Bild der Woche

16. November 2009: A probe was launched last Friday (13 November 2009) from ESO’s Paranal observatory in northern Chile — home of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) — aboard a weather balloon. Such probes, called radiosondes, measure various atmospheric parameters and transmit them to a receiver on the ground. Researchers from ESO, the University of Lethbridge (Canada) and Universidad de Valparaiso (Chile) are currently in the middle of a 12-day programme, during which they plan to launch 29 radiosondes. Each night, parallel observations with the VLT instruments UVES, CRIRES and VISIR are carefully orchestrated to coincide with two additional radiosonde launches, while an infrared radiometer provides continuous coverage. This powerful combination of instruments and methods will provide a better understanding of the distribution and amount of water vapour in the atmosphere above Paranal, which is highly relevant for astronomical observations. The knowledge gained from these data can be used to optimise science operations ...

9. November 2009: In diesem seltenen 360°-Panorama schlägt die Milchstraße einen Bogen einmal quer über den Nachthimmel über der Beobachtungsplattform des Paranal, der Heimat des Very Large Telescope der ESO. Das Bild besteht aus 37 Einzelaufnahmen mit einer Gesamtbelichtungszeit von etwa 30 Minuten und wurde in den frühen Morgenstunden aufgenommen. Der Mond geht gerade auf und über ihm leuchtet das Zodiakallicht, während die Milchstraße sich über den Himmel gegenüber dem Observatorium erstreckt. Die geöffneten Schutzbauten der Teleskope des weltweit fortschrittlichsten bodengebundenen Observatoriums sind allesamt auf dem Bild zu sehen: die der vier kleineren 1,8-Meter-Hilfsteleskope, die im interferometrischen Modus zusammengeschaltet werden können, ebenso wie die der vier großen 8,2-Meter-Hauptteleskope. Auf der rechten Seite unterhalb des Milchstraßenbogens sieht man außerdem zwei unserer galaktischen Nachbarn, die Große und die Kleine Magellansche Wolke. Hier geht es zu einer faszinierenden virtuellen Tour über den Paranal.

2. November 2009: Ein Laserstrahl ragt von Yepun, dem vierten Hauptteleskop des Very Large Telescope (VLT) der ESO, dem Flaggschiff der europäischen Astronomie, in den Himmel. Mit diesem Laserstrahl wird ein künstlicher Stern über dem Paranal erzeugt, der für die Instrumente der adaptiven Optik am VLT benötigt wird. Adaptive Optik ist eine Technik, die es möglich macht die durch die Erdatmosphäre verursachte Bildunschärfe zu korrigieren und so Bilder zu erhalten, die fast so scharf sind wie wenn das Teleskop in den Weltraum versetzt worden wäre. Die adaptive Optik benötigt allerdings einen Referenzstern in unmittelbarer Nähe des zu untersuchenden Objekts, der zudem auch noch vergleichsweise hell sein muss. das engt den Bereich des Himmels, der auf diese Art und Weise zugänglich ist, deutlich ein. Um diese Schwierigkeiten zu überwinden, setzen die Astronomen auf dem Paranal einen starken Laser ein, der einen künstlichen Stern erzeugt, sobald sie ihn benötigen (vergleiche auch eso0607 und eso0727). Die ...

26. Oktober 2009: Sitting in the stunning environment surrounding ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) on Cerro Paranal, Chile, are Joe Liske from ESO and Eva Noyola from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. The photo is a still image from the recently released 3D film, The EYE 3D — Life and Research on Cerro Paranal, directed by Nikolai Vialkowitsch. The movie, starring the two young scientists, as well as other people involved in the exciting activities at the VLT, offers a brand new, three-dimensional take on the life and research of astronomers. It has been produced by parallax raumprojektion and fact&film, in close collaboration with ESO and other partners and will be coming soon in cinemas across Germany. Don’t forget to wear red-cyan glasses to enjoy the spectacular 3D effect! Links The movie's ESO web page The movie’s external web page: http://www.theeye3d.eu The EYE 3D, press kit (German, PDF format)

