Zooming in on the R Doradus star

This video zooms into R Doradus. This red giant star has a diameter roughly 350 times that of the Sun and is located about 180 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Dorado. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner, has recently captured images of the bubbling surface of the star R Doradus — the first time this motion is imaged in detail in a star other than the Sun. 

The various images shown here, all of which are real images rather than artist’s impressions, were taken with different telescopes at different times, and have been blended together to create this zoom. The inset at the end shows a timelapse of images of the stellar surface taken with ALMA.