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M42
Orion Nebula, M42
The Orion Nebula seen with the infrared eyes of the WIYN High Resolution Infrared Camera (WHIRC) in the emission lines of HeI (1083 nm; blue), FeII (1644 nm; green), and H2 (2122 nm; red). The HeI shows the location of the ionized gas and the holes around the O-type stars show the location...
ACO 1656
Coma Cluster (uncropped view)
The Dark Energy Camera captures an image of the dazzling Coma Cluster, named after the hair of Queen Berenice II of Egypt. Not only significant in Greek mythology, this collection of galaxies was also fundamental to the discovery of the existence of dark matter. The theory emerged in 1937 when...
ACO 1656
Coma Cluster
The Dark Energy Camera captures an image of the dazzling Coma Cluster, named after the hair of Queen Berenice II of Egypt. Not only significant in Greek mythology, this collection of galaxies was also fundamental to the discovery of the existence of dark matter. The theory emerged in 1937 when...
Sextans B
Sextans B
Sextans B is an irregular dwarf galaxy, meaning that it is irregularly shaped and smaller than our galaxy, the Milky Way. It lies around 4.5 million light-years from Earth and is located in the constellation Sextans in the southern sky. Captured with the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope,...
NGC 4567
The merging galaxy pair NGC 4568 and NGC 4567
This image from the Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i reveals a pair of interacting spiral galaxies — NGC 4568 (bottom) and NGC 4567 (top) — as they begin to clash and merge. The galaxies will eventually form a single elliptical galaxy in around 500 million years.
M88
M88
M88 displays a set of tight spiral arms and dust lanes in each. A recent supernova (1991) in M88 helped better determine its distance from us. Stars exploding in other galaxies can be used as a "standard candle" since astronomers know their intrinsic brightness (how bright it would appear at a...
Excerpt of the area around NGC 4261
A trail of celestial objects stretches across this excerpt from a First Look image captured by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. The most prominent feature is NGC 4261, the large elliptical galaxy in the top half of the image. In the bottom-left of the image is the lenticular galaxy NGC 4281....
Portion of Virgo Cluster (with asteroids)
A close-up on two galactic members of the Virgo Cluster as imaged by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. During its observations Rubin captured a plethora of asteroids zipping across this portion of the night sky, indicated by the tri-colored streaks scattered throughout this image. View a...
Portion of Virgo Cluster (without asteroids)
A close-up on two galactic members of the Virgo Cluster as imaged by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. During its observations Rubin captured a plethora of asteroids zipping across this portion of the night sky. The tiny streaks left behind from the asteroids have been removed from this image....
SNR 0509-67.5
VLT image of a double-detonation supernova
This image, taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows the supernova remnant SNR 0509-67.5. These are the expanding remains of a star that exploded hundreds of years ago in a double-detonation – the first photographic evidence that stars can die with two blasts. The data were captured...
SNR 0509-67.5
Distribution of calcium around the supernova remnant SNR 0509-67.5
This image shows the distribution of calcium in the supernova remnant SNR 0509-67.5. The data were captured with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). The overlaid curves outline two concentric shells of calcium that were ejected in two...
Sextans constellation
Dark Energy Survey deep field image
Ten areas in the sky were selected as “deep fields” that the Dark Energy Camera imaged several times during the survey, providing a glimpse of distant galaxies and helping determine their 3D distribution in the cosmos. The image is teeming with galaxies — in fact, nearly every single object in...
Dark Energy Camera Captures Circinus West Molecular Cloud
A celestial shadow known as the Circinus West molecular cloud creeps across this image taken with the Department of Energy-fabricated 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera (DECam) — one of the most powerful digital cameras in the world. Within this stellar nursery's opaque boundaries, infant stars...
HH 77
Herbig-Haro Objects 76 and 77
A close-up of two Herbig-Haro (HH) objects found in the Circinus West molecular cloud: HH 76 (above center of image) and HH 77 (lower left). HH objects are glowing red patches of nebulosity commonly found near newborn stars. They form when fast-moving gas thrown out by stars smashes into...
