A Supernova in Motion

In 1604, astronomers first caught sight of Kepler’s Supernova Remnant, a massive explosion some 17,000 light-years away. Twenty-five years of observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory went into making this timelapse, which shows the supernova remnant‘s material pushing into the surrounding gas and dust.

In its fastest regions, the supernova remnant is moving around 2% of the speed of light–some 22 million kilometers per hour. Slower parts of the remnant are moving at just 0.5% of light-speed. (Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/Pan-STARRS; via Gizmodo)

1/2 AES Andes announced that it will step back from the megaproject INNA, planned to be located near our Paranal Observatory.

We welcome this announcement and expect that the project will be withdrawn from #Chile 's Environmental Assessment Service (SEA) soon, which would formally confirm INNA is not going ahead.

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2602/

📷 A. Ghizzi Panizza/ESO

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #environment #space #science

🔴 The 'Little red dots' observed by Webb were direct-collapse black holes

https://phys.org/news/2026-02-red-dots-webb-collapse-black.html

#Astrophysics #science #blackholes

The full scope of Paranal’s beauty 🤩

Right in front, one of the movable ATs stands tall, while the UTs are scanning the sky.

The lasers emerging from the UTs create each a bright artificial star on the sky to correct observations for the blurring effect of the atmosphere. Until recently, only one UT was equipped with lasers. But now one additional laser has been installed in the other 3.

Discover why: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2606a/

📷 A. Trigo/ESO

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

The full scope of Paranal’s beauty 🤩

Right in front, one of the movable ATs stands tall, while the UTs are scanning the sky.

The lasers emerging from the UTs create each a bright artificial star on the sky to correct observations for the blurring effect of the atmosphere. Until recently, only one UT was equipped with lasers. But now one additional laser has been installed in the other 3.

Discover why: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2606a/

📷 A. Trigo/ESO

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

A Supernova in Motion

In 1604, astronomers first caught sight of Kepler’s Supernova Remnant, a massive explosion some 17,000 light-years away. Twenty-five years of observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory went into making this timelapse, which shows the supernova remnant‘s material pushing into the surrounding gas and dust.

In its fastest regions, the supernova remnant is moving around 2% of the speed of light–some 22 million kilometers per hour. Slower parts of the remnant are moving at just 0.5% of light-speed. (Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/Pan-STARRS; via Gizmodo)

1/2 AES Andes announced that it will step back from the megaproject INNA, planned to be located near our Paranal Observatory.

We welcome this announcement and expect that the project will be withdrawn from #Chile 's Environmental Assessment Service (SEA) soon, which would formally confirm INNA is not going ahead.

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2602/

📷 A. Ghizzi Panizza/ESO

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #environment #space #science

Peek inside ESO's Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), under construction in #Chile 's Atacama Desert. The main structure shown here will host the ELT’s five mirrors, which will gather the light and send it to the instruments at the sides of the telescope.

With its 39-metre-diameter, the main mirror will be the largest ever for an optical telescope: the biggest eye on the sky!

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2605a/

📷 ESO/J. C. Muñoz-Mateos

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

Peek inside ESO's Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), under construction in #Chile 's Atacama Desert. The main structure shown here will host the ELT’s five mirrors, which will gather the light and send it to the instruments at the sides of the telescope.

With its 39-metre-diameter, the main mirror will be the largest ever for an optical telescope: the biggest eye on the sky!

Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2605a/

📷 ESO/J. C. Muñoz-Mateos

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

While I am at it: the Société Française d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique @sf2a - French society of professional astronomers - joined almost a year ago. And while "42 followers" definitely *is* a nice number, there are even nicer numbers they should be able to achieve, n'est-ce pas?

👀 @GermanAstroSoc @EuroGeosciences @DPGPhysik @europeanphysicalsociety

#astrodon #astronomie #astronomy #astrophysics #France #sf2a

While I am at it: the Société Française d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique @sf2a - French society of professional astronomers - joined almost a year ago. And while "42 followers" definitely *is* a nice number, there are even nicer numbers they should be able to achieve, n'est-ce pas?

👀 @GermanAstroSoc @EuroGeosciences @DPGPhysik @europeanphysicalsociety

#astrodon #astronomie #astronomy #astrophysics #France #sf2a

A few highlights from lecture yesterday at Nordita, about numerical techniques to evolve magnetic fields in cosmological simulations and (try to) simulate small-scale dynamo amplification.

Message 1. there is no best method for all needs: it depends
Message 2: they all are anyway wrong as they probe a different regime of plasma than is in nature - the best we can do is to hope we can extrapolate results to the right regime.

(with quote by @jaztrophysicist ) #astronomy #astrophysics #science

A few highlights from lecture yesterday at Nordita, about numerical techniques to evolve magnetic fields in cosmological simulations and (try to) simulate small-scale dynamo amplification.

Message 1. there is no best method for all needs: it depends
Message 2: they all are anyway wrong as they probe a different regime of plasma than is in nature - the best we can do is to hope we can extrapolate results to the right regime.

(with quote by @jaztrophysicist ) #astronomy #astrophysics #science

One piece of yesterday lectures at Nordita from our #COSMOMAG school: how a discovery during the late stage of M. #Faraday's career turned a failure in optical astronomy into a vertiginous progress for radio astronomy.

"Faraday Rotation" is the most powerful we have to perform magnetic tomography of the Universe and study the 3 dimensional distribution of B in clusters and possibly filaments of galaxies

#Astronomy #Astrophysics #science #physics

#Aurora over Europe!

We're currently experiencing a strong geomagnetic storm, which caused a stunning auroral display all over Europe last night. This time-lapse was captured by our colleague Stefan Ströbele over our headquarters in Garching near Munich.

📹 S. Ströbele/ESO

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #astrophotography #space #science

#Aurora over Europe!

We're currently experiencing a strong geomagnetic storm, which caused a stunning auroral display all over Europe last night. This time-lapse was captured by our colleague Stefan Ströbele over our headquarters in Garching near Munich.

📹 S. Ströbele/ESO

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #astrophotography #space #science

String Theory Can Now Describe a Universe That Has Dark Energy

https://www.quantamagazine.org/string-theory-can-now-describe-a-universe-that-has-dark-energy-20260114/

#HackerNews #StringTheory #DarkEnergy #QuantumPhysics #UniverseScience #Astrophysics