Press Releases

10 January 2003: The combined efforts of three European teams of astronomers, targeting the same sky field in the southern constellation Fornax (The Oven) have enabled them to construct a very deep, true-colour image - opening an exceptionally clear view towards the distant universe. The image ( PR Photo 02a/03 ) covers an area somewhat larger than the full moon. It displays more than 100,000 galaxies, several thousand stars and hundreds of quasars. It is based on images with a total exposure time of nearly 50 hours, collected under good observing conditions with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2m telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory (Chile) - many of them extracted from the ESO Science Data Archive.

7 August 2002: A series of wide-field images centred on the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 300 , obtained with the Wide-Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at the La Silla Observatory, have been combined into a magnificent colour photo. These images have been used by different groups of astronomers for various kinds of scientific investigations, ranging from individual stars and nebulae in NGC 300, to distant galaxies and other objects in the background. This material provides an interesting demonstration of the multiple use of astronomical data, now facilitated by the establishment of extensively documented data archives, like the ESO Science Data Archive that now is growing rapidly and already contains over 15 Terabyte. Based on the concept of Astronomical Virtual Observatories (AVOs) , the use of archival data sets is on the rise and provides a large number of scientists with excellent opportunities for front-line investigations without having to wait for precious observing time. In addition to presenting a magnificent astronomical photo, the present account also illustrates this important new tool of the modern science of astronomy and astrophysics.

7 June 2002: The largest emission nebula in the sky, the Tarantula Nebula (also known as NGC 2070 or 30 Doradus) is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one of the satellite galaxies to our own Milky Way system. Seen far down in the southern sky at a distance of about 170,000 light-years, this beautiful nebula measures more than 1000 light-years across and extends over more than one third of a degree, almost, but not quite the size of the full moon. It received its descriptive name because of the unusual shape.

23 August 2001: Ceres, the first asteroid (minor planet) to be discovered in the Solar System, has held the record as the largest known object of its kind for two centuries. However, recent observations at the European Southern Observatory with the world's first operational virtual telescope 'Astrovirtel' have determined that the newly discovered distant asteroid "2001 KX76" is significantly larger, with a diameter of 1200 km, possibly even 1400 km.

10 April 2001: The Osservatorio Astronomico Capodimonte Deep Field (OACDF) is a multi-colour imaging survey project that is opening a new window towards the distant universe. It is conducted with the ESO Wide Field Imager (WFI) , a 67-million pixel advanced camera attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory (Chile). As a pilot project at the Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte (OAC) [1], the OACDF aims at providing a large photometric database for deep extragalactic studies, with important by-products for galactic and planetary research. Moreover, it also serves to gather experience in the proper and efficient handling of very large data sets, preparing for the arrival of the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) with the 1 x 1 degree 2 OmegaCam facility.

13 March 2001: Important scientific advances often happen when complementary investigational techniques are brought together. In the present case, X-ray and optical/infrared observations with some of the world's foremost telescopes have provided the crucial information needed to solve a 40-year old cosmological riddle.

6 March 2001: ESO has released a new image of the famous comet Hale-Bopp, where the large nucleus of ice and dust is still seen glowing. This is very unusual since the comet is currently in a very cold place, between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus, almost 2000 million kilometres away from the Sun.

27 October 2000: A remarkable, wide-field infrared image allows to see in unprecedented detail the inner regions of RCW 108, a large complex of stars and nebulae in the southern Milky Way. It is one of the widest, "deepest" and most spectacular infrared astronomical images ever obtained of a starforming region. It is based on approx. 600 individual exposures with the SOFI multi-mode instrument on the ESO 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT) at the ESO La Silla Observatory (Chile).

26 October 2000: Four new moons have been discovered orbiting Saturn, raising the number to twenty-two. This means that Saturn is now the planet in the Solar System with most known satellites. The previous record holder, Uranus, has twenty-one known satellites. Two of the new objects were first seen with the Wide-Field Imager (WFI) camera at the ESO La Silla Observatory (Chile). They have diameters of 10 to 50 km, and calculations have shown that they are almost certainly small satellites (moons) that accompany Saturn on irregular orbits.

6 October 2000: The R Coronae Australis complex of young stars and interstellar gas clouds is one of the nearest star-forming regions, at a distance of approx. 500 light-years from the Sun. It is seen in the southern constellation of that name (The "Southern Crown"). Images of this sky area were recently obtained with the Wide Field Imager (WFI), a 67-million pixel digital camera that is installed at the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO Telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory.

