An infrared/visible comparison view of the Cat’s Paw Nebula
This image compares infrared and visible views of the Cat’s Paw Nebula. 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 (eso1003). The new infrared image (left) was taken with the VISTA telescope at ESO’s Paranal...
370-million-pixel starscape of the Lagoon Nebula
The third image of ESO’s GigaGalaxy Zoom project is an amazing vista of the Lagoon Nebula taken with the 67-million-pixel Wide Field Imager attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. The image covers more than one and a half square degree — an area eight...
Wide field image of the Jewel Box
This image of the well-known NGC 4755 cluster or Jewel Box was taken with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory. It highlights the cluster and its rich surroundings in all their multicoloured glory. The field of view is 20 arcminutes...
Trumpler 14 in the Carina Nebula
This image of the Carina Nebula shows the position of the Trumpler 14 cluster of stars.
A 340-million pixel starscape from Paranal
The second of three images of ESO’s GigaGalaxy Zoom project is a new and wonderful 340-million-pixel vista of the central parts of our galactic home, a 34 by 20-degree wide image that provides us with a view as experienced by amateur astronomers around the world. Taken by Stéphane Guisard, an...
Reflection nebula around HD 87643
This image, centred on the B[e] star HD 87643, beautifully shows the extended nebula of gas and dust that reflects the light from the star. The central star's wind appears to have shaped the nebula, leaving bright, ragged tendrils of gas and dust. A careful investigation of these features seems...
Wide-field view of part of the Large Magellanic Cloud
This wide-field view shows a section of the Large Magellanic Cloud, centred on the unusual globular cluster NGC 1978. The image was created from photographs in red and blue light taken from the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The field of view is 2.9 degrees across.
VISTA’s infrared view of the Cat’s Paw Nebula*
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 of young massive...
Barnard's Galaxy
Astronomers obtained this portrait of Barnard’s Galaxy using the Wide Field Imager attached to the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in northern Chile. Also known as NGC 6822, this dwarf irregular galaxy is one of the Milky Way’s galactic neighbours. The dwarf galaxy has...
Composite "zoom" on the double star HD 87643
The star HD 87643 is at the center of the extended nebula of dust and gas on the first image, obtained with the Wide Field Imager on the ESO/MPG 2.2-metre telescope on La Silla. The central panel is a zoom on the star obtained with NACO on ESO's VLT on Paranal. The last panel zooms further,...
Star formation in the constellation of Carina
This wide-field image, based on data from Digitized Sky Survey 2, shows the whole region around the cosmic factory NGC 3603, located about 20 000 light-years away. This region contains many star formation regions featuring huge clouds of glowing gas.
The planet-hosting star CoRoT-7
The star CoRoT-7 is located towards the constellation of Monoceros (the Unicorn) at a distance of about 500 light-years. Slightly smaller and cooler than our Sun, CoRoT-7 is also thought to be younger, with an age about 1.5 billion years. It is now known to have two planets, one of them being...
The surroundings of NGC 300
This wide field image, from the Digitized Sky Survey 2, shows the area around the spiral galaxy, NGC 300, six million light-years from Earth.The field of view is about 2.92x2.94 degrees.
The Trifid Nebula
The massive star factory known as the Trifid Nebula was captured in all its glory with the Wide-Field Imager camera attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in northern Chile. So named for the dark dust bands that trisect its glowing heart, the Trifid Nebula is...
The region of Orion’s Belt and the Flame Nebula
This spectacular visible light wide-field view of part of the famous belt of the great celestial hunter Orion shows the region of the sky around the Flame Nebula. The whole image is filled with glowing gas clouds illuminated by hot blue young stars. It was created from photographs in red and...
The double star HD 87643
Observations made with ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer allowed a team of astronomers to discover that the star HD 87643, which lies at the centre of a dusty nebula, has a companion located about 50 times the mean Earth-Sun distance. This companion completes an orbit in a few tens of...
GigagalaxyZoom phase 2
The two first images of ESO’s GigaGalaxy Zoom project combined to show a whole view of the Milky Way as could be seen with the unaided eye, and a more central region observed with an amateur telescope.
The region around the massive star IRS2
Colour composite image of the central part of the stellar cluster RCW 38, around the young, massive star IRS2, taken with the NACO adaptive optics instrument attached to ESO's Very Large Telescope. Thanks to this image, astronomers were able to discover that IRS2 is in fact a twin system...
Star cluster RCW 38
The dense star cluster RCW 38 glistens about 5,500 light years away in the direction of the constellation Vela (the Sails). RCW 38 is an "embedded" cluster, in that the nascent cloud of dust and gas still envelops its stars. There, young, titanic stars bombard fledgling suns and planets with ...
Betelgeuse in Orion (with annotations)
This collage shows the Orion constellation in the sky (Betelgeuse is identified by the marker), a zoom towards Betelgeuse, and the sharpest ever image of this supergiant star, which was obtained with NACO on ESO’s Very Large Telescope.
