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eso9528 — Science Release

A Galaxy is Born in a Swirling Hydrogen Cloud

23 October 1995: Astronomers from the University of Leiden have discovered an extremely distant, enormous gas cloud. It is probably a 'cocoon' from which one or more galaxies are in the process of being born, soon after the Big Bang. The observations also indicate that this gas cloud is slowly rotating, an entirely new result of great cosmological significance. The discovery was made with the ESO 3.5-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT) at La Silla in Chile by a team consisting of Rob van Ojik, Huub Röttgering, Chris Carilli, George Miley and Malcolm Bremer from Leiden Observatory (The Netherlands) and Duccio Macchetto of the European Space Agency (ESA) stationed in Baltimore, U.S.A. Their extensive observations are reported in an article accepted for publication in the professional European journal `Astronomy and Astrophysics' and also as a chapter of van Ojik's Ph.D. thesis which is defended at the University of Leiden on October 25. This exciting result casts new light on one of the most important questions of modern cosmology, i.e. how lumpy galaxies were 'born' out of the extremely smooth fireball produced during the Big Bang.
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eso9527 — Organisation Release

The Coming of Age of Adaptive Optics — How Ground-Based Astronomers Beat the Atmosphere

23 October 1995: Adaptive Optics (AO) is the new "wonder-weapon" in ground-based astronomy. By means of advanced electro-optical devices at their telescopes, astronomers are now able to ``neutralize'' the image-smearing turbulence of the terrestrial atmosphere (seen by the unaided eye as the twinkling of stars) so that much sharper images can be obtained than before. In practice, this is done with computer-controlled, flexible mirrors which refocus the blurred images up to 100 times per second, i.e. at a rate that is faster than the changes in the atmospheric turbulence.
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eso9526 — Science Release

ESO Astronomers Detect a Galaxy at the Edge of the Universe — Starlight from the Depths of Time

15 September 1995: Four European astronomers [1] have taken advantage of the superb imaging quality of the ESO 3.5-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT) at the La Silla observatory, to detect a galaxy at an extremely large distance. They conclude that its redshift [2] is z = 4.4; thus, this galaxy is by far the most remote ever detected. In fact, it has taken its light about 90 percent of the age of the Universe to reach us, and we now observe this early object as it appeared, only 1 - 2 billion years [3] after the Universe was created in the Big Bang. Still, the galaxy contains a considerable amount of elements that must have been produced in stars. This proves that stars were formed in normal galaxies, already before this very early epoch.
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eso9525 — Organisation Release

VLT 8.2-m Unit Telescope no. 1 (as on September 7, 1995)

13 September 1995: The construction of the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) advances rapidly, both in Europe and in Chile. These three photos show some of the main mechanical parts of the first 8.2-metre telescope, as they presented themselves in Milan (Italy) on Thursday, September 7, 1995. Two versions of these photos, one smaller and one larger and with better image resolution, are accessible for convenient transfer over the networks.
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eso9524 — Science Release

A Spectrum of Comet Hale-Bopp

11 September 1995: Comet Hale-Bopp is known to possess a bright coma, despite its large distance from the Sun, almost 1,000 million km. Observations have shown that this coma consists of dust particles of different sizes that have been ejected from the comet's nucleus.
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eso9523 — Photo Release

An "International" Comet Hale-Bopp Image

5 September 1995: A brand new image of comet Hale-Bopp, showing its famous jet that comes out of the nuclear region, has just been released.
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eso9522 — Photo Release

The Spectacular Jet in Comet Hale-Bopp

1 September 1995: A new image of comet Hale-Bopp, taken at ESO's observatory in La Silla, sheds new light on the structure of this peculiar comet.
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eso9521 — Photo Release

The Enormous Size of Comet Hale-Bopp

30 August 1995: This series of three photos of the unusual Comet Hale-Bopp demonstrates that the comet is much larger than thought so far. In fact, its nucleus is surrounded by a dust cloud that measures more than 2.5 million kilometres across. Note that because of the wide field they represent, each of the images is available in two sizes, the larger of which has considerably better resolution.
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eso9520 — Science Release

New Distant Comet Headed for Bright Encounter — How Impressive Will Comet Hale-Bopp Become in 1997?

