ESO's Hidden Treasures

The ESO launched a rather technical competition in 2010 inviting amateur astronomers to sift through their vast archives of astronomical data for diamonds in the rough. First prize--and what a prize it was, a trip to ESO's Very Large Telescope at Paranal, Chile--went to astronomy enthusiast Igor Chekalin. Below is a sampling of the 20 highest ranked images out of the nearly 100 entries submitted, including Chekalin's winning submission of the reflection nebula Messier 78.

M78

Abell 1060

Orion Nebula

NGC3169 & NGC3166 and SN 2003cg

NGC 3521

Source/Credit: ESO

NGC 5427, Messier 100 (NGC 4321), NGC 1300, NGC 4030, NGC 2997 and NGC 1232

Paranal Observatory's Very Large Telescope's infrared shots of six spiral galaxies: NGC 5427, Messier 100 (NGC 4321), NGC 1300, NGC 4030, NGC 2997 and NGC 1232.













Credit: ESO/P. Grosbøl

NGC 1365

This infrared light image taken by the Very Large Telescope's HAWK-I camera is of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365.
Credit: ESO/P. Grosbøl

Starburst Region Home To Milky Way's Most Massive Known Star

Several blue supergiant stars crowd into a volume of less than a cubic light-year, along with three so-called Wolf-Rayet stars — extremely bright and massive stars that are ejecting vast amounts of material before finishing off in glorious explosions known as supernovae. Using another recent set of observations performed with the SINFONI instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have confirmed that one of these stars is about 120 times more massive than our Sun, standing out as the most massive star known so far in the Milky Way -- Press Release

Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2

X-ray, Optical & Infrared Images of Galaxies IC 4970 & NGC 6872

These images of a collision between two galaxies, NGC 6872 and IC 4970, contain X-rays from Chandra (purple), infrared data from Spitzer (red), and optical data from the Very Large Telescope (red, green and blue.) When combined these data reveal that IC 4970, the small galaxy at the top of the image, is feeding its supermassive black hole by drawing cold gas from its partner galaxy, the spiral NGC 6872. These two galaxies are in the process of merging, allowing the reservoir of fuel to be supplied to the growing black hole... -- Full Press Release

(Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/M.Machacek; Optical: ESO/VLT; Infrared: NASA/JPL/Caltech)

NGC 4755: The Kappa Crucis Cluster or The Jewel Box

The combination of images taken by three exceptional telescopes: the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the ESO Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal, the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla observatory has allowed the stunning Jewel Box star cluster to be seen in a whole new light.


This composite image serves as a still "zoom-in", showing the rich star field in which NGC 4755 nestles and then moving in to the detailed Hubble image of the Kappa Crucis Cluster, or Jewel Box, itself. Credit: ESO, NASA/ESA, Digitized Sky Survey 2 and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain)


This image is a "close-up' view from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of NGC 4755, or the Jewel Box cluster. Several very bright, pale blue supergiant stars, a solitary ruby-red supergiant and a variety of other brilliantly coloured stars are visible in the image, as well as many much fainter ones, often with intriguing colours. The huge variety in brightness exists because the brighter stars are 15 to 20 times the mass of the Sun, while the dimmest stars are less than half the mass of the Sun. This is the first image of an open galactic cluster with imaging extending from the far ultraviolet to the near-infrared. Credit: NASA/ESA and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain)


The FORS1 instrument on the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at ESO's Paranal Observatory was used to take this exquisitely sharp close up view of the colourful Jewel Box cluster, NGC 4755. The telescopes huge mirror allowed very short exposure times: just 2.6 seconds through a blue filter, 1.3 seconds through a yellow/green filter and 1.3 seconds through a red filter. The field of view spans about seven arcminutes. Credit: ESO


This image of the well-known NGC 4755 cluster or Jewel Box was taken with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory. It highlights the cluster and its rich surroundings in all their multicoloured glory. The field of view is 20 arcminutes across. The picture is based on images obtained through B, V and I filters. Credit: ESO


A wide-field image of the region around NGC 4755 constructed from the data from Digitized Sky Survey 2. The bright star is Mimosa, one of the main four stars in the Southern Cross. The darkness towards the bottom of the image is part of the Coal Sack, a vast area of obscuring dust easily visible to the unaided eye. The field of view is approximately 2.8 degrees x 2.9 degrees. Credit: ESO, ESA/Hubble and Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)