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  It’s a new MOON(S)! Suspended here in darkness are two infrared cameras belonging to MOONS, a new instrument of our VLT that recently performed its first observations. 📷 L. Sbordone/ESO 1/3 #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

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  A bubbling Betelgeuse ⭐️ 🫧 Taken with ALMA, this is one of the most detailed views yet of the surface of the iconic star Betelgeuse. The star's surface is uneven and lumpy, with peaks and troughs originating from giant bubbles of hot gas rising from deep within the star to its surface. 1/2 📷 ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/W. Dent et al. #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

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  The night shift begins. At our Paranal Observatory, sunset does not mark the end of the day: it signals the beginning of a night under the stars. Taken after dinner, before heading to the telescopes for a night of observing, this image shows the last rays of sunlight slicing through one of the corridors at the Residencia — a home away from home for astronomers and other staff members. https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2632a/ 📷 L. Sbordone/ESO #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #s...

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  Unusual asteroid unmasked! 🪨 Using our VLT in Chile & the Large Binocular Telescope in the US, astronomers have resolved the shape of (44) Nysa, a peculiar asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. They revealed a structure unlike anything observed before! 📹 ESO/K. Minker et al. 1/2 #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

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  Total solar #eclipse loading ☀️🌕🌍 On 12 August, the #Moon will slip between the #Earth and the #Sun, turning day into night for up to a minute and a half along the path of totality. Get the gist with ESO fellow Mar Carretero Castrillo 🎬👇 1/4 #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science #solareclipse

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  The conclusion of a century-long quest 😲 Our VLT obtained firm evidence that Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star in the Orion constellation and one of the most famous stars in the night sky, is not alone! 1/4 📷 ESO/M. Montargès et al. Background: N. Rissinger (skysurvey.org) #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

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  That's no moon. It's a...hang on, what should we call it? 🤔 Our VLT has revealed evidence for a moon-like object in the CD-35 2722 system. Yet this new ‘exomoon’ detection is challenging cosmic labels! Illustration: ESO/M. Kornmesser #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science 1/4

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  The world’s biggest eye on the sky is taking shape 🤩 Watch a year and a half of progress unfold in this time-lapse of out Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) — now more than 75% complete! Since 2025, the telescope’s construction has seen important milestones, from the ELT's dome and main structure to off-site development of mirrors and instruments. Discover them: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/potw2629a/ #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science #engineering

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  Ten years of hide-and-seek! 🫣 Astronomers used our VLT to find a new #exoplanet orbiting the famous star Beta Pictoris — hiding in archival ESO observations spanning over a decade! And it's shier than any exoplanet we've imaged before. 1/3 📷 ESO/B. Sutlieff, M. Bonse et al. #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

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  Small but mighty! As the Sun sets, the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory opens its eye, preparing to peer beyond its shiny dome into the sky above. Don’t let its small size fool you! Though 2.2-metre may be modest by today’s standards, it still does a lot of excellent work. Discover what this telescope explores: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2628a/ 📷 L. Sbordone/ESO #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

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  ICYMI The 3I/ATLAS comet might be older than the Sun itself. Astronomers used our Very Large Telescope to study the composition of 3I/ATLAS, the brightest interstellar object ever spotted ☄️ They found that the comet likely originated in the outskirts of an old star system, indicating that it may be much older than the Sun. Read the full story: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2608/ and check out our video summary 🎥 👇 #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

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  Older than the Sun! ☀️ Using our Very Large Telescope, astronomers have studied in detail the composition of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS ☄️ The findings shine new light on the formation history of this comet, indicating that it may be much older than the Sun. 📷 ESO/O. Hainaut 1/3 🧵👇 #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

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  This is why we call it the Extremely Large Telescope! This photo shows the massive structure that will hold the main mirror of our ELT. It was taken when the construction reached an important milestone: for the first time, the telescope’s structure was rotated horizontally by a few centimetres... by hand! Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2627a/ 1/2 📷 ESO/Cimolai #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science #engineering

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  RE: https://mastodon.social/@esoastronomy/116844616500605008 We're thankful and overwhelmed by the positive support this has garnered! If you'd like a deeper dive on the threat of satellite constellations, check out our latest Chasing Starlight episode with Olivier Hainaut, ESO astronomer and author of the paper we featured yesterday, and Betty Kioko, ESO's Institutional Affairs Officer, who coordinated our response to the FCC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJNwAKSL17s #astrodon...

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  🚨 Beyond the limit 🚨 New ESO study finds that current proposals to launch 1.7+ million satellites into orbit would have devastating consequences for astronomy. The most extreme proposals come from SpaceX & Reflect Orbital 1/4 📷 F. Kamphues, ESO/M. Kornmesser #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science #environment #pollution

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  A gateway to the Milky Way? This road sign marks the entrance to ALMA, in #Chile 's Atacama Desert. ALMA studies light from the coldest corners of the Universe. But this radiation is absorbed by water vapour in Earth’s atmosphere. This is why ALMA is located in one of the driest and highest places on Earth, on the Chajnantor Plateau in the Andes, at an impressive altitude of 5000 metres. Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2626a/ 📷 J. Looten/ESO #astrodon #astronomy #astroph...