Around NGC 1788
The delicate nebula NGC 1788 is located in a dark and often neglected corner of the constellation Orion. 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 its shape and making it a home to a...
The Galactic Centre and Sagittarius B2
Colour-composite image of the Galactic Centre and Sagittarius B2 as seen by the ATLASGAL survey. The centre of the Milky Way is home to a supermassive black hole more than four million times the mass of our Sun. It is about 25 000 light years from Earth. Sagittarius B2 (Sgr B2) is one of the...
HD 87643
A close-up of the star HD 87643, taken with the adaptive optics instrument, NACO, on ESO's Very Large Telescope. Adaptive optics allows astronomers to compensate for the blurring effect of the atmosphere, revealing details 20 times smaller than the associated WFI image. The image was obtained...
The Arches cluster
This image of the Arches Cluster of young, massive stars was obtained with NACO on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The field of view is 28 arcseconds. North is up and east is to the left. This image is a composite of infrared images obtained through J, H and K filters. The stars appear as bright...
The RCW120 nebula
Colour-composite image of RCW120 as seen by the ATLASGAL survey. RCW 120 is a region where an expanding bubble of ionised gas about ten light-years across is causing the surrounding material to collapse into dense clumps that are the birthplaces of new stars. In this image, the ATLASGAL...
The NGC 6357 and NGC 6334 nebulae
Colour-composite image of the nebulae NGC 6357 (left) and NGC 6334 (right) as seen by the ATLASGAL survey. NGC 6357 is a diffuse nebula containing the open cluster Pismis 24, home to several very massive stars. NGC 6334 is an emission nebula also known as the “Cat’s Paw Nebula”. In this image,...
Messier 87 in the Virgo Cluster
This deep image of the Virgo Cluster obtained by Chris Mihos and his colleagues using the Burrell Schmidt telescope shows the diffuse light between the galaxies belonging to the cluster. North is up, east to the left. The dark spots indicate where bright foreground stars were removed from the...
The Trifid Nebula (full frame)
The massive star factory known as the Trifid Nebula was captured in all its glory with the Wide-Field Imager camera attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in northern Chile. So named for the dark dust bands that trisect its glowing heart, the Trifid Nebula is...
The star GJ1214
GJ1214 is a star five times smaller than our Sun and three hundred times less bright. Located only 40 light-years away from us, it is found to be surrounded by a super-Earth planet whose interior is likely mostly made of water ice. The planet appears to be rather hot and surrounded by a thick...
The rim of RCW 86
Image of part of a stellar remnant whose explosion was recorded in 185 AD. By studying this remnant in detail, a team of astronomers was able to solve the mystery of the Milky Way’s super-efficient particle accelerators. The team shows that the shock wave visible in this area is very efficient...
Wide-field view of the Fornax Galaxy Cluster
The Fornax Galaxy Cluster is one of the closest such groupings beyond our own Local Group of galaxies. This visible light wide-field image of the cluster was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The field of view is...
A close look at Betelgeuse
Image of the supergiant star Betelgeuse obtained with the NACO adaptive optics instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The use of NACO combined with a so-called “lucky imaging” technique, allowed the astronomers to obtain the sharpest ever image of Betelgeuse, even with Earth’s turbulent,...
Spiral galaxy NGC 4945
Seen edge-on, observations of NGC 4945 suggest that this hive of stars is a spiral galaxy much like our own Milky Way, with swirling, luminous arms and a bar-shaped centre. Sites of active star formation, known as HII regions, are seen prominently in the image, appearing bright pink. These...
Digitized Sky Survey image of Betelgeuse
This image is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). The field of view is approximatelly 2.0 x 1.5 degrees.
View of the Galactic Plane from the ATLASGAL survey
Colour-composite image of part of the Galactic Plane seen by the ATLASGAL survey. In this image, the ATLASGAL submillimetre-wavelength data are shown in red, overlaid on a view of the region in infrared light, from the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) in green and blue. The total size of the...
View of the Galactic Plane from the ATLASGAL survey (in five sections)
Colour-composite image of part of the Galactic Plane seen by the ATLASGAL survey, divided into sections. In this image, the ATLASGAL submillimetre-wavelength data are shown in red, overlaid on a view of the region in infrared light, from the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) in green and blue....
Digitized Sky Survey image around the stellar cluster RCW 38
This image is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). The field of view is approximately 2.4 x 2.0 degrees.
Detailed 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...
DSS + insert, annotated
This wide-field image contains the area where a team of researchers confirmed that cosmic rays from our galaxy are very efficiently accelerated in the remnants of exploded stars. The red line guides the eye to various regions where the remnants of the stellar explosion are most visible. The...
The Eagle Nebula
Three-colour composite mosaic image of the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16, or NGC 6611), based on images obtained with the Wide-Field Imager camera on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory. At the centre, the so-called “Pillars of Creation” can be seen. This wide-field image...
