At home in the Milky Way

The modern building in this image is the Residencia at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile, a home from home for the many professionals and technicians working at the observatory. Above the astronomers’ home in the Atacama Desert, the image shows the Milky Way galaxy — our home in the Universe.

The Residencia was designed by the German architects Auer+Weber, and integrates perfectly into the arid landscape of the Atacama Desert in order to disturb astronomical observations as little as possible. The sandy colour and modern design of the building suit the Mars-like terrain around the observatory. The Residencia was chosen as the perfect hide-out for the Bond villain in the movie Quantum of Solace, and was blown up — only virtually — in one of the key scenes.

Paranal Observatory hosts ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), as well as four Auxiliary Telescopes that can work together to form the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI)