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ESO
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The European Southern Observatory designs, builds & operates world-class observatories on the ground for the benefit of society. More info on eso.org
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eso.org
#TourESO 📹🔴 Settled into a cosy spot and grabbed a snack 🥙? Fantastic, because the next virtual tour of ESO's Paranal Observatory is going live in just 5 minutes! 

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

📷 Iztok Boncina/ESO
Large, metallic telescope buildings stand under a deep blue sky, with the Sun peeking around one of the structures
January 10, 2026 at 1:56 PM
eso.org
Take off to the bright orange star Betelgeuse 🚀🌟

The star underwent an unprecedented dimming in late 2019 and early 2020. Observations later revealed that it was caused by a dusty veil shading the star, due to a drop in temperature on the star's surface.

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2109/ 🔭
January 7, 2026 at 1:02 PM
eso.org
Out in the Atacama Desert, magic is everywhere: brilliant stars above, and, on the ground, wildlife that sometimes drops by our observatories to say hello. Just like these Vicuñas, a common sight around ALMA.

Get the image: https://www.eso.org/public/images/nik2317-cc/
A group of four vicuñas surrounded by low shrubs and scattered rocks
January 6, 2026 at 8:01 AM
eso.org
#ESOjobs The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre is looking for an intern to join their team as a Science Presenter, in Garching.

As this is a rolling position, there is no application deadline.

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

Background image by ESO
January 5, 2026 at 1:01 PM
eso.org
Using APEX, astronomers carried out the CAFFEINE survey, observing many stellar nurseries — including GAL316 👇

They wanted to find out whether denser clouds of gas and dust are more efficient at forming new stars

Here's what they discovered: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2601a/

🔭 🧪
A blue filamentary cloud across a backdrop of thousands of stars.
January 5, 2026 at 8:02 AM
eso.org
Let the new year swirl in…

What looks like a vortex of fire is in reality a disc around the young AB Aurigae star.

Close to the centre, the ‘twist’ (in very bright yellow) marks the spot where scientists believe a planet is forming. 🔭
Swirling spiral of gas and dust glowing in yellow and orange tones
January 1, 2026 at 1:01 PM
eso.org
Join us on a trip to the dwarf star PDS 70, located 400 light-years away and with at least two planets orbiting it.

The final shot shows an ALMA image of the PDS 70 system, where a moon-forming disc is visible around planet PDS 70c.

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2111/ 🔭
December 31, 2025 at 1:03 PM
eso.org
Let’s round off the year with a spectacular burst of cosmic fireworks from the Universe itself: the mix of stars in the stellar cluster known as Terzan 5. Wishing you all a wonderful 2026! 🎇

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1630a/ 

🔭 #flashback 

📷 ESO/F. Ferraro
A dense star cluster filled with hundreds of bright stars, many glowing orange and blue, set against a dark background of deep space.
December 30, 2025 at 8:01 AM
eso.org
Take a glimpse into APEX, located in Chile’s Atacama Desert 📡👀

Once a joint project of the Max-Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR), the Onsala Space Observatory and ESO, APEX now becomes a project solely of the MPIfR.

www.eso.org/public/video...

🔭
December 29, 2025 at 12:29 PM
eso.org
#TourESO 📹🔴 5 more minutes and we'll virtually explore our La Silla Observatory! Will you join us? 🙂

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

📷 B. Wilmart/ESO
Dome-shaped telescopes along a mountain ridge at sunset, with the Sun glowing orange near the horizon.
December 27, 2025 at 1:56 PM
eso.org
The Eagle Nebula is a dazzling stellar nursery. In it, a cluster of massive, hot stars, NGC 6611, has just been born.

The powerful light and strong winds from these massive new arrivals are shaping light-year long pillars.

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0926/ 🔭

📷 ESO
A view of a Nebula, filled with glowing pink and red clouds of gas illuminated by bright, young stars. Dark, finger-like pillars of dust stretch upward from the nebula’s center. Countless stars of varying brightness sparkle across the scene.
December 25, 2025 at 1:01 PM
eso.org
This animation takes us to a Wolf–Rayet star in NGP–190387, a galaxy so far away its light took over 12 billion years to reach us.

Wolf–Rayet stars are hot and massive, and are thought to end in dramatic supernova explosions.

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2115/ 🔭
December 24, 2025 at 1:02 PM
eso.org
In the Atacama Desert, the average annual rainfall barely reaches 15 millimetres.

Yet it does, on very rare occasions, snow, as shown in this 2011 image of our VLT at Cerro Paranal ❄️ 🌨️

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1211a/ 

🔭 #flashback

📷 ESO/S. Guisard (www.eso.org/~sguisard)
A rocky, snow-dusted landscape in the desert leads up to a hilltop with several white observatory buildings silhouetted against a bright blue sky.
December 23, 2025 at 8:01 AM
eso.org
Happiest of holidays from ESO!

