Wide Field Imager view of the star formation region NGC 3582
This picture of the star formation region NGC 3582 was taken using the Wide Field Imager at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. The image reveals giant loops of gas ejected by dying stars that bear a striking resemblance to solar prominences.
Extracts from the VISTA Magellanic Cloud Survey view of the Tarantula Nebula
This composite image shows extracts from a near-infrared VISTA image of the spectacular 30 Doradus star-forming region, also called the Tarantula Nebula. This infrared image, made with ESO’s VISTA survey telescope, is from the VISTA Magellanic Cloud Survey. The project will scan a vast area —...
HAWK-I image of NGC 5247
This image shows NGC 5247, a grand design barred spiral galaxy, located 60–70 million light-years away. The galaxy lies face-on towards Earth, thus providing an excellent view of its pinwheel structure and multiple arms. It is in the zodiacal constellation of Virgo (the Maiden). The image was...
Wide field view of the R Coronae Australis region
This spectacular wide field image shows the area around the star R Coronae Australis. A huge dust cloud, about eight light-years across, dominates the centre of the image. The bluish reflection nebula close to R Coronae Australis is right of centre and the globular cluster NGC 6723 lies to the...
An infrared/visible comparison view of Messier 83
This image is a comparison of the view of the galaxy Messier 83 in visible and infrared light. The visible light image (right) was taken with the Wide Field Imager on the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla in Chile. The new infrared image (left) was taken with the HAWK-I instrument on the...
HAWK-I image of Messier 100
This galaxy is Messier 100, also known as NGC 4321, which was discovered in the 18th century. About 55 million light-years from Earth, Messier 100 is part of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies and lies in the constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair, named after the ancient Egyptian queen...
VST image of the giant globular cluster Omega Centauri*
This VST image may be the best portrait of the globular star cluster Omega Centauri ever made. Omega Centauri, in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur), is the largest globular cluster in the sky, but the very wide field of view of VST and its powerful camera OmegaCAM can encompass even...
The superwind galaxy NGC 4666
This visible light image, made with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, shows the galaxy NGC 4666 in the centre. It is a starburst galaxy, about 80 million light-years from Earth, in which particularly intense star formation is taking...
Planet around Beta Pictoris
For the first time, astronomers have been able to directly follow the motion of an exoplanet as it moves to the other side of its host star. The planet has the smallest orbit so far of all directly imaged exoplanets, lying as close to its host star as Saturn is to the Sun. The team of...
Wide Field Imager view of the southern spiral NGC 300
This picture of the spectacular southern spiral galaxy NGC 300 was taken using the Wide Field Imager (WFI) at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. It was assembled from many individual images through a large set of different filters over many observing nights, spanning several years. The main...
Extracts from the VISTA image of the Monoceros R2 star forming region
This composite image shows extracts from the VISTA image of the Monoceros R2 star forming region.
Infrared/visible comparison of the VISTA Tarantula Nebula image
The left-hand panel shows the region around the Tarantula Nebula in visible light. Most of the light from the spectacular clouds comes from hydrogen gas glowing under the fierce ultraviolet glare from the central hot young stars. This visible light image was obtained with Wide Field Imager on...
Exoplanet caught on the move
For the first time, astronomers have been able to directly follow the motion of an exoplanet as it moves to the other side of its host star. The planet has the smallest orbit so far of all directly imaged exoplanets, lying as close to its host star as Saturn is to the Sun. The team of...
Infrared/visible light comparison of views of the Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253)
This image compares infrared and visible views of the Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253). The visible light image (lower) was taken with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at La Silla in Chile (eso0902). The new infrared image (upper) was taken with the VISTA telescope at ESO’s...
Highlights of the HAWK-I infrared image of Messier 83
Some highlights from the infrared view of the classic spiral galaxy Messier 83 taken with the HAWK-I camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. As well as showing the structure of the galaxy without the obscuring effect of dust, huge numbers of stars within the galaxy are revealed.
