Without them, the ELT simply would not function! We are talking about the ELT's giant Pre-Focal Stations. Currently undergoing final tests, they will guide the light collected by the telescope to the scientific instruments that will analyse it. More: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWCB... 🔭 🧪

Nuzzled in the constellation Virgo lies a cosmic gem — the galaxy Messier 61. This galaxy is a bustling hub of activity with a rapid rate of star formation. It hosts a nuclear star cluster and a supermassive black hole at its heart. Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1901a/ 🔭 📷 ESO

1/ Fly with us through the #MilkyWay 🚀 We're exploring the Central Molecular Zone, where ALMA captured a complex network of cosmic gas filaments. This is the largest image ever taken. Discover more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2603/ 🔭 🧪

Ready to travel 75 million light-years? Our destination is the Kinman Dwarf Galaxy. A few years ago, a star in it disappeared. The end of the video shows an artistic animation of what the star could have looked like before it vanished.  Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2010/ 🔭

Largest image of its kind shows hidden chemistry at the heart of the Milky Way! ALMA has obtained a unique view of the cold gas within the Central Molecular Zone of the #MilkyWay, helping us probe the lives of stars in this extreme region. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2603/ 🔭 🧪

This richly detailed image of the Lagoon Nebula was captured by the VST at our Paranal Observatory. A giant cloud of gas and dust, this nebula is creating bright young stars, and is home to young stellar clusters. Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1403a/ 🔭 #flashback

Two's company ⭐️⭐️ Just like we humans are strongly influenced by the presence of companions over the course of our lives, so are stars, literally. The pair of points at the centre of this image, taken with our VLT, are an old stellar couple known as AFGL 4106.  🔭 🧪

#TourESO 📹🔴 Ready? Our next virtual tour of the La Silla Observatory will start in 5 minutes! ⏱️ Streamed here https://www.youtube.com/user/ESOobservatory/   📷 R. Wesson/ESO

We often hear news about habitable #exoplanets, but what does "habitable" actually mean? Is an "Earth-like" planet truly like the Earth? In our latest ESO blog we clarify some of the confusion around these terms. Check it out! www.eso.org/public/blog/... 🔭 🧪

Located 13 million light-years away, NGC 253 is one of the brightest and dustiest spiral galaxies in the sky. It hosts several stellar nurseries and because of this intense star formation activity, it is known as a starburst galaxy. Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0902/ 🔭 📷 ESO

Follow this journey deep into the cosmos, and you’ll encounter a butterfly at the end 🦋 Not an ordinary one, though. It's actually the planetary nebula NGC 2899. A giant bubble of gas, it extends up to two light-years from its centre. Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2012/ 🔭

Congratulations, Babak Tafreshi, for being named National Geographic Explorer at Large! 👏 news.nationalgeographic.org/national-geo... Babak is author of many amazing pics of our observatories 🧵👇 Image 1: Sunset over the VLT 🔭 #flashback

In this image captured at Paranal, one of the Auxiliary Telescopes of our VLT is still asleep, with its spherical dome closed.  But overhead, the night is wide awake and the #milkyway is putting on a stunning show! Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2607a/ 🔭 🧪 📷 A. Trigo/ESO

A growing heart! 💖 Just in time for #ValentineDay and using our VLT & ALMA, astronomers led by Chalmers University uncovered two expanding heart-shaped clouds. Swipe through the images to see this cosmic heart grow! https://www.chalmers.se/en/current/news/see-heart-shaped-cosmic-lighthouse/ 🔭 🧪

The Trifid Nebula is a favourite of astronomers, and this image shows just why. So named for the dust bands that trisect its glowing heart, the nebula is a rare combination of three nebula types, revealing the fury of freshly formed stars. More: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0930/ 🔭 📷 ESO

Fly with us to the early Universe to visit the cosmic “spider’s web” 🚀 🕸️ Made of gas and extending to over 300 times the size of the Milky Way, this web surrounds a supermassive black hole, with six galaxies embedded within its filaments. Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2016/ 🔭

