Veckans bild

4 juli 2016: To take this Picture of the Week, ESO Photo Ambassador Adhemar Duro stopped by the roadside en route to one of ESO’s observing sites in Chile. This road winds up to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, ALMA, located at an altitude of 5000 metres. Due to the image’s long exposure time, the stars trace out circles on the night sky as they orbit the southern celestial pole, located at the centre of the image. Atop the celestial pole the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds — two satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, visible only in the southern hemisphere — can be seen as diffuse bluish clouds. On the left side of the image, an area densely populated by stars marks the centre of the Milky Way. Even though the image was taken in the remote Atacama Desert, the distant lights of the small town San Pedro de Atacama are visible ...

27 juni 2016: This image transports you to the most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory in the world: the Very Large Telescope (VLT), located at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The shadowy figure gazing at the dark skies is photographer Babak Tafreshi, as captured by his fellow ESO Photo Ambassador Petr Horálek. For a moment, place yourself in Babak’s — or indeed Petr’s — shoes. Here, you are king of the cosmos. The site is silent, dark, still. You stare up at the pristine Chilean night sky, which, with its extremely low levels of both light pollution and water vapour, offers spectacular nighttime scenery to delight any astrophotographer or stargazer. With your trusty camera on hand, a night of amazing photo opportunities lies ahead; you anticipate spending clear hour after clear hour documenting the heavens, with no fear of cloudy weather appearing, uninvited, to spoil the view. The Large Magellanic Cloud is visible at ...

20 juni 2016: This Picture of the Week illustrates the remarkable capabilities of SPHERE (the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument), a planet-hunting instrument mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile: It shows a series of broken rings of dust around a nearby star. These concentric rings are located in the inner region of the debris disc surrounding a young star named HD 141569A, which sits some 370 light-years away from us. In this image we see what is known as a transition disc, a short-lived stage between the protoplanetary phase, when planets have not yet formed, and a later time when planets have coalesced, leaving the disc populated only by any remaining — and predominantly dusty — debris. What we see here are structures formed of dust, revealed for the first time in near-infrared light by SPHERE — at a high enough resolution to capture remarkable detail! The area shown in ...

13 juni 2016: Astronomers hunt for planets orbiting other stars (exoplanets) using a variety of methods. One successful method is direct imaging; this is particularly effective for planets on wide orbits around young stars, because the light from the planet is not overwhelmed by light from the host star and is thus easier to spot. This image demonstrates this technique. It shows a T-Tauri star named CVSO 30, located approximately 1200 light-years away from Earth in the 25 Orionis group (slightly northwest of Orion’s famous Belt). In 2012, astronomers found that CVSO 30 hosted one exoplanet (CVSO 30b) using a detection method known as transit photometry, where the light from a star observably dips as a planet travels in front of it. Now, astronomers have gone back to look at the system using a number of telescopes. The study combines observations obtained with the ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, the W. ...

6 juni 2016: In this picture, the enclosure for ESO’s New Technology Telescope (NTT) has opened its angled doors to reveal a long slice of the southern sky. The sky is freckled by stars, while the moon lights up the inner walls of the NTT dome, casting a shadow over the 3.6-metre telescope. At the top of the telescope we can make out the secondary mirror cell of the telescope, held in a ring structure and supported on struts above the primary mirror. One of the NTT’s remarkable aspects is that it employs active optics, in which the primary mirror is flexible and its shape is actively adjusted during observations by actuators to preserve the optimal image quality. The position of the secondary mirror is also actively controlled in three directions. This technology, developed by ESO, is nowadays applied to all major modern telescopes, such as the Very Large Telescope at Cerro Paranal ...

30 maj 2016: High upon the Chajnantor Plateau, a solitary vicuña — a relative of llamas, alpacas and camels — stands before the APEX antenna. Both the animal and the antenna are well-equipped to handle the harshness of their remote and arid environment. At Chajnantor, some 5000 metres above sea level, temperatures can get fairly warm during the day, thanks to the intense sunlight beaming through the thin atmosphere. However, at night, the mercury plunges. Engineers built the antenna of APEX to withstand the harsh weather, carefully crafting them to endure relentless sunlight, strong winds, and severe temperature changes ranging from +20 to -20 degrees Celsius. The hardy vicuña, meanwhile, with its thick, wooly coat that traps hot air close to its body, can also handle nature’s quirks. The species, only found at high altitudes in the Andes Mountains, grazes on the tough grasses found across the otherwise barren slopes. Although the Chajnantor ...

23 maj 2016: Using 39 of the 66 antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), located 5000 metres up on the Chajnantor plateau in the Chilean Andes, astronomers have been able to detect carbon monoxide (CO) in the disc of debris around an F-type star. Although carbon monoxide is the second most common molecule in the interstellar medium, after molecular hydrogen, this is the first time that CO has been detected around a star of this type. The star, named HD 181327, is a member of the Beta Pictoris moving group, located almost 170 light-years from Earth. Until now, the presence of CO has been detected only around a few A-type stars, substantially more massive and luminous than HD 181327. Using the superb spatial resolution and sensitivity offered by the ALMA observatory astronomers were now able to capture this stunning ring of smoke and map the density of the CO within the ...