Messier 78: a reflection nebula in Orion
This new image of the reflection nebula Messier 78 was captured using the Wide Field Imager camera on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory, Chile. This colour picture was created from many monochrome exposures taken through blue, yellow/green and red filters, supplemented...
Infrared VISTA view of a stellar nursery in Monoceros*
This dramatic infrared image shows the nearby star formation region Monoceros R2, located some 2700 light-years away in the constellation of Monoceros (the Unicorn). The picture was created from exposures in the near infrared bands Y, J and Ks taken by the VISTA survey telescope at ESO’s...
VISTA Magellanic Cloud Survey view of the Tarantula Nebula (annotated version)
This VISTA image shows the spectacular 30 Doradus star-forming region, also called the Tarantula Nebula. At its core is a large cluster of stars known as R 136, in which some of the most massive stars known are located. This infrared image, made with ESO’s VISTA survey telescope, is from the...
Highlights from VISTA’s infrared view of the Cat’s Paw Nebula
Highlights from the infrared view of the Cat’s Paw Nebula (NGC 6334) taken by VISTA. NGC 6334 is a vast region of star formation about 5500 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Scorpius. The whole gas cloud is about 50 light-years across. NGC 6334 is one of the most active nurseries...
Wide-field view of part of the Large Magellanic Cloud and the remarkable double star OGLE-LMC-CEP0227
This wide field view of part of our neighbouring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, was created from photographs taken in red and blue light as part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The remarkable double star OGLE-LMC-CEP0227 lies at the centre of the picture, just one of huge numbers of faint...
VISTA’s infrared view of the Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8)
This new infrared view of the star formation region Messier 8, often called the Lagoon Nebula, was captured by the VISTA telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. This image is a wider version of eso1001a and was created from images taken through J, H and Ks near-infrared filters, It was...
Wide-field view of the sky around the Leo Triplet of galaxies
This visible-light wide-field image of the region around the Leo Triplet of galaxies was created from photographs taken through blue and red filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The galaxies appear to the lower right of centre. The bright star at the upper right is the ...
VISTA’s infrared view of the Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253)
NGC 253 is one of the closest galaxies to our own. It is a bright spiral that lies about 13 million light-years from Earth in the southern constellation of Sculptor and is noted for being a starburst galaxy with very vigorous star formation and very dusty spiral arms. In the infrared, the rich...
Planet around Beta Pictoris (annotated)
For the first time, astronomers have been able to directly follow the motion of an exoplanet as it moves to the other side of its host star. The planet has the smallest orbit so far of all directly imaged exoplanets, lying as close to its host star as Saturn is to the Sun. The team of...
Detailed annotated view of a section of the Large Magellanic Cloud
This spectacular new image from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile reveals a celestial menagerie of different objects and phenomena in part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small companion galaxy to our own Milky Way. Many clusters...
The GOODS-South field
This composite image of the GOODS-South field — the result of an extremely deep survey using two of the four giant 8.2-metre telescopes composing ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and a unique custom-built filter — shows some of the faintest galaxies ever seen. It also allows astronomers to...
Wide-field image centred on the exoplanet HIP 13044 b
This visible light wide-field image of the region around the exoplanet HIP 13044 b was created from photographs forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The field of view is approximately three degrees across. HIP 13044 is visible as an unremarkable, moderate brightness star at the exact...
Panoramic view of the WR 22 and Eta Carinae regions of the Carina Nebula*
This spectacular panoramic view combines a new image of the field around the Wolf–Rayet star WR 22 in the Carina Nebula (right) with an earlier picture of the region around the unique star Eta Carinae in the heart of the nebula (left). The picture was created from images taken with the Wide...
Around Beta Pictoris
Beta Pictoris is located about 60 light-years away towards the constellation of Pictor (the Painter's Easel) and is one of the best-known examples of a star surrounded by a dusty debris disc. Earlier observations showed a warp of the disc, a secondary inclined disc and comets falling onto the...