19. Oktober 2009: Diese wunderschöne Aufnahme zeigt ein Porträt der Spiralgalaxie NGC 1448 mit ihrer ausgeprägten Scheibe junger und heller Sterne, die das kleine, leuchtstarke Zentrum der Galaxie umkreisen. NGC 1448 befindet sich in einer Entfernung von etwa 60 Millionen Lichtjahren und hat sich in letzter Zeit als produktive Fabrik von Supernovae, jenen dramatischen Explosionen bemerkbar gemacht, die das Ende eines Sternenlebens markieren: Seit der Entdeckung einer ersten im Jahre 1983 wurden dort im der vergangenen Jahrzehnt gleich zwei weitere aufgespürt. Die im Jahr 2003 beobachtete Supernova (SN 2003hn) ist in der Scheibe als roter Punkt im oberen rechten Bereich des Bildes zu erkennen, während man ein anderes, 2001 entdecktes Exemplar (SN 2001el), als kleinen blauen Punkt in der Mitte der Aufnahme gleich unterhalb des Kerns der Galaxie ausmachen kann. Wenn man eine Supernova genau zum Höhepunkt ihrer Explosion beobachtet, kann ihre Leuchtkraft sogar diejenige ihrer ganzen Heimatgalaxie erreichen. Für dieses Bild wurde ...

12. Oktober 2009: Dieses Panorama zeigt die Beobachtungsplattform vom Very Large Telescope (VLT) der ESO auf dem Cerro Paranal in Chile. Es wurde am frühen Morgen aufgenommen, zu einem Zeitpunkt als der Mond hoch am Himmel stand. Der ruhige und friedliche Anblick des Himmels steht in starkem Kontrast zu der geschäftigen Aktivität am Observatorium. Die vier großen 8,2-Meter-Hauptteleskope des VLT nehmen alle jeweils ein Himmelsobjekt ins Visier um den Astronomen bei ihrer täglichen Aufgabe die Rätsel des Universums zu lösen zu helfen. Von Hauptteleskop 4, das den Namen Yepun trägt, ragt ein Laserstrahl in den Himmel. Er gehört zum System adaptiver Optik des Teleskopes, das dem bildverschmierenden Effekt der Atmosphäre entgegenwirkt und so die Aufnahme scharfer Bilder ermöglicht. Gleichzeitig arbeiten drei der vier kleineren 1,8-Meter-Hilfsteleskope im interferometrischen Modus zusammen um ein noch detaillierteres Bild eines weiteren Himmelsobjektes zu erhalten.Ein Quicktime-Video der Szene ist ebenfalls verfügbar.

5. Oktober 2009: Sparkling at the edge of a giant cloud of gas and dust, the Flame Nebula, also referred to as NGC 2024, is in fact the hideout of a cluster of young, blue, massive stars, whose light sets the gas ablaze. Located 1,300 light-years away towards the constellation of Orion, the nebula owes its typical colour to the glow of hydrogen atoms, heated by the stars. The latter are obscured by a dark, forked dusty structure in the centre of the image and are only revealed by infrared observations. This image is based on data acquired with the 1.5-metre Danish telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, combining three exposures in the filters B (40 seconds), V (80 seconds) and R (40 seconds).

28. September 2009: Through three giant images, the GigaGalaxy Zoom project reveals the full sky as it appears with the unaided eye from one of the darkest deserts on Earth, then zooms in on a rich region of the Milky Way using an amateur telescope, and finally uses the power of a professional telescope to reveal the details of a famous nebula. In this way, the project links the sky we can all see with the deep, “hidden” cosmos that astronomers study on a daily basis and allows the viewers to take a breathtaking dive into our Milky Way. The wonderful quality of the images is a testament to the splendour of the night sky at ESO’s sites in Chile, which are the most productive astronomical observatories in the world.

21. September 2009: Cerro Paranal, in the Chilean Atacama Desert, is considered one of the best astronomical observing sites in the world. It is home to ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), the flagship facility for European ground-based astronomy. The humidity at Paranal is generally below five percent and the overall precipitation is only 4 mm per year — a rather dry place indeed. It does, on very rare occasions, snow on this 2600-metre-high peak as illustrated by this beautiful image taken in 2002. The snow-covered terrain gleams under a bright blue sky as the snow storm passes.

