Variable stars close to the Galactic Centre

Ancient stars, of a type known as RR Lyrae, have been discovered in the centre of the Milky Way for the first time, using ESO’s infrared VISTA telescope. RR Lyrae stars typically reside in ancient stellar populations over 10 billion years old. Their discovery suggests that the bulging centre...

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Comet Lovejoy, Meteor, Pleiades, California Nebula and Milky Way seen over La Silla Observatory

In this ESO image, nightfall raises the curtain on a theatrical display taking place in the cloudless skies over La Silla.In a scene humming with activity, the major players captured here are Comet Lovejoy, glowing green in the centre of the image; the Pleiades above and to the right;...

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Lightning Storm and the Milky Way Galaxy

Punta Banco, Costa RicaImage Credit & Copyright: Ben Cherry...

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The Crab Nebula

The Crab Nebula, which also goes by the names Messier 1, NGC 1952 and Taurus A, is one of the best studied astronomical objects in the sky. It is the remnant of a supernova explosion which was observed by Chinese astronomers in 1054. The tangled filaments visible in this...

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Exoplanet CVSO 30c

Astronomers hunt for planets orbiting other stars (exoplanets) using a variety of methods. One successful method is direct imaging; this is particularly effective for planets on wide orbits around young stars, because the light from the planet is not overwhelmed by light from the host star and is thus...

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Milky Way, VLT & LGS

Taken from inside the dome of the fourth Unit Telescope of ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), this spectacular shot from ESO Photo Ambassador Yuri Beletsky captures the VLT’s Laser Guide Star (LGS) in action.The LGS, located on top of the 1.2-metre secondary mirror of Unit Telescope 4, is part...

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Sakurajima Volcano Eruption

Kagoshima Prefecture, JapanJuly 26, 2016Image Credit: Asahi Shimbun...

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Spiral Galaxy ESO 499-G37

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has spotted the spiral galaxy ESO 499-G37, seen here against a backdrop of distant galaxies, scattered with nearby stars.The galaxy is viewed from an angle, allowing Hubble to reveal its spiral nature clearly. The faint, loose spiral arms can be distinguished as bluish features...

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The centre of the Lagoon Nebula

A spectacular NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the heart of the Lagoon Nebula. Seen as a massive cloud of glowing dust and gas, bombarded by the energetic radiation of new stars, this placid name hides a dramatic reality.The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space...

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The Milky Way Galaxy seen over Painted Hills

With very little light pollution, the glimmering stars of the Milky Way bathe the colourful layers of the Painted Hills of Oregon, USA in a natural glow.Image Credit & Copyright: Nicholas RoemmeltExplanation by: Royal Observatory Greenwich...

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Dark Nebula Barnard 59

The Pipe Nebula (Barnard 59) is a prime example of a dark nebula. Originally, astronomers believed these were areas in space where there were no stars. But it was later discovered that dark nebulae actually consist of clouds of interstellar dust so thick it can block out the light...

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Colliding Galaxies NGC 3921

It is known today that merging galaxies play a large role in the evolution of galaxies and the formation of elliptical galaxies in particular. However there are only a few merging systems close enough to be observed in depth. The pair of interacting galaxies picture seen here — known...

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Supercell over Nebraska

Nebraska, USAImage Credit & Copyright: Stephen Lansdell...

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Star-Forming Region Messier 78

In this image of the nebula Messier 78, young stars cast a bluish pall over their surroundings, while red fledgling stars peer out from their cocoons of cosmic dust. To our eyes, most of these stars would be hidden behind the dust, but ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope...

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The centre of spiral galaxy NGC 247

This Hubble image shows the central region of a spiral galaxy known as NGC 247. NGC 247 is a relatively small spiral galaxy in the southern constellation of Cetus (The Whale). Lying at a distance of around 11 million light-years from us, it forms part of the Sculptor Group,...

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Earth, 8 billion years from now

After fusing helium in its core to carbon, the Sun will begin to collapse again, evolving into a compact white dwarf star after ejecting its outer atmosphere as a planetary nebula. In 50 billion years, if the Earth and Moon are not engulfed by the Sun, they will become...

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Aurora over Indian Ocean seen from the International Space Station

ISS, Orbit of the EarthAugust 2016Image Credit: NASA/ESA...

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Lenticular Galaxy NGC 6861

The subject of this image is NGC 6861, a galaxy discovered in 1826 by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop. Almost two centuries later we now know that NGC 6861 is the second brightest member of a group of at least a dozen galaxies called the Telescopium Group — otherwise...

