Immagine della settimana

01 Marzo 2010: Brillando nel cosmo a circa 50 milioni di anni luce di distanza, la galassia NGC 936 ha una sorprendente somiglianza con i caccia stellari Twin Ion Engine (TIE) usati dal malvagio Lord Oscuro Darth Vader e la sua squadra nell'epico film Star Wars. Il rigonfiamento brillante della galassia e la struttura a forma di barra che lo attraversa ricordano il motore centrale e la cabina di pilotaggio della navicella spaziale; mentre un anello di stelle che circonda il nucleo galattico completa il parallelo, similmente alle ali dei caccia TIE equipaggiati con pannelli solari. Questa galassia ospita esclusivamente vecchie stelle e non mostra alcun segno di una recente formazione stellare. Barre come quella osservata in NGC 936 sono caratteristiche comuni delle galassie; tuttavia, questa è significativamente più evidenziata della media. Sebbene sia un perfetto simbolo per il lato oscuro della "Forza", è ancora discutibile se questa galassia sia dominata, come la ...

22 Febbraio 2010: In questa immagine abbagliante, la galassia NGC 1427A è vista mentre viaggia attraverso l’ammasso di galassie di Fornax, a cui appartiene. NGC 1427A è un esempio di galassia nana irregolare, un tipo di galassia che è significativamente meno brillante delle galassie regolari ed è caratterizzata da una forma peculiare. In questo caso particolare, la forma della galassia è stata forgiata dal suo rapido movimento verso l'alto attraverso l’ammasso: con una velocità di due milioni di chilometri all'ora rispetto all’ammasso, NCG 1427A viene fatta a pezzi e alla fine verrà distrutta. L'interazione con l’ammasso di Fornax ha portato alla nascita di molte stelle, viste qui come una regione a forma di boomerang di stelle giovani e brillanti nella galassia. NGC 1427A mostra una sorprendente somiglianza con uno dei nostri vicini galattici, la Grande Nube di Magellano, che ha subito episodi simili di formazione stellare, innescati dalla sua interazione con la Via ...

15 Febbraio 2010: Portrayed in this image is the spiral galaxy NGC 4945, a close neighbour of the Milky Way. Belonging to the Centaurus A group of galaxies, it is located at a distance of almost 13 million light-years. Showing a remarkable resemblance to our own galaxy, NGC 4945 also hides a supermassive black hole behind the thick, ring-shaped structure of dust visible in the picture. But, unlike the black hole at the centre of our Milky Way, the million-solar-mass black hole inside NGC 4945 is an Active Galactic Nucleus that is frantically consuming any surrounding matter, and so releasing tremendous amounts of energy. This image combines observations performed through three different filters (B, V, R) with the 1.5-metre Danish telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory in Chile.

08 Febbraio 2010: Un uccello che si eleva sopra il remoto, scarsamente popolato deserto Atacama nel nord del Cile - probabilmente il deserto piu' secco del mondo - potrebbe sorprendersi di passare sopra l'oasi tecnologica dell'ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) a Paranal. Questo e' la struttura basata a terra piu' avanzata nel mondo per l'astronomia, visto dalla cima della montagna di fronte, sopra la piattaforma principale. Il sito ospita quattro Unita' Telescopiche di 8.2 metri, quattro Telescopi Ausiliari di 1.8 metri, il VLT Survey Telescope (VST), e il Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) di 4.1 metri. Questa visuale aerea raffigura anche altre strutture, compreso l'edificio Observatory Control Room, al lato di fronte alla piattaforma principale.

01 Febbraio 2010: This aerial photograph shows the summit of Cerro Paranal in northern Chile, the home of ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). This flagship facility for ground-based astronomy hosts four 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes along with four mobile 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes. These can work together, in groups of two or three, as one giant telescope, known as the VLT Interferometer, or VLTI. This image displays the winding access road that leads up to the observing platform as well as the Observatory Control Room in the front. The picture helps give a sense of the remoteness of the VLT site, which is located in the extremely arid Atacama Desert at an altitude of 2600 metres. The first Unit Telescope began operations at Paranal in 1999. The VLT Survey Telescope, which is scheduled to begin observations in 2010, is missing from this photo, taken in 2004.