The galaxy cluster MACS J2135-010217 lensing SMM J2135-0102
This image shows the galaxy cluster MACS J2135-010217 (centre), which is gravitationally lensing the distant galaxy SMM J2135-0102. The image is 5 arcminutes across, and contains data from the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
Wide-field view of the field around Monoceros R2
This visible light wide-field image of the region around Monoceros R2 was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The nebula NGC 2170, the brightest reflection nebula in this region, appears just to the right of centre. The...
Star-forming region Gum 19
This image of the Gum 19 star-forming region was obtained with SOFI, an infrared instrument mounted on ESO’s New Technology Telescope (NTT) that operates at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. Gum 19 is located in the direction of the constellation Vela (the Sail) at a distance of approximately...
VST image of the star-forming region Messier 17
The first released VST image shows the spectacular star-forming region Messier 17, also known as the Omega Nebula or the Swan Nebula, as it has never been seen before. This vast region of gas, dust and hot young stars lies in the heart of the Milky Way in the constellation of Sagittarius (The...
The cluster of galaxies Abell 315
This wide-field, deep image reveals thousands of galaxies crowding an area on the sky roughly as large as the full Moon. These galaxies span a vast range of distances from us. Some are relatively close, as it is possible to distinguish their spiral arms or elliptical halos, especially in the...
The system around HR 8799 (annotated)
The bright and very young star HR 8799, about 130 light-years away from Earth, hosts a planetary system that looks like a scaled-up model of our own Solar System. Three giant planetary companions have been detected so far, with masses between 7 and 10 times that of Jupiter and being between 20...
Jupiter’s storms: temperatures and cloud colours
New thermal images from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and other ground-based telescopes show swirls of warmer air and cooler regions never seen before within Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. The images enable scientists to make the first detailed weather map of the inside of the giant storm system....
The Carina Nebula around the Wolf–Rayet star WR 22
This image of part of the Carina Nebula was created from images taken through red, green and blue filters with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. It is centred on the unusual hot massive young star WR 22, a member of the rare class...
Wide-field view of the sky around the star HD 10180
This wide-field image shows the sky around the star HD 10180, which appears as a fairly bright star just below the centre. The picture was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The field of view is approximately three degrees...
Wide-field view of the field around NGC 7252: the Atoms-for-Peace galaxy
This visible light wide-field image of the region around NGC 7252 was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The galaxy appears close to the centre. The field of view is approximately three degrees across.
The Small Magellanic Cloud
Wide field image, based on data from Digitized Sky Survey 2, shows the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy and is centred on the star-forming region NGC 346.
The classic spiral Messier 83 seen in the infrared with HAWK-I
This image of the nearby galaxy Messier 83 was taken in the infrared part of the spectrum with the HAWK-I instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The very fine image quality of this camera, coupled with the huge light-collecting power of the VLT, reveals vast numbers of stars within the...
The system around HR 8799
The bright and very young star HR 8799, about 130 light-years away from Earth, hosts a planetary system that looks like a scaled-up model of our own Solar System. Three giant planetary companions have been detected so far, with masses between 7 and 10 times that of Jupiter and being between 20...
Visible/infrared comparison of the VISTA Flame Nebula image
The image on the left shows the Flame Nebula in visible light. The central regions are hidden behind the dramatic dark tongue of thick dust. This image was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. On the right is the VISTA...
NGC 300 X-1 in the spiral galaxy NGC 300
Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have detected a stellar-mass black hole much further away than any other previously known. With a mass about twenty times that of the Sun, this is also the second most massive stellar-mass black hole ever found. The newly announced black hole...
Infrared/visible comparison of an extract from the VISTA Orion Nebula image
The left-hand panel shows a dusty region of the Orion Nebula in visible light. On the right the VISTA infrared view is shown. By observing infrared light many new features appear, including many young stars and their outflows. These strange features are of great interest to astronomers studying...
The R Coronae Australis region imaged with the Wide Field Imager at La Silla*
The nearby star-forming region around the star R Coronae Australis imaged by the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. This picture, which covers a field of 33.7 x 31.9 arcminutes (about the diameter of the full Moon), is a...