Herbig-Haro Object 139
A close-up of Herbig-Haro (HH) object 139, found in the Circinus West molecular cloud. HH objects are glowing red patches of nebulosity commonly found near newborn stars. They form when fast-moving gas thrown out by stars smashes into slower-moving gas in the surrounding molecular cloud or...
Herbig-Haro Objects 140–143
A collection of Herbig-Haro (HH) objects found in the Circinus West molecular cloud. HH objects are glowing red patches of nebulosity commonly found near newborn stars. They form when fast-moving gas thrown out by stars smashes into slower-moving gas in the surrounding molecular cloud or...
Planetary Nebula G317.0-04.0
A planetary nebula found in the Circinus West molecular cloud. Planetary nebulae are the outermost layers of aging red giant stars, thrown out into space at the end of a star’s life. This image was taken with the Department of Energy-fabricated 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera (DECam) — one of...
Sculptor Galaxy
MUSE view of ionised gas in the Sculptor Galaxy
This image shows the Sculptor Galaxy in a new light. This false-colour composition shows specific wavelengths of light released by hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur and oxygen. These elements exist in gas form all over the galaxy, but the mechanisms causing this gas to glow can vary throughout the...
UGC 11397
Centre of activity
The light that the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope collected to create this Picture of the Week reached the telescope after a journey of 250 million years. Its source was the spiral galaxy UGC 11397, which resides in the constellation Lyra (The Lyre). At first glance, UGC 11397 appears to be an...
NGC 4449
Small but mighty
This portrait from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope puts the nearby galaxy NGC 4449 in the spotlight. The galaxy is situated just 12.5 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs). It is a member of the M94 galaxy group, which is near the Local Group of...
Sculptor Galaxy
MUSE view of the Sculptor Galaxy
This image shows a detailed, thousand-colour image of the Sculptor Galaxy captured with the MUSE instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). Regions of pink light are spread throughout this whole galactic snapshot, which come from ionised hydrogen in star-forming regions. These areas have...
Spying a spiral through a cosmic lens
This new NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features a rare cosmic phenomenon called an Einstein ring. What at first appears to be a single, strangely shaped galaxy is actually two galaxies that are separated by a large distance. The closer foreground galaxy sits at...
NGC 253
Digitized Sky Survey image of NGC 253
This image is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). The field of view is approximatelly 3.7 x 3.6 degrees.
Chamaeleon
The Ominous Chamaeleon I Dark Cloud
The ominous Chamaeleon I dark cloud, the nearest star-forming region to Earth, is captured in this image taken with the 570-megapixel Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo...
IC 758
Stirring the interstellar soup
This serene spiral galaxy hides a cataclysmic past. The galaxy IC 758, shown here in today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week, is situated 60 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. In this Hubble image captured in 2023, IC 758 appears peaceful, its soft...
RIK 113
Caution: Planets under construction
Astronomers may have caught a still-forming planet on camera, hidden somewhere in this stellar snapshot. Today’s Picture of the Week is a close-up of the star RIK 113, seen here surrounded by a cloud of gas and dust called a protoplanetary disc. These discs are a common feature around young...
NGC 685
Starry spectacle
A galaxy ablaze with young stars is the subject of today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. This galaxy is called NGC 685 and is situated about 64 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus (The River). NGC 685 is classified as a barred spiral because its...
SN 1987A
Ring-shaped nebula around SN 1987A
High resolution NTT image of supernova SN 1987A taken from La Silla Observatory in December 1993. Seven years after the explosion of SN 1987A, the observations indicate the beginning of a more active phase while the interaction between the stellar material which was ejected during the explosion...
Phoenix Dwarf
An explosive phoenix
This image shows a dwarf galaxy in the southern constellation of Phoenix named, for obvious reasons, the Phoenix Dwarf. The Phoenix Dwarf is unique in that it cannot be classified according to the usual scheme for dwarf galaxies; while its shape would label it as a spheroidal dwarf galaxy —...
NGC 4981
When stars explode
Over 75 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin) lies NGC 4981 — a spiral galaxy with a rather explosive past. NGC 4981 was discovered on 17 April 1784 by William Herschel, and subsequently documented in John Dreyer’s New General Catalogue. Over a century later, on...