Submillimetre and infrared view of the Galactic Centre
This is a colour composite image of the central region of our Milky Way galaxy, about 26 000 light years from Earth. Giant clouds of gas and dust are shown in blue, as detected by the LABOCA instrument on the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope at submillimetre wavelengths (870...
View of the Galactic Plane from the ATLASGAL survey (annotated)
Colour-composite annotated image of part of the Galactic Plane seen by the ATLASGAL survey. In this image, the ATLASGAL submillimetre-wavelength data are shown in red, overlaid on a view of the region in infrared light, from the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) in green and blue. The total size...
VISTA's infrared view of the Orion Nebula*
This wide-field view of the Orion Nebula (Messier 42), lying about 1350 light-years from Earth, was taken with the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The new telescope’s huge field of view allows the whole nebula and its surroundings to be imaged in a single...
DSS image
A wide-field image of the area of the sky near the system Gliese 581.
Digitized sky survey image of the galaxy NGC 6822
This image is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). The field of view is approximatelly 2.9 x 2.9 degrees.
The field around HD 87643
This image, showing a very rich field of stars towards the Carina arm of the Milky Way, is centred on the star HD 87643, a member of the class of B[e] stars. The amazing image is set ablaze by a flurry of stars of all colours and brightnesses, some of which are seen against a backdrop of clouds...
Nebula around star cluster RCW 38
The wider region surrounding the star cluster RCW 38, located about 5,500 light years away in the direction of the constellation Vela (the Sails). RCW 38 is an "embedded" cluster, in that the nascent cloud of dust and gas still envelops its stars. There, young, titanic stars bombard fledgling...
The hidden fires of the Flame Nebula (full frame)
This VISTA image shows the spectacular star-forming region known as the Flame Nebula, or NGC 2024, in the constellation of Orion (the Hunter) and its surroundings. In views of this evocative object in visible light the core of the nebula is completely hidden behind obscuring dust, but in this...
Mercury transit on May 7, 2003
The view through a large telescope may have offered scenes like this one, when the black disc of Mercury (above, left) passed near a group of sunspots on the solar surface. This picture is a montage that was created for a press release before the Mercury Transit that took place on May 7, 2003.
View of the Galactic Plane from the ATLASGAL survey (annotated and in five sections)
Colour-composite annotated image of part of the Galactic Plane seen by the ATLASGAL survey, divided into sections. In this image, the ATLASGAL submillimetre-wavelength data are shown in red, overlaid on a view of the region in infrared light, from the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) in green...
Spiral galaxy NGC 7793
Image of the chaotic spiral galaxy NGC 7793, observed with the FORS instrument attached to ESO’s Very Large Telescope at Paranal. The image is based on data obtained through B, V, I and H-alpha filters.
Digitized Sky Survey image of the galaxy NGC 4945
This image is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). The field of view is approximatelly 3.0 x 3.0 degrees.
Field around the planet-hosting star CoRoT-7
The star CoRoT-7 is located towards the constellation of Monoceros (the Unicorn) at a distance of about 500 light-years. This image shows a larger field of view around the star, covering about 9 square degrees or about 11 times the size of the Full Moon. CoRoT-7 is in the centre of the image.
The Fornax Cluster of galaxies
The Fornax Galaxy Cluster is one of the closest of such groupings beyond our Local Group of galaxies. This VISTA image was constructed from images taken through Z, J and Ks filters in the near-infrared part of the spectrum and has captured many of the cluster members in a single image. At the...
Digitized sky survey image of the Eagle Nebula
This image is a colour composite of the Eagle Nebula (M 16) made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). The field of view is approximatelly 3.8 x 3.3 degrees.
Around the Arches Cluster
The turbulent central region of our Milky Way is shown in this beautiful picture taken with the Wide Field Imager attached to the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope. Near the centre of the image — and of our Galaxy — a supermassive black hole lurks (see ESO Press Release eso0846). Dense dust found...
Digitized Sky Survey image of the double star HD 87643
This image is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). The field of view is approximatelly 3.9 x 2.5 degrees.
Irregular galaxy NGC 55
Image of the irregular galaxy NGC 55 obtained with the Wide Field Imager on the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at ESO La Silla Observatory. The galaxy is about 7.5 million light-years away and 70,000 light-years across. The image is based on data obtained through B, V, and H-alpha filters. North...
Disc around the young star HD 163296 (observations+model)
New research carried out using ESO telescopes has, for the first time, allowed astronomers to reconstruct a detailed picture of the disc of matter around a young star. Stéphanie Renard of the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Grenoble and colleagues used the ESO VLT Interferometer to probe the...
Blue dwarf galaxy NGC 5233
ISAAC image of NGC 5253 obtained in infrared the L-band (3.78 μm), with a very massive young stellar cluster (see text) as the brightest object. The FOV is 49 times 64 arcseconds.
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