The most popular stories from ESO in 2020

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

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

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

Five minutes with Rob Ivison

ESO’s Director for Science talks offending Greeks with sausages, opening his own coffee shop and the future of astronomy

Chilly galactic wind surprises astronomers

First detection of cold, dense gas outflowing from Milky Way's centre

Spotting abundant phosphine on Venus

Could the discovery of an element that is key for life on Earth be a first glimpse at our next-door neighbours or a new geological process?

Who’s who on the ELT: part II

The faces behind the world’s biggest eye on the sky

A summer of astronomy

Meet our 2020 Summer Research Programme students

How old are the stars?

Listening to the tick tock of a chemical clock

The behemoth behind the brightness

Finding one of the biggest black holes in the Universe powering the brightest quasar ever detected

How the VLT came to pass

The climax of half a century of infrared astronomy

Twinkle, twinkle little star, but not on our watch

Who’s who on the ELT: part I

The faces behind the world’s biggest eye on the sky

Hunting hot exoplanets

HARPS helps unlock the geology of rocky planets

ESO in 100 stories

A look back at some of our favourite blog posts

A spotlight on Claudia Cid

A telescope operator on fixing banana stars, searching for lasers and enjoying Paranal sunrises

From the ground to the sky

ESO’s high-energy astrophysics expert on being involved in X-ray space missions

A taste of ESPRESSO

At the bleeding edge of exoplanet pursuit

Future science

What will the Extremely Large Telescope reveal about the Universe?