GROND image of kilonova in NGC 4993
Image obtained by ESO's Gamma-ray Burst Optical/Near-infrared Detector (GROND) attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at La Silla Observatory.
Example of a jellyfish galaxy
Observations of “Jellyfish galaxies” with ESO’s Very Large Telescope have revealed a previously unknown way to fuel supermassive black holes. It seems the mechanism that produces the tentacles of gas and newborn stars that give these galaxies their nickname also makes it possible for the...
Star formation region Lupus 3
A dark cloud of cosmic dust snakes across this spectacular wide field image, illuminated by the brilliant light of new stars. This dense cloud is a star-forming region called Lupus 3, where dazzlingly hot stars are born from collapsing masses of gas and dust. This image was created from images...
Delicate bubble of expelled material around the cool red star U Antliae
This ALMA image reveals much finer structure in the U Antliae shell than has previously been possible. Around 2700 years ago, U Antliae went through a short period of rapid mass loss. During this period of only a few hundred years, the material making up the shell seen in the new ALMA data was...
VLTI reconstructed view of the surface of Antares
Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer astronomers have constructed this remarkable image of the red supergiant star Antares. This is the most detailed image ever of this object, or any other star apart from the Sun.
The planetary nebula IC 4406 seen with MUSE and the AOF
The coupling of the AOF with MUSE gives access to both greater sharpness and a wide dynamic range when observing celestial objects like planetary nebulae. These new observations of IC 4406 revealed shells that have never been seen before, along with the already familiar dark dust structures in...
MUSE image of the Saturn Nebula
The spectacular planetary nebula NGC 7009, or the Saturn Nebula, emerges from the darkness like a series of oddly-shaped bubbles, lit up in glorious pinks and blues. This colourful image was captured by the powerful MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), as part of a study which...
Example of a jellyfish galaxy
Observations of “Jellyfish galaxies” with ESO’s Very Large Telescope have revealed a previously unknown way to fuel supermassive black holes. It seems the mechanism that produces the tentacles of gas and newborn stars that give these galaxies their nickname also makes it possible for the gas to...
Example of a jellyfish galaxy
Observations of “Jellyfish galaxies” with ESO’s Very Large Telescope have revealed a previously unknown way to fuel supermassive black holes. It seems the mechanism that produces the tentacles of gas and newborn stars that give these galaxies their nickname also makes it possible for the gas to...
ALMA view of the motions of material in the shell around U Antliae
This image was created from ALMA data on the unusual red carbon star U Antliae and its surrounding shell of material. The colours show the motion of the glowing material in the shell along the line of sight to the Earth. Blue material lies between us and the central star, and is moving towards...
The sky around the galaxy NGC 4993
This wide-field image generated from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 shows the sky around the galaxy NGC 4993. This galaxy was the host to a merger between two neutron stars, which led to a gravitational wave detection, a short gamma-ray burst and an optical identification of a kilonova event.
ALMA view of the Cosmic Eyelash
This ALMA image shows the Cosmic Eyelash, a remote starburst galaxy that appears double and brightened by gravitational lensing. ALMA has been used to detect turbulent reservoirs of cold gas surrounding this and other distant starburst galaxies. By detecting CH+ for the first time in the...
The planetary nebula NGC 6563 observed with the AOF
The Adaptive Optics Facility works to remove the blurring effect of Earth’s atmosphere. When used one can see much finer details in the faint planetary nebula NGC 6563 as compared to the natural sky quality.
Dazzling galaxy Messier 77
ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has captured a magnificent face-on view of the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77. The image does justice to the galaxy’s beauty, showcasing its glittering arms criss-crossed with dust lanes — but it fails to betray Messier 77’s turbulent nature.
NGC 6369
Known as the Little Ghost Nebula, NGC 6369 is a planetary nebula in the constellation Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer. The nebula is relatively faint with an apparent magnitude of 12.9 and the clear detail of this image shows the power of the AOF-equipped MUSE instrument of the VLT. The white...
Wide-field image of the sky around U Antliae
This image from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 shows the very red carbon star U Antliae and its surroundings.
ESO 338-4
ESO 338-4 is a starburst galaxy located in Sagittarius, the Archer. It is currently in the process of merging, with several smaller galaxies colliding to form the final galaxy. The new AOF+MUSE data clearly resolve several bright knots where intense star formation, induced by the merging, is...
This colourful image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows NGC 1055 in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster). This large galaxy is thought to be up to 15 percent larger in diameter than the Milky Way. NGC 1055 appears to lack the whirling arms characteristic of a spiral, as it is seen...
The sky around the red dwarf star Ross 128
This image shows the sky around the red dwarf star Ross 128 in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin). It was created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. Ross 128 appears at the centre of the picture. Close inspection reveals that Ross 128 has a strange multiple appearance...
Stellar Nursery Blooms into View
The OmegaCAM imager on ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope has captured this glittering view of the stellar nursery called Sharpless 29. Many astronomical phenomena can be seen in this giant image, including cosmic dust and gas clouds that reflect, absorb, and re-emit the light of hot young stars within...
