A flame thrower
The NGC 3627 galaxy, also known as Messier 66, appears to be expelling flames out of its majestic spiral arms in this Picture of the Week. The “fire” actually marks clouds of cold molecular gas, which is the material out of which stars form, and has been captured using the Atacama Large...
Pinwheel firework
In this picture of the week we can see the well-defined arms of the spiral galaxy NGC 4254, also known as the Coma Pinwheel or Messier 99. It’s called a grand design spiral galaxy because of its distinctive pinwheel shape with prominent arms. Since Charles Messier first observed it in the 18th...
VISTA’s view on stellar births
This Picture of the Week shows a new view of NGC 3603 (left) and NGC 3576 (right), two stunning nebulas imaged with ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). This infrared image peers through the dust in these nebulas, revealing details hidden in optical images. NGC...
A blast from the past
Do you see that small red spot? That’s an extremely distant explosion in the early universe imaged by the X-Shooter instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). This light is from a gamma-ray burst (GRB), one of the most luminous and puzzling phenomena in the universe. In September 2021,...
The golden era to study stellar births
This week, we feature an image of the spiral galaxy NGC 4303, also known as Messier 61, which is one of the largest galactic members of the Virgo Cluster. Being a so-called starburst galaxy, it has an unusually high amount of stars being born, and has been used by astronomers as a laboratory to...
Peering through the dust
This Picture of the Week shows an infrared view of Sagittarius B1, a region close to the centre of the Milky Way, imaged with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. The centre of our galaxy is an exotic environment, densely populated with stars, and has been suggested to have more star...
A curled viper
Resembling a curled sleeping snake, this picture shows NGC 1087. This spiral galaxy, located approximately 80 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cetus, is captured here by a combination of observations conducted at different wavelengths –– or colours –– of light. But no...
Purple haze
This Picture of the Week showcases the impressive NGC 3627 galaxy, also known as Messier 66, located approximately 31 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo. The image was taken with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. But...
A hypnotic golden spiral
This image features the spectacular galaxy NGC 4254, also known as Messier 99. It’s an example of a grand design spiral galaxy, featuring strong, prominent, well-defined arms that wrap clearly around the galaxy’s centre. Messier 99 is located 49 million light-years from Earth in the...
The Cartwheel galaxy seen by MUSE
Around 500 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor lies a rather peculiar looking galaxy, known as the Cartwheel galaxy. It was once a normal spiral galaxy that underwent a head-on interaction with a smaller companion galaxy several million years ago, giving it its signature...
Something new in the sky
Around 500 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor lies a rather peculiar looking galaxy, known as the Cartwheel galaxy. It was once a normal spiral galaxy that underwent a head-on interaction with a smaller companion galaxy several million years ago, giving it its signature...
A black hole caught blowing a gust
Lurking about 70 million light years away from Earth in the constellation Grus, you will find the galaxy NGC 7582 — a spiral galaxy harbouring a supermassive black hole at its core. These images were captured as part of a study using the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) to...
The Butterfly Effect
Around 60 million light-years away, in the constellation Virgo, the two galaxies NGC4567 and NGC4568, nicknamed the Butterfly Galaxies due to their wing-like structure, are beginning to collide and merge into each other. This is depicted in this picture captured by the FOcal Reducer and low...
A black hole caught blowing a gust
Lurking about 70 million light years away from Earth in the constellation Grus, you will find the galaxy NGC 7582 — a spiral galaxy harbouring a supermassive black hole at its core. These images were captured as part of a study using the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) to...
A cosmic caramel swirl
This picture of the week looks almost good enough to eat! However, despite its resemblance to a mouthwatering caramel swirl it is in fact an image of the NGC 1300 galaxy, located approximately 61 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Eridanus. NGC 1300 is a spiral galaxy, with a...
Caught in a spiral
The image shows a pair of overlapping spiral galaxies, NGC 3314a and b, in the top left, caught in a majestic cosmic dance — captured by ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST). But don’t let the perspective fool you! They are, in fact, not interacting at all. The two galaxies, located between 117 and...
Rising from the ashes
Captured with the MUSE instrument mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), this image shows the innermost regions of the distant spiral galaxy NGC 5248, also known as Caldwell 45. Located around 59 million light-years away from Earth, in the constellation of Boötes, this galaxy is notable...
VST image of the Fornax galaxy cluster
The Fornax Galaxy Cluster is one of the closest of such groupings beyond our Local Group of galaxies. This new VLT Survey Telescope image shows the central part of the cluster in great detail. At the lower-right is the elegant barred-spiral galaxy NGC 1365 and to the left the big elliptical NGC...
Detail of the honeycomb structure around SN 1987A
Detail of the frame obtained by NTT and EMMI in 1992, with 10 minutes exposure in H-alpha. It is a close-up view of the interesting honeycomb structure discovered in the interstellar matter around SN 1987A. This supernova, detected in 1987 in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud, was the closest...
The evolution of SN 1987A
H-alpha image captured by the NTT, at La Silla Observatory, on 1 December 1991, almost five years after the explosion. The image clearly shows an inner oval nebula as well as outer filaments. During the months following the explosion SN 1987A reached a remarkable maximum magnitude 3, and during...
