Paranal Observatory – आवारा मुसाफिर

Threat to the world’s darkest and clearest skies

March 17, 202558 Views

New ESO analysis confirms severe damage from industrial complex planned near Paranal An in-depth technical analysis by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has evaluated the impact of the INNA megaproject on the facilities at the Paranal Observatory, Chile — and the results are alarming. The analysis reveals that INNA would increase light pollution above the Very Large Telescope (VLT) by at least 35% and by more than 50% above the south site of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO-South). INNA would also increase air turbulence in the area, further degrading conditions for astronomical observations, while vibrations from the project could seriously impair the functioning of some of the astronomical facilities, like the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), at the Paranal Obser...

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World’s darkest and clearest skies at risk from industrial megaproject

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

January 10, 2025198 Views

On December 24th, AES Andes, a subsidiary of the US power company AES Corporation, submitted a project for a massive industrial complex for environmental impact assessment. This complex threatens the pristine skies above ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the darkest and clearest of any astronomical observatory in the world. The industrial megaproject is planned to be located just 5 to 11 kilometres from telescopes at Paranal, which would cause irreparable damage to astronomical observations, in particular due to light pollution emitted throughout the project’s operational life. Relocating the complex would save one of Earth's last truly pristine dark skies. An irreplaceable heritage for humanity Since its inauguration in 1999, Paranal Observatory, built ...

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New ESO image captures a dark wolf in the sky

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

October 31, 2024450 Views

For Halloween, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) reveals this spooktacular image of a dark nebula that creates the illusion of a wolf-like silhouette against a colourful cosmic backdrop. Fittingly nicknamed the Dark Wolf Nebula, it was captured in a 283-million-pixel image by the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. This collage highlights some details within the huge Dark Wolf Nebula, such as the wolf’s “head”, seen here in the top-centre image. The pillars in the images to the right form when intense radiation from young stars encounters dense pockets of dust and gas. This radiation erodes and blows away the lighter material around these dense pockets, creating these pillar-like structures. Credit: ESO/VPHAS+ team Found in the constellation Scorp...

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ESO’s biggest eye on the sky getting ready

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

December 18, 2023787 Views

First segments of the world's largest telescope mirror shipped to Chile The construction of the European Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large Telescope (ESO's ELT) has reached an important milestone with the delivery to ESO and shipment to Chile of the first 18 segments of the telescope’s main mirror (M1). Once they arrive in Chile, the segments will be transported to the ELT Technical Facility, at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in the country’s Atacama Desert, where they will be coated in preparation for their future installation on the telescope main structure. Unable to be physically made in one piece, M1 will consist of 798 individual segments arranged in a large hexagonal pattern, with an additional 133 being produced to facilitate the recoating of segments. Primary mirror, M1, se...

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Serpent in the sky captured with ESO telescope

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

January 6, 2023984 Views

A myriad of stars is revealed behind the faint orange glow of the Sh2-54 nebula in this new infrared image. Located in the constellation Serpens, this stunning stellar nursery has been captured in all its intricate detail using the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) based at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. When the ancients looked up at the night sky they saw random patterns in the stars. The Greeks, for instance, named one of these “constellations” Serpens, because of its resemblance to a snake. What they wouldn’t have been able to see is that at the tail end of this constellation there is a wealth of stunning astronomical objects. These include the Eagle, the Omega and the Sh2-54 nebulae; the last of these is revealed, in a new light, in this spectacular ...