14. September 2009: In this image, two spiral galaxies, similar in looks to the Milky Way, are participating in a cosmic ballet, which, in a few billion years, will end up in a complete galactic merger — the two galaxies will become a single, bigger one. Located about 150 million light-years away in the constellation of Canis Major (the Great Dog), NGC 2207 — the larger of the two — and its companion, IC 2163, form a magnificent pair. English astronomer John Herschel discovered them in 1835. The fatal gravitational attraction of NGC 2207 is already wreaking havoc throughout its smaller partner, distorting IC 2163’s shape and flinging out stars and gas into long streamers that extend over 100,000 light-years. The space between the individual stars in a galaxy is so vast, however, that when these galaxies collide, virtually none of the stars in them will actually physically smash into each other. This ...

7. September 2009: In this photograph taken on 18 August 2009, a European ALMA antenna takes shape at the observatory's Operations Support Facility (OSF). ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, is a revolutionary astronomical telescope, comprising an array of 66 giant 12-metre and 7-metre diameter antennas observing at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths. The telescope is being built on the breathtaking location of the Chajnantor plateau, at 5000 metres altitude in the Chilean Andes. The OSF, at which the antennas are being assembled and tested, is at an altitude of 2900 metres. ESO has contracted with the AEM (Alcatel Alenia Space France, Alcatel Alenia Space Italy, European Industrial Engineering S.r.L., MT Aerospace) Consortium for the supply of 25 of the 12-metre diameter ALMA antennas, with options to increase the number to 32. ALMA is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile.

31. August 2009: Stars such as our Sun do not contain enough mass to finish their lives in the glorious explosions known as supernovae. However, they are still able to salute their imminent demise into dense, Earth-sized embers called white dwarfs by first expelling colourful shells of gas known as planetary nebulae. This misnomer comes from the similarity in appearance of these spherical mass expulsions to giant planets when seen through small telescopes. NGC 6781 is a nice representative of these cosmic bubbles. The planetary nebula lies a few thousand light-years away towards the constellation of Aquila (the Eagle) and is approximately two light-years across. Within NGC 6781, shells of gas blown off from the faint, but very hot, central star’s surface expand out into space. These shells shine under the harsh ultraviolet radiation from the progenitor star in intricate and beautiful patterns. The central star will steadily cool down and darken, eventually ...

24. August 2009: The great hunter Orion hangs above ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), in this stunning, previously unseen, image. As the VLT is in the Southern Hemisphere, Orion is seen here head down, as if plunging towards the Chilean Atacama Desert. At night the four giant 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes of the VLT are all turned skywards to help astronomers in their quest to understand the Universe. The band of the Milky Way, crisscrossed by contrasting dark dust lanes, stretches up over the VLT’s Unit Telescope 3 (Melipal), with the bright star Capella glinting just above the telescope. Up and to the left, Orion’s belt and sword, containing the Orion Nebula, lie between the blue star Rigel and the orange Betelgeuse. The red Rosetta Nebula is seen in the middle part of the Milky Way, while Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, hangs above the scene. The red patch just above ...

17. August 2009: Dieses Bild zeigt die Beobachtungsplattform auf dem Gipfel des Cerro Paranal im Norden Chiles, die das Very Large Telescope (VLT) der ESO beherbergt. Das Bild zeigt drei der Schutzbauten der VLT-Hauptteleskope mit 8,2 Metern Durchmesser. Der Fotograf befand sich dabei auf dem Dach des vierten, etwa 35 Meter oberhalb der Plattform. Während der Nacht sind die großen Tore seitlich geöffnet. Die insgesamt 275 Tonnen schweren äußeren Teile des Gebäudes sind drehbar, so dass die Teleskope in der Lage sind, jeden Punkt am Himmel zu beobachten. Der Pick-up vor dem ersten Hauptteleskop hilft dabei, einen Eindruck von der Größe dieser 10 Stockwerke hohen Gebäude zu bekommen. Auf der linken Seite des Bildes sieht man die Schienen, auf denen die 1,8-Meter-Hilfsteleskope (ATs) zwischen verschiedenen Beobachtungsstationen hin und her bewegt werden können. Zwei der vier Hilfsteleskope sind ebenfalls erkennbar. Das niedrige Gebäude in der linken unteren Bildecke beherbergt das VLT Interferometer-Labor, wo das ...