R Aquarii
VLT view of binary system R Aquarii from 2012
This image reveals a dramatic binary star system named R Aquarii, located 700 light-years from Earth, as seen in 2012 by ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). R Aquarii is a so-called “symbiotic binary”, comprising two stars surrounded by a large, dynamic cloud of gas (a nebula). Systems like this...
SDSS J102009.99+104002.7
MUSE spies accreting giant structure around a quasar
This Picture of the Week shows a huge cloud of gas around the distant quasar SDSS J102009.99+104002.7, taken by the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory. Quasars are the luminous centres of active galaxies, which...
HD 141569
Boulevard of broken rings
This Picture of the Week illustrates the remarkable capabilities of SPHERE (the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument), a planet-hunting instrument mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile: It shows a series of broken rings of dust around a nearby star....
NGC 3981
Digitized Sky Survey image around the spiral galaxy NGC 3981
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.
NGC 3699
A planetary Nebula divided
This fetching cloud of gas was imaged by the ESO Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (EFOSC2) at ESO's La Silla Observatory. It can be found nestled in the busy constellation of Centaurus in the skies of the southern hemisphere. The cloud of gas — named NGC 3699 — is a planetary nebula, It is...
R Aquarii
Digitized Sky Survey image around R Aquarii
While testing a new subsystem on the SPHERE planet-hunting instrument on ESO’s Very Large telescope, astronomers were able to capture dramatic details of the turbulent stellar relationship in the binary star R Aquarii with unprecedented clarity —even compared to observations from the NASA/ESA...
Cone Nebula
ESO’s 60th anniversary image: the Cone Nebula as seen by the VLT
The Cone Nebula is part of a star-forming region of space, NGC 2264, about 2500 light-years away. Its pillar-like appearance is a perfect example of the shapes that can develop in giant clouds of cold molecular gas and dust, known for creating new stars. This dramatic new view of the nebula was...
Digitized Sky Survey image around Apep
The image is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2), and shows the region surrounding 2XMM J160050.7-514245, nicknamed “Apep”. The field of view is approximately 2.4 x 2.0 degrees.
HR 8799e
Surroundings of the star HR 8799
This wide-field image shows the surroundings of the young star HR8799 in the constellation of Pegasus. This picture was created from material forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The location of HR 8799 is shown.
1E 0102.2-7219
MUSE view of the surroundings of a hidden neutron star in the Small Magellanic Cloud
This new picture from the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile shows how an elusive missing object was found amid a complex tangle of gaseous filaments in one of our nearest neighbouring galaxies, the Small Magellanic Cloud. The wisps of gas forming the supernova remnant 1E...
HD 163296
ALMA Discovers Trio of Infant Planets
ALMA has uncovered convincing evidence that three young planets are in orbit around the infant star HD 163296. Using a novel planet-finding technique, astronomers have identified three discrete disturbances in the young star’s gas-filled disc: the strongest evidence yet that newly formed...
NGC 3201
Hubble image of the globular star cluster NGC 3201 (unannotated)
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the central region of the rich globular star cluster NGC 3201 in the southern constellation of Vela (The Sails). A star that has been found to be orbiting a black hole with four times the mass of the Sun lies close to the centre of this...
1E 0102.2-7219
An isolated neutron star in the Small Magellanic Cloud
This new picture created from images from telescopes on the ground and in space tells the story of the hunt for an elusive missing object hidden amid a complex tangle of gaseous filaments in one of our nearest neighbouring galaxies, the Small Magellanic Cloud. The reddish background image comes...
OMC
ALMA views a stellar explosion in Orion
Stellar explosions are most often associated with supernovae, the spectacular deaths of stars. But new ALMA observations of the Orion Nebula complex provide insights into explosions at the other end of the stellar life cycle, star birth. Astronomers captured these dramatic images of the...
Carina Nebula
Mystic Mountain
This craggy fantasy mountaintop enshrouded by wispy clouds looks like a bizarre landscape. But it is indeed a pillar of gas and dust, three light-years tall, which is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. The pillar is also being assaulted from within, as infant...
Carina Nebula
Region R44 in the Carina Nebula
This image was taken by the MUSE instrument, mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope and shows the region R44 within the Carina Nebula, 7500 light-years away. The massive stars within the star formation region slowly destroy the pillars of dust and gas from which they are born.