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Sunrise, 7 billion years from now

Once the Sun changes from burning hydrogen at its core to burning hydrogen around its shell, the core will start to contract and the outer envelope will expand. The total luminosity will steadily increase over the following billion years until it reaches 2,730 times the Sun's current luminosity at...

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Moon and Earth's Atmosphere seen from International Space Station

ISS, Orbit of the EarthAugust 2016Image Credit: NASA/ESA...

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Planetary Nebula Menzel 2

This planetary nebula is called PK 329-02.2 and is located in the constellation of Norma in the southern sky. It is also sometimes referred to as Menzel 2, or Mz 2, named after the astronomer Donald Menzel who discovered the nebula in 1922.When stars that are around the mass...

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Earth, 1 billion years from now

One billion years from now, about 27% of the modern ocean will have been subducted into the mantle. If this process were allowed to continue uninterrupted, it would reach an equilibrium state where 65% of the current surface reservoir would remain at the surface. Once the solar luminosity is...

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Earth's Atmosphere seen from International Space Station

ISS, Orbit of the EarthAugust 2016Image Credit: NASA/ESA...

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Elliptical Galaxy Messier 84

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures the galaxy Messier 84 — also known as NGC 4374 — an object from the Messier catalogue, published in its final version in 1781 by Charles Messier.This elliptical galaxy was discovered in March 1781 and lies about 60 million light-years away from...

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Future of Earth

The biological and geological future of Earth can be extrapolated based upon the estimated effects of several long-term influences. These include the chemistry at Earth's surface, the rate of cooling of the planet's interior, the gravitational interactions with other objects in the Solar System, and a steady increase in...

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Aurora over Canada seen from the International Space Station

ISS, Orbit of the EarthAugust 2016Image Credit: NASA/ESA...

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Dark Nebula Lupus 3

An evocative image from ESO shows a dark cloud where new stars are forming, along with a cluster of brilliant stars that have already emerged from their dusty stellar nursery. The picture was taken with the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile and is the...

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Colonization of land by Life on Earth

Oxygen accumulation from photosynthesis resulted in the formation of an ozone layer that absorbed much of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation, meaning unicellular organisms that reached land were less likely to die, and prokaryotes began to multiply and become better adapted to survival out of the water. Prokaryote lineages had...

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Moon seen from the International Space Station

ISS, Orbit of the EarthAugust 2016Image Credit: NASA/ESA...

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The colourful star cluster NGC 3590

This colourful new image from the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile shows the star cluster NGC 3590. These stars shine brightly in front of a dramatic landscape of dark patches of dust and richly hued clouds of glowing gas. This small stellar gathering gives...

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Cambrian explosion of Life on Earth

The rate of the evolution of life as recorded by fossils accelerated in the Cambrian period (542–488 Ma). The sudden emergence of many new species, phyla, and forms in this period is called the Cambrian Explosion. The biological fomenting in the Cambrian Explosion was unpreceded before and since that...

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Sun's reflection on Atlantic Ocean seen from the International Space Station

ISS, Orbit of the EarthAugust 2016Image Credit: NASA/ESA...

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The Pencil Nebula: Remnants of an Exploded Star

Remnants from a star that exploded thousands of years ago created a celestial abstract portrait, as captured in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the Pencil Nebula.Officially known as NGC 2736, the Pencil Nebula is part of the huge Vela supernova remnant, located in the southern constellation Vela....

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Snowball Earth

The natural evolution of the Sun made it progressively more luminous during the Archean and Proterozoic eons; the Sun's luminosity increases 6% every billion years. As a result, the Earth began to receive more heat from the Sun in the Proterozoic eon. However, the Earth did not get warmer....

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Earth seen from the International Space Station

ISS, Orbit of the EarthAugust 2016Image Credit: NASA/ESA...

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Colliding Galaxies NGC 6872 • IC 4970

This picture, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), shows a galaxy known as NGC 6872 in the constellation of Pavo (The Peacock). Its unusual shape is caused by its interactions with the smaller galaxy that can be seen just above NGC 6872,...

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Photosynthesis Evolution and Oxygen Revolution on Earth

Photosynthesis EvolutionEarly photosynthetic systems, such as those in green and purple sulfur and green and purple nonsulfur bacteria, are thought to have been anoxygenic, and used various other molecules as electron donors rather than water. Green and purple sulfur bacteria are thought to have used hydrogen and sulfur as...

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Flying Through an Aurora

ISS, Orbit of the EarthAugust 2016Image Credit: NASA/ESA...

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