Ugens billede 2007

24. december 2007: Ved hjælp af ESOs Very Large Telescope (VLT), har et internationalt hold astronomer fundet et meget sjældent sammenstød mellem tre galakser. Dette system, som astronomerne har kaldt "Fuglen" - selvom den også har visse ligheder med en klokkeblomst - består af tre dele: to massive spiralgalakser og en tredje irregulær galakse. En 30-minutters optagelse i K-båndet foretaget med instrumentet VLT/NACO er blevet kombineret med B- og I-bånd arkivbilleder fra Hubble rumteleskopet HST/ACS, for at producere dette tre-farve billede af galaksekollisionen "Fuglen" NACO billedet har gjort det muligt for astronomerne at identificere den tredje separate komponent - den irregulære massive galakse, der ser ud til at være igang med en meget omfattende stjernedannelse.

17. december 2007: On 3 and 4 December 2007, the two ALMA antenna transporters, Otto and Lore, were being loaded onto a barge on the Neckar at Heilbronn harbour (Germany) to start their long journey to Chile. From there, they will travel to Antwerpen (Belgium) and then put onto a ship towards the port of Mejillones, in the north of Chile, to finally reach the ALMA base, close to San Pedro de Atacama. The ALMA antenna transporters are each 20 metre long, 10 metre wide and 6 metre high, and weigh 130 tonnes. They will be able to transport a 115-tonne antenna and set it down on a concrete pad within millimetres of a prescribed position. Image taken in December 2007.

10. december 2007: The first three Japanese ALMA antennas of the Atacama Compact Array (ACA) at the ALMA Operation Support Facility, located close to the town of San Pedro de Atacama in the Chilean Atacama Desert, at an altitude of 2900m. At the time of the picture, in November 2007, the antennas were undergoing final tests before being handed over to the ALMA Observatory. The 12-m antennas were built by MELCO for the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, one of the partners in the ALMA partnership.

1. december 2007: On 17 and 18 November 2007, the Regional Minister for Research of the Belgian French-speaking Community, Marie-Dominique Simonet, visited Paranal. This was part of a week-long visit to Brazil and Chile, in which the Minister promoted the 'Competitivity Poles' as well as Research and Education in this part of the world. The Minister was accompanied by a delegation comprising Claude Gonfroy and Jean-Luc Horward, members of her Cabinet, Jean-Pierre Swings, former member of the ESO Council, Claude Jamar from the Centre Spatial de Liėge, and Bill Collins, from the AMOS company which built the four Auxiliary Telescopes. Ten French-speaking Belgian journalists, including two TV crews, also joined the Minister for a day at Paranal. Felix Mirabel, ESO's Representative in Chile, Olivier Hainaut, Head of Science Operations at Paranal, and Ueli Weilenmann, were the hosts of the Minister. The Minister visited the telescopes and facilities on site and showed a clear ...

23. november 2007: Hvis man står på toppen af Cerro Armazones, kan man to gange om året se Solen gå ned bag Paranalobservatoriet 20 km borte. Datoerne og tid, for hvornår dette sker, kan beregnes ved hjælp af koordinaterne for begge steder fundet på Google Earth, under hensyntagen til atmosfæriske effekter. Billedet viser tydeligt 3 af de 4 store 8,2 meter Unit Telescopes (UT) kupler (det fjerde er skjult er bag de andre), som udgør en del af ESOs Very Large Telescope (VLT), Bygningen der huser VST ses til højre, og den høje meteorologiske pæl med DIMM tårn på ses yderst til højre. Til venstre i billedet ses de delvist åbne kupler med de mindre 1,8 meter Auxiliary Telescopes (AT). Billedet blev taget med et Takahashi FS128 refraktor teleskop, et Canon20Da kamera og særlige solfiltre, af Stéphane Guisard (ESO). Husk: At kigge på Solen gennem optisk udstyr af alle slags (Kamera, Telescope, kikkert ...