V883 Orionis
ALMA image of the protoplanetary disc around V883 Orionis
This image of the planet-forming disc around the young star V883 Orionis was obtained by ALMA in long-baseline mode. This star is currently in outburst, which has pushed the water snow line further from the star and allowed it to be detected for the first time. The dark ring midway through the...
NGC 1187
Wide-field view of the sky around the spiral galaxy NGC 1187
This wide-field view is centred on the spiral galaxy NGC 1187 in the constellation of Eridanus (The River). It is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). The distorted companion galaxy ESO 480-G020 can be seen to the upper-right of NGC 1187, close to a...
Messier 87
The Halo of Galaxy Messier 87
The huge halo around giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 appears on this very deep image. An excess of light in the top-right part of this halo, and the motion of planetary nebulae in the galaxy, are the last remaining signs of a medium-sized galaxy that recently collided with Messier 87. The...
Alpha Centauri
The bright star Alpha Centauri and its surroundings
This wide-field view of the sky around the bright star Alpha Centauri was created from photographic images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The star appears so big just because of the scattering of light by the telescope's optics as well as in the photographic emulsion. Alpha...
NGC 6357
Close-up view of NGC 6357
ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has taken the most detailed image so far of a spectacular part of the stellar nursery called NGC 6357. The view shows many hot young stars, glowing clouds of gas and weird dust formations sculpted by ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds.
Galaxies
ALMA images of gravitationally-lensed distant star-forming galaxies
This montage combines data from ALMA with images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, for five distant galaxies. The ALMA images, represented in red, show the distant, background galaxies, being distorted by the gravitational lens effect produced by the galaxies in the foreground,...
M 4
Wide-field view of the sky around the globular star cluster Messier 4
This wide-field view is centred on the globular star cluster Messier 4 (NGC 6121) in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion). It is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). The smaller globular cluster at the upper left is NGC 6144. It is similar...
HD 85512
Wide-field view of the sky around the star HD 85512
This image shows the sky around the star HD 85512. The picture was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The star lies close to the centre of the image, at first glance resembling many others in this rich field. The ...
Eta Carinae
Digitized Sky Survey image of Eta Carinae Nebula
This image is a colour composite made from exposures from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). The field of view is approximately 4.7 x 4.9 degrees.
NGC 1187
VLT image of the spiral galaxy NGC 1187
This picture taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows the galaxy NGC 1187. This impressive spiral lies about 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus (The River). NGC 1187 has hosted two supernova explosions during the last thirty years, the latest one in 2007.
Fornax Constellation
Distant star-forming galaxies in the early Universe
The LABOCA camera on the ESO-operated 12-metre Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope reveals distant galaxies undergoing the most intense type of star formation activity known, called a starburst. This image shows these distant galaxies, found in a region of sky known as the Extended...
Abell 2744
X-rays, dark matter and galaxies in the cluster Abell 2744
This image combines visible light exposures of galaxy cluster Abell 2744 taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, with X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and a mathematical reconstruction of the location of dark...
LAB-1
Giant space blob glows from within
This image shows one of the largest known single objects in the Universe, the Lyman-alpha blob LAB-1. This picture is a composite of two different images taken with the FORS instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) — a wider image showing the surrounding galaxies and a much deeper...
NGC 3521
Wide-field view of the sky around NGC 3521
This visible light wide-field image of the region around NGC 3521 was created from photographs taken through blue, red and infrared filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The galaxy appears close to the centre. The field of view is approximately 2.9 degrees across.
CFBDSIR 1458+10
Wide-field view of the sky around the brown dwarf binary CFBDSIR 1458+10
This visible light wide-field image of the region around the brown dwarf binary CFBDSIR 1458+10 was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The very cool brown dwarf double lies at the centre of the picture, but is too faint in...
LAB-1
Wide-field view of the sky around a giant space blob
This visible-light wide-field image of the region around the giant Lyman-alpha blob LAB1 was created from photographs taken through blue and red filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The blob itself lies at the centre of the image but, despite being huge and very ...
