ESO

Artist's impression by ESO/M. Kornmesser

An artistic impression featuring telescopes and facilities from the La Silla Paranal Observatory and a few ALMA antennas. Overlaid text reads: “1100+ studies with ESO data published in 2025.”

Around 1150 studies using data collected at our observatories were published last year.

The impressive publication numbers emphasise the significant role ESO plays in helping astronomers advance our understanding of the Universe.

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann26002/

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Open telescope dome at night revealing the telescope inside, framed by tall sliding doors, with a clear sky above.

Orion captured between the enclosure of our New Technology Telescope (NTT). 

The NTT wasn’t named by accident. In fact, it broke new ground for telescope engineering and design. 

More: https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/lasilla/ntt/

🔭 #flashback 

📷 ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org)

📷 ESO/D. Ribeiro for the MPE GC team

A black background in which some thousands of light sources are visible. In the centre of the image, more closer stars are gathered. These centred stars are embedded in a pinkish haze of gas.

This image reveals the stars and gas surrounding the supermassive black hole at the #milkyway centre.

Now, using our VLT, @mpe-garching.bsky.social astronomers discovered a new gas cloud orbiting the black hole, solving a puzzling question.

More: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2610a/

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On the occasion of #InternationalWomensDay, we had a chat with Julienne Böttger, a PhD student at our Optical Engineering Department.

Her mission? Helping telescopes capture the sharpest possible images of the cosmos.

Discover her story in our video 👇

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A large telescope building at night with its dome open, projecting a bright laser beam into the sky

#TourESO 📹🔴 The clock is ticking: our next virtual tour of the Paranal Observatory kicks off in just 5 minutes!

Streamed here https://www.youtube.com/user/ESOobservatory/

📷 R. Wesson/ESO

A wide view of dense star fields and glowing red and pink nebulae.

A stunning cosmic trio: the cloud of gas Sharpless 2-54 (right), the Eagle Nebula (centre), and the Omega Nebula (left).

These objects make up a portion of a vast complex of gas and dust within which new stars are forming.

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1719/

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📷 ESO

📹 ESO/Boccaletti et al./L. Calçada, Digitized Sky Survey 2, N. Risinger (skysurvey .org).
🎧 Konstantino Polizois

Join our trip to AB Aurigae, a young star located 520 light-years away 🚀

Around it lies a disc of dust and gas in which astronomers have spotted a prominent spiral structure — with a ‘twist’ that marks the site where a planet may be forming.

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2008/

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A nebula with pink to crimson colours, splattered with yellow, red, white and blue dots of different sizes that represent stars. Dark brown clouds are located in the centre, resembling an open hand.

Do you feel lost looking at this picture?

Exploring the gas cloud known as IC2948 means finding your way across countless stars born in this enormous stellar nursery.

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2438a/

🔭 #flashback

📷 ESO/VPHAS+ team. Acknowledgement: CASU

📷 ESO/A. R. G. do Brito do Vale et al.

A gas cloud full of wispy filaments that shine brightly in shades of pink and orange. A higher concentration of stars is visible in the lower-right part.

A cosmic hawk and its starry eyasses 🐦

What looks like a hawk spanning its wings above massive newly born stars is the RCW 36 nebula.

Astronomers used the, yes, HAWK-I instrument on the VLT to study the hidden brown dwarfs: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2609a/

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📹 ESO/L. Calçada/N. Risinger (skysurvey .org)/Digitized Sky Survey 2/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Longmore et al. 
🎧 Azul Cobalto

Fly to the complex molecular gas in the centre of the #MilkyWay!🧑‍🚀

In this chaotic and extreme environment, stars don’t necessarily form in the same way as they do in the Milky Way’s outskirts. But new ALMA observations will probe how stars evolve there.

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2603/

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📷 ESO/M. Zamani

#ESOjobs If you are a PhD student in astronomy or related scientific fields, you can apply for the ESO Studentship Programme 2026/2027.

Positions are available at our Headquarters in Germany or in our offices in Santiago (Chile).

Apply by: 20 April 2026.

Details: https://recruitment.eso.org/

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The Extremely Large Telescope can't work without these key systems YouTube video by European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Without them, the ELT simply would not function!

We are talking about the ELT's giant Pre-Focal Stations. Currently undergoing final tests, they will guide the light collected by the telescope to the scientific instruments that will analyse it.

More: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWCB...
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A face-on spiral galaxy with curved arms filled with bright star-forming regions and a glowing central core. The object is set against a dark background dotted with distant stars and galaxies.

Nuzzled in the constellation Virgo lies a cosmic gem — the galaxy Messier 61.

This galaxy is a bustling hub of activity with a rapid rate of star formation. It hosts a nuclear star cluster and a supermassive black hole at its heart.

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1901a/ 🔭

📷 ESO

3/ 📹 ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Longmore et al. Background: ESO/D. Minniti et al.
🎧 Mylonite – Champ magnétique (Intro), Mylonite – Breath of my soul

2/ These observations will allow scientists to better understand how stars live and evolve in our galaxy’s most extreme region, next to the supermassive black hole at its centre.

1/ Fly with us through the #MilkyWay 🚀

We're exploring the Central Molecular Zone, where ALMA captured a complex network of cosmic gas filaments. This is the largest image ever taken.

Discover more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2603/

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📹 ESO/L. Calçada

Ready to travel 75 million light-years?

Our destination is the Kinman Dwarf Galaxy. A few years ago, a star in it disappeared. The end of the video shows an artistic animation of what the star could have looked like before it vanished. 

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2010/ 🔭

📷 ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Longmore et al. Background: ESO/D. Minniti et al.

A wispy cosmic cloud against a dark starry background. The cloud is horizontally elongated. It has an overall pinkish shade, but it’s full of intricate filaments in different colours.

Largest image of its kind shows hidden chemistry at the heart of the Milky Way!

ALMA has obtained a unique view of the cold gas within the Central Molecular Zone of the #MilkyWay, helping us probe the lives of stars in this extreme region.

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2603/

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📷 ESO/VPHAS+ team

A glowing nebula with swirling clouds of pink, red, and white gas and dust, filled with numerous stars scattered across a dark background

This richly detailed image of the Lagoon Nebula was captured by the VST at our Paranal Observatory.

A giant cloud of gas and dust, this nebula is creating bright young stars, and is home to young stellar clusters.

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1403a/

🔭 #flashback

Two's company Two's company

These two stars are at close yet distinct late life stages, with one having blown off mass & produced a dusty envelope.

Our VLT has mapped this debris, helping us better understand how companions affect a star's death. https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2608a/ 

📷 ESO/G. Tomassini et al.

An orange nebula with a cloud-like texture against a black background. The nebula is more yellow-orange and opaque at the centre and darker-orange and more diffuse at its perimeter. At the centre of the image inside the nebula there are two small black dots.

Two's company ⭐️⭐️

Just like we humans are strongly influenced by the presence of companions over the course of our lives, so are stars, literally.

The pair of points at the centre of this image, taken with our VLT, are an old stellar couple known as AFGL 4106. 

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