After thirty years of investigation, a team of scientists from six European countries reports that the hypergiant star HR 8752 is partially traversing the Yellow Evolutionary Void, an area in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram empty of hypergiant stars with surface temperatures between 5000 and 12000 degrees kelvin. Some of the observations were carried out using the Utrecht Echelle Spectrograph (UES, now retired) on the William Herschel Telescope.

The origin of the diffuse interstellar bands is a long-standing observational problem that now can see some light. A systematic survey of post-AGB stars, conducted by a team of Spanish and Dutch astronomers, has demonstrated for the first time that the carriers of the diffuse bands cannot be present in circumstellar envelopes. The result has been highlighted in Astronomy & Astrophysics journal this week and it indeed places the origin of the diffuse bands in the interstellar medium.

A long debated issue concerning the nucleosynthesis of neutron-rich elements in Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars is the identification of the neutron source. Recently, a team of astronomers using UES spectrograph on the William Herschel Telescope has detected rubidium from the overproduction of the long-lived radioactive isotope ⁸⁷Rb in intermediate-mass AGB stars in our Galaxy. This represents a direct observational evidence, predicted theoretically 40 years ago, of the slow-neutron capture process following the ²²Ne(α,n)²⁵Mg reaction.

An international team of astronomers using the Utrecht Echelle Spectrograph on the William Herschel Telescope has identified the bright star Rho Cassiopeiae as the best candidate to undergo a supernova explosion in the near future. The results of this investigation are to be published in a research paper in The Astrophysical Journal on February 1.

Un equipo de astronomos britanicos, utilizando el telescopio William Herschel y tecnicas de computacion avanzadas, ha observado por primera vez de forma directa un planeta fuera del Sistema Solar. El hallazgo del planeta Milenio, como asi lo han bautizado sus descubridores, se publica hoy en la prestigiosa revista cientifica Nature.

Observations carried out in the past few days to study the distribution of sodium atoms in Comet Hale-Bopp have led to the discovery of a new type of comet tail. Sodium atoms have previously been seen near the centers of other comets, but these observations reveal for the first time in Hale-Bopp a straight tail of sodium atoms 6 degrees long.