The Milky Way’s glistening band
The setting of today’s Picture of the Week is ESO’s flagship facility: the Paranal Observatory, located in the Chilean Atacama Desert. One of the Auxiliary Telescopes of ESO’s Very Large Telescope is still asleep, with its spherical dome closed. How bad, it misses this wonderful view of the Milky Way!
In ancient times, people weren't too sure what the Milky Way was. They named it after its appearance — a milky band in the night sky. It was Galileo Galilei who first pointed a self-built small telescope at that structure. He realised that the Milky Way was formed of countless stars — a revolutionary discovery!
Our understanding of the Milky Way has advanced considerably: some 100 to 400 billion stars of all ages, masses and colours belong to it. Located in a spiral arm, 25 000 light years away from the centre, is our Sun, making the Milky Way our home galaxy. From this position, we can see the galactic centre very well, as shown in this picture taken by Chilean astrophotographer Alexis Trigo. Large lanes of dark clouds are visible. These dark nebulae block the light from the stars behind them, creating the illusion of fewer stars in that region.
Viewing the glistening band of the Milky Way has been an incredible experience for ages. We have learned a lot about our home galaxy since then, but there is still so much more to uncover. It remains to be seen what revolutionary discoveries ESO’s upcoming Extremely Large Telescope will bring us.
Herkunftsnachweis:A. Trigo/ESO
Über das Bild
| ID: | potw2607a |
| Veröffentlichungsdatum: | 20. März 2026 17:19 |
| Größe: | 4096 x 1658 px |
