{"id":660767,"date":"2026-10-29T15:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T15:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/660767\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T15:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T15:58:11","slug":"the-universe-in-the-eye-of-a-telescope-photo-of-the-day-for-oct-29-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/660767\/","title":{"rendered":"The universe in the eye of a telescope photo of the day for Oct. 29, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The Swedish-ESO Submillimetre Telescope reflects the stars at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. (Image credit: J. Rodrigues\/ESO)<\/p>\n

Stars shine in the vast aluminum dish of the Swedish-ESO Submillimetre Telescope (SEST) in this photograph captured by astronomer and astrophotographer Jos\u00e9 Rodrigues during a recent visit to the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.<\/p>\n

What is it?<\/p>\n

Rodrigues’ image<\/a> captures “airglow” infusing the night sky<\/a> over La Silla with a soft orange glow, which is created as sunlight interacts with molecules in the upper atmosphere, according to the University of Lancaster<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The subtle phenomenon can be seen reflected in the 15-meter (49-foot) primary dish of the SEST telescope along with the myriad stars<\/a> of the Southern Hemisphere, as the dome of the ESO’s 3.6-meter telescope looms in the background.<\/p>\n

Why is it incredible?<\/p>\n

“Despite knowing about its 15-meter diameter beforehand, I was amazed by its size,” Rodrigues noted in the ESO image release. The SEST first opened its great eye to the universe<\/a> in 1987, at which time it was the only large telescope in the Southern Hemisphere tasked with collecting submillimeter wavelengths of light that exist beyond the visible light spectrum.<\/p>\n

These specific wavelengths of light are emitted by wandering comets<\/a> and colossal clouds of cold molecular dust and gas threaded throughout the Milky Way<\/a> and beyond. SEST’s observations improved our knowledge of ancient galaxies, star formation and so much more, with its perch 2,375 meters (7,792 feet) above sea level granting it a near unrivalled view of the heavens above.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

The SEST telescope was decommissioned in 2003, though its work was continued by the more capable Atacama Pathfinder Experiment<\/a> (APEX) and the Atacama Large Millimeter\/Submillimeter Array<\/a> (ALMA).<\/p>\n

With its working days over, the SEST telescope now stands as a quiet mirror reflecting the stars of the Southern Hemisphere night sky, seemingly pondering mysteries of the universe that it once tried to solve<\/p>\n

\"Space\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter The Swedish-ESO Submillimetre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":["post-660767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}