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The European Southern Observatory designs, builds & operates world-class observatories on the ground for the benefit of society 🇨🇱 @ESO_Chile
Garching, Germany
Joined August 2008
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📢 Breaking news: Meet the Black Hole at the Centre of our Galaxy! Astronomers have unveiled the 1st image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. The image was produced by a global research team
@ehtelescope
📷EHT Collaboration
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#BreakingNews
Astronomers capture first image of a
#BlackHole
!
@ESO
@ALMAObs
& APEX contributed to observations of gargantuan black hole at the heart of galaxy Messier 87.
#RealBlackHole
Web:
Press Release:
Credit: EHT Collaboration
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1/ Did you watch
#DontLookUp
by
@GhostPanther
? Fun fact: when Dr. Mindy is scribbling orbital equations on a whiteboard, that’s actually our own
@MichaelMarsset
, currently an
@ESO
fellow in Chile!
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1/ The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, who produced the first ever image of a black hole, have imaged the magnetic fields at the edge of M87’s black hole.
#RealBlackHole
#EHTblackhole
Credit:
@ehtelescope
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1/10 All eyes on
#Betelgeuse
these days. What’s happening to this well-known star in the constellation of
#Orion
?
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1/ Our jaws just dropped: check out this stunning image of the
#LunarEclipse2021
that our friend
@YBeletsky
shared with us, with the eclipsed Moon right above ESO's Paranal Observatory 🤩
Credit: Y. Beletsky (LCO)
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This 17-minute film explores the efforts that led to this historic
#RealBlackHole
image, from the science of Einstein and Schwarzschild to the struggles and successes of the
@ehtelescope
collaboration.
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🔵 Scientists had previously seen stars orbiting around something invisible, compact & very massive at the centre of the
#MilkyWay
. This suggested that this object is a black hole & today’s image provides the first direct visual evidence of it. Say hello to
#OurBlackHole
👋
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🔵 Because the black hole is about 27 000 light-years away from Earth, it appears to us to have about the same size in the sky as a doughnut on the Moon. Squint to see the 🍩 in this video 🎥 ESO/M. Kornmesser/L. Calçada
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ESO
#Flashback
🦋 This striking bubble of gas appears to float & flutter across the sky resembling a butterfly with its symmetrical structure, beautiful colours, and intricate patterns. Meet NGC 2899.
🔗
📷 ESO
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ESO
#Flashback
: Spectacular ribbons of gas and dust wrap around the pearly centre of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1398
🔗
Credit:
@ESO
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1K
This image of Centaurus A is a favourite of Elizabeth George, Detector Engineer at ESO, “because it shows the power of multi-wavelength astronomy.”
🔗
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Congrats to
@NASA
,
@ESA
and
@csa_asc
for this milestone! 🍾 These first
#JWST
images have left us speechless. Which one is your favourite?
The dawn of a new era in astronomy has begun as the world gets its first look at the full capabilities of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The telescope’s first full-colour images & spectroscopic data were released today. Read more here or👇
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ESO
#Flashback
: Enjoy this pair of overlapping spiral galaxies caught in a majestic cosmic dance. They are, in fact, not interacting at all, but only appear to overlap when viewed from Earth.
🔗
📷 ESO / Iodice et al.
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🔵 The two black holes look remarkably similar, even though our galaxy’s black hole is more than a thousand times smaller and less massive than M87*
📷 EHT collaboration (acknowledgment: Lia Medeiros, xkcd)
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With around 2 billion pixels this is one of the largest images we've ever released.
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1/ 📢
#BreakingNews
: astronomers have obtained a new image of the
#BlackHole
at the centre of the M87 galaxy. For the first time we see both the black hole's shadow and its powerful jet together in the same image.
📷 R.-S. Lu (SHAO), E. Ros (MPIfR), S. Dagnello (NRAO/AUI/NSF)
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ESO
#Flashback
: When conditions don't allow scientific observations to be made, observatory time is used for the ESO Cosmic Gems Programme, showcasing the beauty of the southern skies. This image is one example: the spiral galaxy NGC 3981.
