Unprecedented Discovery: Astronomers Observe Most Distant Black Hole Devouring a Star
Last year, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) was alerted after an unusual source of visible light had been detected by a…
European Southern Observatory News
Climate Change Now Even Affects Our View of the Cosmos
New research reveals how global warming affects astronomy. The clarity of the atmosphere above the site from where the observations are taken has a delicate…
Discovering the Secrets of the Universe: A Wondrous Star Factory
A Wondrous Star Factory Image Marks 60 Years of Collaboration For the past 60 years, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has been enabling scientists worldwide…
Pinwheel Firework: Stunning Telescope Image Captures Grand Design Spiral Galaxy
This stunning image clearly displays the well-defined arms of the spiral galaxy NGC 4254, also known as the Coma Pinwheel or Messier 99. Because of…
A Spooky Ghost of a Giant Star: What Remains After the Explosive Death of a Massive Star
What do you see in this intricate image of the Vela supernova remnant? A spooky spider web, magical dragons, or wispy trails of ghosts? This…
“Puzzling and Counterintuitive” Discovery: Heaviest Element Ever Found in an Exoplanet Atmosphere
Astronomers have discovered the heaviest element ever found in an exoplanet atmosphere — barium. They were surprised to discover barium at high altitudes in the…
New Discovery Indicates an Alternative Gravity Theory
Disturbances in the dwarf galaxies of one of Earth’s closest galaxy clusters point to a different gravity theory. Dwarf galaxies are small, faint galaxies that…
“Mind-Blowing” Hot Gas Bubble Detected Zipping Around the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole
Astronomers have spotted signs of a ‘hot spot’ orbiting Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of our galaxy, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter…
“Black Hole Police” Discover Needle in a Haystack: A Dormant Black Hole Outside Our Galaxy
A stellar-mass black hole in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbor galaxy to our own, has been found by a team of international experts, renowned for…
Riskiest Asteroid Known to Humankind in the Last Year Will Not Strike Earth for at Least 100 Years
Impact in 2052 ruled out as the European Space Agency (ESA) counts down to Asteroid Day Just in time for worldwide Asteroid Day: a threatening…
Stunning Reveal: First Image of the Black Hole at the Center of Our Milky Way Galaxy
Today, at simultaneous press conferences around the world, including at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) headquarters in Germany, astronomers have unveiled the first image of…
Meet Sagittarius A* – Astronomers Reveal First Image of the Black Hole at the Heart of the Milky Way
Today (May 12, 2022), at simultaneous press conferences around the world, including at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) headquarters in Germany, astronomers have unveiled the…
Groundbreaking Milky Way Results From the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration – Watch Live
Update: Stunning Reveal: First Image of the Black Hole at the Center of Our Milky Way Galaxy Today (May 12, 2022) at 9:00 a.m. EDT…
Astronomers Discover Micronovae: A New Kind of Thermonuclear Stellar Explosion
A team of astronomers, with the help of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), has observed a new type of stellar explosion…
Surprising Changes in Neptune’s Temperatures Detected by Astronomers
Using ground-based telescopes, including the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), an international team of astronomers track Neptune’s atmospheric temperatures over a 17-year…
Key Discovery in Search for Origin of Life – Astronomers Detect Largest Molecule Yet in a Cosmic “Dust-Trap”
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, researchers at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands have for the first time detected dimethyl ether in…
“Closest Black Hole” System Doesn’t Contain a Black Hole – “Stellar Vampirism”
In 2020 a team led by European Southern Observatory (ESO) astronomers reported the closest black hole to Earth, located just 1000 light-years away in the…
Supermassive Black Hole Caught Hiding in an Immense Ring of Cosmic Dust
The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (ESO’s VLTI) has observed a cloud of cosmic dust at the center of the galaxy Messier 77…