25 Gennaio 2010: This impressive vertical panorama shows the ESO 3.6-metre telescope in great detail. The telescope is located on the 2400 m high La Silla mountain, home of ESO’s first observing site in the southern edges of the Atacama Desert. Equipped with HARPS, the best exoplanet finder in the world, the ESO 3.6-metre telescope was commissioned in 1977 and completely upgraded in 1999. The primary mirror is located below the dark protective cover, and the large black structure above holds the secondary mirror. The white cube on top of the secondary mirror mount contains the computer that controls the secondary mirror.

18 Gennaio 2010: This architectural concept drawing of ESO’s planned Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) shows the world’s largest planned optical telescope gazing heavenwards. Slated to begin operations early in the next decade, the ELT will tackle the biggest scientific challenges of our time. A chief goal will be to track down Earth-like planets around other stars in the “habitable zones” where life could exist — one of the Holy Grails of modern observational astronomy. The ELT will also make fundamental contributions to cosmology by measuring the properties of the first stars and galaxies and probing the nature of dark matter and dark energy. On top of this, astronomers are also planning for the unexpected — new and unforeseeable questions will surely arise from the discoveries made with the ELT. With a primary mirror measuring an astounding 39 metres across, the ELT will collect 25 times more light than one 8.2-metre telescope at ESO’s ...

11 Gennaio 2010: Questa immagine cattura la bellezza della luce zodiacale, un triangolo luminoso visibile al suo meglio nei cieli notturni senza luna e liberi da inquinamento luminoso. La fotografia è stata scattata all'Osservatorio dell'ESO a La Silla, in Cile, nel settembre 2009, guardando verso ovest pochi minuti dopo il tramonto. Un mare di nubi aveva riempito la valle ai piedi di La Silla, che si trova a un'altitudine di 2400 metri: alcune tra le cime più basse spuntano dalla nebbia. La luce zodiacale è luce solare riflessa dalle particelle di polvere che si trovano tra il Sole e la Terra ed è più visibile vicino al tramonto e all'alba. Come dice il nome stesso, questo bagliore celeste appare in quell'anello di costellazioni noto come Zodiaco. Queste costellazioni si trovano lungo l'eclittica, cioè il cammino apparente verso Est che il Sole traccia nel cielo della Terra.

04 Gennaio 2010: This image shows the interior of one of the four 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Paranal, Chile. Designated Unit Telescope 1, or UT1, and named Antu, this complex science machine has been in operation at Paranal since 1999. Just before sunset, technicians retract UT1’s windshield and work to finalise the preparations at the telescope for the night-time observation run. During the day, the enclosure is kept shut to protect the delicate and valuable scientific equipment inside, as well as to ensure minimal temperature differences between the telescope and the atmosphere at opening. To the left of the telescope’s main mirror housing, in the centre of the image, is the Infrared Spectrometer And Array Camera (ISAAC), which was, until recently, attached to this instrument. It has now been moved to another of the Unit Telescopes, UT3 or Melipal. This image is available as a mounted image ...

28 Dicembre 2009: A new architectural concept drawing of ESO’s planned Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) shows the telescope at work, with its dome open and its record-setting 40-metre-class primary mirror pointed to the sky. In this illustration, clouds float over the valley overlooked by the ELT’s summit. The comparatively tiny pickup truck parked at the base of the ELT helps to give a sense of the scale of this massive telescope. The ELT dome will be similar in size to a football stadium, with a diameter at its base of over 100 m and a height of over 80 m. Scheduled to begin operations early in the next decade, the ELT will help track down Earth-like planets around other stars in the “habitable zones” where life could exist — one of the Holy Grails of modern observational astronomy. The ELT will also make fundamental contributions to cosmology by measuring the properties of the ...

