ESO Image of the Week – New SPHERE View of Vesta
Sitting between Mars and Jupiter, the doughnut-shaped asteroid belt is packed full of rocky bodies and debris. Despite its fragmented, rubbly nature, the total mass…
European Southern Observatory
Gentle Giants of Chajnantor – ALMA Antenna Transporters
Many telescopes are formed of multiple mirrors or antennas, not just one. ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), located at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile, is…
Starburst Galaxies Contain Much Higher Proportions of Massive Stars
Astronomers using ALMA and the VLT have discovered that both starburst galaxies in the early Universe and a star-forming region in a nearby galaxy contain…
VLT Survey Captures Sharpest Image to Date of the Tarantula Nebula
Glowing brightly about 160,000 light-years away, the Tarantula Nebula is the most spectacular feature of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our Milky…
VIMOS’s Final Image – Interacting Galaxies NGC 5426 and NGC 5427
Two spiral galaxies are locked in a spellbinding, swirling dance in this image from the VIMOS instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). The two…
Astronomers Reveal Evidence of Stars Forming Just 250 Million Years After Big Bang
Astronomers have used observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) to determine that star formation in the very…
View Some of the Best Images of Stars Ever Captured by the ESO
Infrared VISTA View of Stellar Nursery in Monoceros This dramatic infrared image shows the nearby star formation region Monoceros R2, located some 2700 light-years away…
ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Center Officially Opens
On 26 April 2018, the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Center was officially inaugurated, and opened the doors to the public on 28 April 2018….
ALMA and APEX Discover Ancient Galaxy Megamerger
The ALMA and APEX telescopes have peered deep into space — back to the time when the Universe was one tenth of its current age…
These Striking Star Images Will Brighten Your Day
This dramatic infrared image shows the nearby star formation region Monoceros R2, located some 2700 light-years away in the constellation of Monoceros (the Unicorn). The…
Astronomers Discover Fascinating Discs Around Young Stars
The SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile allows astronomers to suppress the brilliant light of nearby stars in order to obtain…
Astronomers Discover a Dead Star Hidden in the Small Magellanic Cloud
New images from ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile and other telescopes reveal a rich landscape of stars and glowing clouds of gas in one…
Ten Must-See Images from the European Southern Observatory
More images from the European Southern Observatory.
Spectacular and Unusual ALMA Image of Web Filaments in the Orion Nebula
New data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and other telescopes have been used to create this stunning image showing a web of filaments…
European Southern Observatory’s MATISSE Instrument Sees First Light
The new MATISSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) has now successfully made its first observations at the Paranal Observatory in northern Chile….
ESO Views Pulsating Red Giant Star R Sculptoris
This ghostly image features a distant and pulsating red giant star known as R Sculptoris. Situated 1,200 light-years away in the constellation of Sculptor, R…
ESO’s VLT Combines Light From All Four Telescopes For First Time
The ESPRESSO instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile has for the first time been used to combine light from all four of the…
TRAPPIST-1 Exoplanets Potentially Hold More Water Than Earth
A new study has found that the seven planets orbiting the nearby ultra-cool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 are all made mostly of rock, and some could…