16 maj 2016: On 16 March the names of the eight participants of #MeetESO — ESO’s first social media gathering — were announced, one month after the campaign’s launch. On 7 May 2016, the participants winged their way to Chile for a five-day visit to some of the most exciting astronomical facilities in the world: the Very Large Telescope (VLT) — the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory — and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the largest ground-based astronomical project in existence. As shown by their big smiles, the #MeetESO travellers fully enjoyed the packed itinerary, from engaging with ESO and ALMA staff during their night-time observations at one of the best locations on Earth, to staying at ESO’s Residencia, which acts as a hotel for working astronomers (but may be more familiar to many as the building that was “blown up” in the James Bond movie Quantum of Solace). The climax ...

9 maj 2016: This Picture of the Week shows the Vela ring galaxy, visible as a bright core surrounded by a baby blue halo. This ring galaxy — located in the southern constellation of Antlia (The Pump) — is notable due to its compact core and large circular belt of gas and stars. It is thought that ring galaxies like this are created when larger galaxies are punctured by a smaller galactic aggressor, which, passing through the heart of its more sizeable victim, triggers a shock wave that spreads outwards. This pushes gas to the galaxy’s periphery, where it begins to collapse and form new stars. The Vela ring galaxy is unusual in that it actually exhibits at least two rings, suggesting that the collision was not a recent one. This picture also features a galaxy known as ESO 316-33, seen just above and to the left of the Vela ring galaxy, and ...

2 maj 2016: Glistening against the awesome backdrop of the night sky above ESO’s Paranal Observatory, four laser beams project out into the darkness from Unit Telescope 4 (UT4) of the Very Large Telescope (VLT); they mark the first use of multiple lasers at ESO and they are the most powerful laser guide stars ever used in astronomy. Some 90 kilometres up in the atmosphere, the lasers excite atoms of sodium, creating artificial stars for the telescope’s adaptive optics systems. Modern telescopes use adaptive optics systems to compensate for the blurring effect of the Earth’s atmosphere. To do this, the telescope needs to be able to see a bright reference star while it is observing its main target. However, there is not always a suitably bright star nearby, so astronomers use lasers to create artificial stars exactly where they need them. Sodium atoms high in the atmosphere are made to glow by the ...

25 april 2016: Astronomers have discovered a new satellite orbiting the main belt asteroid (130) Elektra — the smallest object visible in this image. The team, led by Bin Yang (ESO, Santiago, Chile), imaged it using the extreme adaptive optics instrument, SPHERE, installed on the Unit Telescope 3 of ESO’s Very Large Telescope at Cerro Paranal, Chile. This new, second moonlet of (130) Elektra is about 2 kilometres across and has been provisionally named S/2014 (130) 1, making (130) Elektra a triple system. Exploiting the unprecedented sensitivity and spatial resolution of the instrument SPHERE, the team also observed another triple asteroid system in the main belt, (93) Minerva. Asteroids are the relics of the building blocks that formed the terrestrial planets in the early days of the Solar System. Studying asteroids with multiple satellites is of crucial importance because their formation mechanisms can provide information about planet formation and evolution that cannot be ...

18 april 2016: As the Sun raises at Cerro Paranal, in Chile, filling the sky with superb orange shades, two members of the ESO Fulldome Expedition, Babak Tafreshi (left) and Yuri Beletsky (right), are preparing their tripods and cameras for the day ahead. Above the silhouette of the Chilean mountains, the gentle smile of a crescent Moon and the bright planet Venus strike a pose for the cameras. Thanks to a phenomenon called earthshine, the entire disc of the Moon can be seen shining in light reflected off the Earth. The telescope in silhouette in front is an Auxiliary Telescope (AT), part of Very Large Telescope (VLT) at ESO's Paranal Observatory. This twilight moment was captured by ESO Photo Ambassador Petr Horálek, while participating in the ESO Fulldome Expedition which is gathering spectacular images for use in the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre, currently under construction at ESO’s Headquarters in Garching (near ...

11 april 2016: This Auxiliary Telescope at the Very Large Telescope (VLT), located at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, looks to be pointing at the greenish emerald glow of the comet 252P/LINEAR high above it. Discovered in April 2000, 252P/LINEAR is a relative newcomer to the inner Solar System, traveling between the orbit of Jupiter and the orbit of Earth. A couple of days ago, in March 2016, it passed particularly close to the Earth, at a distance of only 5.2 millions kilometers, ranking as the fifth closest recorded passage of a comet. It can still be admired in the southern hemisphere. The green colour arises from fluorescing carbon-based gas surrounding the comet. This gem of a picture was taken by the ESO Photo Ambassador Babak A. Tafreshi. He has just started out on ESO’s Fulldome Expedition, during which he will be taking more spectacular pictures from ESO’s observatories and of the southern ...

