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3 Octubre 2022: El telescopio SOAR ubicado en Chile, y operado por NOIRLab de NSF y AURA, fotografió una cola de más de 10 mil kilómetros de escombros lanzados al espacio, a dos días del impacto de la sonda DART con la superficie de Dimorphos.

1 Febrero 2022: Al observar el cielo muy cerca del horizonte durante el amanecer, el Telescopio SOAR de Cerro Tololo en Chile, un Programa de NOIRLab de NSF y del observatorio AURA, ha ayudado a los astrónomos a confirmar la existencia de un segundo asteroide troyano terrestre, revelando que mide más de un kilómetro de diámetro, casi tres veces más grande que el descubierto anteriormente.

12 Enero 2022: Utilizando el telescopio SOAR de 4,1 metros en Chile, los astrónomos descubrieron el primer ejemplo de un sistema binario en el que la estrella que se está transformando en una enana blanca, se encuentra orbitando una estrella de neutrones que acaba de convertirse en un púlsar que gira rápidamente. El par estelar, originalmente fue detectado por el Telescopio Espacial de Rayos Gamma Fermi, y se trata de un eslabón perdido en la evolución de este tipo de sistemas binarios.

12 Octubre 2020: NOIRLab se complace en anunciar que se están restableciendo operaciones científicas limitadas en el Observatorio Nacional Kitt Peak en Arizona y en las instalaciones del Observatorio Interamericano Cerro Tololo, Gemini Sur y SOAR en Chile después de la suspensión del 18 de marzo de 2020 debido a la pandemia de COVID-19.

5 Agosto 2020: Observaciones realizadas en el telescopio SOAR, en Chile, revelaron que un tipo particular de explosión de supernova produce enormes cantidades del mismo calcio que se encuentra en nuestros huesos y dientes, lo que representa hasta la mitad del calcio que se encuentra en el Universo.

14 Agosto 2019: Supernovae, neutron star mergers, black holes at the center of galaxies, erupting young stars — these are all examples of objects in the night sky that change their brightness over time. In the coming years, astronomers expect to discover millions of these variable astronomical events with new sensitive telescopes like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). But to characterize these objects and to understand them better, they need to be observed with other, different telescopes soon after they are discovered.

10 Enero 2019: An unusual supernova studied by multiple telescopes, including the SOAR telescope and other telescopes at the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) and NSF’s Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), is thought to herald the birth of a new black hole or neutron star, caught at the exact moment of its creation. Observations made with facilities ranging from X-rays to optical and radio wavelengths were used to understand this remarkable event. These multi-messenger observations give astronomers a rare glimpse into the physics at play during the creation of a black hole or neutron star.

16 Octubre 2017: Se cree que los elementos preciosos en nuestro planeta, el oro y el platino, se forjaron en antiguos cataclismos ardientes, cuando parejas de estrellas de neutrones se unieron en espiral y se fusionaron en agujeros negros. Un evento similar, la fusión de una estrella binaria de neutrones, fue detectada recientemente en ondas gravitacionales por dos observatorios de onda gravitacional (LIGO Avanzado y Virgo) y en longitudes de onda ópticas infrarrojas por los telescopios Blanco, SOAR y SMARTS 1.3m en el Observatorio Interamericano de Cerro Tololo (CTIO) y en el telescopio Gemini-Sur en Cerro Pachón. La emisión óptica detectada, la primera contraparte óptica de un evento de onda gravitacional, confirma que las fusiones de estrellas binarias de neutrones son, de hecho, los principales sitios de producción cósmica de elementos pesados raros.

17 Mayo 2017: Astronomers using the SOAR telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory report the discovery of a spectacular extended jet from a young brown dwarf. With masses too low to sustain hydrogen fusion in their interiors, brown dwarfs occupy the mass range between stars and giant planets. While young stars are commonly found to launch jets that extend over a light year or more, this is the first jet with a similar extent detected from a brown dwarf. The result lends new insight into how substellar objects form.

27 Julio 2015: Two undergraduates at San José State University have discovered two galaxies that are the densest known. Similar to ordinary globular star clusters but a hundred to a thousand times brighter, the new systems have properties intermediate in size and luminosity between galaxies and star clusters.

23 Junio 2014: “Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky…” A team of astronomers, using multiple telescopes, has identified the coolest, faintest white dwarf star known. White dwarfs are the extremely dense end states of stars like our sun: after their nuclear fuel is exhausted, they collapse from the size of a star (about 1,000,000 miles across) to the size of the Earth (7,000 miles across). This white dwarf, located in the constellation Aquarius, is so cool that its carbon has crystallized—in other words, it’s like a diamond, with a mass similar to that of our sun.

16 Abril 2014: Unlike our sun, with its retinue of orbiting planets, many stars in the sky orbit around a second star. These binary stars, with orbital periods ranging from days to centuries, have long been the primary tool for measuring basic quantities like the star’s mass. While masses of normal stars are now well determined, some binaries present special interest because their stars are unusual (e.g. very young) or because they may contain planets, gas clouds, or other stars.

9 Diciembre 2013: Stars come in a tremendous size range, from many tens of times bigger than the Sun to a tiny fraction of its size. But the answer to just how small an astronomical body can be, and still be a star, has never been known. What is known is that objects below this limit are unable to ignite and sustain hydrogen fusion in their cores: these objects are referred to as brown dwarfs.

30 Abril 2013: Astronomers at the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) have demonstrated the significant difference that sharp stellar images can make in our understanding of the properties of stars. They have observed the globular cluster NGC 6496 using a new instrument dubbed SAM, for SOAR Adaptive Module, which creates an artificial laser guide star. SAM, built by CTIO/NOAO-S, is mounted on the SOAR 4.1 meter telescope.

22 Febrero 2010: In one of the nearest giant clusters of galaxies, Abell 3627, astronomers have reported finding a galaxy with two distinct tails of gas. Of particular significance, there are unambiguous signs of current star formation in this gas tail, providing the first evidence that star formation can actively take place in the cold intergalactic medium. These results challenge ideas based on the current computer simulations and modeling.

12 Septiembre 2005: Fulfilling one of its central operational goals in a big way, the SOuthern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR) on Cerro Pachón in Chile made the first observations of the glowing remains of the most distant explosion ever seen in the Universe. The international telescope then provided the first accurate measurement of just how incredibly far away this explosion appears to be.