10. August 2009: This new image of the galaxy NGC 2280 shows the extent of its massive spiral arms that reach far into the surrounding space. These star-filled tentacles taper off into wispy blue clouds of illuminated and glowing gas well away from the central, bright bulge of the galaxy. Found towards the constellation of Canis Major (the Greater Dog), NGC 2280 is thought to be similar in shape to our own Milky Way galaxy. NGC 2280 whirls in the cosmos about 75 million light-years from us; this snapshot therefore shows the galaxy as it appeared when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. The very bright stars that sparkle like diamonds in the image, as well as the many other stars of various colours, are all in the foreground of our view, as they lie much closer to us than NGC 2280. The image was captured with the ESO Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera ...

3. August 2009: The Milky Way blazes above the European Southern Observatory (ESO) facilities at Mount Paranal in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert. Paranal hosts the world’s most advanced ground-based astronomical observatory, the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and is home to two new telescopes for large imaging surveys currently under construction, the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). Both are expected to “take up duty” in the 2009-2010 timeframe. This photograph shows an edge-on view of the Milky Way’s glowing plane slicing across the night sky, laced by bands of dust and dark gas. Taken with a digital camera using a three-minute exposure, the photograph also reveals a bit of action on the ground. To the left, a vehicle with its parking lights on stops lets out a passenger. Though bathed by the light of the Milky Way, the high-altitude desert remains quite dark. To illuminate ...

27. Juli 2009: This image shows how ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) facility looks through the eyes of Google Earth. This popular software allows users to see the world from above, ranging from a satellite to a bird’s eye view. Now, Google Earth users can swoop around detailed 3-D models of the massive structures housing the four 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes (UTs) atop Mount Paranal in the Chilean Atacama Desert. Also visible in this sample image are the four 1.8-metre movable Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs), the enclosure of the 2.4-metre VLT Survey Telescope (VST), and technical and support buildings. The models can be downloaded from ESO’s VLT page, and opened using Google Earth.

20. Juli 2009: This new artist’s impression shows the future Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which is currently being planned by ESO. This revolutionary new ground-based telescope will be the largest optical/near-infrared telescope ever conceived, and will serve as “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”. The present concept is for a telescope with a mirror 39 metres in diameter, able to capture images of the sky about a tenth the size of the full Moon. The telescope will contain five mirrors, a novel configuration that results in exceptional image quality. The largest (primary) mirror will consist of almost 800 segments, each 1.4 metres wide but only 50 mm thick. The optical system’s design also calls for an immense secondary mirror measuring 4.2 metres in diameter, which is almost as large as the biggest primary mirrors used in today’s telescopes. With the start of operations planned early in the next decade, the ELT will ...

13. Juli 2009: This photograph from early 2009 shows the VISTA telescope, which is currently completing tests in its dome at Paranal in Chile. VISTA, along with the VST (VLT Survey Telescope) is one of two ESO survey telescopes about to start work surveying the southern skies. VISTA has a main mirror that is 4.1 metres across and is by far the largest telescope in the world dedicated to surveying the sky at near-infrared wavelengths. It was conceived and developed by the United Kingdom and became an in-kind contribution to ESO as part of the UK's accession agreement, with the subscription paid by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The main mirror is the most highly curved mirror of its size ever made and at the heart of VISTA is a 3-tonne camera containing 16 special detectors sensitive to infrared light with a combined total of 67 megapixels. It will have ...

6. Juli 2009: Excavation work has just begun for construction of the Santiago Central Office (SCO) building of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) project. The building, in the Vitacura district of the Chilean capital, will be adjacent to the Santiago offices of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), which is the European partner in the global ALMA project, and which is responsible for constructing the ALMA SCO. The SCO building will have a size of almost 7,000 square metres over two storeys, with underground parking for 130 cars, which will allow some of the existing above-ground parking spaces to be moved underground and replaced with green areas. For the construction, eleven old trees were moved to a new location at ESO, in a meticulous operation led by experts. ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence, is a revolutionary astronomical telescope, comprising an array of 66 giant 12-metre and 7-metre diameter antennas observing at ...