The European Southern Observatory designs, builds & operates world-class observatories on the ground for the benefit of society 🇨🇱 @ESO_Chile
Joined August 2008
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- Following 1,206
- Followers 151,716
- Likes 5,451
6,059 Photos and videos
We have landed on new social media spaces! 📱
Find us on BlueSky & Mastodon. We have also launched broadcast channels on Instagram and WhatsApp, a LinkedIn newsletter, and revived our Threads profile! 🤩
Explore what we’ll be sharing on each channel: orlo.uk/KbhiZ
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Too large to be made from a single piece, the ELT's 39m main mirror will consist of 798 segments. But how can they work together as one?
Enter the edge sensors and actuators, which adjust misalignments among the segments with a precision of just a couple of nanometres 🤯
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📣 Using @almaobs 📡, in which ESO is a partner, astronomers have discovered oxygen in the most distant known galaxy!
This record-breaking detection is making scientists rethink how quickly galaxies formed in the early Universe 🤔
Read more: eso.org/public/news/eso2507/
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📷 ESO analysis confirms the INNA project would have a devastating & irreversible impact on the Paranal Observatory facilities.
The increase in light pollution, air turbulence, vibrations & dust would degrade conditions for astronomical observations eso.org/public/news/eso2506/…
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Where are we with the construction of our #ELT?
This video takes you on a drone flight over the site. Go full screen & volume up!
youtube.com/watch?v=t3GJbCas…
We've also updated the ELT schedule, see below. 1/2
📹CIMOLAI/S. Petkovic 🎶 Jon Kennedy–Toy Soldiers
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To account for some delays here's the new schedule 👇
🗓️ Telescope first light (test observations) expected in March 2029
🗓️ Instruments installed & commissioned in 2029-2030
🗓️ Scientific first light with the instruments expected for Dec 2030
Read more: eso.org/public/announcements…
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🚨 2024 YR4 asteroid impact update!
After the latest observations conducted with ESO’s VLT & facilities around the world, the odds of the asteroid impacting Earth have dropped to nearly zero.
Read more: eso.org/public/news/eso2505/
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Using ESO's #VLT, astronomers have mapped the 3D structure of an exoplanet's atmosphere for the first time. Never before had this been done in such depth and detail.
Discover more: eso.org/public/news/eso2504/
Artist's impression by ESO/M. Kornmesser
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ESO retweeted
11 Feb 2025
Happy International Day of #WomenAndGirlsInScience!
To celebrate, our members @CERN @embl @esa @ESO @esrfsynchrotron @FusionInCloseUp @fusionforenergy @EuropeanXFEL & Institut Laue-Langevin "passed the phone" to some of their female scientists!
#PassThePhoneSTEM #WomenInSTEM
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Using ESO's #VLT, astronomers have discovered extremely powerful winds on #exoplanet WASP-127b.
The winds reach speeds up to 33 000 km/h, the fastest jetstream of its kind ever measured on a planet!
Discover more: eso.org/public/news/eso2502/
Artist's impression by ESO/L. Calçada
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The pale brown belts of Jupiter? Not made of what was long thought.
Discover the outcome of the joint study of an amateur astronomer with his telescope & scientists with ESO's #VLT!
eso.org/public/videos/potw25…
📷 ESO/Irwin et al.
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The skies above Paranal are at risk from a proposed industrial megaproject.
This would be located in the vicinity of ESO's Observatory. If constructed, it would irreparably impact astronomical observations.
Read more: eso.org/public/news/eso2501/
📷 ESO/P. Horálek
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The @ctao_universe will change how we study the Universe at high energies, and it has now become a European Research Infrastructure Consortium!
As a member of CTAO and host of its future southern site, we couldn't be more excited.
Read more: ctao.org/news/the-ctao-becom…
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2/ How does the CTAO work and what kind of phenomena will it study?
Find out in this ESO blog: eso.org/public/blog/ctao-and…
Rendering of the CTAO-South site, to be hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory 👇
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Our congratulations to Spanish astrophysicist Itziar de Gregorio-Monsalvo, who became ESO’s new Representative in Chile and is the first woman to lead this office 👏
Discover Itziar's professional journey, following 18 years with ESO & @almaobs
eso.org/public/announcements…
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Astronomers focus on the sky, but it’s worth looking around our planet, too!
This image, for instance, was taken from Pukará de Quitor, a fortress built 900 years ago, not far from @almaobs.
Discover who built the fortress: eso.org/public/images/potw25…
📷 ESO/ @aghizzi
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Like mushrooms 🍄, telescopes atop ESO’s La Silla Observatory are bathed in the dim light of the sunset.
👈 The Danish 1.54-metre telescope
👉 The 3 @BlackGEM_Array telescopes
Which cosmic signals do they hunt for? Find out: eso.org/public/images/potw24…
📷 ESO/I. Saviane
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Under a blanket of snow! 📡🌨️
At the Chajnantor plateau in Chile, temperatures can drop as low as -20°C on winter nights! 🥶 But @almaobs ’s radio antennas are usually unbothered by these chilling conditions 💪
Discover more: eso.org/public/images/potw24…
📷 @_ansack /ESO
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1/ New milestone for ESO's Extremely Large Telescope! The central tower that will host 3 of the #ELT's 5 mirrors has been installed.
The tower is 3 storeys tall and has to be as rigid and lightweight as possible – a true feat of engineering!
Discover more in this video 👇
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2/ You can follow the construction of the ELT with our webcams. We have a new one on top of the dome! ➡️ elt.eso.org/about/webcams/
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