Venus over BlackGEM Telescopes in Chile | European Southern Observatory

Venus over BlackGEM Telescopes in Chile | European Southern Observatory

This image shows Venus shining bright in the night sky at the center of the picture. Around Venus is a weak light, and below Venus is an orange glow that comes from the rising Sun. The night sky takes up about two thirds of the upper part of the image, and is sprinkled with stars. In the lower part of the image is a road that leads to several telescopes. There are three dome shaped telescopes on pillars as well as one larger telescope to the left of the road. At the horizon, to the right, a telescope dome can be seen on top of a mountain. It is far away in the distance.

In this Picture of the Week, Venus is shining brightly over the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. The picture was taken just before dawn, towards the East, and also features the diffuse zodiacal light—sunlight scattered by dust particles in the Solar System. 

The three domes to the left of the road are the BlackGEM telescopes, built by Radboud University, the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA), and KU Leuven. BlackGEM will search for the afterglow of some of the most dramatic events in the Universe, such as the collision of black holes and neutron stars. The ripples in space and time generated by these violent events can be detected by the LIGO and Virgo observatories. Thanks to their large field of view, the BlackGEM telescopes can locate the source of visible light from the afterglow of these events, and thereby pinpoint where the collision took place. This allows astronomers to study in greater detail what happens when black holes and neutron stars merge.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Release Date: Feb. 27, 2023

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