21 Dicembre 2009: This view of ESO’s La Silla Observatory reveals the splendour of the night sky and shows several of the domed telescopes located at the site. The glowing band of the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy slants through the sky from the upper left to the lower middle, where the now closed GPO (Grand Prism Objectif) dome, which also hosted the Marly 1-metre telescope, looms in the foreground, together with the Danish 1.54-metre telescope. The ghostly, bluish objects above the GPO’s dome are two galaxies belonging to the Milky Way’s close neighbourhood and known as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. La Silla’s collection of domed telescopes also includes the ESO 3.6-metre telescope, home to HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher), the world’s foremost exoplanet hunter, and the 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope, which broke new ground for telescope engineering and design, and was the first in the world to ...

14 Dicembre 2009: The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), with a main mirror 39 metres in diameter, will be the world’s biggest eye on the sky when it becomes operational early in the next decade. The ELT will tackle the biggest scientific challenges of our time, and aim for a number of notable firsts, including tracking down Earth-like planets around other stars in the “habitable zones” where life could exist — one of the Holy Grails of modern observational astronomy. The telescope design itself is revolutionary and is based on a novel five-mirror scheme that results in exceptional image quality. The primary mirror consists of almost 800 segments, each 1.4 metres wide, but only 50 mm thick. The optical design calls for an immense secondary mirror 4.2 metres in diameter, bigger than the primary mirrors of any of ESO's telescopes at La Silla. Adaptive mirrors are incorporated into the optics of the telescope to ...

07 Dicembre 2009: ESO astronomer Yuri Beletsky captured images of the transport of one of the 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes (AT) that compose, together with their larger 8.2-metre companions, ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) array. The AT was moved with the utmost care from the base camp, where it had been undergoing maintenance, including the recoating of its mirrors, back to the VLT platform on top of Cerro Paranal. The ATs form part of the VLT Interferometer (VLTI), allowing this unique facility to operate every night. The ATs are mounted on tracks and can be moved between precisely defined observing positions, collecting light that is then combined in the VLTI. The ATs are very unusual telescopes, as they are self-contained in individual ultra-compact protective domes, and travel with their own electronics, ventilation, hydraulics and cooling systems. Each AT has a transporter that lifts the telescope and moves it from one position to the next. ...

30 Novembre 2009: After almost two months of life-changing experiences, bringing the excitement of astronomy to young children in Chile, Bolivia and Peru, the journey of the GalileoMobile Project has come to an end. As illustrated in this image, the astronomers and educators in the Galilomobile team visited numerous schools and villages during their expedition, engaging young students in educational activities about astronomy and science, and offering amazing stargazing opportunities to the local communities, in a region with one of the clearest skies on Earth. Last week the team visited ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), then continued to Taltal, the closest town to the VLT’s home, Cerro Paranal. Around sunset on 26 November, the GalileoMobile team showed the community of Taltal the highlights of the whole voyage, a voyage that covered around 5,000 kilometres through the Andes. The GalileoMobile was received with great enthusiasm by the people of Taltal. Hundreds of students took ...

23 Novembre 2009: This dramatic triptych shows the Moon rise from left to right through the night sky over ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) observatory at Paranal in northern Chile. Already aloft in the heavens and glowing in the centre of the image is Venus, Earth’s closest planetary neighbour. Shining to Venus’s right, the giant, though more distant planet, Jupiter appears as a small orb that seems to rotate around Venus as time passes. Such apparent celestial near misses — although the heavenly bodies are actually tens to hundreds of millions of kilometres apart — are called conjunctions. Still other sights delight in the sky over Paranal. The radiant, reddish plane of the Milky Way smoulders on the horizon, with massive bands of dust giving this bright region a mottled complexion. On the ground, an 8.2-metre VLT Unit Telescope on the right and a 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescope to the left silently witness the ...

