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This evocative Picture of the Week transports you into one of the tunnels found below ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The black and white lines draw you to focus on a lone figure at the end, a member of a group that forms one of the cornerstones of ESO: our observatories’ engineers. Whether they are inspecting the tunnels, shown here, maintaining the mirrors of the telescopes, or fixing the instruments that can capture faint cosmic objects, they are indispensable in the development and running of ESO’s facilities.
Tunnels such as this one connect the Unit Telescopes (UTs), which comprise the Very Large Telescope (VLT), to the control building where the VLT and its instruments are operated by observing teams. Each tunnel carries power and network cables, as well as pipes that channel liquid to cool various systems inside each UT. The tunnels can be also used to access the UTs when it is too windy outside. This photograph points towards the wall of UT1, also named ‘Antu’, meaning Sun in the Mapuche language of the indigenous people of central-southern Chile.
The pipes on the ceiling, concealed cabling on the walls, and reflections on the floor also convey a slightly eerie atmosphere. The photographer, ESO astronomer Luca Sbordone, says “as a science fiction fan, I love the tunnels, they have a very ‘spaceship’ feeling. For the best experience, go through them with lights off and just a flashlight. So far, no drooling, man-eating aliens in the Paranal tunnels. But I'm not giving up hope!”