The Hubble Space Telescope flies over South America

This stunning image shows the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit over South America. From the perspective of Hubble's domain (about 600 km above the Earth's surface), the southern portion of the continent tapers away sharply with the curvature of the planet. Appearing below Hubble and to the right is the region of northern Chile where ESO has established two astronomical observatories. (Look for a peninsula shaped like a thick-stemmed "T" a bit more than halfway down the near coast.) Just south (right) of the penisula is the site of the ESO facility at Paranal, home of the Very Large Telescope (VLT). Further inland and to the north (left) is Chajnantor, the future home of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Further to the south is the La Silla Observatory.