Fotografia da Semana

7 de Janeiro de 2008: Estas formações bizarras de gelo e neve chamadas “penitentes” formam-se em regiões de elevada altitude como por exemplo, a planície do Chajnantor, próximo de onde se situará a rede ALMA. São lâminas de gelo produzidas pela concorrência entre a sublimação e o derretimento da neve. No Chajnantor no solstício de verão o Sol encontra-se perto do zénite ao meio dia e por isso os penitentes formam-se verticalmente. Esta fotografia foi tirada em dezembro de 2005. Esta imagem está disponível de forma emoldurada na loja do ESO.

24 de Dezembro de 2007: Utilizando o Very Large Telescope do ESO, uma equipa internacional de astrónomos descobriu um caso raro de fusão tripla de galáxias. Este sistema, a que os astrónomos chamaram “O Pássaro” - embora na realidade se pareça com uma fada Sininho cósmica - é composto por dois galáxias em espiral de elevada massa e por uma terceira galáxia irregular.Nesta imagem combinou-se uma exposição de 30 minutos na banda K do instrumento NACO, montado no VLT, com imagens de arquivo nas bandas B e I, obtidas pelo instrumento ACS montado no HST, produzindo-se assim uma imagem a três cores do sistema de galáxias em interação do “Pássaro”. A imagem NACO permitiu aos astrónomos ver, não apenas as duas galáxias maiores previamente conhecidas, mas também identificar uma terceira componente claramente separada, uma galáxia irregular com massa relativamente elevada e que parece estar a formar estrelas a uma taxa bastante elevada.

17 de Dezembro de 2007: On 3 and 4 December 2007, the two ALMA antenna transporters, Otto and Lore, were being loaded onto a barge on the Neckar at Heilbronn harbour (Germany) to start their long journey to Chile. From there, they will travel to Antwerpen (Belgium) and then put onto a ship towards the port of Mejillones, in the north of Chile, to finally reach the ALMA base, close to San Pedro de Atacama. The ALMA antenna transporters are each 20 metre long, 10 metre wide and 6 metre high, and weigh 130 tonnes. They will be able to transport a 115-tonne antenna and set it down on a concrete pad within millimetres of a prescribed position. Image taken in December 2007.

10 de Dezembro de 2007: The first three Japanese ALMA antennas of the Atacama Compact Array (ACA) at the ALMA Operation Support Facility, located close to the town of San Pedro de Atacama in the Chilean Atacama Desert, at an altitude of 2900m. At the time of the picture, in November 2007, the antennas were undergoing final tests before being handed over to the ALMA Observatory. The 12-m antennas were built by MELCO for the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, one of the partners in the ALMA partnership.

1 de Dezembro de 2007: On 17 and 18 November 2007, the Regional Minister for Research of the Belgian French-speaking Community, Marie-Dominique Simonet, visited Paranal. This was part of a week-long visit to Brazil and Chile, in which the Minister promoted the 'Competitivity Poles' as well as Research and Education in this part of the world. The Minister was accompanied by a delegation comprising Claude Gonfroy and Jean-Luc Horward, members of her Cabinet, Jean-Pierre Swings, former member of the ESO Council, Claude Jamar from the Centre Spatial de Liėge, and Bill Collins, from the AMOS company which built the four Auxiliary Telescopes. Ten French-speaking Belgian journalists, including two TV crews, also joined the Minister for a day at Paranal. Felix Mirabel, ESO's Representative in Chile, Olivier Hainaut, Head of Science Operations at Paranal, and Ueli Weilenmann, were the hosts of the Minister. The Minister visited the telescopes and facilities on site and showed a clear ...

23 de Novembro de 2007: Twice per year, the sunset passes exactly behind Paranal for somebody located on the summit of Armazones mountain, 20 kilometres away. The dates and time when this happens were calculated using coordinates of both sites found on Google Earth and taking into account atmospheric effects. The picture clearly shows 3 of the 4 big 8.2-m Unit Telescope (UT) domes (the 4th one is behind the others) of ESO's Very Large Telescope, the VST enclosure on their right and the high meteorological post with the DIMM tower on the extreme right. On the left of the picture, the partially opened domes of the smaller 1.8-m Auxiliary Telescopes (AT) are also visible. The image was taken with a Takahashi FS128 refractor telescope, a Canon20Da camera and special Solar filters, by Stéphane Guisard (ESO). Please remember that looking at the Sun through an optical device (Camera, Telescope, Binoculars etc.) is VERY dangerous, and ...