Earlier today, the discarded upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket impacted on the Moon. As part of a coordinated observing campaign, our Very Large Telescope detected spectral lines of sodium and lithium gas in the impact plume lasting for 5-10 minutes after impact. 🔭 🧪 📷 ESO/C. Schmidt et al. 1/4

This star is behaving very strangely 🤨 Fly to the globular star cluster NGC 3201, home to a star that is being flung backwards and forwards at speeds of several hundred thousand kilometres per hour. Discover what is happening there: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1802/ 🔭

Cosmic fire 🔥 Located 1,300 light-years away, the Flame Nebula, aka NGC 2024, is a spectacular star-forming region. See the bright bluish star towards the right? It's part of an iconic trio of stars. Discover which one here: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0949n/  🔭 #flashback

Total solar eclipse loading ☀️🌕🌍 On 12 August, the Moon will slip between the Earth and the Sun, turning day into night for up to a minute and a half along the path of totality. Get the gist with ESO fellow Mar Carretero Castrillo 🎬👇 🔭 #EuropeanSolarEclipse #TotalSolarEclipse 1/4

Unusual asteroid unmasked! 🪨 Using our VLT in Chile & the Large Binocular Telescope in the US, astronomers have resolved the shape of (44) Nysa, a peculiar asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. They revealed a structure unlike anything observed before! 🔭 🧪 📹 ESO/K. Minker et al. 1/2

Meet a giant and its buddy!  This video takes you to the red supergiant star Betelgeuse, where our VLT has obtained the clearest image yet of what likely is a companion star orbiting it: Betelgeuse B. The discovery of Betelgeuse B solved a century-old mystery. 🔭 🧪 1/2

Nothing unusual, and that's the point. NGC 300 is a close spiral galaxy. Many galaxies have at least some slight peculiarity, yet this one seems to be remarkably normal. And exactly for this reason, it is very interesting to astronomers.

Glory from Gloom! Fly to two brilliant stars in the Lupus 3 region. Early in their lives, they were wrapped in dust. But as they grew hotter, they emerged from their gloomy nursery and now shine brightly. How did they break free? 🔭 1/2

ICYMI Astronomers find strongest evidence yet that Betelgeuse has a companion. They used our VLT to capture the clearest image ever of Betelgeuse B, a star orbiting Betelgeuse. This helps solve the long-standing mystery of Betelgeuse's periodic brightness changes.  Video summary 🎥 👇 🔭 🧪 1/2

The conclusion of a century-long quest 😲 Our VLT obtained firm evidence that Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star in the Orion constellation and one of the most famous stars in the night sky, is not alone! 🔭 🧪 1/4

Do you ever feel lost? You might when exploring the gas cloud IC2948, an enormous stellar nursery. Within it, something is eroding away the surrounding material. 1/2 🔭 #flashback

Watching our cosmic neighbourhood 👀 Three of our ATs at Paranal enjoy the view of the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds. The Small Magellanic Cloud and the lowest part of the #MilkyWay appear here bathed in green airglow. Discover what that is: 👉 https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2630a 🔭 🧪

The secrets of the Unicorn 🦄 The region Monoceros R2 is located in the constellation of Monoceros (the Unicorn). Almost completely obscured by dust in visible light, it's spectacular in the infrared, revealing stunning cosmic structures. 🔭 1/2

ICYMI Our VLT has found an object in another planetary system that challenges astronomical labels. The object resembles a moon, as it orbits another object circling a star. Yet it is itself as massive as a planet & the object it orbits is neither a planet nor a star. Video summary👇 🔭 🧪 1/2

That's no moon. It's a...hang on, what should we call it? 🤔 Our VLT has revealed evidence for a moon-like object in the CD-35 2722 system. Yet this new ‘exomoon’ detection is challenging cosmic labels! 🔭 🧪 #exoplanets 1/4

Falling into the web! 🕸️ Fly to the Orion Nebula, located 1350 light-years away and the nearest region of massive star formation to Earth. But what are those wispy, web-like structures seen in the final image?  🔭 1/2

Romantic sunset over the VLT 🌄 The bright, crimson sunset complements the colourful centre of the Milky Way and the zodiacal light. The red supergiant star Antares stands out above the Auxiliary Telescopes. 🔭 #flashback

The world’s biggest eye on the sky is taking shape 🤩 Watch a year and a half of progress unfold in this time-lapse of our ELT — now more than 75% complete! What have been the main construction milestones since 2025? 📹👇 🔭 🧪 1/2

The ESO Call for Proposals for Period 118 has been released. Remember that we have switched to a yearly cycle. You can submit your proposals until 22 September 2026, 12:00 CEST, for observations to be carried out between 1 May 2027 and 30 April 2028 More details: www.eso.org/sci/observin... 🔭

Looking back at us 👁️ Resembling a giant eye, the Helix Nebula formed from a Sun-like star in the final stages of its life. Unable to hold onto its outer layers, the star shed shells of gas that became the nebula. What is it evolving into? Find out: www.eso.org/public/news/... 🔭

ICYMI Faintest #exoplanet ever imaged from Earth discovered after more than 10 years of hide-and-seek! Spotted using our VLT, the planet was later found to have been hiding in archival ESO observations spanning more than a decade.  Video summary👇 🔭 🧪 1/2

Ten years of hide-and-seek! 🫣 Astronomers used our VLT to find a new #exoplanet orbiting the famous star Beta Pictoris — hiding in archival ESO observations spanning over a decade! And it's shyer than any exoplanet we've imaged before. 🔭 🧪 1/3 📷 ESO/B. Sutlieff, M. Bonse et al.

Trip to a dead star 🧑‍🚀 Visit one of our closest neighbouring galaxies, the Small Magellanic Cloud — home to an elusive stellar corpse buried among filaments of gas left behind by a 2000-year-old supernova explosion. 🔭

Beneath this breathtaking splatter of stars, the road to our La Silla Observatory is home to a rich variety of telescopes. In the foreground we can see the Danish 1.54-metre telescope, followed by the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope & our New Technology Telescope in the background. 🔭 #flashback

Small but mighty 💪 As the Sun sets, the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at La Silla opens its eye, preparing to peer into the sky above. While 2.2-metre may be modest by today’s standards, it still does a lot of excellent work! Here's what it explores: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2628a 🔭 🧪

Did you know major parts of the Mid-infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph (METIS) for @eso.org's Extremely Large Telescope - the imager and SCAO, the Single Conjugate Adaptive Optics - are currently built at MPIA? Have a closer look! 🔭 www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDLp...

METIS SCAO goes to town

YouTube video by Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie

youtube.com

Could you move 3,500 tonnes by hand? 😲 You could if you were an engineer at the construction site of our ELT, carrying out rotation tests of the telescope’s structure. 🔭 🧪 #instrumentation 1/2

A Bubbly Cosmic Celebration 🍾 In the brightest region of this nebula, gas is heated by young stars & expands into the surrounding cooler gas. Once the heated hydrogen reaches the borders of the gas cloud, it bursts outwards into the vacuum like the contents of an uncorked champagne bottle 🔭 1/2

What have we accomplished over the past year? Check out our Annual Report to find out: https://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann26004 Spoiler alert: ➡️ ELT construction progress ➡️ VLTI & GRAVITY+ milestone ➡️ CTAO-South groundbreaking ceremony ➡️ Discoveries ➡️ Protection of dark & quite skies

Fancy a visit to the cosmic spider? 🚀 🕷️ Located 160 000 light-years away, the Tarantula Nebula is the most spectacular feature of the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is also the brightest and most energetic star-forming region in the Local Group of galaxies. 🔭