25 August 1995: A very unusual comet was discovered last month, on its way from the outer reaches of the solar system towards the Sun. Although it is still situated beyond the orbit of Jupiter, it is so bright that it can be observed in even small telescopes. It has been named `Hale-Bopp' after the discoverers and is already of great interest to cometary astronomers.
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eso9519 — Photo Release

NTT Observations of Bright Comet 1995 Q1 (Bradfield)

25 August 1995: In the evening of August 17, 1995, famous comet hunter William Bradfield (Australia) discovered his seventeenth comet. He found the comet as a 6th magnitude object with a tail longer than 1 degree in the southern constellation Crater. Soon thereafter, observations were made at the ESO La Silla Observatory with various telescopes.
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eso9518 — Organisation Release

Paranal on August 6, 1995

22 August 1995: This series of four photos was taken on Sunday, August 6, 1995, on the top of the Paranal mountain, where the world's largest telescope, the ESO 16-metre equivalent Very Large Telescope , is now being installed. The VLT will consist of four 8.2-metre unit telescopes which can also be coupled. Together with some smaller, moveable telescopes, to be installed later, the four large telescopes will form the VLT Interferometer (VLTI) , a unique instrument that will allow extremely sharp images to be obtained. The first 8.2-metre telescope is expected to be in place in late 1997/early 1998.
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eso9517 — Organisation Release

ESO Helps Antofagasta after the Earthquake

22 August 1995: On Sunday, July 30, 1995, at 1:15 hrs, the Antofagasta region was struck by a strong earthquake, reaching 7.8 on the Richter scale. Three people died and more than 130 houses and buildings were damaged beyond repair. The port also suffered damage.
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eso9516 — Photo Release

Last ESO Image of Bright Comet 1995 Q1 (Bradfield)

22 August 1995: Moving steadily closer to the Sun, Comet 1995 Q1 (Bradfield) can no longer be observed with the larger telescopes at La Silla. Nevertheless, Guido Pizarro succeeded in obtaining one more image with the ESO Schmidt telescope last evening (21 - 22 August 1995). At the moment of the 10 minute exposure, the comet was only 26 degrees from the Sun. This is most likely to be the last image of this comet that will be made from the ESO observatory.
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eso9515 — Photo Release

The Swan Bands in Bright Comet 1995 Q1 (Bradfield)

21 August 1995: Observations of Comet 1995 Q1 (Bradfield) were again made at La Silla last night (20 - 21 August 1995), but were hindered by high winds and the fact that the comet is rapidly approaching the Sun.
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eso9514 — Photo Release

NTT Observations of Bright Comet 1995 Q1 (Bradfield)

20 August 1995: The observations of the bright comet 1995 Q1, now named after its discoverer, William Bradfield, continued for the third night in a row at La Silla (19 - 20 August 1995). Two telescopes were employed to obtain more unique data of this interesting object.
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eso9513 — Photo Release

An Infrared Image of Bright Comet 1995 Q1

19 August 1995: The newly discovered, bright Comet 1995 Q1 was again observed at La Silla last night (18 - 19 August 1995).
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eso9512 — Science Release

Bright Comet 1995 Q1

18 August 1995: In the evening of August 17, 1995, famous comet hunter William Bradfield (Australia) discovered his seventeenth comet. He found the comet as a 6th magnitude object with a tail longer than 1 degree in the southern constellation Crater.
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eso9511 — Science Release

Beyond the Hubble Constant — International Astronomer Team Witnesses Very Ancient Stellar Explosion

17 August 1995: A few months ago, a violent stellar explosion -- a supernova -- was discovered in an extremely distant galaxy by an international team of astronomers [1]. This is the very promising first result of a recently initiated, dedicated search for such objects. Subsequent spectral observations have shown this to be the most distant supernova ever observed. Although it is very faint, it has been possible to classify it as a supernova of Type Ia, a kind that is particularly well suited for cosmological distance determinations.
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eso9510 — Organisation Release

Earthquake in Antofagasta — ESO's Solidarity with the Region

2 August 1995: The Antofagasta Earthquake of last Sunday, July 30, 1:15 hours, violently shook Cerro Paranal, the site where ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is building the VLT, the world's largest optical telescope. The quake's intensity in Paranal was estimated at grade 8 on the Richter scale.
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eso9509 — Science Release

ROSAT Discovers Unique, Distant Cluster of Galaxies — Brightest X-ray Cluster Acts as Strong Gravitational Lens

19 June 1995: Based on exciting new data obtained with the ROSAT X-ray satellite and a ground-based telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory, a team of European astronomers [2] has just discovered a very distant cluster of galaxies with unique properties. It emits the strongest X-ray emission of any cluster ever observed by ROSAT and is accompanied by two extraordinarily luminous arcs that represent the gravitationally deflected images of even more distant objects. The combination of these unusual characteristics makes this cluster, now known as RXJ1347.5-1145, a most interesting object for further cosmological studies.
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