SN 1987A fades
Image in continuum light of the surroundings of supernova SN 1987A, taken by the NTT, at La Silla Observatory, almost 5 years after the explosion was detected in the Large Magellanic Cloud. SN 1987A is the spot between the two brighter stars, belonging to the same multiple system. After...
Ring-shaped nebula around SN 1987A
Enlargement of a NII image of supernova SN 1987A taken by the NTT, at La Silla Observatory, almost five years after the explosion. During this time, the supernova had displayed various interesting phenomena, never observed before in an object of this type. A ring-shaped nebula around the...
Ring-shaped nebula around SN 1987A
High resolution NTT image of SN 1987A taken from La Silla Observatory in December 1993. Seven years after the explosion of SN 1987A, the observations indicate the beginning of a more active phase while the interaction between the stellar material which was ejected during the explosion and the...
Ring-shaped nebula around SN 1987A
High resolution NTT image of supernova SN 1987A taken from La Silla Observatory in December 1993. Seven years after the explosion of SN 1987A, the observations indicate the beginning of a more active phase while the interaction between the stellar material which was ejected during the explosion...
Ring-shaped nebula around SN 1987A
High resolution NTT image of supernova SN 1987A taken from La Silla Observatory in December 1993. Seven years after the explosion of SN 1987A, the observations indicate the beginning of a more active phase while the interaction between the stellar material which was ejected during the explosion...
High resolution SN 1987A by NTT
A high resolution image of supernova SN 1987A taken with the New Technology Telescope (NTT) and processed to remove the images of the supernova envelope. The inner, structured nebula is composed of a mixture of gas and dust. The outer smooth nebula, shaped like “Napoleon´s hat”, is a pure...
Neighbourhood of SN 1987A
Image of the neighbourhood of supernova SN 1987A, taken with the NTT in the light of ionized nitrogen, at La Silla Observatory, during very good seeing. A small filamentary nebula and local reflection nebula are seen. The colour coding shows the intensity contours in the image. SN 1987A was...
Hiding in the crowd
Hundreds of thousands of stars are contained in this Picture of the Week, an infrared image of Sagittarius C, a region near the centre of the Milky Way. Taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in the Chilean Atacama Desert, this image is helping astronomers unlock a stellar puzzle. The...
Neighbourhood of SN 1987A
Image of the neighbourhood of supernova SN 1987A, taken with the NTT, in the light of ionised nitrogen, during very good seeing. The colour coding shows the intensity contours in the image. SN 1987A was detected in the Large Magellanic Cloud in February 1987 and was the first naked-eye...
Light echoes from SN 1987A
In this image, taken with NTT and EMMI, light echoes from supernova SN 1987A are seen as two concentric rings around the bright star. Since the outburst of SN 1987A, light echoes have been used as an efficient way of studying the structure of the interstellar medium close to the supernova....
Light echoes from SN 1987A
This image, taken with NTT and EMMI in January 1992, shows light echoes from supernova SN 1987A. The light echoes are seen as two concentric rings on the interstellar matter around the exploded star. Since the outburst of SN 1987A, light echoes have been used as an efficient way of studying the...
Light echoes from SN 1987A
Image of supernova SN 1987A showing two annular light echoes. The image was taken with EFOSC in coronographic mode at the ESO 3.6-metre telescope, from La Silla Observatory, on February 1988, one year after the outburst. The colour coding shows the intensity contours in the image. Light echoes...
Light echoes from SN 1987A
Image of supernova SN 1987A showing the two annular light echoes. The image was taken with EFOSC in coronographic mode at the ESO 3.6-metre telescope, from La Silla Observatory, on February 1988, one year after the outburst. The colour coding shows the intensity contours in the image. Light...
Light echoes around SN 1987A
CCD images of the double light echo around supernova SN 1987A, as observed with the ESO 3.6-metre telescope and EFOSC with a coronographic mask on 13 February 1988 (Ieft) and 16 March 1988 (right). A careful comparison shows the expansion, about 3 arcsec/month. Light echoes have been used as an...
Honeycomb structure around SN 1987A
This frame was obtained by NTT and EMMI in 1992, with 10 minutes exposure in H-alpha. It shows an interesting honeycomb structure in the interstellar matter around supernova SN1987A, which lies at the centre of the structure, in the lower left. SN 1987A, detected in 1987 in the nearby Large...
Falling in Fornax
This strikingly simple and serene view of NGC 1404 — a giant elliptical galaxy located 62 million light-years away in the constellation of Fornax (The Furnace) — hides the galaxy’s cruel reality. NGC 1404 is one of the galaxies comprising the massive Fornax Cluster — and it is slowly falling...
Why so blue?
The colour blue has many associations — coldness, sadness, serenity. However, the colour holds a completely different meaning for astronomers, as demonstrated by the edge-on spiral galaxy Messier 98. Messier 98, also known as NGC 4192, is located approximately 50 million light-years away in...
When stars explode
Over 75 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin) lies NGC 4981 — a spiral galaxy with a rather explosive past. NGC 4981 was discovered on 17 April 1784 by William Herschel, and subsequently documented in John Dreyer’s New General Catalogue. Over a century later, on...
