The monthly meeting of the astronomy society "Helios" was organised today with different topics on the agenda. On July 6th, Helios will join the yearly "Sun observation" event. More details will be shared shortly.
Also discussed are double stars and binary stars, Gaia telescope status, project SPECULOOS, a search for terrestrial planets transiting the nearest ultra-cool stars and project TRAPPIST, TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope. Next Belgium project will be called "CHOCOLATE" :)
As part of these projects we also talked Kepler 186f. Kepler-186f is an exoplanet orbiting the red dwarf Kepler 186A about 500 light years from the Earth. It is the first planet with a radius similar to Earth's to be discovered in the habitable zone of another star. It takes Kepler 186f 130days to orbit the red dwarf.
A final topic and with a lot of enthusiasm was the cosmic illusion revealed on which a supernova class IA was magnified by gravitational lensing. A massive object between us and the supernova bends light rays much as a glass lens can focus light. As more light rays are directed toward the observer than would be without the lens, the supernova appears magnified and this 30 times greater than normaly expected.
