Infrared view of the Rho Ophiuchi star-forming region
This image shows the Rho Ophiuchi star-forming region in infrared light, as seen by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Explorer (WISE). Blue and cyan represent light emitted at wavelengths of 3.4 and 4.6 micrometres, which is predominantly from stars. Green and red represent light from 12 and 22...
VFTS 102: the fastest rotating star
This view shows part of the stellar nursery called the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighbour of the Milky Way. At the centre lies the brilliant star VFTS 102 This view includes both visible-light and infrared images from the Wide Field Imager at the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre...
The star formation region NGC 3324
The Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory has imaged a region of star formation called NGC 3324. The intense radiation from several of NGC 3324's massive, blue-white stars has carved out a cavity in the surrounding gas and dust. The ultraviolet...
VFTS 102: the fastest rotating massive star (unannotated)
This view shows part of the stellar nursery called the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighbour of the Milky Way. At the centre lies the brilliant star VFTS 102 This view includes both visible-light and infrared images from the Wide Field Imager at the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre...
The globular star cluster Messier 4
This image from the Wide Field Imager attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory shows the spectacular globular star cluster Messier 4. This great ball of ancient stars is one of the closest of such stellar systems to the Earth and appears in the ...
Wide-field view of the area of NGC 6357
Part of the constellation Scorpius centred on NGC 6357 which has star cluster Pismis 24 in its centre. This image is a colour composite taken by the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS), the field of view is 3.8x3.3 degrees.
Wide-field view of the Hercules galaxy cluster
This visible-light wide-field image of the region around the Hercules cluster of galaxies was created from photographs taken through blue and red filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The galaxy cluster appears as a swarm of faint galaxies close to the centre of the image.
The mouthpiece of the Pipe Nebula
This picture shows Barnard 59, part of a vast dark cloud of interstellar dust called the Pipe Nebula. This new and very detailed image of what is known as a dark nebula was captured by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory. This image is so large...
El Gordo: a massive distant merging galaxy cluster
This picture of the galaxy cluster ACT-CL J0102−4915 combines images taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope with images from the SOAR Telescope. This newly discovered object has been nicknamed El Gordo — the "big" or "fat one" in Spanish. It consists of two separate galaxy subclusters...
The radio galaxy Centaurus A, as seen by ALMA
This new image of Centaurus A combines ALMA and near-infrared observations of the massive elliptical radio galaxy. The new ALMA observations, shown in a range of green, yellow and orange colours, reveal the position and motion of the clouds of gas in the galaxy. They are the sharpest and most...
VISTA view of the newly discovered globular cluster VVV CL001 and its brighter companion
This image from VISTA is a tiny part of the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) survey that is systematically studying the central parts of the Milky Way in infrared light. On the right lies the globular star cluster UKS 1 and on the left lies a much less conspicuous new discovery, VVV...
Wide-field view of the sky around the Pencil Nebula
This image of the region of sky around the Pencil Nebula shows a spectacular celestial landscape featuring the blue filaments of the Vela supernova remnant, the red glow of clouds of hydrogen and countless stars. It is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2.
VISTA view of the newly discovered globular cluster VVV CL002 close to the centre of the Milky Way
This image from VISTA is a tiny part of the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) survey that is systematically studying the central parts of the Milky Way in infrared light. In the centre lies the faint newly found globular star cluster, VVV CL002. This previously unknown globular, which...
The star cluster NGC 6604 and its surroundings
The star cluster NGC 6604 is shown in this image taken by the Wide Field Imager attached to the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. NGC 6604 is the bright grouping towards to the upper left of the image. It is a young star cluster that is the densest part of a more...
VISTA stares deep into the cosmos
This view shows a section of the widest deep view of the sky ever taken using infrared light, with a total effective exposure time of 55 hours. It was created by combining more than 6000 individual images from the VISTA survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. This picture shows...
VST image of the Hercules galaxy cluster
This new image, taken with the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) shows a wide variety of interacting galaxies in the young Hercules galaxy cluster. The sharpness of the picture and the sheer number of objects captured — across a full square degree — in less than three hours of observations attest to...
The smoky pink core of the Omega Nebula
This image of the Omega Nebula (Messier 17), captured by ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), is one of the sharpest of this object ever taken from the ground. It shows the dusty, rosy central parts of the famous star-forming region in fine detail.
Digitized Sky Survey image of part of the Taurus molecular cloud
This image shows a wide-field view of part of the Taurus Molecular Cloud, about 450 light-years from Earth. Its relative closeness makes it an ideal place to study the formation of stars. Many dark clouds of obscuring dust are clearly visible against the background stars.
Antennae Galaxies composite of ALMA and Hubble observations
The Antennae Galaxies (also known as NGC 4038 and 4039) are a pair of distorted colliding spiral galaxies about 70 million light-years away, in the constellation of Corvus (The Crow). This view combines ALMA observations, made in two different wavelength ranges during the observatory’s...
A Wide-field view of the sky around a field studied in the MASSIV survey
This image shows a photographic view created from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 of part of the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster). The bright red star at the upper right is the famous variable star Mira (Omicron Ceti) and towards the lower left is the region of space studied in a new survey,...