Wide-field image of the sky around the globular star cluster NGC 3201
This wide field view shows the sky around the globular star cluster NGC 3201 in the southern constellation of Vela (The Sails). As well as the rich cluster itself, which appears at the centre, this view also reveals huge numbers of stars within the Milky Way, along with a few much more distant...
The sky around the Saturn Nebula
This image from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 shows the sky around the bright planetary nebula NGC 7009, often called the Saturn Nebula on account of its curious shape. The nebula appears as a bright blue disc at the centre of the picture and many faint galaxies can also be seen in this picture.
ALMA views a stellar explosion in Orion
Stellar explosions are most often associated with supernovae, the spectacular deaths of stars. But new ALMA observations of the Orion Nebula complex provide insights into explosions at the other end of the stellar life cycle, star birth. Astronomers captured these dramatic images of the...
Region R45 in the Carina Nebula
This image was taken by the MUSE instrument, mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope and shows the region R45 within the Carina Nebula, 7500 light-years away. The massive stars within the star formation region slowly destroy the pillars of dust and gas from which they are born.
VLT image of the area around the very faint neutron star RX J1856.5-3754
Colour composite photo of the sky field around the lonely neutron star RX J1856.5-3754 and the related cone-shaped nebula. It is based on a series of exposures obtained with the multi-mode FORS2 instrument at VLT KUEYEN through three different optical filters. The trail of an asteroid is seen...
Mystic Mountain
This craggy fantasy mountaintop enshrouded by wispy clouds looks like a bizarre landscape. But it is indeed a pillar of gas and dust, three light-years tall, which is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. The pillar is also being assaulted from within, as infant...
Wide-field image of the sky around Messier 77
This image from the Digitized Sky Survey shows spiral galaxy Messier 77 and its surroundings. Messier 77 appears at the centre and the edge-on galaxy NGC 1055 to its upper-right.
Wide-field view of the surroundings of NGC 5018
This wider-area image around the elliptical galaxy NGC 5018 offers a different perspective on the cosmic vastness. If seen with the unaided eye it will look almost empty. Here the extremely sensitive detectors of the VST have captured a myriad of stars, galaxies, and even a few errant asteroids...
Bok Globule in the Carina Nebula
The prominent dark patches, in the central region and to the right of the image are a so called Bok globule: these are isolated and relatively small dark nebulae, containing dense dust and gas. These objects are still subjects of intense research as their structure and density remains somewhat...
Eta Carinae
This new image of the luminous blue variable Eta Carinae was taken with the NACO near-infrared adaptive optics instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, yielding an incredible amount of detail. The images clearly shows a bipolar structure as well as the jets coming out from the central star....
Star cluster Trumpler 14
This pillar is part of the massive star cluster Trumpler 14, within the Carina Nebula, 7500 light-years away. The image was taken by the MUSE instrument, mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope.
The Hubble eXtreme Deep Field
This image, called the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (XDF), combines Hubble observations taken over the past decade of a small patch of sky in the constellation of Fornax. With a total of over two million seconds of exposure time, it is the deepest image of the Universe ever made, combining data...
The unusual cluster Terzan 5
Peering through the thick dust clouds of the galactic bulge an international team of astronomers has revealed the unusual mix of stars in the stellar cluster known as Terzan 5. The new results indicate that Terzan 5 is in fact one of the bulge's primordial building blocks, most likely the relic...
Highest resolution image of Eta Carinae
This image represent the best image of the Eta Carinae star system ever made. The observations were made with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer and could lead to a better understanding of the evolution of very massive stars.
A trove of galaxies, rich in carbon monoxide (indicating star-forming potential) were imaged by ALMA (orange) in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The blue features are galaxies imaged by Hubble.This image is based on the very deep ALMA survey by Manuel Aravena, Fabian Walter and colleagues,...
The active galaxy Markarian 1018
This image from the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows the active galaxy Markarian 1018, which has a supermassive black hole at its core. The faint loops of light around the galaxy are a result of its interaction and merger with another galaxy in the recent past.
Stellar explosions are most often associated with supernovae, the spectacular deaths of stars. But new ALMA observations of the Orion Nebula complex provide insights into explosions at the other end of the stellar life cycle, star birth. Astronomers captured these dramatic images of the remains...
The merging galaxy system Arp 220 from ALMA and Hubble
The compound view shows a new ALMA Band 5 image of the colliding galaxy system Arp 220 (in red) on top of an image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (blue/green). With the newly installed Band 5 receivers, ALMA has now opened its eyes to a whole new section of this radio spectrum,...
Disc around the star HD 97048
Using the ESO’s SPHERE instrument at the Very Large Telescope, a team of astronomer observed the planetary disc surrounding the star HD 97048 in the constellation of Chameleon, about 500 light-years from Earth. The juvenile disc is formed into concentric rings. This symmetry is in contrast to...
Disc around the star HD 135344B
Using ESO’s SPHERE instrument at the Very Large Telescope, a team of astronomers observed the planetary disc surrounding the star HD 135344B, about 450 light-years away. The disc shows prominent spiral-arm-like structures. These are thought to have been created by one or multiple massive...