🔗
Credit:
@ESO
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1K
3/10 Astronomers think the star is preparing to blow, going
#supernova
. Think cosmic time scales though. This artist’s impression shows
#Betelgeuse
shedding its material.
Credit:
@ESO
/L. Calçada
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ESO
#Flashback
: Look at this this cosmic scarlet canvas in the sky. It's more than it appears — it's a radiant, scorching bubble of hydrogen gas ⚛ known as Sh 2-305, being bombarded by the fierce radiation from proximate stars.
🔗
📷 ESO
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A cosmic train wreck! This is Tinker Bell triplet, revealing three galaxies merging. "The fascinating thing about mergers is that they are increasingly rare” says Kevin Harrington, ESO fellow, who chose this image as one of his favourites.
🔗
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#ESOCastLight
Supersharp images of
#Neptune
taken with the new
#VLT
Adaptive Optics
#BiteSizedAstronomy
#4K
#UHD
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2/10 Normally one of the brightest stars in the sky, it’s now fainter than ever before in recorded history.
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#ESOCastLight
Everything there is to know about the newborn planet caught with ESO'S Very Large Telescope
#BiteSizedAstronomy
#4K
#UHD
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ESO
#Flashback
: This image, taken with our Very Large Telescope
#VLT
, shows a magnificent face-on view of the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77, showcasing its glittering arms criss-crossed with dust lanes.
🔗
Credit:
@ESO
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ESO
#Flashback
: This cloud-strewn image of RCW 36 (or Gum 20) shows one of the sites of massive-star formation closest to our Solar System,
🔗
Credit:
@ESO
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1/ Hey
@coldplay
, is it too late for a duet on your upcoming album
#MusicOfTheSpheres
? We have a tip: the TOI-178 system which boasts six exoplanets. Five of them are locked in a rare rhythm as they move in their orbits, as illustrated in this video.
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#Proximab
is a little more massive than the Earth and is the closest exoplanet to us
#PaleRedDot
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#OTD
in 2008 we released the first direct image of exoplanet
#BetaPictoris
b, taken with the now retired NACO instrument at
#VLT
:
Many more "firsts" enabled by direct images of Beta Pictoris b followed, see below! 👇
📷 ESO/A.-M. Lagrange et al.
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🔵 We now have two images of black holes! Today's EHT achievement follows the collaboration’s 2019 release of the first image of a black hole, called M87*, at the centre of the more distant Messier 87 galaxy.
📷 EHT Collaboration
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9/10 Check out this graphic with the red giant, showing how large
#Betelgeuse
is compared to our Solar System
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ESO
#Flashback
: Eyes in the sky. This friendly-looking object is the result of two galaxies merging into one another, complete with a pair of eyes hiding two growing supermassive black holes and a swirling grin
🔗
📷 ESO / Tubín et al.
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1/ Happy anniversary, SN1987A! 35 years ago we saw a star go supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of our neighbouring galaxies. Can you find it in the before/after images below?
🔗
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Do you remember the Great Dimming Event of
#Betelgeuse
? Between 2019 & 2020, the red supergiant star visibly faded, and many thought that it was going supernova! 💥
In our image, however, Betelgeuse appears brighter during that time. Why is that? 👇 1/3
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ESO
#Flashback
: Can you spot the “Pillars of Creation” at the centre of this image?
🔗
Credit:
@ESO
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1/ Like in this image of the star Albireo with Starlink satellites, an increasing number of satellites will be detectable above all astronomical observatories.
#ProtectDarkSkies
Credit: Rafael Schmall
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La Silla 50th anniversary culminates with Total Solar Eclipse
#LaSillaTSE
, visitors from around the globe enjoying an outreach programme at ESO's first observatory.
