ESO — Reaching New Heights in Astronomy
View in browser
European
Southern
Observatory
ESO News
11 January 2021

Galaxies begin to “die” when they stop forming stars, but until now astronomers had never clearly glimpsed the start of this process in a far-away galaxy. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner, astronomers have seen a galaxy ejecting nearly half of its star-forming gas. This ejection is happening at a startling rate, equivalent to 10 000 Suns-worth of gas a year — the galaxy is rapidly losing its fuel to make new stars. The team believes that this spectacular event was triggered by a collision with another galaxy, which could lead astronomers to rethink how galaxies stop bringing new stars to life.

The release, images and videos are available on:
https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2101/

Kind regards,
The ESO Department of Communication
11 January 2021




  ESO Announcements


ESO Director General awarded Order of Bernardo O’Higgins — On behalf of the Organisation, Xavier Barcons was honoured with an important award by the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs

16 December 2020: On Friday 11 December, ESO Director General Xavier Barcons received the Order of Bernardo O’Higgins Grand Cross, at a ceremony chaired by Carolina Valdivia, the Chilean Undersecretary of Foreign ...

Read more

Linda Tacconi Elected as Next ESO Council President

8 December 2020: Linda Tacconi, a senior astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, Germany, has been elected as the next president of ESO’s main governing body ...

Read more

Funding boost for ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope

4 December 2020: The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), ESO’s new flagship telescope being built to answer the biggest questions about our Universe, has received a 10% increase to its budget. The funding ...

Read more

Joint Committee ESO–Chile funds awarded

3 December 2020: To strengthen its cooperation with Chile, ESO provides and manages an annual fund that awards projects dedicated to the development of science research, technology and education in astronomy. The Joint ...

Read more

Design achievements for actuators and sensors of the main mirror of ESO's ELT

24 November 2020: M1, the main mirror of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), is moving closer to completion with the approval of the final design for its edge sensors, with its positions ...

Read more

What the ESO’s ELT dome will look like

19 November 2020: While the construction of ESO's Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in Chile's Atacama Desert is on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, important progress on the project is being ...

Read more

Newly processed Venus ALMA data made available to the community

17 November 2020: A newly and better processed version of data on planet Venus, collected with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, has now been made publicly available via the ...

Read more

Contract signed for the ELT’s second prefocal station as design for the first close to approval

6 November 2020: A major component of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), its first prefocal station or PFS-A, is now close to completing its final design review. With this milestone nearly reached ...

Read more



  ESOblog


The most popular stories from ESO in 2020

1 January 2021: From watching a star dance around a supermassive black hole to imaging multiple planets around a Sun-like star, 2020 has seen some amazing astronomical discoveries. In this blog post, we ...

Read more

Testing the fundamental laws of the Universe using a very precise ruler

Interview with Dinko Milaković

11 December 2020: One of the biggest mysteries in astronomy is understanding the laws that govern our Universe. Dinko Milaković has been part of a team of astronomers using ESO’s 3.6-metre telescope at ...

Read more

How zooming in on the Toby Jug Nebula 21 000 times provided insights into its formation — A stunning image of the nebula inspired a team of astronomers to delve deeper into its origins — with surprising results

Anna Purdue

27 November 2020: A team of astronomers led by Keiichi Ohnaka in Chile have looked deep into the core of the Toby Jug Nebula to gather clues on how dying stars change into ...

Read more

Stranger things: oddly named objects seen by ESO telescopes in the night sky

Stephanie Rowlands

6 November 2020: ESO’s many telescopes at La Silla and Paranal Observatories in Chile gaze up at thousands of astronomical objects every year. Before astronomers catalogued these objects with names such as NGC ...

Read more





 Pictures of the Week


28 December 2020
Through a crystal ball


14 December 2020
An Otherworldly Glow


7 December 2020
Splitting the sky


30 November 2020
Solitary Road


23 November 2020
A Messy Nursery of Stars


16 November 2020
Gegenschein over ALMA


9 November 2020
Death by Laser?


2 November 2020
Ring Around the Moon




Upcoming Events

 
Bright planets imaged as La Silla restarts observations  Duo in the Dark  Concentric Circles  Trails of Stars over Paranal  Encircling Antu 

View in browser

Follow us on:

Facebook Twitter Instagram Flickr YouTube Itunes Scribd Issuu LinkedIn

European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str 2, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany