ESO

Maksym at La Silla
25
Mar

Exploring the Universe One Continent at a Time

La Silla Observing School 2024, organised by the ESO, has been a journey unlike any other – at least for me, a Ukrainian in Australia. From the breathtaking landscapes of the La Silla Observatory to the science-intensive lectures and workshops, every moment has left me in awe of...
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MAGPI 1534
08
Mar

MAGPI Magic III: Witnessing an early stage of galaxy evolution

One of the major fundamental questions in modern astronomy is how galaxies formed and evolved over cosmic time. To unveil these mysteries, astronomers often utilize Lyman-alpha emission from distant galaxies to investigate their formation mechanisms and evolution.
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X-shooter spectrum of a quasar
04
Dec

Pointing VLT/X-shooter at the most luminous high-redshift quasars

Despite their reputation as invisible gluttons which can devour light itself, black holes are also responsible for the brightest non-transient phenomena in the universe. Quasars are extremely luminous active galactic nuclei powered by supermassive black holes with masses ranging from millions to billions of suns.
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Tatooine sunset
20
Nov

Unveiling the Cosmic Chemistry with C3PO: Exploring Wide Binary Stars Beyond Star Wars

Binary stars (like this famous scene from Star Wars) are prime examples of pairs of stars born from the same gas cloud. They share the same age and initial chemical composition.
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MUSE on VLT
18
Aug

The Mass Structure of a Galaxy Depends on Where it Lives

Can the region in which a galaxy resides - its environment - influence how the mass within it is distributed? This is the question we set out to answer with some of the first data from the Middle Ages Galaxy Properties with Integral field spectroscopy (MAGPI) Survey.
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CN & CO spectra
19
Jul

X-shooter helps to distinguish red clump stars from red giant branch stars

One of the biggest questions in the field of astrophysics is, how do galaxies form and evolve? The ways in which spiral galaxies form and evolve leave imprints in the distribution of stellar ages, kinematics and abundances.
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M82
01
Mar

KMOS reveals galactic-scale outflows in the early Universe

The first galaxies in the universe created bubbles of ionized gas that overlapped with each other, which led to the largest phase transition in the history of the universe known as the epoch of reionization (EoR). However, we don't know much about the galaxies involved in the phase-transition...
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08
Feb

The FLAMES of sodium and oxygen in the cluster NGC 1846

It has been known for several decades that globular clusters in the Milky Way display multiple stellar populations. This refers to a cluster having two main stellar groups: a first generation (1G), which are stars that are chemically similar to Milky Way halo stars, and a second generation...
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DG delegation
19
Dec

ESO delegation visits Australia

In our final AAL ESO Blog post for 2022, Romy Pearse (AAL Communications Manager) looks back on a recent highly productive visit to Australia by a delegation led by the Director General of ESO, Prof. Xavier Barcons.
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05
Dec

Using the ESO 3.6 metre telescope to test for variations in the fine structure constant among nearby solar twins

In lieu of an AAL ESO Blog post this month, we encourage our community to read the article that appeared recently in The Conversation by Prof. Michael Murphy from Swinburne University of Technology.
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Contributors

Michael Murphy is the Australian representative on the ESO Science Technical Committee. Contact: [email protected]

Sarah Sweet is the Australian representative on the ESO Users Committee. Contact: [email protected]

Stuart Ryder is a Program Manager with AAL. Contact: [email protected]

Guest posts are also welcome – please submit these to [email protected]