It's Full of Stars

APEX takes part in sharpest observation ever. Telescopes in Chile, Hawaii, and Arizona reach sharpness two million times finer than human vision.
An international team of astronomers has observed the heart of a distant quasar with unprecedented sharpness, two million times finer than human vision. The observations, made by connecting the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope to two others on different continents for the first time, is a crucial step towards the dramatic scientific goal of the “Event Horizon Telescope” project : imaging the supermassive black holes at the centre of our own galaxy and others.
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1229/

Source: ESO Facebook Fan Page.

This photograph shows the Submillimeter Telescope (SMT) at the Arizona Radio Observatory, at an altitude of 3100 metres on Mount Graham in Arizona, USA.

Credit: ESO/University of Arizona/David Harvey, photographer

ESO plans new telescope able to see Earth-size planets

The E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope, depicted above) would be the biggest telescope on Earth and would have a 131 feet (40 meters) mirror. It would be the only equipment able to see planets as big as Earth orbiting near stars, says Dutch astronomer and ESO director, Tim de Zeeuw.

It would cost €1 billion and all 14 member countries of ESO would finance it. Meeting of all members is scheduled to this year, the E-ELT construction is expected to be aproved by voting. If aproved, construction should begin in December and last for 10 years.

Current biggest telescopes are 8 to 10 meters wide (26 ft to 32ft), so the E-ELT would be a major improvement on land telescopes.

Source.

ESO’s Wendelstein laser guide star unit. Here the launch telescope is seen together with the propagating laser beam.

Credit: ESO/T. Kasper (AVSO)

ESO’s Hidden Treasures Brought To Light

ESO’s Hidden Treasures 2010 astrophotography competition attracted nearly 100 entries, and ESO is delighted to announce the winners. Hidden Treasures gave amateur astronomers the opportunity to search ESO’s vast archives of astronomical data for a well-hidden cosmic gem. Astronomy enthusiast Igor Chekalin from Russia won the first prize in this difficult but rewarding challenge — the trip of a lifetime to ESO’s Very Large Telescope at Paranal, Chile.

Above, Igor’s image: M78 nebula in Orion.

Read more about the competition, astrophotography and other winners and prizes here.

spacethebeyond:

This wide-field view of the Orion Nebula (Messier 42), lying about 1350 light-years from Earth, was taken with the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The new telescope’s huge field of view allows the whole nebula and its surroundings to be imaged in a single picture and its infrared vision also means that it can peer deep into the normally hidden dusty regions and reveal the curious antics of the very active young stars buried there. Credit: ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit

via space.com