Region R37 in the Carina Nebula
This image was taken by the MUSE instrument, mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope and shows the region R37 within the Carina Nebula, 7500 light-years away. The massive stars within the star formation region slowly destroy the pillars of dust and gas from which they are born.
Region R44 in the Carina Nebula
This image was taken by the MUSE instrument, mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope and shows the region R44 within the Carina Nebula, 7500 light-years away. The massive stars within the star formation region slowly destroy the pillars of dust and gas from which they are born.
Region R18 in the Carina Nebula
This image was taken by the MUSE instrument, mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope and shows the region R18 within the Carina Nebula, 7500 light-years away. The massive stars within the star formation region slowly destroy the pillars of dust and gas from which they are born.
The Orion Nebula and cluster from the VLT Survey Telescope
OmegaCAM — the wide-field optical camera on ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST) — has captured the spectacular Orion Nebula and its associated cluster of young stars in great detail, producing this beautiful new image. This famous object, the birthplace of many massive stars, is one of the...
The unusual cluster Terzan 5
Peering through the thick dust clouds of the galactic bulge an international team of astronomers has revealed the unusual mix of stars in the stellar cluster known as Terzan 5. The new results indicate that Terzan 5 is in fact one of the bulge's primordial building blocks, most likely the relic...
ALMA image of the protoplanetary disc around V883 Orionis
This image of the planet-forming disc around the young star V883 Orionis was obtained by ALMA in long-baseline mode. This star is currently in outburst, which has pushed the water snow line further from the star and allowed it to be detected for the first time. The dark ring midway through the...
The surroundings of the edge-on galaxy NGC 1055
This rich wide-field view captures not only the edge-on galaxy NGC 1055 at the centre but also the bright galaxy NGC 1068 (also known as Messier 77, it is an active galaxy with a huge black hole at its centre) to its lower-left, the fainter galaxy NGC 1032 to the upper right and the barred...
The rich region around the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud
Glowing brightly about 160 000 light-years away, the Tarantula Nebula is the most spectacular feature of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our Milky Way. This image from VLT Survey Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile shows the region and its rich surroundings in...
Wide-field view of the sky around the exotic binary star system AR Scorpii
This wide-field image from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 shows the rich starfields surrounding the exotic binary star system AR Scorpii.
Wide field view of the sky around the very faint neutron star RX J1856.5-3754
This wide field image shows the sky around the very faint neutron star RX J1856.5-3754 in the southern constellation of Corona Australis. This part of the sky also contains interesting regions of dark and bright nebulosity surrounding the variable star R Coronae Australis (upper left), as well...
SPHERE observations of the planet HD 131399Ab
This composite image shows the newly discovered exoplanet HD 131399Ab in the triple-star system HD 131399. The image of the planet was obtained with the SPHERE imager on the ESO Very Large Telescope in Chile. This is the first exoplanet to be discovered by SPHERE and one of very few...
Variable stars close to the galactic centre
This image, captured with the VISTA infrared survey telescope, as part of the Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) ESO public survey, shows the central part of the Milky Way. While normally hidden behind obscuring dust, the infrared capabilities of VISTA allow to study the stars close to the...
Light from ionised oxygen detected by ALMA is shown in green. Light from ionised hydrogen detected by the Subaru Telescope and ultraviolet light detected by the UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) are shown in blue and red, respectively.
Wide-field view of the region around the star cluster Messier 18
The small smattering of bright stars at the centre of this wide-field view is Messier 18, an open star cluster containing stars that formed together from the same massive cloud of gas and dust. This picture, which also shows part of the bright Omega Nebula (Messier 17) at the top, was created...
A deep infrared view of the Orion Nebula from HAWK-I
This spectacular image of the Orion Nebula star-formation region was obtained from multiple exposures using the HAWK-I infrared camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. This is the deepest view ever of this region and reveals more very faint planetary-mass objects than expected.
ALMA surveyed the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, uncovering new details of the star-forming history of the Universe. This close-up image reveals one such galaxy (orange), rich in carbon monoxide, showing it is primed for star formation. The blue features are galaxies imaged by Hubble. This image is...
VISTA views Messier 78
This richly detailed view of the star formation region Messier 78, in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter), was taken with the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. As well as the blue regions of reflected light from the hot young stars the image also shows...
The sky around Alpha Centauri and Proxima Centauri
This image of the sky around the bright star Alpha Centauri AB also shows the much fainter red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System. The picture was created from pictures forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The blue halo around Alpha Centauri AB is an...
The sky around the triple-star system HD 131399
This wide-field image shows a piece of the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur) centred on the position of the triple star HD 131399. It was created from images from the Digitized Sky Survey 2. HD 131399 itself appears as a star of moderate brightness exactly at the centre of the picture.
The WLM galaxy on the edge of the Local Group
This image, captured by ESO’s OmegaCAM on the VLT Survey Telescope, shows a lonely galaxy known as Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte, or WLM for short. Although considered part of our Local Group of dozens of galaxies, WLM stands alone at the group’s outer edges as one of its most remote members. In fact,...
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