The discovery of a radio galaxy of at least 5 Mpc

Joint radio-infrared view of Alcyoneus, a radio galaxy with a projected proper length of $5.0\ \rm Mpc$. We show a $2048^{\prime\prime} \times 2048^{\prime\prime}$ solid angle centred around right ascension $123.590372°$ and declination $52.402795°$. We superimpose LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) DR2 images at $144\ \rm MHz$ of two different resolutions ($6^{\prime\prime}$ for the core and jets, and $60^{\prime\prime}$ for the lobes) (orange), with the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) image at $3.4\ \rm \mu m$ (blue). To highlight the radio emission, the infrared emission has been blurred to $0.5^{\prime}$ resolution.

Extremely strong foundations

Construction on the world’s biggest eye on the sky, ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is making progress! After a significant slow-down of the building works due to the COVID-19 pandemic — including almost a year of complete site closure — works resumed in mid-2021. As this image from January 2022 shows, the foundations of the mammoth 39-m telescope have been laid, taking us one step closer to uncovering some of the most elusive mysteries of the Universe.

Credit: G. Hüdepohl (atacamaphoto.com)/ESO

ESO telescope uncovers closest pair of supermassive black holes yet

Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), astronomers have revealed the closest pair of supermassive black holes to Earth ever observed. The two objects also have a much smaller separation than any other previously spotted pair of supermassive black holes and will eventually merge into one giant black hole.

This image shows close-up (left) and wide (right) views of the two bright galactic nuclei, each housing a supermassive black hole, in NGC 7727, a galaxy located 89 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Aquarius. Each nucleus consists of a dense group of stars with a supermassive black hole at its centre. The two black holes are on a collision course and form the closest pair of supermassive black holes found to date. It is also the pair with the smallest separation between two supermassive black holes found to date — observed to be just 1600 light-years apart in the sky. The image on the left was taken with the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile while the one on the right was taken with ESO's VLT Survey Telescope. Credit: ESO/Voggel et al.; ESO/VST ATLAS team. Acknowledgement: Durham University/CASU/WFAU

Deepest Ever Look into Orion

VLT infrared images reveal unexpected horde of low-mass objects.

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. Credit: ESO/H. Drass et al.

Biggest Explosions in the Universe Powered by Strongest Magnets

Observations from ESO’s La Silla and Paranal Observatories in Chile have for the first time demonstrated a link between a very long-lasting burst of gamma rays and an unusually bright supernova explosion. The results show that the supernova was not driven by radioactive decay, as expected, but was instead powered by the decaying super-strong magnetic fields around an exotic object called a magnetar.

This artist’s impression shows a supernova and associated gamma-ray burst driven by a rapidly spinning neutron star with a very strong magnetic field — an exotic object known as a magnetar. Source: ESO

Jupiter Twin Discovered Around Solar Twin

An artist’s impression showing a newly discovered Jupiter twin gas giant orbiting the solar twin star, HIP 11915. The planet is of a very similar mass to Jupiter and orbits at the same distance from its star as Jupiter does from the Sun. Source: ESO

Best Observational Evidence of First Generation Stars in the Universe

 

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have discovered by far the brightest galaxy yet found in the early Universe and found strong evidence that examples of the first generation of stars lurk within it. These massive, brilliant, and previously purely theoretical objects were the creators of the first heavy elements in history — the elements necessary to forge the stars around us today, the planets that orbit them, and life as we know it. The newly found galaxy, labelled CR7, is three times brighter than the brightest distant galaxy known up to now.

Source: ESO

The Lagoon Nebula. Detail (4)

A slice cut from the vast image of the Lagoon Nebula published by ESO as part of VPHAS+, one of three imaging surveys using the VISTA survey telescope.

ESO/VPHAS+ team

The Lagoon Nebula. Detail (3)

A slice cut from the vast image of the Lagoon Nebula published by ESO as part of VPHAS+, one of three imaging surveys using the VISTA survey telescope. 

ESO/VPHAS+ team

The Lagoon Nebula. Detail (2)

A slice cut from the vast image of the Lagoon Nebula published by ESO as part of VPHAS+, one of three imaging surveys using the VISTA survey telescope. 