1/ On this International Day of #WomenAndGirlsInScience, the European Interferometry Initiative shares the stories of the brilliant women exploring the cosmos with optical/infrared interferometric techniques at ESO & other organisations. european-interferometry.eu/a/?loose=14&... 🔭 🧪 #WomenInSTEM

1/ Today, on the International Day of #WomenInScience, we celebrate all the brilliant women at ESO and beyond for their outstanding work 👩‍🔬 👏 Paula Sánchez Sáez is one of them. She works as User Support Astronomer, helping VLT users prepare their observations. 👇 🔭 🧪 #WomenInSTEM #IDWGS

1/ Happy International Day of #WomenAndGirlsInScience! To mark the occasion, women from across the @eiroforum.org organisations, including ESO, shared one piece of advice that helped them in their professional journeys 👇 Discover more: www.eiroforum.org/news/eirofor...

Update on the post below: in a letter sent to Chile's Environmental Assessment Service on 6 February, AES Andes requested the withdrawal of INNA from evaluation. This formally confirms that INNA is not going ahead. 🔭 🧪

Our VLT is softly illuminated by the Sun as it sets in the evening sky. On an adjacent peak towards the right of the frame, the 4.1-metre VISTA stands apart, cutting a more solitary figure. Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1535a/ 🔭 #flashback 📷 G.Hüdepohl (atacamaphoto.com )/ESO

The full scope of Paranal’s beauty 🤩 Until recently, only one of our four 8-m telescopes was equipped with lasers. But now one additional laser has been installed in each of the other three.   Why? Find out: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2606a/ 🔭 🧪 📷 A. Trigo/ESO

#TourESO 📹🔴 Just 5 minutes until our next virtual tour of the Paranal Observatory begins, get ready! Streamed here https://www.youtube.com/user/ESOobservatory/   📷 Y. Beletsky (LCO)/ESO

Dorothee Bär (German Minister of Research, Technology and Space), Markus Blume (Bavarian Minister for Science and the Arts) & Thomas Reiter (Director General Space and Security, German Ministry of Research) visited Paranal: https://www.eso.org/public/announcements/annlang26002-es-cl/?nolang 🔭 🧪

Meet the ELT coating machine! Aside from its main mirror, the other ELT mirrors will be removed every two years for a new reflective coating. And the machine designed to carry out this delicate task is undergoing testing. Discover it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lST... 🔭 🧪 #instrumentation

A feast for the eyes 🤩 This gorgeous starscape is a vista of the Lagoon Nebula. See the dark patches scattered all over it? They're huge, collapsing clouds of gas and dust that will soon give birth to clusters of young stars. Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0936/  🔭 📷 ESO

Today, our journey leads us to a galaxy 215 million light-years away. A few years ago, astronomers observed a rare blast of light there. It was the telltale sign that one of the galaxy’s stars had been torn apart by a supermassive black hole. More: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2018/ 🔭

At the very heart of the Orion Nebula we find the Trapezium, a group of four very hot stars. They are the brightest of an extended cluster of several thousand young stars, many of which lie unseen within the opaque gas and dust: www.eso.org/public/image... 🔭 #flashback

AES Andes announced that it will step back from the project INNA, planned near our Paranal Observatory. We welcome this and expect the project to be withdrawn from Chile's Environmental Assessment Service soon, which would formally confirm the cancelation: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2602 🔭 🧪

#ESOjobs We are inviting students from European and Chilean Universities in their career's last period to participate in the Winter Internship 2026 programme at Paranal. The deadline to apply is 28 February 2026. Details: https://recruitment.eso.org/ 📷 ESO/G.Hüdepohl (atacamaphoto.com)

Exclusive view into the heart of the ELT! 👀 This image captures the interior of our ELT, under construction in Chile's Atacama Desert. The main structure shown here will host the ELT’s five mirrors. Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2605a/ 🔭 🧪 📷 ESO/J. C. Muñoz-Mateos

We signed the agreement for the construction of BlueMUSE, a new instrument for our VLT ✍️ Anticipated to see first-light in 2034, it will enable detailed observations within our galaxy and help study the distant Universe. https://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann26001 🔭 🧪 #instrumentation 📷 ESO

