{"id":4982,"date":"2025-01-10T09:11:25","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T08:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/?p=4982"},"modified":"2025-01-10T09:16:50","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T08:16:50","slug":"first-ever-binary-star-found-near-our-galaxys-supermassive-black-hole-eso-press-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/en\/first-ever-binary-star-found-near-our-galaxys-supermassive-black-hole-eso-press-release\/","title":{"rendered":"World&#8217;s darkest and clearest skies at risk from industrial megaproject &#8211; ESO Press Release"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On December 24th, AES Andes, a subsidiary of the US power company AES Corporation, submitted a project for a massive industrial complex for environmental impact assessment. This complex threatens the pristine skies above ESO\u2019s Paranal Observatory in Chile\u2019s Atacama Desert, the darkest and clearest of any astronomical observatory in the world. The industrial megaproject is planned to be located just 5 to 11 kilometres from telescopes at Paranal, which would cause irreparable damage to astronomical observations, in particular due to light pollution emitted throughout the project\u2019s operational life. Relocating the complex would save one of Earth&#8217;s last truly pristine dark skies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/unitedkingdom\/news\/eso2501\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Click here to read the news on ESO<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"634\" src=\"https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/eso2501-ENG.jpg\" alt=\"The dark skies above ESO\u2019s Paranal Observatory, home to ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope (VLT), yield breathtaking views so clear and so full of stars that you could almost touch them. Standing atop a platform at VLT, ESO Photo Ambassador Petr Hor\u00e1lek reaches towards a standout object in the sky. You may assume this bright body, like many others in the sky, to be a star, but it is in fact a planet in our Solar System: the gas giant Jupiter.\nCloser to Earth, the four Unit Telescopes (UTs) that comprise the VLT can be seen in the background. Each UT features an 8.2-metre mirror and they operate synergistically to produce some of the sharpest views of the Universe. Accompanying the four UTs are four smaller, moveable Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) which have 1.8-metre mirrors.\u00a0\nThe Chilean Atacama desert once again proves its value as the ideal location for ESO\u2019s VLT. The remoteness of the observatory means that there is very little to no light pollution, which is vital for astronomy and also yields such breathtaking views- Credit:ESO\/P. Hor\u00e1lek\" class=\"wp-image-4988\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The dark skies above ESO\u2019s Paranal Observatory, home to ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope (VLT), yield breathtaking views so clear and so full of stars that you could almost touch them. Standing atop a platform at VLT, ESO Photo Ambassador Petr Hor\u00e1lek reaches towards a standout object in the sky. You may assume this bright body, like many others in the sky, to be a star, but it is in fact a planet in our Solar System: the gas giant Jupiter.<br>Closer to Earth, the four Unit Telescopes (UTs) that comprise the VLT can be seen in the background. Each UT features an 8.2-metre mirror and they operate synergistically to produce some of the sharpest views of the Universe. Accompanying the four UTs are four smaller, moveable Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) which have 1.8-metre mirrors.\u00a0<br>The Chilean Atacama desert once again proves its value as the ideal location for ESO\u2019s VLT. The remoteness of the observatory means that there is very little to no light pollution, which is vital for astronomy and also yields such breathtaking views- <strong>Credit:<\/strong>ESO\/<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PetrHoralekPhotography\">P. Hor\u00e1lek<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On December 24th, AES Andes, a subsidiary of the US power company AES Corporation, submitted a project for a massive industrial complex for environmental impact assessment. This complex threatens the pristine skies above ESO\u2019s Paranal Observatory in Chile\u2019s Atacama Desert, the darkest and clearest of any astronomical observatory in the world. The industrial megaproject is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30],"tags":[428,390,429],"class_list":["post-4982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","category-scientific-news","tag-anna-wolter-2","tag-eso-2","tag-paranal-observatory"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/eso2501.jpg",1280,634,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/eso2501.jpg",150,74,false],"medium":["https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/eso2501.jpg",300,149,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/eso2501.jpg",768,380,false],"large":["https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/eso2501.jpg",1024,507,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/eso2501.jpg",1280,634,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/eso2501.jpg",1280,634,false]},"post_excerpt_stackable":"<p>On December 24th, AES Andes, a subsidiary of the US power company AES Corporation, submitted a project for a massive industrial complex for environmental impact assessment. This complex threatens the pristine skies above ESO\u2019s Paranal Observatory in Chile\u2019s Atacama Desert, the darkest and clearest of any astronomical observatory in the world. The industrial megaproject is planned to be located just 5 to 11 kilometres from telescopes at Paranal, which would cause irreparable damage to astronomical observations, in particular due to light pollution emitted throughout the project\u2019s operational life. Relocating the complex would save one of Earth&#8217;s last truly pristine dark&hellip;<\/p>\n","category_list":"<a href=\"https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/en\/category\/news-en\/\" rel=\"category tag\">News<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/en\/category\/news-en\/scientific-news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Scientific news<\/a>","author_info":{"name":"Maria Rosa Panzera","url":"https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/en\/author\/maria-rosa-panzera\/"},"comments_num":"0 comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4982"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4990,"href":"https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4982\/revisions\/4990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brera.inaf.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}