ESO for the Public

Press Releases

eso0817 — Photo Release

The Little Man and the Cosmic Cauldron — VLT images two nebulae in Carina

27 May 2008: On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Very Large Telescope's First Light, ESO is releasing two stunning images of different kinds of nebulae, located towards the Carina constellation. The first one, Eta Carinae, has the shape of a 'little man' and surrounds a star doomed to explode within the next 100000 years. The second image features a much larger nebula, whose internal turmoil is created by a cluster of young, massive stars.

eso0816 — Organisation Release

The Perfect Science Machine — ESO celebrates 10 years since First Light of the VLT

27 May 2008: Today marks the 10th anniversary since First Light with ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), the most advanced optical telescope in the world. Since then, the VLT has evolved into a unique suite of four 8.2-m Unit Telescopes (UTs) equipped with no fewer than 13 state-of-the-art instruments, and four 1.8-m moveable Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs). The telescopes can work individually, and they can also be linked together in groups of two or three to form a giant 'interferometer' (VLTI), allowing astronomers to see details corresponding to those from a much larger telescope.

eso0815 — Science Release

The Behemoth Has a Thick Belt — Astronomers resolve torus around star in another galaxy

27 May 2008: Talk about a diet! By resolving, for the first time, features of an individual star in a neighbouring galaxy, ESO's VLT has allowed astronomers to determine that it weighs almost half of what was previously thought, thereby solving the mystery of its existence. The behemoth star is found to be surrounded by a massive and thick torus of gas and dust, and is most likely experiencing unstable, violent mass loss.

eso0814 — Organisation Release

Stellar students win fantastic prizes in "Catch a Star" astronomical competition

23 May 2008: School students and teachers across Europe and around the world are discovering today who has won fantastic prizes in "Catch a Star", the international astronomical competition run by ESO and the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE).

eso0813 — Science Release

A Molecular Thermometer for the Distant Universe — First accurate measurement of the temperature of the cosmic background at an early epoch

13 May 2008: Astronomers have made use of ESO's Very Large Telescope to detect for the first time in the ultraviolet the carbon monoxide molecule in a galaxy located almost 11 billion light-years away, a feat that had remained elusive for 25 years. This detection allows them to obtain the most precise measurement of the cosmic temperature at such a remote epoch.

eso0812 — Photo Release

Solar Games at Paranal — ESO Staff Share Stunning Images of Solar Phenomena

2 May 2008: Cerro Paranal, home of ESO's Very Large Telescope, is certainly one of the best astronomical sites on the planet. Stunning images, obtained by ESO staff at Paranal, of the green and blue flashes, as well as of the so-called 'Gegenschein', are real cases in point.

eso0811 — Organisation Release

Austria Declares Intent To Join ESO

24 April 2008: At a press conference today at the University of Vienna's Observatory, the Austrian Science Minister Johannes Hahn announced the decision by the Austrian Government to seek membership of ESO from 1 July this year.

eso0810 — Organisation Release

Paranal Receives New Mirror — Survey telescope nears completion

16 April 2008: A 4.1-metre diameter primary mirror, a vital part of the world's newest and fastest survey telescope, VISTA (the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) has been delivered to its new mountaintop home at Cerro Paranal, Chile. The mirror will now be coupled with a small camera for initial testing prior to installing the main camera in June. Full scientific operations are due to start early next year. VISTA will form part of ESO's Very Large Telescope facility.

eso0809 — Science Release

The Drifting Star — Astronomers 'listen' to an exoplanet-host star and find its birthplace

15 April 2008: By studying in great detail the 'ringing' of a planet-harbouring star, a team of astronomers using ESO's 3.6-m telescope have shown that it must have drifted away from the metal-rich Hyades cluster. This discovery has implications for theories of star and planet formation, and for the dynamics of our Milky Way.

eso0808 — Science Release

A Burst to See — Observing the distant Universe with the unaided eye

2 April 2008: On 19 March, Nature was particularly generous and provided astronomers with the wealth of four gamma-ray bursts on the same day. But that was not all: one of them is the most luminous object ever observed in the Universe. Despite being located in a distant galaxy, billions of light years away, it was so bright that it could have been seen, for a brief while, with the unaided eye.

eso0807 — Organisation Release

A Giant of Astronomy and a Quantum of Solace — Blockbuster shooting in Paranal

25 March 2008: Cerro Paranal, the 2600m high mountain in the Chilean Atacama Desert that hosts ESO's Very Large Telescope, will be the stage for scenes in the next James Bond movie, "Quantum of Solace".

eso0806 — Science Release

Seeing through the Dark — Mapping the interior of interstellar clouds in great detail

7 March 2008: Astronomers have measured the distribution of mass inside a dark filament in a molecular cloud with an amazing level of detail and to great depth. The measurement is based on a new method that looks at the scattered near-infrared light or 'cloudshine' and was made with ESO's New Technology Telescope. Associated with the forthcoming VISTA telescope, this new technique will allow astronomers to better understand the cradles of newborn stars.

eso0805 — Science Release

Light echoes whisper the distance to a star — Astronomers calibrate the distance scale of the Universe

11 February 2008: Taking advantage of the presence of light echoes, a team of astronomers have used an ESO telescope to measure, at the 1% precision level, the distance of a Cepheid - a class of variable stars that constitutes one of the first steps in the cosmic distance ladder.

eso0804 — Science Release

New Light on Dark Energy — Probing the cosmic Web of the Universe

30 January 2008: Astronomers have used ESO's Very Large Telescope to measure the distribution and motions of thousands of galaxies in the distant Universe. This opens fascinating perspectives to better understand what drives the acceleration of the cosmic expansion and sheds new light on the mysterious dark energy that is thought to permeate the Universe.

eso0803 — Science Release

The Growing-up of a Star — VLT decodes the innermost surroundings of a star in the maturing

29 January 2008: Using ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer, astronomers have probed the inner parts of the disc of material surrounding a young stellar object, witnessing how it gains its mass before becoming an adult.

eso0802 — Photo Release

Cosmic Interactions — VLT images triplet of dancing galaxies

21 January 2008: An image based on data taken with ESO's Very Large Telescope reveals a triplet of galaxies intertwined in a cosmic dance.

eso0801 — Organisation Release

ESO Highlights in 2007

2 January 2008: Another great year went by for ESO, the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere. From 1 January 2007, with the official joining of the Czech Republic, ESO has 13 member states, and since September, ESO has a new Director General, Tim de Zeeuw.

eso0756 — Organisation Release

Season's Greetings

31 December 2007: A Happy New Year!

eso0755 — Photo Release

Anatomy of a Bird — VLT's NACO instrument reveals a triple cosmic collision

21 December 2007: Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, an international team of astronomers [1] has discovered a stunning rare case of a triple merger of galaxies. This system, which astronomers have dubbed 'The Bird' - albeit it also bears resemblance with a cosmic Tinker Bell - is composed of two massive spiral galaxies and a third irregular galaxy.

eso0754 — Organisation Release

2009 to be the International Year of Astronomy

20 December 2007: Yesterday, the 62nd General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed 2009 the International Year of Astronomy, with the aim of increasing awareness among the public of the importance of astronomical sciences and of promoting widespread access to new knowledge and experiences of astronomical observation.

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