ESO Chile Image of the Month

This is a colour image of the most nearby galaxy cluster in the southern hemisphere, the Fornax cluster, taken with the 2.5m du Pont telescope at Las Campanas (image credits M. Hilker). We highlight an example of a newly discovered class of galaxies, the so-called 'Ultra-Compact Dwarf Galaxies' (UCDs, HST image credits Prof. M. Drinkwater). In the white insert we show a spectrum of this UCD taken with ESO's FLAMES instrument (image credits S. Mieske). The width of the absorption lines indicate how fast the stars move in this peculiar galaxy. From this we estimate how much of the mysterious 'dark matter' may reside in this object.

Archived images

We invite you to explore previous ESO Chile Images of the Month to learn more about astronomical research being done by ESO Chile Astronomers, Fellows, Students and Visitors.

Previous year: 2008