Highlights of VISTA’s deep infrared view of the COSMOS field
This view shows some highlights from widest deep view of the sky ever taken using infrared light, with a total effective exposure time of 55 hours. It was created by combining more than 6000 individual images from the VISTA survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. This picture...
Antennae galaxies composite of ALMA and Hubble observations
The Antennae Galaxies (also known as NGC 4038 and 4039) are a pair of distorted colliding spiral galaxies about 70 million light-years away, in the constellation of Corvus (The Crow). This view combines ALMA observations, made in three different wavelength ranges during the observatory’s...
The star cluster NGC 2100 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
The brilliant star cluster NGC 2100 lies in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. This image was taken with the EMMI instrument on the ESO New Technology Telescope (NTT) at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. This star cluster lies close to the Tarantula...
ESO’s VLT reveals the Carina Nebula's hidden secrets
This broad image of the Carina Nebula, a region of massive star formation in the southern skies, was taken in infrared light using the HAWK-I camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Many previously hidden features, scattered across a spectacular celestial landscape of gas, dust and young stars,...
Wide-field view of the newly discovered globular cluster VVV CL001
This wide-field image of the very rich region around the newly discovered globular cluster VVV CL001 and its brighter companion UKS 1 was created from photographs taken through blue, red and infrared filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The globular star clusters are close to...
Wide-field view of the Rho Ophiuchi star-forming region in visible light
This wide-field view shows the star-forming region Rho Ophiuchi in the constellation of Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer), as seen in visible light. This view was created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2.
The cool clouds of Carina
Observations made with the APEX telescope in submillimetre-wavelength light at a wavelength of 870 µm reveal the cold dusty clouds from which stars form in the Carina Nebula. This site of violent star formation, which plays host to some of the highest-mass stars in our galaxy, is an ideal arena...
Teenage galaxies in the distant Universe
This deep view of a tiny patch of sky in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster) shows a selection of galaxies, marked with red crosses, that were used in a new survey of the feeding habits of young galaxies as they grew through cosmic time. Each of the tiny blobs, galaxies seen as they...
ALMA view of the antennae galaxies
The Antennae Galaxies (also known as NGC 4038 and 4039) are a pair of distorted colliding spiral galaxies about 70 million light-years away, in the constellation of Corvus (The Crow). This view shows an image of the galaxies made by ALMA, in two different wavelength ranges, during the...
A spiral galaxy in Leo
This picture of the nearby galaxy NGC 3521 was taken using the FORS1 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. The large spiral galaxy lies in the constellation of Leo (The Lion), and is only 35 million light-years distant. This picture was created from...
A galaxy seen when the Universe was only 820 million years old
The red speck at the centre of this very deep image from the ESO Very Large Telescope shows the galaxy NTTDF-474, one of the most distant ever to have had its distance measured accurately. This extremely faint object is one of five that have been used to chart the timeline of the reionisation...
VISTA’s look at the Helix Nebula
ESO's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) has captured this unusual view of the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), a planetary nebula located 700 light-years away. The coloured picture was created from images taken through Y, J and K infrared filters. While bringing to light a...
VISTA view of the newly discovered open star cluster VVV CL003 beyond the galactic centre
This image from VISTA is a tiny part of the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) survey that is systematically studying the central parts of the Milky Way in infrared light. At the centre of the picture lies the open star cluster VVV CL003. This newly discovered cluster, which appears as...
A star that should not exist
At the centre of this picture is a very unremarkable looking faint star, too faint to be seen through all but the largest amateur telescopes. This ancient star, in the constellation of Leo (The Lion), is called SDSS J102915+172927 and has been found to have the lowest amount of elements...
Wide field view of the unusual double star SS Leporis
This wide-field image of the sky around the unusual double star SS Leporis is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). The field of view is approximately 2.7 degrees. SS Leporis is the bright star at the centre. The coloured rings and the four spikes around...
Close-up view of the star HD 85512
This image shows a close-up of the sky around the star HD 85512. The picture was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The coloured halos around the star, and the spikes of light, are artifacts of the telescope and are...
A galaxy seen when the Universe was only 840 million years old
The red speck at the centre of this very deep image from the ESO Very Large Telescope shows the galaxy NTTDF-6345, one of the most distant ever to have had its distance measured accurately. This extremely faint object is one of five that have been used to chart the timeline of the reionisation...
The composition of a star that should not exist
An ancient star in the constellation of Leo (The Lion), called SDSS J102915+172927, has been found to have the lowest amount of elements heavier than helium of all stars yet studied. The pie-chart shows the star’s composition: it is almost entirely made from hydrogen and helium with only a...
VLT looks into the eyes of the Virgin
This striking image, taken with the FORS2 instrument on the Very Large Telescope, shows a beautiful yet peculiar pair of galaxies, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435, nicknamed The Eyes. The larger of these, at the top of the picture, NGC 4438, is thought to have once been a spiral galaxy that was...
Giant space blob glows from within
This image shows one of the largest known single objects in the Universe, the Lyman-alpha blob LAB-1. This picture is a composite of two different images taken with the FORS instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) — a wider image showing the surrounding galaxies and a much deeper...