VLT snaps an exotic exoplanet “first”
Astronomers hunt for planets orbiting other stars (exoplanets) using a variety of methods. One successful method is direct imaging; this is particularly effective for planets on wide orbits around young stars, because the light from the planet is not overwhelmed by light from the host star and...
Gone with the wind
M1-67 is the youngest wind-nebula around a Wolf-Rayet star, called WR124, in our Galaxy. These Wolf-Rayet stars start their lives with dozens of times the mass of our Sun, but loose most of it through a powerful wind, which is ultimately responsible for the formation of the nebula. Ten years...
Raw image from VIMOS
A raw image coming straight from the VIMOS instrument on the VLT. The images taken with astronomical instruments are always in intensity scale: the information on the colours is obtained by taking exposures through different glass filters. The camera contains four independent detectors, with...
The galaxy ESO 137-10 peeks through a rich curtain of stars
This image shows the galaxy ESO 137-10, appearing behind a rich field of stars in the Milky Way.
A raw image straight from the VISIR instrument on the VLT
As the instrument observes in the thermal infrared, the individual exposures are extremely short, and the final image are obtained by combining hundreds, or even thousands, or individual snapshots obtained at slightly different positions. This technique allows the astronomers to beat the...
The aftermath of a massive star's death in Vela
A so-called Supernova Remnant (SNR) in the Vela constellation, captured by ESO's 1 m Schmidt Telescope at La Silla in Chile. The glowing gas ribbons seen here are part of a shock wave launched into the interstellar medium by a large star that exploded about 11,000 years ago. A "ghost" of the...
Raw image from VIMOS
The four detectors of VIMOS collected the many spectra produced by its integral field spectrograph. In a traditional image, the intensity of each pixel is recorded. Here, the full spectrum of each “pixel” of the image is recorded as a vertical line, measuring the intensity of the light for all...
The Trapezium cluster
The Orion Nebula is arguably the finest of all nebulae within the Milky Way visible from the Northern Hemisphere. With a gaseous repository of 10,000 suns, and illuminated by a cluster of hot young stars, the clouds of Messier 42 — as it is also known — glow with fantastic colours and shapes,...
Uranus and satellites
An image of the planet Uranus (located 20 Astronomical units from Earth) obtained at the Very Large Telescope Observatory using the Adaptive Optics system NAOS and the near-infrared imager CONICA to capture high-contrast images of the giant planet and its system of satellites and rings during...
The centre of the Toby Jug Nebula
This image, taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) shows the central region of the Toby Jug Nebula.
The Tarantula Nebula
Located inside the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) – one of our closest galaxies – in what some describe as a frightening sight, the Tarantula nebula is worth looking at in detail. Also known as 30 Doradus or NGC 2070, the nebula owes its name to the arrangement of its bright patches that somewhat...
A giant galaxy
This is an image of Centaurus A. The original version and description can be found in the ESO image archive.
The Sombrero Galaxy
One of most famous spiral galaxies is Messier 104, widely known as the "Sombrero" (the Mexican hat) because of its particular shape. It is located towards the constellation Virgo (the ‘virgin’), at a distance of about 30 million light-years and is the 104th object in the famous catalogue of...
A raw image obtained with SOFI
The images taken with astronomical instruments always record the intensity levels: the colour information is obtained by taking exposures through different glass filters, in this case the near-infrared K filter. This image was used, together with many others, to produce the infrared component...
Supernova 1992C
This photo shows the newly discovered Supernova 1992C in the barred spiral galaxy NGC 3367. The supernova is the bright, star-like object in the lower left area (southeast of the centre of the galaxy), at the tip of a spiral arm. Most of the other point-like objects are interstellar nebulae in...
Supernova 1992C progenitor
This is the field-of-view of Supernova 1992C, located in the barred spiral galaxy NGC 3367.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
Negative image of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL9), taken with the 1-metre Schmidt telescope, at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, in Chile. In 1992, SL9 was broken into pieces by the gravitational field of Jupiter. The fragments of SL9 then collided with the gas giant planet in 1994.
A raw image obtained with SINFONI
This is a raw image obtained with the near-infrared integral field spectrograph SINFONI, currently installed at the Unit Telescope 4 at the Very Large Telescope.
A Galactic Ballet
This image shows a pair of interacting galaxies known as Arp 271. The original version and description are available in the ESO image archive.
R Aquarii observed using the New Technology Telescope
R Aquarii observed using the New Technology Telescope in 1991. The white vertical line in the middle is caused by light from the red giant and bright inner nebula saturating the detector.
A giant ghostly bird
The Vela constellation is visible with the naked eye in the southern sky, but you might miss a lot of details hidden there, like those shown in this Picture of the Week. This is a small patch of the Vela supernova remnant, the intricate leftovers of the explosion of a massive star 11 000 years...
Combined SPHERE and ALMA image of material orbiting V960 Mon
At the centre of this image is the young star V960 Mon, located over 5000 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros. Dusty material with potential to form planets surrounds the star. Observations obtained using the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument...
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