VLT

Asteroid 2024 Yr4 as observed from ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, image released on 25 February 2025

Advanced observations almost eliminate the risk of asteroid 2024 YR4 collision in 2032

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) tracked the asteroid with the Very Large Telescope in Chile and reached a more accurate prediction of the trajectory of the asteroid that threatened to destroy entire cities. * In recent weeks, calculations have been made according to which
An image of Jupiter taken by Juno in 2019, showing storm zones in the northern hemisphere. Credit: Enhanced image by Kevin M. Gill (CC-BY) based on images provided courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

Extrasolar Planet Hunter Targets Jupiter: A New Twist in the Space Exploration Plot

For the first time, NASA activated a tool designed to discover planets many light years away on an object in the solar system, in a study of the winds of Jupiter
This artist impression shows the pulsar PSR J1023+0038 stealing gas from its companion star. This gas accumulates in the disk around the pulsar, slowly falls into it and is eventually ejected in a narrow jet. In addition, there is a wind of particles blowing from the pulsar, represented in the figure by a cloud of very small dots. This wind collides with the gas falling in, heating it and causing the system to glow brightly in X-rays, UV and visible light. Eventually clumps of this hot gas are ejected with the jet, and the pulsar returns to its initial, weaker state, and repeats the cycle. This pulsar has been observed to continuously switch between these two states every few seconds or minutes. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Cosmic Shells: Solving the Mystery of Strange Pulsar Brightness Changes

Astronomers have deciphered the strange behavior of the pulsar J1023+0038. This pulsar, which rapidly transitions between two brightness states, emits material in sudden bursts that cause these transitions. Thanks to this breakthrough, which included observations and analyses
This image shows Neptune viewed with the MUSE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT). At each pixel inside Neptune, MUSE splits the incoming light into its component colors or wavelengths. Figure: ESO

Dark spots on Neptune were first discovered from Earth

New research reveals mysterious dark and bright spots in Neptune's atmosphere using first ground-based observations with the VLT telescope
This image, taken by the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, shows the star TYC 8998-760-1 accompanied by two giant exoplanets, TYC 8998-760-1b and TYC 8998-760-1c. This is the first time that astronomers have directly observed more than one planet orbiting a Sun-like star. Both planets are visible as two bright spots in the center of the image (TYC 8998-760-1b) and lower right (TYC 8998-760-1c), indicated by arrows. Other bright spots, which are background stars, are also visible in the image. By taking different images at different times, the team was able to differentiate between the planets and the background stars. The image was taken by blocking the light from the young Sun-like star (top left of center) using a coronagraph, which allows the detection of fainter planets. The light and dark rings that you see on the image of the star are optical devices. Credit: ESO/Bohn et al

A rare direct photograph of planets around a sun similar to ours

Many luminous galaxies fill this rich image taken with ESO's VLT Survey Telescope, an advanced 2.60-metre telescope designed to survey the sky in visible light. The features of the many galaxies scattered across the image allow astronomers to reveal the finest details of the galaxy's structure.

A night full of galaxies

Many luminous galaxies fill this rich image taken with ESO's VLT Survey Telescope, an advanced 2.60-metre telescope designed to survey the sky in visible light. The properties of the many galaxies

Radio observations shed light on a neutron star collision event

A simulation of galaxies in the age of reionization of the settled universe. Illustration: M. Alvarez, R. Kashler and T. but

The most distant galaxy has been discovered

The southern star field GOODS - as imaged from the VLT with the help of a filter that enables the detection of light from galaxies that have so far not been observed

90% of the lost galaxies in the early universe have been found

A galaxy collision restarts a black hole

Cosmic scene with DNA, stars, solvents and atomic circles in oral flow.

Galaxies at the edge of the visible universe