16 Novembre 2009: A probe was launched last Friday (13 November 2009) from ESO’s Paranal observatory in northern Chile — home of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) — aboard a weather balloon. Such probes, called radiosondes, measure various atmospheric parameters and transmit them to a receiver on the ground. Researchers from ESO, the University of Lethbridge (Canada) and Universidad de Valparaiso (Chile) are currently in the middle of a 12-day programme, during which they plan to launch 29 radiosondes. Each night, parallel observations with the VLT instruments UVES, CRIRES and VISIR are carefully orchestrated to coincide with two additional radiosonde launches, while an infrared radiometer provides continuous coverage. This powerful combination of instruments and methods will provide a better understanding of the distribution and amount of water vapour in the atmosphere above Paranal, which is highly relevant for astronomical observations. The knowledge gained from these data can be used to optimise science operations ...

09 Novembre 2009: La Via Lattea si inarca attraverso questa singolare panoramica di 360 gradi del cielo notturno sopra la piattaforma di Paranal, sito del Very Large Telescope di ESO. L'immagine è composta da 37 scatti singoli con un tempo di esposizione totale di circa 30 minuti, scattate nelle prime ore del mattino. La luna sta appena sorgendo e la luce zodiacale splende su di essa, mentre la Via Lattea si estende attraverso il cielo dall'altra parte dell'osservatorio. Le enormi cupole telescopiche dell'osservatorio astronomico basato a terra più avanzato al mondo sono tutte visibili nell'immagine: i quattro più piccoli telescopi ausiliari da 1,8 metri, che possono essere usati insieme in modalità interferometrica, e le quattro enormi unità telescopiche da 8,2 metri. A destra nell'immagine e sotto l'arco della Via Lattea, due delle nostre galassie vicine, le Piccole e le Grandi Nuvole di Magellano, possono essere riconosciute.

02 Novembre 2009: A laser beam shoots out of Yepun, the fourth Unit Telescope of Europe’s flagship observatory, ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). This beam is used to create an artificial star above Paranal to assist the adaptive optics instruments on the VLT. Adaptive optics is a technique that allows astronomers to overcome the blurring effect of the atmosphere and obtain images almost as sharp as would be possible if the whole telescope were placed in space, above Earth's atmosphere. Adaptive optics, however, requires a nearby reference star that has to be relatively bright, thereby limiting the area of the sky that can be surveyed. To overcome this difficulty, astronomers at Paranal use a powerful laser that creates an artificial star where and when they need it (see eso0607 and eso0727). Launching such a powerful laser from a telescope is a state-of-the-art technology, whose set-up and operation is a continuous challenge. As seen ...

26 Ottobre 2009: Sitting in the stunning environment surrounding ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) on Cerro Paranal, Chile, are Joe Liske from ESO and Eva Noyola from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. The photo is a still image from the recently released 3D film, The EYE 3D — Life and Research on Cerro Paranal, directed by Nikolai Vialkowitsch. The movie, starring the two young scientists, as well as other people involved in the exciting activities at the VLT, offers a brand new, three-dimensional take on the life and research of astronomers. It has been produced by parallax raumprojektion and fact&film, in close collaboration with ESO and other partners and will be coming soon in cinemas across Germany. Don’t forget to wear red-cyan glasses to enjoy the spectacular 3D effect! Links The movie's ESO web page The movie’s external web page: http://www.theeye3d.eu The EYE 3D, press kit (German, PDF format)

19 Ottobre 2009: Portrayed in this beautiful image is the spiral galaxy NGC 1448, with a prominent disc of young and very bright stars surrounding its small, shining core. Located about 60 million light-years away from the Sun, this galaxy has recently been a prolific factory of supernovae, the dramatic explosions that mark the death of stars : after a first one observed in this galaxy in 1983, two more have been discovered during the past decade. Visible as a red dot inside the disc, in the upper right part of the image, is the supernova observed in 2003 (SN 2003hn), whereas another one, detected in 2001 (SN 2001el), can be noticed as a tiny blue dot in the central part of the image, just below the galaxy’s core. If captured at the peak of the explosion, a supernova might be as bright as the whole galaxy that hosts it. This image was ...