4 april 2016: The faint light extending up from the horizon just below centre of this photo is known as zodiacal light, caused by sunlight scattering from cosmic dust in the plane of our Earth’s orbit. A second band of light can be seen at the horizon on the lower left. This red light is airglow, produced by the Earth’s atmosphere. Airglow is caused by processes taking place in the upper atmosphere, including cosmic rays, recombining photoionized atoms, and various chemical reactions between oxygen, nitrogen, hydroxyl, sodium, and lithium atoms. The third and final band is the Milky Way, our home galaxy, high in the sky. This band consists of billions of stars of all kinds. Many of them are hidden to the human eye behind large layers of interstellar dust, giving the Milky Way its characteristically mottled look. At the centre of the image stands ESO Photo ambassador Babak Tafreshi, watching the ...

28 mars 2016: Deep in the Chilean Desert, astronomers staying at ESO’s Residencia, the VLT Observatory's hotel, witness a skyscape like few others on Earth. Designed by the German architects Auer+Weber+Assoziierte, the Residencia provides an oasis for those working at ESO’s Paranal Observatory. The Atacama Desert is one of the harshest landscapes imaginable. Extreme dryness, intense ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, and high altitude are a normal part of everyday life. However, come nightfall, the Residencia experiences some of the best observing conditions in the world. Residencia and ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) — housed at the Paranal Observatory — are far from sources of light pollution, and experience exceptionally clear atmospheric conditions. On moonless nights, the sky can be so clear and dark that light from the Milky Way casts a shadow on the ground! These factors permit high quality scientific observations to be made as well as offering amazing conditions for ...

21 mars 2016: The dark patch snaking across this spectacular image of a field of stars in the constellation of Ophiuchus (The Serpent-bearer) is not quite what it appears to be. Although it looks as if there are no stars here, they are hidden behind this dense cloud of dust that blocks out their light. This particular dark cloud is known as LDN 1768. Despite their rather dull appearance, dark nebulae like LDN 1768 are of huge interest to astronomers, as it is here that new stars form. Inside these vast stellar nurseries there are protostars — stars at the earliest stage of their lives, still coalescing out of the gas and dust in the cloud. Protostars are relatively cold and have not yet begun to produce enough energy to emit visible light. Instead, they emit radiation at submillimetre wavelengths, which human eyes cannot see. Luckily, unlike visible light, light at submillimetre wavelengths ...

14 mars 2016: This picture was taken just before dawn at the La Silla Observatory, in outskirts of the Chilean Atacama Desert. A layer of orange hovering over the horizon announces the imminent arrival of the Sun. These first hints of daylight are kissed by the Milky Way, which stretches out across the entire night sky. This view of our home galaxy is covered with dark patches, formed from dust particles blocking the light behind them. In front of this cosmic scenery you can see some of the observatory’s telescopes. The closest is the Swedish–ESO Submillimetre Telescope (SEST), whose dish measures 15 metres across. It was decommissioned in 2003 and replaced by the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment telescope (APEX) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). On the plateau in the background stands the ESO 3.6-metre telescope, with the Coudé Auxiliary Telescope (CAT) right behind it. SEST seems to be pointing at an extremely ...

7 mars 2016: In this picture, our home galaxy the Milky Way stretches across the sky above the landscape of the Chilean Andes. In the foreground, the roads of ESO’s La Silla Observatory are packed with state-of-the-art astronomical telescopes pointing towards, and far beyond, the Milky Way. Several multinational telescopes are captured in this frame. The ESO 3.6-metre telescope stands on the central pedestal and is mounted with the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) — the best exoplanet finder on Earth. Just next to the main dome, the smaller one once hosted the Coudé Auxiliary Telescope (CAT) which used to feed the powerful Coudé Echelle Spectrograph; they are now both decommissioned. At the foot of this pedestal lies the French Rapid Action Telescope for Transient Objects (TAROT) which follows up on highly energetic events called gamma-ray bursts. These are also studied by the Swiss 1.2-metre Leonhard Euler Telescope in the dome ...

29 februari 2016: Pictured here at sunset is one of the four Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), shown at ESO's Paranal Observatory. The faint crescent Moon can be seen hanging above the round enclosure of the telescope. Together with four Unit Telescopes (UTs) that make up the Very Large Telescope, these four ATs complete the VLTI. Unlike the UTs, which are fixed, each of the four 1.8-metre ATs are movable and can be relocated to 30 different stations along the platform to create a wide baseline of up to 200 metres. This allows the VLTI to act as one large telescope of this size via a technique called interferometry — combining the light from several smaller telescopes to increase the resolution of the telescope. In the case of VLTI, this provides milliarcsecond angular resolution — equivalent to a span of two metres as far away from us as ...

22 februari 2016: This image is unreal — literally! Rather than being a single picture, it was created by combining two separate photographs together, and shows the January sky as seen from both hemispheres. The skilled photographer was ESO Photo Ambassador Petr Horálek. Petr shot the upper part of the image from ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile and the lower part from the Slovakian village of Oravska Lesna, before combining the two to form this striking composite. One arm of the distinctive X-shaped structure spreading from the top right to the bottom left of the frame is the lane of the Milky Way. The other diagonal comprises glowing columns of zodiacal light. In the centre of the image, is one of the four small 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes that make up part of ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT). A significant glow can be seen in the lower part of the image, caused by light ...