NGC 3166
Wide-field view of the sky around NGC 3169 and NGC 3166
This visible-light wide-field image of the region around NGC 3169 and NGC 3166 was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The disturbed galactic pair appears close to the centre and several other galaxies are visible in the...
NGC 3582
Wide-field view of the sky around NGC 3582
This visible light wide-field image of the region around NGC 3582 was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The star formation region appears close to the centre and is just one part of a vast complex of gas and dust in the...
T Cha
A wide-field view of the sky around the young star T Cha (annotated)
This visible-light wide-field image of the region around the young star T Cha was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The star appears close to the centre. Some of the dust associated with this star-forming region is...
Messier 78
McNeil's Nebula in Messier 78
In these images we compare a colour picture of the Messier 78 region taken in 2006 with the 4-metre Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona (below) with a new image that was captured using the Wide Field Imager camera on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory, Chile (above)....
NGC 2442
Hubble image of the Meathook galaxy
This close-up Hubble view of the Meathook Galaxy (NGC 2442) focuses on the more compact of its two asymmetric spiral arms as well as the central regions. The spiral arm was the location of a supernova that exploded in 1999. These observations were made in 2006 in order to study the aftermath of...
CL J1449+0856
The most remote mature cluster of galaxies yet found
This image is a composite of very long exposures taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile and the NAOJ’s Subaru telescope on Hawaii. Most of the visible objects are very faint and distant galaxies. The clump of faint red objects to the right of centre is the most remote mature cluster of...
Large Magellanic Cloud
The brilliant star VFTS 682 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
This view shows part of the very active star-forming region around the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighbour of the Milky Way. At the exact centre lies the brilliant but isolated star VFTS 682 and to its lower right the very rich star cluster R 136. The origins of...
SDSS J102915+172927
Wide-field view of the sky around the remarkable star SDSS J102915+172927
This visible light wide-field image of the region around SDSS J102915+172927 was created from photographs taken through blue, red and infrared filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The star is faint and appears very close to the centre. The field of view is approximately...
CFBDSIR 1458+10
The brown dwarf binary CFBDSIR 1458+10
This image of the brown dwarf binary CFBDSIR 1458+10 was obtained using the Laser Guide Star (LGS) Adaptive Optics system on the Keck II Telescope in Hawaii. Adaptive optics cancels out much of Earth’s atmospheric interference, improving the image sharpness by a factor of ten and enabling the...
NGC 1365
Comparison of visible-light and infrared images of the galaxy NGC 1365
This comparison shows a visible-light image of the barred spiral NGC 1365 taken with the FORS1 camera on ESO’s VLT, along with the new infrared view obtained with the HAWK-I camera. In the infrared the dust in the galaxy is much less prominent and the new data is ideal for studying the complex...
M 107
The globular star cluster Messier 107
The globular cluster Messier 107, also known as NGC 6171, is located about 21 000 light-years away in the constellation of Ophiuchus. Messier 107 is about 13 arcminutes across, which corresponds to about 80 light-years at its distance. As is typical of globular clusters, a population of...
ClG J1449+0856
Hubble infrared image of the most remote mature cluster of galaxies yet found
This image from the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) onboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows CG J1449+0856, the most distant mature cluster of galaxies found. The image was taken in infrared light, with colour data added from ESO’s Very Large Telescope and...
NGC 371
The star cluster and nebula NGC 371
This picture of the star cluster and surrounding nebula NGC 371 was taken using the FORS1 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. NGC 371 lies in the Small Magellanic Cloud, one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way.
NGC 1300
HAWK-I image of NGC 1300
This image is of NGC 1300, a spiral galaxy with arms extending from the ends of a spectacularly prominent central bar. It is considered a prototypical example of barred spiral galaxies and lies at a distance of about 65 million light-years, in the constellation of Eridanus (the River). The...
COSMOS Field
Wide-field view of the COSMOS field
This visible-light wide-field image of the region around the COSMOS field was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The extent of the COSMOS field, one of the most studied parts of the sky with telescopes on the ground...
Lagoon Nebula
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 colour picture was created from images taken through J, H and Ks near-infrared filters, and which were acquired as part...
