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The laser beams of our Very Large Telescope pierce the star-filled sky of the Atacama Desert in

The lasers create artificial "stars" in the atmosphere, about 90 km above the ground, which then act as guides. By studying how they are blurred by the atmosphere, the telescope's deformable secondary mirror quickly reshapes itself in real time, yielding very sharp images. It’s almost as good as sending the VLT up into space!

Learn more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2516a/

📷 ESO/A. de Burgos Sierra

A large telescope stands in the centre of the image, against a backdrop of thousands of stars above a desert landscape. The Milky Way galaxy is visible behind the telescope, and the sky itself glows slightly green towards the horizon. From the very centre of the telescope, four bright orange laser beams are projected ahead into the night sky.

Some wildlife on the Chilean Atacama from a couple of weeks ago. The first, the Viscacha, looks remarkably like a cross between a rabbit and a squirrel but is actually a rodent and lives amongst the rocks. The second is the South American Gray Fox, or the Patagonian Fox, which is found solely in Chile and Argentina 🇨🇱

An image of a South American Gray Fox amongst some rocks and grass
An image of a rodent called the viscacha sat amongst some rocks.
An image of a rodent called the viscacha sat amongst some rocks.
An image of a South American Gray Fox walking amongst some rocks

A moving story behind a beautiful snapshot of C/2024 G3 ATLAS:

“We took the photograph while we were en route from northern to Santiago, travelling to attend the first workshop on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for the Chilean astronomical community at ESO-Vitacura. Little did we know that this journey would present us with a once-in-a-lifetime observational opportunity!

The flight was delayed, and as the plane ascended, the timing coincided perfectly with sunset. By pure coincidence, the window seat in our row was unoccupied, providing us an unobstructed view of the breathtaking landscape below. It was then that we noticed a faint but unmistakable glow in the sky: Comet C/2024 G3 Atlas!

Eager to share this spectacle, we informed the flight attendants, who promptly passed on the news to the pilots. They were as enthusiastic as us, and they made an announcement to the passengers, describing the …

A view from an airplane window during twilight, showing the wing silhouetted against the sky. A comet –a white elongated smudge– hovers above the horizon, surrounded by scattered stars. Below, faint city lights dot the dark landscape.

New laser-sharp vision for Paranal’s facilities! 😎

In this image, you see the first of nine new lasers that are being built for our Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), currently under construction, and Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), both located at Paranal in

The laser projection systems are being built in the Netherlands, and the first one has now successfully passed a review by our engineers ✅ 🎉

🤔 But why do telescopes need lasers? They excite sodium atoms high up in the atmosphere, creating artificial "stars". By monitoring these "stars" we can measure and correct atmospheric turbulence in real time with a fast deformable mirror, obtaining very sharp images!

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2503a/

📷 ESO/TNO/Demcon/Fred Kamphues

At the centre of the image, a big square machine is standing, its top part a closed grey box, containing a laser, resting on top of an illuminated network of intricate machinery. It is standing on a yellow slider. To the right of the machine, a man wearing safety goggles and gloves is standing on a stepping ladder, installing a part on a big black vertical tube, as high as he is, attached to the back of the square machine. On top, the tube is glowing yellow.

The skies of Chile’s Atacama Desert, renowned as the darkest and clearest of the world, are now at risk from an industrial megaproject.

Electricity company AES Andes proposed to locate a large-scale industrial complex just a few kilometres away from our Paranal Observatory. If constructed, the resulting dust emissions, increased atmospheric turbulence, and especially light , would irreparably impact the capabilities for astronomical observation.

We urge the involved parties, specifically AES Andes, to work with the Government of to relocate this megaproject to a zone compatible with industrial development without jeopardising the skies of Paranal.

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2501/?lang

📷 ESO/P. Horálek

A view of the Milky Way arching across the night sky above the Atacama Desert in Chile. The foreground features the buildings of ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), with a person standing on a raised platform. A sign saying "skies at risk" is overlaid on the image.

ESO
(@)esoastronomy(@)astrodon.social

Hi ! We’re the European Southern Observatory, and we design, build and operate ground-based telescopes.

One of them is our Extremely Large Telescope, currently under construction in . It will have a 39 m mirror, and its rotating enclosure will weigh 6100 tonnes, or about 700 mastodons!

We’re looking forward to chatting with all of you about

📷 ESO/G. Vecchia