The Very Large Telescope is situated atop Cerro Paranal, an 8,645-foot-high (2,635 m) mountain in Chile's Atacama Desert, about 75 miles (120 km) south of the port city of Antofagasta.

The space-based observatory has revolutionized the way we see space, and it can now add another remarkable accomplishment to ...

A pair of stars orbiting one another has been found near the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* using the European ...

ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal Observatory in northern Chile began operation on May 25, 1998. Here, we present photos of the four Unit Telescopes and some of the amazing images they ...

The European Southern Observatory (ESO)'s Extremely Large Telescope is seen taking shape in this May 1 , 2025 photo captured directly above the construction site. Construction on ESO's Extremely ...

Astronomers uncover the first direct evidence for how some white dwarf stars explode, confirming the long-debated ...

This image, taken with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows the nearby galaxy NGC 4254. NGC 4254 is a grand-design spiral galaxy located ...

Chile's Very Large Telescope has captured direct images of a bright, Jupiter-like exoplanet after data from two European Space Agency satellites showed a gravitational pull on the planet's host star.

The plains house the aptly named Very Large Array (VLA)—a radio telescope made of 27 different antennas, each of which looks like a home satellite dish on steroids. When the antennas are pointed ...

Astronomers have created the most detailed image of a galaxy of its kind ever seen. The “incredibly detailed” picture shows parts of the Sculptor Galaxy that have never been seen before. Scientists ...

This striking image, taken with the FORS2 instrument on the Very Large Telescope, shows a beautiful yet peculiar pair of galaxies, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435, nicknamed The Eyes.

The plains house the aptly named Very Large Array (VLA)—a radio telescope made of 27 different antennas, each of which looks like a home satellite dish on steroids. When the antennas are pointed ...