Suggested Searches

APOD

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

The Milky Way Over Paranal

Explanation: It's not the sky that's falling. More accurately, the Earth is rising. The Earth's rotation gives a continually changing view to all Earth observers, including those measuring the universe at the Paranal Observatory . The observatory's four, massive 8.2 meter telescope units are situated on top of the 2,600 meter high mountain, Cerro Paranal , in the dry Atacama Desert in northern Chile. The individual unit telescopes can be used separately or in combination. Their names , Antu, Kueyen, Melipal, and Yepun , are taken from the Mapuche language. Fittingly they translate to Sun, Moon, Evening Star, and Southern Cross . Together they are fittingly known as the European Southern Observatory 's Very Large Telescope . A higher time resolution version of the above movie is available here .

Date January 23, 2007
Credit Credit & Copyright: Stphane Guisard ( Los Cielos de Chile )
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.