NGC 3621
Wide Field Imager view of the spiral galaxy NGC 3621
This picture of the spiral galaxy NGC 3621 was taken using the Wide Field Imager (WFI) at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. NGC 3621 is about 22 million light-years away in the constellation of Hydra (The Sea Snake). It is comparatively bright and can be well seen in moderate-sized...
Westerlund 1
Wide Field Imager image of Westerlund 1 (annotated)
This image of the young star cluster Westerlund 1 was taken with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. This remarkable cluster contains hundreds of very massive stars, some shining with a brilliance of almost one million suns. Although...
NGC 247
Wide-field view of the sky around NGC 247
This visible light wide-field image of the region around NGC 247 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 2.8 degrees across.
Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS 2)
Wide-field view of the sky around NGC 1929
This visible-light wide-field image of the area around the star-forming region LHA 120–N 44 surrounding the cluster NGC 1929, was created from photographs taken through red and blue filters and forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The superbubble appears close to the centre and several...
Westerlund 1
The star cluster Westerlund 1
This image of the young star cluster Westerlund 1 was taken with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. Although most stars in the cluster are hot blue supergiants, they appear reddish in this image as they are seen through interstellar...
NGC 4030
HAWK-I image of NGC 4030
This spiral galaxy, NGC 4030, lies about 75 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Virgo. In 2007 Takao Doi, a Japanese astronaut who doubles as an amateur astronomer, spotted a supernova — a stellar explosion that is briefly almost as bright as its host galaxy — going off in...
NGC 5139
The globular cluster Omega Centauri*
The globular cluster Omega Centauri — with as many as ten million stars — is seen in all its splendour in this image captured with the WFI camera from ESO's La Silla Observatory. The image shows only the central part of the cluster — about the size of the full moon on the sky (half a degree)....
HD 10180
Close-up view of the sky around the star HD 10180
This image shows a close-up of the sky around the star HD 10180. 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 eleven arcminutes across. The blue and orange halos around the star,...
RY Sagittarii
Clouds around RY Sagittarii
Images of the star RY Sagittarii, member of the class of R Coronae Borealis stars, obtained with the NACO instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope at two different epochs and at two different wavelengths. The left image was obtained on 24 May 2003 at a wavelength of 2.2 microns, and the right...
N214C
The LMC HII region N214C
Zoom-in on the LMC H II region N214C. The field size is 193"x 201" corresponding to roughly 160 x 170 light-years. The brightest object, situated toward the middle of the nebula, is the Sk-71 51 cluster. The striking compact H II blob lies ~ 60" (~ 50 light-years) north of Sk-71 51.
Titan
Evolution of the atmosphere of Titan
Image of Titan's atmosphere at 2.12 microns as observed with NACO on the VLT at three different epochs from 2002 till now. Titan's atmosphere exhibits seasonal and meteorological changes which can clearly be seen here : the North-South asymmetry - indicative of changes in the chemical...
NGC 7424
Magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 7424
Composite colour-coded image of another magnificent spiral galaxy, NGC 7424, at a distance of 40 million light-years. It is based on images obtained with the multi-mode VIMOS instrument on the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) in three different wavelength bands. The image covers 6.5 x 7.2 square...
Messier 17
Stellar cluster and star-forming region M 17
Three-colour composite of the sky region of M 17, a H II region excited by a cluster of young, hot stars. A large silhouette disc has been found to the south-west of the cluster centre. The present image was obtained with the ISAAC near-infrared instrument at the 8.2-m VLT ANTU telescope at...
Large Magellanic Cloud
N44 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (central region)
The centre of the associated nebular complex N44 in the Large Magellanic Cloud in more detail. The field size is 8.5 x 8.5 square arcminutes. North is up and East is left.
Centaurus A
Centaurus A – Field 2 (detail)
Zoomed-in area within "Field 2" (Halo) in Centaurus A, from the ISAAC colour image. Nearly all red stars in this area are of the variable Mira-type.
Centaurus A
Centaurus A – Field 1 (shell)
Colour composite of "Field 1" (around the jet) in the peculiar galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128), based on exposures through three near-infrared filters (the J-, H- and K-bands at wavelengths 1.2, 1.6 and 2.2 µm, respectively) with the ISAAC multi-mode instrument at the 8.2-m VLT ANTU telescope...