#LaSillaTSE
#Eclipse2019
#2019Eclipse
#LaSilla50Years
#meetESO
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1/ Two years ago, the
@ehtelescope
released a new, magnetic view of the supermassive black hole at the centre of Messier 87. Read on to see how this image can help scientists solve a major astrophysical mystery.
📷
@ehtelescope
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ESO
#Flashback
: This barred spiral galaxy displays an incredible phenomenon known as stellar feedback — a process that redistributes energy into the interstellar medium within star-forming galaxies.
Read more at: 🔗
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ESO
#Flashback
: Featuring the famous Trapezium stars near the centre, this photo shows a colour composite mosaic image of the central part of the Orion Nebula, observed in the infrared with our VLT.
🔗
Credit:
@ESO
/ M.McCaughrean et al. (AIP)
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One of these images was taken on Mars by
@MarsCuriosity
The other one in Cerro Paranal in Chile where our VLT is located. Which one is which?
🔗
Credit:
@NASA
,
@NASAJPL
, MSSS, R. Wesson/
@ESO
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1/ Compare two different views of region around the Coronet star cluster using our slider tool at:
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1/ Happy birthday to our New Technology Telescope (NTT), which saw first light 33 years ago today! 🥳 Besides enabling amazing discoveries, the NTT pioneered a technique called active optics now used in all major telescopes. 🔗
@YBeletsky
(LCO) /
@ESO
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Wow, look at this impressive shot of the
#LunarEclipse2021
that our former colleague Gerhard Hüdepohl took from Santiago de Chile!
Credit: G. Hüdepohl ()
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Nuzzled in the chest of the constellation Virgo (the Virgin) lies a beautiful cosmic gem — the galaxy Messier 61. This spiral is aligned face-on towards Earth, thus presenting us with a breathtaking view of its structure.
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ESO
#Flashback
: This is a spectacular image of the large spiral galaxy NGC 1232 was obtained in 1998, and is based on three exposures in ultra-violet, blue and red light, respectively.
🔗
Credit:
@ESO
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What a view! That right there is
@NASAWebb
/
@ESA_Webb
, launched today by
@Arianespace
, on its way to the Lagrange 2 point 1.5 million kilometres away. Congratulations to everyone involved for a beautiful –– and emotional! –– launch.
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🔵 The image of the Sgr A* black hole is an average of the different images the team extracted, finally revealing the giant lurking at the centre of our galaxy for the first time.
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1/5 Signs of life on Venus? An international team of astronomers today announced the discovery of a rare molecule — # phosphine — in the clouds of # Venus.
#VenusNews
Credit:
@ESO
/M. Kornmesser/L. Calçada &
@NASA
/JPL/Caltech
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ESO
#Flashback
: This is a beautiful detailed image of the galaxy Messier 33, often called the Triangulum Galaxy.
🔗
Credit:
@ESO
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Our latest Picture of the Week features a spectacular lunar halo — the result of moonlight interacting with millions of ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere — that formed above the La Silla Observatory.
🔗
Credit:
@ESO
/
@YBeletsky
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Take a moment and enjoy this photo — standing proof that the era of extremely large telescopes is beginning. ESO's
#ELT
will collect more light than over 200 Hubble telescopes.
#BiggestEyeOnTheSky
Credit: G. Hüdepohl/
@ESO
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ESO
#Flashback
: This image of the majestic nearby spiral galaxy NGC 300 is a colour-composite obtained in 1999 and 2000 at the La Silla Observatory.
🔗
Credit:
@ESO
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In interstellar travel era,
#Proximab
is most likely going to be 1st candidate planet for paying a visit
#PaleRedDot
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8/10 In 2017,
@ALMAObs
took this stunning picture of the star, the highest-resolution image of
#Betelgeuse
available
Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/E. O’Gorman/P. Kervella
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This is how the opening frame of
#TheLionKing
🦁 may have looked like, had the story been set close to the
#ELT
construction site in the Chilean Atacama Desert, rather than the African savannas! 😁 1/
Read more:
📷 E. Garcés/ESO. Ack.: N. Dubost
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