 ESO/VPHAS+ team

The Lagoon Nebula. Detail (1)

A slice cut from the vast image of the Lagoon Nebula published by ESO as part of VPHAS+, one of three imaging surveys using the VISTA survey telescope. 

ESO/VPHAS+ team

Messier 8, the Lagoon Nebula

The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile has captured this richly detailed new image of the Lagoon Nebula. This giant cloud of gas and dust is creating intensely bright young stars, and is home to young stellar clusters.  

ESO/VPHAS+ team

Proxima Centauri observed in X-rays by Chandra space telescope

Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri have shown that its surface is in a state of turmoil. Flares, or explosive outbursts, occur almost continually. In the cores of low mass stars, nuclear fusion reactions that convert hydrogen to helium proceed very slowly, and create a turbulent, convective motion throughout their interiors. This motion stores up magnetic energy which is often released explosively in the star’s upper atmosphere where it produces flares in X-rays and other forms of light.

ALMA Reveals the Cradles of Dense Cores: the Birthplace of Massive Stars

A Taiwanese research team used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to observe a large molecular gas clump named G33.92+0.11, where a cluster with massive stars is forming. The excellent imaging power of ALMA allowed to reveal with unprecedented detail the fine structure of the molecular gas at the center of the region, where two surprisingly large molecular gas arms, with sizes of about 3.2 light years, appear to be spiraling around two massive molecular cores. The two centrally located massive molecular cores (about 100-300 solar masses) are connected by several spiraling dense molecular gas arms.  

The images show the central part of the OB cluster-forming region G33.92+0.11, observed by ALMA. Top: Dust continuum image taken at 1.3 mm. Bottom: False color image showing the integrated emission of three molecules. ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), H. B. Liu, J. Dale

Wide-field view of the sky around the Medusa Nebula

This is a part of a wide-field view that shows the sky around the large but faint planetary nebula known as the Medusa Nebula. This picture was created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. 

ESO

This beautiful planetary nebula is named after a dreadful creature from Greek mythology — the Gorgon Medusa. It is also known as Sharpless 2-274 and is located in the constellation of Gemini (The Twins). The Medusa Nebula spans approximately four light-years and lies at a distance of about 1500 light-years. Despite its size it is extremely dim and hard to observe.

The Medusa Nebula

ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile has captured the most detailed image ever taken of the Medusa Nebula (also known Abell 21 and Sharpless 2-274). As the star at the heart of this nebula made its final transition into retirement, it shed its outer layers into space, forming this colourful cloud. The image foreshadows the final fate of the Sun, which will eventually also become an object of this kind.

ESO 

ALMA/Hubble composite image of the region around the young star HL Tauri

This is a composite image of the young star HL Tauri and its surroundings using data from ALMA (enlarged in box at upper right) and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (rest of the picture). This is the first ALMA image where the image sharpness exceeds that normally attained with Hubble. 

ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), ESA/Hubble and NASA

A supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy

eso.org

This artist’s impression (by L. Calçada) shows the surroundings of a supermassive black hole, typical of that found at the heart of many galaxies. The black hole itself is surrounded by a brilliant accretion disc of very hot, infalling material and, further out, a dusty torus. There are also often high-speed jets of material ejected at the black hole’s poles that can extend huge distances into space. Observations with ALMA have detected a very strong magnetic field close to the black hole at the base of the jets and this is probably involved in jet production and collimation.

The globular cluster NGC 6388 observed by the European Southern Observatory

This image from the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile shows NGC 6388, a dynamically middle-aged globular cluster in the Milky Way. NGC 6388 is a globular cluster at distance d ≃ 11.5 kpc (about 37,500 light-years) and with an estimated mass of 2.6 × 10⁶ M_⊙. 

ESO, F. Ferraro (University of Bologna)

Fornax galaxy with four globular clusters marked

This is a Digitized Sky Survey 2 image of the dwarf galaxy Fornax. Highlighted here are four globular clusters found in the galaxy called Fornax 1, 2, 3 and 5. 

ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2