Meeting the Milky Way

The road to ESO’s La Silla Observatory in the Chilean Atacama Desert appears to curve around the mountain and collide with the downward slope of the Milky Way in this Picture of the Week. Small yellow bulbs light up the road at regular intervals; it is prohibited to use headlights on these roads between dusk and dawn, as even dim lights can interfere significantly with telescope observations. The site enjoys some of the darkest night skies on Earth.

The darkness, high altitude, and resulting dry air at La Silla make it an exceptional location for astronomy. In the foreground of this image, the Danish 1.54-metre telescope is performing its nightly observations. Its instruments have allowed astronomers to achieve several “firsts”. In 2005, for example, astronomers observed the afterglows of short gamma-ray bursts and showed that the bursts are likely caused by the dramatic collision of two neutron stars, while in 2006 the telescope was part of a global network of telescopes that discovered an exoplanet just five times as massive as Earth.

A number of interesting objects populate the sky above the observatory. To the left, almost hidden behind the telescope, is the faint green glow of Comet 252P/LINEAR and, overhead, the tail of Scorpius curves into the glowing clouds of the Milky Way, keeping close company to Mars and Saturn. Further up the bright galactic band are two bright stars — the intriguing triple-star systems Alpha and Beta Centauri — and at the very top right of the image is the iconic diamond of the Southern Cross.

Credit:

About the Image

Id:potw2104a
Type:Photographic
Release date:25 January 2021, 06:00
Size:10055 x 10205 px

About the Object

Name:Danish 1.54-metre telescope, Milky Way
Type:Unspecified : Technology : Observatory : Telescope
Unspecified : Sky Phenomenon : Night Sky : Milky Way
Category:La Silla

Image Formats

Large JPEG
22.6 MB
Screensize JPEG
326.1 KB

Zoomable


Wallpapers

1024x768
248.2 KB
1280x1024
410.1 KB
1600x1200
601.9 KB
1920x1200
727.5 KB
2048x1536
964.9 KB