Astronomers have created a galactic masterpiece. Using ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), they observed the Sculptor Galaxy in thousands of colours simultaneously 🌈

A galaxy’s building blocks — stars, gas and dust — emit light at different colours. The more shades of colour there are in an image of a galaxy, the more we can learn about its inner workings such as age, composition, and motion.

To create this ultra-detailed image of the Sculptor Galaxy, the researchers observed it for over 50 hours with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on ESO’s VLT. The team then stitched together over 100 exposures to cover an area of the galaxy about 65 000 light-years wide.

Discover more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2510/

📷 ESO/E. Congiu et al.

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New exoplanet classification just dropped.

https://xkcd.com/3103/

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When your mirror gets dirty at home, you can just grab a cloth and some spray to clean it. But what about the ultra-precise, reflective mirrors of telescopes? 🤔

Things can get a bit more complex. This image shows you part of the cleaning process for the main mirror of the ESO 3.6-metre Telescope at La Silla Observatory, #Chile.

Discover how it's done: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2524a/

Do you want to learn more about how we clean telescope mirrors? Then check out this blog post: https://www.eso.org/public/blog/exploding-snow/

📷 A. Silber/ESO

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Black holes don't have the friendliest reputation out there, but let's face it: they're one of the most fascinating cosmic beasts in the Universe!

Join us on this episode of Chasing Starlight to meet some record-breaking black holes.

🚨 Spoiler alert: one eats a whole Sun each day... 😱

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HSHxxOIZCE

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Astronomers may have found evidence of still-forming planets hidden somewhere in this close-up of the star RIK 113, taken with our Veery Large Telescope in #Chile
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This and previous data taken with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array suggest that the disc around the star may be shaped by hidden planets.⁠
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The data show the presence of gaps and spiral features, which may have been caused by forming planets.⁠

Learn more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2523a/

📷 ESO/C. Ginski et al.

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Supernovae, bursting black holes... some events in the Universe are unpredictable. We don't know when or where they'll happen, so how can astronomers study them properly? SOXS, a new instrument being tested at our La Silla observatory in #Chile, will be a game changer.

Learn more: https://www.eso.org/public/blog/soxs/

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We love lasers, and for good reasons!

They help us sharpen our observations of the Universe, through a technology known as adaptive optics.

We are now testing next-generation lasers that will be installed in both our Very Large Telescope (VLT) and Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in #Chile

Check our video recap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3f_67I_ISM

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The Moon is peering over the shoulder of one of the 66 antennas of ALMA, spread out atop the 5000-m high Chajnantor Plateau in #Chile.
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Unlike optical telescopes, which gather light in wavelengths that we can see, ALMA's antennas observe the cool corners of the Universe using longer, invisible wavelengths, somewhere between infrared radiation and radio waves.

Learn more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2522a/

📷 Y. Villalon/ESO⁠

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