Latest Cerro Paranal Stories

This image of the nebula NGC 3582, which was captured by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile, shows giant loops of gas bearing a striking resemblance to solar prominences. These loops are thought to have been ejected by dying stars, but new stars are also being born within this stellar nursery. These energetic youngsters emit intense ultraviolet radiation that makes the gas in the nebula glow, producing the fiery display shown...

On 6 April 2011, the ESO Paranal Observatory was honored with a visit from the President of the Czech Republic, Václav Klaus, and his wife Livia Klausová, who also took the opportunity to admire Cerro Armazones, the future site of the planned E-ELT.The distinguished visitor was shown the technical installations at the observatory, and was present when the dome of one of the four 8.2-meter Unit Telescopes of ESO's Very Large Telescope opened for a night's observing at Cerro Paranal,...

Astronomers may have found the first object clearing its path in the natal disc surrounding a young starUsing ESO's Very Large Telescope an international team of astronomers has been able to study the short-lived disc of material around a young star that is in the early stages of making a planetary system. For the first time a smaller companion could be detected that may be the cause of the large gap found in the disc. Future observations will determine whether this companion is a planet or a...

ESO's Hidden Treasures 2010 astrophotography competition attracted nearly 100 entries, and ESO is delighted to announce the winners. Hidden Treasures gave amateur astronomers the opportunity to search ESO's vast archives of astronomical data for a well-hidden cosmic gem. Astronomy enthusiast Igor Chekalin from Russia won the first prize in this difficult but rewarding challenge "” the trip of a lifetime to ESO's Very Large Telescope at Paranal, Chile.The pictures of the Universe that can be...

This new infrared image of the Lagoon Nebula was captured as part of a five-year study of the Milky Way using ESO's VISTA telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. This is a small piece of a much larger image of the region surrounding the nebula, which is, in turn, only one part of a huge survey.Astronomers are currently using ESO's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) to scour the Milky Way's central regions for variable objects and map its structure in greater...

Stretching 100 kilometers through Chile's harsh Atacama Desert, a newly inaugurated data cable is creating new opportunities at ESO's Paranal Observatory and the Observatorio Cerro Armazones. Connecting these facilities to the main Latin American scientific data backbone completes the last gap in the high-speed link between the observatories and Europe.This new cable is part of the EVALSO (Enabling Virtual Access to Latin American Southern Observatories) project [1], a European Commission FP7...

A new infrared image from ESO's VISTA survey telescope reveals an extraordinary landscape of glowing tendrils of gas, dark clouds and young stars within the constellation of Monoceros (the Unicorn). This star-forming region, known as Monoceros R2, is embedded within a huge dark cloud. The region is almost completely obscured by interstellar dust when viewed in visible light, but is spectacular in the infrared.An active stellar nursery lies hidden inside a massive dark cloud rich in molecules...

ESO is releasing a beautiful image of the nearby galaxy Messier 83 taken by the HAWK-I instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. The picture shows the galaxy in infrared light and demonstrates the impressive power of the camera to create one of the sharpest and most detailed pictures of Messier 83 ever taken from the ground.The galaxy Messier 83 is located about 15 million light-years away in the constellation of Hydra (the Sea Serpent). It spans over...

The European Southern Observatory said on Monday that the world's largest telescope will be built in Chile's northern desert for over $1 billion and will set its sights on discovering other worlds like our own. The European Extremely Large Telescope will examine the skies for exoplanets, as well as try and unravel the mystery of dark matter and dark energy. The 137-foot telescope will be built 10,040 feet above sea level on a mountain in Chile's northern, mine rich Atacama desert.  This...

An International group of four professional stargazers are backing Chile's Atacama Desert as the future home to the world's biggest telescope. The telescope is on schedule to be built in 2018, and astronomers say Chile provides the perfect conditions due to its geographical advantages. The experts say that because of its cloud-free skies 360 nights a year, the high-altitude Armazones mountains in northern Chilean desert is the perfect place for the European Extremely Large Telescope...