The European Southern Observatory designs, builds & operates world-class observatories on the ground for the benefit of society.
#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science
| website | https://www.eso.org |
| YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@ESOobservatory |
| Chasing Starlight | https://www.youtube.com/@ESOChasingStarlight |
Tunnel vision!
Step inside the tunnels below our Paranal Observatory in #Chile. They connect the Unit Telescopes, which comprise the Very Large Telescope (VLT), to the control building where the VLT and its instruments are operated by observing teams.
And no worries: despite the eerie, sci-fi atmosphere, no drooling, man-eating aliens are roaming there, just astronomers and engineers 😉
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2624a/
📷 L. Sbordone/ESO
Fly with us over the Gum 10 and 11 nebulae 🚀
Visible mostly from the southern hemisphere, they are part of a larger complex, in which stars are born. They owe their name to the Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum, who in 1955 published a catalogue with more than 80 similar diffuse nebulae.
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2623a/
📹 ESO/VPHAS+ team
🎧 Mylonite – Au-delà de l'horizon
Script: J. C. Muñoz
Editing: M. Martins & V. Gonzáles
Using ALMA and the VLA, astronomers have found huge amounts of molecular gas –the raw material out of which stars form– in REBELS 25, a galaxy so far away we are seeing when the universe was only 5% of its current age.
These results will help us understand how the first galaxies became so massive so quickly after the Big Bang.
Read more in the NRAO press release: https://public.nrao.edu/news/vla-fuel-discovery/
📷 NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/M.Weiss
We're celebrating two birthdays with this image!
The first is the ongoing birth of new stars within Gum 10 and Gum 11, the star-forming regions featured here.
The second is the birthday of the telescope that captured this image: the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), which had its first light 15 years ago today. Happy birthday, VST, and thank you for 15 years of stunning views of our Universe 🤩
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2623a/
📷 ESO/VPHAS+
RE: https://wisskomm.social/@AIP_Potsdam/116679474136624655
For more than 10 years, astronomers have been carefully tracking the motion of millions of stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud using our VISTA telescope in Chile. They found that the galaxy is being stretched due to gravitational interactions with its bigger sibling, the Large Magellanic cloud. More details below 👇
2/2 This is likely due to the presence of planet-wide magnetic fields which work like brakes, slowing down the motion of charged particles in the atmosphere.
Hotter temperatures break down more molecules into ions and electrons, making the winds more susceptible to being slowed down by the planet's magnetic field.
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2606/
1/2 Astronomers have found the strongest hints yet of magnetic activity in exoplanets 🧲
Using our Very Large Telescope and Gemini North, they measured wind speeds on 7 very hot, Jupiter-like exoplanets. They saw a very intriguing pattern: the hotter the planet, the slower the wind.
This is unexpected, as hot planets have more energy to accelerate the winds. So what's going on? Keep reading...
Artist impression: ESO/M. Kornmesser, L. Calçada
The spinning origins of a planetary system!
Taken with our Very Large Telescope in #Chile over a period of four years, these images show the rotating disc of gas and dust around the young star AB Aurigae.
There are features like “twists” signalling the places where planets could be forming, as well as radial shadows cast by dense clumps of material.
Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/potw2622a/
📹 ESO/A. Boccaletti et al.
Emitted by the four 8 m telescopes of our Very Large Telescope, laser beams shine across the magnificent Southern sky over #Chile.
On each beam, glowing beads of light are created by a thin layer of clouds crossing the path of the lasers — a happy accident, as the lasers themselves target a much higher layer in our atmosphere: sodium atoms floating 90 km above the ground.
Bu what for? Find out: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2621a/
📷 A. Berdeu/ESO
A virtual telescope with a diameter of up to 200 metres, that is what we get when we combine the light gathered by our telescopes at Paranal Observatory in #Chile
Called the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), it can capture some of the sharpest views of the Universe.
How does this work? Here's your VLTI 101, with #ChasingStarlight 👇
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTk_bMcr4rs
#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science #engineering
