the "dark side" of the Universe

The European Space Agency (ESA) has given the green light to the Euclid mission to be launched in 2020 with the aim to study the mysterious dark energy that makes up 73% of the universe. The Euclid mission will feature a 1.2-meter telescope that will nourish a chamber diameter of 576 million pixels with very high resolution images of galaxies 2,000 million, equivalent to the Hubble telescope.

With these data, and using infrared technology, scientists will develop a mapping of large structures in the universe and measure the distance between galaxies captured by the camera.