Centaurus A
Centaurus A – Field 2 (halo)
High-resolution, very deep colour image of a field in the South of the Centaurus A galaxy halo. This image was taken in July 1999 through U- and V-band optical filters with the VLT FORS1 multi-mode instrument at the 8.2-m VLT ANTU telescope on Paranal. Note the great variety of object types...
NGC 613
NGC 613
This image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 613 was obtained with the FORS1 and FORS2 multi-mode instruments (at VLT MELIPAL and YEPUN, respectively) on December 16-18, 2001. It is a composite of three exposures in different wavebands, cf. the technical note below. The full-resolution version...
Eta Carinae
K-band image of the unstable star Eta Carinae
Eta Carinae is one of the heaviest and most luminous stars known. Its mass probably exceeds 100 solar masses, and the star is about 4 million times brighter than the Sun. Such a massive star has a comparatively short lifetime of about 1 million years; when measured in the cosmic timescale,...
Milky Way Galactic Centre
K-band image of the Galactic Centre
K-band image of the central 6 x 13 square arcsec around the Galactic Centre obtained by MACAO-VLTI under average atmospheric conditions (0.8 arcsec seeing) with an exposure time of 90 seconds. Although the 14.6 magnitude guide star is located roughly 20 arcsec from the field centre - this...
HIC 59206
The star HIC 59206 (uncorrected image)
This image was obtained by the first MACAO-VLTI system at the 8.2-m VLT KUEYEN telescope in the infrared K-band (wavelength 2.2 µm). It displays images of the star HIC 59206 (visual magnitude 10) obtained before the adaptive optics system was switched on. Without the adaptive optics, it is...
HIC 69495
The star HIC 69495 (AO corrected image)
One of the best images obtained with MACAO-VLTI (logarithmic intensity scale). The seeing was 0.8 arcsec at the time of the observations and three diffraction rings can clearly be seen around the star HIC 69495 of visual magnitude 9.9. This pattern is only well visible when the image resolution...
Frosty Leo
K-band image of the peculiar star "Frosty Leo"
Frosty Leo is a magnitude 11 (post-AGB) star surrounded by an envelope of gas, dust, and large amounts of ice (hence the name). The associated nebula is of "butterfly" shape (bipolar morphology) and it is one of the best known examples of the brief transitional phase between two late...
OGLE-TR-3
Spectrum of OGLE-TR-3
The chart displays a small portion of a high-dispersion spectrum of OGLE-TR-3, obtained with the UVES spectrograph at the 8.2-m VLT KUEYEN telescope at the Paranal Observatory (Chile). It is divided into five adjacent wavelength intervals and represents the mean of ten 1-hour spectral...
HIC 59206
The star HIC 59206 (AO corrected image)
This is the first image obtained by the first MACAO-VLTI system at the 8.2-m VLT KUEYEN telescope in the infrared K-band (wavelength 2.2 µm). It displays images of the star HIC 59206 (visual magnitude 10) obtained after the adaptive optics system was switched on, allowing the two stars to be...
HD100623
High-resolution spectrum of the star HD100623 (raw)
A HARPS untreated ("raw") exposure of the star HD100623, of the comparatively cool stellar spectral type K0V. The frame shows the complete image as recorded with the 4000 x 4000 pixel CCD detector in the focal plane of the spectrograph. The horizontal white lines correspond to the stellar...
30 Doradus
In Tarantula territory (g)
Colour composite image of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and its surroundings. It displays numerous "fingers" of dark material, lanes of cold gas and dust, that still hold out against the strong stellar winds in this area, SE of the centre of the Tarantula Nebula.
Eagle Nebula
The ISAAC infrared images of Messier 16
This shows a zoom into the centre of ESO Press Photo eso0142a, with the infrared view of the columns and their immediate surroundings in more detail. The pillars or columns are numbered 1 to 3 from left to right (east to west). The pillars themselves are less prominent than on the Hubble...
Barnard 33
The Horsehead Nebula
An enlargement of a smaller area. Technical information about these photos is available below. This is an enlargement of a smaller area, measuring 3.8 x 4.1 arcmin 2 . North is to the left and east is down (the usual orientation for showing this object). The frames were recorded with a TK2048...