The Fried Egg Nebula
This picture of the nebula around a rare yellow hypergiant star called IRAS 17163-3907 is the best ever taken of a star in this class and shows for the first time a huge dusty double shell surrounding the central hypergiant. The star and its shells resemble an egg white around a yolky ...
The spectrum of a star that should not exist
This picture shows the distribution of the light of different colours coming from the remarkable star SDSS J102915+172927 after it has been split up by the X-Shooter instrument on the ESO VLT. Different colours fall in different places in this strange picture and astronomers can use this ...
VISTA finds star clusters galore
Using data from the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, an international team of astronomers has discovered 96 new open clusters hidden by the dust in the Milky Way. Thirty of these clusters are shown in this mosaic. These tiny and faint objects were invisible to...
The remarkable star SDSS J102915+172927 in the constellation of Leo (The Lion)
This picture shows the location of the remarkable star SDSS J102915+172927 within the constellation of Leo (The Lion). The photograph on the left shows the whole constellation and the inset shows the precise location of SDSS J102915+172927 on images from the Digitized Sky Survey 2.
The star cluster NGC 2100 in context
This image shows the dramatic surroundings of the star cluster NGC 2100 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The picture is dominated by the Tarantula Nebula, the most active star formation region in the Local Group of galaxies that includes the Milky Way. This picture was created from images...
Superbubble LHA 120-N 44 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
ESO’s Very Large Telescope has been used to obtain this view of the nebula LHA 120-N 44 surrounding the star cluster NGC 1929. Lying within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way, this region of star formation features a colossal superbubble of material expanding...
Antennae galaxies, side-by-side comparison of ALMA and VLT observations
The Antennae Galaxies (also known as NGC 4038 and 4039) are a pair of distorted colliding spiral galaxies about 70 million light-years away, in the constellation of Corvus (The Crow). This view shows a comparison of the millimetre and submillimetre light observations (left), made in two...
Wide-field view of the sky around NGC 253
This image is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). The field of view is approximatelly 3.7 x 3.6 degrees. The galaxy NGC 253 appears at the centre of the picture and the globular star cluster NGC 288 at the lower left. The cluster is orbiting the Milky...
The Rho Ophiuchi star formation region, where hydrogen peroxide has been detected in space (annotated)
The colourful Rho Ophiuchi star formation region, about 400 light-years from Earth, contains very cold (around -250 degrees Celsius), dense clouds of cosmic gas and dust, in which new stars are being born. The clouds are mostly made of hydrogen, but contain traces of other chemicals, and...
The most distant quasar
This image of ULAS J1120+0641, a very distant quasar powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun, was created from images taken from surveys made by both the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey. The quasar appears as a faint red dot close to...
The Carina Nebula imaged by the VLT Survey Telescope
The spectacular star-forming Carina Nebula has been captured in great detail by the VLT Survey Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory. This picture was taken with the help of Sebastián Piñera, President of Chile, during his visit to the observatory on 5 June 2012 and released on the occasion of...
Closing in on a giant space blob
This sequence of images closes in on one of the largest known single objects in the Universe, the Lyman-alpha blob LAB-1. Observations with the ESO VLT show for the first time that this giant "blob" must be powered by galaxies embedded within the cloud. The image on the left shows a wide ...
The COSMOS field
This very deep image shows the COSMOS field imaged by the Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). Huge numbers of very faint galaxies are visible. A new study of this field, combining data from ESO’s Very Large Telescope and ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray space observatory has turned up a big...
The flames of Betelgeuse
This picture of the dramatic nebula around the bright red supergiant star Betelgeuse was created from images taken with the VISIR infrared camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). This structure, resembling flames emanating from the star, forms because the behemoth is shedding its material...
Pandora’s cluster (VLT view)
This image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile shows a wide view of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 2744. This object has been nicknamed Pandora’s Cluster because so many different and strange phenomena have been unleashed by a huge collision that occurred...
Huge storm on Saturn observed by ESO's Very Large Telescope
Thermal infrared images of Saturn from the VISIR instrument on ESO’s VLT (centre and right) and an amateur visible-light image (left) from Trevor Barry (Broken Hill, Australia) obtained on 19 January 2011 during the mature phase of the northern storm. The second image is taken at a wavelength...
Supernova 2003cg in the galaxy NGC 3169
This section of a picture from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile shows the galaxy NGC 3169 and marks the location of the supernova SN 2003cg.
Wide-field image of the sky around the Fried Egg nebula
This visible light wide-field image of the region around the yellow hypergiant star IRAS 17163-3907 was created from photographs taken through blue, red and infrared filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The star appears close to the centre, indistinguishable from...
Wide-field view of NGC 253 from the VLT Survey Telescope
The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) has captured in sharp detail the beauty of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 253. This new portrait is probably the best wide-field view of this object and its surroundings ever taken. It demonstrates that the VST, the newest telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory,...
Digitized Sky Survey image of the Helix Nebula
This visible-light wide-field image of the region around the Helix Nebula was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The nebula appears prominently at the centre of the image and many faint galaxies are also visible on careful...
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