Chance discovery reveals star factories in the distant Universe
This composite image shows the discovery of the distant galaxy SMM J2135-0102. Left : a view of galaxy cluster MACS J2135-010217 (centre), which is gravitationally lensing SMM J2135-0102. Top right : SMM J2135-0102 was first discovered in submillimetre-wavelength observations (shown in red)...
Extracts from the VISTA infrared image of the Orion Nebula
On the upper-left, the central region of VISTA’s view of the Orion Nebula is shown, centred on the four dazzling stars of the Trapezium. A rich cluster of young stars can be seen here that is invisible in normal, visible light images. In the lower-right panel the part of the nebula to the north...
The Fornax dwarf galaxy
The Fornax dwarf galaxy is one of our Milky Way’s neighbouring dwarf galaxies. The Milky Way is, like all large galaxies, thought to have formed from smaller galaxies in the early days of the Universe. These small galaxies should also contain many very old stars, just as the Milky Way does, and...
VISTA Magellanic Cloud Survey view of the Tarantula Nebula*
This VISTA image shows the spectacular 30 Doradus star-forming region, also called the Tarantula Nebula. At its core is a large cluster of stars known as R 136, in which some of the most massive stars known are located. This infrared image, made with ESO’s VISTA survey telescope, is from the...
The cosmic bat — NGC 1788
The delicate nebula NGC 1788, located in a dark and often neglected corner of the Orion constellation, is revealed in this finely nuanced image. Although this ghostly cloud is rather isolated from Orion’s bright stars, their powerful winds and light have a strong impact on the nebula, forging...
Stellar nursery NGC 3603*
NGC 3603 is a starburst region : a cosmic factory where stars form frantically from the nebula’s extended clouds of gas and dust. Located 22,000 light-years away from the Sun, it is the closest region of this kind known in our galaxy, providing astronomers with a local test bed for studying the...
NGC 300 X-1 in the spiral galaxy NGC 300
Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have detected a stellar-mass black hole much further away than any other previously known. With a mass about twenty times that of the Sun, this is also the second most massive stellar-mass black hole ever found. The newly announced black hole...
Revisiting the quasar without a home
Colour composite image of a peculiar object, the nearby quasar HE0450-2958, which is the only one for which no sign of a host galaxy has yet been detected. A team of astronomers has identified black hole jets as a possible driver of galaxy formation, which may also represent the long-sought...
The Sculptor dwarf galaxy
The Sculptor dwarf galaxy is one of our Milky Way’s neighbouring dwarf galaxies. The Milky Way is, like all large galaxies, thought to have formed from smaller galaxies in the early days of the Universe. These small galaxies should also contain many very old stars, just as the Milky Way does,...
Around the Cat's Paw Nebula
Wide view centred on the Cat’s Paw Nebula (NGC 6334).
The star cluster Terzan 5
Peering through the thick dust clouds of our galaxy's central parts (the "bulge") with an amazing amount of detail, a team of astronomers has revealed an unusual mix of stars in the stellar grouping known as Terzan 5. Never observed anywhere in the bulge before, this peculiar cocktail of stars...
Around the nova V445 Puppis annotated
This wide-field image, based on data from Digitized Sky Survey 2, shows the whole region around the nova V445 Puppis, with the double star system highlighted.
Dinner for Centaurus A
This image of the central parts of Centaurus A reveals the parallelogram-shaped remains of a smaller galaxy that was gulped down about 200 to 700 million years ago. The image is based on data collected with the SOFI instrument on ESO’s New Technology Telescope at La Silla. The original image,...
Infrared/visible comparison of the full VISTA Orion Nebula image
The left-hand panel shows the Orion Nebula in visible light. Most of the light from the spectacular clouds comes from hydrogen gas glowing under the fierce ultraviolet glare from the central hot young stars. The region above the centre is clearly obscured by dust clouds. On the right the VISTA...
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