With all the discoveries made, milestones achieved & pictures captured, 2025 has been another successful year. We're excitedly looking ahead for the next one to come.

Until then, we wish you restful holidays and a happy new year!

🔭
📹 ESO
December 22, 2025 at 8:03 AM
eso.org
Construction of the southern array of CTAO – the world’s largest & most powerful gamma-ray observatory – has kicked off at Paranal.

Read about the groundbreaking ceremony: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2521

Discover CTAO with #ChasingStarlight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKRazLrvUNQ

🔭 🧪
A view of part of Earth from space. The visible half is on the left, showing the Americas. In space, a light blue beam is pointing towards South America. A few stars and some yellow lines are scattered across the dark space background.
December 18, 2025 at 4:04 PM
eso.org
An example of a dark nebula: the Pipe Nebula.

Originally, astronomers believed these were areas with no stars. But dark nebulae actually consist of clouds of interstellar dust so thick it can block out the light from the stars beyond.

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1233/ 🔭

📷 ESO
A densely packed star field dotted with countless tiny stars of varying brightness and colour. At the centre lies a dark, irregular cloud of interstellar dust. Several prominent blue-white stars glow near the edges of the dust cloud.
December 18, 2025 at 1:04 PM
eso.org
Enjoy this trip to NGC 1850, a cluster of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

This cluster harbours the first small black hole outside of our galaxy to be discovered by looking at its gravitational influence on the path of the star orbiting it

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2116/ 🔭
December 17, 2025 at 1:07 PM
eso.org
Our new SOXS instrument has made its first observations!

Installed at La Silla, it will observe fleeting cosmic events such as supernovae explosions or fast-moving asteroids. 

https://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann25011/

🔭 🧪
#instrumentation
📷 P. Schipani/INAF
A view of the the Son Of X-Shooter (SOXS) instrument on ESO’s New Technology Telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, inside a clean, white-walled room. The instrument consists of a cylindrical central unit with numerous cables, tubes, and electronic components attached, mounted on a green metal frame.
December 16, 2025 at 3:03 PM
eso.org
Located at our La Silla Observatory, the now de-commissioned SEST Telescope appears to watch the Large Magellanic Cloud up in the sky.

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/uhd_img6931_bt_cc/ 

🔭 #flashback

📷 ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org)
A large radio telescope dish is silhouetted against a star-filled night sky, with the Large Magellanic Cloud visible to the right
December 16, 2025 at 8:02 AM
eso.org
#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/  

📷 ESO/H.H.Heyer
Silhouettes of ESO’s Very Large Telescope buildings stand against a blue and orange twilight sky, with a thin crescent Moon visible above the horizon.
December 13, 2025 at 1:55 PM
eso.org
Cooling house-sized instruments to –270°C in a desert?

That’s a challenge we're tackling to allow the ELT to catch the faintest cosmic signals. The solution are giant custom cryogenic facilities, built on an unprecedented scale.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms19...

🔭 🧪
#instrumentation
Cooling the largest astronomical instruments ever
YouTube video by European Southern Observatory (ESO)
www.youtube.com
December 12, 2025 at 11:23 AM
eso.org
Found 8000 light-years away, the cluster NGC 3293 is less than 10 million years old.

Star clusters like NGC 3293 contain stars that all formed at the same time and out of the same cloud of gas and dust. Hence, they are ideal for testing stellar evolution.

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1422/ 🔭
A compact cluster of brilliant blue-white stars is visible at the centre, surrounded by a reddish glow from interstellar gas and dust. Faint red nebula filaments stretch across the image, contrasting with the dark background of space.
December 11, 2025 at 1:02 PM
eso.org
We are continuing to expand our efforts to protect the night skies.

ESO signed an agreement with the IAU's Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky to become a contributing partner.
https://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann25010/

🔭 🧪
📷 A. Daniels (SKAO)
ESO Director General Xavier Barcons (left) and Piero Benvenuti (right), IAU CPS Director, shake hands after signing an agreement. Posters of ESO and the International Astronomy Union’s Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky are visible behind them.
December 10, 2025 at 1:11 PM
eso.org
Our destination today is NGC 7727, a galaxy 89 million light-years away.

In it, two supermassive black holes are on a collision course. One has a mass almost 154 million times that of the Sun, while its companion is 6.3 million solar masses.

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2117/ 🔭
December 10, 2025 at 1:03 PM
eso.org
Cosmic treasures galore in this view from the Atacama Desert!

The white blob in the upper left is Jupiter, while the red ones are Barnard's loop in the upper part and Gum Nebula in the middle.

Discover the others: https://www.eso.org/public/images/150123-24_atacama_fullfr_cc/ 

🔭 #flashback
A fisheye night-sky photograph taken in a desert landscape, showing the sky with the Milky Way stretching overhead. Reddish objects and stars fill the centre of the frame, with faint green airglow surrounding them. On the ground below, a person stands near a parked car, looking up at the sky.
December 9, 2025 at 8:02 AM