#Tag · bonfire.cafe

#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

ESO

@esoastronomy@mastodon.social · 7 hours ago

#Aurora over Europe!

📹 S. Ströbele/ESO

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

hypebot and 2 others boosted

ESO

@esoastronomy@mastodon.social · 15 hours ago

Not all rings are forged in fantasy, my precious!

For astronomers, they are found in space and are debris discs, the leftovers of planet formation around stars. You can admire 24 of them in these ALMA images (orange = dust, blue = gas).

The origin of gas in debris discs is debated, and the disc in the two images at the top-right is very interesting in this regard. Here’s why: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2603a/

📷 ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Marino et al.

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

A 5x6 array of astronomical images of debris discs, shaped like rings. Some are thin rings, others are wider and have gaps within them. Some of the discs are face-on and others more inclined. Most of the discs are orange except those on the rightmost column which are blue.

www.eso.org

The precious rings of space

ESO

@esoastronomy@mastodon.social · 15 hours ago

Not all rings are forged in fantasy, my precious!

For astronomers, they are found in space and are debris discs, the leftovers of planet formation around stars. You can admire 24 of them in these ALMA images (orange = dust, blue = gas).

The origin of gas in debris discs is debated, and the disc in the two images at the top-right is very interesting in this regard. Here’s why: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2603a/

📷 ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Marino et al.

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science

www.eso.org

The precious rings of space

Karl Urban boosted

Sabrina

@Steinwaelzer@nrw.social · 2 days ago

#silentsunday

Polarlicht in der Nacht vom 10.-11.01.2026
#Polarlichter #aurora #auroraborealis #Astrodon

The image shows a night sky illuminated by subtle red auroras above a cloud layer, with a starry backdrop and silhouettes of trees along the bottom.

Sabrina

@Steinwaelzer@nrw.social · 2 days ago

#silentsunday

Polarlicht in der Nacht vom 10.-11.01.2026
#Polarlichter #aurora #auroraborealis #Astrodon

Bjørnar (he/him) and 3 others boosted

Reymond Aguinaldo

@mondinspace@mastodon.social · 5 days ago

In November 2026, a historic milestone awaits humanity's Voyager 1. The legendary probe will reach the "one light-day" mark, meaning it will be so distant that communication requires a 48-hour round trip!

🧵 1/3

#Voyager1 #Voyager #Science #Astronomy #Physics #Space #DeepSpace #Nature #Astrodon #NASA

Image featuring a silhouette of the Voyager 1 spacecraft set against a vibrant, nebulous space background. At the bottom center, there is bold text that says, "It’s official. NASA confirms Voyager 1 will reach one light-day from Earth in 2026."

Reymond Aguinaldo

@mondinspace@mastodon.social · 5 days ago

🧵 1/3

#Voyager1 #Voyager #Science #Astronomy #Physics #Space #DeepSpace #Nature #Astrodon #NASA

Roni Rolle Laukkarinen and 2 others boosted

ESO

@esoastronomy@mastodon.social · last week

"I was completely overwhelmed by the beauty of it all, to the point of forgetting everything around me! A sky of absolute purity, free from artificial light.”

This is how astrophotographer Julien Looten remembers the night he captured this extraordinary view of our VLT at Cerro Paranal, #Chile

Wondering what all those cosmic objects and phenomena in the image are?
Find out: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2602a/

📷 J. Looten /ESO

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

A 360-degree panorama during the night. On the left, one smaller dome and four larger ones are visible on the ground. From the right-hand large dome, two yellow lights are emerging from it. In behind the four buildings on the left side is a faint white glow visible. To the right side of the image, another runway is displayed. At the horizon, a green and red glow around can be seen. Over this area, Milky Way is spanned.

www.eso.org

"I was completely overwhelmed..."

ESO

@esoastronomy@mastodon.social · last week

"I was completely overwhelmed by the beauty of it all, to the point of forgetting everything around me! A sky of absolute purity, free from artificial light.”

This is how astrophotographer Julien Looten remembers the night he captured this extraordinary view of our VLT at Cerro Paranal, #Chile

Wondering what all those cosmic objects and phenomena in the image are?
Find out: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2602a/

📷 J. Looten /ESO

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

www.eso.org

"I was completely overwhelmed..."

Christian Meesters boosted

Prof Heino Falcke

@hfalcke@mastodon.social · 2 weeks ago

You need patience in science. Our paper proposing to image the shadow of a black hole was published 26 years ago. It has now gained over 1000 citations in the scientific literature (according to ADS), which is a lot.

At the time of writing it was rejected by Nature and Science and it didn't get a huge amount of citations initially, but then it continuously increased (shown are the citations per year below).

(Falcke, Melia, Agol 2000, ApJL) https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000ApJ...528L..13F/abstract
#astronomy #astrodon

2 media

Graph showing citations per year for the paper Falcke et al. (2000), peaking at 120 per year in 2025.

Six panels showing red/yellow rings predicting the appearance of the black hole in the Galactic center.

ADS

Viewing the Shadow of the Black Hole at the Galactic Center

In recent years, evidence for the existence of an ultracompact concentration of dark mass associated with the radio source Sagittarius A* in the Galactic center has become very strong. However, unambiguous proof that this object is indeed a black hole is still lacking. A defining characteristic of a black hole is the event horizon. To a distant observer, the event horizon casts a relatively large ``shadow'' with an apparent diameter of ~10 gravitational radii that is due to the bending of light by the black hole, and this shadow is nearly independent of the black hole spin or orientation. The predicted size (~30 μas) of this shadow for Sgr A* approaches the resolution of current radio interferometers. If the black hole is maximally spinning and viewed edge-on, then the shadow will be offset by ~8 μas from the center of mass and will be slightly flattened on one side. Taking into account the scatter broadening of the image in the interstellar medium and the finite achievable telescope resolution, we show that the shadow of Sgr A* may be observable with very long baseline interferometry at submillimeter wavelengths, assuming that the accretion flow is optically thin in this region of the spectrum. Hence, there exists a realistic expectation of imaging the event horizon of a black hole within the next few years.