https://www.eso.org/public/news/Top News from ESOenWed, 22 Jul 2026 17:00:00 +0200https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2610/Observations made with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have revealed evidence for a moon-like object in the CD-35 2722 system. Unlike moons in our Solar System, the newly found object does not orbit a planet, raising questions about what to name it. Instead, it circles a brown dwarf, an object larger than a planet, that orbits the CD-35 2722 star. If confirmed, this could be the first ‘moon’ discovered outside our Solar System.Wed, 22 Jul 2026 17:00:00 +0200https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2610/https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2609/A team of astronomers have discovered a third planet orbiting the star Beta Pictoris. The new planet, Beta Pictoris d, is 100 times fainter than Beta Pictoris b — the first planet discovered in the same system — and is among the lightest exoplanets ever to be imaged from the ground. After spotting the planet using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), the team found it had been hiding in archive observations spanning more than a decade.Wed, 15 Jul 2026 14:00:00 +0200https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2609/https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2608/Astronomers have used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) to study the composition of 3I/ATLAS, the brightest interstellar object ever seen, in detail. By measuring specific chemical fingerprints — the first observations of this kind for a comet that formed outside the Solar System — they found that 3I/ATLAS likely originated in the outskirts of an old star system. The findings shine new light on the formation history of this comet, indicating that it may be much older than the Sun.Mon, 06 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0200https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2608/https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2607/A new European Southern Observatory (ESO) study has found that current proposals to launch over 1.7 million satellites into orbit, including extremely bright ones, would have “devastating consequences for astronomy.” According to the study, no more than 100 000 faint satellites, below naked eye visibility, should orbit Earth, to safeguard our ability to observe the night sky with modern telescopes. The study is the first to compute the extent to which large and bright satellite constellations — which have also raised concerns about their impacts on health and the environment — would affect astronomical observations by making the night sky brighter.Wed, 01 Jul 2026 14:00:00 +0200https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2607/https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2606/A team of astronomers has found the strongest evidence yet that some planets outside our Solar System may be magnetic. Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) and the Gemini North telescope, the researchers measured wind speeds on seven very hot, Jupiter-like exoplanets. The observations revealed that the winds on these planets are most likely governed by magnetic fields, providing the first robust measurement of magnetism on planets outside the Solar System.Tue, 02 Jun 2026 11:00:00 +0200https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2606/https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2605/The Paranal solar ESPRESSO Telescope (PoET), installed at the European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) Paranal site in Chile, has made its first observations. The telescope will work with ESO's ESPRESSO instrument to study the Sun in detail. Described as a solar telescope for planet hunters, PoET aims to understand how the variation in the light from stars like the Sun can mask the presence of planets orbiting them, helping us in our search for worlds outside the Solar System.Thu, 09 Apr 2026 14:00:00 +0200https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2605/https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2604/Astronomers have observed two planets forming in the disc around a young star named WISPIT 2. Having previously detected one planet, the team have now employed European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescopes to confirm the presence of another. These observations, and the unique structure of the disc around the star, indicate that the WISPIT 2 system could resemble a young Solar System.Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0100https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2604/https://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/