https://www.eso.org/public/news/Top News from ESOenWed, 25 Feb 2026 14:00:00 +0100https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2603/Astronomers have captured the central region of our Milky Way in a striking new image, unveiling a complex network of filaments of cosmic gas in unprecedented detail. Obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), this rich dataset — the largest ALMA image to date — will allow astronomers to probe the lives of stars in the most extreme region of our galaxy, next to the supermassive black hole at its centre.Wed, 25 Feb 2026 14:00:00 +0100https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2603/https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2602/AES Andes announced that it will step back from the megaproject INNA, planned to be located near the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Paranal Observatory. ESO welcomes this announcement and expects that the project will be withdrawn from Chile's Environmental Assessment Service (SEA) soon, which would formally confirm INNA is not going ahead.Mon, 02 Feb 2026 16:00:00 +0100https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2602/https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2601/Gas and dust flowing from stars can, under the right conditions, clash with a star’s surroundings and create a shock wave. Now, astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have imaged a beautiful shock wave around a dead star — a discovery that has left them puzzled. According to all known mechanisms, the small, dead star RXJ0528+2838 should not have such structure around it. This discovery, as enigmatic as it’s stunning, challenges our understanding of how dead stars interact with their surroundings.Mon, 12 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0100https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2601/https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2521/Yesterday, a groundbreaking ceremony for the CTAO’s southern array facility took place at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Paranal site in Chile, marking the beginning of construction of the telescope foundations. The CTAO, or Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory, will be the world’s largest and most powerful gamma-ray observatory, providing new insights into the high-energy Universe. Its southern array will be the first gamma-ray observatory to be built in Chile.Thu, 18 Dec 2025 14:00:00 +0100https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2521/https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2520/Swift observations with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have revealed the explosive death of a star just as the blast was breaking through the star’s surface. For the first time, astronomers unveiled the shape of the explosion at its earliest, fleeting stage. This brief initial phase wouldn’t have been observable a day later and helps address a whole set of questions about how massive stars go supernova.Wed, 12 Nov 2025 20:00:00 +0100https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2520/https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2519/Last week, four lasers were projected into the skies above the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Paranal site in Chile. The lasers are each used to create an artificial star, which astronomers use to measure and then correct the blur caused by Earth's atmosphere. The striking launch of these lasers, one from each of the eight-metre telescopes at Paranal, is a significant milestone of the GRAVITY+ project — a large and complex upgrade to ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). GRAVITY+ unlocks a greater observing power and a much wider sky coverage for the VLTI than previously possible.Mon, 10 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0100https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2519/https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2518/A spooky bat has been spotted flying over the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Paranal site in Chile, right in time for Halloween. Thanks to its wide field of view, the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) was able to capture this large cloud of cosmic gas and dust, whose mesmerising appearance resembles the silhouette of a bat.Fri, 31 Oct 2025 09:00:00 +0100https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2518/https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2517/The Council of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has appointed Andreas Kaufer to be the new ESO Director General. Kaufer, who is currently ESO Director of Operations, will succeed Xavier Barcons, who will remain as Director General until the end of August 2026.Mon, 27 Oct 2025 14:30:00 +0100https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2517/https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2516/Astronomers have identified an enormous ‘growth spurt’ in a so-called rogue planet. Unlike the planets in our Solar System, these objects do not orbit stars, free-floating on their own instead. The new observations, made with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), reveal that this free-floating planet is eating up gas and dust from its surroundings at a rate of six billion tonnes a second. This is the strongest growth rate ever recorded for a rogue planet, or a planet of any kind, providing valuable insights into how they form and grow.Thu, 02 Oct 2025 14:00:00 +0200https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2516/https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2515/Astronomers have used observatories around the world, including the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), to study the asteroid 1998 KY26, revealing it to be almost three times smaller and spinning much faster than previously thought. The asteroid is the 2031 target for Japan’s Hayabusa2 extended mission. The new observations offer key information for the mission’s operations at the asteroid, just six years out from the spacecraft’s encounter with 1998 KY26.Thu, 18 Sep 2025 11:00:00 +0200https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2515/