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  With its 39 m primary mirror, our Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will deliver incredibly sharp images of the Universe. How? Enter the M4, the fourth mirror in the ELT's optical path. This extremely thin levitating mirror will deform up to 1000 times per second, counteracting atmospheric turbulence in real time and yielding crisp images of astronomical objects. See it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h0QornZm9Y #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science #engineering

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  #Aurora over Europe! We're currently experiencing a strong geomagnetic storm, which caused a stunning auroral display all over Europe last night. This time-lapse was captured by our colleague Stefan Ströbele over our headquarters in Garching near Munich. 📹 S. Ströbele/ESO #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #astrophotography #space #science

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  Over 70% complete, our ELT is glowing in the #sunset light of the Atacama Desert in #Chile, surrounded by massive cranes hard at work to get this telescope up and running. With the first light planned for the end of the decade, the ELT and its groundbreaking 39-metre main mirror will take on some of the biggest challenges in #astronomy and, ultimately, help us understand our place in the #Universe. Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2617a/ 📷 ESO/G. Vecchia #astrodon #astrophys...

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  ALMA has mapped with unique detail how clouds in another galaxy break into smaller fragments out of which stars will form. The way this happens seems similar to what we see in clouds in our own galaxy. Could this mechanism be universal? More by INAF: http://www.inaf.it/en/inaf-news/alma-witnesses-star-birth-beyond-milky-way 📷 A. Traficante et al. #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

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  Our facilities at La Silla Observatory are on the road to being 100% run on renewables by the end of this year! #EarthDay2026 1/3

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  This isn't a scene from Star Wars. What you're looking at is the Tarantual Nebula, and those beams come from the lasers installed on the telescopes of our Very Large Telescope Interferometer in #Chile. They create artificial stars 90 km above the ground to correct atmospheric turbulence, allowing the VLTI to observe faint targets. But why are four telescopes observing the same target? Find out: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2616a/ 📷 A. Berdeu/ESO #astrodon #astronomy #astroph...

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  We spotted some of that #Moon joy! In the early morning of 9 April, ESO's New Technology Telescope turned its gaze to the sky above La Silla in #Chile and caught something special. Not a distant galaxy, nor a star cluster, but a streak of light with a very special story: NASA's Artemis II Orion spacecraft with a crew of four, returning from an epic journey around the Moon. 📷 ESO/I. Saviane #astrodon #astronomy #space #science

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  PoET is shining (sun)light on exoplanet research. The Paranal solar ESPRESSO Telescope (PoET), installed at our Paranal Observatory in #Chile, has made its first observations. PoET will study the #Sun to understand how the variation in light from stars like the Sun can mask the presence of planets orbiting them. This could help astronomers in their search for worlds outside the Solar System! Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2605/ 📷 ESO #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space...

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  Taxi, please! 🚖👋 ALMA consists of 66 antennas that work together like a single gigantic telescope in the Chilean Andes. They can be rearranged in different layouts to discern various levels of detail. This is where these yellow trucks come in. Each truck can carry a 100-tonne antenna and put it in place with a precision of a few millimetres! Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2615a/ 📷 S. Otarola/ESO #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

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  On the occasion of Chile’s Astronomy Day we will launch the first public night visit tours at our La Silla and Paranal observatories! This is the first programme of this kind in #Chile, an opportunity to enjoy the planet’s most pristine dark skies 🤩 🗓️ At least 8 dates per year 🎫 Free 🔭 First visit: Paranal on 21 March 🚌 Transportation from different cities in the Antofagasta & Coquimbo regions included https://www.eso.org/public/announcements/annlang26003-es-cl/ 📷 A. Trigo/ESO #astro...

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  A new solar system in the making? Last year, astronomers detected a newborn planet orbiting the star WISPIT 2. After another object was identified near the star, ESO’s Very Large Telescope and the VLT Interferometer confirmed that this was another planet. This is the second time that multiple planets have been directly observed forming around their host star. Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2604/ 📷 ESO/C. Lawlor, R. F. van Capelleveen et al. #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics...

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  These two orbs have little in common beyond their shape. The one farthest from the camera is our Moon, and the other is one of the three ExTrA telescopes at our La Silla Observatory in #Chile. What is ExTrA looking for? 👉 https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2613a/ 📷 L. Sbordone/ESO #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

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  Our ELT seen from space! ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot took this photo of our Extremely Large Telescope in #Chile from the International Space Station, from more than 400 km above the Earth's surface 👉 https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2614a/ Can you spot it? 📷 ESA/S. Adenot. CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

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  1/2 Astronomers surprised by mysterious shock wave around dead star 😲 As it moves and interacts with the interstellar gas, a white dwarf observed by our VLT creates a type of shock wave called a bow shock — a curved arc of material, similar to the wave that builds up in front of a ship. None of the known mechanisms can fully explain the observations. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2601/ 📷 ESO/K. Ilkiewicz and S. Scaringi et al. #astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science