GJ 263
Separation of a very close double star
The image shows a NAOS-CONICA image of the double star GJ 263 for which the angular distance between the two components is only 0.030 arcsec . The raw image, as directly recorded by CONICA, is shown in the middle, with a computer-processed (using the ONERA MISTRAL myopic deconvolution...
Barnard 33
The Horsehead Nebula*
A reproduction of a composite colour image of the Horsehead Nebula and its immediate surroundings. It is based on three exposures in the visual part of the spectrum with the FORS2 multi-mode instrument at the 8.2-m KUEYEN telescope, part of ESO's Very Large Telescope, at Paranal. It was...
Comet Hale-Bopp
Comet Hale-Bopp
Image of the comet Hale Bopp that has been enhanced to show these faintest parts better. The frames on which this photo is based were obtained during three nights (February 27-March 2, 2001). As the comet moved in the meantime, there are several images of each star in the field — they appear...
Capodimonte Deep Field
Galaxy cluster in the Capodimonte Deep Field
This is an enlargement of a galaxy cluster of the Capodimonte Deep Field, which most members are located in the north-east quadrant (upper left) and have a reddish colour. The nebulous object to the upper left is a dwarf galaxy of spheroidal shape. The red object, located near the centre of the...
IRAS 16362-4845
Infrared wide angle view of RCW 108
Image showing a unique, wide-field infrared view of the region around IRAS 16362-4845, an "emission" nebula that shines by its own light. It is situated within a dark cloud in a Milky Way region (the "RCW 108 complex") at a distance of about 4,000 light-years in the direction of the Southern...
NGC 6752
Spectra of dwarf stars in NGC 6752
A series of spectra of dwarf stars in the globular cluster NGC 6752, obtained with the UVES high-dispersion spectrograph at the 8.2-m VLT KUEYEN telescope. Sodium (Na) and Oxygen (O) lines are marked, and the spectra are arranged according to the strength of the Sodium lines, with the...
PKS 1232+0815
Spectrum of quasar PKS 1232+0815 with neutral carbon lines at z=2.34
A small part of the spectrum of the distant quasar PKS 1232+0815, as obtained with the UVES spectrograph at the 8.2-m VLT KUEYEN telescope at Paranal. Some carbon absorption lines from an intervening cloud are identified, that are sensitive to the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR)....
Dark Matter
Cosmic shear in sky field with galaxy cluster
The image shows an example of the mapping of the dark mass distribution in one of the 50 sky fields observed with the VLT and FORS1. To the left is the original image, a 36-min exposure in a near-infrared wavelength band. To the right is the reconstructed map of the mass (a "mass photo") in...
M 83
Messier 83 – central region
This image of a well-known spiral galaxy, Messier 83, was prepared by superposing three CCD frames from this data release that are now available in the archive. This galaxy is located in the southern constellation Hydra (The Water-Snake) and is also known as NGC 5236; the distance is about 15...
Crab Pulsar
Time sequence of Crab pulsar
In this image, the continuous lines in the top and bottom half are produced by normal stars of constant brightness, while the series of dots represents the individual pulses of the Crab pulsar, one every 33 milliseconds (i.e. the neutron star rotates around its axis 30 times per second). It is...
NGC 4945
Spiral galaxy NGC 4945
This photograph shows a sky field around the spiral galaxy NGC 4945 . It is assembled from five 15-minute R(ed)-narrowband (shown in red), four 5-minute B(lue)-band (shown in green), and five 1000-second U(ltraviolet)-band (shown in blue) exposures, obtained in January 1999 during the Science...
NGC 1232
(UV-B) colour index in NGC 1232
This is a computer processed "(U-B) colour-index image" of NGC 1232. This technique allows to show the "difference" between images of the galaxy, as seen in different wavebands. Since different types of objects have different brightness in different colours, this method is very useful to locate...
NGC 2997
Spiral galaxy NGC 2997 I-Band-0.25 arcsec
A reproduction of the sharpest image obtained so far with the VLT UT1 with image quality 0.25 arcsec FWHM. 5 min exposure in I-band.