4 August 2000: Two astronomers, both specialists in minor bodies in the solar system, have performed observations with ESO telescopes that provide important information about a small moon, recently discovered in orbit around the solar system's largest planet, Jupiter. Brett Gladman (of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and working at Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, France) and Hermann Boehnhardt (ESO-Paranal) obtained detailed data on the object S/1999 J 1, definitively confirming it as a natural satellite of Jupiter. Seventeen Jovian moons are now known.

10 April 2000: Astronomical data archives increasingly resemble virtual gold mines of information. A new project, known as ASTROVIRTEL aims to exploit these astronomical treasure troves by allowing scientists to use the archives as virtual telescopes.

17 February 2000: Working with the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory, a group of European astronomers [1] has just obtained one of the deepest looks into the distant Universe ever made by an optical telescope. These observations were carried out in the near-infrared spectral region and are part of an attempt to locate very distant galaxies that have so far escaped detection in the visual bands. The first results are very promising and some concentrations of galaxies at very large distances were uncovered.

21 December 1999: A main scientific application of wide-angle imaging in astronomy is the census and photometric and morphological classification (i.e. by colour and shape) of large quantities of celestial objects in order to identify sources of particular interest that warrant in-depth follow-up observations. This is normally done by means of spectroscopy, a basic observing technique that allows much more comprehensive physical diagnostics than does an image. However, detailed spectral observations requires the great light-collecting power of large telescopes such as the Very Large Telescope (VLT). In the past, many important classes of astronomical objects have been discovered by such survey work. Another central goal of wide-field imaging is the identification and characterisation of structures that extend over large sky areas, e.g., of the Milky Way in which we live, of comparatively nearby galaxies, and even of the Universe as a whole. The structure of astronomical objects reveals much about their history of formation which, because of the inherently very long ("astronomical") timescales, cannot be directly observed.

26 October 1999: The La Silla Observatory is located in the Chilean Atacama Desert, one of the driest and loneliest areas of the world. The land around this isolated peak was acquired in 1964 and following some years of construction work, the inauguration of ESO's first observatory took place just over 30 years ago, in March 1969. The solitude of this remote desert site is well illustrated by the above panorama, obtained in 1996.

22 June 1999: The Wide Field Imager (WFI) , a 67-million pixel digital camera at the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at the La Silla Observatory continues to produce remarkable images for astronomical research. At the same time, many of these are of great aesthetic value and provide impressive views into sky regions with unsual objects. Earlier this year, the WFI recorded a number of fields in the direction of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy, deep down in the southern sky. It is located at a distance of about 170,000 light-years and contains many nebulae and stellar clusters.Two colour composite photos of "H II regions" in the LMC are shown here, centred near N44 and N119 [1]. They are nebulae in which (some of) the gas is ionized, i.e. the atoms have lost one or more electrons by the action of energetic ultraviolet radiation emitted by very hot and luminous stars in this area. Both of these nebulae are seen in front of rich star fields in this galaxy in which there are also several stellar clusters.

18 May 1999: International teams of astronomers are now busy working on new and exciting data obtained during the last week with telescopes at the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Their object of study is the remnant of a mysterious cosmic explosion far out in space, first detected as a gigantic outburst of gamma rays on May 10. Gamma-Ray Bursters (GRBs) are brief flashes of very energetic radiation - they represent by far the most powerful type of explosion known in the Universe and their afterglow in optical light can be 10 million times brighter than the brightest supernovae [1]. The May 10 event ranks among the brightest one hundred of the over 2500 GRB's detected in the last decade.

30 April 1999: The new Wide-Field Imager (WFI) at the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at the La Silla observatory continues to obtain impressive images of the southern sky. Recently, a series of images were obtained of areas in the Milky Way band, including some in which interstellar nebulae of gas and dust are seen. Each frame records 8184 x 8196, or over 67 million, pixels in a sky field of 32 x 32 arcmin 2. The present photos show the RCW 108 complex of bright and dark nebulae in the southern association Ara OB1, a star-forming region in the constellation Ara (The Altar), deep in the southern sky.

26 March 1999: The portrait of NGC 4945 above adorns the centrefold of the most recent issue of the ESO Messenger (no. 95; March 1999). It provides another impressive demonstration of the observational capabilities of the new WFI Camera at the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at La Silla.

15 January 1999: The newest astronomical instrument at the La Silla observatory is a super-camera with no less than sixty-seven million image elements. It represents the outcome of a joint project between the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPI-A) in Heidelberg (Germany) and the Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte (OAC) near Naples (Italy), and was installed at the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope in December 1998. Following careful adjustment and testing, it has now produced the first spectacular test images.