Latest European Southern Observatory Stories
New video combines carefully-selected celestial images, many never before available on digital disc, with music and narration to create breathtaking works of art SEATTLE, March 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, the public has been fascinated by the beauty of newly released cosmic images recorded by advanced orbiting and ground based telescopes. Now the new "Art of the Universe" DVDs and Blu-ray Discs enable viewers to fully appreciate the gorgeous colors and intricate formations of...
ESO On 13 March 2013 the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the largest astronomical project in the world, will be inaugurated in Chile, celebrating ALMA’s transition from a construction project to a fully fledged observatory. For members of the media who cannot be present at the inaugural event, the ALMA partner organizations will host an online press meeting via Adobe Connect on 12 March 2013 at 12:00 CET. Presentations about the development, inauguration and...
[WATCH VIDEO: Flying Through The HD 100546 System] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Astronomers, for the first time, may have made a direct observation of a planet forming inside a thick disc of gas and dust. An international team led by Sascha Quanz, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), used the European Space Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT). Their discovery could help improve scientists' knowledge of how planets form and...
ESO On 14 March 2013, His Royal Highness, The Crown Prince of Denmark, will visit ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile accompanied by his wife, Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess. Denmark has been member of ESO since 1967, and the visit is part of the Crown Prince Couple’s official visit to Chile which will showcase several important cultural, industrial, health, environmental and scientific links between Denmark and Chile. The Crown Prince Couple will be meeting the press outside...
ESO Located around 8000 light-years away in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion), NGC 6357 — sometimes nicknamed the Lobster Nebula due to its appearance in visible-light images — is a region filled with vast clouds of gas and tendrils of dark dust. These clouds are forming stars, including massive hot stars which glow a brilliant blue-white in visible light. This image uses infrared data from ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at the Paranal...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Astronomers using the Subaru Telescope recently obtained a three-dimensional view of a distant gravitationally-lensed quasar and discovered complex structures inside outflows coming from the nucleus. The team used the large telescope to observe quasar SDSS J1029+2623, which sits 10 billion light-years away from Earth in the constellation Leo. By using the gravitational lensing technique, astronomers were able to look at this far away...
[ Video 1 ] | [ Video 2 ] | [ Video 3 ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A new image released by the European Space Observatory (ESO) illustrates the bright star cluster NGC 6520, located in one of the richest star fields in the sky. Astronomers using ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile took advantage of the Wide Field Imager on the telescope to snap the image. The image not only shows off NGC 6520, but also its neighbor, the strange dark cloud known as Barnard...
[ Listen to the Podcast: “How Planets Form” With Guest Dr. Eric Mamajek (Part 1): Your Universe Today Podcasts ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The Subaru Telescope has helped astronomers capture the first vivid infrared image of a distant planet forming from a young star. Astronomers wrote in Astrophysical Journal Letters about an image of a curved arm of dust extending over a hole on a disk, which is a feature that could provide evidence that there are...
[ Video 1 ] | [ Video 2 ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A new image released by the European Space Observatory (ESO) taken by its Wide Field Imager shows off a section of the Seagull Nebula. The cloud of dust and glowing gas seen in the image that forms the "wings" of the seagull reveals a mix of dark and glowing red clouds. The Seagull Nebula, or IC 2177, lies between the constellations of Canis Major and Monoceros in the southern sky. Astronomers refer to...
John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Black holes of any size are mysterious, seemingly breaking through the barriers of the physical laws that guide our Universe. Formed under extreme conditions -- such as the collapse of a massive star, some ten times the mass of our Sun or more -- these objects are very difficult to study under any conditions. Most puzzling are a class of black holes that can range in size from millions to billions of solar masses. Such...
Latest European Southern Observatory Reference Libraries
Very Large Telescope -- The Very Large Telescope (VLT) consist of four optical telescopes that have 8.4 meter aperture. The VLT is a project of the European Southern Observatory organization. It is located at the Paranal Observatory on Cerro Paranal, a 2,635-m high mountain in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. The VLT consists of a cluster four of large telescopes, and an interferometer (VLTI) which will be used to resolve fine features. The telescopes have been named after the...
Overwhelmingly Large Telescope -- The European Southern Observatory has undertaken a concept study for the next generation of ground-based Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs). Dubbed OWL, ESO's concept is conceived as a 100 m. diameter optical and near-infrared, adaptive telescope. With milliarc second resolution and limiting magnitude V~38, OWL will be capable of imaging solar system objects at resolutions comparable to that offered by space probes, over much longer time scales. It...
La Silla Observatory -- La Silla is a 2400-m mountain, bordering the southern extremity of the Atacama desert in Chile. It is located about 160 Km north of La Serena. Its geographical coordinates are: Latitude 29 15' south & Longitude 70 44' west. Originally known as Cinchado, the mountain was renamed La Silla (the saddle) after its shape. It rises quite isolated and remote from any artificial light and dust sources (astronomy's worst enemies). La Silla was the first ESO...
European Southern Observatory -- ESO, the European Southern Observatory, was created in 1962 to: "establish and operate an astronomical observatory in the southern hemisphere, equipped with powerful instruments, with the aim of furthering and organising collaboration in astronomy". ESO is supported by Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. Other countries have expressed interest to become a member as well. ESO...
Mount Wilson Observatory -- astronomical observatory located in California on Mt. Wilson, near Pasadena. Mt. Wilson Observatory was founded in 1904 by George E. Hale. Its equipment includes 100-in. (2.5-m) and 60-in. (1.50-m) reflecting telescopes and two solar-tower telescopes 150 ft. (46 m) and 60 ft. (18 m) in length. The most recent addition is the CHARA (Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy) array operated by Georgia State Univ.; it consists of six 39-in. (1-m) aperture...
