The Milky Way from Paranal

This beautiful image of the Milky Way was taken by ESO Photo Ambassador Juan Carlos Muñoz-Mateos. it clearly shows the interstellar dust that blocks visible light from many stars in our Galaxy. Fortunately, other types of radiation can penetrate this dust, so we are able to observe the hidden stars with telescopes that detect a variety of different types of emission.

This image was taken from ESO's Paranal Residencia in the Chilean Atacama desert, home to several world-class telescopes, including ESO's Very Large Telescope.