Free Astronomy Magazine July-August 2014

some relatively close, faint companions of stars (SPHERE shows its best within 300 light-years from Earth); the largest satellite of Saturn, Titan; and the dust ring surround- ing the star HR 4796A. The quality of the im- ages produced by the new instrument was even better than expected and now there are great expectations for its actual scien- tific use, phase that will probably begin in the first few months of next year. n