Resources by European Southern Observatory

Measuring Distances in the Universe

These activities are produced by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the European Space Agency. They are a series of excercises in which students use real data to measure astronomical distances, one of the most basic problems in modern astrophysics.

The students apply different methods to determine...

Nebulae

This resource contains stunning images of nebulae, produced by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The images include:

* View of the Orion Nebula (Messier 42), lying about 1,350 light-years from Earth, taken with...

Observatories and Telescopes

These are images of some of the European Southern Observatory telescopes and locations. They include:

* View from above ESO's La Silla observation site in the southern part of the Atacama desert, 600 km north of...

The ESA/ESO Astronomy Exercise Series

The object of this resource, produced by ESA and ESO, is to present various small projects that will pass on some of the excitement and satisfaction in scientific discovery, to students. Using elementary geometrical and physical considerations, students will be able to derive answers that are comparable with the...

The Orion Nebula

The Orion Nebula reveals many of its hidden secrets in the dramatic images taken by the European Southern Observatory's VISTA survey telescope. This video showcases some of them and describes some of the processes occurring in the Orion nebula. VISTA (the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) is...

Very Large Telescope

From the European Southern Observatory (ESO), this video describes the construction and work of the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The VLT was made in Europe and will be erected on Cerro Paranal, a 2,640 metre high mountain in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. This video describes the VLT project and some of the...