In NGC 6729, very young stars have dramatic effects on the dust & gas from which they were born.   Located on the upper left side, the hidden stars eject material that is crashing into the surroundings at speeds as high as one million kilometres per hour: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1109/ 🔭

Astrophotographers, the countdown is on! 📸⏳ You have until 4 May to submit your best images to this year's edition of AstroCamera — the #astrophotography competition organised by the Hevelianum science centre in Gdańsk, Poland, with honorary patronage from ESO.  ℹ️ https://www.astrocamera.pl/en 🔭

Today's journey carries you to the Skull Nebula. This eerie object formed when a Sun-like star expelled its outer layers in its old age, leaving behind its naked core — a white dwarf — one of two stars that can be seen at its very centre. Read more: www.eso.org/public/news/... 🔭

Dive into this ultra-detailed image of the Sculptor Galaxy! Based on observations made with our VLT, it was created by stitching together over 100 exposures, covering an area about 65 000 light-years wide. Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2510b/ 🔭 #flashback 📷 ESO/E. Congiu et al.

Meet Ve 7–27. Long believed to be a planetary nebula — the end phase of a sun-like star’s life, it turned out to actually be a still-forming baby star thanks to our VLT. Discover more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2604a/ 🔭 🧪 📷 ESO/J. Suherli et al.

#TourESO 📹🔴 The countdown is on: just 5 minutes until our next virtual tour of the La Silla Observatory kicks off! ⌛️ Get ready to explore! Streamed here: https://www.youtube.com/user/ESOobservatory/   📷 Y. Beletsky (LCO)/ESO

A jumble of exotic stars ✨ This is 47 Tucanae, an ancient globular cluster located about 15,000 light-years away from us. It contains millions of stars, and there are many nestled at its core that display unusual properties. Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1302/ 🔭

Zoom in from a wide-field view of the sky around quasar P172+18 on the object itself. Artist's impressions of the host galaxy, the bubble of ionised gas around, and of the quasar and its radio jets are seen in this sequence. Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2103/ 🔭

#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

Dust gradually accumulates on the VLT mirrors. So, every 18 months, they are removed from the telescope, taken down the mountain to the recoating facility, and cleaned. One mirror arrives at the recoating plant 👇 https://www.eso.org/public/images/max_v313949s/  🔭 #flashback

Not all rings are forged in fantasy, my precious!  For astronomers, they are found in space. This image shows debris discs captured by ALMA around stars. The two at the top-right told astronomers something very interesting. Find out what here: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2603a/ 🔭 🧪

Today’s trip takes us to a dead star that is puzzling astronomers 🚀 Our VLT discovered that this object is creating a particular type of shock wave as it interacts with the interstellar material. Yet no known mechanisms can fully explain this 😲 https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2601/ 🔭 🧪

It's likely that the Sun formed in a similar star formation region like this one featured here. On the left, Lupus 3 is a dark cloud where new stars are forming. On the right, stars that have already emerged from their dusty stellar nursery. More: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1303/ 🔭

Visit the supermassive #BlackHole at the centre of the M87 galaxy. At the end of this video, you will see the first ever image of a black hole, released in 2019, followed by an image released in 2021 showing how this object looks in polarised light.  https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2105/ 🔭

ICYMI, our VLT has discovered a mysterious type of shock wave originating from the interaction between a dead star and the surrounding interstellar gas. This shock wave can’t be explained by any known mechanism. Video summary 🎥 👇 Full story: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2601/ 🔭 🧪 ☄️

The interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS has been stealing the spotlight lately. But it’s not the only comet capable of putting on a show!  Here you see C/2024 G3 (ATLAS), above Paranal early last year. https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2505d/  📷 Y. Beletsky (LCO)/ESO #flashback 🔭

#ESOjobs We are looking for Science Communication interns in Garching. As this is a rolling position, there is no application deadline. Details: https://recruitment.eso.org/ Follow our LinkedIn page for career opportunities at ESO: http://www.linkedin.com/company/european-southern-observatory

Astronomers surprised by mysterious shock wave around dead star 😲 No known mechanism can fully explain our VLT's observations of the type of shock wave — called a bow shock — that a white dwarf originates as it interacts with the interstellar gas. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2601/ 🔭 🧪