Editing ESO 3.6 m Telescope (section)

== Recent scientific achievements ==
[[File:Свежий снимок Новой Центавра 2013.jpg|thumb|The ESO 3.6 backdropped by the southern sky, and annotated note for the recently discovered [[Nova Centauri 2013]]]]

The ESO 3.6&nbsp;m telescope has made several scientific discoveries since it saw first light. Recent astronomical achievements were made possible by HARPS, a "top-class" instrument. This include finding the lightest exoplanet known at the time of discovery in, [[Gliese 581e]], with only twice the mass of the Earth,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0915/ | title = Lightest exoplanet yet discovered | date=2009-04-21 | publisher=ESO| access-date = 2011-05-26}}</ref> and the richest planetary system known at the time, with up to seven planets orbiting a Sun-like star.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1035/ | title = Richest Planetary System Discovered | date=2010-08-24 | publisher=ESO| access-date = 2011-05-26}}</ref>

The telescope was also involved in solving a decades-old mystery regarding the mass of Cepheid variable stars. By using the HARPS instrument, astronomers detected for the first time a double star where a pulsating Cepheid variable and another star pass in front of one another, which allows to measure the mass of the Cepheid. The study concluded that the mass prediction coming from the theory of stellar pulsation was correct while the value calculated was at odds with the theory of stellar evolution.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1046/ | title = Pulsating Star Mystery Solved | date=2010-11-24 | publisher=ESO| access-date = 2011-05-26}}</ref>

The discovery of the extrasolar planet [[Gliese 581 c]] by the team of [[Stéphane Udry]] at  [[University of Geneva]]'s Observatory in [[Switzerland]] was announced on April 24, 2007.<ref name="space.com">{{cite news | url=http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070424_hab_exoplanet.html | title=Major Discovery: New Planet Could Harbor Water and Life | last=Than | first=Ker | date=2007-04-24 | publisher=space.com | access-date=2007-04-29}}</ref> The team used the telescope's [[High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher|HARPS]] spectrograph, and employed the [[radial velocity]] technique to identify the planet's influence on the star.<ref name="space.com" /><ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070424_exoplanet_side.html | title=Planet Hunters Edge Closer to Their Holy Grail  | last=Than | first=Ker | date=2007-02-24 | publisher=space.com | access-date=2007-04-29}}</ref>

By 2009, the telescope was used to discover 75 [[exoplanet]] candidates.<ref name="cnn.com">{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/10/19/space.new.planets/index.html | work=[[CNN]] | title=32 planets discovered outside solar system - CNN.com | access-date=4 May 2010 | date=19 October 2009}}</ref> In 2011, another 50 exoplanet candidates were announced.<ref>[http://phys.org/news/2011-09-exoplanets-harps.html 50 new exoplanets discovered by HARPS]</ref>